As with a choice few truly great bands, the first self-financed cassette recording by Cathedral - made available in October 1990 - was a pioneering underground masterpiece in its own right; the sound of a young band exploring its newfound chemistry, finding confident variations on a flawless list of influences and cultivating a sound and style that would prove hugely inspirational throughout the 1990s and beyond, being a major influence on everyone from Electric Wizard through to Reverend Bizarre.
Where most demos are little more than a dry run for the first album, 'In Memoriam' still has its own distinct and important identity in the Cathedral canon. The debut LP that followed, 'Forest Of Equilibrium', has a sombre, devout, melodic and mystical grandeur all of its own - but 'In Memoriam' has a far murkier, earthier, more deathly intent.
Creepy, cryptic and bowel-looseningly heavy, it represents the first time that the doom metal stylings of Trouble, Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Witchfinder General had been rendered in a new, more extreme metallic form. At the beginning of the new decade, it was really only Cathedral who were proud to assert the influence of true doom metal - a perennially unfashionable genre, but especially in a turn-of-the-decade metal scene so obsessed with speed, technicality, brutality and modernity.
CD / DVD version.
Tracklisting:
Demo 1990
1. Mourning of a New Day
2. All Your Sins
3. Ebony Tears
4. March
Live Holland/Belgium 199
5. Commiserating the Celebration
6. Ebony Tears
7. Neophytes For Serpent Eve
8. All Your Sins
9. Mourning of a New Day
Bonus DVD
Live in Groningen (NL) May 1st 1991
1. Comiserating the Celebration
2. Ebony Tears
3. Neophytes For Serpent Eve
4. All Your Sins
5. Mourning of a New Day
