Anyone have a download link for the leaked Queensryche? It's been up for grabs for over 2.5 hours now with no reviews yet, so it clearly falls under the domain of this challenge's goals and aspirations. I'll even be so kind as to publish the review here before putting it on my blog and other sites where I review professionally.

Reviewing the new Amon Amarth does kind of go against the spirit/point of the challenge, but whatever, it breaks no rules and it's just one album.

Two. The new Autopsy as well.

It'll be 4 since I was actually planning on hitting the new Queensryche and Havok albums. I'm not really bothered if none of these albums end up being counted, I just want to get my 2 cents on these albums before they get loaded up with reviews to the point that nobody reads any of them anymore.

I'm the same way. I'd prefer to have my review of the new QR up now during this week than later. It was planned to be released this week before this current review challenge came to be, but whether it's counted or not isn't something I'll be hung up over.

Sent 2 more. There are many good chilean releases with just 1 review and sometimes the descriptions are very lacking, so despite the challenge, next week I'll review more of those.

Maybe in the interest of settling things down a bit I'll refrain from reviewing these albums for a day or so. I just hit Wino's "Heavy Kingdom" and plan on doing some other stuff that wasn't released a day or two ago before I get onto the stuff that's currently under review.

I don't really see the motivation behind getting in reviews "early" for really popular releases. If you look at things that've been on the site for a few years now, the oldest reviews tend to be the shittiest. Either they're written back before the review standards came up a bit, or they're more recent ones where they meet the quality guidelines but they're just gushing fanboy reviews by people who signed up just to write that review, or that and a handful of others at most. I honestly find the more valuable reviews for really popular releases to be the most recent ones, because they're usually written by veteran reviewers and have a longer gestation period than day 1 fanboy gushing. Plus, when you click "reviews" they're the first ones you see. Seems like that's where the prime real estate is.

Two done. I probably won't get past five this time, seeing that the Tuska Open Air will eat the whole weekend, but I will try to keep the releases Finnish and at least marginally interesting.

I've got two more in the can, not sure when I'll submit. Everything still looks legit, nice work folks.

I agree with your general argument as it pertains to reviews circa 2002-2005 being sub-par. The thing is, this isn't 2002 anymore and there is a higher bar to reach in order to get approved, though admittedly it's easier to get approved if there are 0 reviews for a release as opposed to 20. I'd like to think that I'm not a gushing fan boy, particularly since the new Queensryche review isn't getting a score above 75 out of me, and that my reviews serve an adequate purpose in conveying what the album sounds like. I'll admit that my reviews generally tend to be moderate in length, which comes from a philosophy that I'm working in a journalistic capacity as much as that of a critic, so I'm not necessarily looking to write an extended social commentary on every single release I review, though ironically the only reviews that usually come up in discussions here are ones where I've either offended someone or gone almost as long on socio-political commentary as I have on musical description, which I generally try not to do anymore anyway.

On topic: I'm going to try to hit 1 or 2 tonight before turning in. Right now much of my list consists of newer releases that I'm reviewing for either the Metal Observer or at the request of bands or friends, but I have a handful of older ones that I'm going to try and hit before this thing is over. Everyone is doing quite well this go around, and I'm actually quite impressed with your material so far batman, a lot of bands that I haven't heard before but will probably check out now.

Personal progress update - two sets, a lone album, and a stray split have been reviewed so far for a total of 8:
Ebony Tears discography (3 albums)
Angel Reaper discography (3 demos)
The Kris Norris Projekt album
Drowning the Light/Arkha Sva split



That's a good approach, I really appreciate it on many of the more prominent albums. It is far too often that I see inexperienced reviewers spewing out a gross excess of words simply because of the clout of an album, vomiting their fanboy excitement on new releases and regurgitating half-baked impressions based on reputations and Wikipedia articles of the classics.

I wasn't talking about your reviews. Take a look at Megadeth's Endgame for example. That's a newer album, so the oldest reviews for it aren't really crappy ones like the oldest reviews of albums that have been around since the Archives existed. However, the first three reviews for it are by a gushing Megadeth fanboy who gave Th1rt33nzorz a 90-something, a guy who signed up for the site just to give Endgame a 90 then disappear, and another Megadeth fanboy with an average review score of 90%. It's like that all the time, and you've gotta scroll down the page to see those fairly worthless reviews, right? So wouldn't you want your better-written, better-informed review from a name people know to be at the top of the page where people will actually see it?

Thanks for your kind words, though. I'm really churning them out this challenge since I've got the time to do it, a nice pile of virgins and my reviewing-fingers are a bit rusty.

Did 5 more today, making it a grand total of 9. Not so sure that I can keep up with Clannfear and Batman, though. This is going great so far, multiple people have done more reviews in the first two days as the most prolific reviewer in the last challenge.

HOT DAMN I would have missed this if I didn't see it brought up in the FFA! I'm totally down to review some stuff again; summer school isn't terribly time consuming and I'm not being scheduled for very many shifts at work. This will be a fun opportunity to review some metalcore and slam no one else wants to touch. One day late but I'll get some stuff in.

*raises hand*

Fight you for it.

I wasn't planning on doing much in the genres besides Dysentery's debut and some Nightshade CD I ended up with, but I'll knife-fight both of you over any choice releases.

edit: Three down so far, can probably get a couple more done today. Probably something from Ringworm and Gehenna. Maybe some All Out War. Then I'll get back onto the more fully metal stuff I have lined up.

I see you've already reviewed Irate... I call dibs on NY Metal

You can have it.

Much as I like their beatdown stuff, the groove/metalcore releases just don't do it for me.

Reviewed one so far. Maybe I'll do another one tonight.

Where the hell is Androdion for this challenge? Dude is missing in action, I remember he did rather well in the last one.

I did one! Who'd have thought?

I've done 5 now if we're not including the Queensryche and Amon Amarth releases, and I have plans to try and get at least 2 more done today. If things keep going at their present pace I'll probably get around 20 done. I'm still planning on hitting Havok's new album even though it might not qualify given it was released during the challenge, but the two that I'm getting today will definitely qualify.

Damn you to hell MutantClannfear for beating me to Eternium! I wanted to be the first to Markov off Markov's band.

MIA but not KIA!

I've been taking a bit of a sabbatical leave from writing for the past few months, and I still haven't figured out if I intend to end it. The latest months (couple of years actually) have been abundant in personal turmoil and unrest, so there are things I actively enjoy that are slipping by and left behind. A lot has changed in my personal life and I'm dealing with it... It's just that my mind is elsewhere nowadays. Sucks I know, and I'd very much like to participate, but there's no point in force feeding something just to throw it up the next minute. If I'm going to write then it must be something worth reading, not some regurgitated mess done with little willpower or conviction.

This may come as a bit of a surprise, but hey, there's a real life out there and sometimes it just affects you more than the usual amount! I don't think anyone will debate that.

Thanks for feeling my absence though. It's cool to be appreciated, I won't lie about that. Still waiting on your Neurosis reviews though.

Have fun you all! "Let the games begin!"

Shit dude, sucks to hear about the personal stuff. But yeah, I agree with stepping back until your heart's back in it. I've kind of forced reviews a few times, and they ended up being some of my weaker stuff.

As for the Neurosis reviews, I'm going to be taking them slow. One every couple of months or so. They're one of my favorite bands of all time so I want to get it right. Already got my raving fanboy review for Souls At Zero done, aiming for having the Enemy of the Sun one finished before university starts again.

Okay, thus far I have done the following albums that will definitely count towards my total:

Crystallion - Killer
Astronomikon - Dark Gorgon Rising
Wino - Heavy Kingdom
Ultra-Violence - Privilege To Overcome
Adrian Weiss - Big Time
Mindbend - Timeline

I've also done the new Amon Amarth and Queensrÿche albums which may yet not be counted but I'll just keep them in mind in case it is decided that the old rules from last challenge will stay in effect. I am now going to be hitting my 2,000th review with this next one, which will be of an album that I've been itching to review but have shied away from since it's one of my favorites of all time going back to the late 90s when I first got into power metal. It's a good thing that my reviews are auto-approved because this one will probably be a long one.

Keep up the good work everyone, this is turning out to be quite a prolific challenge.

^ Congrats on reaching such an absurdly prolific number of reviews.

Wrote 9 reviews today, which is by far the most I've managed in a single day. In fact, it is more than all the reviews I managed in the last challenge. This puts me at a total of 18. Challenge has been great so far, infinitely better than last time.

Tony, was your Eternal Champion review written during the challenge? Just wondering if I can get credit for it if I review it, just now realized the release was up on the archives.

As long as it was a virgin when the challenge started, you get credit. Twenty people could review that album and all have it count for their personal score.

Okay cool. Review submitted. I love me some epic heavy metal.

Forging number five. I'm doing better than I expected.

I just finished number 7, I'm pretty sure I've done 9 across every previous challenge combined. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

Copycat! By the way, Jason Tarpey is the singer of Graven Rite.

I wrote 5 so far, all doom and epic metal, I'll try to do something different lol.

That makes sense. I thought they sounded surprisingly similar. Thanks for the info.

Okay, I've cleared out 2 of the 3 untouched albums of one of power metal's more obscure and at times, derided bands. Call me a geek, but these two reviews were the most fun I've had writing on this site in several years. Keep up the good work everyone.

I've done one so far. Yay, I participated! I have a couple other ones on the way, hopefully I can actually put up a respectable amount by the time this thing is done.

Ok, with Gruesome Stuff Relish down that puts me at four (and also marks the first time I've had to outright slam a band for including too much damn material). Should crank out another couple today, hopefully I'll be able to hit a dozen for the whole week if I have the weekend to work through the rest.

Quick question: the rules state that the challenge runs from the 24th through the 1st of July. Does this mean we're able to submit reviews on the day of the 1st, or does the contest end midnight the 30th as it turns into the 1st?

MutantClannfear: Bill Pulmonary Embolism is an homage to actor Bill Pullman, of Spaceballs fame.

I'll say it includes the 1st too. It's Canada day too this could give the Canadians some more time since it's a day off.

6th review submitted.