my first venture in this forum, I think... not big on reviews overall, as I prefer listening for myself, but I do check reviews, esp on bands I know and/or like...

on topic... I have known Pale Divine for nearly their entire career. I quite liked them at some point, but have not bothered too much with their more recent releases... I sampled a coupla songs on youtube and that was that.

I read Twisted_Psychology's review of their new album, though, and it made me wanna listen... https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... ogy/194956 he's right, too, this is more like a Beelzefuzz/PD mashup ...that works well. might open them to a new audience, too. so, thanks, TP

Colin040 recently wrote one for Asphyx's sophomore and made me remember that I liked the debut but never bothered checking out other stuff.

Glad you like that write-up, aloof! I've been a Pale Divine fan for some time now and Consequence of Time was such a welcome curveball to me. I rather like all the discourse I've seen surrounding the album so far; it's been cool to see perspectives from longtime listeners as well as people who'd never listened to the band before. It wouldn't surprise me if my score ended up trending higher either.

On topic, I tend to only read reviews from albums that I've already listened to in some capacity so I can compare and contrast my own thoughts to the writer's. However, I'll more than likely end up checking something out if I see a given name pop up enough times. There's a long list of bands that I've been meaning to hear and sometimes a well-positioned review can be enough for me to go for it.

There was a review for Алексеевская Площадь's latest album "Оставить след" that had a 90%. I checked it out and I thought it was pretty good. Might have to write a review for it soon. https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%89%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C/%D0%9E%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C_%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4/857719/kluseba/238242

I'm definitely on board with this. There have definitely been albums that I had no interest in listening to until I read a certain review. As far as which ones I read? I'm a bit similar with T_P regarding the familiarity and popping up, but there are also some writers in particular that I follow in general (here and outside of MA).