Thanks for the help! I just submitted the review to the queue, and hope it gets accepted by the mods Your help is really appreciated! I did make some minor changes, added one or two things or words I felt necessary, and removed some commas. I think I'm too trigger happy when it comes to them. Also, I'm always a bit partial when it comes to run on sentences, because I tend to write in german where run on sentences are I think more common. I'm guessing my partiality stems form that.

Now, to review The Body's newest release. I'm always trying to review albums that don't yet have any reviews, as I find it unnecessary to review albums that already have a lot of reviews, as much as I like those albums. I'm trying to hone my skills on virgin albums, before tackling albums that a lot of people already have an opinion on.

Edit: Wow, thanks to the mod who approved the review so quickly! I'm happy that it was, and appreciate it. Looking forward to submitting some more reviews. It's actually quite intoxicating to write reviews. I hope to improve upon my writing skills with further reviews. Cheers!

Someone, help my with poor grammar.

"As is known, in many Arab countries to metal music have a negative attitude. For any opposition to religion can easily be put in jail. Iran is no exception. There have banned metal at the state level, for it provides for criminal liability. Consequently, all groups in this genre in deep underground.

One of these groups, "Sorg Innkallelse" can safely be called a worthy representative of the Iranian black-metal scene.
This work, "Into the Dark Tower" is one of the best. The album is full of depression, anguish and fear. This is not surprising, since such groups are often subjected to harassment by the authorities, and this leaves a significant mark in creativity.

The music itself is pretty good. "Freezing guitars" - this sound I associate with "Sorg Innkallelse". This sound gives some depression and transmits oriental flavor and atmosphere. Drums are beautiful, and together with guitars create a unique sound. From the first track "Arrival of Tormentor" imbued with this grim black metal fury. There's the "Freezing Guitars" and temperate blast beats, and complement all this screaming vocals. The following tracks a similar situation, but each of them has its own peculiarity, that leaves a good impression. "Departure" in the middle of the album dilutes its relatively quiet sound. All songs on the album are notable pace and his "oriental riffs".
Last "Incessant Winds of Despair" is the best by right of, it transmits the general mood. And album closes perfectly."

I'm sure you'll be on a roll in no time.



Unfortunately, there's only so much we can do. The problems lie more in your skill with English. If you're a student, I recommend going to the language lab for help with English composition. What is your preferred language?

I prefer russian

Try writing it in Russian and then asking a friend to help with the translation.

I've finished a first draft for my review of The Body's No One Deserves Happiness. It was a bit disappointing, but all in all, pretty decent. If you want to have a quick glance over it, I would be happy! I'm sure you'll find mistakes. I think that I'm slowly getting the hang of it. At least I hope so.

Plagued, what disappointed you about it? Cut out stuff you obviously don't need and try again. It's passable, but I'm not going to say it's yet the kind of thing I think you want to submit. Imagine it sitting there beside the album in question. It's going to piss you off just knowing that it's there. Keep working on it, and start by streamlining. Start a separate word document, cut and paste the whole thing, and then carve the shit out of it. See where that gets you. I think there's an acceptable review buried in there. Don't worry about style for now, just focus on the relevant information first. Currently, it's all with the too much word.

ok! will do that. Yeah, I was kind of unsure about the review because it's just kind of difficult to describe haha. And I guess the first paragraph is some way of me trying to find my own personal voice, so that failed I guess Will post an update in the following days!

Is this Ok? Or does it still has typos and stuff?

Musically speaking, Necromantia's debut is not weak at all; however, it has a lot of moments that make the same quite tedious. The greek band plays a somehow slow (yet not slow enough to be considered doom), non-aggressive black metal, which remained below the standards of said music.

Great moments in this album include the 8-string bass which actually sounds like a downtuned guitar and a quite enjoyable vocal work, even though vocals here aren't shrieky at all. On the other hand, the music in this album has a lot of long melodic passages that are very, very BORING. Maybe the band put them with the intention of making the music sound evil and horrendous, but actually they make the songs sound like a lame instrumental soundtrack for a bad horror movie about vampires and werewolves in Transylvania.

The worst part of this album is the almost 12 minutes of instrumental passages that start from the second half of the song Warlock, which are senseless; Warlock is 13:35 minutes long but only the first 7 minutes are worth of anyone's time, the remaining half of the song is garbage. And things get worse because after Warlock ends, Last Song for Valdezie (an instrumental piece of shit) starts and due to such a lame instrumental track, you want to stop listening to the rest of the album because you have already wasted a lot of time listening to these instrumental passages.

Luckily, after all this waste of time, the album gets to become interesting again with the 8-string bass, the aforementioned vocals, and the clean vocals that still help the music sound good. The best song on this album is Les Litanies de Satan which on 9 minutes combines all these elements: the clean vocals, the shrieky vocals, the instrumental passages (which despite the fact that they are bad on the rest of the album, this time they sound fine in the song), and the evil atmosphere of a vampiric Transylvania. Unfortunately, the last song (Tribes of the Moon) is more of the same boring stuff: tedious atmospheric music, only this time it does include vocals, so it isn't instrumental, that song is actually a gothic lament instead of a black metal song or an evil outro. Therefore, it has nothing to do with the album.

Notwithstanding the remants of quality shown in the album, it seems to be released in a wrong date, considering that by 1993 black metal has jumped into its second wave.

I wouldn't say that. I think you're well on your way; it just needs some streamlining. I didn't mean you should sandblast its personality. Far from it. It just needs clarity, not sterility. Besides, my feedback can be sound like my taste is all dry, but it isn't really. I just don't want people to lose sight of the basic ingredients that matter and get caught up in presentation. I think you're definitely on the right track. Do your best to write what you want to read. If it provides an aesthetic illustration as well as adequate information, you're going to do just fine. I'll keep an eye out for you, since you're clearly open to improvement. I think you're off to a pretty good start, so keep up the hard work.



I'm not sure what to say, honestly. It's got a decent start on the analysis, but it's hard to follow and is pretty disorganized. It definitely needs a better intro and conclusion. I feel like I'm just dropped into the middle of something, or I'm overhearing a conversation between people who already know way too much about something that I'll never look up. The flow of ideas just needs to go from A to B. This draft kind of zig zags. It's not describing the album so much as talking us through it. The album itself does that. You need to reflect on the album and give us your personal take on it.

The individual track descriptions do nothing for me. You don't have to include quite so many examples to make your point. It's an ok first draft, but it's not what I would call a finished review. I can tell the album's sorta bad, though, so you got that much across. I definitely won't be listening to it. Thanks for saving me the trouble.

I had a review rejected today for having a track by track review and it does not. I avoided that and no other explanation given.

Can you please post your rejected draft here? We can't really help you without seeing what it is you submitted. Also, the rejection message should be with it, and posting that too will help us understand what to look for.

Was rejected by and the reasoning being: "No track by track reviews. As stated clearly in the review submission form, please describe the music in broader terms, citing specific song examples only when necessary and/or to prove a point."

My Review was:

Anathema are the musical equivalent of metamorphosis. No one introduced to the band through their early years could have envisioned them becoming this. The change is as entertaining as it is staggering in its success.

It can be career ending to do an about face with your established identity, there is simply too much connection for the fan to completely disassociate with the change. However, despite the rarity, it can be career rejuvenating to do so. This is far less likely and as much a case of luck as it is about the output. Anathema proved to belong to the latter group. No doubt the band continues to evolve almost two decades after this release, but this was clearly the zenith of their evolution, everything led to this, their magnum opus.

The album has two different conceptual pieces, the first four tracks and then tracks six through eight. Both are sequences that, while separated by tracks, could have been a long song with segues as such. The first piece sets the stage for a very disheartening voyage into the cynicism that fills the wide spectrum of sound.

<i>One Last Goodbye</i> is the bands most popular song, at least of their ballads, and one listen demonstrates why. They somehow make such an obviously depressing song pleasant enough to experience where the journey goes. Both the soft and heavy sections, along with the sad lyrics, makes this the very outlining of sorrow. This song was dedicated to Helen Cavanagh, the mother of the brothers who founded the band, and it is impossible to miss - or ignore - that fact.

"<i>Parisienne Moonlight</i>" is a concise interlude that can be seen as a breather before the next emotional assault, but is just as poignant as Lee Douglas, wife of drummer John, has her lone lead performance. She was a really great addition to the albums overall sound and feel.

The title track and "<i>Make It Right</i>" are both four minute tracks that comprise of two different songs at two minutes apiece, both have emotional vocals in the first half and an repetitive instrumental second half.

"<i>Don't Look Too Far</i>" is one of the lesser tracks, but this is, again, only relative to the rest of the material here. Even if that had been the worst song of all time, it still would not blemish the following anthems, ("<i>Emotional Winter</i>") and ("<i>Wings of God</i>").

The former opens with a two minute melancholic piece that is an homage to Gilmour era Pink Floyd that evolves into a soft mournful piece of shifting tension. The heavy chorus is unexpected and the vocals match the brilliance.

The latter starts with growling keys and quickly slams into an account of the strife that leads to madness. To be sure, this lyrical theme is not groundbreaking, but the way it is done remains exceptional. Interestingly, despite the heavy guitar throughout - and the last three minutes focusing on just a guitar solo - the song is credited entirely to drummer John Douglas.

Had Anathema chosen to end on the last track, this would be a perfect album, the benchmark for its class. Two final songs remain, however ("<i>Anyone, Anywhere</i>" and "<i>2000 & Gone</i>"), which should have been before the previous one two punch. This misplacing costs "<b>Judgment</b>" just a few precious points, but is not enough to detract from the overall quality. This is because both tracks are fairly well done.

The former features excellent piano playing by guess pianist Dario Patti of the great Giuntini Project. The latter is an instrumental and, while great itself, was such an odd choice to end the journey and reiterates the point of song placement.

This work is their most accessible, with so many diverse parts capable of appealing to so many different tastes. This encompasses, more than any other collection of written material by Anathema, what they want to say, in clearest form. A highlight deserving of repeated listens for any music lover. The album to judge others in its class by. THE album by Anathema to deserve that distinction. THE.

Should be enjoyed on a whole but the emotional highlights of the album are the final forty seconds of opener "Deep," "One Last Goodbye," "Parisienne Moonlight," and "Wings of God."

I'm posting to address a bigger issue than just my reviews being rejected:

My review for Crisix:

(This debut album reminds me of great bands debut albums. Its one thing being a great band but its another beginning your career decisively and with sheer power. This album, to put it in a few words, is full of energy, great musicianship and carefully contructed masterpieces of modern thrash metal.

The vocals are not something original in thrash but they absolutely fit the band's aesthetic and should be changed for no reason! The guitars, as the backbone of the band, are simply genius; I can't understand how could a thrasher not like this band and I don't get why they have so little attention on this site (considering that metallum has a huge base of users constantly interacting with the site). The riffs, solos, breakdowns and musical progressions not only reveal the band's sheer energy but there are also very cool melodic leaks that are catchy and stick in your brain after 2 or 3 times of listening to the album.

To conclude this review by mentioning the most important info as I usually do I would say that this album truly deserves a 90 and a lot of love and attention. It is bands like Crisix and Vektor which rise and keep the thrash flag high and waving; they're the future and they should be embraced as such. Again, full credits for the genius behind their compositions; this is more than average thrash, this is complex modern heavy culture, CULTURE everyone.)

My review for Mummified:

(I am writing this review mainly to contradict the bad words written about this album by the previous reviewer. I agree with him/her at one point only; there's nothing extremely original in this album. This of course is the same for most bands; it's not easy to always bring a new element to a metal category, especially in classics like death or black. However, I'd describe the intros in tracks 3 and 5 surprisingly delightful and innovative!

To get to the core of this review this album is primal death metal at its best; its death metal as it originally was, without any amalgamations or elements from other music styles. The riffs are heavy as fuck with nice rytmhs. You really can't consider them per se though as the riffs together with the vocals and the back guitars form an atmosphere which is the essence of this band's musical creativiy. The dark atmosphere which is usually achieved by classic black metal bands is achieved in this album through a raw "ferocious' and "malicious" mix of growls and heavy tunes combined from time to time with slow arabic and pentatonic melodies which attach awe to the band's pieces.

In total, not bad at all, plus they have limited copies and they're from Costa Rica. I'd say support -good- metal from all over the world, buy their album and hope they'll progress furthermore and bring us a special death diamond. Pray for ressurection.. ressurect.. ressurection of their unholy name..)

Reasons for rejection

Encyclopaedia Metallum was forced to reject or delete your review for

1) Mummified - Embalming the Nazarene, for the following reason:
"I am writing this review mainly to contradict the bad words written about this album by the previous reviewer. "
Revenge reviews are not tolerated.

2)Crisix - Describe the music in greater detail.

Both rejections by Diamhea, so I decided to get in contact with her (?) to express some skepticism.

My message:

Dear Diamhea,

I'm sorry to contact you through my review but I could not find any other way to do so. I wish not to complain, just to throw a bit of skepticism since you are in the admin team. My Crisix (The Menace) review got rejected due to lack of musical description (it could be bigger, I agree). My Mummified (Embalming the Nazarene) review got rejected solely due to these starting words "I am writing this review mainly to contradict the bad words written about this album by the previous reviewer" since you thought that it was a revenge-review! Seeing an album you like being ditched and doing a review to state your opinion on the matter so that the viewer can have a fuller opinion, is NOT revenge, it is information. No malice, I was just adding another review to your site for my fun and for users' education.

I understand that you have certain criteria in the site's procedures so that all can flow in order. The thing is that by applying them in such a strict fashion you discourage people from adding bands/info/reviews etc etc. I am writing all this genuinely and in good faith, as a kind of tip which you can simply take or leave. I had struggled 2 years ago to upload some reviews on your site (for Amorphis, Exodus etc) because you kept rejecting them for various reasons. Now, with these rejections, it's like saying to me "don't bother contributing stuff and reviews to our site cause we'll reject it until we make it ours". Metal is a big part of my life and I would happily contribute to this site since it is simply amazing. However, you could help your users contributing instead of adding stiff hurdles to the procedures.

Thank you for your time!

The response

Nobody is "out to get you." Learn to write better (honestly the only real problem here is that it is too short) or post your reviews on Amazon.com or something where there is no quality control.

My conclusion


Diamhea still believes I got offended but that is not the case, I'm sure no one is out to get me. I am posting all this here so you, the users of the site, can tell me whether you agree or disagree with me and to what extent. Personally, I would like to write more reviews for the site since this is good fun and it also helps users. Other reviews may be more long and complex and other shorter and more to the point. I can't write a shitpile of words for each album mainly because I don't listen to every album the same. However, the ones I'm reviewing are the ones on which I have a strong opinion on. The whole point is that, ok, its good to have restrictions so that a degree of monitoring may occur but rejecting reviews on such trivial, random and various reasons is just discouraging users. Its a shame cause this is the only site I wanted to write reviews on (not Amazon as Diamhea suggested) and I'm too fed up with the exec to continue. Some years before they did the same thing and now that I decided to start again I watch the same story unfold in front of me. Diamhea even told me to learn to write better and I have a law degree (in UK) with excellent grade for fuck's sake.
Anyway, it is not such a big loss for the site if I don't write any more reviews. The point is that I - and probably there are others as well - will think a lot before submitting a part of my brain to this site again no matter how I want to because the exec has the "know-it-all" stict-teacher attidude which is quite irritating sometimes. It is truly a shame to treat your users like that. I'd be glad to read your opinion on the matter either you agree or disagree with me.

Cheers!

Again, you are acting like we are singling you out, i.e. "out to get you." I'm happy for you that you have a law degree, but the guidelines are explicitly stated in the review submission form. If you are upset by my curt/short response in the queue, realize that we deal with dozens of reviews and reports a day, most by users who pay no attention or respect the site's guidelines. The Crisix review was sitting for literally weeks, which means many other mods saw it and none of them accepted it either.

I'm not going to let this become the martyrdom coup you want it to be, so this will be my only word on the matter. Another staffer can explain the same things I told you.

The rejection notice says all that it needs to. The rules are clear > the rejection notice identified the obvious infraction > review was rejected. I don't see the problem here.



I disagree with you to a complete extent. I don't see how Diamhea's comportment was unprofessional, nor how M-A's relatively lenient standards can be accused of being generally discouraging. Think about it: it's just like any other time you tried something and didn't pass -- you were told what you did wrong, and you fixed it. When you were learning English, were the people grading your papers discouraging you from continuing to learn English? I'm unclear on why this needs explaining to a person who has the critical thinking skills necessary to get through law school.

That said, this is the workshop, and so you've come to the right place. You say you have strong opinions about the albums you reviewed, but according to what you're offering it looks like a couple of precise rejections got your blood up a lot more than these albums did. Your reviews don't reflect the breadth of feelings and thoughts these albums inspire in you. It's creative writing, which is different than academic writing; however, neither write themselves. Ergo, it's time for you to do some homework. Read other reviews for albums you already know you enjoy, analyze them, and apply what you learn to your own work. If anything, your experience in constructing arguments for cases should HELP you write a review.

A word of advice: sleep on it next time you're tempted to write two pages describing why a few malnourished paragraphs should be accepted after the grounds for rejection were made clear by a single sentence.

Okay. That does not really tell me anything. Not only does it not state where a track by track analysis exists but, this is meant to be where someone could identify the infraction and indicate how a different course could be taken. If I wanted a broad and not specific (not to mention arbitrary in this case) declaration, I would have stuck with the original snub.

But... Thanks, I Guess?

Why do you need it to identify where it is? You literally start your very short paragraphs in track-by-track format. How can you not see it? Not to mention after reading it, I found grammar errors (most of them I didn't identify). This review requires a complete rewrite.

Thanks for taking the time to point that out. I only mentioned a couple of the tracks, so I thought I could but alright. You highlighted - and question marked - "THE" at the end of that point. Why? It seemed clear to me.

I will rewrite the review, it certainly could be better.

First of all a point of correction; my Crisix review was written and submitted on the 5th of June and got rejected the day after Also, I am simply making conversation Diamhea, not fighting with anybody, so if you happen to read this I would like you could share your thoughts instead of isolating them. Anyway...

I am talking with very simple words and I can't see why you do not get them. I'll repeat that there's nothing personal to what I'm saying; I don't mind these two particular reviews being rejected, I really don't. To be completely honest, I spent no more than 10-15 minutes to write both of them. Wyrm, you are talking about school. Also about professionalism. If this was a school or a corporation I would not spend one minute trying to discuss with you guys; I'm merely doing so because I feel that I'm adressing open-minded people who wish to CONVERSATE and NOT RESOLVE ANY ISSUES. So, describing my objection as my "martyrdom coup" desire is simply laughable! If you do not want any critique -even a mild one like my own- then clearly state so, so you can be left alone and do whatever you want with your site without anyone caring. Its not bad to take a tip or two though; even if you disagree and even if you don't change anything in the end.

I'll try to rephrase my objection. I, similarly to many many people, can spend one or two hours and write a pretty cool review. I can write the core of it down, write some more bullshit to make it lengthy (in instances where I normally wouldn't use many words; my Testament-Practice What You Preach review on the other hand is covering some thousands of words because I really had stuff to say), edit it so that all can be perfect etc etc. I am quite clear on that; you want reviews to be like that.

My objection in a form of a question is the following; why should ALL reviews be like that? Why can't some reviews be shorter but concise? Is this our workplace or an entertainment site? Is there a minimun required amount of words - should I write an essay and be done with it? Wyrm you mentioned creativity; you should know that creativity is at its best when someone is spotaneous; when someone spends hours reading reviews of other people so as to 'learn' and mimick them then this is neither creative nor spotaneous; its more similar to academic writing where you must spend hours and hours reading professionals' work so you can learn how to write in that specific field. Also, I'm not demanding that Metallum should be as I say; I'm just contemplating why not. However, you seem more eager to get offended and take matters personally and less willing to actually conversate (which is rather sad).

And a final point which is the ONLY one actually having to do with this particular review; do you believe it is serious to reject my review on a heavy metal website because YOU think it's a revenge review?

To be clear on my last point; is there any other reason my Mummified review got rejected? I got from the e-mail that my opening sentence was the ONLY reason for rejection. Also, this thread is proving by its mere existence that people are having a hard time submitting reviews on this site. It's a shame really cause most of the innovative artists which set the necessary musical foundations so that we can have such a site today did not know how to even write in paragraphs.

The main problem remains that your review doesn't contain enough musical description to make it acceptable. Diamhea is absolutely blameless here and you seem to be looking for issues when there's none.

Short reviews can work but the streamlined style needs a lot of content in a compact format (Zodijackyl or myself are ok at them)

You talk about the vocals being original but you don't tell us why they are. You say that the guitars are genius but then again, you don't say why. Except for the fact that the band is thrash metal (something you can easily know just by looking at their page), this review told us nothing.

Dude, your reviews are way too scanty and don't have nearly enough description. Nobody is saying they have to be super long or thousands of words, but yours are far too threadbare and do not describe things well enough. If you only wrote them in 10 minutes, trust me, it shows.

The issue with the 'revenge review' thing is that it's unprofessional to just say you're writing the review to address another review. If the other review ever gets deleted or changed, yours would then make no sense. So it's better not to do that.

Constantly saying you don't care much and accusing everyone else of being emotional and overreacting while writing this huge whiny self-involved diatribe isn't helping you either man. I'm gonna hazard a guess that if this is what you came out of law school acting like, you wasted your time and it did not help you one bit. If you don't understand that anything you have to submit your work to is going to have standards for publication, then you're going to have a very hard time in the real, professional world - this site's standards are much more lax than any real paid publications.

I see. Though I still believe you confuse hobbies with job it is pointless to continue. Empyreal you prove me right once again; I really don't care much -discussing my view isn't whining- and you're really acting offensively. I won't start no name-calling etc etc, you can say what you like on the internet but you better watch your big mouth on the "real" or the ''professional'' world.

Empy's post was anything but an offensive overreaction. You say that you don't care and that you won't resort to name calling but this is obviously false judging with the shitty, quasi menacing post you just wrote. I'm gonna ask you to refrain from posting here again.

My big mouth. Yeah, me - I actually get paid to write, but okay. You will be a failure as a writer and I am sure at anything else you try to do with that shit attitude. You will get nowhere.

Oh nice empy! I'd like to get paid to right bullshit but unfortunately I'll have to find a real job :/ I'd also like to exercise my hobby here without getting paid and without academic/professional standards to adhere to. However, since you all showed your true colours I can't help myself but erase this account from the site - cause I REALLY DON'T GIVE A SHIT. I won't call the site stupid because its pretty well organised - due to the USERS' work. It's a pitty the people most responisble for the site are such jackasses like yourselfs boys n girls. Still cool though cause I can benefit from the site without having to put up with your "democratic conversation" and standards for a minute more... Have fun playing the teacher to the rest of this site's metalheads through your reasons for rejections and through this thread; I don't think you can play the teacher elsewhere and that's quite comforting!

So long little fascistoids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ

You're welcome. Almost.


This was my original reaction almost exactly, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Arbitrary my left arse.

As you can probably I guess I just found out your policy about users deleting their account.. Keep on respecting the democratic values Not to worry, I won't visit my account again or this thread

Graveworm keep on teaching! I'm sure Luvers666 is in love with you!

Could I please have some grammar help on my latest review?

There are many types of death metal subgenres in the death metal music genre. For example, you have your straightforward death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Deicide, the Melodic type such as Dark Tranquility, At the Gates, and In Flames, and the very brutal/technical bands such as Nile, Suffocation, Deeds of Flesh, Gorgasm, and Origin. There are many types of death metal that I did not list but we are not going to be discussing all the types of death metal here. I shall be discussing the artistic type of death metal presented here before you. Morbid Angel, Immolation, and Pestilence are a special group of death metal bands that I categorize as artistic death metal. I categorize these three specific bands as artistic death metal because of the way they handle their music and the way they handle their lyrical content. Cannibal Corpse and Deicide touch upon their music in a catchier rock-star type of way in that the choruses stick in your head and its plain fun to head bang to. The lyrical content of their music is not supposed to be taken seriously; they (they are the biggest sellers of records in the death metal scene) have their lyrics more for shock value at a more blunt level. Nile and those other bands listed focus more on technical mastery of instruments and very heavy "slam" sections (accept Nile). But Morbid Angel and the other artistic bands I listed focus more on technical, abstract guitar passages, with more philosophical themes in the lyrics, rather than blunt in your face shock.

Morbid Angel started as a more thrashy inspired death metal band during their demo/ Altars era. Trey couldn’t be bothered with scales and whatnot, because he just played from the soul in Morbid Angel’s earlier records. On their second album <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> Morbid Angel found their true sound. It featured more interludes, more technically dense riffs, and more focused lyrics. Covenant continues the path that was laid down by Blessed, except <i>Covenant</i> has an even more menacing approach to it. Blessed had occult focused lyrics, but Covenant takes the lyrics about blasphemy and occultism to another extreme. Songs like “Rapture,” “God of Emptiness,” and “World of Shit” having some of the most anti-Christian lyrics in their lengthy discography. While Altars felt like chants from ghouls rising from the depths of hell, Covenant feels like an all-out attack on Christianity as a whole. The lyrics of “God of Emptiness” explains how god was the serpent all along and that Satan can give man all he desires while god just instills fear in mankind. “Rapture” talks about how David's soul is being attacked by demonic spirits, and “World of Shit” speaks about the Promised Land (heaven) in a very offensive way that would shake most Christians to the core of how blasphemous the lyrics are in this song. The only song that doesn’t deal with occult and blasphemous themes on this album is the Lion's den, dealing more with the Ancient Roman Empire (watch the music video) rather than evil and blasphemy.

The music displayed here by Morbid Angel is incredibly advanced. Morbid Angel listed their influences in the <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> booklet Mozart the great Austrian composer. Also in the documentary dvd that comes with the <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> remaster, Dave specifically says that the Morbid Angel members were listening to a lot of classical music during this time and it shows on this album and the previous one. “Pain Divine” starts off with a fairly standard thrash riff, then the harmonic minor picked intervals based off of minor thirds set in at the 27 second mark and they rear their ugly head more times throughout the piece. “God of Emptiness” starts on a B flat V chord that sounds like it came straight out of hell itself. This album is Morbid Angel at their darkest (second place goes to Gateways of Annihilation). “Rapture” starts off with a gradual crescendo in the beginning, and then comes the first hit of the drum, and then it goes into an otherworldly dark and catchy riff that will stay in your head for a long time. What I mean by artistic is that Morbid Angel has a very strong theme present throughout their music and also the classical influences present throughout their music. Trey Azagthoth states that Morbid Angel's music was written to praise the ancient ones in <i>Necronomicon</i> by Simon and they take it very seriously. Immolation sang more about anti Christianity in their early days. They had strong themes about how god is not all loving and forgiving, but instead oppressive, and fearful in a very poetic way. Morbid Angel's musicianship is one of the highest in all of death metal. They can play in a very technically demanding way, yet they also know how to write very catchy and strong music.

Many death metal bands focus more about blunt brutality and mechanical technicality but Morbid Angel never forgot about the feel of the music and the songwriting. The transitions from guitar riffs, solos, drum fills, all fits in extremely well. When musicians study classical music structure it really does help in the transitions of songs. For example, if you know a lot about music theory you will know more about chord progressions, how to modulate into another key more cleanly. Mozart was the king of modulating into a different key. In most of Mozart's music he would start off let's say in C major, let’s just say. Then he would transition to a section in G major, then another transition to G minor, and his ability to modulate through all these key signatures so efficiently helped make his music very catchy as well as complex on paper. Beethoven on the other hand was an incredible composer, but he did not have the talent for composition that Mozart possessed. In most of Beethoven's music he would build his pieces off of single motifs (ex. 5th symphony, last movement of his 9th symphony, Moonlight Sonata). It would take him days to write something that Mozart could come up with in mere minutes. Morbid Angel though is like the Liszt of death metal. Liszt was another interesting character as he wrote some of the most technically demanding music in history (ex. Piano Sonata in B Minor, Transcendental Etudes, Totentanz). Why I bring up Liszt is very important because Liszt could write very catchy music but his pieces had a much darker feel to them than Mozart did. He could transition very smoothly through passages but he could also bring malicious technicality to the music as well. Also Liszt’s musical composition’s often dealt with similar themes that Morbid Angel brings to face value such as death, the occult, and hell itself. Morbid Angel presents all these themes throughout their first three albums and later ones as well so that is why the Liszt comparison comes to mind.

Finally, we must talk about the atmosphere and the album as a whole. The atmosphere presented is very frightening and unwelcoming in this album. The muddy guitar sound and heavy percussive based grinding by Pete Sandoval does not hold back in its ferocity and firepower. This album is considered the best selling death metal album of all time and what is surprising about that is that even though Morbid Angel signed to a major label during the recording of this album it is one of their most unfriendly and unwelcoming albums. Domination had a more accessible sound to it, but this, this is a very offensive and dark album. The reason an album like this sold so well is because it is a true work of art. I don’t say that about many albums but this is an exception. Morbid Angel crafted a top 10 all-time great death metal record in <i> Covenant</i> and it is still a high benchmark many bands have yet to reach. One of the flaws I have with this album is the production of it. The production makes the guitars very muddy and even though it’s fitting for the albums atmosphere, <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> had a stronger production even though it wasn’t on a major record label. Also another flaw is that “Angel of Disease” (a good song in its own right) just feels so out of place with its punkish sound compared to the frightening and morbid atmosphere given off by the other songs on this album. Another problem with the production is that David’s bass is very drowned out. His bass playing only pops up in songs like “Angel of Disease,” “God of Emptiness,” and “Sworn to the Black.” Overall though this is truly a magnificent masterpiece of death metal fluency, so if you haven’t still, I highly suggest you check out this album.

Here is a review that was said to have poor grammar. Can someone help me out with this one?

What can I start to say about this album? I'll start with saying that this album rules! 1983 was huge year for metal with albums like Dio's Holy Diver, Ozzy's Bark At The Moon and the chart topping Metal Health from Quiet Riot which sent glam metal into the mainstream. Without this album though, glam metal simply wouldn't of been as good.

The song writing on this phenomenal and is far superior than the first two albums while the performances from the band themselves are even better with Steve Clark and Phil Collen learning how to play with each other while Pete Willis is ripping rhythm tracks on the whole album and Rick Savage does some of his coolest bass lines on songs like Billy's Got A Gun and Stagefright. Rick Allen is unfortunately replaced by a drum machine but he played all the cymbal on the album.

The music on the album is a lot more polished and even poppy sounding on the album. if you were get someone to listen to Rock Brigade and then get them to listen to Photograph, some people wouldn't be able to tell it's the same band. But it works for them perfectly on this album, with the music being a preview of what was to come on the next album and what the band had played beforehand.

Joe Elliot's voice deserves a paragraph on its own. The diversity with the vocals on this album is amazing with a slow crooning voice on songs like Too Late For Love and Comin Under Fire while he delivers some high pitched screams on songs like Stagefright and Rock Rock Till You Drop.

Songs like Photograph, Rock Of Ages and Foolin were crafted perfectly for the radio with them being known by millions today. Action Not Words and Die Hard The Hunter have a cool mystique to them with the former only being played for one show ever in 1983 while the latter lasted the whole Hysteria tour and one show in 1992 and that was it for that one as well. It's the last track Billy's Got A Gun that really grabs a hold of me with its Led Zeppelin-ish riffs and its long middle section.

Ultimately, the track listing, production, performances, etc are perfect therefore making it a 100% rating album for me

@christian260901

Well to start you could use another word than "album". You're very very very repetitive and the review is quite boring and hard to read because of it.

Of course, and I have other feedback, too.

It was actually rejected because of "poor grammar" by diamhea. So that's why I brought this review over to this thread.

Silly mistakes like using "accept" instead of "except," which is on par with their =/= they're, is poor grammar. Instant reject when I see something like that. I admit I didn't even make it halfway through, I already had enough to send it back. Grave is being patient and extremely helpful, take his words to heart.

I'll bear this in mind. And thanks for the kind words.

There are apparently more grammar issues on this again. Can someone please be specific where the grammar issues are. In regards thank you

What can I start to say about this album? I'll start with saying that this album rules! 1983 was huge year for metal with albums like Dio's Holy Diver, Ozzy's Bark At The Moon and the chart topping Metal Health from Quiet Riot which sent glam metal into the mainstream. Without this release though, glam metal simply wouldn't of been as good.

The song writing on this phenomenal and is far superior than the first two CDs while the performances from the band themselves are even better with Steve Clark and Phil Collen learning how to play with each other while Pete Willis is ripping rhythm tracks on the whole record and Rick Savage does some of his coolest bass lines on songs like Billy's Got A Gun and Stagefright. Rick Allen is unfortunately replaced by a drum machine but he played all the cymbal on the record.

The music on the album is a lot more polished and even poppy sounding on this release. if you were get someone to listen to Rock Brigade and then get them to listen to Photograph, some people wouldn't be able to tell it's the same band. But it works for them perfectly for the band, with the music being a preview of what was to come on the next album and what the band had played beforehand.

Joe Elliot's voice deserves a paragraph on its own. The diversity with the vocals on this record is amazing with a slow crooning voice on songs like Too Late For Love and Comin Under Fire while he delivers some high pitched screams on songs like Stagefright and Rock Rock Till You Drop.

Songs like Photograph, Rock Of Ages and Foolin were crafted perfectly for the radio with them being known by millions today. Action Not Words and Die Hard The Hunter have a cool mystique to them with the former only being played for one show ever in 1983 while the latter lasted the whole Hysteria tour and one show in 1992 and that was it for that one as well. It's the last track Billy's Got A Gun that really grabs a hold of me with its Led Zeppelin-ish riffs and its long middle section.

Ultimately, the track listing, production, performances, etc are perfect therefore making it a 100% rating album for me

Brace yourself.

I'm back here again cause my rewrite still got rejected for grammar errors, but I seriously can't find any in this review I wrote help!

There are many types of death metal subgenres in the death metal music genre. For example, you have your straightforward death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Deicide, the Melodic type such as Dark Tranquility, At the Gates, and In Flames, and the very brutal/technical bands such as Suffocation, Deeds of Flesh, Gorgasm, Defeated Sanity, and Origin. Morbid Angel, Immolation, and Pestilence are a special group of death metal bands that I categorize as artistic death metal because of the way they handle their music and lyrical content. Cannibal Corpse and Deicide touch upon their music in a catchier, rock-star type of way, in that the choruses stick in your head and its plain fun to head bang to. The lyrical content of their music is not supposed to be taken seriously; they have their lyrics more for shock value. Defeated Sanity and those other bands focus more on technical mastery of instruments and very heavy "slam" sections. But Morbid Angel and the other artistic bands I listed focus more on technical, abstract guitar passages, with more philosophical themes in the lyrics, rather than blunt in your face shock.

Morbid Angel started as a more thrashy inspired death metal band during their demo/ <i>Altars of Madness</i> era. On their second album <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> Morbid Angel found their true sound. It featured more interludes, more technically dense riffs, and more focused lyrics. Covenant continues the path that was laid down by Blessed, except <i>Covenant</i> has an even more menacing approach to it. Blessed had occult focused lyrics, but Covenant takes the lyrics about blasphemy and occultism to further extremes with songs like “Rapture,” “God of Emptiness,” and “World of Shit” having some of the most anti-Christian lyrics in their lengthy discography. While Altars of Madness felt like chants from ghouls rising from the depths of hell, Covenant feels like an all-out attack on Christianity as a whole. The lyrics of “God of Emptiness” explains how god was the serpent all along and that Satan can give man all he desires while god just instills fear in mankind. “Rapture” talks about how David's soul is being attacked by demonic spirits, and “World of Shit” speaks about the Promised Land (heaven) in a very offensive way that would shake most Christians to the core of how blasphemous the lyrics are in this song. The only song that doesn’t deal with occult and blasphemous themes on this album is the Lion's den, dealing more with the Ancient Roman Empire (watch the music video) rather than evil and blasphemy.

The music displayed here by Morbid Angel is incredibly advanced. Morbid Angel listed their influences in the <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> booklet Mozart the great Austrian composer. Also in the documentary dvd that comes with the <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> remaster, Dave specifically says that the Morbid Angel members were listening to a lot of classical music during this time and it shows on this album and the previous one. “Pain Divine” starts off with a fairly standard thrash riff, then the harmonic minor picked intervals based off of minor thirds set in at the 27 second mark and they rear their ugly head more times throughout the piece. “God of Emptiness” starts on a B flat V chord that sounds like it came straight out of hell itself. What I mean by artistic is that Morbid Angel has a very strong theme present throughout their music and also the classical influences present throughout their music. Trey Azagthoth states that Morbid Angel's music was written to praise the ancient ones in <i>Necronomicon</i> by Simon and they take it very seriously. Morbid Angel's musicianship is one of the highest in all of death metal. They can play in a very technically demanding way, yet they also know how to write very catchy and strong music.

Many death metal bands focus more about blunt brutality and mechanical precision but Morbid Angel never forgot about the feel of the music and the songwriting. The transitions from guitar riffs, solos, drum fills, all fit in extremely well. When musicians study classical music structure it really does help in the transitions of songs. For example, if you know a lot about music theory you will know more about chord progressions, how to modulate into another key more cleanly. Modulating simply means to change from one key signature to another. Mozart was the king of modulating into a different key. In most of Mozart's music he would start off let's say in C major, let’s just say. Then he would transition to a section in G major, then another transition to G minor, and his ability to modulate through all these key signatures so efficiently helped make his music very catchy as well as complex on paper. Beethoven on the other hand was an incredible composer, but he did not have the talent for composition that Mozart possessed. In most of Beethoven's music he would build his pieces off of single motifs (ex. 5th symphony, last movement of his 9th symphony, Moonlight Sonata). Beethoven would take days to write something that Mozart could write in mere minutes. A motif is simply a short but recurring musical idea throughout a piece and Morbid Angel uses these frequently throughout their music. For example the harmonic minor tremolo picking section that recurs in "Pain Divine," the main riff that is used in "Rapture," and the main riff that is used throughout "Sworn to the Black." These riffs that are used are recurring in the pieces many times and they are the central ideas of the songs. Morbid Angel though is like the Liszt of death metal. Liszt was another interesting character as he wrote some of the most technically demanding music in history (ex. Piano Sonata in B Minor, Transcendental Etudes, Totentanz). Why I bring up Liszt is very important because Liszt could write very catchy music but his pieces had a much darker feel to them than Mozart or Beethoven did. He could transition very smoothly through passages but he could also bring malicious technicality to the music as well. Also Liszt’s musical composition’s often dealt with similar themes that Morbid Angel brings to face value such as death, the occult, and hell itself. Morbid Angel presents all these themes throughout their first three albums and later ones as well. Morbid Angel had very heavy use of difficult scales (mostly in melodic and harmonic minor) and a diabolical sense of disgust to their music and that is why the Liszt comparison is brought up.

Finally, what must be discussed is the atmosphere. The atmosphere is very frightening and unwelcoming in this album. The muddy guitar sound and heavy percussive based grinding by Pete Sandoval does not hold back in its ferocity and firepower. This album is considered the best selling death metal album of all time and what is surprising about that is that even though Morbid Angel signed to a major label during the recording of this album it's one of their most unfriendly and unwelcoming albums. Domination had a more accessible sound to it, but this is a very offensive and dark album. The reason an album like this sold so well is because it is a true work of art. I don’t say that about many albums but this is an exception. Morbid Angel crafted a top 10 all-time great death metal record in <i> Covenant</i> and it is still a high benchmark many bands have yet to reach. One of the flaws I have with this album is the production of it. The production makes the guitars very muddy and even though it’s fitting for the albums atmosphere, <i>Blessed Are the Sick</i> had a stronger production even though it wasn’t on a major record label. Also another flaw is that “Angel of Disease” (a good song in its own right) just feels so out of place with its punkish sound compared to the frightening and morbid atmosphere given off by the other songs on this album. Another problem with the production is that David’s bass is very drowned out. His bass playing only pops up in songs like “Angel of Disease,” “God of Emptiness,” and “Sworn to the Black.” Overall though this is truly a magnificent masterpiece of death metal fluency, so if you haven’t still, I highly suggest you check out this album.