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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:13 pm 
 

gasmask_colostomy wrote:
Hi there, I'd like to offer some comments on the review. In the other thread, you mentioned you are worried about using English to write reviews, but your use of language is not a problem here. It is mostly the lack of exact description and detail in your review that is causing the problem.

For example, you mention the riffs and solos. I know that they are thrash metal with some speed/heavy influence, but that is a very broad area. Are they mostly fast? Do they chug a lot? Are they technical? Can you name any songs with special riffs? Also, which other bands would you compare them to? Is it Megadeth speed thrash or Razor? Mentioning any or all of these things about the riffs, solos, drumming, or vocals would be helpful to your reader.

When you talk about diversity, the same problem occurs. You need to mention some examples, or at least two or three of the styles used. You also say the melodies are very important, but your reader won't know much about how they sound. Don't be afraid to say how these things make you feel or which songs you think the band play best.

Finally, on a style point, you shouldn't use capital letters for genre names (thrash metal, speed metal). That's a rule for all the reviews on this website.

I hope you can make some improvements to the review and have it published after some more work. Feel free to post it again here if you need more comments!


Thanks for your response man! Mmmm.. Let me see.

This album is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, (we can clearly hear at songs like “Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad” those particular touches) and also breakdowns moments that could remind us to Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes IMO (brutal riffs, calmly songs which have a dense part and then get back to the peaceful again like “Otro Día Para Ser, Olvídalo y Volverá Por Más” and “Del Colimba”
Víctimas del Vaciamiento is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects, this album has a unique and refreshing sound with really indescribable compositions in terms of its recording; this release has frenetic, powerful riffs, and solos that I have never heard being composed before; I dare to say that the most thrash metal song of the history of Argentinian thrash metal is “Soy De La Esquina”, it begins with powerful riffing and as soon as O’Connor starts to sing the riffs changes but still maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the vocals through perfect accuracy at the same time of the impressive drumming; the song has breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceeds to make a balance since the song begins merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. Some sort of thing happens with “Otro Día Para Ser” the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals, when O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point, at the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing; therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies. Songs like “Hospitalarias Realidades, Buscando Razón, Cuando Duerme la Ciudad, Del Colimba” are not fast at all. This album like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful; Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand, Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues (In my humble opinion).
The particular thing about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly (think about Metallica’s …And Justice for All album variations, nor sound or other stuffs, just the varying structures of the compositions that that record has) they never stop recreating a heavy environment that really stands out!
Bands like Battalion form Brazil -Itajaí- is highly inspired in Hermética, if you want to hear some bands which have these type of tones you should try with Nepal, Malón, Selvageria, Comando Nuclear, Battalion, Toxik, Exciter, and Annihilator for example

Is it getting better? xd
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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:40 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Thanks for your response man! Mmmm.. Let me see.

Spoiler: show
This album is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, (we can clearly hear at songs like “Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad” those particular touches) and also breakdowns moments that could remind us to Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes IMO (brutal riffs, calmly songs which have a dense part and then get back to the peaceful again like “Otro Día Para Ser, Olvídalo y Volverá Por Más” and “Del Colimba”
:nazi: Víctimas del Vaciamiento is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects, this album has a unique and refreshing sound with really indescribable compositions in terms of its recording; this release has frenetic, powerful riffs, and solos that I have never heard being composed before; I dare to say that the most thrash metal song of the history of Argentinian thrash metal is “Soy De La Esquina”, it begins with powerful riffing and as soon as O’Connor starts to sing the riffs changes but still maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the vocals through perfect accuracy at the same time of the impressive drumming; the song has breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceeds to make a balance since the song begins merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. :nazi: Some sort of thing happens with “Otro Día Para Ser” the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals, when O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point, at the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing; therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies. Songs like “Hospitalarias Realidades, Buscando Razón, Cuando Duerme la Ciudad, Del Colimba” are not fast at all. This album like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful; Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand, Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues (In my humble opinion).
The particular thing about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly (think about Metallica’s …And Justice for All album variations, nor sound or other stuffs, just the varying structures of the compositions that that record has) they never stop recreating a heavy environment that really stands out!
Bands like Battalion form Brazil -Itajaí- is highly inspired in Hermética, if you want to hear some bands which have these type of tones you should try with Nepal, Malón, Selvageria, Comando Nuclear, Battalion, Toxik, Exciter, and Annihilator for example

Is it getting better? xd

Let's see...you've taken on board some of the ideas from the first draft, but you haven't made me understand the album much better. That's because your long description of two songs isn't very effective, mostly just saying "this happens and then this". Your general description should tell me that the drumming is impressive and there are several breakdowns, but your specific description should say why “Soy De La Esquina” is the most thrash metal track ever from Argentina.

All those band names you've listed at the end are not much use there. The times when you mention Motorhead, Cowboys from Hell and ...AJFA - those are good! Maybe if you tell me that the guitar riffing is in the style of Exciter, the vocalist sounds like Toxik, etc, I will get a good idea of how this album sounds.

To make the review easier to read and understand, you also need to pay attention to how you write a sentence. I've marked one sentence in the spoiler with a grammar Nazi symbol at the beginning and end: that should be four or five sentences at least. Break your points down and address them one by one. This will help keep your grammar more organized and your review more focused.

If you can keep trying to improve with each draft, you will get there in the end :-P Hope the next one is even better!

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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 3:04 pm 
 

I really appreciate this man! I'm working on it right now
Let me see...
This album is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, (we can clearly hear at songs like “Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad” those particular touches) and also breakdowns moments that could remind us to Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes IMO (brutal riffs, calmly songs which have a dense part and then get back to the peaceful again like “Otro Día Para Ser, Olvídalo y Volverá Por Más” and “Del Colimba”
This album is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects, it contains refreshing sound with really indescribable compositions and frenetic powerful riffs, think about Toxik or Annihilator for a second, clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal; the glorious thing about Hermética is that it can’t be compared directly with any other band, because they got they own personal and perfect sound, and Victimas del Vaciamiento is the perfect example of that, to be more specific, if you hear the band Abaxial you will find Metallica’s influence plainly, but bands like Nepal and Hermética got their own personal style.
This record contains powerful riffing that keeps maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the clean vocals through perfect accuracy with the impressive drumming; some songs have breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceed to make a “balance” since some tracks start merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. For example; some sort of thing happens with “Otro Día Para Ser” the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals, when O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point, at the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing; therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies.
Not all the tracks are rapid, songs like “Hospitalarias Realidades, Buscando Razón, Cuando Duerme la Ciudad, Del Colimba” are not fast at all. This album like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful; Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand, Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues (In my humble opinion). The particular thing about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly (think about Metallica’s …And Justice for All album variations, nor sound or other stuffs, just the varying structures of the compositions that that record has) they never stop recreating a heavy environment that really stands out!


:P
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Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 1:49 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Let me see...

Notes in spoiler (or "What is going on with the punctuation here!?")

Spoiler: show
(I'm going to be breaking this up so my notes are more obvious, but remember to separate your paragraphs with an empty line, that is two strokes of RETURN before beginning a new paragraph.)

This album is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, (we can clearly hear at songs like “Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad” those particular touches) and also breakdowns moments that could remind us to Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes IMO (brutal riffs, calmly songs which have a dense part and then get back to the peaceful again like “Otro Día Para Ser, Olvídalo y Volverá Por Más” and “Del Colimba”

(Make clarity your watchword. The parentheticals only confuse your point. Just reorganize them as sentences of their own. Also, acronyms like IMO are too casual for this format -- besides, we know it's your opinion.)

This album is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects, (Formatting)it contains refreshing sound with really indescribable compositions (Try. No really, you should try to describe this album.)and frenetic powerful riffs, think about Toxik or Annihilator for a second, clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal; the glorious thing about Hermética is that it can’t be compared directly with any other band, because they got they own personal and perfect sound, and Victimas del Vaciamiento is the perfect example of that, to be more specific, if you hear the band Abaxial you will find Metallica’s influence plainly, but bands like Nepal and Hermética got their own personal style. (I'm not sure why so much time is spent describing what this album is similar to, but so little time is spent describing the album you're writing about.)

(Oh here it is. This stuff would all make more sense if it were in one place and organized cohesively)
This record contains powerful riffing that keeps maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the clean vocals through perfect accuracy with the impressive drumming; some songs have breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceed to make a “balance” since some tracks start merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. For example; some sort of thing happens with “Otro Día Para Ser” the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals, when O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point, at the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing; therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies.
Not all the tracks are rapid, songs like “Hospitalarias Realidades, Buscando Razón, Cuando Duerme la Ciudad, Del Colimba” are not fast at all.
(I don't get it. Sometimes your punctuation is fine, and sometimes it's a fiasco. What gives? Do you know what a semicolon is for? If not, don't use it. Sometimes you use it instead of a period, sometimes you use it instead of a colon. Use the proper punctuation mark. Don't feel like you have to get fancy here. You have a series of points to make. Make them clearly, organizing them by keeping a maximum of two ideas per sentence.

(This is where your closing paragraph starts. Remember to organize paragraphs around the topic sentence/support formula.)
This album like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful; Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand, Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues (In my humble opinion). The particular thing about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly (think about Metallica’s …And Justice for All album variations, nor sound or other stuffs, just the varying structures of the compositions that that record has) they never stop recreating a heavy environment that really stands out!
(Again: formatting and punctuation need a lot of attention)

(I think you have a decent start here. The content isn't bad at all. You have adequate references and you're improving the musical description, you've given the album a good amount of thought, and you seem pretty excited by it. These are all positive features! Organization and clarity are the main issues, so work on that next. Keep it up, and thanks for being willing to work on this.)


Edit: I want to bring this process to the attention of anyone wondering what they would get out of this thread. ᴎostalgiʞK is a perfect example of what can be accomplished with a little effort and and some healthy curiosity. Consider what this review looks like now compared to its initial draft. I think that says it all.
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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 1:36 pm 
 

Hey man I'm grateful a lot for your response!  Let's see it again.. I'm doing my best :P


By the way two strokes like this?


This is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, and we can clearly hear this at songs like ‘Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad’ those particular touches. This record contains also breakdowns moments that could remind us to Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes, brutal riffs then calmly tracks which have a dense part and formerly get back to the peaceful again. This record is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects formatting refreshing sound with really progressive and technical composition possessing frenetic powerful riffs, think about Toxik, Anthrax or Annihilator for a second, clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal.


This album contains powerful riffing that keeps maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the clean vocals through perfect accuracy with the impressive drumming, some songs have breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceed to make a “balance” since few start merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. For example, some sort of thing happens with ‘Otro Día Para Ser’, the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals. When O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point. At the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing, therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies. Not all the tracks are rapid, there are songs that are not fast at all.


This album, like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful, Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues. The particular stuff about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly ala Metallica’s …And Justice for All album varying structures of the compositions recreating a heavy environment that really stands out.


The glorious thing about Hermética is that it can’t be compared directly with any other band, because they got they own personal and perfect sound and Victimas del Vaciamiento is the perfect example of that.

Hope is getting better :o

Edit: For the love of Baphomet I wrote THIS THIS THIS like 340693469 times..
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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:58 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Hey man I'm grateful a lot for your response!  Let's see it again.. I'm doing my best :P


By the way two strokes like this?


Spoiler: show
This is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, and we can clearly hear this at songs like ‘Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad’ those particular touches. This record contains also breakdowns moments that could remind us to Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes, brutal riffs then calmly tracks which have a dense part and formerly get back to the peaceful again. This record is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects formatting refreshing sound with really progressive and technical composition possessing frenetic powerful riffs, think about Toxik, Anthrax or Annihilator for a second, clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal.


This album contains powerful riffing that keeps maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the clean vocals through perfect accuracy with the impressive drumming, some songs have breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceed to make a “balance” since few start merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. For example, some sort of thing happens with ‘Otro Día Para Ser’, the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals. When O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point. At the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing, therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies. Not all the tracks are rapid, there are songs that are not fast at all.


This album, like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful, Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues. The particular stuff about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly ala Metallica’s …And Justice for All album varying structures of the compositions recreating a heavy environment that really stands out.


The glorious thing about Hermética is that it can’t be compared directly with any other band, because they got they own personal and perfect sound and Victimas del Vaciamiento is the perfect example of that.


Hope is getting better :o

Edit: For the love of Baphomet I wrote THIS THIS THIS like 340693469 times..

I'm glad you're still determined to make this review great! Grave_Wyrm's comments should be very helpful and the appearance of the review is looking much better now. Maybe one line of space between the paragraphs is enough, as long as they are totally separated and not touching.

I see you've noticed that you're writing THIS THIS THIS, so to solve that you might want to start sentences in different ways, such as with different noun phrases ("Powerful riffing drives this album") or with verbs ("Driving the album in most songs, the powerful riffs maintain..."). That might also help you think about the grammar, which is the next thing to focus on. We can't check all your review for grammar and formatting problems, but I've made some notes on the first paragraph below:
Spoiler: show
This is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, and we can clearly hear this at (in) songs like ‘Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad’ those particular touches. This record contains also breakdowns (also contains some breakdowns) moments that could remind us to (remind me of: this seems more natural) Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes. [Grave_Wyrm suggests you make shorter sentences and I think he's right.] (Hermética play) brutal riffs then calmly tracks which have a dense part (go through heavier sections) and formerlyget back to the peaceful (style) again. This record is really similar to Malon's nowadays projects refreshing sound (the refreshing sound of Malon's recent output) with really progressive and technical compositions possessing frenetic powerful riffs. [Another sentence would be better.] Think about Toxik, Anthrax or Annihilator for a second, (all of which play) clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal.


I hope that by looking at some of these errors and corrections, you can find a style that works for you. Think especially about the changes to word order and prepositions I have made.

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Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:10 pm 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:

By the way two strokes like this?

No, you want a single empty line between paragraphs.
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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:45 pm 
 

Thank you people! Let's see again.. hmmm

This is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, and we can clearly hear this in songs like ‘Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad’ those particular touches. This record also contains some breakdowns moments that could remind me of Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes. Hermética realize brutal riffs and calmly tracks which go through heavy section to formerly get back to the peaceful style again. This record is really similar to Malon's most recent production, formatting refreshing sound with really progressive, clean, groovy and technical composition, think about Toxik, Anthrax or Annihilator for a second, clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal.

This album contains powerful riffing that keeps maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the clean vocals through perfect accuracy with the impressive drumming, some songs have breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceed to make a “balance” since few start merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. For example, some sort of thing happens with ‘Otro Día Para Ser’, the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals. When O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point. At the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing, therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies. Not all the tracks are rapid, there are songs that are not fast at all.

This album, like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful, Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues. The particular stuff about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly ala Metallica’s …And Justice for All album varying structures of the compositions recreating a heavy environment that really stands out. The glorious thing about Hermética is that it can’t be compared directly with any other band, because they got they own personal and perfect sound and Victimas del Vaciamiento is the perfect example of that
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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:59 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Thank you people! Let's see again.. hmmm

Spoiler: show
This is the essence of the Argentinian thrash metal, it contains old school heavy metal/speed tints inspired by Mötorhead for example, and we can clearly hear this in songs like ‘Ayer Deseo, Hoy Realidad’ those particular touches. This record also contains some breakdowns moments that could remind me of Cowboys from Hell’s album sometimes. Hermética realize brutal riffs and calmly tracks which go through heavy section to formerly get back to the peaceful style again. This record is really similar to Malon's most recent production, formatting refreshing sound with really progressive, clean, groovy and technical composition, think about Toxik, Anthrax or Annihilator for a second, clean voices over heavy melodies fused with speed/thrash metal.

This album contains powerful riffing that keeps maintaining the frenetic environment accompanying the clean vocals through perfect accuracy with the impressive drumming, some songs have breakdowns at the middle of the track which proceed to make a “balance” since few start merely fast until we reach the medium part where the breakdowns are made. For example, some sort of thing happens with ‘Otro Día Para Ser’, the variation is that the song starts really tranquilly being sung by Iorio accompanied with cleans guitar and Pato’s cymbals. When O’Connor begins to sing, the riffing addition is distorted and really “chugging” at some point. At the chorus the guitar and drums change the composition again preceding to make breakdowns with perfect timing, therefore the first breakdown a solo is started with a total change of the melodies. Not all the tracks are rapid, there are songs that are not fast at all.

This album, like the others, has the great contrast of voices that in Hermética has always remained masterful, Claudio has a high-pitched voice more in the vibe of classic heavy metal style, on the other hand Iorio’s voice is more in the hard rock/blues. The particular stuff about this album is the amount of diversity that each song has and how the melodies change suddenly ala Metallica’s …And Justice for All album varying structures of the compositions recreating a heavy environment that really stands out. The glorious thing about Hermética is that it can’t be compared directly with any other band, because they got they own personal and perfect sound and Victimas del Vaciamiento is the perfect example of that

Every time you write this it gets better! That's great that you're following the advice and trying to make improvements.

I think the review now looks neater with the paragraphing and you are mostly making useful points about the music. The comparisons work better too. The last paragraph is probably the best part of the review because it summarizes the rest and gives me something to remember about the album. Also, the grammar is better in the last paragraph.

Grammar is, however, the part holding the review back. Now that the writing is more organized, it's clear that there are lots of mistakes in sentence structure, word choice, and with fixed expressions. I'm not sure that the review would be accepted with the current grammar. Grave_Wyrm gave you some good advice about punctuation. I think it would help to make your sentences shorter, which would keep them clear. Also, in my last post, I made some grammar corrections to the first paragraph, some of which you've used, but there are still lots of mistakes in that.

In summary:
1. It's getting better!
2. It looks neater.
3. You need to improve the grammar much more.

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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:01 pm 
 

Thanks both of you man, I'll keep trying my best here! :)
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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:26 pm 
 

Thank you Derigin, gasmask and Grave!!! Really happy with you all people.
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Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:55 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Thanks both of you man, I'll keep trying my best here! :)

That's literally all we can reasonably ask.

Thank you for putting in the effort to improve. Looking forward to seeing what you work on next.
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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 8:25 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Thank you Derigin, gasmask and Grave!!! Really happy with you all people.

Very happy that you got the review accepted :hyper:

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jonlorde
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 1:32 pm
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 7:55 am 
 

Hey folks, hope all is well. I've been trying to improve my writing lately and was hoping for some feedback on the following review. A couple of things about me: English is not my mother tongue; when it comes to English I've been writing mostly software documentation/technical stuff for my job. Enjoy and thank u in advance!

ps: formatting is not MA compliant, hope that's OK.

Quote:
GRIEF COLLECTOR - From Dissension to Avowal

Many bands claim to fall under the Doom Metal genre, however, few can comprehend its essence, and even less manage to capture it with their music. There are more things in Doom Metal than the slow riffs and the gloomy atmosphere, and GRIEF COLLECTOR from Minneapolis, Minnesota, seem to know this well. Formed by Brad Miller and Matt Johnson, and joined by Robert Lowe (TYRANT, SOLITUDE AETURNUS), the trio released its debut album, “From Dissension To Avowal”, a few weeks ago, thus contributing to the line of doom metal albums that have seen the light of day so far [in 2019].

It’s clear from the very first, slightly distorted guitar riffs that the opening song, “Eyes Of Fog”, holds many references to CANDLEMASS‘ recent works. However, this one goes on to explore the more traditional side of doom metal. “Consuming Indignation” is probably the song that’s closest to the traditional sound of doom metal, as it starts with some beefy, staccato guitar riffs that grow into a groovy SABBATH-like mashup kind of song. Lowe’s vocals sit very nicely on top of this one, making it stand out from the majority of similar tunes that – let’s face it – have oversaturated the genre. The rest of the album goes on with songs that stand somewhere between TROUBLE and more “modern” bands, like VOID OF SILENCE regarding style, with “A Mournful Pact” and “Of Misery and Woe” being the highlights that reveal the true potential of this band. Just to give you a hint, pay attention to the verse and bridge of “A Mournful Pact”, and the progression and vocal arrangements in “Of Misery and Woe”. It’s a shame this album ended up being only five songs long and not holding more songs like these.

In general, song structures deviate from the norm that wants the majority of doom metal bands to be predictable as hell. The band has managed to create a rather interesting soundscape of riffs, melodies and texture, which is the very first step for developing a signature sound. As expected, most of the album is dominated by heavy ‘n’ slow guitar riffs which are backed by a thrifty, solid rhythm section. Guitar solos remain within the safety of the pentatonic scale, and despite them being a good fit for this kind of music, I can’t really say they stand out or “tell a story”, as some people like to say.

When it comes to vocals, I always believed that having someone like Robert Lowe to man the mic would bring out the best of your music. With years of experience under his belt, this living legend of Doom Metal delivers a solid performance that features all the signature traits of his voice: texture, resonance, and articulation. Everything is there. For the most part, vocals register within the low/mid-range spectrum with some high-pitched outbursts throughout the album which add a bit of variety. As for the singing style, that is close to the style that Lowe has been into for the past decade or so, so don’t expect any big surprises there.

Overall, and in terms of aesthetics, this album reminded me a lot of SOLITUDE AETURNUS‘s “Adagio”, but it felt more raw and unpolished. This works for the concept the band is trying to deliver, but to be honest, I got to experience it more through the lyrics than the actual music. I’d say that “From Dissension To Avowal” is one of these “introvert” type of albums that won’t make your head explode, nor comes at you with a bunch of hooks and catchy choruses. However, it does come with some particular qualities – that outweigh a few weaknesses – that distinguish it from the masses and, hopefully, help it withstand the test of time.

This is a great first step and I’m totally in for a sophomore, more delicate and lengthier album from these guys. Doom on.

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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:54 am 
 

jonlorde wrote:
Hey folks, hope all is well. I've been trying to improve my writing lately and was hoping for some feedback on the following review. A couple of things about me: English is not my mother tongue; when it comes to English I've been writing mostly software documentation/technical stuff for my job. Enjoy and thank u in advance!

ps: formatting is not MA compliant, hope that's OK.

Spoiler: show
GRIEF COLLECTOR - From Dissension to Avowal

Many bands claim to fall under the Doom Metal genre, however, few can comprehend its essence, and even less manage to capture it with their music. There are more things in Doom Metal than the slow riffs and the gloomy atmosphere, and GRIEF COLLECTOR from Minneapolis, Minnesota, seem to know this well. Formed by Brad Miller and Matt Johnson, and joined by Robert Lowe (TYRANT, SOLITUDE AETURNUS), the trio released its debut album, “From Dissension To Avowal”, a few weeks ago, thus contributing to the line of doom metal albums that have seen the light of day so far [in 2019].

It’s clear from the very first, slightly distorted guitar riffs that the opening song, “Eyes Of Fog”, holds many references to CANDLEMASS‘ recent works. However, this one goes on to explore the more traditional side of doom metal. “Consuming Indignation” is probably the song that’s closest to the traditional sound of doom metal, as it starts with some beefy, staccato guitar riffs that grow into a groovy SABBATH-like mashup kind of song. Lowe’s vocals sit very nicely on top of this one, making it stand out from the majority of similar tunes that – let’s face it – have oversaturated the genre. The rest of the album goes on with songs that stand somewhere between TROUBLE and more “modern” bands, like VOID OF SILENCE regarding style, with “A Mournful Pact” and “Of Misery and Woe” being the highlights that reveal the true potential of this band. Just to give you a hint, pay attention to the verse and bridge of “A Mournful Pact”, and the progression and vocal arrangements in “Of Misery and Woe”. It’s a shame this album ended up being only five songs long and not holding more songs like these.

In general, song structures deviate from the norm that wants the majority of doom metal bands to be predictable as hell. The band has managed to create a rather interesting soundscape of riffs, melodies and texture, which is the very first step for developing a signature sound. As expected, most of the album is dominated by heavy ‘n’ slow guitar riffs which are backed by a thrifty, solid rhythm section. Guitar solos remain within the safety of the pentatonic scale, and despite them being a good fit for this kind of music, I can’t really say they stand out or “tell a story”, as some people like to say.

When it comes to vocals, I always believed that having someone like Robert Lowe to man the mic would bring out the best of your music. With years of experience under his belt, this living legend of Doom Metal delivers a solid performance that features all the signature traits of his voice: texture, resonance, and articulation. Everything is there. For the most part, vocals register within the low/mid-range spectrum with some high-pitched outbursts throughout the album which add a bit of variety. As for the singing style, that is close to the style that Lowe has been into for the past decade or so, so don’t expect any big surprises there.

Overall, and in terms of aesthetics, this album reminded me a lot of SOLITUDE AETURNUS‘s “Adagio”, but it felt more raw and unpolished. This works for the concept the band is trying to deliver, but to be honest, I got to experience it more through the lyrics than the actual music. I’d say that “From Dissension To Avowal” is one of these “introvert” type of albums that won’t make your head explode, nor comes at you with a bunch of hooks and catchy choruses. However, it does come with some particular qualities – that outweigh a few weaknesses – that distinguish it from the masses and, hopefully, help it withstand the test of time.

This is a great first step and I’m totally in for a sophomore, more delicate and lengthier album from these guys. Doom on.

This actually sounds like an album I'd like to check out!

I'm sure you know that there's nothing greatly wrong with your writing and I'd bet this would be accepted onto the site in the blink of an eye, formatting aside (get rid of capital letters for genre names and take your finger off capslock for band names).

However, it seems you're after advice anyway. From a reader's perspective, I would say that the thing missing is a sense of the album itself seeping into your writing. Your approach to structure in the review is quite orderly, taking aspects of the release one by one (a paragraph on influences, on vocals, on guitars) but that also means it could fit almost any album and doesn't have much individual to it. Some sense of how you got excited by certain parts or left cold by other things would go down well, although made more difficult by the fact you're basically saying it's not a totally compelling, if ultimately solid, album.

Something you should probably look at in view of your "orderly structure" is the actual order of your paragraphs. You start off with specifics and then get more and more general as you go through the review, which doesn't make sense to me. As a big fan of Rob Lowe's past work, I'd want to know about him first (I'm guessing he's the main draw for most people) and the general pattern of the songs after that. However, as I mentioned above, you can also mix it up a bit and tell me about a moment where the vocals and the guitars really clicked, or something like that. They aren't separate on the album, so mix it up a bit in the review too.

I hope the above comments give you something to think about, since we're all trying to improve by getting new ideas, me included. One little formatting thing that I missed earlier would be that your album and song titles look the same, which is unhelpful to the reader.

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jonlorde
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 1:32 pm
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:39 am 
 

Thanks for the feedback gasmask_colostomy! I see your points and agree to almost everything u said. Truth is, I've written an extended version of this review in which I included more info about Lowe's recent doings, but it felt it was getting out of the scope of the review as if it was overshadowing the band/album, so I scrapped it :D

In general, I'm trying to improve the "a sense of the album itself seeping into your writing" part, because as u said, my writing fills a bit "technical" (the "fits all albums" thingy). Thank u for your time!

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ChildClownOutlet
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:52 pm
Posts: 1575
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:06 pm 
 

Hey guys, so my review was rejected, and honestly, Im not surprised. I just..I can't describe the music well. I don't know if I just cant find the right words, or what it is.

Here's a review I wrote that was accepted, but honestly, I could do better.
https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... let/281437

I think I use a lot of similar terms to describe the music. "melodic, etc." Maybe I just need to find more synonyms?
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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

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Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 8:20 pm 
 

Well it's hard to tell without actually seeing the rejected review, but based on that Kalmah review, if I didn't already know Kalmah, I wouldn't even know what genre of music they played based on that review. Your main problem seems to be that you just kinda ran through a handful of tracks saying whether or not they were good without explaining why beyond simple vague things like "great melodies" which can describe anything between Blind Guardian and Burzum. There are so many other things you could go into detail about. Similar sounding bands/albums, tempo, guitar tone, lyrical content, whether the album is dark and heavy or light and uplifting, there are all kinds of other things you can look at. It's about checking the nooks and crannies and seeing what's relevant to talk about. Try taking a more "big picture" approach of the album as a whole instead of dissecting and quickly namedropping individual songs, for example..
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ChildClownOutlet
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:05 pm 
 

Thanks for the feedback!
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Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 1:10 am 
 

ChildClownOutlet, post your rejected review here next time. It's always easier to deal with the actual material.

jonlorde wrote:
In general, I'm trying to improve the "a sense of the album itself seeping into your writing" part, because as u said, my writing fills a bit "technical"

It's ok to be technical. As you're going for the sense of the album, you don't need to change your style to do it. I'd recommend some broader descriptions of the album as a whole, but really Mr. G's right: most of the edits should probably be spent working on the flow of ideas.

You have a lot going for you already. Take Mr. G's notes to heart while enriching your structure without losing its enjoyable clarity. You've got a lot of potential, and I think your technical writing experience will serve you well. Don't feel that you have to change -- improve at what you already do.
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Vadara
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Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:14 pm
Posts: 484
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 2:10 am 
 

Here's a review of Silent Screams' Hope for Now I hope to submit for the virgin review challenge if I can get it out in time.

////////////

I'm going to borrow a thing from MutantClannfear's Welcome To Sludge City review here and start off with a simple test:

[ ] I cannot stand even the slightest hint of -core in my heavy music.

If you checked this box then my god, run away. Silent Screams--and more specifically this release--is the kind of band that's only on this website because they happen to use metal riffs in their music. If Metallum archived bands according to "is it feasible that a self-described metalhead would like this music?", then Silent Screams would be used as the example of what *not* to submit. It's ALL fucking here, folks: short simply-constructed songs composed of Gothenburg-style melodeath riffs, an interplay of hoarse barking growls in the verses and the most stereotypical emotional post-hardcore cleans in the choruses and melodic bridges, breakdowns in damn near every song, and basically zero soloing or guitar leads really. Metalheads burst into flame when they hear music THIS poser.

(incedentally, I have no clue why this is tagged Melodic Death Metal/Deathcore on MA. This is pure As I Lay Dying-style Melodic Metalcore through and through.)

I'm gonna be real here, I like this because it's metalcore and I just happen to like -core. Even in the world of that amongst its fans, I'll be the first to admit that there are many ways this could be better. A few too many songs just plod around without much of a strong idenity or riff to hold them together--there ARE riffs, but they're buried under the other instruments and you have to strain your ears to hear them. The standout song, second track Everything Overcome, is the main exception--with a kickass main riff (okay, it's a bog-standard melodeath riff, but it's still good, come on) and a sweet melodic bridge before the breakdown that uses the clean vocals incredibly effectively. In fact, the whole album is front-loaded, with regular-length metalcore songs and more interesting sections, plus a pounding sense of driving forward no matter what. Then the second half happens and the songs suddenly are less than three minutes and blend together, so the whole album just fizzles out at the end. I don't mind differing song lengths--after all, a song only has to be as long as it should be--but it's VERY telling that halfway through the songs suddenly immediately cut short. It's a shame, but perhaps I'll enjoy this shorter back-half more with some more listens.

More annoying is the production. Oh, it's pretty good and I absolutely like that (I don't find sounding like shit just because to ever be a worthwhile creative decision--if your music has to be terribly produced just to sound "dark" or "grim" maybe actually compose better, alright?), but by god it BURIES the instruments. Everything below the vocalists is smushed together (good luck ever hearing the bass!). Now, -core is often very vocals-driven compared to metal, but the baffling thing is that some songs like Everything Overcome actually allow the lead guitar to remain clear and audible and it sounds great for it SO WHY CAN'T I HEAR THE FUCKING LEADS 80% OF THE TIME. No wonder this song sounds better than anything else on the album, it was actually mixed correctly. The songs in general sound very "stuffy" in the sense that little of the band is allowed to "breathe", and that's a shame.

There are no solos. Zip. Nada. Not even a shitty sweep or something, which is a damn shame. Come on, As I Lay Dying did it y'all, there's no excuse here. There are a lot of breakdowns though, and I love breakdowns like all -core kids with shitty taste so that's not a caveat with me at all, but the production on the guitars means they tend to lack an "oomph" that would allow them to really give off that heavy vibe they're looking for; a breakdown should smash you in the face, and the post-hardcore/melodic metalcore guitar tone they're using here doesn't really. Also sometimes they bury the chugging guitar in the production on the breakdowns, which is just baffling as hell because the guitar is supposed to break through everything.

The production in general lacks much of a low-end--I thought the band didn't have a damn bassist at all until I checked Metallum, actually. If he's actually playing his damn bass they sure need to turn him up, because while I understand that bassists are usually felt and not heard in both metal and -core alike, the songs feel like they have no low-end beefing up the instrumentals. I can barely hear the bass pedal either. It's actually quite post-hardcore-like which...does not work with melodic metalcore riffings.

Hope for Now has a problem a LOT of -core albums have, and I'll say this as a fan: they've got some kickass songs dragged down by some filler. Filler songs should not exist. My favorite albums of all time such as Augment by ERRA simply have almost none of them (Augment certainly doesn't at ALL). It's a frustratingly common thing in this genre. More pessimistic people would say that -core simply can't sustain itself over a whole album. I disagree, but there is a LOT of shit in this damn genre...

It ain't all bad though. The filler is at the end here instead of interspersed out, and those good songs are REALLY good. If they can let the instruments breathe more, and tighten up their riffing, Silent Screams certainly has a winning formula here.

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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Fri May 24, 2019 12:56 am 
 

Vadara wrote:
Here's a review of Silent Screams' Hope for Now I hope to submit for the virgin review challenge if I can get it out in time.

Hi there, happy to see someone contributing to the challenge with an in-depth review like this.

Generally, it looks pretty decent, since you’ve described the hell out of the sound of the album, particularly the recording and the techniques involved in the songs. You are also very clear about WHY you like or dislike certain elements, so despite our tastes being very different, I can tell how I would feel listening to this album.

However, you spend a bit too much time stressing that this is melodic metalcore and thus not that palatable to the average user of this site. I recommend you get that comment out the way at the beginning and then concentrate on the album in question, leaving out popular opinion. If the reader already knows to take the praise with a pinch of salt, that should be fine.

Finally, there are some messy bits of writing that you could probably sort out before posting the review. Look for example at the paragraph that begins “More annoying is the production.” The second sentence has a really long bracket that doesn’t make a relevant point at all, while all the capital letters and italics could be adapted into a more restrained emphasis instead of shouting at the reader.

All said, a pretty good review that will be a great contribution to the review challenge after a bit of editing.

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Vadara
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:14 pm
Posts: 484
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2019 11:00 pm 
 

Thank you. The intro was just a cheeky jab at how Silent Screams is basically anathema to the vast majority of this site by genre alone, and I revised a little bit of it and I'm about to submit it.

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~Guest 502755
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:04 pm
Posts: 223
PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2019 5:50 pm 
 

I am very new to writing reviews of any sort, so I would be grateful if you reviewed my review. I think it's is OK by the site's standards and I am on the right path compared to my previous two ones, but maybe you could give me a piece of advice on what musical features I should concentrate more and which ones I should omit. Also, maybe you have anything to add on the whole style of the review.

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gasmask_colostomy
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Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2019 12:52 am 
 

Diplomate wrote:
I am very new to writing reviews of any sort, so I would be grateful if you reviewed my review. I think it's is OK by the site's standards and I am on the right path compared to my previous two ones, but maybe you could give me a piece of advice on what musical features I should concentrate more and which ones I should omit. Also, maybe you have anything to add on the whole style of the review.

From my point of view, you've done most things fine with the Tristania review. You spend a lot of time making sure we know how this fits into the genre, as well as how it compares to the debut, so there's no doubt you have the general description fully covered. For me, I'd like to know more about some individual songs, otherwise I start thinking that the album is samey and doesn't have any standout tracks. Pick a few songs to describe details in or to use as a broad example of the album's style.

Quote:
A funny thing I've noticed is that Morten tends to give his most masterful lyrics to Vibeke and Osten, while he himself usually sings the more "cliched" ones.

Stuff like this is cool as well, because I'm sure you're the first person who's noticed that in 11 reviews for the album. You should always try to say something new compared to other reviewers.

Aside from needing to mention a couple of songs for detail, I also found two minor problems with the review. The references to Sirenia come across as confusing, because you don't explain any context or give a time reference about Sirenia. Some people will know that Morten Veland founded the latter after he split with Tristania, but those who don't aren't going to learn it from your review. That just needs a bracket to say "Sirenia (the band formed when Veland split from Tristania) owe their name and lyrical content to this album." You also use the word 'team' where one would usually say 'band' - that just strikes me as weird. A group of musicians is a band; a group of football players is a team.

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~Guest 502755
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:04 pm
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PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2019 6:48 am 
 

gasmask_colostomy wrote:
Diplomate wrote:
I am very new to writing reviews of any sort, so I would be grateful if you reviewed my review. I think it's is OK by the site's standards and I am on the right path compared to my previous two ones, but maybe you could give me a piece of advice on what musical features I should concentrate more and which ones I should omit. Also, maybe you have anything to add on the whole style of the review.

From my point of view, you've done most things fine with the Tristania review. You spend a lot of time making sure we know how this fits into the genre, as well as how it compares to the debut, so there's no doubt you have the general description fully covered. For me, I'd like to know more about some individual songs, otherwise I start thinking that the album is samey and doesn't have any standout tracks. Pick a few songs to describe details in or to use as a broad example of the album's style.

Quote:
A funny thing I've noticed is that Morten tends to give his most masterful lyrics to Vibeke and Osten, while he himself usually sings the more "cliched" ones.

Stuff like this is cool as well, because I'm sure you're the first person who's noticed that in 11 reviews for the album. You should always try to say something new compared to other reviewers.

Aside from needing to mention a couple of songs for detail, I also found two minor problems with the review. The references to Sirenia come across as confusing, because you don't explain any context or give a time reference about Sirenia. Some people will know that Morten Veland founded the latter after he split with Tristania, but those who don't aren't going to learn it from your review. That just needs a bracket to say "Sirenia (the band formed when Veland split from Tristania) owe their name and lyrical content to this album." You also use the word 'team' where one would usually say 'band' - that just strikes me as weird. A group of musicians is a band; a group of football players is a team.

Thank you for your feedback, I have also thought that some individual songs description would be great. I was probably confused by the criticism of track-by-track reviews, but now I see there should be a balance.

Lack of context is a good point. For me, as a person who has listened to these albums for dozens of times, all this stuff is obvious, but a newcomer might be confused.

As for the word team, in my native language it's sometimes used as a synonym of a band (a team of musicians). I'll search for some other synonyms then. :)

Thank you again, I'll use this piece of advice when I write my next review.

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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
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PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2019 9:50 am 
 

Diplomate wrote:
As for the word team, in my native language it's sometimes used as a synonym of a band (a team of musicians). I'll search for some other synonyms then. :).

Really, where are you from? I tend to refer to the band as ‘the group’, ‘the musicians’, ‘the guys’, ‘the trio/five-piece’, ‘the Canadians/Swedes’, or sometimes just talk about ‘the music’.

I actually noticed that you’d reviewed something else by Tristania and one of the Sirenia albums, so I checked them out in the afternoon. I’ve always been into doom death but not really the female-fronted groups. There’s a difference in the sound texture, but those early Tristania albums have a lot of deathly vocals on too.

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~Guest 502755
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PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2019 11:19 am 
 

gasmask_colostomy wrote:
Diplomate wrote:
As for the word team, in my native language it's sometimes used as a synonym of a band (a team of musicians). I'll search for some other synonyms then. :).

Really, where are you from? I tend to refer to the band as ‘the group’, ‘the musicians’, ‘the guys’, ‘the trio/five-piece’, ‘the Canadians/Swedes’, or sometimes just talk about ‘the music’.

I actually noticed that you’d reviewed something else by Tristania and one of the Sirenia albums, so I checked them out in the afternoon. I’ve always been into doom death but not really the female-fronted groups. There’s a difference in the sound texture, but those early Tristania albums have a lot of deathly vocals on too.

I am Russian, sometimes we say "команда" which means "team" as a synonym for band. Like they work together towards the goal of creating good music.

I also reviewed Tristania's debut album, which is my favourite album ever actually, although it might seem too "gothic" or "cheesy" compared to their next albums, and latest Sirenia album because it had no reviews.

As for Tristania, I don't really understand why people call them female-fronted, at least before 2007. They have one of the best female vocalists in the genre (in my opinion she is the best), but she doesn't take that much album time. Most vocals are in death or black metal style with doom/death/black metal riffs in the background, and she usually sings when there are gothic rock/acoustic guitars in the background. Clean male vocalist is also very good, but in these two albums he only sings during "gothic rock times". Their next albums are more influenced by gothic rock though, so there are more clean vocals there. It's not sellout or poppy material however, apart from Rubicon.

Early Sirenia is exactly like this, but with even less female vocals. They were like Beyond the Veil but with more of a melodeath sound and some great riffs. Unfortunately, starting with the third album Morten abandoned this formula completely and turned his band into a female-fronted one with nu-metal riffs. This is why I write about old masterpieces in my reviews, there are no more bands that combine vocal styles so flawlessly.

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gasmask_colostomy
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PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2019 7:20 pm 
 

I was mostly aware of those groups through Sirenia’s more commercial material and Vibeke Stene’s amazing complexion, so I guess it’s time to give Veland credit for the more creative albums he did. As I said, I’m not intensely familiar with that subgenre, though Beyond the Veil sounds like something fairly unique.

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TheDefiniteArticle
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:50 am
Posts: 468
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Wed May 29, 2019 7:08 pm 
 

So I haven't written properly in a few years. It makes sense, therefore, that my ability's deteriorated enough that I no longer meet MA standards. Can people honestly criticise the review below, which has been rejected as being insufficiently descriptive of the music?

"Fucking hell this is awful.

The guitar tone is wafer-thin, the mix puts drums and vocals way too high, and that's before we get to the music.

I used to like Enforcer. I've seen them a couple of times, and had good fun. Why they've taken the route of abandoning almost all variety and dynamics for plodding, mid-paced 'heavified' AOR is beyond me. At times, various non-standard instruments are introduced with tones which make it sound like they're trying to ape 70s prog (I think there's a fucking moog on 'Sail On') without understanding what made 70s prog great, or even tolerable.

Don't get me started on the riffs. It seems nearly every song has approximately the same main riff, alternating between two or three chords in one of precisely two rhythms. All songs use fairly standard pop structure from what I can remember (and I'm certainly not listening again to find out), meaning that the vast majority of this would sink into the subconscious without trace, were it not for the non-standard instruments and irritating 'woaaoaoaah's.

Of course, it's not all terrible. 'Thunder and Hell' is a fairly decent journeyman speed metal song which wouldn't have sounded out of place on <i>Into the Night</i> were it not for the bizarre choice of outro, and 'Die for the Devil' has a semi-memorable chorus. On the flipside, 'Forever We Worship the Dark' has the feel of a lost B-side from My Chemical Romance's <i>The Black Parade</i>, and 'Regrets' is quite possibly the single worst ballad ever written. Trust me on that one. Don't put yourself through it.

Somehow, Enforcer have managed to write a disappointing comeback album without ever having gone away."

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CHAIRTHROWER
Methed-burnt rogue babelfish

Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:10 pm
Posts: 1026
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed May 29, 2019 11:29 pm 
 

Seeing as today I appear to be the de-facto reviews discussions nerd I may as well do my best to offer you some "appui", or rather, assistance with your Enforcer_Zenith review...although I hope I'm not the only one, as, asides from being high on the list of manic or over-the-top, jubilantly enthused writers here perhaps, I'm certainly not the most assiduous or erudite when it comes to musical descriptions, in a general, bird's-eye-view sort of deal.

That said, there's nothing wrong, in my opinion, with tossing in an early personal anecdote and/or impression before taking apart - or glorifying - an album, particularly one with a handful of varied, rhetorical opinions like this here ambiguous offering by the normally viciously melodic Swedes...

Perhaps, nudge your feelings on the band (i.e. "I used to like Enforcer..." paragraph) up right under the "Fucking Hell, This is awful, dead-panning. line, the kind Bastardhead is fond of, albeit successfully, if not super sarcastically.

Then, and you might not like what I suggest next, but (italics here) listen to the darn thing again, then again, and again if you have to...(three times is a charm, more is overkill and might unduly deter from even writing it up after all)...there's never any rush, either - you can listen to it tonight, then sleep on it, and tackle whence fresh - but otherwise, yeah, you'll find yourself more familiar, albeit potentially no more enthused, or still nonplussed, whatever, about the release...

Either way, in doing so, you'll see past your initial impressions...jolt down, as in notes, for at least half the songs (all can be frustrating, all but one, all the more so! trust me, I know!) -
It's hard to explain, but you'll likely make stronger connections (like connecting the dots, if you will) as well as appreciate, maybe not the album still, but the ever-loving gist of the whole affair.

Keep in mind, too, your review may have been accepted if nobody else had written it up. As it is, you've got a handful (granted, mine as well) to contend with, not compete with, like I said your feedback should counter, support or mmm...summersault off the others' -- I guarantee you, it'll come from the gut as well as the mind, you'll want to slambash, in a respectful manner of course (avoid naming other reviewers unless it's positive or maturely espoused - no revenge reviews no matter what but you know that already I gather, just the fact you posted this plea for advice shows you have a valid two/three cents to toss in aside the rest of us yeggs here) opinions you don't see eye to eye with, while wishing to validate your points with corroboration - this is key!

Anyways, I think if you elaborate a little more on your second line, describe more your comparisons i.e. if "Forever We Worship The Dark" has the feel of a lost B-side from My Chemical Romance, but the reader has no clue what the latter sounds like, it'll simply be like shouting in the words/a tree falling in the forest, with no one to hear (it).

Why is it so disappointing, as a comeback (or latent effort) to you? What rocked most about prior offerings (albums)?

There must be a solo which tickled your fancy (slap me if you like here, I deserve it from time to time!) or a certain verse (which, feel free to re-transcribe, no harm in that, I do it all the time, or rather, often, anyhow) you found irritable. Why does the album deserve a failing, or perhaps, slightly below average and/or barely passing grade/%.?

There's not much else I can suggest at this point...oh, maybe combine your two middle paragraphs as one, then launch more fodder between those and the "Of course, it's not all terrible".

Elaborate a stronger introduction as well as conclusion (three lines for each should do the trick), but most importantly, just by saying you're loathe to listen to the album again to find out what you can remember is possibly the main pink slip (i.e. rejection) instigator. I don't know which mod sent it back to you, but make him/her feel you've taken whatever advice they gave you, in this case, more musical elaboration, got peeved, re-listened to that frigging turnip again, maybe twice (three is a stretch if you really didn't dig it that much, I admit!)...then turned
around and duly stepped things up a notch. They don't demand a thesis or the, quote, be all to end all, viewpoint. They want to make sure people don't prattle off slap-dash, top-of-head rash impressions. I'm not suggesting yours is/are. Remember, there are 2 roughly 800-1000 worders in already, with a couple of 4-600 hundred-ers in. Aim for the second length. You'll
surprise yourself! (whilst smirking triumphantly!).

Another tactic, albeit risky, and one I employ sometimes when circumstances limit my computer time/listening time is the ole start to finish write as you go style, but no, that works mainly for short EP or demos, it can backfire badly (play by play, track by track, meandering woes, you know the drill!).

You appear to have a decent grasp of the album...Describe it animatedly, albeit despondently (disappointed-like), maybe ruefully (criticize it in a sadly mocking, head-shaking manner, you know, like a painting, you're holding the brush. You're calling the shots. Show Enforcer what they could have done better, or should have/shouldn't have done. Suggestions for the next album? Fire away, man! You can do it. (Please forgive the overt parentheses by the way - I have a fetish, or rather, weakness, for them, along with dashes, and, of late, brackets ([ & ])) (!)

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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2019 9:27 am 
 

To simplify Chair a bit, the main problem with your review is simply that it's very rushed and only sorta glosses over the music at hand. Your first paragraph with some real meat on it is good, and if the whole review went into that much description it'd likely be passable. The problem is that after that point everything just gets reduced to "this sucks/this is good" and with very little else put into it. You say every song reuses the same riff, but what does that riff sound like? That could describe anything from Burzum to Mortician.

CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
Why is it so disappointing, as a comeback (or latent effort) to you? What rocked most about prior offerings (albums)?


This right here should be the main thesis. If the review is framing Zenith as a disappointment, we the readers need to know why the previous albums were good enough to raise your expectations high enough to be dashed like they were. That's not to say you need to turn it into a review of From Beyond, but we really have no context for why this is such a shift in approach/quality for the band. We know it's bad, but we only have a really vague idea why that is. The review reads like you just kinda threw up your hands and gave up halfway through writing it with such an abrupt ending as well. Chair's right, if you're lacking in detail, you're gonna have to revisit the album to dig up those details. I don't like listening to albums I hate either, but if you wanna review, it's a bullet you'll have to bite sometimes.
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CHAIRTHROWER
Methed-burnt rogue babelfish

Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:10 pm
Posts: 1026
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2019 9:47 am 
 

Bastardhead neatly summed up what I was trying to explain (I was in long-winded, turbo mode yesterday so I apologize for that!) - sometimes, that further, additional listen makes a World of difference about your overall outlook, even if it is a chore somewhat.

(Hence, a labor of love which proves to be its own reward...Any hobby, such as model airplane construction, for instance, requires due diligence and peeve-y tasks here and there. This also goes for reviews at times.)

Oh, and about comparisons to other bands, that can prove tricky. It's a pitfall I admit to succumbing to myself from time to time.

Usually, if you're comparing the band/album to another within the same (more or less) genre/sub-genre, the person reading it will often get the drift, since they're likely into that kind of music in the first place (hence, why they clicked on your write-up in the first place).

Then again, it never hurts to briefly detail the compare-e; in this case, My Chemical Romance, as I assume - I could be wrong though - it's like distinguishing between apples and oranges (or papayas).

(Haha...Worse than the PMRC?! Priceless!)

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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2019 2:59 pm 
 

Hello again folks! I'm having problems with my review because of my grammar... That's why it got rejected, I tried to make a long review this time with more analysis and metaphors but I do not understand much the grammar to do such review. I should modify here a lot of things I think haha, may someone give me a hand here?

Great Cold Emptiness - Miles Before I Sleep (I decided to made a track by track review on this case for the amount of variation that this record has)

Eternal sleep... - 90%
A truly atmospheric record, pretentiously good, it has to be analyzed metaphorically as well.
The record starts with a piano, a murky, desolated, melancholic, and loneliness one which seems to remain alone being played in a cold, empty field after a cloudy foggy tempest, a lonely piano far away from everything in a dark and lugubrious space, it appears to “speak” though a deceased being.

Since the second song starts we can find lots of melodies, beauty and powerful compositions produced by multiple instruments which persist forming magnificence and atmospherics structures by synthesizers, echoes, female choruses formed by keyboards, great change of melodies, lots of reverberations, typical shrieks of black metal and even clean choruses. In this song we can find lots of those echoes, guitars with less volume than the rest of the instruments, a keyboard producing classic piano sound, powerful drums that reminds me of Shining – V Halmstad album during all the album long,.

A traditional thing that I found in this album is the fact that vocals correspond on this genre as another instrument too, part of the atmospheric metal is to contain a voice that works as an additional instrument, singings should never overpass other instrument and this record managed to work on that perfectly.

Third song starts in the vibe of Austere – Coma II, to latterly introduce the obscure shrieks voices, keyboards with beautiful choruses and drums which will be producing dawdling doom metal and modern atmospheric black metal notes, those drums and guitars certainly will create a wonderful, magisterial “galactic” melodies that reminds me of the band Lumnos. At the middle of the song there will be a little cease of all the instruments just to add later the drums being played with double bass making an entry for the rest of the elements again such as lots of synthesizers “building” even sounds similar to harps.
The atmosphere varies so much, immensely all the record long that this seems to be a some kind of metal orchestra, because the melodies change and adapt so good between each other that is wonderful, even this song, in little certain parts contains Asian compositions, glorious and majestic ones.

Fourth song starts with brutal, afflicted distorted guitars being accompanied just by the hand of the drums and almost imperceptible background synthesizers just to add lately another distorted guitar working as a lead one, this guitar possess more clean sound than the other, to this composition it’s added lots of cymbals provided by the drum and more synths that reminds me a lot of the movie synthesizers.
At the middle there will be an intense tempo changing where choruses of clean singing will remains above the drums just to lately dim out and let the choruses and echoes sounding really far away near a wood fire, this leaves the sense of an awful emptiness where there just lay ahead eternal solitude.

Fifth and last son is the heaviest one, it’s surely long besides at the beginning the guitars produce intentional disharmonious notes unlike the rest of the tracks which are being accompanied by shrieks, female choruses and truly slow but chaotic drums like in the second song.
Synths similar to church pianos, including funeral ones will appear being accompanied just by cymbals momentarily just to proceed to introduce “techno-logic” and funerals sounds, after that there will be merely an ambient song for minutes without any other instruments taking part of it.

Here again drums will appear leading to the other instruments to take part of the song, introducing new elements like growls.

Near the end of the album is reached, will be birds singing alone and a wood fire again being escorted by a funeral piano, birds will emerge again even after all the instruments cease, maybe this means that after all we have reached the end of our life, or we had just woke up from our eternal sleep just to give one last breath to formerly shut down forever.

Cheers! :)
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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Fri May 31, 2019 3:49 am 
 

ᴎostalgiʞK wrote:
Track by track

Dude, I can tell you that’s the reason why it got rejected. Maybe the grammar needs improvement, but if it’s track by track, MA won’t axcept it. Describe the general sound of the music and then pick examples that either use that sound or totally change to something else. Don’t just say, “Track 1, track 2, track 3...”

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ᴎostalgiʞK
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 pm
Posts: 335
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Fri May 31, 2019 12:51 pm 
 

Yes, I shouldn't write this in this way, even knowing that the track-by-track stuff is not that optimal, you're right.
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TheDefiniteArticle
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:50 am
Posts: 468
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 2:01 pm 
 

Thanks both. I don't think I have the time/patience to review nowadays! The faults with the review are very obvious to me now, but I'm simply not in a position where I want to listen to albums I know I don't like more than once.

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ChildClownOutlet
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:52 pm
Posts: 1575
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:21 am 
 

Hey guys so I got another rejected one. Probably for not being really concise but it also said not to use track by track reviews. I only mentioned 3 songs. Is that discouraged?


Dalriada is one those bands who release an album that you pretty much know you're going to enjoy. They honestly deserve so much more recognition than others in the genre. There's something about Hungary that makes bands like this and others(which I'll probably review once I listen through) bring out the fire in their albums. Releasing 10 full lengths, there's plenty to digest. Their sophomore album, "Jegbonto," is a refreshing slab of folk/power metal.

Let me start off by saying I love Laura Binder's vocals. Female vocals have always been off and on for me; I much prefer the less operatic vocals and she nails it. She's got a low baritone and droney voice that works very well with the rough vocals of secondary vocalist/guitarist Anders. Their back and forth singing is very charming, and sometimes throws in death growls in songs like "Igaz Hittel," which is honestly one of my favorite folk metal songs. I'll get back to that. The leads in this album are great; not as memorable compared to their latest albums but the keys absolutely make up for it. "Hajnalünnep" explodes into the fray with a folky keyboard melody that'll stay in your head forever, but also utterly turns into a full on black metal song with the keys just churning out an evil melody. It's such a back and forth song; a fun little party song with it's "nah nah nah nahs", and a furious little section in the middle. Of course you still have songs like "Tele Inek;" flutes and melodies that give you that walk in the forest feeling and a great chorus that again, wont leave your head. The one thing about this album compared to later one's is that the folk influences come from mainly the keys instead of traditional instruments.

Now we're onto "Igaz Hittel." I don't know what kind of magic they conjured when writing this song but it is absolutely incredible. Everything fits. The sorrowful chorus, the angry tremolo riffing with the death growls in the half of the song, the AMAZING keys being played afterwards; just...it's really something to behold.

If there's a couple things I'd like to pick apart on the album it'd probably be some parts of Anders vocals being at the forefront of some songs. Not that he's a bad singer, but Laura is the star. Her vocals are much suited for the band. The bass is barely there and the production is a meh with the leads being covered up by the keys sometimes. Minor gripes aside Dalriada truly is a one of a kind band. They're the perfect band for anyone who's tired of the same old folk metal being played. God bless you Hungary.
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Lord_Of_Diamonds
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:23 pm
Posts: 1618
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:11 pm 
 

Could somebody give me some feedback on this one that I wrote for Helmet's "Meantime"? I feel like it's a little too fanboy in places.

As a person who generally criticizes bands for being derivative, boring, cheezy, or some combination of those three, it might be expected of me to lambaste this band for being all three of those things. However, given that "Meantime" was sort of a gateway album for me when I first started listening to heavy music all those years ago, I feel a certain nostalgic feeling for it that I can't deny (although I am not a child of the early 90s). It is true that this album could be considered by many to be cheezy and boring (or, if you're the alt-rock hating variety, pandering to the mainstream). Or, it could just be hated because it's not metal. I do not consider Helmet to be a metal band on any level, and I will probably state reasons throughout this review why this particular album is not metal. I listen to it not as a metal album, but as one of the better alt-rock albums to come out of the early 90's "grunge" explosion.

While Soundgarden were captivating minds with the annoying "aggressive falsetto" glam-metal vocals of Chris Cornell and Nirvana was pretending to hate their fame and trying to refine a faux-raw sound, Helmet was bubbling under, having been founded a few years earlier by a 29-year-old Page Hamilton. With "Meantime", they changed their sound minimally from their 1990 debut, "Strap It On". They became slightly less noisy, ditched the gated reverb, and created an album that was better than most alternative music on the market back then - simply because it sounded real (as cheezy as that may sound). Certainly, the grungy guitar effects at the beginning of the bone-crushing title track/album opener would be enough to put off any mainstream listener who enjoyed the heavy-rock-turned-pop themes of Smells Like Teen Spirit. There's hardly any "mainstream pandering" to be found on this album (besides possibly the obligatory radio-friendly lead single, "Unsung"). It feels like a bunch of guys just went into the studio and did what they did best, without trying to overdo it one way or the other.

Frontman Page Hamilton is the songwriting mastermind on this album, and he makes simplicity work in a way that few can. All of the simplistic elements that define Helmet's music are epitomized here. Hamilton's endless re-imaginings of the 0-2-3 and 0-3-5 riffs are the building blocks for the guitar parts, which are fit to odd time signatures quite often. By no means are the guitar riffs metal. They're not nearly "note-y" enough to be considered so, and are mostly atmospheric power chords or staccato chugs which are definitely more rooted in hard/alt-rock and noise rock than metal. There's even a prototype for Korn in the middle of "He Feels Bad". Not that the guitars aren't interesting, though. A lot of it sounds like an improvised jam session, as do the arrangements, which are always original and creative, leaving you guessing with each new section. Usually there's room for a very noisy guitar solo. Each time you listen, you hear something different in each song, due to the lack of formulas which have invariably plagued radio rock and radio metal from day one. Those who listen to albums like Three Days Grace's self titled album remember every song, and why? Because they all follow a formula. There is little formula-following to be found on "Meantime". The songs are catchy, but not catchy at the same time. You'd have to listen to them twenty times before you could play them back in your head. They make you want to listen over and over again, just so you can pick them apart beyond the hard-hitting main riff.

Vocal-wise, Hamilton alternates between semi-harsh barks which can sound painful, snarky, or unintentionally hilarious (like Phil Anselmo, but with less forced aggression) and a double-tracked clean singing style, which improved noticeably here when compared to "Strap It On". The vocal melodies, like the guitars, have a distinct improvisational air to them - they are sparse and fit the equally sparse lyrics perfectly. Suffice to say, Helmet isn't a vocal-driven band. It's difficult to interpret the lyrics, which seem to be just random lines that rhyme thrown together (think Bob Dylan with less surrealism). Who knows if there's a preachy message or emotional appeal hidden within somewhere. Like I said before, this isn't a band driven by vocals and lyrics.

The rhythm section is handled by drummer John Stanier and bassist Henry Bogdan. Although the bass guitar mirrors the guitars most of the time, it's still clearly audible in the mix - a trait of many alt-metal bands that can't seem to carry over much to other areas of metal, and the reason why many alt-metal bands are so "heavy". Stanier's drumming, while not necessarily rooted in a metal style, is inventive and displays the perfect amount of human imprecision. He plays with the song perfectly, never making any fill or groove sound programmed or planned out. There are a couple times when he even pulls out the heel-toe technique (I'm assuming he didn't use a double pedal). His drums sound amazing, too. The signature tight snare sound of this album, along with the snare on its predecessor and successor, would go on to be endlessly imitated by less impressive bands such as Korn. The early 90s may have generated some boring & overrated music, but the era yielded many excellent raw drum sounds, too.

As a final thought, I re-iterate that I do not listen to this album as a metal album, because it is clearly not a metal album. It's one of the many cases where heavy rock has been disguised as metal by popular opinion and definitions read on Wikipedia. However, it turns out to be slightly better than most heavy rock that has been labeled as metal. It's not pseudo-edgy or pseudo-intellectual like Tool. It's not formulaic and poppy like Three Days Grace. It's authentic alt-rock from the early 90s that's not entirely annoying or influenced by the mainstream. If this were any other band and I had never heard Helmet before, it's likely that I would be giving this album a score somewhere in the low teens, based on things that I usually criticize bands for. Yet, I've listened to this album so many times that I honestly don't feel like I can criticize it for anything serious. It's likely that anyone else could listen for a fraction of the times that I have and grow to enjoy it as much. An alternative rock classic, right here.



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Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:58 pm 
 

Lord_Of_Diamonds wrote:
Helmet's "Meantime"

Notes in spoiler.

Spoiler: show
As a person who generally criticizes bands for being derivative, boring, cheezy, or some combination of those three, it might be expected of me to lambaste this band for being all three of those things. However, given that "Meantime" was sort of a gateway album for me when I first started listening to heavy music all those years ago,

Don't care.

Your actual review starts here.

I feel a certain nostalgic feeling for it that I can't deny (although I am not a child of the early 90s). It is true that this album could be considered by many to be cheezy and boring (or, if you're the alt-rock hating variety, pandering to the mainstream). Or, it could just be hated because it's not metal. I do not consider Helmet to be a metal band on any level, and I will probably state reasons throughout this review why this particular album is not metal. I listen to it not as a metal album, but as one of the better alt-rock albums to come out of the early 90's "grunge" explosion.

While Soundgarden were captivating minds with the annoying "aggressive falsetto" glam-metal vocals of Chris Cornell and Nirvana was pretending to hate their fame and trying to refine a faux-raw sound, Helmet was bubbling under, having been founded a few years earlier by a 29-year-old Page Hamilton.

(Useless shit slinging. Does not make case.)

With "Meantime", they changed their sound minimally from their 1990 debut, "Strap It On". They became slightly less noisy, ditched the gated reverb, and created an album that was better than most alternative music on the market back then - simply because it sounded real (as cheezy as that may sound). Certainly, the grungy guitar effects at the beginning of the bone-crushing title track/album opener would be enough to put off any mainstream listener who enjoyed the heavy-rock-turned-pop themes of Smells Like Teen Spirit. There's hardly any "mainstream pandering" to be found on this album (besides possibly the obligatory radio-friendly lead single, "Unsung"). It feels like a bunch of guys just went into the studio and did what they did best, without trying to overdo it one way or the other.

(I don't particularly like Nirvana, either, but stick to your point. "They're wimpy" isn't a compelling iconoclastic critique. "Helmet kept it real while Nirvana was poser" is just dull reading.)

Frontman Page Hamilton is the songwriting mastermind on this album, and he makes simplicity work in a way that few can. All of the simplistic elements that define Helmet's music are epitomized here. Hamilton's endless re-imaginings of the 0-2-3 and 0-3-5 riffs are the building blocks for the guitar parts, which are fit to odd time signatures quite often. By no means are the guitar riffs metal. They're not nearly "note-y" enough to be considered so, and are mostly atmospheric power chords or staccato chugs which are definitely more rooted in hard/alt-rock and noise rock than metal. There's even a prototype for Korn in the middle of "He Feels Bad". Not that the guitars aren't interesting, though. A lot of it sounds like an improvised jam session, as do the arrangements, which are always original and creative, leaving you guessing with each new section. Usually there's room for a very noisy guitar solo. Each time you listen, you hear something different in each song, due to the lack of formulas which have invariably plagued radio rock and radio metal from day one. Those who listen to albums like Three Days Grace's self titled album remember every song, and why? Because they all follow a formula. There is little formula-following to be found on "Meantime". The songs are catchy, but not catchy at the same time. You'd have to listen to them twenty times before you could play them back in your head. They make you want to listen over and over again, just so you can pick them apart beyond the hard-hitting main riff.

(Good description. Gives us a clear idea of what the music is like and completely avoids most of the problems people have with this section.)

Vocal-wise, Hamilton alternates between semi-harsh barks which can sound painful, snarky, or unintentionally hilarious (like Phil Anselmo, but with less forced aggression) (Now that's a bitchy comparison that actually makes sense) and a double-tracked clean singing style, which improved noticeably here when compared to "Strap It On". The vocal melodies, like the guitars, have a distinct improvisational air to them - they are sparse and fit the equally sparse lyrics perfectly. Suffice to say, Helmet isn't a vocal-driven band. It's difficult to interpret the lyrics, which seem to be just random lines that rhyme thrown together (think Bob Dylan with less surrealism). Who knows if there's a preachy message or emotional appeal hidden within somewhere. Like I said before, this isn't a band driven by vocals and lyrics.

The rhythm section is handled by drummer John Stanier and bassist Henry Bogdan. Although the bass guitar mirrors the guitars most of the time, it's still clearly audible in the mix - a trait of many alt-metal bands that can't seem to carry over much to other areas of metal, and the reason why many alt-metal bands are so "heavy". Stanier's drumming, while not necessarily rooted in a metal style, is inventive and displays the perfect amount of human imprecision. He plays with the song perfectly, never making any fill or groove sound programmed or planned out. There are a couple times when he even pulls out the heel-toe technique (I'm assuming he didn't use a double pedal). His drums sound amazing, too. The signature tight snare sound of this album, along with the snare on its predecessor and successor, would go on to be endlessly imitated by less impressive bands such as Korn. The early 90s may have generated some boring & overrated music, but the era yielded many excellent raw drum sounds, too.

(What happened to your 90s nostalgia? It's bad writing to lead with a point that doesn't track through the piece, much less swoon over a time period you have basically nothing nice to say about.)

As a final thought, I re-iterate that I do not listen to this album as a metal album, because it is clearly not a metal album. (Redundant, also weird because it's a review on a metal forum) It's one of the many cases where heavy rock has been disguised as metal by popular opinion and definitions read on Wikipedia. However, it turns out to be slightly better than most heavy rock that has been labeled as metal. It's not pseudo-edgy or pseudo-intellectual like Tool (This is a ridiculous point of view. Also weird because Tool is not on this database and are irrelevant to your point). It's not formulaic and poppy like Three Days Grace. It's authentic alt-rock from the early 90s that's not entirely annoying or influenced by the mainstream. If this were any other band and I had never heard Helmet before, it's likely that I would be giving this album a score somewhere in the low teens, based on things that I usually criticize bands for. Yet, I've listened to this album so many times that I honestly don't feel like I can criticize it for anything serious. It's likely that anyone else could listen for a fraction of the times that I have and grow to enjoy it as much.

(In fact, this whole paragraph is out. Your anti-mainstream-90's angle does this review no favors. Drop the supercilious smirking.)

(This is all you have to say.)
An alternative rock classic, right here.



ChildClownOutlet wrote:
it also said not to use track by track reviews.

Notes in spoiler

Spoiler: show
Dalriada is one those bands who release an album that you pretty much know you're going to enjoy. [s]They honestly deserve so much more recognition than others in the genre. There's something about Hungary that makes bands like this and others (which I'll probably review once I listen through) bring out the fire in their albums.[/s] Releasing 10 full lengths, there's plenty to digest. Their sophomore album, "Jegbonto," is a refreshing slab of folk/power metal.

(I struck out most of this because it reads like you're saying that there's something about a place you don't know much about that does something awesome to bands you've never listened to? That's not a winning premise.)

Let me start off by saying I love Laura Binder's vocals. Female vocals have always been off and on for me; (Obviously smacks of perhaps unintented sexism, so .. bye bye sentence) I much prefer the less operatic vocals and she nails it. She's got a low baritone and droney voice that works very well with the rough vocals of secondary vocalist/guitarist Anders. Their back and forth singing is very charming, and sometimes throws in death growls in songs like "Igaz Hittel," which is honestly one of my favorite folk metal songs. I'll get back to that. The leads in this album are great; not as memorable compared to their latest albums but the keys absolutely make up for it. "Hajnalünnep" explodes into the fray with a folky keyboard melody that'll stay in your head forever, but also utterly turns into a full on black metal song with the keys just churning out an evil melody. It's such a back and forth song; a fun little party song with it's "nah nah nah nahs", and a furious little section in the middle. Of course you still have songs like "Tele Inek;" flutes and melodies that give you that walk in the forest feeling and a great chorus that again, wont leave your head. The one thing about this album compared to later one's is that the folk influences come from mainly the keys instead of traditional instruments.

(Yes. Track-by-tracks are discouraged. I'm sure you can see how moving through ideas as you summarize tracks in sequence qualifies. As much as I hated Lord of Diamonds review above, his musical description section is one you should read.)

Now we're onto "Igaz Hittel." I don't know what kind of magic they conjured when writing this song but it is absolutely incredible. Everything fits. The sorrowful chorus, the angry tremolo riffing with the death growls in the half of the song, the AMAZING keys being played afterwards; just...it's really something to behold.

(The thing is, you can talk about all of the aspects you love about the music without going through it one after another. It just needs better crafting and more general points.)

If there's a couple things I'd like to pick apart on the album it'd probably be some parts of Anders vocals being at the forefront of some songs. Not that he's a bad singer, but Laura is the star. Her vocals are much suited for the band. The bass is barely there and the production is a meh with the leads being covered up by the keys sometimes. Minor gripes aside Dalriada truly is a one of a kind band. They're the perfect band for anyone who's tired of the same old folk metal being played. God bless you Hungary.

(Pretty redundant at the end. Over all the review is pretty meandering. Tighten it up and focus on all the stuff you love about it. Clearly there's a lot there for you.)
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