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Sweetie
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:19 am
Posts: 1091
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2020 11:20 am 
 

BastardHead wrote:
I've always learned best when thrown to the wolves. I may not always stop whatever people don't like entirely but it does at the very least make me more aware of things that don't work and may make me try to mitigate them.


Literally same, and that's basically what brought me to where I am today.

A little thing to show y'all how bored I got in this quarantine yesterday, I went back and found all of my first ever criticisms from reviews that aren't even here anymore :lol: They begin around page 215 / 216
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hells_unicorn
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
Posts: 3056
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2020 2:43 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
I've always learned best when thrown to the wolves. I may not always stop whatever people don't like entirely but it does at the very least make me more aware of things that don't work and may make me try to mitigate them.


This was basically how I was able to ween myself off a bad addiction to checklist/track-by-track reviewing the first year I was active here, and later a compulsion for starting the last paragraph with the dreaded "in conclusion" phrase, which is both redundant and awkward. Although most of the critiques I received early on were via private message because I was so absorbed with finding new bands using the site that I wasn't paying any attention to the forum. lol

Just got finished reading Absinthe1979's review for October Rust, I'm kinda on the fence with regard to said album being Type O's best or if I think World Coming Down is better, but I did enjoy his overall enthusiasm in how he put forward his thoughts on the matter.
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Napalm_Satan
Ever-Opening Flower

Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2015 4:27 pm
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Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2020 11:37 pm 
 

Learning by being thrown to the wolves... I think I can safely say that yes, it can work. Not everyone responds to it well, though.

And World Coming Down will always be their best album to me. It's their most consistent, emotionally resonant, arguably most complex and best written crop of songs. More TON love is always good, though.
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Sweetie
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:19 am
Posts: 1091
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Apr 11, 2020 12:47 am 
 

Looking back at the guy who coined the term "Sweetie" for me in those days, which is still used today. Brainded Binkey? Is that user even active? I can't say I recall reading anything by them.
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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1640
Location: China
PostPosted: Sat Apr 11, 2020 4:51 am 
 

I don't come here very often to say good things about Kluseba's reviews, but I'm very pleased that the first one up for Nightwish's new Frankenstein is at least detailed and tells us where the music is going and what the problems are. Compared to a few of his brief write-ups of other albums, this one is definitely useful.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
Posts: 382
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:52 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
This was basically how I was able to ween myself off a bad addiction to checklist/track-by-track reviewing the first year I was active here, and later a compulsion for starting the last paragraph with the dreaded "in conclusion" phrase, which is both redundant and awkward. Although most of the critiques I received early on were via private message because I was so absorbed with finding new bands using the site that I wasn't paying any attention to the forum. lol

Is this still a common thing? I've only received two PMs about reviews and one only concerned a passing comment I made about something not related to the music. Guess I should be grateful I haven't received any complaints from bands who didn't like my criticisms. Or worse yet, from their fans.
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hells_unicorn
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 9:34 pm 
 

Cat III wrote:
Is this still a common thing? I've only received two PMs about reviews and one only concerned a passing comment I made about something not related to the music. Guess I should be grateful I haven't received any complaints from bands who didn't like my criticisms. Or worse yet, from their fans.


It's less common now than it was back in 2005-2006, which was the time when I wrote the reviews with said flaws. I used to get a fair amount of hate messages from Cryptopsy, Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head fans back in the late 2000s, largely because I trashed their favorite albums. But back in the early days it was a lot more common for a person to also get complements via PM and also constructive criticism, and I think it was GuntherTheUndying that pointed out the "in conclusion" habit that I'd developed back in 2006.
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Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 10:15 pm 
 

Ranting hate messages are always funny to read. I once got a long hate email from a Nile fan who was pissed that I gave a bad review to At the Gate of Sethu. Wish I still had it.

By the way, that album still sucks, and it's what kinda killed paying attention to future Nile albums for me.
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Sweetie
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:19 am
Posts: 1091
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 10:29 pm 
 

I agree, that one does suck. However the one from last year was pretty damn good.
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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
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Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 11:16 pm 
 

Yeah Nile managed to rebound pretty well surprisingly. Sethu was a weird flukey bad one.
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Subrick
Metal Strongman

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:27 am 
 

It's fucking weird too, because with the exception of Ithyphallic, literally every album they had done was better than the one that came before it. Then Sethu happened and the expanding bubble that had been their discography's growth finally burst.
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I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

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Razakel
Nekroprince

Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:36 pm
Posts: 6232
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:43 pm 
 

I only recently checked out the last Nile album and burst the fuck out laughing when the Godzilla theme opened up Seven Horns of War. What the actual hell.

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Kerpak
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:48 am
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:11 pm 
 

I had a review approved but found a typo in it afterwards. Should I re-submit it?

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gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1640
Location: China
PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:31 pm 
 

Kerpak wrote:
I had a review approved but found a typo in it afterwards. Should I re-submit it?

If there's one typo, it doesn't seem worthwhile. If it changed your one key word of the review into something opposite, that's a different story.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
Posts: 382
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:58 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
Cat III wrote:
Is this still a common thing? I've only received two PMs about reviews and one only concerned a passing comment I made about something not related to the music. Guess I should be grateful I haven't received any complaints from bands who didn't like my criticisms. Or worse yet, from their fans.


It's less common now than it was back in 2005-2006, which was the time when I wrote the reviews with said flaws. I used to get a fair amount of hate messages from Cryptopsy, Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head fans back in the late 2000s, largely because I trashed their favorite albums. But back in the early days it was a lot more common for a person to also get complements via PM and also constructive criticism, and I think it was GuntherTheUndying that pointed out the "in conclusion" habit that I'd developed back in 2006.

Yeah, considering forum usage has declined internet-wide, I shouldn't be surprised fewer people bother to send PMs. I'm not surprised that Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head fans weren't pleased with negative reviews. They seem to attract die-hard fans and in high enough numbers to make it common to run into ones who are annoyingly fanatical. Also, they're bands whose metalness has often been called into question, especially in the time period you wrote those reviews, which would make the fans even more defensive.

Publishing reviews feels like shooting into a void. You hope it reaches someone at some point. On occasion, I've got confirmation one has. Hammerheart Records used the opening paragraph of my review in their listing of Been Caught Buttering. That's neat, but complimentary feedback is hardly the only type of valuable feedback.

If Gunther did give you that advice, I hope you thanked him for it. That's one of those rookie habits that needs to be axed.
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hells_unicorn
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:44 pm 
 

Cat III wrote:
Yeah, considering forum usage has declined internet-wide, I shouldn't be surprised fewer people bother to send PMs. I'm not surprised that Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head fans weren't pleased with negative reviews. They seem to attract die-hard fans and in high enough numbers to make it common to run into ones who are annoyingly fanatical. Also, they're bands whose metalness has often been called into question, especially in the time period you wrote those reviews, which would make the fans even more defensive.

Publishing reviews feels like shooting into a void. You hope it reaches someone at some point. On occasion, I've got confirmation one has. Hammerheart Records used the opening paragraph of my review in their listing of Been Caught Buttering. That's neat, but complimentary feedback is hardly the only type of valuable feedback.

If Gunther did give you that advice, I hope you thanked him for it. That's one of those rookie habits that needs to be axed.


When the social media thing really blew up in the early 2010s, I think every forum on the internet took a massive hit. In the early days I would get some hate messages via Myspace because I think it gave people a layer of security (i.e. I'd be less likely to publish the messages on the forum if they occurred off-forum). I never really was of a mind to do this anyway, but I was tempted a few times when a couple of royally whacked out rants came in as a response to my Vulgar Display Of Power review. Ironically enough, I went a bit easier on Pantera than I did the other bands in question because of a level of respect I had for the musicianship of the Abbott brothers (which ended when the Damageplan abortion was released).

Anyhow, to avoid further digression, for me reviewing started as a hobby to sharpen my writing skills (which were pretty bad back in 2005) and later it became a way to network with bands and maybe pick their brains regarding how to hone my own musical endeavors. Building an audience was never really a primary concern, though once I started writing for webzines and was able to keep track of how many hits my reviews would get, I started to think about it a bit more and started to modify my format a bit to make my reviews a bit less meandering and easier to digest.

And yes, I did end up thanking Gunther pretty early on for that one. At the time I thought having a super-strict structure and announcing the end of a review was a good idea, but in retrospect I'm of a mind of seek out any straggler reviews from those days (of which there are likely 40 or 50) and edit the final paragraphs to get rid of that rookie error.
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Last edited by hells_unicorn on Wed Apr 15, 2020 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
Posts: 382
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:21 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
When the social media thing really blew up in the early 2010s, I think every forum on the internet took a massive hit. In the early days I would get some hate messages via Myspace because I think it gave people a layer of security (i.e. I'd be less likely to publish the messages on the forum if they occurred off-forum). I never really was of a mind to do this anyway, but I was tempted a few times when a couple of royally whacked out rants came in as a response to my Vulgar Display Of Power review. Ironically enough, I went a bit easier on Pantera than I did the other bands in question because of a level of respect I had for them as musicianship of the Abbott brothers (which ended when the Damageplan abortion was released).

Not surprising that Pantera fans provided the most unhinged reactions. Despite not being a huge fan of the band, I've come to their defense (a recent review included an aside defending Anselmo), but I have to admit that fanbase is real bad. That's said about every large fanbase, but in this case I think it's true. Can't say I've ever listened to Damageplan, or Machine Head for that matter. In no hurry to rectify that situation.

hells_unicorn wrote:
Anyhow, to avoid further digression, for me reviewing started as a hobby to sharpen my writing skills (which were pretty bad back in 2005) and later it became a way to network with bands and maybe pick their brains regarding how to hone my own musical endeavors. Building an audience was never really a primary concern, though once I started writing for webzines and was able to keep track of how many hits my reviews would get, I started to think about it a bit more and started to modify my format a bit to make my reviews a bit less meandering and easier to digest.

Similar motivation on my part as far as being a hobby that keeps my writing skills from getting rusty. Not a musician, so can't relate to the networking part, but that's a good idea, and as valid a reason as any to write reviews. A big factor, and I'm sure other reviewers can relate, is that none of the people in my real life care about a goregrind band I found while watching Obscene Extreme videos, so this is an outlet to spread my opinions to people who may actually care. If I wanted a big audience, my review choices would be wildly different. I like shining a light on overlooked music. It is nice getting the occasional acknowledgement that the reviews are read.

I'm sure you've mentioned it in this thread before, but mind if I ask what webzine(s) you write for?
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EzraBlumenfeld
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Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:50 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:17 am 
 

I'm a bit disturbed that anyone could write a 100% Arghoslent review and try to make excuses like "they aren't racist, their lyrics just reflect the perspective of the era their songs are written about."
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:22 am 
 

EzraBlumenfeld wrote:
I'm a bit disturbed that anyone could write a 100% Arghoslent review and try to make excuses that "they aren't racist, they're just taking the perspective of the era their songs are written about."


Yeah, I skipped around in that to see what his points would be about the lyrics, not surprised at all. It's amazing that people could think that way - if that was the case, the band's stuff wouldn't be banned everywhere, or movies like 12 Years a Slave would also be banned.
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~Guest 282118
Argentinian Asado Supremacy

Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2011 2:16 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:55 am 
 

Also the fact that Arghoslent are openly proud white supremacists. Can't forget that.

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hells_unicorn
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:14 pm 
 

Cat III wrote:
Not surprising that Pantera fans provided the most unhinged reactions. Despite not being a huge fan of the band, I've come to their defense (a recent review included an aside defending Anselmo), but I have to admit that fanbase is real bad. That's said about every large fanbase, but in this case I think it's true. Can't say I've ever listened to Damageplan, or Machine Head for that matter. In no hurry to rectify that situation.


Damageplan is essentially a watered-down, more nu-metal leaning version of Far Beyond Driven, definitely not worth your time. They hired a vocalist that had no experience singing (I think he played guitar in every other band he has credit for on the archives prior to joining them) and basically tried to ride off the Pantera name. I feel bad crapping on them because of what ended up happening to Dimebag, but I refuse to try and pour any perfume on that pig. I'm actually a big fan of what Pantera did prior to Vulgar Display Of Power, which I guess is why I care so much about the groove metal thing, because I think it had the potential to be something far more interesting had albums like Cowboys From Hell and Slaughter At The Vatican been the template rather than Vulgar Display Of Power and Burn My Eyes.

Machine Head, during their formative years, were a more grungy version of what Pantera was doing a couple years before, then they completely jumped on the nu-metal trend in the late 90s (it was one of the most cynical and blatant moments of trend-hopping in metal history, and Robb Flynn still gets a lot of shit for it despite them largely abandoning the nu-metal sound ever since 2003). Their stuff from 2007 until 2014 was nominally better, and had more of a modern thrashing character similar to newer Exodus, but they are back in suck territory again now. Suffice it to say, yeah, you're not missing much.

Quote:
Similar motivation on my part as far as being a hobby that keeps my writing skills from getting rusty. Not a musician, so can't relate to the networking part, but that's a good idea, and as valid a reason as any to write reviews. A big factor, and I'm sure other reviewers can relate, is that none of the people in my real life care about a goregrind band I found while watching Obscene Extreme videos, so this is an outlet to spread my opinions to people who may actually care. If I wanted a big audience, my review choices would be wildly different. I like shining a light on overlooked music. It is nice getting the occasional acknowledgement that the reviews are read.


Even though I tended towards more mainline and melodic forms of metal at the time, just about everybody I knew back in the mid-2000s didn't listen to metal apart from maybe the occasional token In Flames or Trivium fan (and even they were few and far between). So getting my opinions out to like-minded people definitely was a motivation, and as time has gone on I've broadened my horizons a bit to include stuff that isn't widely heard. I'm still kinda learning to ropes when it comes to Goregrind and Sludge, though I did start delving into these styles beyond the obvious examples within the past couple years. I think reviewing has actually forced me to expand my pallet a bit, if for no other reason than to keep things interesting.

Quote:
I'm sure you've mentioned it in this thread before, but mind if I ask what webzine(s) you write for?


I've submitted reviews for The Metal Observer since 2008, they have more of a modest readership (I think they have around 8,000 likes on Facebook and my reviews average about 700 hits on the site with a few notable exceptions) but there's a solid crowd over there, many of whom started off by writing here. In 2018 I started writing for Sonic Perspectives, which has a bigger audience and a lot more connections with better known bands. I've managed to get free tickets to a number of shows in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia tri-state area in exchange for penning a few concert reviews because of my work with them. Naturally, I've had to modify my format a tad bit for reviewing there because their audience is a bit different than the community on here (a lot of overlap with mainline hard rockers), and ironically enough I'm their go-to guy for reviewing extreme metal, despite the fact that here I'm probably considered just a tad better than being a layman in said area. lol
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Last edited by hells_unicorn on Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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oneyoudontknow
Cum insantientibus furere necesse est.

Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 6:25 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 3:45 pm 
 

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... yApu/84033

Quote:
Sometimes, like in the case of this album, I might as well blast it up even higher because the music is kickass. Its very crunchy, aggressive viking metal with great harsh vocals by Jens. Naglfar really bit the dust after their first album, so I’ll side with Jens for ditching the band while he could (although six years too late)


What is he talking about? Maybe he was too enthusiastically kicked in the ass by the album, who knows.

Spoiler: show
Line-up ... there is no Jens on this album.
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OzzyApu
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:11 am
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2020 4:24 pm 
 

oneyoudontknow wrote:
https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Thyrfing/Thyrfing/1260/OzzyApu/84033

Quote:
Sometimes, like in the case of this album, I might as well blast it up even higher because the music is kickass. Its very crunchy, aggressive viking metal with great harsh vocals by Jens. Naglfar really bit the dust after their first album, so I’ll side with Jens for ditching the band while he could (although six years too late)


What is he talking about? Maybe he was too enthusiastically kicked in the ass by the album, who knows.

Spoiler: show
Line-up ... there is no Jens on this album.

Written 11 years ago, I would have expected no less from myself. It's like I didn't know already that Jens didn't join the band until the 2000s. Definitely a mistake on my part. Haven't heard the album since I wrote that so I don't even know if my opinion changed.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:16 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
Damageplan is essentially a watered-down, more nu-metal leaning version of Far Beyond Driven, definitely not worth your time. They hired a vocalist that had no experience singing (I think he played guitar in every other band he has credit for on the archives prior to joining them) and basically tried to ride off the Pantera name. I feel bad crapping on them because of what ended up happening to Dimebag, but I refuse to try and pour any perfume on that pig. I'm actually a big fan of what Pantera did prior to Vulgar Display Of Power, which I guess is why I care so much about the groove metal thing, because I think it had the potential to be something far more interesting had albums like Cowboys From Hell and Slaughter At The Vatican been the template rather than Vulgar Display Of Power and Burn My Eyes.

Yeah, a tragic death isn't reason to pretend an artist's work is good. I'm a softie for groove myself. Kittie being my first exposure to metal's extreme end probably explains it; that and the fact I'm into stuff that have a strong sense of groove like brutal DM and goregrind (especially of the porn variety). I agree Cowboys from Hell is the best Pantera, and metaldom would be better had that been their most influential album.

hells_unicorn wrote:
Machine Head, during their formative years, were a more grungy version of what Pantera was doing a couple years before, then they completely jumped on the nu-metal trend in the late 90s (it was one of the most cynical and blatant moments of trend-hopping in metal history, and Robb Flynn still gets a lot of shit for it despite them largely abandoning the nu-metal sound ever since 2003). Their stuff from 2007 until 2014 was nominally better, and had more of a modern thrashing character similar to newer Exodus, but they are back in suck territory again now. Suffice it to say, yeah, you're not missing much.

Outside of the Melvins and a grudging respect for Cobain for championing Shonen Knife, I have no interest in Grunge, so Machine Head will remain at 508th place of bands to check out eventually.

hells_unicorn wrote:
Even though I tended towards more mainline and melodic forms of metal at the time, just about everybody I knew back in the mid-2000s didn't listen to metal apart from maybe the occasional token In Flames or Trivium fan (and even they were few and far between). So getting my opinions out to like-minded people definitely was a motivation, and as time has gone on I've broadened my horizons a bit to include stuff that isn't widely heard. I'm still kinda learning to ropes when it comes to Goregrind and Sludge, though I did start delving into these styles beyond the obvious examples within the past couple years. I think reviewing has actually forced me to expand my pallet a bit, if for no other reason than to keep things interesting.

Reviewing the same genre does get boring; might as well exercise that freedom to choose review subjects. Haven't you published some slam reviews that weren't entirely negative? That definitely shows open-mindedness.

hells_unicorn wrote:
I've submitted reviews for The Metal Observer since 2008, they have more of a modest readership (I think they have around 8,000 likes on Facebook and my reviews average about 700 hits on the site with a few notable exceptions) but there's a solid crowd over there, many of whom started off by writing here. In 2018 I started writing for Sonic Perspectives, which has a bigger audience and a lot more connections with better known bands. I've managed to get free tickets to a number of shows in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia tri-state area in exchange for penning a few concert reviews because of my work with them. Naturally, I've had to modify my format a tad bit for reviewing there because their audience is a bit different than the community on here (a lot of overlap with mainline hard rockers), and ironically enough I'm their go-to guy for reviewing extreme metal, despite the fact that here I'm probably considered just a tad better than being a layman in said area. lol

The Metal Observer: name rings a bell, mostly because it's mentioned in reviews here. Checking my DMs, it is the same site the owner PMed me about 2 years ago seeing if I was interested in contributing. Didn't want to publish under my real name, but appreciated the offer. Sonic Perspectives is a new one. I'll have to check it out. Looking at the front page and wondering if the site gets more traffic because it focuses more on mainstream bands. There's a Five Finger Death Punch article on the side bar, but there's also Cirith Ungol. I'll give it a closer look later.
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wrathchild_88
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 7:24 am 
 

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... ele/553432

Quote:
...he forcefully sounds like Chris Hetfield...

...Even Chuck, as he resembles Chris Hetfield...

Is... is he confusing James with the astronaut Chris Hadfield?
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Twisted_Psychology
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 8:36 am 
 

It's a decent review otherwise. but making that mistake twice definitely makes it funnier.
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:11 pm 
 

Cat III wrote:
Yeah, a tragic death isn't reason to pretend an artist's work is good. I'm a softie for groove myself. Kittie being my first exposure to metal's extreme end probably explains it; that and the fact I'm into stuff that have a strong sense of groove like brutal DM and goregrind (especially of the porn variety). I agree Cowboys from Hell is the best Pantera, and metaldom would be better had that been their most influential album.


I think my long-running issue with groove metal is that my initial exposure to it was the weaker offerings that came out in the mid-1990s, I actually encountered low-grade crap like Archie Bunker, Skinlab and Machine Head's "The More Things Change..." before I heard better examples of the style, and I've generally been ambivalent on Pantera as a band because of the wild discrepancy in the quality of their output. But for me the underlying issue with Pantera has been Anselmo's vocal change starting on "Vulgar Display Of Power", I don't think he pulls off the extreme metal vocal style well, especially when compared with the brilliant way he could shift between a screechy Ian Gillian high range and a thrash-inspired gruff on Cowboys From Hell.

Quote:
Outside of the Melvins and a grudging respect for Cobain for championing Shonen Knife, I have no interest in Grunge, so Machine Head will remain at 508th place of bands to check out eventually.


I tend to come off as a grunge hater, but overall my thoughts on the genre are more ambivalent than hostile. I enjoyed most of Soundgarden's earlier work and I've been a pretty consistent Alice In Chains fan ever since I saw the music video for "Man In The Box" back when it first premiered on MTV back in 1990, and I've been meaning to write some glowing reviews for some Melvins albums, but Cobain's cult of personality just never jived with me, and I hated most of what came in right after the initial wave as it seemed more based in commercialism masked with a shoddy production rather than a legit musical movement. Anyhow, I won't belabor this point any further.

Quote:
Reviewing the same genre does get boring; might as well exercise that freedom to choose review subjects. Haven't you published some slam reviews that weren't entirely negative? That definitely shows open-mindedness.


I have an overall positive view of Pathology's entire discography and have put the Matti Way material into regular rotation with my more tech-leaning brutal death listening material. I made the same mistake with slam that I did with groove metal and deathcore, I basically introduced myself to the style via some of the worst examples of it ("Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler" would be pretty close to the top of a list of worst albums I've ever heard if I were ever inclined to publish one). I tend to like the more stripped down slam in smaller doses, so any albums in the style that clock in at over 20 minutes need to have some guitar noodling or tech elements to hold my attention (me being a guitarist does kinda prejudice me towards fancier material).

Quote:
The Metal Observer: name rings a bell, mostly because it's mentioned in reviews here. Checking my DMs, it is the same site the owner PMed me about 2 years ago seeing if I was interested in contributing. Didn't want to publish under my real name, but appreciated the offer. Sonic Perspectives is a new one. I'll have to check it out. Looking at the front page and wondering if the site gets more traffic because it focuses more on mainstream bands. There's a Five Finger Death Punch article on the side bar, but there's also Cirith Ungol. I'll give it a closer look later.


The owner Alex is a really nice guy and he scouts this place for talent on a semi-regular basis. In the beginning I was a bit apprehensive about publishing under my real name too, but I tend to write less controversial material for The Metal Observer by default, so it didn't last long. Sonic Perspectives definitely straddles some fences between the mainstream and the underground, the guy who does most of the band interviews over there is an old school metal junkie who used to post reviews here back in 2006 under the moniker MettleAngel, but a lot of the writers there are definitely more into mainline hard rock. The material that I tend to get the most feedback from readers is the stuff that I can't cross-post here, like a semi-positive assessment I gave for the last Alterbridge album and a writeup I did for Cinderella vocalist Tom Keifer's solo album last year. I gave a more glowing review of the last Aborted album that barely broke 200 hits.
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Lord_Of_Diamonds
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:27 pm 
 

Just read Cat III's review of a band called "Sausage Fingers". I ended up listening to the review material and... it was some weird shit. Sounds like a science fiction skit that someone did for a high school project, with bits of heavy metal music here and there.
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Cat III
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Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:10 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
I think my long-running issue with groove metal is that my initial exposure to it was the weaker offerings that came out in the mid-1990s, I actually encountered low-grade crap like Archie Bunker, Skinlab and Machine Head's "The More Things Change..." before I heard better examples of the style, and I've generally been ambivalent on Pantera as a band because of the wild discrepancy in the quality of their output. But for me the underlying issue with Pantera has been Anselmo's vocal change starting on "Vulgar Display Of Power", I don't think he pulls off the extreme metal vocal style well, especially when compared with the brilliant way he could shift between a screechy Ian Gillian high range and a thrash-inspired gruff on Cowboys From Hell.

Been awhile since I listened to Pantera, so I don't remember Anselmo's vocal change on VDoP, but I agree on the larger point that his vocals are an issue. Whether they actually are, they come off affected, like he's trying to be a tough badass.

hells_unicorn wrote:
I tend to come off as a grunge hater, but overall my thoughts on the genre are more ambivalent than hostile. I enjoyed most of Soundgarden's earlier work and I've been a pretty consistent Alice In Chains fan ever since I saw the music video for "Man In The Box" back when it first premiered on MTV back in 1990, and I've been meaning to write some glowing reviews for some Melvins albums, but Cobain's cult of personality just never jived with me, and I hated most of what came in right after the initial wave as it seemed more based in commercialism masked with a shoddy production rather than a legit musical movement. Anyhow, I won't belabor this point any further.

The Cobain cult is both funny and annoying for the fact they fancy themselves standing athwart commercialism and popular culture while showering their idol with a level of adoration the average tween Bieber fan would find excessive. The murder conspiracies are fun though, especially since they partly hinge on believing the word of the Mentors' El Duce of all people. Honestly, my impression of grunge altogether is the same as yours of the second wave: commercial rock dressed up as dirty outsider music. Also, yarling can rot in fucking hell.

hells_unicorn wrote:
I have an overall positive view of Pathology's entire discography and have put the Matti Way material into regular rotation with my more tech-leaning brutal death listening material. I made the same mistake with slam that I did with groove metal and deathcore, I basically introduced myself to the style via some of the worst examples of it ("Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler" would be pretty close to the top of a list of worst albums I've ever heard if I were ever inclined to publish one). I tend to like the more stripped down slam in smaller doses, so any albums in the style that clock in at over 20 minutes need to have some guitar noodling or tech elements to hold my attention (me being a guitarist does kinda prejudice me towards fancier material).

Waking the Cadaver is another one I have yet to listen too (though I did finally check out Enmity a few weeks ago). Slam is definitely a genre that belongs in 20-30 minute installments. Agree on wanting some technicality or at least non-slamming elements mixed in. You might want to check out Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship. They're on the cleaner side of the genre, and the anime aesthetic attracts non-metalheads, but there's lots of juicy riffage in there. (The band name is actually anti-otaku, making it ironic they attract weebs.)

hells_unicorn wrote:
The owner Alex is a really nice guy and he scouts this place for talent on a semi-regular basis. In the beginning I was a bit apprehensive about publishing under my real name too, but I tend to write less controversial material for The Metal Observer by default, so it didn't last long. Sonic Perspectives definitely straddles some fences between the mainstream and the underground, the guy who does most of the band interviews over there is an old school metal junkie who used to post reviews here back in 2006 under the moniker MettleAngel, but a lot of the writers there are definitely more into mainline hard rock. The material that I tend to get the most feedback from readers is the stuff that I can't cross-post here, like a semi-positive assessment I gave for the last Alterbridge album and a writeup I did for Cinderella vocalist Tom Keifer's solo album last year. I gave a more glowing review of the last Aborted album that barely broke 200 hits.

MettleAngel, that's another vaguely familiar name. Seen a few of his reviews around. I can't fault SP for covering lots of mainstream stuff. It keeps a steady readership, and maybe some of the people who read your Alterbridge review comprised part of the 200 who read the Aborted review. Vice versa, too. Us undergrounders can get as myopic as the more pop-minded; it's good to peek above the surface for the occasional breather.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:21 am 
 

Lord_Of_Diamonds wrote:
Just read Cat III's review of a band called "Sausage Fingers". I ended up listening to the review material and... it was some weird shit. Sounds like a science fiction skit that someone did for a high school project, with bits of heavy metal music here and there.

High school skit is a great way to describe it. Hopefully my review was adequate in preparing you for the weirdness that album entails.

I read your Torsofuck review. My tolerance for sample-heavy brutality is probably much higher than yours, though I've never listened to that album. Feces centric material is always a turnoff, which is maybe hypocritical because I love Autopsy's Shitfun. Surprised reading you're a cat person, though that is common among metalheads.
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:17 pm 
 

Alright, I've generally opted to bite my tongue regarding Human666's bizarre contrarian rants, but his latest review of Helloween's Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 1 is right in Superchard territory. He seriously states that everything done on said album was done previously by Rainbow and Manowar. Now, if he had mentioned that the album draws heavily from say...Iron Maiden and Queensryche, he might be a bit closer to reality, but even then the pacing factor and the heavy amount of Neo-classicism present throughout the album kinda cuts against it simply being a sped up NWOBHM meets early USPM affair. Also, I'd like to hear which song prior to 1987 it was that they ripped off when they wrote Halloween. Any takers?
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CannibalCorpse
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:55 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 3:28 am 
 

Haha, yeah that Keeper of the Seven Keys review was kind of...weird and I really had to chuckle over the Rainbow and Manowar comparisons. The score and the review itself don't really match either, even though he's rambling a lot, there's apparently also one of the greatest PM songs of all time on there, followed by another almost-as-good song. Does that really warrant a 22% slam and I fail to hear such a huge dip in quality later on.

Anyway, a rather strange text.
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true_death
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 4:18 pm 
 

His new Amorphis review is pretty bad too. The whole thing feels totally disingenuous and forced. It's a shame he's so devoted to trolling because he's really not very good at it...that's one of my favorite albums of all time and yet I'm not even remotely offended...what a waste of time :lol:!
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Lord_Of_Diamonds
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:22 pm 
 

Oh man, that new Infant Annihilator rant was quite a read. Honestly, when IA was added to this site, I thought they'd get a lot more hate that they have been getting considering this site's demographic. But no, here is another sky-high rating. I particularly liked the bit about how Aaron Kitcher can actually play the drums like that because there's video footage of him playing like that. The video footage that exists of him playing the drums, though, is actually pretty damning evidence that he can't play like that.

Most of the videos of Kitcher playing that people will find immediately are the studio track being played with the video over the top - no new audio at all. There are one or two raw videos, I think. Anyway, the techniques that he shows in those videos are incredibly inefficient and definitely would yield sloppy results when used at such high speeds. For fast blast beats, it looks like he tries to move his entire arm at that really high speed instead of doing flying fingers or switch-blasting. For double-kicks, he attempts single strokes the whole way through. Just twitches his feet as fast as possible, no heel-toe, no swivel, no anything. Both of those approaches to drumming would be incredibly tiring when playing at 280+BPM, not to mention hard to keep on the beat. The "official play-throughs" on YouTube have probably been sped-up and edited. Perhaps if Kitcher learned some better techniques, then he actually could play the songs live and the band could tour.

Wow, that was a bit overlong of a counter-rant. Perhaps I should have just said that I continue to believe that the drums on IA albums are 100% enhanced/programmed.
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:05 pm 
 

true_death wrote:
His new Amorphis review is pretty bad too. The whole thing feels totally disingenuous and forced. It's a shame he's so devoted to trolling because he's really not very good at it...that's one of my favorite albums of all time and yet I'm not even remotely offended...what a waste of time :lol:!


I'm in the same boat, Keepers Pt. 1 is one of my go-to albums whenever I want to contemplate where my favorite sub-genre of metal came from, and the review is such a scatterbrained mess that I can't really be bothered to get angry over it. There is no other way to interpret such a hyperbolic mess than as a really lame attempt at trolling.

CannibalCorpse wrote:
Haha, yeah that Keeper of the Seven Keys review was kind of...weird and I really had to chuckle over the Rainbow and Manowar comparisons. The score and the review itself don't really match either, even though he's rambling a lot, there's apparently also one of the greatest PM songs of all time on there, followed by another almost-as-good song. Does that really warrant a 22% slam and I fail to hear such a huge dip in quality later on.

Anyway, a rather strange text.


At some point after his initial string of fairly decent reviews in 2007 he decided to become a sort of deranged attention-seeker who makes a point of targeting well-received albums with bizarrely worded negative pot shots. If his goal is to get more people to read his stuff, I'd argue he is going about it the wrong way. His word salad rants about the classic Fates Warning albums with John Arch were royally ridiculous, but this latest string of reviews he's unleashed are downright surreal.
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meshigene
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:59 pm 
 

I find it even funnier that this dude talks about cheese, unoriginality and a lack of, to quote Darkthrone, imaginary balls as if those are the most inexcusably bad things in the context of power metal.

Although the Keeper albums have their flaws, the drum production and the sound effects for instance can go gamble with the devil.
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Nothingface
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:06 am 
 

At least it got a 22%, he gave The Spectre Within a 6%.

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Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:12 am 
 

Best to ignore him and focus on the good and memorable reviewers. I really like Acrobat's review of Cradle of Filth's Cruelty and the Beast. It had a good mix of historical knowledge and musical description. Important album.

Also, I just saved you guys from a 20% Agent Orange review...
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Kerpak
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:52 am 
 

Empyreal wrote:
EzraBlumenfeld wrote:
I'm a bit disturbed that anyone could write a 100% Arghoslent review and try to make excuses that "they aren't racist, they're just taking the perspective of the era their songs are written about."


Yeah, I skipped around in that to see what his points would be about the lyrics, not surprised at all. It's amazing that people could think that way - if that was the case, the band's stuff wouldn't be banned everywhere, or movies like 12 Years a Slave would also be banned.


That's not the point at all. The point is most of the lyrics could be perceived as neutral even if you know the band isn't. And if they were written by someone else, they'd be perceived differently even if they were the same words on paper. For example - their song Ten Lost Tribes could be viewed as glorifying ancient Israel - if you remove one slur ("Talmudic rats") they use there and ignore the sarcastic tone of it ("Dueling over sovereignty of holy sands" can be viewed as sarcastic but also can be not). That's my opinion as someone Israeli.

P.S. Idk if people know this but at least one member of Arghoslent voted for Obama in 2008 (this being after 90% of their material was already released), that's pretty amusing.

I still find it funny that people have such a knee jerk reaction to extremism in metal. Metalheads talk about misanthropy openly, pretend to be edgy and sing about murder/rape/gore/prostitution but as soon as it's a bit more political suddenly you should literally burn down a record and refuse to listen to it. Meanwhile - super popular bands with controversial pasts keep going (Dimmu Burgir said in the past they wish to genocide all Africans, Burzum is controversial but a lot more accepted than Arghoslent, There's a huge list of black metal bands with rape/murder/other criminal pasts including the biggest ones in the 90s Norwegian scene.).
Many classics of the genre are made by people driven by something - introspective rejects, misanthropic late-teens, murderers, insane people, drug addicts. That's just how it is. Music made by satisfied stable people is mostly boring and generally worthless. I don't make a distinction and have no reason to care about specific forms of extremism - I care about the quality of the music. There's no reason for me to care about anything else, I am not responsible for anyone besides myself and my close relatives, and I don't expect people from across the ocean to extend their sympathies to me either.

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CannibalCorpse
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:55 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:17 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:

At some point after his initial string of fairly decent reviews in 2007 he decided to become a sort of deranged attention-seeker who makes a point of targeting well-received albums with bizarrely worded negative pot shots. If his goal is to get more people to read his stuff, I'd argue he is going about it the wrong way. His word salad rants about the classic Fates Warning albums with John Arch were royally ridiculous, but this latest string of reviews he's unleashed are downright surreal.


Thanks, I just realized he's the same guy responsible for that Fates Warning review. It's a little sad that reviews with such ridiculously low, unjustified scores tend to receive more attention than the quality ones, hence plenty of faux writers get the attention as well.
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