John Carpenter : Cathedral

I’ll admit, the first couple things I heard from John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies’ latest LP Cathedral I wasn’t that excited about. It was touted as their “heavy metal” album, and while there were chugging guitars and heavy rock drumming going on, it just didn’t seem like a musical trip I wanted to take. I haven’t been fully on board with their last couple albums, to be honest. It all just sort of sounded the same to me. I loved their Halloween scores for the David Gordon Green films, and their score for the new Firestarter was the best Carpenter music I’d heard in long while. But with Cathedral, I felt I’d probably sit that one out.

Okay, so I delved into it a bit more and I’m actually kind of digging it. Yes, there’s the metal guitar ka-chunking and what not(Daniel Davies is a great guitarist and songwriter in his own right), but this album leans heavier into the Gothic vibes. Dark guitar tones, ornate piano, big drum sounds, and synthesizers all come together to make an overall eerie and gothically melancholy listen.

Cathedral is not only the latest John Carpenter album, but a soundtrack to his new graphic novel of the same name. Here’s the synopsis : An abandoned cathedral. A gruesome murder. A powerful supernatural entity living in the catacombs. It all comes to a head in downtown Los Angeles. What will happen and who will live to tell the tale? Such is the storyline of Cathedral, the thrilling new album and terrifying graphic novel from director and musician John Carpenter, based on a dream Carpenter had in 2024.

Based on a dream Carpenter had, Cathedral is both an aural and visual experience. The album feels like walking through some creaky old mansion. Something like Hill House, but maybe more of a fixer upper. Tracks like “Primeval”, “Inside Out”, and “Desolation In The Underworld” quiver and quake in a mixture of Hammer Horror and gothic metal grandiosity. “The Mapmaker” is reminiscent of Carpenter’s The Fog score, but with the accompaniment of strings. And “Lord of the Underground” pulls more from the NWOBHM than gothic rock.

While this is a John Carpenter album, enough can’t be said for the work of Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. They fill out the sonic space with both crunching metal riffs and ornate melancholy.

I’m a believer in first impressions, but there’s also the grower. Cathedral is a grower to my ears. It gets more powerful with each listen.