REVEREND BIZARRE – II: Crush The Insects

In the worldwide Doom underground REVEREND BIZARRE have a real cult status since a long time. II: Crush The Insects, the follower of their debut album In The Rectory Of The Bizarre Reverend (2002), proves, that this status is legitimated and not just basing on dumb elitist paroles. REVEND BIZARRE concentrate on the real important things: good songs in proper style with meaty riffs and comprehensible structures. There’s no space for experiments, especially not towards the hated stoner rock („.. puritans are awake, the crusade against trendy stoner shit goes ever on.“). The pronounced minimalism of this album convinces immediately and gives the album a congenial touch.
The title of the opener Doom Over The World indeed shows what its all about, but everyone who expects boring, exhausting monster songs will be surprised positively. More than only once the band uses brisk rhythms and catchy, slightly theatrical vocal lines. The heart of the songs is formed by the riffs, which actually offer some ear candy tunes here and there and remind me on the good old Black Sabbath.
Especially the opener trio Doom Over The World/The Devil Rides Out/Cromwell passes on without dragging excesses in the slow motion area and comes to the core quite fast. Really slow it gets with the single extraction Slave Of Satan. In combination with the malevolent and cynical lyrics these 14 minutes raise up to a true Doom orgy, but get by with a minimum of riffs – an art which is perfectly practiced by REVEREND BIZARRE.
The climax of sadness is reached with Eternal Forest, coming up with wonderfully melancholic lead guitars but without any tempo variations. The closer Fucking Wizard combines the both extremes of REVEND BIZARRE, because the first uncompromisingly back-breaking part of the song suddenly turns to a dirty, dark rocking bastard, just when none would expect it anymore.
So, there’s nothing else for it but to certify, that this exclusive trio has released a truly mesmerizing album, tampering with authenticity, honesty and rawness.