Welcome to the 12th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge!

Originally the "MA Virgin Reviews Challenge", this is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every spring and autumn, reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible. The challenge is focused on virgin albums: those with no reviews so far. Every day, the reviews submitted and accepted are tallied, so that participants can see how they compare with one another and whether or not as a group we've been able to beat the accumulative totals. Previous challenges can be found here.

The challenge is named in memory of our friend Diamhea, a longtime contributor to this challenge and staff member here at Metal Archives, who sadly passed away on May 21, 2018. He was the first person to have ever written 100 reviews for a single challenge!

This challenge will run from Monday Nov 27 @ 12:00AM EST to Sunday Dec 3 @ 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 number to beat is 282. That was the total from the last challenge!

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 and 'best of' compilations 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. Eligible reviews must have been written during the challenge.
Taking notes is fine, but avoid stockpiling already written reviews in advance.

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

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

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

8. 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)...

9. 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.

Hall of Fame






What is SECRET SATAN? The gist of it is simple. People put their names forward. I randomly match those people with one another. They send each other a virgin to review. They both review one another's respective virgins for the challenge. SECRET SATAN is opt-in and totally optional to the review challenge. You have to put your name forward, either by mentioning it in this thread OR by sending me a PM on the forum. Once I have collected enough names, I'll notify people who their matches are a week before the challenge starts. I'll notify through a forum PM.

Once matched, you must do the following:

Step 1: You will exchange with one another a virgin album for review.
It MUST be an album on this site with no reviews at the time it is shared with the other person.

Step 2: You are required to provide to the other person a link to the album you want him/her to review.
It MUST be available for FREE online and in either a QUALITY DOWNLOAD or QUALITY STREAM. No self-promoting your own albums, thanks!

Step 3: You will review the virgin album you received from the other person for the challenge.
Be prepared for the possibility that it may be well outside your comfort zone. Please remember this is done in good faith!

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.

Signed up for Secret Satan (closed):


Have fun! Looking forward to your participation!

Hi there, time for the Challenge has finally come! We have to rebound from the last, lower-than-usual result, so do your best, won't you?

You might notice I kept everything as usual, with no new features, mainly due to too many real-life setbacks and stuff to think about in the last months – same reason why it's likely that my own contribution to the total amount will be extremely small (this time for real, unlike last time ). Good ol' Secret Satan is still at his place though! Also, there will be new statistics at the end...

Can't wait! See you there!

Oh boy, this is pretty sudden. I was sort of hoping to use this as a springboard to get to 2000 reviews by the end of the year, but I've had miserable progress since the last challenge and won't get anywhere near I think. Also, I'm kind of writing myself off from getting any decent total, so many other things to do these days.

That said, it will still be fun! And I'd like to do Secret Satan

I'm planning to participate, as always, but like gas I'm not sure to what extent it will be, I was banking on it happening 2 weeks later this time around, but I'll get listening and see if I can pull a rabbit out of my hat this time.

Good news. During the last 6 months I came over a few releases that I kept warm specially for the Reviews Challenge. Perhaps not the highest art ever, but certainly... original.

Have a couple of reviews in progress that I'll try to finish first. Ironically, one of them is for a virgin, but I'm already half-way through so this would be cheating

Hoping I can get some solid contribution in, it’s a good time to get those last minute albums for the year.

College's been a bit of a pain this semester, so I might not pump out as much as I did in the last challenge. However, I got some virgin albums I've been wanting to check out for some time now, so hopefully, I can finally get the chance to talk about them this time.

I'll try to squeeze out for the challenge. I need to catch up at any rate.

So far I am sending a "secret" album to myself. Come on, you lot.

You know what, fuck it, I usually don't do this but I'll give it a go this time just in case nobody else signs up.

I'll try to chip into this. It's been a while since I went out of my way to find specifically virgin albums. It will be interesting to see who takes what route this time around.

To be fair I usually jump in at the very end too, in case the number of participants ends up being odd. But I like your attitude, so you're in

lol Yeah, truth be told I'm hoping that I can do better numbers than I did last time, but on the off chance my week gets screwed up again, at least this time I contributed something extra.

I've had an eye inflammation for 2 weeks now and it's starting to go away. Good timing... Been listening to a lot of stuff, both old and new, and there are ideas in my head. Hopefully I'll get totally rid of this thing before the challenge begins. I know this fella too well already.

sign me up for secret satan!

Please sign me up for Secret Satan as well.

Okay, since we have new participants, and given the fact that the challenge was announced only a few days ago in the homepage, I'm giving users some more days to sign up for Secret Satan, to make things more interesting (compared to the super duper secret gas-hells pairing...). Signings are now open until Friday, 24th. Looking forward to many more!

Aimed a bit too high there, huh huh. The definitive pairings were made, check your PMs and connect with your Secret Satan.

I will also try to throw in some as well. Next week should not be as hectic in terms of work as it had been in the last couple of weeks.

i think i'll participate but the amount i had will be less than last time, new uni semester just began and im already quite busy

I've always wanted to participate in this great initiative but i've never had the time to do it. I still don't have it but i'm still willing to do a few reviews.

Never did a review on this site and it's the least i can do after countless years of free metal info.

Count me in on the Secret Satan too. I'm 100% sure that it's gonna struck me out of my confort zone, and that means fun.

I think Burning has already closed the Secret Satan, but if you want to do it anyway then drop me a private message and we can swap albums.

Indeed. But if you're still 'vacant', I can jump in, just send me a PM if you didn't already text gas

I can't because, although I have been registered for 2 years, this is my first (second to be exact) message in the forums, and i lack permissions, which is completely understandable.

You both can e-mail me if you want and i'll send you back an album.

Chairs, freres, I'm just leaving a quick courtesy post to say I'll likely sit this one out, because to be honest, I haven't been listening to much music at all lately. (Get the joke? - Urf!)

As well, I feel a break is needed, as my writing's become formulaic and predictable, right down to the fact it's mainly about good ole nwothm. Although there's inherently nothing wrong with this, I'd like to step up my game eventually in the rundown to a big thousand, as in, not rush towards the legendary goal like a lacklustre fanatic, but instead, crest the hallowed rise in a kingly manner. Also, I might be starting a new part time job this week, and am still baked into the fun yet interminable jrpg grind fest Like A Dragon: Yakuza...With that, happy deflowering everyone! Enjoie!

Less than five hours to go! Good luck everyone indeed!

TheBurningOfSodom, I will guarantee you, you will dig 11 Dreams and The Hours That Remain if you enjoyed Soundtrack for the End Times (which, upon initial listens, I thought was a bit mid).

Thanks man! Will definitely do. (Starting from next week, haha.) Soundtrack really has only one truly great song, and it definitely gave me a certain 'not bad but it shows the band played the same style better earlier' impression, to back up your claim. I can see almost everybody rating it lower than I did and it's understandable, but to each their own, I guess.

Sorry to Forever Underground and Victim of Science for splitting your approved albums over 2 separate days. I was trying to go through the queue to get all yesterday's ones done for Monday's total, but I got sidetracked by something else.

They're gonna be ahead today, then

Daily Tally for Nov 27 2023
Total Reviews: 52 / 52
Total Virgin Reviews: 47 / 47
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 90.4% / 90.4%

Participant List for Nov 27 2023
Total Participants: 22 / 22

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the first day of the last challenge, we are up 15 reviews and 6 participants.

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

No big surprise at the top of the list, but lots of participants ready to fight for the following positions, and who knows, maybe for something more...

Long, long-time visitor to the site but have always read reviews, not wrote any; always had trouble finding the time. This challenge looks like a great kick in the butt to finally do it, but I've always missed it. I'll see if I can do a few reviews in the coming days.

Sorry if this is common knowledge but is there an easy way to look up albums without reviews? (Specifically looking for black metal if that's possible.)

Not that I know of, (un)fortunately...

Daily Tally for Nov 28 2023
Total Reviews: 48 / 100
Total Virgin Reviews: 46 / 93
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 95.8% / 93.0%

Participant List for Nov 28 2023
Participants (TODAY/TOTAL): 21 / 27

Today's Totals per Individual:


Running Totals per Individual:


Compared to the second day of the last challenge, we are down 10 reviews and up 2 participants.

Congrats to Felix 1666 for being today's leader with 10 reviews!

A surprise leader indeed, trying to spice things up and keeping gas under strict surveillance. Things start to get interesting...

Mmmmaaannnn, I KNEW that someone's gonna take that Bio-Cancer album, that was one of them that I lined up for the challenge I love that album. Great review by TBoS, too.

Thanks man! I naively didn't know what to expect from it, and boy did it hurt.

That said, you can still tackle it nonetheless, it will still count for the totals, and two opinions sure are better than one

Finally got around to reviewing Bogside Sniper Squadron's demo, which is pretty much Resuscitation of the Revanchists if it was good and wasn't racist. With that said, I haven't been able to pump out as much as I would like to with school and everything, but hopefully, I can get more reviews out for the rest of the challenge.

Hmmmmm...... I have never heard of that band (BSS) until now, but let's just say that those lyrical themes are never going to be far from controversy.

Whelp, after being under the weather and not being able to write anything yesterday, I managed to clear out a few today. Ended up writing a second review for the new High Spirits album as I was tapped to review it for Sonic Perspectives and didn't realize that Chair had already hit it until I had it written. Might try to get a couple in before midnight tonight, but overall this looking to be another mildly prolific challenge for me, I'll be happy if I end up breaking the 30 mark before the week is out.

Great job so far everyone, and especially to raspberrysoda for handling his Secret Satan album from me.

Good to hear you're feeling better. Really like that Myrkur review too, as it's probably her best album since Mareridt.