“Black Metallic” – Catherine Wheel

Catherine Wheel is one of those great, lost bands that seem to both define a certain time and still hold up well. Being British, with droney guitars as their dominant sound, they are generally considered part pf the shoegaze movement. But their sound transcended that genre. Of their five studio albums, two are fantastic (Ferment and Chrome) and they had a handful of minor hits on the alt rock charts through the mid–90s.

This was the third single they released off Ferment, their debut album, in 1991. It, along with “I Want To Touch You[1] and “Crank” are my favorites of theirs, and should instantly transport you back to the early 90s. The only downside to this video is it offers up the single version of the song, stripping out the lengthy, middle break section that really made the album version soar.


  1. A song seemingly written to be put on desperate mixtapes recorded late at night.  ↩