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TheEerieTomb
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:43 am
Posts: 194
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:26 am 
 

Hey mods,

I've been writing reviews for a popular Canadian music site for the past year, and I was hoping to start replicating the relevant ones here on MA.
When I approached the editor as to whether or not he was okay with it (inclusive of a link to the original review on the site), he said he would like to keep the content and traffic through their page as much as possible.
He did say that he was happy for me to submit the excerpt of a paragraph with the link and "to read full review, click here", so I just wanted to put it out there and see if that was even a possibility?

I know it's probably not feasible, but I'd love to get some of it up :)

And short of that, I do write for a few other sites and they're okay with it, so I will be putting those up (as well as some just for MA).

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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 11:15 am 
 

Agroguitarist wrote:
Hey mods,

I've been writing reviews for a popular Canadian music site for the past year, and I was hoping to start replicating the relevant ones here on MA.
When I approached the editor as to whether or not he was okay with it (inclusive of a link to the original review on the site), he said he would like to keep the content and traffic through their page as much as possible.
He did say that he was happy for me to submit the excerpt of a paragraph with the link and "to read full review, click here", so I just wanted to put it out there and see if that was even a possibility?

I know it's probably not feasible, but I'd love to get some of it up :)

And short of that, I do write for a few other sites and they're okay with it, so I will be putting those up (as well as some just for MA).

Hi there,

I'm not a mod, but they don't check this page very often anymore, so I thought I'd help out.

To answer the easiest question first, it's no problem to duplicate a review here that you have written for another website or publication, then post a link to it. However, it's got to be your own work, and plagiarism is a bannable offense.

Regarding the question about submitting an excerpt and then a link to the full review, it probably won't be acceptable. That's because all reviews on this site should follow these rules and won't be accepted unless they do. Each review is viewed by mods first and then either accepted or rejected. If you post an excerpt, it's likely that it won't contain the required content for the review to be accepted. Also, it denies readers here a real review of the album, and MA has no adverts as you can see.

If that review site is popular enough, they will generate the traffic just from the links at the end of your reviews. If not, they should be glad for some of the traffic coming from MA. Either way, most websites/zines that I've been in contact are fine with the review being reposted here as long as it's published first by the source it's intended for. Why not see if you can strike a similar deal?

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TheEerieTomb
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:43 am
Posts: 194
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 2:09 pm 
 

That's absolutely fair.
I'll chat to him and see what can be done - cheers!!

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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:04 pm 
 

For a more official answer, crossposting is totally fine and always has been. If you wrote it somewhere else first (as long as it was actually you who wrote it), crossposting here with a link to where it originally appeared is just fine and possibly even encouraged (not like we're losing traffic that way). Tons of us do that already, including myself. If anything, most of my traffic actually comes from MA, which is cool because I also do a lot of different stuff on my own blog that I don't post here.

However, just posting a short snippet and hiding the full review somewhere else is probably bad form. If you wanted to try to Rules Lawyer your way in by posting just enough to technically be acceptable, it's gonna raise a few questions. Were the parts you cut out even necessary in the first place? If everything you wrote is relevant then why not just post the whole thing? Do you really want your legacy here to be writing half-reviews with the full product hidden away elsewhere? It just seems silly and not worth it. Just post the whole thing or not at all.
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TheEerieTomb
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:43 am
Posts: 194
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:44 am 
 

BastardHead wrote:
For a more official answer, crossposting is totally fine and always has been. If you wrote it somewhere else first (as long as it was actually you who wrote it), crossposting here with a link to where it originally appeared is just fine and possibly even encouraged (not like we're losing traffic that way). Tons of us do that already, including myself. If anything, most of my traffic actually comes from MA, which is cool because I also do a lot of different stuff on my own blog that I don't post here.

However, just posting a short snippet and hiding the full review somewhere else is probably bad form. If you wanted to try to Rules Lawyer your way in by posting just enough to technically be acceptable, it's gonna raise a few questions. Were the parts you cut out even necessary in the first place? If everything you wrote is relevant then why not just post the whole thing? Do you really want your legacy here to be writing half-reviews with the full product hidden away elsewhere? It just seems silly and not worth it. Just post the whole thing or not at all.


Absolutely, 100%.
I have spoken to him and he's now keen for me to do a few and see how we go - I'm sure he'll get the good vibe once we're in the groove.
And I have content from the other sites anyway, plus a few that I want to do direct to MA, so happy days.

Thanks for the replies, folks!

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Petrus_Steele
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2019 11:19 am
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:57 pm 
 

In this day and age, should sexual discriminations in any shape or form be added to the rules and guidelines?

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Derigin
The Mountain Man

Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 6:25 am
Posts: 5997
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 12:24 am 
 

I think it's more or less presumed not to be prejudiced and bigoted. That's a given.
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Zephirus
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:37 pm
Posts: 574
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:29 am 
 

i had a review rejected for having two spaces between paragraphs
have i picked this rule up wrong?

"Make sure you use two enter strokes between the paragraphs (indents are not supported)."

?

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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1639
Location: China
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 10:31 am 
 

Zephirus wrote:
i had a review rejected for having two spaces between paragraphs
have i picked this rule up wrong?

"Make sure you use two enter strokes between the paragraphs (indents are not supported)."

?

It should be one blank line. I think the instructions try to make it clear by saying to use enter twice, but it means the standard paragraphing format. In your message above, you've paragraphed correctly.

The same here. I hope your review gets submitted soon.

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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 10:59 am 
 

Yeah honestly that line from the rules should probably be rewritten. I don't know if that's the exact reason we get so many reviews with two blank spaces between each line or not, but it is pretty common and I did always think it was worded kinda confusingly.
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The Outer RIM - Uatism: The dogs bark in street slang
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camjr01
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 10:34 pm
Posts: 134
Location: Test Location
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:16 am 
 

Hello mods and site regulars,
I've been on the site since 2018 but only I started getting really into review writing just before the coronavirus shutdowns in February 2020, so I'm only just now beginning to finish my first few reviews (I'm writing dozens at the same time). I just have two questions regarding plagiarism- I think what I'm doing isn't even remotely plagiarism but just in case I would rather ask and play it safe because I know how the no-tolerance policy is. I'll also be attaching the whole drafts of the reviews in question for context (using spoilers of course)- I would appreciate feedback if you want, probably best to pm me since I know this isn't the right forum for that (do beware though that everything except the Acranius review is definitely not finished), but here I'm just looking to see if the things I point out in these reviews would count as plagiarism.

Is it plagiarism to reference other reviews in your review? For example, in this potential review for the Acranius album Reign Of Terror, I'm discussing the things I've heard about the band's other albums and I mention most of the other currently existing Acranius reviews on the site, including their titles which are hyperlinks to the reviews in question (I hyperlink pretty much everything). I'm just trying to discuss the impression these reviews had on me before I heard the album in question. All of this occurs in the second paragraph.

Spoiler: show
Title: "Accidental Brilliance" Rating: 75%

Imagine the most generic, by the numbers album ever. This artist is so boring, their music so homogenous, and all their tracks so similar, that not only is their music indistinguishable from most other acts in their vicinity, but even all the tracks on their album blend together into a monotonous mess. You probably don't need to, I'm sure you've already heard music like this before. Even if you don't like metal, even you have never been to this site before and somehow this review is your first exposure to metal music (although I'm not sure why you picked this album- but hey, welcome aboard! :) ), these albums exist in virtually every genre of music. Hold that album in your head- now imagine if the artist added just enough to make it interesting. Actually, scrap that, because this is more than interesting- this is genuinely unique.

Acranius has somehow managed to add just enough to this album to get me through the repeated listens necessary to familiarize me with it. All of these additions are fairly subtle, and probably go by an actual fan of this kind of music completely unnoticed, but some of them are simple brilliance in my eyes. For those that don't know, Acranius apparently plays a mixture of slam/brutal death metal and hardcore- either that or just really slammy brutal deathcore, but it doesn't matter too much because those things are basically the same anyway. All the releases before this one aren't of too much interest to me. Honestly, that might say more about me than it does about them, but just looking through the reviews I don't like what I see. I'm not compelled to check out an album in this genre being called "Literally The Dumbest Thing Ever" or "Generic Slam", especially when the only praise it's given is that the album is "Probably The Most Moshable Album Ever Made", using descriptors like "Utterly Devastating" and "Slam Violence". I would say I'm glad I heard Reign Of Terror before seeing any of that, if not for the fact that I vaguely remember glancing over that Dishonor review awhile back before looking at this release just now, and how little of an impact it made on me. "Wow, another boring slam band to steer clear off. The best-case scenario is that I'm simply put to sleep before I lose even half of my brain cells being bludgeoned by its brutal stupidity. Next!" And then I completely forgot Acranius even existed.

Well am I glad I did, or else I would never have even given this a chance. I actually found this the same way I found most of the slam releases I actually like- by going to Slam Worldwide on YouTube and looking through their most popular videos. And despite everything I've said thus far, I was hooked in the first minute. How could that be? Well, because in my opinion, the best moment on the entire album is at the very beginning, in the first track. It kicks off the whole album. In most cases that might be seen as a bad thing, but I don't really care because it serves as a great way to draw you in.

The album starts off with some eerie electronic noises that form some kind of makeshift pounding beat. A sample warns you of the impending danger ahead, cautioning you multiple times in echoey, manipulated voices that "They're coming in on the right...". Then, everything cuts out, and the guitars and drums both pop in at the same time. The guitars are playing foreboding tremolo riffs, riffs that are also percussive so as to sync perfectly with the drums. The rhythm they're playing could be transferred to the singular drum of a United States Civil War era drummer boy without any changes. None of this lasts long, because everything here just serves to usher in this massive slam. The rest of the song is composed of similar slams and breakdowns, sometimes using hints of the atmospheric present in the initial tremolo riff in the beginning. Then, it ends in a fade-out, using one of the most satisfying atmospheric tones I've heard in all of slam death metal for the final note. "Born A King" is the best track on the album, I don't care what anyone thinks.

The next track "Kingmaker" is also a highlight (despite not being as good). It starts with fast-paced guitar chugging synced with a fast-paced drum beat I find quite good- this is one of the drummer's shining moments, even though the guitar playing is also quite competent here as well. Things briefly slow, the guitars throw in some atmosphere, and then we're on to a slam (Pretty sure this is a slam, but I could be wrong. I have a hard time telling apart breakdowns and slams when they're right next to each other, I'm sorry!). It morphs into a slammy breakdown, they just a full-on breakdown, and the rest of the song just switches between slams and breakdowns for the duration of the track. Noticing a pattern? However, lots of these are fairly unique for the album. There are good qualities that make some of these quite memorable, such as the nice rhythmic grove established during one of the slams in the middle of this track, or the pummeling blast beats riding over that nice breakdown at the end- that breakdown that's almost catchy and would definitely have me moshing if I were a headbanger. There's a lot of memorable moments in this, and the quantity of these quality bits is so great it pushes this track over the edge.

"Return To Violence" is another standout track. It starts off with some fast-paced chugging and another great drum pattern (gee, where have I seen that before?), and then moves right into a breakdown. The musical ideas here are mostly the same ones present in "Kingmaker", but the band of course throws in breaths of fresh air that once again make this track way better than it should have been. The pinch harmonics section is great- not so much the pinch harmonics themselves, but all the guitar chugging and the drums underneath it form another catchy rhythm. The track slows down a bit right after the pinch harmonics section, to once again show the guitarists main strength- atmospheric tones. While it isn't outright bad, the slam that comes in after this slowdown isn't remarkable- but when it ends we're treated to another atmospheric slowdown that transitions into that same great drum pattern and guitar chugs from the beginning of the track to close it of. You may have noticed I've actually described the whole song this time, and that's because this is the second-best track on the whole album.

And now I can already hear the pained readers and annoyed moderators- "Wait, you're talking about every track, one after the other! Don't do a track by track review! There are way too many tracks for that! That's against the rules! You're not even good at it!"

Don't worry, there is no track by track review- because that's it for standout tracks. It's not that the other tracks are bad, but when you're listening to this album for the first time the first three tracks were pushed to the front to hook you in so they can basically coast and let you soak in the rest of the album. This sounds awful, but this is the kind of album that grows on you- and the first three tracks are the ones that are instantly likable. The other tracks have their merits, but you're going to end up liking them through familiarity, not instant enjoyment. There are good moments in these tracks, and the more listen to these last six tracks the more I can enjoy them. However, most of these aren't too important and you probably don't care about all of them- and they all tend to be less memorable at this point as a whole. Maybe that might be because the album starts to get a bit samey towards the end- and it's going to blend together if you don't pay attention. But also, this album just gets a lot better after repeated listens. The memorable first three tracks and their standout moments are what make the repeated listens possible to begin with, but the whole albums gets better the more you listen.

There's another thing about this album that's important to remember. I said it at the beginning of this review, but it needs to be repeated. The reason this album is so good is due to the small things. Acranius have added just enough to make this interesting- some moments are good, others great, others excellent- but that doesn't change the fact that this album is made enjoyable not by any consistent quality (with the exception of the atmospheric guitar tones, the few times they show up), but rather by individual moments. There's a reason I've spent so much time talking about specific slams, breakdowns, chugs, and other things in excruciating detail- they're the only things that make this album worth listening to. Most fans of this band probably don't care about anything I've just talked about- and I recommend taking a look at the other review because it sums up everything you needed to hear much nicer. In fact, some of these things are so subtle, or so outside the box of what slam fans are looking for, I'm not sure the band even intended to include a lot of what I've pointed out. If most of these things are happy accidents it doesn't surprise me. But whenever I listen to Reign Of Terror, I can't shake the fact that the devil's in the details, at least for me. Will I tune in for the next album? Probably, despite the fact that there's a 50% chance I won't like it at all. Yet on this record, Acranius has truly mastered the art of the small things, and that's good enough for me.


A similar thing is happening in this review of Ataraxie's L'être et la nausée- I heard about Atraxie in a review of another band's album here on the site, so I make reference to this multiple times (once in the first and third paragraphs):

Spoiler: show
Title: "When tails is the better outcome..." Rating: 90%

I initially heard of Ataraxie in a Funeralium review, and so the two bands have always been linked in my mind. It's good they are too- both bands share two core members (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Théry, and guitarist Frédéric Patte-Brasseur), and they are somewhat similar. I know that the last part about these bands being similar might seem like an ignorant take but hear me out.

You see, these bands have a lot more in common besides residing in the same genre. Their songs are generally similar in length- and when you look closely it is apparent that the song structures are indistinguishable between both bands. Regardless of how similar these bands sound asthetically, it's objectively very easy to figure out that these bands have common members because their songs adhere to most of the same compositional hallmarks and quirks. Both bands make use of clean guitar sections, heavy portions, atmosphere, tortured vocals, drums, and nearly every other compositional tool in their musical arsenal in roughly the exact same ways. Not only that, but many tracks by both Ataraxie and Funeralium have similar emotional impacts, despite differences in style and vibe. There are even touches of Black Metal present in both bands used in roughly the exact same way. Also, Funeralium and Ataraxie both released Deceived Idealism and L'être et la nausée in 2013, respectively. Coincidence? I think not.

In the end, though, it's important to note that Funeralium appears to be the more popular band. In extreme doom circles (what little I do hear from the scene in a review here and there), I've heard Funeralium mentioned a few times now but I've yet to hear Ataraxie. In fact, the greater popularity of Funeralium should have been obvious from the start because I initially heard about Ataraxie in a Funeralium review. And despite my feelings about the quality of both of these bands, I'm not entirely disappointed in this fact- in fact, I'm not at all upset with the fact that Funeralium is more popular than Ataraxie, but what is a travesty is that Ataraxie is barely known at all in extreme doom circles.

Funeralium has done more for the genre, and they definitely deserve a great place in the extreme doom conversation- in fact, they could even be considered underrated. Their 2013 release Deceived Idealism is where I'm putting most of my praise here. The album boasts a unique style of doom- the riffs are crushing, thick, sludgy, and oppressive yet also highly atmospheric. The album is drenched in noisy feedback, striking a perfect middle ground between a noise music influence and ambiance so the feedback can ring out just right to create compelling suspense. The melodic sections on the album serve to pepper it with tinges of Black Metal, and Jonathan Théry's deranged vocal performance is the most memorable I've heard so far in all of "torture doom". It's also important to note the teaser track "21st Century Ineptia" is easily one of the best doom metal tracks I've ever heard- depending on your perspective it's either music's most definitive power trip or the most overpowering and crushing track you could ever experience. In the grand scheme of things, Funeralium is heads and Ataraxie will never not be tails.

However, despite everything I just said, Funeralium lacks one thing that Ataraxie so clearly has nailed- consistency. Funeralium has reached greater highs in their discography, yet in the end not all their output is as good as their best material. For example, nothing else on Deceived Idealism or anything found on Of Throes And Blight comes close to 21st Century Ineptia. That's not to say that Funeralium is a one-hit-wonder, but it's pretty clear that they're shooting for the stars and they don't care as much about missing. They have tons of quality tracks but 21st Century Ineptia is easily their crowning achievement. Meanwhile, Ataraxie opens this album with a big highlight and the quality doesn't noticeably drop off afterward at all.

The first track here,


Secondly, I'm writing a review for the Vonn album Victim One: Agony. I heard rumors about a letter the band sent out with the album, but I can't find anything about it online. The only info I can find about this letter comes from a review posted on doom-metal.com. I don't care about this review that much at all, except that it contains information about the letter and goes as far as to quote an entire paragraph from the letter. I've given credit to the reviewer with a hyperlink to his review in my review, and taken all the information about the letter and put it in my review (including copying the paragraph quoted from the letter). However, I didn't take anything else from it, and our reviews are radically different. All of this occurs in the seventh and eighth paragraphs. Is that plagiarism?

Spoiler: show
Title: "Illegal in most places" Rating: 90%

There is a considerable ethical debate present in certain areas of music- should we listen to music written by amoral individuals, or should we separate the art from the artist? Whether it be in mainstream music, such as rap music- where names like Tay- K and Chris Brown immediately come to mind, or in metal, where individuals such as Varg Vikernes or Euronymous are the subject of vigorous moral debate- there have long been serious questions posed to fans of these artists. By buying their releases, am I signaling that I approve of their behavior? Am I complicit in their actions? How much should I really be supporting these individuals- after all, I buy music to support the musicians behind the recording, so am I not financially enabling such evildoers by giving them money in exchange for their musical recordings, however spectacular? This question gets even more complicated with a case similar to that of Tay- K, who is rapping about the crimes he allegedly committed. By enjoying The Race, am I supporting the continuation of such criminal activity? What does this say about me as a person? Do I enjoy armed robbery and murder? Fortunately for you, however, in all of the cases I just mentioned, the creation of the music itself was not a criminal activity and no one was hurt in the recording of these songs. These songs, whether they be Black Metal or Rap Music (or whatever other morally questionable music that you listen to for enjoyment), are simply entertainment. That's how you rationalized listening to this music to your inner conscience- at least until you heard "Victim One: Agony".

Enter Vonn, because things just got way more complicated.

Vonn hails from Norway (of course they do, who else besides Norwegians would make this?) playing a strange style of drone/ doom metal. It has the consistency of harsh noise similar to a mid-tier intensity Macronympha recording, with industrial sounds spread throughout the release. The album is composed of one track that lasts for the duration of 01:16:04. This would be unique enough, if not for all the other components of this sound that are beyond the descriptions of genre tags, as well as a highly unorthodox recording style.

The recording style of Vonn deserves a breakdown of its own. Throughout the release, Vonn is playing simple meandering riffs- sometimes winding and atmospheric, other times chunky and short, but both of these styles are found within a short playing time and contained within the same riff. These riffs are designed to be long and drawn out, and while not abrasive in of themselves they would highly emphasize any abrasion gained through amps or effect pedals. Vonn plays all of these riffs with amps on maximum overdrive- and I do mean all of them- so that the guitars and amps can barely handle it, and the riffs only serve to emphasize the abrasiveness gained through the effects. I'm also not actually referencing the guitar effect known as overdrive either, I mean that they actually turned the volume up as high as they could go, creating the overdrive effect from scratch- and on steroids. It all seems to be recorded in one take, maybe even improvised, as while there is a clear (abet subtle) structure the band seems to crank out their riffs in the moment and all the transitions seem authentic and on the spot.

This actually seems to be the logical conclusion of the whole 2000's "Torture Doom" movement I keep hearing murmurs of on review sites and reviews here on the archives. Even so, bands in this scene seem to be either playing a simple sound (Moss) or have a somewhat innovative nature (Black Bile), but Vonn somehow seems to be doing both. Sure, harsh noise groups tend to create "Soundscapes" instead of "Songs", but why did Vonn, the metal band, choose to make their structural changes so minimal, so subtle? It seems unchanging on the first listen as if the band wants to hide the transitions necessary to keep us somewhat engaged behind the illusion of a monolithic ebb and flow of extreme sound.

The vocals give us the answer. They consist of a woman screaming for the duration of the track. These are obviously authentic cries for help. It seems as though she is being tortured. That's when we see that the archives make this quite explicit, listing the band's "lyrical themes" as simply "torture". There are no lyrics present anywhere here- just her screams. She is only known as "sv". In fact, looking at the lineup, we see that guitar is played by "jn", bass is played by "to", and drums are played by "fn". But unless they got buried under the guitars, drums couldn't possibly be here because they seem to be nowhere to be found. That's what tells me this is probably a fake line up- sure all these initials might be real, but I'm guessing fn was probably not a drummer but in fact another guitarist or bassist, and he was listed as a drummer to make the lineup seem normal to any potential onlooker.

The fake lineup and exclusive use of initials probably came with a reason as well- sv was most liked tortured and may have even died at the end of the recording. These suspicions are supported via three photos I received with this disc. Two look like pictures of swollen limbs while the other seems to be opened metal bondage shackles connected to a broken chain, most likely separated by brute force. If that wasn't enough, apparently, the band even sent out a letter with their album. I have not seen the whole thing, but I have heard a few things about it. It contains the words "Fuck Humanity" and afterward explains that apparently there used to be drums in the recording, but they were cut because they contributed a sound to the track the band deemed too "human" (look, the band says I'm half right!). I also know this letter contains a paragraph that details the band describing what they claim to have done to sv. It reads:

"Almost from the beginning the air was filled with the sweet smell of piss, shit and blood. Not one creature in all of the universe has ever experienced what she had experienced that evening. She survived for just over an hour, praying through her feeble screams that she might be terminated soon, before her soul finally made its escape from her lifeless husk. A vain escape into His grasp. Pity the bitch. We kept her in agonizing consciousness until we had no more use for her. It was a time not quickly forgotten by the ones who were forced to hear her screams."

This reveals the need for such anonymity. It also shows us why the band hid their transitions within the monolith of sound they were constructing. It reveals the goals of this recording. Their goal was to torture, and they did so during this album. I have no doubt that the band members were violent to sv during their entire torture session, but the sounds you hear on this album were also a part of her suffering. This is the first instance I have ever seen in music where a recording was made to harm another person. I have heard music made to verbally insult others, I have heard music made to threaten others, I have even heard music designed to incite violence- but I have never before heard music designed to be used as a violent weapon by its creators. That's the moral question you have to ask yourself when you listen to this release (well I don't, because I committed to buying the album before I knew even half of this)- can I listen to music created through malicious actions, that was used to torture? What does that say about me if I enjoy it?

Also, what is there to enjoy here? Well, to put it simply, at first glance this is just as torturous a listen as the band implies it to be. I'm not going to lie, it probably took ten listens or more for me to be able to properly digest this in one sitting. This is one of the loudest albums I have ever heard outside of harsh noise. It is a consistently relentless, monotonous, tiring, and violent onslaught. My mind actually hurt a little during the first few listens. However, I feel like I am in a unique position to defend this album musically- as a fan of ambient music I can understand what little subtlety it has, as a fan of metal I can speak to the riffs, and as someone who can tolerate noise in music (provided it's musical, like Genocide Organ, Threes and Will, or Lazharus, not amusical like Vormir, Merzbow, Macronympha, Black Leather Jesus, Armenia, etc) I can see through the abrasion to the heart of the album.
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