Welcome to the 11th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge!

Originally the "MA Virgin Reviews Challenge", this is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every spring and autumn, reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible. The challenge is focused on virgin albums: those with no reviews so far. Every day, the reviews submitted and accepted are tallied, so that participants can see how they compare with one another and whether or not as a group we've been able to beat the accumulative totals. Previous challenges can be found here.

The challenge is named in memory of our friend Diamhea, a longtime contributor to this challenge and staff member here at Metal Archives, who sadly passed away on May 21, 2018. He was the first person to have ever written 100 reviews for a single challenge!

This challenge will run from Monday Jun 26 @ 12:00AM EST to Sunday Jul 2 @ 11:59PM EST.

The magic number to beat is 609. That was set in May 2009. It's high but we can beat it.
The second number to beat is 352. That was the total from the last challenge!

Challenge Rules

1. The focus is on virgin albums.
The only albums that count are those that had zero reviews prior to the challenge.

2. Every release listed on the main site is valid including singles, videos, boxed sets and so on.
However, please try to refrain from mass reviewing singles and 'best of' compilations for this challenge. That's lame.

3. Eligible releases have to be virgins at the beginning of the challenge.
Multiple people can review the same virgin. There’s no bonus for getting to it first, so no need to hurry – focus on quality instead.

4. Eligible reviews must have been written during the challenge.
Taking notes is fine, but avoid stockpiling already written reviews in advance.

5. Value quality over quantity!
Everyone is welcome to participate, but keep in mind that the mods won't be more lenient during the challenge.

6. The challenge abides by the default time of the site (Eastern Standard time or GMT-5).
Please ensure that you are submitting your review(s) within the right time frame in order for them to count.

7. The total number of reviews written will be tallied once a day (under normal circumstances).
I will do the tallying as soon as possible. Please don't nag me.

8. Stay cordial and respectful with one another.
Don't hijack this thread with petty arguments or whining. Remember that the mods are watching (and waiting)...

9. The only reward is our eternal appreciation.
The only prize is knowing that there is an album that previously didn't get any love... that now has a review to call its own.

Hall of Fame




The Metal Archives Review Pool

Not sure what to write a review for, or want a change of pace outside of your comfort zone? The Review Pool may be the answer!

The Review Pool is a list of virgin albums submitted by other reviewers for anyone to review during the challenge. Anyone who has at least 5 reviews on MA can submit a virgin album to be included in the pool: just send me a PM with the album name, and I'll include it in the list below. Keep in mind, if it's no longer a virgin before the challenge begins, I will have to remove it. Reviewers interested in using the Review Pool can review any of the albums in the list during the challenge, even if someone else has reviewed it before them. There's no limit.

You can choose your own band, but be aware that reviews may be quite critical and we won't tolerate people whining/begging about scores.

The Review Pool List:

• Trhä - Endlhëtonëg
• Heathen Kings - Fealty to None
• Kamijo - Oscar
• Viande - L'abime dévore les âmes
• Ekstasis - Wirklichkeitsraster
• Assimilation - The Laws of Power
• Minstrelix - 11 Trajectories
• Freaks and Clowns - We Set the World on Fire
• Axenstar - End of All Hope
• Primalfrost - Lost Elegies

Have fun! Looking forward to your participation!

Hey everyone, the Review Challenge is finally back! I apologize in advance if it comes across as too deep into the summer, but I really couldn't do any earlier than that. Here's hoping the participation will be massive like in every summer, in order to finally creep up on that elusive all-time record, which is now 14 years old. Its time must come, sooner or later, doesn't it?

I'll try to contribute as well, but I'm already ruling out any possibilities of competing for the highest positions. I'll save those for next winter

See you there!

Good to see we got a date of the latest review challenge. Weekends might be a bit tricky for me personally, however, since I recently got a weekend job, but I'll try and pump out as many reviews as I can.

This is good.

Thought that Slater actually hit your "pool" choice already, but it was a different album by the same band. I'll think of something to put in the pool later.

Time to withhold writing reviews at all until the challenge begins, might as well use this opportunity to clean up my backlog and write reviews for releases I like that no one made a review for

Ha, same. Doesn't help that the titles of said project aren't... exactly easy to remember and/or discern.

In any case, it was his own choice actually. Would have been an even more amazing feat

Yo let's fucking gooooo!

Also nice to get a deadline on getting my current retrospective done lol.

That Trhä album I chose was the only studio album of the band that doesn't have a review for some reason. I'm curious to see if someone actually does review it during the challenge.

Come to think of it, there are many albums that are no longer rendered a virgin album through my hands. Can I delete one of the reviews I did to render it a virgin once more and DM BurnSod to put it on his list?

The idea isn't to push your own numbers up, it's to contribute to the site by giving reviews to releases that don't have any. Deleting previous reviews to re-virginize things and stockpiling reviews to submit en masse are not only massive baby-brain maneuvers of poor sportsmanship, but I'm almost certain are actually against the rules in the first place.

So no, don't try to Rules-Lawyer your way into victory. You will be remembered as the asshole who stockpiled reviews and re-submitted old ones to get a bogus number instead of the guy who got a lot of reviews.

It would also be lame to write up pool party suggestions before the starting bell...but otherwise, I'm looking forward to the fashionably late shindig.

My original idea is to put that album up here because it's a very good album, but guess I'll just find a new album

I think if I've learned anything from Virgin Reviews Challenges (and life in general), it's that there are always plenty of virgins to go round.

By my count, I have 254 releases that I could use for the challenge. Those are ones I actually have at least a download of, even if I haven't listened to all of them.


Usually I would put a release into the pool that I'm not sure how to review myself. For instance, a style that's quite far outside my comfort zone, or something new that I don't have time/access to listen to. Once or twice I suggested a friend's band too.

If worst comes to worst, there's always a few VRc contenders within ye old draft list...Oh, gas, I threw in a pool party doozy I think you'll dig. (Hint: it's from your homeland!)

I've to admit Lawrence, your initial query had me ruefully shaking my head, going: "Ah, Big L., you know better!" but I now realize it was genuine and not just a clever attempt at eliciting a sharp witted response on behalf on Bastardhead.

Yeah, that album is a really underrated piece of gem that fuses techno, symphonics, melodeath and power in a way that's really unique. I thought of putting up on the review pool might make people pay more attention to it.

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/V ... -IX/485834 this album was the one I was referring to

Suddenly realized that a lot of virgin albums I want to review during this period are Japanese heavy and power metal

On one hand it is a genre I am familiar with, on the other hand this side of power metal is so, SO underrated and overlooked

Perfect, that week shouldn't be too busy. I'll stick to my modest goal of one review a day; the problem isn't the size of the harem - as gasmask just said, the day we'll meet a shortage of virgin albums is a long way from now - just that the stallion is a bit old

It would great if somebody tossed in a killer virgin doom album to the pool party...

I think the second Hands Of Orlac is still a virgin. That's pretty great, and I know you liked their material on the split.

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/K ... ta/1111131 weird ass piano-driven DSBM/Funeral Doom album from Japan, although the first song is recycled from his 2014 split, also Church of Misery (stoner doom) will have a new album released during the challenge. If reviews for albums released during the challenges dont count, then there is the entire discography of Sonic Flower, a stoner/psych doom side project of Tatsu Mikami of Church of Misery, all 3 albums are with 0 reviews

idk if i can put multiple suggestions into the review pool

I haven't checked out Kanashimi yet, but they look to be interesting. I'm gonna have to give that album a spin during the review challenge.

Wow, I'm gobsmacked a new church of Misery is due soon, that's definitely being bookmarked and flagged, as it looks tremendously awesome. (I love how it follows the gang's usual practice of titular parenthesesals). Ditto for Hands of Orlac, I'd completely forgotten about them. Thanks for the great suggestions! Sonic Flower sounds quite auspicious as well. Now, as much as I'd planned to write up a little surprise today, fear it might have to wait since the new Diablo (IV) just dropped...Make way for the druid's roly-poly werebear, yo!

Ooo... I might be able to make some contributions to the challenge this time now my College Entrance Exams are over, although I still have a shitload of promos cramming up my mail box that I'm supposed to do for Metalbite as well as catching up with releases between later last year and earlier this year lol
Maybe I'll dig up some power metal, either for myself or the pool. I recall there's quite a few virgins for me to take...

Wow congratulations on finishing that. Not surprised we didn't see you for a while...

Aye, it's been hell for me, but I made it through. I'm surprised you noticed my disappearance lol
Now I'm ready to pen some things that I'm going to pour some souls into, not the stale, bland bullshits I've been forced to write...

Congratulations indeed! And yes, it was a noticeable absence

Don't get too stressed on the promos, though – you're not gonna pen a write-up for every single one anyways. Maybe reserve writing some within the challenge week and you've got two birds with one stone...

Might contribute for the first time in a while. It'll be fun.

No secret satan though?

We're a bit out of season for that it'll be back next challenge.

Humble apologies for my absence in general and my tardiness in regard to this thread, I've been so buried in work that I ended up taking a near 6-month hiatus from the site. I will definitely be participating, and in the next day or two (before the challenge starts) I'm going to dump everything I've written for Sonic Perspectives since the beginning of January onto MA, hopefully I won't be spoiling anybody's plans as I think a couple of the albums are not currently reviewed, but I didn't want to use anything I had already written prior to the challenge. Good luck everybody!

Wish I had more time and motivation to participate in these challenges, but I may just submit albums to the pool instead, there's plenty of bands I'd like to see get reviews.

Feel free to do so. I'm considering reviewing one of these albums in the pool, and having more options would be great.

Good luck everyone, I'm waiting until morning to start writing, not sure how much I'll get in this time, but bare minimum I'm going to try and surpass the 28 I did last time, maybe I'll even break 50 and have my best showing since 2017. Just got to resist the urge to go too long on my reviews for the next week. lol

And so, it begins... good luck everyone!

So, started out my week with a university exam gone well, and crashed my car* on my way back. Wonder if it's a good or a bad omen overall?

(*at slow speed and nothing serious, luckily.)

Just a dent right? I guess you could try and get some compensation from the driver

Good luck to all participants!

Eh, not in this case – a crucial drop of attention on my part... ended up rear-ending the car before me, so 100% my fault. Shit happens, I guess.

Starting off strong with reviewing three albums I've been wanting to check out for a while. I especially had a bit of fun reviewing Trespasser's latest album. And of course, I wish the best of luck to all other reviewers participating, as well TheBurningOfSodom my condolences for the car crash.

Wow! I feel for the AI which has to compete with this:

http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalo ... entanz.htm

(Nudge, wink, nudge...)

Dude, why does that sound like a pastiche of your writing? Should we call you Mr Rider?

A little bit amusing that Lawrence has hit the album he recommended among 10 reviews, so hopefully the one I’m planning to write for him will still be a surprise since it’s not written down here…