Jesus The Christ: Reverend Bizarre - In The Rectory Of The Bizarre Reverend

In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend is a monumental chapter of doom and a lone highlight in the musical career of the Reverend. This is a mammoth of an album, that most of the times crawls forwards in a slow to extremely slow paste, almost funereal in its execution. The absolute focal point of Reverend Bizarre remains Albert - the man has a throat like no other and has an incredible range, going from softer more mellow parts to complete epicness in just a matter of time. His voice fits the music completely and takes it to unseen heights. I especially liked his vocal performance during Doomsower. But, of course, a good album needs more than just a really good vocalist. First of all, the drums, Earl of Void is a very competent drummer, his play is slow and crushing, that seldomly speeds up. The riffs are, however, what truly make this record a future classic - just listen to In the Rectory, a perfect build-up leads to more up-tempo part, where we see the guys rocking out, accompanied by a memorable riff evoking a rare moment of cheerfulness amidst the gloomy setting, but then, as a real tsunami, all joy is washed away, the rare moment of hope has completely faded and we're given one of the most memorable moments of the album, a very moving riff, sets the beginning for a short, but absolute haunting passage. Really, simply those couple of minutes alone, are reason enough to buy this album. It's difficult to put to into words, how it makes you feel, I can only suggest you give it a listen yourself.

Next to the excellent riffing, In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, is a highly bass-driven album, again a reference has to be made to In The Rectory, specifically to it's intro, but just the entire song does justice to the earth-shattering bass-lines. So far i've only been talking about In The Rectory, which only makes up for roughly 13 minutes of this album, while In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend has a play-time of almost 75 minutes and each minute is equally memorable as In The Rectory, wether it be the touching, saddening The Hour of Death or the hate-filled Burn In Hell and lets not forget the gigantic monster Cirith Ungol. In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend is an album that is consisent throughout, something which has been a bit of a problem for the Rev during their entire career. While the follow-up was by no means bad, it couldn't reach the same level of the debut. After that Reverend Bizarre quickly declined in quality and began releasing a lot of filler material with some occassional highlights, but moreover the material became inconsistent and too ambitious for it's own good. People who were amazed with Warning's second album, released and praised in 2007, might find solace with In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, although they are two seperate entities, they both manage to create a true, unsurpassed, blackness, that will crush even the most enduring souls out there! A good alternative for the now defunct Reverend Bizarre would be finnish Fall of the Idols, who have already beaten the Rev at their own game or British band The River, who released a superheavy doom album with Drawing Down The Sun that should definitely appeal to Rev supporters. In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend remains one of the best doom metal albums out there and a personal favorite. BUY IT NOW!