If he continues reviewing at the rate he is, I won't be surprised if he somehow hits the Top 3 at the very least.

Tbh I guess 70 might be enough to win this one. No one has done more than him so far (not even close), so unless someone has slept all day that’s probably the top standard.

Well, it's the kind of insanely enthused word salad I don't quite have the energy for anymore. Sadly it also appears to be Mister Rider's only review on the site, as maybe he blew its editorial staff away.
Aside from that, I'm presently digging myself some Street Fighter...

Are you talking about a band called Street Fighter? Because Hells just reviewed one.

i highly doubt i could write reviews at the frequency i did on the first day, it was mainly fueled by being familiar with the material beforehand and riding high on insomnia-induced adrenaline

I'll try to do one per day!

I've been making a list of virgins to hit and so far, three of them were deflowered by Gasmask before the challenge, you son of a bitch!

Haha, sorry about that mate. Interested to know what they were though, I didn’t think I reviewed all that much lately. Haunt maybe? Or were you going to do Cloud Of Souls?

Oh fuck, I just noticed someone's took the virginity of the new Excalion

Daily Tally for Jun 26 2023
Total Reviews: 37 / 37
Total Virgin Reviews: 33 / 33
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 89.2% / 89.2%

Participant List for Jun 26 2023
Total Participants: 16 / 16

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the first day of the last challenge, we are down 16 reviews and 11 participants.

Congrats to LawrenceStillman for being today's leader with 10 reviews!

A rather sleepy first day, with a suprise leader. Let's see where it goes from now on.

Cloud of Souls indeed! Gargantuan Blade and Lurk as well. I have a lot of stuff on my list anyway ha! I'd like to see you tackle Parish's self titled as well. I surely will.

Ah yeah, I figured Chris might want me to think about the review a bit, I had wondered about saving it for a challenge but just wrote it nearer to the release in the end. Gargantuan Blade was one that Markus was going on about so I felt I had to try as well. Would like to know your feelings on those, they all have interesting features.

I had no idea that Parish existed on the other hand, so that one's all yours! Look good at a glance though.

Any review is a good one as far as I’m concerned! I’m looking to sit out this round since I’ve got some other stuff going on but I might end up covering some 2023 releases I’ve not gotten around to yet. I’ll have to see any of my comrades’ projects still need covered but I think a bunch of them were already covered prior to the challenge.

I might also sit out this round as I'd rather remain a silent partner behind the scenes cheering on my fellow metal loving brethren, seeing also as I don't want to dilute its solidity with halfhearted efforts. As well, I want to take the opportunity to let twist know I dug everything about cloud of souls but the vocals, which I found a bit too raw for my tastes. (I felt like a dick repeatedly assuring him I'd check it out, with every passing email!)

Sure, but I think you got about triple of my cursory half-hour challenge writing session, so that's probably a significant improvement on the clarity (not always painful honesty) of my thoughts.

I think I probably end up going to extremes with my views during the challenge, because I'm forced to make snap decisions more often; as in, I often know what I think about the album generally, but I tend to withhold the judgement till I'm writing, so that needs a bit more reflex in these weeks. That said, tonight is gin night...that might also have an effect.

Encouragement to anyone holding off on writing to get involved: one review is better than none! It's a feeble effort for the team if we don't all pitch in.

Ah, I'm now in the mood to sample Dawn Ray'd To Know The Light. Or maybe I need to sample it. Thanks, emp!

Genuinely really great piece of metal. Hope you like it man.

A bit surprised by the low total, especially compared to last year's Summer edition, but as long as quality's here no reason to complain. Hell, if I want more reviews I just have to write more I guess.

Read the Nanowar of Steel reviews, Sodom, and curiously I had considered doing one for the Challenge as well, but eventually gave up on the idea. My score would have been a tad lower though, I assume you have to be Italian to wholly catch the spirit In the same genre, one day I'll do our very own national band Ultra Vomit... could never stand them. Not for this challenge though.

My first review is in ... and I hope to get some other done as well. but time is scarce right now.

Appreciate it! Yeah, that's inevitably part of it. Even their English albums have absurdist Italian references around every corner that I imagine would leave any foreigner scratching their head in perplexity, or just go past them with no reaction. Although I don't rule out the possibility that having seen them live twice (both for free, to boot) might have raised my enthusiasm about them even more, as they always put up a great show. They arguably don't help our country's appearance of seriousness, but that was already in a critical state since ages ago...

As for the review total, today was my last completely free day until the weekend, I hope I've been enough of a 'pacer' for somebody else's run

I basically slept through about 85% of Monday, for some reason I felt really lousy throughout the day and ended up unable to write much. Today will probably see me contribute a more respectable amount, but I'm already feeling like it's going to be another moderately prolific challenge for me unless I get a massive burst of inspiration soon. It will be interesting to see a new entry into the leading column this time around, liking Lawrence's output thus far.

Thanks gas, for the much needed kick in the butt, which reminds me, I've been meaning to let you know your latest Megadeth review...made me kick a chair, for a change.

Haha, ‘Kick the Chair’ isn’t on that album, but the Daveyssey is still going strong and it’s another entertaining chapter!

Daily Tally for Jun 27 2023
Total Reviews: 63 / 100
Total Virgin Reviews: 56 / 89
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 88.9% / 89.0%

Participant List for Jun 27 2023
Participants (TODAY/TOTAL): 19 / 20

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the second day of the last challenge, we are down 15 reviews and 11 participants.

Congrats to TheBurningOfSodom for being today's leader with 10 reviews!

Lawrence keeps the lead, while almost no new faces emerge if compared to yesterday. Seems like this challenge will be an affair of a little group of loyal people?

I'm definitely losing the lead soon, I have to listen to the next few reviews while the ones I already reviewed were familiar to me prior to this so the pace I write reviews in will slow down drastically

I hear you, Big L; in my case, because I haven't listened to much music lately (nothing to do with canadian mtv), find myself cramming it in early in the day so I can at least pump out my token one...By the way, Master Jowita has summoned me once again for a vrc review, so I'll have to slot it in for the weekend alongside a particular Greek purveyor...and I just remembered, I found the perfect rant fodder for you, since I know how much disdain you (and most everyone here) harbour for the insipid and insane MAGA crowd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucgu-Ooxy9c

(It's worth watching the whole thing, as it'll surely bend or melt your brain.)

Oi, gas, twist and metantoine, I'm happy to discover some new telltale doom!

Whelp, on top of having a sparse showing on Monday due to a nasty migraine I'm going to see Dream Theater and Devin Townshend on Saturday, so it's a foregone conclusion that I'll likely end up battling Slater for 4th place unless I have a really big showing tomorrow and Friday that sees me managing to sneak into 3rd place. I'll do what I can to get the collective total up, but I'll likely be giving my congrats to either gasmask or our beloved review counter when this is concluded.

Unlikely to happen though, Gas has already reached more or less the total I was aiming for. Let's see...

Daily Tally for Jun 28 2023
Total Reviews: 42 / 142
Total Virgin Reviews: 36 / 125
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 85.7% / 88.0%

Participant List for Jun 28 2023
Participants (TODAY/TOTAL): 16 / 22

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the third day of the last challenge, we are down 9 reviews and 10 participants.

Congrats to gasmask_colostomy for being today's leader with 6 reviews!

Gas finally takes his most comfortable position, but everything's open for at least the podium when we're almost halfway through. It's gonna be a tight competition.

Indeed, every edition is different. That one may be a small one, but at least with some suspense.

And being amongst a small crowd of loyal people is perfectly fine for me

It's weekend coming and I hope I can get some text out of myself. Done 3 reviews. I work for 10 hours per day, and it is hot here (well, for me it is freaking melting!). Yesterday I was out of steam. My flat didn't get at all colder last night, so... Abrupt sleeping. Anyway, hopefully this challenge will bring new records (probably not from me, though).

Daily Tally for Jun 29 2023
Total Reviews: 43 / 185
Total Virgin Reviews: 42 / 167
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 97.7% / 90.3%

Participant List for Jun 29 2023
Participants (TODAY/TOTAL): 16 / 22

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the fourth day of the last challenge, we are up 3 reviews and 1 participant.

Congrats to gasmask_colostomy, Slater922 and Twisted_Psychology for being today's leaders with 6 reviews!

It's safe to say that nothing's changed, and we're heading into the weekend expecting an even more thrilling finale. Three days to go!

Indeed, that might be the smallest number of participants we got in a long time, but the first positions can go literally everyone's way. Will have to grind harder than expected, then.

Exciting duels at the top!

I am currently traveling on a 24h train ride from Denmark to Italy. Let's see how much sleep I manage to get, probably not a lot, in which case this might be the perfect occasion to increase my daily output a bit!
(It's safe to say I don't expect to be able to write much once I get to Italy!)

Summer holiday, professor? Hope to see some more killer prog on here You might like the Qadmon EP I reviewed today.

Daily Tally for Jun 30 2023
Total Reviews: 41 / 226
Total Virgin Reviews: 39 / 206
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 95.1% / 91.2%

Participant List for Jun 30 2023
Participants (TODAY/TOTAL): 21 / 30

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the fifth day of the last challenge, we are up 2 reviews and 2 participants.

Congrats to Twisted_Psychology for being today's leader with 5 reviews!

Some new faces emerge, while for the situation at the top, any kind of prediction might be impossible. Keep an eye on Twisted's comeback for the podium, too...

One of my favourite things about this challenge is discovering more obscure bands. And thanks to Lane I now know of the existence of a slovakian band that has an album/song reference to a 1992 spanish sci-fi/comedy movie. Fucking great

Indeed! I went from grading essays to reviewing albums in the space of a week

It turns out the damn train did not have internet connection, so I posted all the reviews I wrote yesterday, today.
Maybe I still have a couple in me before the weekend is over. We shall see.

PS thanks for the Qadmon tip, I'll check them out!

Daily Tally for Jul 01 2023
Total Reviews: 39 / 265
Total Virgin Reviews: 33 / 239
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 84.6% / 90.2%

Participant List for Jul 01 2023
Participants (TODAY/TOTAL): 17 / 31

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the sixth day of the last challenge, we are down 2 reviews and 2 participants.

Congrats to lukretion and Slater922 for being today's leaders with 6 reviews!

Only one day to go, and still no one at the top has been able to outperform their opponents, with Gas still keeping that minimum lead. Slater's comeback for the podium might be the definitive one, though – I don't think I have much left in me to challenge him.

Likewise, I've starting to get burnt out on reviewing Japanese power metal and now I'm trying to get whatever doom metal records I have to get some reviews and dethrone gas

I need an all-nighter for this

Aw man, please no I can’t just let it go haha