Band:	Reverend Bizarre
Album:	Harbinger Of Metal
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Harbinger
02. Strange Horizon
03. The Ambassador
04. From The Void
05. The Wandering Jew
06. Into The Realms Of Magickal Entertainment
07. Dunkelheit [Burzum cover]

When I received this Ep from Reverend Bizarre I didn't expect it to be so? long. This 7 song Ep (well, just 4 "real songs" the others are instrumentals shorties), runs 74 minutes long! Yes, in only 4 songs these guys manage to fill 74 minutes of music, of course, these Doomsters are playing at 1 bpm , and trust me, is a long journey until this record is over.

First of all, the cover art is just great, they took one of Odin's most famous paintings and focused on the unnoticed goat that hangs in there, brilliant! The band's logo is also cool.
There's also a lot of hype around this band and their "vintage" Doom (I'll go there later in the review), Reverend Bizarre has been called "the next big thing in Doom Metal", and the press around the globe praise their works, well? maybe I'm missing something because I don't see that much greatness in this band.

These guys are sticking to the classic Doom, inspired greatly in Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus, also I sense some Witchfinder General and Pentagram in there.
The song are lengthy, oh yes! slow and interminable, sorrowful but painful experience, I mean, who likes to hear simplistic riffs repeated over and over again, for 74 minutes! Not me that's for sure.
The album has a 20 minute song - "From The Void" - at the 8:52 mark, a slow and boring drum solo begins and it stretches until the 13:45 mark, what a useless waste of disc space.

Not everything is bad of course, I found the vocalist quite compelling in his vocal delivery, he has a very 70's touch in his voice, although here and there he growls, also the song "The Wandering Jew" is quite good, another fine surprise is their version of Burzum's "Dunkelheit" , lengthened and Doomished (if that word exist!).

Maybe someday I'll begin to understand what's the fuzz about this guys, because if my math is correct, if I like Doom Metal, and I like Black Sabbath, I should like these guys, but sadly, this album is going to that section of my Cd's shelf that only spiders dare to dwell.
Nevertheless, fans of old-style Doom Metal, and extremely long and slow compositions, should like this one very much.