Two interesting reviews for MDB's The Angel and the Dark River come up at the same time, both very agreeable takes on the album. Both get points from me, Colin because he finally puts his finger on who the last track sounds like, and LAG for giving the same score as me (which obviously means he is right) and a delightful metaphor.





Thanks both!

Cheers. Started to get much more interested in MDB over the last couple of months, so more reviews should follow.

Bit late but that was one damn fine review and one I agree with wholeheartedly. Seems to be enjoying themselves with the vocabulary but didn't feel annoying at all, on the contrary.

As for the previous pages, *shrug*. Shame, dude had interesting perspectives and that's worth more to me here than being humble or nice. I appreciate humility more than intellectual brilliance but I am interested in music discussion more in the MA forum context than personal relationships.

As for the worth of reviews here being more than rateyourmusic? I believe the exact opposite to be true. It's simple really. You get roughly 10-20 subjective opinions in MA and thousands in RYM. Whether someone put effort to justify his final score is irrelevant - the strength of his opinion depends on his time with the album and his prior experience, nothing to do with his willingness to write about it.

Absolutely RYM is nearer the "truth". The general consensus of the relevant audience over the years - which is the closest thing I consider to objectivity regarding art - that's on RYM. Here you get a few tens (if that) of reviews by people who bothered to go through the whole process. The hundreds and thousands (and their lack of by the way...) carries way more information and information that statistically blocks out extreme views (regardless how interesting they are). Whoever wants to READ opinions, may click on those. The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which is a very influential paper regarding open source and User Generated Content vs the trad closed corporate model is a really good read and most definitely applies here.

Trying to "lure" the user to do anything (in this case either to read reviews or to put effort to think about his rating by writing a review) is usually a bad strategy and in this case, I think misguided. I've seen the general perspective of the site owners and mods, seems the current model is set in stone, be it as policy or as unfeasible logistically. So I don't bother. But that argument, that reviews here are more weighty than a rating over another site? Nah mate.

More Demoniac reviews please!

If it makes you feel better; they're on my list of bands to review.

Same, got one for the new one planned for the December roundup.

We hope to die have a “great stain”(hyperbole lol)that is the review of Nachtmusik…

I find it very superficial and not complete..

But I agree with him in 90% of their reviews(sometimes too redundant)when when it finds the balance it's a pleasure to read it….

As a confirmed Japanophile, I'd just like to offer a special thanks to kluseba for his timely Mari Hamada line drop in his painfully honest Doro review, as I'm now sampling pop metal songs from her 1984 debut, ahead of further episodes of Part Time Devil - that ineluctable Crunchy Roll anime - and the final chapter of Like A Dragon: Man Who Erased His Name, potential candidate for game of the year alongside the latest Spiderbop...Apparently, at two studious hours daily, a pro level of Japanese learning can be achieved in only 6.2 years. (Time to get cracking, in order to emulate a fifty one year old Kiryu aka Joryu!)

But with the ratings on RYM and similar sites, you don't know much time the raters are spending with the albums in question. It's so easy to just click a star to designate a score, and job done, there might be a lot of people rating the album only having listening to once or twice, or only listening to a handful of songs and not the whole album. The MA review system vets the reviewer has spent time listening to the album several times before submitting review, or not.

Personally speaking, my RYM rating will usually just reflect a couple cursory listens whereas my reviews are me earnestly trying to sit down with something. I take RYM with a grain of salt but it is helpful for overviews.

Maybe it’s my Blaze fanboy talking but I think Annable’s X Factor writeup is pretty solid!

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... 666/329559

As always(99 %)great work,last album with Nazgul Von Armageddon,Corvus is coming….

And Horna became legendary….

Newcomer Hardworlder makes my Sunday with his savoury as well as inaugurate Mega Colossus spiel (and fond nod to XCOM2 - I hadn't even realized they had a song honouring the squad's cryptic credo!) so I'll simply munch on the old olive branch by alerting all Mega C fans to its new 2024 release, Showdown, which auspiciously coincides with the release of, wait for it...Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (a hell of a crazy game judging by its compact albeit over-the-top post The Man Who Erased His Name demo).

I'm also thrilled to hear, via kluseba, that Prong is back on the dinner table! Back in '96, Rude Awakening was a huge hit among fellow CEGEPians...

(In addition, a new Goaten album rounds the bend...with pitchfork, of course.)

Yeah nice review from Kluseba for the new Prong album. I wouldn't blame anyone for not giving a shit about them anymore, with 3 good but mostly forgettable albums before it and you have to go back to '12 to find the last truly worthwhile album being the rather good Carved In Stone. State Of Emergency tho hits bloody hard and the band sound energized, hungry and relevant again.

I'm guessing most regular readers of this forum have seen that next week is the Diamhea Virgin Reviews Challenge, but if not go check out that thread also in the reviews section!

Great review by Lane on Herman Frank's debut. Funny enough, I've been spinning that album around the clock during the past couple of days, and then it gets its second review of all time. Maybe we are really "bonded by blood"...

^ Cheers. Respected. I hadn't listened to it for awhile (last time probably in summer). Sadly Jioti left the band after this debut album, and Rick Altzi was in... The voice of too many bands.

Can't disagree with Hames_Jetfield on the new Sadus album. I didn't even bother listening to the entire release after the first 3 songs.

Ride the Knife is good, the first half overall is alright, surely miles better than Out for Blood, but that's not a huge compliment. The rest drags wayyy more than it should. Also, DiGiorgio is sorely missed

I have a question for the queue moderators that just crossed my mind:

How do you do it when you don't know what the music of the release being reviewed sounds like?

I've been thinking about this when I came up with the idea of reviewing a demo of some super unknown band without ever having heard it and just putting key phrases and fake descriptions as if I knew what I was talking about (although I'm not going to do it, it was just an idea) but it got me thinking about how a moderator can tell if what is said in a review is not something directly false, I don't mean putting wrong information, but deliberately lying about what a release sounds like.

Eh, nobody can know every band in the world. The best I can do personally is a quick check of the page of the band in question, usually when I'm not sure I understood what genre it plays based upon the review, or simply out of curiosity. Of course I (everyone?) will likely get wary if someone were to write that a raw black metal guitarist sounds like Malmsteen, but with regards to plausible, yet fake descriptions, I just hope nobody will have a similar idea, I guess...

I wanna try Joe Stump after Victim of Science's review! And I want him to try Buckethead (Claymation Courtyard and Pepper's Ghost if you can't choose where to start). Long time since shred guitar got me excited!

I'm very thrilled to hear that I spiked someone's interest in this severely under-analyzed (at least here on the Archives) style of music. Please do let me know what you thought about it. I'll check out Buckethead.

Thrilled to spot so many great reviews about so many great bands today...to the point where I think Hells Unicorn managed to pluck a rabbit out of his hat in terms of suggesting an interesting non-NWOTHM entry for me to spot-check hopefully soon, once I've fully imbibed it - though I might allow myself one last trad metal entry (which I've neurotically listened to too many times in an effort to formulate thoughts, by now feeling compelled to just finish it), but after that, I'd like to expand my horizons...

Wow, hey I'm glad you liked my review. It was my first one and I decided to do it because I was shocked that such a great album didn't have any reviews!

Cheers!

Awesome stuff right there! If you dig Mega Colossus, do check out Knightmare (especially 2018's killer Walk Through The Fire), as they exude similarly melodic and chill North Carolinian vibes while also sharing the same great singer, Anthony Micale. Stay tuned as well for Mega C.'s new album towards the end of January titled Showdown - if its super auspicious cover art is any indication, we're in for a helluva treat!

Oh yeah, I'm familiar with them somewhat, I remember they have a song about The Witcher at least ha. Yes, super stoked for their new album, I'm fairly certain somone will be pre-ordering the vinyl for me for Christmas

I just want to say, having been unbanned, that I don't think my reviews are that important really. Other guys have done more reviews and some guys have done better reviews. I salute those guys!

My main complaints are the lack of vitality on the site. You delete reviews some of which just need tidying up, and the review percentages are all over the place. We should be trying to celebrate everyone's views, and help people write tidy reviews, but otherwise let them be idiosyncratic as they wish. If someone thinks soul survivor is the best gorefest album, they shouldn't be accused of trolling.

Anyway, Im not a mod, and even if I think they have too much power, it's not that important overall. I'll try to correct the spelling mistakes in my reviews at some point before christmas.

Some guys are doing great reviews in english as a second language, and I super salute those guys.

Some people might feel that way, but I think that most people generally don't care about unpopular opinions and refrain from posting about it.

it's not really a popularity thing, it's more about letting people say what they think, and seeing the benefit in it. Shouldn't discussion and interaction be valued commodities?

I never really thought of it, but yeah, it's damn impressive so many non native English speakers possess such a strong command of the language in their reviews. For me, it would be tough as Hell to formulate a cohesive French review...On that note, I'm having a blast playing Like A Dragon: Yakuza with French subtitles beneath sonorously pleasing Japanese, as the translation is all over the place, employing crazy-ass obscure words my father or even google can't define! Sadly, the game commits the cardinal sin of not respecting one's time, as I should've already finished it after 40 dense hours, yet am only two thirds of the way through. (Gotta see it to the end though, in advance of Infinite Wealth!)

JRPG's do be like that tho

It wasn't obligatory to review an album without understanding anything and making absurd comparisons (Slayer, Bathory)just pass without dirty one of the best albums born from Sweden….


I stop without wanting to rant but you have ridiculed a masterpiece…

and forget about Dissection for goodness' sake.please….

Felix, I think I can confirm those 'new insights' of Violentor. Or maybe, I wonder if I just never met the right ones?

Also, nice new Gas_Snake sig. I think I know where it comes from...

Really happy that you can confirm it. I nearly thought the guy is singing bullshit!

The only thing stopping the Yakuza series from being the most glorious pieces of cheesetastic fun in the universe is their absolutely crushing length. After loving LAD I decided to burn through the whole series and really burnt out early in the 3rd one because god damn they are all brutally long with so many timesink minigames that I absolutely cannot peel myself away from. I actually just play koi-koi constantly on my phone now because of these damn games.

Also the brief little sidequest with the American tourist trying to learn Japanese is apparently hysterically funny if you play with Japanese voice acting so great call on that.

Burning, interested to see that you did Sylosis. I was meaning to get round to that album but still haven't listened, they don't inspire me that much but have turned in solid performances with some interesting features in the past. Also, seeing the name Mutant still coming up in discussions of UK thrash tells me just how sorely they are missed.

Appreciated! Same here, I needed my brother coming across 'Poison for the Lost' on Spotify to be reminded they are a thing. By all means check the tracks I mentioned, then. Nothing revolutionary (save for the closer, perhaps), and they lose a bit of credibility when put besides the easier-listening stuff, but on their own they sound foaming at the mouth sincerely enough.

And yep, the Laserdrome still reigns supreme...