Any one use this as a source for opinions? I did a search and found nothing on the matter.

I read it sometimes to find albums from bands I may have missed. Their taste is different than mine and I don't really listen to death metal so I just look for metal that is not death or extreme. When they review trad metal or something with clean vocals I usually like it more than they do. I found albums form Livewire and Ascension that I would not have known about otherwise.

Pretty bad if you ask me. Most of the time they just write about bands they are not familiar with just because they got some promo. They should stick to power and prog metal, which seems to be their forte. If they review an extreme metal album I guarantee you this is the first time they are listening to that band.

That's not true at all considering their most recent "records of the year" were Aeternam in 2022 and First Fragment in 2021. Even just a quick cursory glance at their site reveals more dissodeath, black and death metal reviews than prog and power.

I first came across bands like Sulphur Aeon and Noctambulist from AMG. The reviews are usually well-written and there's pretty good engagement in their comments. Some of the scores are real headscratchers though and there seems to be a bit of pandering here and there but they are one of the most thorough metal sites operating as far as I know.

I really like AMG and have found tons of new music through it.

Appreciate the reply Gents. I too have found cool/new music because of visiting there.
And I also agree with Gravetemplar about some of the annoyances.

Wow this thread gets lots of views but not many comments.......no doubt someone has copied it to the dour AMG crew lol.

This is not Facebook, users here tend to only comment when they have something relevant to add after viewing your topic and reading through. Plus, there's been discussions about AMG before.

Point taken. Please excuse my green nature. I don't use Fakebook, never have. Thanx for the heads up. I'll search for AMG topics again too.

I love checking AMG for new stuff. On another note. I'm specially fond of his SSoaSS review, the best one I've read for that album.

I'm currently reading through the annals of "AMG takes on Nazi's"

So far this comments wins:


pfk505
Metalhead

Joined: 21 Mar 2015 00:04
Posts: 420
Location: Canada
PostPosted: 09 Jan 2022 04:17 Reply with quote
AMG is the absolute worst. Writers who barely like metal and comment sections full of ballwashers who can't wait to agree with whatever the review score is, good or bad. With that said, more power to them for whatever editorial policies they want to enact. I sure hope they will back their new policy up with copious amounts of research into every band they decide to review from here on out - going through past releases, checking on whether the labels have released any "problematic" bands during the last 20+ years, checking whether the bands they review have ever played a festival with a "problematic" band, or share members with one, and so on.

I visit the site regularly and more or less enjoy their reviews, but they definitely tap into that dorky shitlib fanbase that sees Nazi boogeymen in every corner.

There was a recent example where some European band (forget the band, but they threw some hilarious shade on Panzerfauts for using German artwork) issued a promo photo where one member was looking through the okay sign and some snowflake in the comments immediately went off the rails concern trolling about white supremacy, etc. Literal brainrot. Like going after 1914 because you're too stupid to understand which world war had Nazis in it.

I like this Incantation ranking they did recently (probably cause I agree that Diabolical Conquest and not Onward to Golgotha is the best Incantation album hehe)

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/amg-goes- ... cantation/

^ Yah that's a pretty giant spread they did.

I visit the site regularly just to see if there's anything I haven't heard of yet. I find the groupthink about reviews somewhat laughable, people trip over themselves to agree with whatever the reviews say. Not a fan of the 5 star rating system either, but that's just because I find a percentage based scoring system superior. 3 out of 5 stars is not "Good" in my world.

I read it again and it's not that good, I don't know what was I thinking

I agree, there is a quite a bit of 'reach around' going on between the posters/fanboys and 'writers'.

Eh, I don't know if I'd attribute that sort of consensus between writers and users as "groupthink". There's a cohesion there that happens on these sorts of discussion forums (even MA) that is inevitable. AMG has been around a while that its audience knows the writers' tastes and preferences enough to anticipate them and engage on that level.

Ultimately, they serve a great purpose which is introducing a lot of metalheads to bands they didn't know about.

I certainly agree with the second part of your comment. Found some pretty interesting/cool things because of AMG. Personally, I find the reviews fluffy, inflated and written to impress the writers. I get it though: 'writers are going write' and fulfill their craft....I guess it's a little contrived for me, which I guess is the point especially if you went to college for just that
It seems they have a recipe/format they follow in terms of number of words. I also understand the artists solicit the reviews: can anyone else confirm that?

Porta Nigra! A band I only found because of that site and an album that is probably going to be top-3 AOTY for me. That whole "controversy" was pretty funny though, although to be fair, those accusations only came out in the comment section.

They have to receive the album (for free) from the artist, but they do not get paid to review albums, if that is what you mean. These are their requirements: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/angry-met ... d-revised/

Yah, I liked Port Nigra too and might not have found them if not for Dour Metal Guys
They should really consider a name change lol

I also have to agree with this.

The people that write reviews are practically treated like Rock Stars in there. It's bizarre.

I know man! It is weird AF and I'm glad someone else has validated my opinion on that. It's all subjective too as we know.
However: I'm not as interesting as I think I am LOL

It turns out I am actually even less interesting than I ever thought you knew that I thought I was, even before I had an idea of what you thought about.

Not quite. They do get shout outs from some members of the bands they review every now and then but they give harsh reviews to big name bands all the time...and get a fair bit of dissent going in the comments. Case in point being this Candlemass album;

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/candlemas ... om-review/