You've both misunderstood me - sorry if I've been unclear. Of course they are important. I only wrote they shouldn't constitute the core of a review.

Sometimes they are at the core of the release in question, but I do agree that normally they shouldn't be the focus. Obviously the music is the core, but somewhat decent music can be ceaselessly annoying and actually BAD if the band's only goal is to sell albums (Raintime is a recent example that sticks out).

Agreed. Nothing to add except it's quite ironical the criticism came from two of my favorite reviewers, that write reviews "the way I think it should be done"

In additon to being relative, or at least semi-relative, to the release by using factual framework or some sort of pulse-of-the-times interpretation, I think it simply adds color.

Wisdom.

It's kind of strange, I don't actually set out to write 'just about the music' so to speak, but it's normally what I end up doing. The other is that I don't really know much about the band I'm reviewing (MA is the only contact with the metal scene I get) so I don't often feel like I'm qualified to comment on things I'm fairly ignorant about.

..And yes, my early reviews are pretty terrible, but I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

I thought Muloc's review of Rainfall was pretty brave, and pretty well written. Kudos for him for doing something very unfashionable. Personally I wish I'd written my review of the first Rainfall a bit harsher (I'd probably give it a 20% now), and while I'd only give the new one 40% or so, it's not quite as bad as most people seem to think.

It's an interesting bit of trolling he does there. A bit too obvious to work, but we all know the sacred ways of the troll take a few years of practice.

well yes, the possibility that it's a troll is quite likely (there's no way it's worth 87%), but nonetheless I still thought that split was quite an improvement on the original release.

Well, those "if you like Burzum and Summoning you're going to enjoy this too"-bits tell me he's either trolling, or he's never heard a single song of either Burzum or Summoning in his whole life. The former seems more likely there.

95% of your posts are complaint-centered, don't you have anything better to do with your time?

You mean like posting threads about giant turds in General, or retarded vs-threads in Metal, or "why did you reject Metalcore bands #43635645??"-threads in S&C? Nah, as far as my posting goes, I think I'm fine the way things are, and heaps above the average.

A dubious honor.

It's sad that Esoteric never wrote more reviews while he was around.

Congratulations, Muloc7253, after reading that new review for Agent Orange you're officially off the hook, much earlier than I expected.

Sodom sounds exactly like Destruction?? .....WHAT.....THE.....FUCK.....?????

He also called Tank glam rock.

Sounds like he's trying to be Falco, except Falco actually knew what he was talking about most of the time. Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom all sound alike....right, and Metallica sounds just like Slayer. It's all clicks and whistles to me!

I'm ever so overwhelmingly relieved to be forgiven of my sin of making note of a similarity from a compulsive moaner from the internet that I couldn't give a shit about outside of the net anyway.

Join me in this joyous jubilation brothers and sisters

Yes, I was thinking the same thing.

Napero's St. Anger review is amazing.

Thanks. I'm pretty sure everybody won't like it, though. As always.

Edit: also, please note that I had a flu, and since I couldn't go to work, I wrote a review. So, it's been written in slight fever, and I will check it tomorrow. I don't know if I will still like it myself then.

Seconded.

Thirded, that's probably the only full review on St.Anger I've bothered to read and it was very worthwhile. I'll admit my knowledge of cars is pretty poor but the analogies and metaphors still worked thanks to the writing. Great stuff Napero!

Yeah, this guy has no experience in thrash whatsoever, and the three German thrash bands he mentioned have more talent combined than he could ever dream about having for the rest of eternity. The guy just sounds like he doesn't like thrash, in which case I have to wonder why the fuck he is reviewing the album in the first place.

I have to admit though, for a troll he did get me quite pissed off.

The majority of negative reviews for the less-true genres of metal (metalcore, melodeath) are from people who loathe the genre to begin with. Nothing new under the sun.

But... it's thrash! How can anyone not love Thrash?

He is a heretic that is how, kill the infidel! *ululates*

It was a sweet review, and the metaphor was apt. I actually came to this thread to praise the Napero's review, because it's freaking awesome, although I would rate the album a lot higher.

Latest review for Profanaticaca's Profanatitas De Domonatia is good.
http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=150467
Not a poetic masterpiece, but solid.

I'm sorry, droneriot, I should have mentioned in the first paragraph that the reader needs a valid driver's licence to proceed any further...

That is a good analysis on the review and the public opinion on it, anyway. You people will buy anything.

He would.

Noktorn's latest Type O Negative review is a very stirring piece of work. It's a great piece of writing, actually, and makes me want to hear the album again after dismissing it on its initial release. http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=3534#29088

Thank you very much for your words. I really love that album and think it's incredibly unique. It's easily the best thing that Type O Negative ever turned out, and I really think the 'goth vs. gothic' distinction is deeply explored in it. While their work after it is fun, they probably should have broken up after its release.

I was about to recommend it as well. I like the ending paragraph confirming that I'm far from alone in my observation that Type O Negative is the band to build their entire career upon misaimed fandom. Strangely, World Coming Down is the only Type O album I haven't heard yet but since I'm getting quite into doom metal recently I guess I need to own it as well.

I always thought that Steele, with World Coming Down, was desperately trying to drag goth back into his vision of it. But I never put the idea together that well, or quite saw the evolution of his prediction coming full circle. Very nice.

to you Norkton. Nice review of the album (And a historical perspective on a sub-genre).

Thanks again for the words.

'World Coming Down' isn't an album by Type O Negative: it's an album by Peter Steele and about him, and it actually works because you can feel his pain. Peter grew up in the NYHC scene and saw goth develop along with it, and it seems to describe, being released in 1999, the destruction of what 'goth' meant, and how it was turned into the commodity that it is today. Now there's no 'goth culture'; there's a goth 'scene' that's lost all of the beauty of what it had before. And I consider 'World Coming Down' the sort of bittersweet goodbye to the goth community he had grown up next to, if not in.

Steele never took 'goth' very seriously, as evidenced by the jokes on the band's earlier releases, but he took it seriously enough to love the community for a while. It's the same thing where we, as people who love heavy metal, regularly mock it or poke fun at it, but love it and still take it seriously. 'World Coming Down' was the only Type O Negative album devoid of any jokes, and it was a paean to the destruction of the goth community and its transformation into something safe and common. And I think that a lot of the album if Peter Steele attacking himself for doing his part to harm it, due to the stupid teenagers who misinterpreted him, as the people who misinterpret metalheads who mock their genre. The title track is as much about his life at the time as the goth scene:



Type O Negative now makes pretty good albums to make money. But, as Steele said himself later, 'the dream is dead', and it'll never be the same. But then again, I guess that was an inevitability of goth, Type O Negative, and Peter Steele himself, and the very inevitability is what 'World Coming Down' is about. Tragic yet beautiful, isn't it.

I'm not so sure about metalheads regularly mocking it or poking fun at it... metal generally strikes me as a surprisingly irony-free genre, the only bands that somehow poke fun at it without for all intents and purposes resembling nothing more than a parody I can think of are Slough Feg and (you guess it) Type O Negative. Even then, Slough Feg seem to be doing something more serious than just poking fun at the genre - their lyrics (especially on Atavism) frequently relentlessly criticize some of the more idiosynchratic attitudes tha have become widespread among metalheads.

Come to think of it...



... can it be argued that good chunks of Slough Feg's discography are to metal what World Coming Down is to goth rock?

Perhaps; I'm not very well acquainted at all with Slough Feg's work, though I like what I've heard. I'll have to look into it further.

Hum... Skip It is an obvious joke.