Reverend - A Gathering of Demons (Reissue)

Reverend

A Gathering of Demons (Reissue)

by Neil Cook at 01 December 2020, 3:00 PM

REVEREND was David “The Reverend” Wayne’s band after leaving METAL CHURCH. This rerelease is essentially his penultimate output, last under the band’s name.  The other release for 2001 being released under his name.  With David sadly passing in 2005, this is some of his last recorded works.

Here we have the 4 songs that made up the EP in a remixed format and the original 2001 mixed versions, plus a cover of the UFO track “Lights Out” and a couple of live recordings.  As is often the case with these things, personally I cannot see a reason for having both mixes.  There is nothing significantly different sonically to the casual listener to warrant sitting through both in one sitting, unless you are a die-hard David Wayne or REVEREND fan.  And the live tacks are nothing spectacular, their quality being not much more than a bootleg recording at best.

What we do get is 4 songs in the Thrash (old school)/Metal vein. “Massacre The Innocent” is a mid-paced Thrasher.  Some great vocals, as you would expect, on PREIST-ish song. The almost Doom like slow burn of “Down” is a different proposition, speeding up a touch at the guitar break, this by far the best track on the CD. Things speed up again with “Stealing My Mind”, well a touch, but just not enough. At times it thrashes, and then stutters, it sort of has a crisis of identity.

“Legion” chugs along of a fairly decent riff, a fairly traditional Metal song, again the vocals are the star.  Song reminds me of SAXON, whom I really like, so this is a decent song. Cover songs are always a tricky prospect and cover such a stone cold classic as “Lights Out” by such a well loved band as UFO, you either have to be extremely faithful to the original or do something totally different to stand out.  What we get here is a Metal version of a Heavy Rock standard.  I mean its OK, it just doesn’t excite.

And that my congregation is the problem. The five songs are simply OK as a whole.  Nothing grabs you by the rude bits to get your full attention I’m afraid.

Songwriting: 6
Originality: 6
Memorability: 6
Production: 6