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alonmias
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2004 4:21 am
Posts: 6
Location: Israel
PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:57 am 
 

I've submitted at least 5 reviews almost a month ago, none of them were accepted. these reviews were already posted in the blog section in MeeMix.com, the internet radio I work with, but none were accepted nor was I given any reason for this. contacted Hellblazer and he told me to write about it here.

My Metallica review as an example:

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Every few years a big artist goes through the motions of a "return to roots" album, and probably the most anticipated one in recent years is Metallica's Death Magnetic.
I guess that if the band's last effort - 'St. Anger', wasn't just so damn awful, it would have much less of an event, but since that album is easily the Heavy Metal giants' weakest release in its career, the tension was truly great - can they actually pull it off, or continue a losing streak of mediocre to just plain bad albums?

Well, this isn't a complete retro album; it's definitely no 80's thrash masterpiece as was 1988's 'And Justice' For All or 1986's 'Master Of Puppets', though there are a few similarities. It's purely a 2008 album, with clear yet quite raw sound, and a solid sense of groove that wasn't part of the package back in the 80's.

It starts with a bang, 'That Was Just Your Life' throws in the first great riff the band has created in almost 20 years, Ulrich's drum attack is relentless, there's a classic Hammet Wah-Wah solo and finally - Hetfield's voice is one octave higher than his delivery in years. At this point - it would be very hard for this album to ruin it for the fans, if only the rest of the songs can keep this up.

And they do, 'The End Of The Line' is another fine tracks that combines a great thrash riff with more contemporary passages. What the band does here is actually quite brilliant; they combine the best of riffs straight off And 'Justice For All' with a chorus that would have sat well in the black album.

In a recent review I read in the alternative-oriented Pitchfork webzine, some guy criticized the album for not doing anything new and taking too much from the band's early works. He completely missed the point.
What makes this one great is the fact they were not going for anything new, it's the fact this is the first time in 20 years the band dared to try and re-explore what made it so great when it started out. While most current bands try and re-invent the wheel, or sound original and unique, Metallica's move needs much more guts - to try and re-create the feel in albums that are long considered milestones of the genre, and that is far more demanding and adventurous than anything other current bands are doing.

What makes this one work, and it certainly does work, is the clear feeling that the guys are once more influenced by what started them off - Punk and New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the two genres that helped spawn their earliest material. Unlike the American trad rock and Hard Rock basis the Load and Re-Load albums used, this one moves back to the far more aggressive and subversive music of the early 80's.

The album's first single - "The Day that Never Comes" may come off as a carbon-copy of their great epic ballads, such as "Fade To Black", and someone with just a basic knowledge of the genre such as that guy from Pitchfork may easily dismiss it as such, but there's much more to it. The song features some of Hetfield's best vocals in years and benefits from an almost Prog-rock structure. The up-tempo move in the 5 minute mark is pure NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal), with Diamond Head and Iron Maiden being the most visible influences. The closest thing the band ever did to this is actually their cover of Diamond Head's "Am I Evil back" in the mid-80's.

This album really doesn't let off, with just two minor mishaps. 'Cyanide's mid-section bridge is just to close to Alternative Rock for comfort, bringing to mind some of St. Anger's pitfalls, and 'The Unforgiven III' is just too much Re-Load. Slow and uninteresting hard-rock riffs with an unnecessary symphonic addition.

Suicide And Redemption is a great instrumental piece with some fine Heavy Metal riffs, showing off some possible Joe Satriani influences, proving that these guys can still write a solid instrumental, it isn't a classic such as Ride The Lightning's 'Call Of Ktulu', but still adds a great musical favor to the album.

Last is the absolute fan-pleaser 'My Apocalypse', a real thrash number that throws in fantastic riffs and one of the band's best choruses. Ulrich may not be the most accomplished drummer, but he certainly gives his best here and fits in perfectly with the guitar playing. Hetfield's delivery is quite relentless, the pre-chorus even reminded me of Slayer's Tom Araya, with an amount of aggression and energy that we didn't hear from Hetfield in 20 years.

So is it on-par with Master Of Puppets or And Justice For All? Certainly not, that would be like thinking that Pink Floyd can re-create Dark Side Of The Moon or The Wall. But it's still the best album in years by one of the best Heavy Metal bands in existence, and it's probably better than anything released by other bands in recent years. It seems they actually pulled it off, who would have believed...

Recommended tracks:
"The Day That Never Comes": the album's first single is anything but a typical single, more than 7 minutes long and epic in scope; this is one of the album's most impressive moments.

"All Nightmare Long": another epic track that combines some brilliant thrash riffs into an impressive hit to the head.

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Napero
GedankenPanzer

Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:16 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:18 am 
 

First of all, that's a track-by-track review on the new Metallica album; that's not going to make it, I'm afraid, and if you read the rules and FAQ, you'll notice that the writing reviews in track-by-track format is discouraged.

Second of all, when you submitted that very review and some other one, I noticed that the reviews were indeed from the meemix site, but they had been authored by two different people. Unless you use several nicks on your own website, which would be strange, you're not the original author of at least one of them. Even if you have a permission from the author, the rules forbid submitting reviews written by anyone else but you. Only your own, original stuff, please.

The reviews were not generally bad, if I recall right, that Death Magnetic review just happens to be in a badly chosen format on an album that still gets several reviews daily. To get approved on it, a review must be more or less brilliant.

EDIT: turn your email notification on, please.
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alonmias
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2004 4:21 am
Posts: 6
Location: Israel
PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:50 am 
 

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yea - all the reviews are by me, I just changed nick names at a certain point, its all original reviews written by me.

All points well-understood, about the Metallica review - though it does touch upon most tracks, its not really a track-by-track review, there's plenty of non-track reviewing in it, I just wanted to cover most tracks as to exemplify my opinion of the album, something I reserve for such important albums in the genre.

I'll turn on my email alert, wasn't aware there is one..
But how can how check up on the rest of the reviews I submitted? I'll have more to add soon.

Cheers, Alon

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Napero
GedankenPanzer

Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:16 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:08 am 
 

OK, submit stuff, I'll take your word for it. The Meemix profiles give very little personal information, and I judged it according to the gut feeling back then; unfortunately, if people divulge little information on themselves, that's what we must do occasionally. Just submit the stuff, with the notification on, and you'll get reasons for the possible rejections.

Keep the links to the website attached to the reviews, it's a sign of honesty. It wouldn't hurt adding a note of the various nicks to your profile.
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Chest wounds suck (when properly inflicted).
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alonmias
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2004 4:21 am
Posts: 6
Location: Israel
PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:53 am 
 

Thanks , I have more reviews to submit from another website - alternative-zine.com, that I write for - so I'll correct all the nicks into the same one so it'll be clearer.

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fecalwurm
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:41 pm
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:35 am 
 

Okay Napero I'm not taking a shot at you but when you say that the reviews have to be more or less than brilliant, what exactly are you looking for?
I have submitted a few myself which have been rejected but no biggie, if it relates to a band that I really like I will redo it but I still don't understand. This is metal, not a college essay, so imho it's just a fan showing his view on what he liked and why.
Now I do take into consideration that this place has billions of reviews to thoroughly looked at on top of busy lives and crashing servers but still I feel that if there's no profanatiy persay and the reviewer can express words typed in a way that is communicateable then it should be a problem but that's just my 2 cents.

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rexxz
Where's your band?

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:45 pm
Posts: 9094
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:16 pm 
 

fecalwurm wrote:
Okay Napero I'm not taking a shot at you but when you say that the reviews have to be more or less than brilliant, what exactly are you looking for?


He is referring specifically to Death Magnetic reviews (and related; all releases that have a LOT of reviews on them already). The reason is that the more there are, the standards are raised quite a bit to prevent high levels of redundancy. So if a review is just a bit average for one of those albums and there are already 5 or so there that say the same thing but perhaps better, it's not really worth putting up.
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Napero
GedankenPanzer

Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:16 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:26 pm 
 

rexxz has it right. If we maintained the same standards for approval on Metallica's Master of Puppets and Vomit Sodomy's Mediocre Blasphemy, we'd either have 1264 reviews on MoP or none on the other one.

It's partly because we can afford to be extremly picky on the famous albums, and partly simple realpolitik to avoid having a huge redundant pile of reviews that all flog a dead horse long after the flesh has been scourged off the bones. I personally believe it's always more profitable for everybody involved if the review is on an unreviewed release; it's better for the reviewer (easier approval and perhaps even some underground cult points), for the band (at least a bit of exposure), and the MA (better coverage of the chosen playing field).
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