I think it has much to do with the nature of the material included. I'm not sure what was the case with Reverend Bizarre's 74 minute EP (except that it was pretty short by their standards, their last studio album had seven songs filling two cds with about 140 minutes of music), but for example the metal band Swallow the Sun released an hour long EP about a year ago featuring the 30 minute title track and four old tracks from their first demo. Now calling that an LP would be silly, with only one new track, and it doesn't make much of a compilation either I think.

Then for example The Soviettes. If they released a two song single, it would be about four to five minutes max, a four song EP would have been far less than ten, and so their second LP with its 14 songs came to 24 minutes.

I've always been happy with what format the band has told the release to be. I didn't complain when I got 74 minutes of music for the price of an EP  I think there's always a clear difference between an EP and LP by the same band which justifies the usage of the different labels.

I think there are some Italian prog albums that are a bit under 30 minutes, and from other genres there are for example Slayer's Reign In Blood (about 28), The Soviettes' LP II (24) and Sleater-Kinney's self titled debut (22 if I remember correctly). And there's an EP by the doom metal band Reverend Bizarre clocking in at 74 minutes, so I think the LP and EP labels are to be used as the band in question has intended.

I think there are some Italian prog albums that are a bit under 30 minutes, and from other genres there are for example Slayer's Reign In Blood (about 28), The Soviettes' LP II (24) and Sleater-Kinney's self titled debut (22 if I remember correctly). And there's an EP by the doom metal band Reverend Bizarre clocking in at 74 minutes, so I think the LP and EP labels are to be used as the band in question has intended.