The Ethereal Mirror
1993 studio album by Cathedral
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The Ethereal Mirror is the second studio album by British doom metal band Cathedral. It was first released in the UK on 24 May 1993 by Earache Records, and in the United States on 6 July 1993 by Columbia Records. Earache re-issued the album in 2009 with the Statik Majik EP as bonus tracks and the DVD Ethereal Reflections as DualDisc.[1]
| The Ethereal Mirror | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 24 May 1993 (UK) 6 July 1993 (US) | |||
| Recorded | 1993 | |||
| Studio | The Manor Studio, Oxfordshire, England | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 54:26 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | David Bianco | |||
| Cathedral chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Ethereal Mirror | ||||
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Artwork
The album's front cover artwork unfolds and expands into something "much larger and weirder," according to Kenny Schticky of MetalSucks.[2]
Reception and legacy
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 9/10[4] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [5] |
| Kerrang! | [6] |
| Metal.de | 8/10[7] |
| Record-Journal | A[8] |
| Rock Hard | 8.5/10[9] |
| Rock Sound | 9/10[10] |
The Ethereal Mirror received critical acclaim.[5] Peter Atkinson of the Record-Journal stated that "By tempering the oppressive gloom of its debut for a more spirited thunder, Britain's Cathedral has crafted the heaviest and most brutally satisfying album of the year."[8] Kerrang!'s Xavier Russell considered it a stronger album than Forest of Equilibrium, praising Lee Dorrian's discernable vocals and the interplay between guitarists Adam Lehan and Garry Jennings.[6] In their retrospective review, Metal.de called the album "a work of transition that seems almost formless in a positive sense, which draws its charm from the close proximity of styles and moods: dark doom here, right next to loosely rocking brain drills".[7] Martin Popoff, writing in The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties (2007), called the album "Fantastically powerful throughout" and singled out "Ride" as the best track in Cathedral's discography up to that point.[4]
In 2000, Terrorizer listed the album as one of the "100 Most Important Albums of the Nineties".[11] In 2005, Kerrang! ranked the album at number 83 on their list of the "100 Best British Rock Albums Ever", stating that it "confirmed [Cathedral's] status as the real Brit metal warlords."[12] In 2014, Decibel ranked the album at number 56 on their list of the "Top 100 Doom Metal Albums of All Time".[13] On Loudwire's 2017 list of the "Top 25 Doom Metal Albums of All Time", it was ranked ninth.[14]
In 2022, Kenny Schticky of MetalSucks included the album in his list of "10 CD Booklets That Should Be Remembered as Fine Art."[2]
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Lee Dorrian, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Violet Vortex (Intro)" (instrumental) | Garry Jennings | 1:54 | |
| 2. | "Ride" | Jennings | 4:47 | |
| 3. | "Enter the Worms" |
| Adam Lehan | 6:05 |
| 4. | "Midnight Mountain" |
| Lehan | 4:55 |
| 5. | "Fountain of Innocence" | Jennings | 7:13 | |
| 6. | "Grim Luxuria" | Lehan | 4:46 | |
| 7. | "Jaded Entity" |
| Jennings | 7:53 |
| 8. | "Ashes You Leave" |
| Jennings | 6:22 |
| 9. | "Phantasmagoria" |
| Jennings | 8:44 |
| 10. | "Imprisoned in Flesh" |
| Jennings | 1:47 |
| Total length: | 54:26 | |||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Sky Lifter" (instrumental) | 3:27 |
| 12. | "A Funeral Request (New 1993 Version)" | 7:37 |
Personnel
Cathedral
- Garry Jennings – guitar, bass
- Lee Dorrian – vocals
- Mark Ramsey Wharton – drums
- Adam Lehan – guitar
Technical personnel
- David Bianco – recording, production, mixing
- Shaun DeFo – engineering
- Dave Patchett – cover painting
- Summer Lacy – inside layout
Release history
| Region | Label | Format | Date | Catalog # | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | Earache | 24 May 1993 | MOSH 77 | [15] | |
| United States | Columbia |
|
6 July 1993 | CK 53633 | [16] |
| United States | Earache |
|
10 September 1996 | MOSH 77 | [17] |
| Various | DualDisc | 1 July 2009 | MOSH077CDD | [18] | |
| LP | 5 April 2019 | MOSH077LPUS | [19] |