It appears Mr. Lee Dorrian has had an extremely productive spurt, offering a baker’s dozen, lasting almost 85 minutes! Always suspected he was born a few decades too late, as he infused vintage instruments like Hammond organ and Leslie cabinets into Cathedral’s heavy doom. Ironic this would be available for promotional listening a week after celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sabbath’s debut.

Now buoyed by (or jealous of?) Mikael "Opeth" Akerfeldt’s well publicized affinity for Camel, Dorrian has gone and produced a heavy rock (as the English were/are so fond of saying) album that sounds a contemporary of that monumental Birmingham introduction. Even at their most progressive/spacey (circa the "Statik Majik" Ep), few would consider this the same band. True, there’s a certain heaviness running through the grooves, but also plenty of light melodies and clean, almost spoken word delivery from the mainman. Metal’s a giant umbrella (to house glam-pop and black/death metal in the same category is expansive) and “The Guessing Game” fits in there, somewhere, but not as definitively as the back catalog, however meandering. Much more driven by synthesizers (Moog, Hammond, whatever), the music is somewhere between offbeat/slightly disturbing British television ditties (even the instrumental title cut) and late 60s experimentation, with a heavy dose of voiceless interludes. ‘The Running Man’ is an experimental, 8:46 mind-fuck with pre-recorded samples and guitar wanking. That’s just the beginning as the ending trio gets progressively longer: ‘Requiem For The Voiceless’ lasting 9:50 and the ‘Journey Into Jade’ finale clocking in at 10:36. Those three together are longer than some albums!