Cathedral’s beginning did not start with doom-drenched, Sabbath-suckled madness. It was born when vocalist and ring leader Lee Dorrian came screaming from the grindcore maelstrom of Napalm Death, where songs lasted ten seconds and felt like your skull in a blender. Then he flipped the script, slowed the whole planet down to a funereal crawl, and started howling like a medieval monk who just spiked the communion wine with mescaline. Cathedral were a necromantic circus of riffs, rolling bong smoke, and acid visions, dragging doom into the psychedelic swamp, tarred and feathered, spinning forever on a carousel that only goes down. So light a candle, smash a mirror, and let’s tumble into the top three Cathedral albums like we’re falling face-first into a crypt with no flashlight.

3. Forest of Equilibrium (1991)

This album it’s a funeral march through molasses. Forest of Equilibrium is doom in its purest, most unbearable form concocted with a mixture of riffs that weigh a thousand tons, drums that hit like collapsing buildings, and Dorrian intoning like he’s preaching to a congregation of rotting leaves. Every second feels like wading through a swamp in a suit of iron, every note stretched until it’s about to snap. It’s a slab of suffocating misery so pure it should come with a warning label: “Do not listen while operating heavy machinery, or even while breathing.” This is doom as ritual, doom as punishment, doom as the sound of your own heartbeat slowing to a crawl. If you make it to the end without clawing your face off, congratulations—you’ve joined the cult.

2. The Ethereal Mirror (1993)

Then something snapped. Cathedral went from cave-dwelling monks to psychedelic carnival barkers overnight. The Ethereal Mirror is where doom became colorful without losing its crushing weight. Suddenly you’ve got riffs that swing, Dorrian’s voice oozing sleaze and swagger, and songs that feel like they’re lurching out of the grave wearing neon pants and a shit eating bad grin. Tracks like “Midnight Mountain” are doom disco infernos, proof that even the slowest music in the world can shake its hips if you pump it full of enough lysergic acid and hellfire. This is doom rock with a sly wink, the kind of record that makes you want to headbang and belly laugh at the same time. If Forest of Equilibrium was a suicide note, The Ethereal Mirror was Cathedral scrawling graffiti on the tombstone in fluorescent paint.

1. The Carnival Bizarre (1995)

This is the fucking demonic freak show big top. The Carnival Bizarre is Cathedral’s masterpiece. It’s a record so unhinged it makes Black Sabbath sound like a barbershop quartet. This is doom gone full psychotic clown, riffs rolling like thunder on a merry-go-round powered by human bones. “Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)” alone is enough to blow your brains out with glee while delivering the heaviest history lesson you’ll ever headbang to. The whole album sounds like a traveling circus of the damned, Dorrian leading the crew with a cackling laugh while the guitars swirl like a hurricane of fuzz and bad acid trips. It’s heavier than gravity, weirder than reality, and more alive than most bands even dream of being. The Carnival Bizarre is doom wearing a garish mask, juggling fire, and screaming your nightmares back at you.

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Cathedral were never just a doom band—they were the sound of Lee Dorrian slamming the brakes on grindcore’s 300mph death machine and steering the wreck into a swamp of molasses riffs and bad acid. From Napalm Death’s whiplash blurts to Cathedral’s seismic lurch, Dorrian proved that extremity doesn’t always mean speed—sometimes it means dragging every note until your bones ache and your brain melts. These three albums are the unholy trinity where doom learned to groove, laugh, and put on a carnival mask without losing a single ounce of crushing weight. If you haven’t surrendered to Cathedral yet, you’re missing the kind of madness that makes this rotten world not just bearable, but almost beautiful in its grotesque heaviness.