L to R: Peter Vicar, Earl of Void, Albert Witchfinder
Reverend Bizarre were a traditional Doom Metal band from Lohja, Finland. Following the footsteps of Pentagram, Saint Vitus, and Black Sabbath, they played slow and heavy traditional doom with dramatic vocals, which made them one of the biggest names in the fourth wave of traditional doom. However, their music also incorporated a sense of humour that isn't commonly found in the genre. The band initially planned five full-length albums, but this plan was abandoned when they decided to disband the group "before it started to suck". The band members still play together in Peter Vicar's Progressive Rock band Orne (although Albert, despite having performed on every Orne release since at least 2006, is considered a session vocalist rather than a full member of the band), and individual band members have formed groups such as The Puritan, Opium Warlords, and Lord Vicar, which have released songs initially intended for Reverend Bizarre's last two albums.
Members
- Albert Witchfinder (Sami Albert Hynninen) - Bass, Vocals
- Peter Vicar (Kimi Kärki) - Guitars
- Earl of Void (Jari Lars Johan Pohjonen) - Drums, Guitars (on some recordings)
Core discography
- 2002 - In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend
- 2003 - Harbinger of Metal (EP)
- 2004 - Return to the Rectory (EP)
- 2005 - II: Crush the Insects
- 2007 - III: So Long Suckers
- 2009 - Death Is Glory... Now (compilation)
Tropes
- Album Intro Track: "Harbinger"
- Atomic F-Bomb: In "Slave of Satan".
- Blatant Lies: Harbinger of Metal and Return to the Rectory are marketed as EPs, but they're both more than an hour long. (Harbinger of Metal, at 74:00 in length, is actually longer than their second album, which is 73:20. Return to the Rectory is 65:51.)
- Book Ends: Return to the Rectory begins with "The March of the War Elephants" and ends with "The Wrath of the War Elephants", and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the former ends with the riff that opens the latter.
- Book of Revelation: "Apocalyptic Raiders" features Patrick Walker of Warning and 40 Watt Sun reading a passage from Revelation.
- Cover Version: Amongst others, "Dunkelheit" by Burzum, "Dark Sorceress (Autumn Siege)" by Barathrum, "Gate of Nanna" by Beherit, and "Deceiver" by Judas Priest. The second disc of Death Is Glory... Now is, apart from its first track, exclusively comprised of covers.
- Doom Metal: One of the most famed Finnish practitioners of the genre and one of the best-known bands of the fourth wave of traditional doom.
- Epic Instrumental Opener: Many songs have them.
- Epic Rocking: Their speciality. Their longest song, "They Used Dark Forces/Teutonic Witch", is nearly thirty minutes long. Even if you count that as two songs (which it sort of is), two of the other songs on that album, "Anywhere Out of This World" and "Sorrow", are over twenty-five. Their average song length is well over ten minutes, and if you exclude the brief interstitial pieces, it's even higher.
- Heavy Meta: Portions of "The Goddess of Doom" consist of a Long List of doom bands. note
- Hidden Track: The final song on So Long Suckers, "Mallorca", is not mentioned anywhere in the packaging.
- Horrible History Metal: "Cromwell", among other songs.
- Instrumentals: "Harbinger", "Into the Realms of Magickal Entertainment", "Kundalini Arisen", "Mallorca".
- Intercourse with You: "Fucking Wizard" parodies the trope.
- Large Ham: Albert Witchfinder's vocals frequently qualify as this. Daniel Nyman's speech at the beginning and end of the "Slave of Satan" single even more so.
- Lead Bassist: Albert Witchfinder is the vocalist, and his instrument also frequently takes the lead role in songs.
- List Song: See Heavy Meta above.
- Loudness War: Every single release is clipped. Spinefarm are pretty notorious for doing this to their releases; Moonsorrow are another glaring example.
- Musical Pastiche: They’re fond of inserting tributes to their favourite acts into their songs. “Aleister” includes a section reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.” “The Wandering Jew” at 9:00-11:00 contains a tribute to Witchfinder General’s “Friends of Hell.” “Fucking Wizard” contains a riff very similar to the main riff of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath”.
- Precision F-Strike: They show up in a few songs, such as "The Wandering Jew", "Slave of Satan", and (obviously) "Fucking Wizard".
- Real Men Eat Meat: Averted by Albert Witchfinder, who is a vegetarian.
- Recurring Riff: The riff at the fade-out of "The March of the War Elephants" is reprised for the fade-in of "The Wrath of the War Elephants".
- Rock Me, Asmodeus!: The single version of "Slave of Satan", which is longer than the album version, is possibly the most blatant example of this trope in their discography (although it's Played With in that the sung lyrics aren't terribly complimentary), but they have others. The duration on the first CD of So Long Suckers is intentionally 66:06, for example.
- Rock Trio
- Shout-Out:
- In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend is of course a Shout-Out to In the Court of the Crimson King.
- "Christs may come and Christs may go but Caesar is forever" is lifted from the pamphlet Might Is Right by Ragnar Redbeard.
- "The Goddess of Doom" is for some reason a tribute to Christina Ricci. The song also contains Shout-Outs to literally dozens of classic doom bands.
- "Love will be the Law, Love under Will" (from "Cromwell") is almost a direct quote from Aleister Crowley. The song "Aleister", unsurprisingly, is also an example of a Crowley tribute.
- "Cromwell" is, of course, also a Shout-Out to Oliver Cromwell.
- The high-pitched vocals in "Blood on Satan's Claw" are pretty clearly a King Diamond tribute.
- Siamese Twin Songs: So Long Suckers is full of this. The transition from "For You Who Walk in the Land of the Shadows" to "Dark Sorceress (Autumn Siege)" also does this on the CD version, but they're split up by a side division on the LP version.
- So Long, Suckers!: Used as the title of their final album.
- Soprano and Gravel: Most of their vocals are the clean vocals you'd expect from traditional doom, but they throw in Harsh Vocals occasionally ("Doomsower" is an example of this).
- Special Guest: Patrick Walker of Warning and 40 Watt Sun on "Apocalyptic Riders", Daniel Nyman of Oak and Orne on the single version of "Slave of Satan".
- Spoken Word in Music: In "Apocalyptic Riders", the single version of "Slave of Satan", and some other songs.
