Reverend Bizarre: Return to the Rectory EP (2011) [Recorded 2003-2004]
Finnish doom doyens Reverend Bizarre split up four years before Return to the Rectory received its first stand-alone pressing in 2011, and the deluxe vinyl reissue you see here, complete with gold foil-stamped logo, dates from 2020.
But its songs were originally recorded in 2003-4 for a proposed EP entitled Reverend Bizarre Blesses You with Fire and had already made their way into devoted fans' hands in '07, as a bonus CD included with the group's farewell long-player, the aptly-named III: So Long Suckers.
This pairing was obviously deemed a sensible stratagem in light of the band's imminent break-up; certainly more sensible than issuing an Extended Play that wouldn't have passed muster with Billboard chart rules, anyhow.
These clearly state that EPs are, by definition, a musical product that runs longer than a single and shorter than an album, and can't exceed five-to-six songs and 30 minutes.
Of course, Reverend Bizarre couldn't have cared less about the charts, and since their regular albums housed as much as two hours of music, Return to the Rectory's "meager" 65 minutes and seven songs qualified it as an EP in their eyes.
More power to them, and let's get onto the songs ...
This set is bookended by the impossibly sluggish "The March of the War Elephants," which gives Sleep's Dopesmoker a run crawl for its money, and the comparatively galloping "The Wrath of the War Elephants," whose lineage can be traced back to Saint Vitus' "War is Our Destiny" -- at least before the church organs kick in.
But don't expect a straight and narrow (never mind swift) path between these songs, as both "The Festival" (based on the H.P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name) and, to a lesser degree, "For You Who Walk in the Land of Shadows," explore that gentler, pleasantly stoned "Planet Caravan" formula.
By contrast, all of the best loved Reverend Bizarre hallmarks -- operatic vocals, reverberating power chords, sub-aquatic bass, cavernous drums -- resurface on the nefarious "Aleister," "Dark Sorceress (Autumn Siege)," and perhaps the best track on hand, "The Goddess of Doom," which the band dedicated to actress Christina Ricci.
The chosen cover painting, too, stuck to band tradition with another, Baphomet-starring Francisco de Goya oil painting, alternately known as El Aquelarre (Witches' Sabbath) or El Gran Cabrón (The Great Goat), pictured in full overhead.
When all is said and done, there's no confusing these tracks for leftovers or filler, so Return to the Rectory, justly deserves this reissue as separate entity, and it proudly upholds Reverend Bizarre's motto: "Doom what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
Is it any wonder I miss these guys?
More Reverend Bizarre: In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, Harbinger of Metal EP, II: Crush the Insects, III: So Long Suckers.
