The Guessing Game

The Guessing Game
Studio album by Cathedral
Released March 26, 2010
Recorded Late 2009-2010
Genre Doom metal, heavy metal
Length 84:41
Label Nuclear Blast
Producer Warren Riker
Cathedral chronology

The Garden of Unearthly Delights
(2005)		 The Guessing Game
(2010)		 The Last Spire
(2013)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
About.com [1]
Allmusic [2]
The Guardian [3]
Invisible Oranges favourable[4]
Jukebox:Metal [5]
Popmatters 7/10[6]
The Quietus favourable[7]

The Guessing Game is the ninth full-length album by the British doom metal band Cathedral. It was released on March 26, 2010. It is the first double-album from the band.

It was voted the eighth best album of the year in the Metal Hammer Magazine Critics Poll of 2010.[8]

Reception

Describing the album as Cathedral's "magnum opus", Phil Freeman wrote for Allmusic that The Guessing Game offered the "most psychedelic, progressive material in the band's entire catalog".[2] Writing in The Guardian, Jamie Thomson praised the "fine balance between their monolithic guitar groove and a more heady blend of prog, folk, psychedelia and even the occasional burst of Bonzo Dog Band-style jazz whimsy...these sparkling sojourns to the outer fringes of 70s rock would cheer even the most jaded metaller. Doom has rarely sounded so joyous".[3] Viewing The Guessing Game as embodying an "unprecedented level of indulgence", The Quietus' Noel Gardner suggested that it serves as "a landmark Cathedral release" and "an ideal starting point to ease a Cathedral ignoramus into the band's self-contained world".[7] Noting the frequency with which the double-album format suffers from bloat, Invisible Oranges' Chris Rowella praised Cathedral for coming "damned...close" to perfecting the model.[4] Describing The Guessing Game as Cathedral's "pinnacle of...experimentation", Popmatters' Chris Colgan suggested that the album provides insight into Cathedral's diverse influences.[6]

However, not all critics wrote favourably of the album. George Pacheco wrote for About.com that The Guessing Game is a "confounding conundrum of an album...both forward-thinking and stagnant-sounding at the same time".[1] Pacheco identified "an overwrought sense of daring" as a key concern, which left the album "fractured and flawed".[1]

Track listing

All songs written by Lee Dorrian and Garry Jennings, except where noted.

Disc one

  1. "Immaculate Misconception" (Leo Smee) – 2:24
  2. "Funeral of Dreams" – 8:28
  3. "Painting in the Dark" – 6:18
  4. "Death of an Anarchist" – 7:12
  5. "The Guessing Game" (Jennings) – 3:08
  6. "Edwige's Eyes" – 7:08
  7. "Cats, Incense, Candles and Wine" – 6:01

Disc two

  1. "One Dimensional People" (Smee) – 2:30
  2. "The Casket Chasers" – 6:41
  3. "La Noche del Buque Maldito (aka Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead)" (Dorrian, Jennings, Smee) – 5:46
  4. "The Running Man" (Dorrian) – 8:46
  5. "Requiem for the Voiceless" – 9:50
  6. "Journey into Jade" – 10:36

Credits

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Pacheco, George. "Cathedral - 'The Guessing Game'". About.com. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Freeman, Phil. "Cathedral The Guessing Game". Allmusic. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Thomson, Jamie (25 March 2010). "Cathedral: The Guessing Game". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rowella, Chris (18 June 2010). "Cathedral – The Guessing Game". Invisible Oranges. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  5. ↑ Lye, Andy (April 29, 2010). "Cathedral - The Guessing Game". Jukebox:Metal.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Colgan, Chris (19 April 2010). "Cathedral: The Guessing Game". Popmatters. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Gardner, Noel (20 April 2010). "Cathedral Guessing Game". The Quietus. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Metal Hammer End of Year Lists rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-09-29.