One other question: are you reviewing Scream Bloody Gore or Leprosy? I'm pretty sure that review is for Leprosy.

Hey TheBurningOfSodom, I'm actually a girl, but nice to meet you too!! lol..

Hi gasmask_colostomy, thanks for your reply, yes it was Leprosy, I've now edited the message, but it disappeared, is that normal?? .. Anyway I guess I'm going to review more underground albums, so if your advice is correct, reviews are going to be published!! (: ..

So, wrote my first review, and edited it already a few times, but has been rejected multiple times.
It's a band from my country, but not much about them is known. It is their first CD, and I asked for some information on their band page, but got no answer yet. I don't know what else I could add to pad the review a bit more.

Could you guys help me out?

It's my the second review, but the first one and this one were rejected

Hey all, just looking to get some feedback/criticism on my reviews. I used to write multiple genre reviews for a zine I ran back in 08 - 10 but I've been slowly writing some here for the archives and even have started making effort to do YouTube reviews etc

Sitting on a heap of half finished and first paragraph reviews. It can take me a while or I just get the shits and spit it out ha

I rarely write reviews because as a non musician I feel like my vocabulary to describe various musical elements is fairly limited. I also don't get along with brevity. I constantly feel like I am struggling to find a balance between being descriptive and being concise--like I lack the talent to do both. Maybe this will come with time, but I would still appreciate some feedback on this recent review of mine. I end up unhappy with most of my reviews, but I think this one is passable. I could just use some pointers on how to take it to the next level. Thanks!

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... ein/251047

I had a look at the Gris review and the one you wrote for Hail too. Your self-critique seems relatively accurate, but the writing itself is mostly sparklingly clear. What the reviews currently lack, for me, is any kind of penetration into the specific style and sound of the album and its songs. You don't need to be a musical expert for that, and I guess most readers don't want to hear a load of musical jargon or read a musical score, so instead you need to use other methods. I'm not a music expert either and tend to use either deep description or metaphor where that fails.

For instance, your descriptions about Hail summarize the genre mix pretty well but perhaps lack any signposting for how that feels to the listener. I mean "folk + dark ambient + extreme metal" still leaves a wide remit for what the eventual sound is. Same with Gris: you leave it stated that the album is DSBM, but then your main complaint is that much of the material deviates from a DSBMetal palette. You don't have to go into tons of detail about the elements of the album, but a few well-chosen examples with thorough description would help. In these instances, don't worry about being verbose, your writing reads well and isn't a burden to go along with. I think your Hail review deals with this issue slightly better, simply because you spend longer with each example and seem to know the band better. When talking about Gris, you're describing the whole song as indie rock, but don't say what makes it an indie song. I feel like you never really get to the bottom of the genre conundrum there, while comparing the first and second song in detail then adding the later summary would have done a good job of it.

I guess the main takeaway from what I've written is that you don't need to worry about being concise, certainly not at the cost of detail. I believe good reviews are not a gloss on an album, they are a dive down into it. Obviously you can't talk about everything, but you choose your examples in a way that allows you to discuss most of the key points with direct focus. Your reviewing is not bad and your writing is very solid, hopefully you'll write more and grow in confidence.

I would not be surprised if your YouTube reviews are great, because you write exactly like you talk I guess. I dunno if that's specific to Aussies, but I've seen a few do it before on this site too. That makes the tone of the reviews pretty informal, although I feel it kind of works when you're getting enthusiastic about certain songs, and it also makes the writing less formulaic too.

I read a handful of what you've written, and aside from the chatty tone, a couple of things to watch might be going too close to track-by-track method and not checking errors before submitting. Each of the reviews I read had a larger paragraph where you pick out several songs (sometimes in order) and list their features or qualities, but you don't really have any detailed description of overall sound for these albums. Since you seem really familiar with the genres in question, it shouldn't be a problem to come up with ways of describing that before going into detail on songs, which I think you did pretty well on the Gutted Mind one. Checking errors should be a simple matter of reading over what you've written before submitting, because most of it is missing words or little slips in expression.

The only other thing I can think of suggesting is that you might want to go a bit deeper regarding some particular moments of each album. I notice you're sometimes telling your reader where the best riff of the album is, and that might be useful, but it's an unsubstantiated opinion unless you spend time breaking down what make that riff great. I don't read reviews here as recommendations, because everyone has different tastes, so that means that telling me the album is great doesn't mean much to me - I'll make my own judgement on that.

Hope some of those comments will be helpful.

I can't say much about the French black metal scene, since I have heard a few bands only, like Kristalnacht or Peste Noire. But Elitism made me feel that I need to correct this mistake and dig deeper. Because this material is quite good.

Elitism is a one man black metal project led by HGH, member of Vermine and Vouivre. Yes, when someone says „one man black metal project” (or, like some people ironically say „One man horde”), you can quickly recall tons of poor quality black metal releases, often with shitty drum machines and horrible quality, which is often covered with ideological stuff. I was kinda afraid that Elitism will be something like this, since it is a very ideological project as well. But I was wrong – partially at last.

This is not the very extremal black metal, when it comes to the music. Elitism prefers more majetsic, slow tunes. Just the opening track „Blanc Holocauste” is like an anthem or march, with lyrics being shouted with a very emotional tone, but not in the blackish style. There is a strong keyboard wall, mixed with guitars and drums (which aren't impressive – yes, the curse of poor drums in the one man projects is still alive). All in all, this song makes you feel like being a part of some gathering or ceremony, something evil and enchanting as well.

„Abattre cette decheance” is more black metal track, but still quite interesting, with clean vocals mixing with black metal ones. It sounds like some kind of a manifesto of pure hate. „En response a l'infamie” starts with a traditional song, sung normally, then suddenly it is cut with a series of machine guns, just to be turned into a majestic, slow paced anthem of darkness and evil. Yes, evil is definitely the best word to summarize this material and you can find it in every second of Elitism's music. And it shows that you don't have to play the most extreme metal to make your music sound so evil. „The Gate of Nanna” is a cover of Beherit, surprisingly well fitting to the rest of the material, but, all in all, it's hard to cover such an amazing tune. It's not very far from the original, after all. I kinda expected Elitism to make a more experimental version of this classic. „En Guerre du Sang” starts with a majestic keyboard intro, but turns into another slow, powerful, evil-filled song.

„L'odeur des Deportes” is a solid piece of majestic, epic black metal. There is a nice variety of themes and vocals, so this is not boring material at all. Sadly, lyrics are not included in the CD. Elitism stays loyal to this most extreme part of the black metal scene, carrying the torch of pure hate and intolerance, a sign of rebellion against the modern, politically correct world. If you think that this genre means some extreme black metal or RAC music mostly, Elitism might surprise you. Their music is slow, melodic and powerful.

This EP was my first contact with this band, but I hope it's not the last time. Even if this has a very „demo” sound (because it is actually a demo, re-released as an EP later), it is still a good and strong piece of quite original and well played music (save of drums...). „L'odeur des Deportes” stays longer in your memory – and it's not something that I can say about many one man black metal projects.

Working on this review. Posted it once, it was rejected without any real reason. But I get a message, decided to rewrite it, add some stuff, correct something here and there. I thought it's pretty solid, telling everything about the album, giving some background and my opinions, but it was rejected again. I'd really like to know what's wrong here, since I posted some other reviews and these were mostly accepted.

So, what's wrong with this one? Is it about grammar stuff? English is not my first language, yeah. I used spell check to correct any typos.

I'll be grateful for any answer, constructive critique, suggestions etc. Just tell me what should I change or add etc.

Not 100% sure if this is the place to post this so disregard or point me in the right direction if it’s not, please.

Very long story short: I used to write reviews on and off back in the early 2010’s. After meeting my wife, having a few children and work just being insane, they took a backseat. I’ve been really putting some thought into jumping back on board to see if I’ve lost my touch or if I can still do it. My writing style and approach might be different than some/most but I’m not unique at all. I guess what I’m asking is, could some of you check out my work from a decade ago and see what y’all think?

It would be much appreciated and I’d love to positive or negative feedback.

I don't think the grammar is problematic enough to warrant a rejection, even if it still needs some proof-reading or better word choices. It's a bit short and also a track-by-track, but for a 5-song demo I'd say both are venial sins, after all. The strange fact is the absence of a reason for rejection - could it be that the release in question is a NSBM one and you didn't mention that? I don't know fully about the site's policy on this case, but I'm pretty sure hiding a band's overt NS views might be a bit controversial, regardless of whether you did it deliberately or not. Of course it's just the only explanation I've come up with so it's not necessarily what happened. Waiting for someone else to enlighten me here

could it be that the release in question is a NSBM one

"In hindsight, unfortunately your review is not acceptable in its current state. This may be because it lacks substance and content towards describing the music of the album, the grammar/spelling/formatting needs work, the language used is unnecessarily juvenile, or all or a combination of these reasons. Before resubmitting, please look over your review and improve it to meet these standards. We recognize that it is our error for not originally catching these issues, and the review should not have been accepted in the first place. If you would like to get feedback from others on how to improve your review, please post your review in this thread and ask for feedback: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16487"

Is it a bad idea to try to defend the metalness of a band in a review?

Probably, especially if it's in bad-faith and on the lines of "this band isn't metal, therefore it's bad". If you're unsure about the metalness of a band, it's better to take it up in the Cleansing the Archives thread.

I can't believe something as phenomenally stupid as this thread exists. Is this a forum site for heavy metal reviews or a fucking workshop for writing English papers? First I submit a well-written, 10-paragraph long review covering my thoughts on a band, specifically the changes surrounding this group that led to the newest album (the one reviewed) being a complete turd of a record. I mention specifics about the tone, tracks, etc. I even go so far as to say I've listened to this thing several times over and over hoping it wins me over with repetition, but unlike other albums that get better with more listens, it just doesn't. I've given it a fair chance, and I think I can safely say it sucks.

Admin: Sorry, not enough "substance" here. Good start, though.

Seriously, what the actual fuck. It's like they read the first paragraph, went, "Hey, that's not the current album, you must be off-topic" and didn't even bother to read the fucking rest of the thing. After taking an entire week just to get back to me on my initial submission.

I can't believe something as phenomenally stupid as this thread exists. Is this a forum site for heavy metal reviews or a fucking workshop for writing English papers? First I submit a well-written, 10-paragraph long review covering my thoughts on a band, specifically the changes surrounding this group that led to the newest album (the one reviewed) being a complete turd of a record. I mention specifics about the tone, tracks, etc. I even go so far as to say I've listened to this thing several times over and over hoping it wins me over with repetition, but unlike other albums that get better with more listens, it just doesn't. I've given it a fair chance, and I think I can safely say it sucks.

Admin: Sorry, not enough "substance" here. Good start, though.

Seriously, what the actual fuck. It's like they read the first paragraph, went, "Hey, that's not the current album, you must be off-topic" and didn't even bother to read the fucking rest of the thing. After taking an entire week just to get back to me on my initial submission.

If there's one thing I learned throughout the years, way more as a reader than as a writer, is that a good chunk of review describing what the others think is never a good idea. It's your review, your thoughts, and arguably nobody wants to read a detailed explanation of why you think other people are wrong about something. Given that you pointed out that plenty of users already had complains to make, that implies it's a well-known phenomenon and probably you won't need to go much in-depth anyways.

Now, I'm obviously not saying that you can't distance yourself from the masses, and if you think you've got a fair point that few, if any, have already written about, then go for it by all means. Just don't go overboard with nitpicking or you'll end up being this kind of guy more than anything:


Of course, it's only my opinion. Hope that cleared it up in some way

How about you send the review so you can get a second opinion?

I understand it's a bit frustrating to see your review get rejected for the first time, as I've had a couple of reviews be rejected in my early days in the site. However, it's best to remain calm and post your review here so we can see what the problem is with the lack of substance, and then maybe we can find a way to improve your review and make it acceptable.