Reverend Bizarre, II Crush the Insects (Spinefarm 2005)
And now for something completely different...
Well on paper it does look quite different. But in reality Doom Metal is very close to Black Sabbath and this band were one of the best doom bands about.
This is album number two and what a great album it is. Mixing classic funeral doom and metal while adding in little bits of classic metal.
In Finland the band were getting a lot of attention, so much that the band had a number one single with "Slave of Satan" a 20 minute single at number one is just not heard of. But it happened and I see why.
The albums first track "Doom over the World" is a classic catchy metal song. A song that could be used to promote doom metal as it is like a small sample of what you can get with the style of music. Track two "The Devil Rides Out" and three "Cromwell" are like the first track. A little faster paced doom metal with more riffs than just all out noise. The first three tracks get you ready for "Slave of Satan".
Now we are talking, big crunching bass guitar that sounds like it has been played by a giant on a giant bass guitar. Big slow guitar chords and operatic vocals will make you look at the cd cover trying to figure out what drugs were taken for influencing this track. But that is what I like about it, the drumming and bass all sounds out of sync and while doing so add in the syncopated guitar you get a real odd feeling that something is going to happen. Like a horror film that builds to the part when the person turns into a victim after opening a door that had growls and screams behind it.
"Council of Ten" brings the album back to a more parallel sounding metal album, still slow and doom as can be. "By This Axe I Rule" contains some great lyrics with the vocalist Albert Witchfinder almost reading out aloud instead of singing. Add into this the down tuned bass and cymbal crashes that blast the speakers each time and you have another song that is over ten minutes long.
"Eternal Forest" would scare you from ever going into the woods again. This track really gives an eerie sound using the guitar to hit really high notes and king of shakes you a bit. To make such a great album with all the emotions and not use keyboards is really amazing. And this is evident in the last track "Fucking Wizard" has so much linking it to Black Sabbath and more so the bands first album. Close your eyes and you can feel Ozzy in the room. There is nothing wrong with paying tribute to another band but when it is done as well as this you have to give the band credit. Every note is perfect as is each hit of the drum. Guitarist Peter Vicar must be the most patient guitarist in the world. It is easy for a guitarist to simply want to shred all the time but his cool calm playing gives this album such a great sound.
Again another album passes much of the music world by and this time the band could be blamed. Albert Witchfinder during recording was having a lot of trouble with depression and the band was just not getting on. This is something you can kind of hear in the album as if each band member is playing while having there backs to each other.
Also the big amount of interest in the bands own country seem to have a negative effect on the band. Three more albums were planed but scrapped and the 3rd and last album was a double LP. The band played some shows in 2006 and split. The style of music is for the very few but I feel they had a little extra to give us. This is the sort of metal album that gets none metal fans interested as well. If the band could have done more touring and more so supporting bigger bands I think they could have done so much more.
II Crush the Insects is available on Amazon.
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