STAINED GLASS STORIES

Not to be confused with any other band named CATHEDRAL, this New York-based prog rock band released this one and only album in 1978 then, of course, vanished. As far as I'm concerned, this is by far one of the best American prog bands ever. There's a reason for that: while many other American prog bands of the era seem watered down, like adding bar-band influences or AOR with their music, CATHEDRAL completely avoided that, and sounds very much like British prog rock. The music is absolutely loaded with Mellotron, with lots of Rickenbacker bass. And if any of this sounds a bit familiar, well, the music sounds a lot like highly acclaimed '90s Swedish prog band ÄNGLAGARD, except of course, the vocals are much more dominant (in ordinary English), and none of that Scadinavian/Nordic influences, obviously.

So basically their music is influenced by the same bands as ÄNGLAGARD: YES, GENESIS, KING CRIMSON. While I thought the last song drags on a bit, I feel "Stained Glass Stories" is the ultimate prog rock masterpiece, and if you like ÄNGLAGARD, or you want a Mellotron-heavy album, you can't go without this!