At least he mentioned that Ross the Boss is great, I'll give him that. But that's like saying oxygen is useful, you know? Oh, can you see what he did with the "epic fail" bits? Oh, it's cuz it's an epic album! Oh, haha! Honestly, why can't people apologise for their bad puns like me?

It looks like Flamos either pulled that review off because he realized he'd written a complete turd burglar or another mod found it and nuked it forthwith. Either way, the gods of metal are smiling once again.

Especially considering that I made that joke first with my Wizard review. I had a lot of fun writing that one.



Anyway, one thing that made me raise my eyebrows was the opening sentence of Noktorn's review for Cannibal Corpse - Butchered At Birth.

On the contrary, any album that has Chris Barnes' vocals on it should be ostracized and ignored.

As for me, I've been enjoying many of your recent reviews of black metal albums.. Like saintinhell, I don't take the rating much into account and it seems to me that these offer a fairly fresh perspective, at a guess because many of these albums, deemed classics but generally only hailed by black metall enthusiasts, are new to you. This isn't meant to suggest that you're a "newby" to black metal (I really haven't a clue how long you've been listening to this type of music) but reading what you have to say about Darkthrone, Enslaved, Beherit et al reminds me of how I first felt when I started acclimatising to the style in the late 90s.

Barnes is one of the best vocalists of all time. His vocals on Butchered are ear-fucking material. Tomb of the Mutilated has some incredibly guttural vocals too, but the production ruins it. Listen to the bonus tracks though (The Excorcist and Zero to hero), the guitar tone feels "wider" and as a result the vocals actually feel guttural and just simply awesome. Not pig squeel gutturalness either, but actual deep low growls that sound like Barney Greenway's vocals pitchshifted a hundred levels down.

No, Barnes is a god awful vocalist, but BaB is doubtlessly an extremely important album in the development of death metal.

Well, I guess I'm the only Barnes fan around these parts

I'd sampled the style a few times going as far back as 1998, my first two experiences were "Deathcrush" and "Pure Fucking Armaggedon", both of which I absolutely hated at the time and I'd still basically put them both in the mid 60s to low 70s despite their obvious historical significance. I tried again in late 2006 with Darkthrone's "Transylvanian Hunger" and was really lukewarm about it. Later on I heard "Panzerfaust", which I liked a bit more. The album that really sort of won me over was "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", mostly because of Attila's vocal aesthetics. Afterwards I heard the "Freezing Moon" single with Dead, which I regard as Mayhem's crowning achievement and that sort of opened the door for everything else I've listened to. I would say I took the absolute plunge into the style after hearing Gorgoroth and Emperor, which was not long after I put up my review for "Transylvanian Hunger", which I recently amended to account for my change in taste.

This really only accounts for my experience with the 2nd wave and doesn't include my awareness of Bathory and early Sodom going back to around 1997, so you could kind of say I'm a new fan of the 2nd wave, since in the past 2 years my attitude towards this music has made a fairly dramatic shift. Suffice to say, if I'd heard Gorgoroth, Emperor, or Enslaved before I'd heard Mayhem, I probably would have had an easier time getting into the genre, as I've always been a fairly big fan of Symphonic and Thrash Metal.



Cannibal Corpse's two best albums had him on them as far as I'm concerned, granted, he was also on their two worst albums. I've always associated him more with CC than Corpsegrinder, even though I've grown to like later CC a bit better than I used to.

No, you are not alone. I am not a "fan" as such and Corpsegrinder is a better vocalist than Barnes, but eh, give me Corpse with Barnes, I think they simply made some of their best music at that time and while Barnes may not be the definitive death metal vocalist in my book, I have no complaints with his style at all and it adds to the appeal of the early Corpse albums.

I like Corpsegrinder on Monstrosity's Imperial Doom but his work with Cannibal Corpse never appealed to me, vocally or musically (except the last three albums, Kill is growing on me ) but I can't understand how anyone can like his vocal performance on those three albums, especially Evisceration Plague. Also, is it just me, or does he have more of a 'toughguy' voice in Cannibal Corpse (as compared to his vocals on Imperial Doom)

Eh, the defining point of early CC has always been their slower grooves and Barnes' vocals. That's just me, though.

Agreed, I also dig Corpsegrinder much more with Monstrosity.

DK wrote some of the most cynical lyrics I've ever read.

Do you think UB ever really listened to DK ? Of course he didn't.... apart from some covers by metal bands like Sep, ND and Laaz....

Maybe he thought 'Holiday in Cambodia' was actually about having a really nice time in Cambodia - like some sort of package holiday? Hey, it wouldn't be the first time I've seen grossly idiotic "All that punk shit belongs on Mars!" opinions on MA.

Lordian Guard - Lordian Guard



what the fuck

Haha, that's been brought up before. What a clueless idiot (he's most likely quite new to metal, judging by that one snippet).

I found this sentence strangely arousing:



No umlaut on Motörhead, for shame...

I couldn't stand the eyes looking at me.

Also, I find it pretty funny that Abom's review for Into Battle does not at all reflect his current opinion on the album...he's a total BH fanboy now.

'You know me, evil eye'...

I should really investigate Brocas Helm some more, especially considering that I've been hankering for some medieval sounding metal for quite some time now.

Wait, I thought my title suggestion was "too obvious"?

Sometimes, obvious is good

You're right; I was pointing that out in the other thread before I came over here.

Another old one that doesn't quite reflect my views anymore is my review for Manilla Road's "Out of the Abyss". That one dates back to 2002, when I was just discovering the band.

I just saw that part and my ego swelled up to the size of the moon.

Yeah, it's total proof just how much time it takes to get into those bands...in both reviews you say "this isn't really my favorite band" or "this isn't really a classic"...and now MR is your favorite band and you love BH, haha. I'm sure I would've written similar things about the bands back when I first got into them.

oh dear oh dear oh dear. Some idiot on Woods of Ypres's shitty Allure/Pursuit thing:

Even ignoring the obvious idiocy in referring to other reviews on the site (an unprofessional practice that I stopped engaging in about 3 years ago), this is just retarded. In my entire mall/flea market going days fishing the local bargain bins for treasure, I've yet to see a single person walking around with a Darkthrone shirt. Maybe things are different in Canada and Europe, but I've yet to see any hipster kids or wannabe true metal kids wearing one.

Oh man, you should've said that's on another website, you had me frantically looking around for it here for a nuke...unless someone else got to it first!

I think it's the latter.

^^^^^i never read a review for an album that I am planning on writing a review for , in fact I wait until my review gets accepted and then usaually give it a week or two . I find this keeps my words my own(not that i would use someone else's) and sometimes on the heavily reviewed albums it gets a bit strange seeing all these people express similar thoughts and opinions about the album I just wrote about .

It's always good to get a gauge on the general opinion of an album, plus it prevents repetition. Explicitly mentioning other reviews is poor form and makes your review reek of desperation to defend/bash a particular album.

From demonomania's review of Yngwie's "Seventh Sign"

Honestly, that whole review had me laughing and makes me want to listen to the album. It's very difficult to deny THIS kind of rating:

(I have no idea what that's even supposed to mean, but I like it.)

He rates it 8 out of 10, instead of stars he uses funny instruments that are played on the album for rating units. Not really hard to understand.

The more I read it, the more it becomes the BEST REVIEW EVER! No, seriously, what the hell is a tiny organ? Sounds like something you'd be ashamed to show a woman.

I think it's very important to read the other reviews for anything you're considering reviewing. This is especially the case when it comes to releases with a lot of reviews, you wouldn't want to reiterating other peoples' ideas. Also, putting things in context of what others have said isn't always a bad thing.

It's a pretty damn funny review, though the hyperbole isn't that far off, considering it's basically the best album that Yngwie put out in the 90s and the stuff found on there is among the heavier stuff that he's done in his career. Mike Terrana's drumming really puts some serious balls on the arrangement as well, if you haven't heard that album, I highly recommend it.

I mostly tend to read the reviews of others also and try not to mention any one specific point of view already touched, but sometimes I'll refer to a general sentiment about an album that I've read on several other reviews, not just here but on other sites as well. I like to research what I'm reviewing a bit also, just to give a little background on albums that hasn't been touched upon. I don't mention the Metal Archives by name in my reviews anymore, because 95% of my reviews also end up on The Metal Observer site.

I would have to disagree , I find reading other's opinion about an album tends to get in the way of how you really feel about the music . Not that I or anyone else would be using the same words but if it happens it happens . the review is then left solely on the basis (at least for me ) of your true opinion . Most things I review I like, or love, or worship for that matter and while i do read other reviews about stuff I enjoy generally I just quickly pass through the review scores to see how someone rates a release instead of reading their words about it until my opinion has truly been written . not that anyone else's way of writing is taken from other's words it's just how I see it .

Then perhaps your mind is too fickle? I read the previous reviews to know whether I have anything to add or is there a new perspective about the album I hadn't thought of, it doesn't change the way I feel about the album...most of the time!

I usually don't care if someone dislikes, hates or would buy dozens of cds of an artist I like just to burn them while laughing maniacally, but Malacoda, besides giving 20 to Obscura's Cosmogenesis (http://metal-archives.com/review.php?id=223077#189527), says it utterly sucks in a... more than questionable way. It's not just a part that is bad but the whole short review, I wonder if he even listened to the album. And there is almost no musical description. Just read the review and you'll understand.

A couple of highlights: "Cosmogenesis is not a metal release [...] ... and standard metal drums. [...] there is a growling vocalist [...] do not have the necessary characteristic of death growls - anger!" or "Obscura sound like a band that has nothing better to do than play mediocre technical death metal, which they are not trying especially hard to play." (that must mean it REALLY sucks.)

Hell not so much death metal vocalists sound angry... surely not Necrophagist! and they supposedly are raw too. and more coherent in songwriting. He says the band doesn't work, does unmemorable shred... And he gave Xenosapien 90. He contradicts and contradicts himself. I mean like I said I couldn't care less if someones hates anything I like but come on, he could say "OMG the new absu suck, it's no tara pt. 2, Proscriptor is so sold out" or some other sentence of the type that I can make me understand why someone doesn't like it, instead I can't understand at all. Well it made me laugh.

I went on and read that review and I must say, it's not exactly incredible. Indeed the guy doesn't really sound like he knows anything about what he just reviewed and his basic argument of ''it's not metal because I don't like it'' utterly fails. It's almost as useless as the ''it's gay because I don't like it'' argument which is used almost as often around here. At least he can write a grammatically coherent sentence. It's just too bad none of those sentences have any useful content.

The new review that Leify wrote for Korn's debut = classic!