Welcome to the 17th (yikes, 17th!) MA Virgin Reviews Challenge!

First hosted a decade ago, this challenge is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every winter and every summer reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible, with the aim to focus on albums with no reviews so far (ie. virgin albums). Every day, the reviews submitted and accepted are tallied, so that participants can see how they compare with one another and whether or not, altogether, we've been able to surpass previous challenges' totals.

This challenge will run from Monday June 20th @ 12:00AM EST to Sunday June 26th @ 11:59PM EST.

The magic number to beat is 609. That was set in May 2009. It's high but we can beat it.
The second magic number to beat is 462. That was the total from the last challenge!

The MA Reviews Challenge Rules

1. The focus is on virgin albums.
The only albums that count are those that had zero reviews prior to the challenge.

2. Every release listed on the main site is valid including singles, videos, boxed sets and so on.
However please try to refrain from mass reviewing singles for this challenge. That's lame.

3. Eligible releases have to be virgins at the beginning of the challenge.
Multiple people can review the same virgin. There’s no bonus for getting to it first, so no need to hurry – focus on quality instead.

4. Value quality over quantity!
Everyone is welcome to participate, but keep in mind that the mods won't be more lenient during the challenge.

5. The challenge abides by the default time of the site (Eastern Standard time or GMT-5).
Please ensure that you are posting your review(s) within the right time frame in order for them to count.

6. The total number of reviews written will be tallied once a day (under normal circumstances).
Derigin (myself) will kindly do the tallying as soon as possible. Please don't nag him (me).

7. Stay cordial and respectful with one another.
Don't hijack this thread with petty arguments or whining. Remember that the mods are watching (and waiting)...

8. The only reward is our eternal appreciation.
The only prize is knowing that there is an album that previously didn't get any love... that now has a review to call its own.

The MA Reviews Challenge Hall of Fame





Based on the success from last year we will be continuing with the SECRET SATAN bonus round...

... BUT with a twist! Unlike the last time I'm NOT gonna try to match anyone with others that share similar tastes. This time it will be completely random, so beware that you may be matched with someone who does not share your tastes and may have you review an album outside of your comfort zone. If you CANNOT accept this then please do not put your name forward for this.

Like last time you can opt-in to SECRET SATAN. You will be matched with another reviewer by yours truly. You will exchange with one another a virgin album for review (explained below). You will commit to reviewing that album for the challenge. In order to participate, please contact me through a PM on the forum OR mention it in a post in this thread ASAP. Be forewarned, I will not be accepting requests to join once the challenge begins. As I receive requests I will match people periodically. I will put matches in contact. Once matched, you are required to provide a link to the album you want the other person to review. Please keep in mind the following rules:

- It MUST be an album on this site with no reviews at the time it is shared with the other person.
- It MUST be available for FREE online and in either a QUALITY DOWNLOAD or QUALITY STREAM. It should be EASY to acquire without using third-party software.
- Ideally, please avoid sharing your own band's album. There are better avenues for promotion.
- It is best to provide a backup album for the person you're matched with just in case they have problems accessing it.

Once you receive a link to an album, please review it and submit it during the challenge. That way it will count for this challenge.

Please remember this is done in good faith. If you get an album you don't want to review, fine, but don't be a party pooper for others. And, lastly, if you have any problems with the person you're matched with, let me know. I have spare albums for review just in case it doesn't work out.

Have fun! Looking forward to your participation!

Niiiice. Not sure I'll take part in Secret Satan just because I have enough on my plate with my longer list this time.

Secret Satan was fun, obviously I'll do it again.

Definitely on board with the Secret Satan. Like last time, I'm going to say that my participation will be very limited, but in reality I'm a huge nerd who will likely bang out a somewhat respectable number of reviews. Better start compiling that list...

I don't think I want to do Secret Satan this time, but I definitely plan to participate.

Yay! I'm definitely in for Secret Satan again.

I'll participate this time as well, and I think that I'll go with Secret Satan.

Awwwwww yeah, June 20th. Count me in.

Hail Mountain Man, the most gracious of gods!

I couldn't do the Secret Satan the other time, I'll do it this time.

i'll try to drop a few reviews in. 17th.. yeah pretty nuts. MA is getting really old.

This looks like so much fun! I'll definitely contribute to the challenge. For those who've done it before, is Secret Satan worth doing? I'd like to take a crack at something out of my comfort zone, but I'm on the fence. Does it count if the album's on Youtube?

Of course. That is what is meant by a 'quality stream'.

This is the second time Secret Satan has been done for this challenge. The first time you listed 3 genres and you were matched based on those, so you could review something you were familiar with or something completely out of your comfort zone. Now it is down to chance as that listing doesn't happen. If you're cool with reviewing something potentially very different then go for it - what's the worst that could happen?

Alright cool! In that case, count me in for the secret satan, Derigin!

Count me in for Secret Satan again. That was a lot of fun last time reviewing something I would have never gotten to on my own.

Count me in for Secret Satan as well. Interested to see what I get, but it'll also be cool to see everyone else reviewing genres that they don't usually delve into.

I'll be there. I've always been there. I'll use my own collection, though, plenty of stuff there.

Oh my god, I'm in.

I'll review a few, and the Secret Satan could be interesting, so I'll go ahead and participate in that as well.

Just a general idea.

The end-of-year challenges are almost always around dates where pupils and students are overloaded with work or people are traveling to reunite with their families. Your mid-year challenges take place during the final exams in many high schools as well. If you want to increase participation, it would be wiser to choose different dates, for example in mid-January and mid-July.

But then people are starting classes or going back to work in January and will be stressed, or they're on summer vacations or trips in July and so wont be around.

No matter what date is chosen there'll always be an inconvenience for some group that prefers another time. I can't please everyone.

I'm most definitely in for Secret Satan since I got snubbed from it last year for some reason. Probably for the best, though, as I remember the last challenge being a busy time. I'll see if I can top my personal best from last year of 10 reviews!

I am in ...

I've been listening to a whole bunch of obscure stuff and I am now considering if maybe I should run with a theme and only write reviews within a certain sub-genre rather than what I've been doing for most of the more recent challenges by trying to hit something from every sub-genre. Part of me is thinking of going the DeathRiderDoom approach and doing a bunch of archaic NWOBHM and 80s heavy metal albums, while the other is thinking of going in more of a NausikaDalazBlindaz direction and do a bunch of obscure atmospheric black metal.

Anybody have any thoughts? I may end up doing a little of both but I'm curious if anybody would like to see more of one or the other.

Archaic NWOBHM and '80s heavy metal seems too in line with what you normally review (the whole heavy/power/speed metal complex.) Go for the obscure BM!

I vote for black metal, too.

Little bit of both. Don't want to burn yourself out on all one style. I'm gonna try and hit a bunch of bands from Chicago that have no reviews for anything and then some other random stuff I have that I know nobody else will ever review.

I was leaning more towards doing the black metal thing just because it might be easier for me to review in my usual stream of consciousness approach in a more prolific fashion given that I tend to be more "in awe" of the nuances of an album if it's in a style that I'm not as familiar with, though over the past year I've been consuming a heavy amount of atmospheric black metal, largely based on reviews I read by NausikaDalazBlindaz. I actually find the heavily reverb and keyboard drenched variant of black metal in question to be a bit more conducive to my normal melodic metal consumption then most of the other extreme styles.

I still plan on hitting a good number of obscure 80s stuff, mostly because I have a shit-ton of it and I'm pretty sure most of it will go unreviewed, especially since DeathRiderDoom went inactive a couple years ago.

All Secret Satan participants have been matched.

Sorry for the delay. I've been rather ill.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time is close.

Aye, I'm already doing my warm-up listening session as I type this. I plan to try and knock out a couple between midnight and when I turn in. Not sure how big my contribution will be this time, but I definitely plan to at least match, if not surpass what I did last time.

D'oh, I was doing some pre-challenge listening just now and of course someone just reviewed what I was listening to. Oh well.

Ouch, was it that latest from Savage Master or the one from Behexen?

Behexen. He sniped it before the challenge started, too, so that's one gone from the list. Great album, though!

I'll check it out, probably after the challenge is over. It's now officially on, good luck everyone!

Reminder that the Nails albums qualify for the review challenge! Go ahead and write some for them, it's kind of odd for a big-name band like them to have none.

I've managed to knock out 5 so far and am going to start my 6th fairly soon. I opted to start in familiar territory, but I plan to branch over to doing some more out-of-character material by tomorrow. It looks like I may end up doing a similar breakdown of content to my last challenge, save maybe a slightly greater concentration of black metal and less doom/stoner albums.

Didn't even realize Nails made it into the Archives. Crazy. New album is really freaking good thougb.

*crawls out from under a rock*

Well, didn't know anything about this challenge until right now! I'll have to submit a review or two. Probably won't be as proficient as last time, though.

Yeah I only managed to push out one today cause life. Hoping to get at least two a day done until Friday when I know I won't get any. Then hopefully a few more Saturday and Sunday. I've got three concerts to attend Friday and Saturday so we'll see what happens.

Daily Tally for June 20th 2016
Total Reviews: 73 / 73
Total Virgin Reviews: 63 / 63
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 86%

Today's Virgin Reviews:


Participant List for June 20th 2016
Total Participants: 28 / 28
Today's Totals per Individual: