Consider my mind boggled by this one.

Yes, The Guessing Game, by English metal band Cathedral definitely left me boggled. What exactly is this? I am not sure I am a talented enough writer to accurately describe what we have here. But I will give it a whirl.

Cathedral frontman Lee Dorrian was the vocalist for Napalm Death’s two grindcore defining classics, Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration. If he wanted to get as far away from grindcore as possible, he’s done it. The Guessing Game, a double album, is a strange mix of doom metal, stoner metal and a kind of 1960s, British psychedelic pop. If you ever wondered what Jethro Tull would sound like if it really were a metal band, I think this may be your answer. Dorrian often sings in an odd-sounding spoken word style, especially on the first side of the album. “Funeral of Dreams” is a very doom metal title but sounds more like something Syd Barrett would have conjured up, as does the title, “Cats, Incense, Candles and Wine.” With the first disc, Dorrian and company seem to be trying to go to a place they aren’t capable of going.

The second disc is much more like it, and is probably the most “accessible”--at least for a metal fan--stuff on the record. The best songs are certainly here: the instrumental “One Dimensional People,” the goofy “Casket Chasers,” the goofily-titled “La Noche del Buque Maldito (aka Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead),” and the gloom and doom of “Requiem for the Voiceless.” The musicianship is top-notch throughout, and Dorrian shows that he can still bring a heavy growl, especially on “Requiem for the Voiceless.”

But my goodness is this record a study in wretched excess. Granted, there are many albums I’ve liked that could be deemed excessive. The most recent releases by Mastodon and Between the Buried and Me stand out. Why did those albums work and this one didn’t? I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with all the excesses fitting into the context of the songs, if that makes any sense. Many of the songs here, especially on the first disc, seem all over the map, even awkward in their execution.

The Guessing Game is an ambitious album, but the songs don’t quite measure up to the band's lofty goals.