Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

Message board

* FAQ    * Register   * Login 



Reply to topic
Author Message Previous topic | Next topic
BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:07 pm 
 

No, you've always had a shitty attitude in this thread (and this isn't your only review to be rejected or asked about here so don't play the victim being bullied over one review). I wouldn't have said what Zodi did, but lashing back like that is something I was honestly waiting to happen with how obviously you've been teeming with irritation over the review process. We asked you to clean up a few things in a few other reviews and every time you post about it here there's some passive aggressive bullshit about how we're taking too long to approve it and it's so unfair or the mods should just write it for you or you're about to just quit altogether or defending against the criticism with "well this is the only way I know how to do it so no".

Basically just grow up and roll with it, this isn't that difficult of a process.
_________________
Lair of the Bastard: LATEST REVIEW: In Flames - Foregone
The Outer RIM - Uatism: The dogs bark in street slang
niix wrote:
the reason your grandmother has all those plastic sheets on her furniture is because she is probably a squirter

Top
 Profile  
TrooperEd
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:18 pm
Posts: 2115
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:16 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
No, you've always had a shitty attitude in this thread (and this isn't your only review to be rejected or asked about here so don't play the victim being bullied over one review). I wouldn't have said what Zodi did, but lashing back like that is something I was honestly waiting to happen with how obviously you've been teeming with irritation over the review process. We asked you to clean up a few things in a few other reviews and every time you post about it here there's some passive aggressive bullshit about how we're taking too long to approve it and it's so unfair or the mods should just write it for you or you're about to just quit altogether or defending against the criticism with "well this is the only way I know how to do it so no".

Basically just grow up and roll with it, this isn't that difficult of a process.



I meant of the very recent batch that has been rejected. And taking too long to approve OR reject it. Cue all future reviews being instantly rejected out of spite.
_________________
Timeghoul wrote:
Petitioner wrote:
Shut the fuck up you pathetic shut ins.
I didn't know children book fans were so angry.


Last edited by TrooperEd on Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Top
 Profile  
Derigin
The Mountain Man

Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 6:25 am
Posts: 5998
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:18 pm 
 

TrooperEd wrote:
Here's the fucking problem, ITS MOTORHEAD! There's only one sentence you can say about it. "It's Motorhead, it's rock & roll."

THIS. This is the big issue with your reviews writ large, and one reason why I would personally be in favor of instituting the requirement that users have a certain number of reviews published here before they could write a review for a massively popular album or band. Your review, while barely and regretfully acceptable, is pretty much that sentence padded with fluff. It's the stereotypical ramblings of a fanboy reiterating the same tired, elementary arguments for why an album is or isn't popular and good. But, unfortunately for us, instead of just relying on the just-as-equivalent one sentence conclusions so many other folks would have made about these bands and their albums (ie. "It's Motorhead, it's rock & roll.") you typically do enough at describing the music that your reviews are unfortunately acceptable.

That said, and as you readily admit, this review is an example where you suffer to find the filler to pad it. Like you said, though unlike so many other reviewers of the same album, you somehow "can't really say anything else without going into a track-by-track review." The reason track-by-track reviews are discouraged is because they DO act as filler; "this track is great" "this track is not great" "this track is awful"... that doesn't serve to tell us anything of value. Ultimately that's not a review, it's just a survey, and a survey that presumes we somehow can read your mind and understand what makes something "great" "awful" "subpar" "generic" and a whole slew of other meaningless buzzwords. But again, you rectified that for the most part to make it barely passable. I imagine you'll do the same following the edits Zodi gave above. But don't act surprised and butthurt when your reviews get nitpicked like this or require time to assess. They ride that line between what is acceptable and what isn't and you hardly put in any effort to move beyond that.

EDIT: Also all this whining you're doing lately isn't helping your case.
_________________
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

R.I.P. Diamhea 1987-2018
Live young, die free. Gone, but not forgotten.

Top
 Profile  
TrooperEd
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:18 pm
Posts: 2115
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:32 pm 
 

Derigin wrote:
This is the big issue with your reviews writ large, and one reason why I would personally be in favor of instituting the requirement that users have a certain number of reviews published here before they could write a review for a massively popular album or band.



I'm....not 100% opposed to this idea. It will certainly encourage others to write reviews for less reviewed albums. I've also wondered whether there is a cutoff point for massively reviewed albums. Like say "this album has 55 reviews, no one is allowed to review it anymore. Contrarian opinion or otherwise."

I guess my frustration with that Bomber review was that after it got rejected the first time I let it sit for awhile before taking another crack at it, and then, not really knowing what to do to try and make it work coming up with that last paragraph only for it to still not work as "enough musical content."

I do try to make an effort to find more object descriptive words rather than subject descriptive ones. But one can only do so much with a limited knowledge of musical instruments. And I'm not using that as an excuse either. I do want to become more musically literate for the sake of bettering my reviews. But you know, $$$
_________________
Timeghoul wrote:
Petitioner wrote:
Shut the fuck up you pathetic shut ins.
I didn't know children book fans were so angry.

Top
 Profile  
BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:47 pm 
 

TrooperEd wrote:
I've also wondered whether there is a cutoff point for massively reviewed albums. Like say "this album has 55 reviews, no one is allowed to review it anymore. Contrarian opinion or otherwise."


There used to be an unspoken soft cap of 25 where after then the review had better be damn good or offer a drastically new perspective. At least by the time I was modded (so middle of 2012) and I could actually see internal discussion, that was very clearly done away with because it's simply not fair to users who weren't around earlier. The fact that Gutterscream and Napero could be N_S's parents shouldn't mean he can't review the same albums.

And yes, even though I understand and agree with the rule 100%, it's still physically painful to accept to fiftieth Rust in Peace review.
_________________
Lair of the Bastard: LATEST REVIEW: In Flames - Foregone
The Outer RIM - Uatism: The dogs bark in street slang
niix wrote:
the reason your grandmother has all those plastic sheets on her furniture is because she is probably a squirter

Top
 Profile  
TrooperEd
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:18 pm
Posts: 2115
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 4:00 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
offer a drastically new perspective.



That's pretty much the only reason I attempted to do Paranoid, because I figured I had one. The whole "Tony Iommi detuned from the very beginning because of his finger accident" is a big misconception, and considering Paranoid, the biggest Black Sabbath album ever was one of the Sabbath albums that isn't detuned, I figure I'd base my short and sweet review based around that rather than "Iron Man is overplayed, Planet Caravan sucks, Electric Funeral rulz!" for the 42069th time.
_________________
Timeghoul wrote:
Petitioner wrote:
Shut the fuck up you pathetic shut ins.
I didn't know children book fans were so angry.

Top
 Profile  
Diamhea
Eats and Spits Corpses

Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:46 pm
Posts: 9275
Location: At the Heat of Winter
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 7:53 am 
 

TrooperEd wrote:
Go piss on an electric generator you sad sack of cunt.


You are very, very lucky that you weren't banned for this post, or more specifically that I missed this entire exchange.
_________________
nuclearskull wrote:
Leave a steaming, stinking Rotting Repulsive Rotting Corpse = LIVE YOUNG - DIE FREE and move on to the NEXT form of yourself....or just be a fat Wal-Mart Mcdonalds pc of shit what do I give a fuck what you do.

Last.fm

Top
 Profile  
simonitro
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 3:41 pm
Posts: 473
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 4:33 pm 
 

Hello all,

Could anyone help me proofread my review to Metallica's Master of Puppets?

Spoiler: show
"When it comes to Master of Puppets, it’s either hailed as the greatest thing in existence or the most overrated piece-of-crap ever made. I’m supporting the latter, which is indeed a very overrated album. The way this album feels and plays just like its predecessor, Ride The Lightening, without its intensity. It was certainly one of the turning points for the band. Dave Mustaine was booted and now formed Megadeth and you’ve got Metallica without that extra wheel to push their music to bigger heights.

There have plenty of reviews already and everyone who’ve become a metalhead or so have crossed its path. One of the major problems with this album is that it tries to be more epic than the previous album but it’s not very successful. The band is using cheap tricks like overly extending the song just to give the impression that it’s “EPIC!!!”. For instance, “Disposable Heroes”, despite the best song here, have 3 overlong choruses which go on and on until the song gets to an 8 minute mark. This same problem goes for the title track, “Master of Puppets”, with its overlong choruses which somewhat kills the song. The melody part in the middle of the song is cute and it’s like Hetfield is like: “Hey guys, see what I could do!!! YEAH!!” Speaking of disposable, you could pretty much say for the song “Leper Messiah” which sounds pretty generic without anything noteworthy. You have some adorable lyrics slapped around onto it, but musically, there isn’t anything to give or take and I would say, it’s easily the worst song here.

Speaking of Hetfield, he sounds really soulless when it comes to his vocals, doesn’t he? “The Things That Should Not Be” is a terrible, boring and plodding song which goes on forever even if it’s one of the shortest songs here and Hetfield doesn’t help when it feels so robotic. He doesn’t input any emotions or adds anything to make the song stands out, he keeps his monotone voice throughout. This is Metallica’s attempt of being Black Sabbath, but it’s an amazing cure for insomnia. This continues on with “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” which tries so hard to repeat “Fade To Black” from the previous album but it feels so bleak and whiny from Mr. Hetfield.

This is when I had the impression that Master of Puppets is just a weak and a cheap replica of Ride The Lightening. They try to cash-in the previous success of that album onto here and you also have an instrumental and it’s an 8-tracked disc with an acoustic opener for both. There’s nothing new and I do understand why this album dragged the metal scene as a whole. You know the impression “Perfection is the Enemy of Good?” well, what if the “Perfection” is just decent. It’s going to create a negative and hurtful ripple effect. It’s a carbon copy of the previous album that became a marketing ploy that this is the STANDARD of all metal albums should be. The whole scene suffered because of this just the likes of UltraBoris and hells_unicorn stated out. If mediocrity is celebrated, it could cause a terrible effect just like what we’re hearing on today’s radio. Slayer’s “Reign In Blood” and Megadeth’s “Peace Sells” are way superior albums to this and if those albums were called “The greatest of all time” by the masses out of metal, things would’ve been more successful in the metal music, as a whole. This album was definitely the turning point of the band, for the worse… I’m afraid. They had one positive hiccup in the “…and Justice” album, but after that, it was all downhill from here and the band has never recovered ever since.

While many calls this album “masterpiece”, it did expose the band’s limitation. Hetfield is a decent songwriter overall with good ideas here and there, but cannot piece them together properly like Dave used to do. To Hefield’s credit, he could come up with decent riffs here and there with okay lyrics. Lars has always been a crappy drummer from the start and all these years, he hadn’t had much of progress only the basics of drumming and it is shown throughout the album. Kirk reliant on the “Wah” pedal for his, so-called creative, solos aren’t that much to take notes on. Cliff was the more competent out of the four players with some good bass lines on the instrumental “Orion”. Overall, the album is a weak version of what thrash is supposed to be. In which, they’re trying to sound melodic by placing unnecessary melodic stuff between songs like the title song, like I mentioned, doesn’t add much. The opener song of Damage Inc’s melodic section takes so long before the riff comes into play. I remember I used to turn off the album, which I had it on a cassette at the time, before the song ever started and I was thinking that it was part of the Orion song.

My little story when I first heard this album around 2001 and when I was getting into metal, I thought of it as “okay!” For a “legendary” album to get just an okay from my early metal brain wasn’t a good sign for this album when I thought albums like “Rust In Peace” and “Show No Mercy” were amazing from my immature ears. It took me awhile to enjoy it and thought it was a grower but not a whole lot. I’m harsh towards this album because this like the so-called “Standard barrier” and any weakness isn’t supposed to show from the biggest metal band in the world. I’ll give you this example… we all know that the WWE is the biggest company when it comes to wrestling and let’s say they put out an okay or a stinker of a Wrestlemania show, you’d be so livid and you show no mercy if there’s a small crack onto the show and this is how I feel about Master of Puppets.

One thing, you could give this album that it does create controversy and it divides people, whether people worship and believe that it’s the greatest musical experience on the planet or the most overrated piece of shit ever existed. There is no middle ground here and definitely a game changer and unfortunately, it was for the worse. I wouldn’t say it KILLED metal as a whole because the music did recover in the 2000’s somehow, but it did damage it for quite a while and that’s why the 90’s weren’t so kind of metal when the whole grunge and other trash that disguised itself as “metal” in which this album opened the gates to the unwelcome and go “HEY! I CAN DO METAL, AS WELL!!! LOOK AT ME!!!”

In the end, many had accepted this as their master and did obey it and made a large group of sheep that whatever Metallica would crap out, the majority would eat it. It’s so annoying when you open a list that has the likes of Beyonce and Kanye West and other rubbish and find the name Metallica within this list and this is where it all started. The downfall of Metallica… they pulled the strings on their suckers… I meant fans and at the same time, they pulled their own strings, I’m afraid."


It got rejected twice for its grammar. I tried to fix them but need your help.

Thanks in advanced,
Simonitro.

Top
 Profile  
Tanuki
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:36 pm
Posts: 425
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 5:46 pm 
 

Quote:
When it comes to Master of Puppets, it’s either hailed as the greatest thing in existence or the most overrated piece-of-crap ever made. I’m supporting the latter, which is indeed a very overrated album.

Master of Puppets is either considered the greatest thing in existence or an overrated piece of crap - I support the latter idea.

Quote:
The band is using cheap tricks like overly extending the song just to give the impression that it’s “EPIC!!!”. For instance, “Disposable Heroes”, despite the best song here, have 3 overlong choruses which go on and on until the song gets to an 8 minute mark.

I feel that Metallica has artificially lengthened their tracks for the sake of creating an epic scale. Even my favorite track, 'Disposable Heroes', I resent for repeating its chorus three times - a prime example of this illusory scale.

Quote:
“The Things That Should Not Be” is a terrible, boring and plodding song which goes on forever even if it’s one of the shortest songs here and Hetfield doesn’t help when it feels so robotic.

'The Thing That Should Not Be' is another culprit of a tiresome song structure, and the feeling of crushing monotony is not helped by Hetfield's lack of energy.

---

So in general, try to shorten your sentences so they're more concise and flowing, and ditch the filler. For instance, "Speaking of ____", is kinda fluffy - the reader already knows what you've been speaking of. Also, watch out for what your spellchecker won't catch, like Ride the Lightening.

I personally like to avoid using All Caps, and instead use Italics. (Surround whatever you want to say with <i> and </i> in case you didn't know)

Finally, just as a general tip, mods are going to be less forgiving if you're reviewing an album that's been reviewed a lot already, or if you're expressing adversative opinions that are difficult to sell, so you're gonna want to bring your a-game. But take everything I say with a grain of salt; I only started reviewing a few weeks ago. Best of luck man!

Top
 Profile  
navas015cbg
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:46 am
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:35 pm 
 

First of all I salute you and thank you in advance for your help. My Vreid's debut album review got rejected twice because of its content. I need your help to polish it I guess.
The text I tried to submit is this:
Spoiler: show
Vreid was formed in 2004 from the ashes of Windir, an excellent viking black metal band that ended tragically when Valfar, its vocalist and mastermind, died of hypothermia in a snow storm. This dramatic background clearly influenced Vreid’s first effort, Kraft. The album’s vibes are wrathful, dark and grim, and the lyrics deal with wrath, anti-religious sentiment, nostalgia and Marquis de Sade’s philosophy. Having settled all this let’s talk about the the most important aspect, the music:


I’ve been a fan of Vreid’s music since the very first time I listened to Kraft. Their trademark fusion of rock’n’roll and black metal, with some acoustic clean guitar moments and sporadic electronic passages got me immediately hooked. Their riffs are simply unforgettable. I love how this band have produced so many catchy riffs over the years with a grim, dark and evil tone. I mean, it was thanks to Vreid I removed the dust from my guitar and started playing again!
Kraft was simply the perfect debut album, and an excellent showcase of what Vreid is capable of. It contains all the aspects that made this band well-known in the black metal scene; catchy riffs and melodies, a raging vocal performance and obscure and provocative lyrics, all this played with a seemingly unending energy. In other words, pure black’n’roll! From the rageful ‘Wrath of Mine’ through the misterious and industrial influenced ‘Helvete’ to the nostalgic ‘Empty’, this album is brilliant in every aspect. Another thing I love about this album is its production. It’s raw and dirty, yet you can hear everything perfectly, which I feel it was the way this album was meant to sound. It became one of my favourite albums ever and introduced me to a band I still listen to often nowadays.


I would recommend this album to any black metal fan, specially if you like “Age of Nero's era” Satyricon and rock’n’roll influenced metal in general. Hails!

Top
 Profile  
Erosion of Humanity
Destroyer of the Gods

Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:12 pm
Posts: 5898
Location: over yon hill
PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:53 am 
 

Well you really don't need the history lesson at the beginning but there isn't anything inherently wrong with it, just more of an annoyance factor. You have not separated your second and third paragraphs, that needs to be done. The review is still lacking in musical description, to me, add some more. You say this is one of your favorite albums so I wouldn't imagine that being too difficult.

Lastly don't say "hails" at the end. What the hell is it with people needing to constantly say this? Do you walk up to strangers on the street and greet them as such? Surely not I would hope..... anyway more of a general rant against the lameness of it than you specifically.
_________________
Man is truly a wretched thing, and the forest is committed to expunging him from existence.

Azmodes wrote:
It combines two of my favourite things: penis innuendo and derigin.

Top
 Profile  
navas015cbg
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 4:46 am
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:12 pm 
 

haha, allright. I used the "history lesson" at the beginning because I thought it to be important, considering it was their debut album. About the hails, you are right that it's out of place in a review. It's kind of a heavy metal comrades salute for the internet, but yeah, it can be annoying I guess. Thanks for your answer.

Top
 Profile  
Diamhea
Eats and Spits Corpses

Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:46 pm
Posts: 9275
Location: At the Heat of Winter
PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:25 pm 
 

The "Hails" thing is fine, but the review is too short and self-referential. Remember that your duty is to review the album in question. Mentioning pertinent aspects of the band's history is fine, but it shouldn't make up the majority of the review. This is also somewhat short. Needs to go into greater depth.

Top
 Profile  
gasmask_colostomy
Metalhead

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 5:38 am
Posts: 1640
Location: China
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 2:32 pm 
 

The greatest problem that I'm seeing with most of the recent rejected reviews posted on this thread is that there is some general description, but not enough specific description of how the music actually sounds. That means not only saying things like "this is pure black 'n' roll", but describing where <i>this</i> album in question falls <i>within</i> the black 'n' roll subgenre, such as what kind of riffs we're hearing, the pace of the songs, the character of the solos, the tone of the singer's voice - little things that will make me able to imagine the album you're talking about.

If I can think of some advice about how to do that, I would say it's important to listen closely, use plenty of adjectives, and compare between songs, albums, or even different bands. But above all, always remember to be specfic.

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 10:57 pm 
 

And read the rules.
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
408Lurker
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 1:31 am
Posts: 3
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 6:03 pm 
 

Hi guys, I recently submitted this review for the new Void Meditation Cult LP, Utter the Tongue of the Dead. It got (rightfully) rejected for falling apart and getting off-topic halfway through. I revised it and tried to focus it more on describing the sounds/music itself. The review is still pending and I figure it's just in a backlog and you guys haven't gotten to it yet -- but I'd like to hear some thoughts about my revised version of the review.

Spoiler: show
Void Meditation Cult is essentially a Beherit worship band similar to Demoncy, except a tad lighter on the guitar distortion. Dark, ritualistic black metal with heavy static-y guitars, and a mix of whispered vocals and low chant-like growls. This type of black metal is generally very thick, and it usually works with a nice balance of fast, aggressive blast-heavy metal and slow, dark, evil atmosphere (without going full-on atmospheric black metal).

This band came out with Sulfurous Prayers back in 2011, then seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet. The demo showed promise for some quality Beherit worship, albeit with not as good songwriting. (But can you really expect a worship band to outdo the original?) Then, out of nowhere we get Utter the Tongue of the Dead.

This album starts out promising. The title track has some memorable riffs and is pretty well-paced to keep the listener's interest. It's to-the-point, hitting the listener with some dark riffing and thick, ritualistic atmosphere. So far so good. My only real complaint at this point is that the drums could stand to be a bit more prominent in the mix, but the riffing and atmosphere are both satisfying.

Then once you get to the second full track, The Antichrist Prevails, the album just falls apart. At this point, the riffs and overall songwriting are noticeably boring and uninspired, and start to just sound like stuff they picked up off the cutting room floor after spending a bunch of time working on the title track. The pacing is mind-numbing for the rest of the album -- the whole album just maintains the same slow beat with almost identical riffs and mumbled/whispered vocals used exactly the same on every single track. You could switch around the names of all the rest of the songs, and I wouldn't notice the difference because of how similar they all sound.

On the plus side, the rest of the album does maintain its dark, ritualistic atmosphere. But the riff-writing and song-writing are just not interesting or attention-grabbing.

If you're not familiar with this style of black metal, just go listen to Beherit's album Drawing Down the Moon. Maybe it's unfair to compare this album to DDTM, because DDTM is a perfect example of this style of black metal done extremely well. Unfortunately, Void Meditation Cult just doesn't seem to have the songwriting chops to make this style interesting and attention-grabbing beyond one track.


Thanks! Do your worst, I want to improve my review as much as possible.

Top
 Profile  
RapeTheDead
Stoned Jesus

Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:48 pm
Posts: 846
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 4:40 pm 
 

The one thing that strikes me right off the bat is that the line breaks are too frequent. Not that the whole thing should be a giant wall of text or anything, but I generally try to abide by the rule of thumb that a paragraph should be somewhere around six or seven sentences minimum, and that's if they're fairly long sentences. To help you see what I mean, I did a quick little re-arranging of the review without really altering any of the content (I did make some very minor grammatical changes):

Spoiler: show
Void Meditation Cult is essentially a Beherit worship band similar to Demoncy, except a tad lighter on the guitar distortion. They came out with Sulfurous Prayers back in 2011, then seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet. The demo showed promise and was some quality Beherit worship, albeit with not as good songwriting (but can you really expect a worship band to outdo the original?). Then, out of nowhere we get Utter the Tongue of the Dead. This type of black metal is generally very thick, and it usually works with a nice balance of fast, aggressive blast-heavy metal and slow, dark, evil atmosphere (without going full-on atmospheric black metal). It is dark and ritualistic, with heavy static-y guitars, and a mix of whispered vocals and low chant-like growls.

This album starts out promising. The title track has some memorable riffs and is pretty well-paced to keep the listener's interest. It's to-the-point, hitting the listener with some dark riffing and thick, ritualistic atmosphere. So far so good. My only real complaint at this point is that the drums could stand to be a bit more prominent in the mix, but the riffing and atmosphere are both satisfying. Then once you get to the second full track, The Antichrist Prevails, the album just falls apart. At this point, the riffs and overall songwriting are noticeably boring and uninspired, and start to just sound like stuff they picked up off the cutting room floor after spending a bunch of time working on the title track. The pacing is mind-numbing for the rest of the album -- the whole album just maintains the same slow beat with almost identical riffs and mumbled/whispered vocals on every single track. You could switch around the names of all the rest of the songs, and I wouldn't notice the difference because of how similar they all sound.

On the plus side, the rest of the album does maintain its dark, ritualistic atmosphere. But the riff-writing and song-writing are just not interesting or attention-grabbing. If you're not familiar with this style of black metal, just go listen to Beherit's album Drawing Down the Moon. Maybe it's unfair to compare this album to DDTM, because DDTM is a perfect example of this style of black metal done extremely well. Unfortunately, Void Meditation Cult just doesn't seem to have the songwriting chops to make this style interesting and attention-grabbing beyond one track.


Your description is decent enough, and I imagine it's acceptable (although I'm not a moderator so don't quote me on that). I would encourage you to try and do a couple of things, though: you use "dark, ritualistic atmosphere" as a descriptor multiple times, and it does get a bit repetitive. What might help is thinking up some different adjectives to use to describe the sound (comparing them to a band other than Beherit might help with this). Also, you've mentioned that Void Meditation Cult's atmosphere isn't particularly interesting or attention-grabbing, but why is that the case? Beherit certainly has a very minimal, "ritualistic" feel to their atmosphere as well. What makes Beherit work where Void Meditation Cult doesn't? You mentioned "songwriting chops" at the end, but maybe expand on that a little more. You've got a good skeleton for your review, you just need to flesh it out and go a bit deeper.

Hope that helps. I don't give review feedback often so maybe other regulars here might have stronger advice more directly conducive to acceptance.
_________________
Nolan_B wrote:
Hating ICP fans is a form of classist snobbery


SKYLESS AEONS
SENTIMENT DISSOLVE
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 5:33 am 
 

Good response, RTD.

The review is disorganized and poorly formatted. Musical description, while scattered, is on the right track as far as content, but only ends up referring us to a different album for context. The review needs to provide that context.

Listen to RTD.
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
408Lurker
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 1:31 am
Posts: 3
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:20 pm 
 

Thanks guys, I agree RTD hit the nail on the head. The feedback is much appreciated!

On a side note, can a mod please reject my review (/id/186863) so I can revise it?

Top
 Profile  
MatsBG
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:02 am
Posts: 148
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 6:46 am 
 

I'm not one hundred percent sure that I'm posting this question in the right thread, but I couldn't find any other threads to post this in.

Basically, I want to review Manilla Road's 2015 album The Blessed Curse, but because of the nature of its release, I'm a little bit confused on how I should review it. The album was released as a two disc album, no single disc version exists, but according to the booklet, the second disc is a bonus disc. If I were to review the album, would it be to assume that only the first disc would be relevant, or, since the album only exists as a two disc package, that the album is both discs? Is the album both discs, or is the album just disc one? Would it then be approved to review just one disc, or would it be seen as an incomplete review?

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 5:12 pm 
 

Do what you want, just be clear about it. If you're only sticking to disc 1, say so. Jophelerx reviewed the whole enchilada, and based on that review I will probably never listen to this album.
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
MatsBG
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:02 am
Posts: 148
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:41 pm 
 

Grave_Wyrm wrote:
Do what you want, just be clear about it. If you're only sticking to disc 1, say so. Jophelerx reviewed the whole enchilada, and based on that review I will probably never listen to this album.


Got it! Thanks for the reply.

Top
 Profile  
theunrelentingattack
Not yet ready for a custom title

Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:18 pm
Posts: 1416
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:01 pm 
 

That said, I think it's pretty silly to review an album and not review the entire thing. I could understand if there was a 1-disc version available and that's the one you bought. But it's a two disc album, so you should review a two disc album. That would be like stopping half way through a regular 1-disc record and forming your opinion on just that first half. I'd hope you wouldn't do that, so why is this any different?
_________________
"You do not deserve to claiming a metal "

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:56 pm 
 

I thought about that, too, but this isn't 'The Wall', for example. I also think it would be weird to only review one of the two, but if that's the author's choice, it might be a bad choice, but it's not against any rule, exactly. It's just a bad idea, of which there are plenty. Just make sure to mention that there is a second disc, but it's being overlooked for no particularly good reason.
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:00 am 
 

I probably wouldn't catch it if he didn't mention it since I'm not familiar with that album, but I'm with TUA on this one as a general rule. It's sort of like only reviewing one side of a split. If no single disc version exists, then theoretically there's no reason you shouldn't have that second disc regardless of whether you bought it or downloaded it or just listened to it on youtube. I don't know how much of a "bonus disc" it really is if there's no version of the album that doesn't include it, ya know?
_________________
Lair of the Bastard: LATEST REVIEW: In Flames - Foregone
The Outer RIM - Uatism: The dogs bark in street slang
niix wrote:
the reason your grandmother has all those plastic sheets on her furniture is because she is probably a squirter

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:24 am 
 

I do indeed. Personally, it's all or nothing for me. I don't see the point of only acknolwedging half of the release. That wouldn't occur to me, frankly. Maybe I hit my head or something and MatsBG enjoyed a moment of my distracted weakness.
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
thefacilitator
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 26
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:20 pm 
 

Hey folks, sorry about this one... It was requested that I edit my acronym's "bm" = black metal. I thought I edited it but I forgot to save draft and submitted it to the que without new edits. Sorry about that....

"Without a doubt, post-prison Varg Vikernes is not the same person as pre-prison Varg Vikernes (that goes without saying) and it is, I think, reflected in the music. This, of course, isn't immediately visible when listening to new bm gems Belus, Fallen and Umskiptar; I think of those more as the result of years of writing music in prison. But, Varg's latest 2 albums and batch of singles really lends itself to the theory that Varg is NOT the same person, he is not the same musician and thus his music is completely different.

Varg has always been on a mission of sorts, but now, rather than the mission being focused on the anti-Christianity of early black metal days, Varg appears to be on a process of spiritual evolution, which is evidenced in the lyrics of Forgotten Realms. Check these out - "Fathers and mothers from ancient times. Ghosts from a forgotten world. With wonder they look upon me; What took you so long? I wander not in darkness. I am not lost, nor bewildered. The path is not hidden. The tracks are not old. I was here a moment ago. I am home. I am home. I am home." - DEEP.

Varg is not lost, he is on a spiritual quest and through an understanding of the way of our ancient ancestors, he suggests, we also might find the way. All of this is a lot easier understood if you follow Thulean Perspective and read Varg's books exploring our ancient Nordic roots and ancient Nordic wisdom. But, I don't think you have to read any of this stuff or even care about Varg to appreciate this track.

In all reality, this is not black metal. Sure, the entire song is lead by a fiery and psychedelic tremolo guitar but really, this tune is PSYCHEDELIC; If it was a whole hour piece I would definitely suggest taking something before this. Instead, it's just a 7 and a half minute little blurp into the mind of Varg and his continuing spiritual exploration.

Forgotten Realms again features Varg's "talking" style of singing, which appears not to be too well liked. I generally enjoy the "talking" style, preferably in Norwegian but I think it is effective here and it allows the entire English-speaking world to comprehend the spiritual message. I do think, though, that the vox weren't particularly well-recorded here and they lose a little bit of the epic effect showcased on other tunes like Jóln and Gullaldr from Umskiptar.

I will say this is a tune that definitely deserves a couple spins, for it's spiritual message alone but also because when I first listened to it, I was thinking "What is going on!?". This is definitely not a traditional Burzum tune, nor a traditional black metal tune... but with more listens and an open mind I think it can be appreciated. It may seem a little absurd but I read an interview with Marduk guitarist Morgan Hakansson where he mentioned two of the things that make black metal black metal: "Destruction" and "Spirituality". Destruction is more of a Marduk thing, but "Spirituality" is definitely what makes up the better black metal for me, Like Burzum and specifically this song Forgotten Realms."
_________________
Frostbitten I became...

Top
 Profile  
MatsBG
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:02 am
Posts: 148
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:10 pm 
 

theunrelentingattack wrote:
That said, I think it's pretty silly to review an album and not review the entire thing. I could understand if there was a 1-disc version available and that's the one you bought. But it's a two disc album, so you should review a two disc album. That would be like stopping half way through a regular 1-disc record and forming your opinion on just that first half. I'd hope you wouldn't do that, so why is this any different?


Grave_Wyrm wrote:
I thought about that, too, but this isn't 'The Wall', for example. I also think it would be weird to only review one of the two, but if that's the author's choice, it might be a bad choice, but it's not against any rule, exactly. It's just a bad idea, of which there are plenty. Just make sure to mention that there is a second disc, but it's being overlooked for no particularly good reason.


BastardHead wrote:
I probably wouldn't catch it if he didn't mention it since I'm not familiar with that album, but I'm with TUA on this one as a general rule. It's sort of like only reviewing one side of a split. If no single disc version exists, then theoretically there's no reason you shouldn't have that second disc regardless of whether you bought it or downloaded it or just listened to it on youtube. I don't know how much of a "bonus disc" it really is if there's no version of the album that doesn't include it, ya know?


Grave_Wyrm wrote:
I do indeed. Personally, it's all or nothing for me. I don't see the point of only acknolwedging half of the release. That wouldn't occur to me, frankly. Maybe I hit my head or something and MatsBG enjoyed a moment of my distracted weakness.


Yeah, i see. It was mostly because of the way the album was released that I was confused, because the booklet states that the second disc is "bonus material", but as you all, myself included, said, is that there isn't a "regular one disc version". So the best option would maybe be to review the whole package, but to make clear that the album consists of bonus material in addition to the main album? Should I also rate them individually within the review and use a combined score? The reason that I'm asking is that I would love to hear feedback on what the best course of action would be.

Top
 Profile  
Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
Posts: 12030
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:04 pm 
 

Do what you want but yeah, review both discs or else it wouldn't be approved. Keep in mind that you must give a larger picture opposed to a track by track review. Considering this, I wouldn't give them individual ratings but it would still be acceptable if you do. Just listen to the whole album and write your thoughts, you're overthinking it.
_________________
caspian about CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
?????????

Metantoine's Magickal Realm

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:15 am 
 

Metantoine wrote:
review both discs or else it wouldn't be approved.

Vital info. Thanks, Tony.
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
MatsBG
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:02 am
Posts: 148
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:06 am 
 

Metantoine wrote:
Do what you want but yeah, review both discs or else it wouldn't be approved. Keep in mind that you must give a larger picture opposed to a track by track review. Considering this, I wouldn't give them individual ratings but it would still be acceptable if you do. Just listen to the whole album and write your thoughts, you're overthinking it.


Thank you, much appreciated.

Top
 Profile  
Danny Desire
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:43 pm
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:09 pm 
 

At first, my review was accepted, but after I edited it, it was denied two times due to poor grammar, pretty much the same problem most people have been facing here. After a brief talk with Diamhea, he told me there were syntax problems, and instructed me to search for help on this thread.

Spoiler: show
Japan is an alien place, it has a very particular and peculiar culture that seems disconnected to the reality of other countries, though different to occidental traditions and present costumes, seeing on news blogs or tabloids about weird inventions or the likes happening there it's indifferent to us, due to the over-exposition of the country. So, it's natural that a band like Urobilinemia came from there. The brand new EP from the band is part of the experimental side of the extreme side of extreme metal (pleonasm alert), yet this band doesn't operate with any sort of minimalism, or either the math-y approach, people are often related to. The only adjective that comes close to describing this band's sound is - strange.

Different than one expects from a brutal death metal/goregrind release, Urobilinemia sound isn't formulaic overall, there's not a specific idea which is repeated throughout the entire album, besides the weird impression that they might conjure you. The band set its own standard as soon as they can, which basically consists in a lack of standards - they can go from excruciatingly odd stop-and-go parts to borderline-acoustic sections in a matter of seconds, place an à lá Carcass melodic riff following some sweeping phrases or even go djent without warning you. Yet this mishmash of paradoxical in nature ideas altogether does flow pretty naturally, the 22 minutes of the release, is rich both in detail and variation.

There's one band I can recall a similarity to Urobilinemia, and quite possibly, the one that may be the point of reference for these Japanese kids - Purulent Jacuzzi, though they are just a technical band who simply operates with different concepts at each section, while Urobilinemia tries to be inclusive and match a lot of influences. Still, they can be compared in the composition department, both bands riff in a similar manner, mid-to-fast tempo chugging riffs with occasional arpeggios or dissonant technical phrases, all doing a job as guitar fills, then there are the outbursts of technicality doing the necessary bridges. It goes without saying, that this is only the idea most often employed on Wriggling Chrysalis Of Metaphysical Grudge and you won't see it that commonly.

The vocals are as varied as the compositions are, or maybe is the arrangements' fidelity that makes the EP seem like an omnibus release. No matter what, there are vocals for all tastes, pig squeals for slam primates, high-pitched screams for noisegrind music noobs and mincing pitchshifted gurgles for pornogrind-loving sociopaths. The production is amazing, polished with a very modernized touch, properly made to fit all the extensive ideas the band has, preserving each one's properties. Certainly, something that seems unimaginable for bedroom projects, also it may be due to the production.

In times where experimentalism gets repulsed with negative connotations due to the massive immigration of hipsters to metal. Among others, Urobilinemia comes up to show that this trend still has potential, at least, when it isn't made by hipsters. Artists like this is mandatory in brutal death metal, Urobilinemia shouldn't be the archetype (they're so unique, that no copies can match them anyway), but people aiming unconventional things should be the name of the game as of now, no matter how many craps the trend fructifies, go ahead and give us a fresh air.

Top
 Profile  
MichaelGlowacki
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 12:14 pm
Posts: 1
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:42 pm 
 

Black Funeral are a classic band in the Black Metal underground scene, their style is usually known as the raw, dark, evil and occult style of black metal with a few of ambient elements throughout their records. Now Black Funeral are back with a new album called Ankou and the Death Fire and a new style due to lineup changes, the best way to describe the new sound on this album will be a very classic sounding Black Metal record with a very dark, raw and evil sound. This record futures Azgorh from Drowning the Light doing all the instrumentation on this album and Akhtya Nachttoter doing vocals on this record, so to summarize the sound of this album imagine a Drowning the Light record with Black Funeral vocals on it. Now for some hardcore fans of this band's early work they might be disappointed with this release but I think there are many aspects of this album a Black Metal fan will enjoy to begin the drums have a Black Metal sound to it booming and loud drums but not too in your face to the point where it is distracting, the guitars have a very raw sharp sound but under the noisy shredding there are some really good riffs to be enjoyed here, the bass is very booming and raw and really add a lot of the darkness that this album has, the vocals are Black Funeral vocals business as usual very aggressive, raspy and evil sounding vocals on this record that really give the songs a whole new layer of atmosphere and finally the ambient elements, I think the ambients really make this album special it really gives it that dark occult atmosphere with the sheer evil sounding instrumental.
Overall I think this record is very enjoyable and though a Black Funeral fan might be disappointed with the new style I still think this on this album there is some very great aspects to take away from a release like this, even though they change up the style I still highly recommend this record to any Black Metal fans some really sensational stuff to be had with this album, for a score I am going to give it an 85% out of 100% Some really good stuff on this album guys, that is going to conclude my review thanks for reading and Michael out.

Top
 Profile  
Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
Posts: 3928
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 3:27 am 
 

Danny Desire wrote:
After a brief talk with Diamhea, he told me there were syntax problems, and instructed me to search for help on this thread.

Errors are plentiful. Notes in spoiler.
Spoiler: show
Japan is an alien place, it :nazi: (No it isn't.) has a very particular and peculiar culture that seems disconnected to the reality of other countries, though :nazi: different to occidental traditions and present costumes, seeing on news blogs or tabloids about weird inventions or the likes happening there it's indifferent to us, due to the over-exposition of the country.
(What the hell is going on with this .. paragraph? Sentence? It doesn't seem like you don't know anything about Japan, or how to decently describe it. The grammar is remarkably bad, considering this is presented as one convoluted sentence. "Over-exposition"? "different to occidendatl traditions and present costumes"? "it's indifferent to us"? These phrases do not make sense. News blogs and tabloids are your reference point? This is a confusing and misguided opening paragraph that needs to be reworked.)

So, it's natural that a band like Urobilinemia came from there. The brand new EP from the band is part of the experimental side of the extreme side of extreme metal (What?) (pleonasm alert) (What is pleonasm?), yet this band doesn't operate with any sort of minimalism, or either the math-y approach, people are often related to :nazi:. The only adjective that comes close to describing this band's sound is - strange :nazi:. (That's it? That's the only adjective you can come up with?)

Different than one expects from a brutal death metal/goregrind release, Urobilinemia sound isn't formulaic overall, there's not a specific idea which is repeated throughout the entire album, besides the weird impression that they might conjure you. The band set :nazi: its own standard as soon as they can, which basically consists in a lack of standards (A lack of standards is not the same as a lack of consistency) - they can go from excruciatingly odd stop-and-go parts to borderline-acoustic (Get your hyphenation under control) sections in a matter of seconds, place an à lá Carcass melodic riff following some sweeping phrases or even go djent without warning you. Yet this mishmash of paradoxical in nature ideas altogether does flow pretty naturally, the 22 minutes of the release, is :nazi: rich both in detail and variation.

There's one band I can recall a similarity to Urobilinemia, and quite possibly, the one that may be the point of reference for these Japanese kids - Purulent Jacuzzi, though they are just a technical band who simply operates with different concepts at each section, while Urobilinemia tries to be inclusive and match a lot of influences. :nazi: Still, they can be compared in the composition department, both bands riff in a similar manner, mid-to-fast tempo chugging riffs with occasional arpeggios or dissonant technical phrases, all doing a job as guitar fills, then there are the outbursts of technicality doing the necessary bridges :nazi:. It goes without saying, that :nazi: this is only the idea most often employed on Wriggling Chrysalis Of Metaphysical Grudge (Album title formatting) and you won't see it that commonly. (I don't know what the idea you're referring to is. This sentence is very confusing.)

The vocals are as varied as the compositions are, or maybe is the arrangements' fidelity that makes the EP seem like an omnibus release (Rephrase for clarity. Fidelity makes it sound like an omnibus? What?). No matter what, there are vocals for all tastes, pig squeals for slam primates, high-pitched screams for noisegrind music noobs and mincing pitchshifted gurgles for pornogrind-loving sociopaths (How is this complimentary or appealing? I don't understand your intention). The production is amazing, polished with a very modernized touch, properly made to fit all the extensive ideas the band has, preserving each one's properties. Certainly, something that seems unimaginable for bedroom projects, also it may be due to the production. (I .. huh? Does that train of thought actually make sense to you? It's entirely unclear to me)

In times where experimentalism gets repulsed with negative connotations due to the massive immigration of hipsters to metal :nazi: (Fragment sentence. Among others, Urobilinemia comes up to show that this trend still has potential, at least, when it isn't made by hipsters. Artists like this is mandatory in brutal death metal, Urobilinemia shouldn't be the archetype (they're so unique, that no copies can match them anyway), but people aiming unconventional things should be the name of the game as of now, no matter how many craps the trend fructifies (Please phrase more clearly), go ahead and give us a fresh air (Us? Are you a memeber of the band? Regardless, this turn of phrase doesn't make sense.).


(Ok, that last sentence makes me think you might be a member of the band. Is that true?

The language problems are extensive in this review. Most of it is unclear, and it's a bitch to try and make sense of. I get the general intention, and the musical description is enough to give me a decent guess as to what to expect, but over all, the piece needs the attention of a more capable English speaker. I don't know where you come from, but I'm sure that you'll know someone who speaks decent English who can help you out with this. The phrasing is consistently unclear, and usually falls apart toward the end of a thought. Your grammar needs attention thoughout. Use punctuation appropriately. I will never understand the use of the comma in place of the period. They are nothing alike and could not serve more different purposes.)
_________________
Bigotry is a mental health issue.

Top
 Profile  
Slasher01
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 4:06 pm
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 10:52 am 
 

Hi, I would like to submit this review, please let me know if it's fine.

Well, here we are. Another album by the mighty Darkthrone. Let's get it straight, during their long and honourable career, they've reached a point of "love or hate us" kind of band, and the supporters of their late albums usually are for a 100% score approach. It seems that this album could divide furthermore their hardcore followers, because it is different. It is quite different. To be honest, some of the influences that Fenriz and Culto show here were already in and there in some of their albums since 2006 “The Cult Is Alive album”. I’m talking about the slow or mid-paced songs, “Forebyggende Krig” in example, which shows a heavy Dream Death influence and ended up sounding like a weird, but cool in my opinion, mix of doomy-blackened metal with a punk-ish attitude. Here these same influences are massive and crushing like a bulldozer, and making way for a slower approach especially on the Fenriz's side songs. This slower approach could be a let down for some fan, but I would say that I actually appreciate that.

The feeling of the album is overall of doom and gloom with a basic energy that comes out of the darkness in a more punching way, but slower than in The Underground Resistance, see the opener "Tundra Leech" in particular and in other cool moments too, like the final part of "Boreal Fiend", that presents a unexpected riffing in a totally 70’s style. The highlights are for sure the opener and, to me at least, also the title track "Arctic Thunder" with its egyptian-like kind of a main riff and the other fantastic riff coming in in the middle of the song.

Be careful, there's nothing new or incredibly fresh here, but then who really wants that from the Darkthrone guys? Anyways, this is a solid release that pleases the ears of anyone that is looking for some heavy and dark riffing in a completely underground Darkthrone style and this album deserves to be checked out because of the way more serious approach that it has, more serious than every album since F.O.A.D. until now, that lack of the sinister and obscure feeling that you can easily find here. Well done guys. Noteworthy is the vocal performance, this time only by Ted Culto, probably at his peak since years for the growling grasp that he delivers here; Fenriz can be a decent singer but clearly he is not suited for the old school blackened style.


Last edited by Slasher01 on Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Top
 Profile  
Danny Desire
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:43 pm
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 11:33 pm 
 

So... I'm just going to leave this comment to do an update.

I won't be able to have access to my computer for quite some time, and using metal archives on mobile is a bitch, so I won't update that draft for quite some time. I have read Grave_Wyrm's response and when able I'll answer it back properly, there's some stuff that I have to work on, but some stuff he pointed out are dubious, and a discussion will be needed probably.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Top
 Profile  
Danny Desire
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:43 pm
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 3:58 pm 
 

Grave_Wyrm wrote:
Danny Desire wrote:
After a brief talk with Diamhea, he told me there were syntax problems, and instructed me to search for help on this thread.

Errors are plentiful. Notes in spoiler.
Spoiler: show
Japan is an alien place, it :nazi: (No it isn't.) has a very particular and peculiar culture that seems disconnected to the reality of other countries, though :nazi: different to occidental traditions and present costumes, seeing on news blogs or tabloids about weird inventions or the likes happening there it's indifferent to us, due to the over-exposition of the country.
(What the hell is going on with this .. paragraph? Sentence? It doesn't seem like you don't know anything about Japan, or how to decently describe it. The grammar is remarkably bad, considering this is presented as one convoluted sentence. "Over-exposition"? "different to occidendatl traditions and present costumes"? "it's indifferent to us"? These phrases do not make sense. News blogs and tabloids are your reference point? This is a confusing and misguided opening paragraph that needs to be reworked.)

So, it's natural that a band like Urobilinemia came from there. The brand new EP from the band is part of the experimental side of the extreme side of extreme metal (What?) (pleonasm alert) (What is pleonasm?), yet this band doesn't operate with any sort of minimalism, or either the math-y approach, people are often related to :nazi:. The only adjective that comes close to describing this band's sound is - strange :nazi:. (That's it? That's the only adjective you can come up with?)

Different than one expects from a brutal death metal/goregrind release, Urobilinemia sound isn't formulaic overall, there's not a specific idea which is repeated throughout the entire album, besides the weird impression that they might conjure you. The band set :nazi: its own standard as soon as they can, which basically consists in a lack of standards (A lack of standards is not the same as a lack of consistency) - they can go from excruciatingly odd stop-and-go parts to borderline-acoustic (Get your hyphenation under control) sections in a matter of seconds, place an à lá Carcass melodic riff following some sweeping phrases or even go djent without warning you. Yet this mishmash of paradoxical in nature ideas altogether does flow pretty naturally, the 22 minutes of the release, is :nazi: rich both in detail and variation.

There's one band I can recall a similarity to Urobilinemia, and quite possibly, the one that may be the point of reference for these Japanese kids - Purulent Jacuzzi, though they are just a technical band who simply operates with different concepts at each section, while Urobilinemia tries to be inclusive and match a lot of influences. :nazi: Still, they can be compared in the composition department, both bands riff in a similar manner, mid-to-fast tempo chugging riffs with occasional arpeggios or dissonant technical phrases, all doing a job as guitar fills, then there are the outbursts of technicality doing the necessary bridges :nazi:. It goes without saying, that :nazi: this is only the idea most often employed on Wriggling Chrysalis Of Metaphysical Grudge (Album title formatting) and you won't see it that commonly. (I don't know what the idea you're referring to is. This sentence is very confusing.)

The vocals are as varied as the compositions are, or maybe is the arrangements' fidelity that makes the EP seem like an omnibus release (Rephrase for clarity. Fidelity makes it sound like an omnibus? What?). No matter what, there are vocals for all tastes, pig squeals for slam primates, high-pitched screams for noisegrind music noobs and mincing pitchshifted gurgles for pornogrind-loving sociopaths (How is this complimentary or appealing? I don't understand your intention). The production is amazing, polished with a very modernized touch, properly made to fit all the extensive ideas the band has, preserving each one's properties. Certainly, something that seems unimaginable for bedroom projects, also it may be due to the production. (I .. huh? Does that train of thought actually make sense to you? It's entirely unclear to me)

In times where experimentalism gets repulsed with negative connotations due to the massive immigration of hipsters to metal :nazi: (Fragment sentence. Among others, Urobilinemia comes up to show that this trend still has potential, at least, when it isn't made by hipsters. Artists like this is mandatory in brutal death metal, Urobilinemia shouldn't be the archetype (they're so unique, that no copies can match them anyway), but people aiming unconventional things should be the name of the game as of now, no matter how many craps the trend fructifies (Please phrase more clearly), go ahead and give us a fresh air (Us? Are you a memeber of the band? Regardless, this turn of phrase doesn't make sense.).


(Ok, that last sentence makes me think you might be a member of the band. Is that true?

The language problems are extensive in this review. Most of it is unclear, and it's a bitch to try and make sense of. I get the general intention, and the musical description is enough to give me a decent guess as to what to expect, but over all, the piece needs the attention of a more capable English speaker. I don't know where you come from, but I'm sure that you'll know someone who speaks decent English who can help you out with this. The phrasing is consistently unclear, and usually falls apart toward the end of a thought. Your grammar needs attention thoughout. Use punctuation appropriately. I will never understand the use of the comma in place of the period. They are nothing alike and could not serve more different purposes.)


EDIT: A friend mine borrowed me his notebook, so I can safely justify what I was meanting there.

Thanks for the reply Grave_Wyrm, there's plenty of stuff I wrote that after re-reading once more seemed dubious to me as well. But there's some stuff that I think you don't get, in the review and I should clarify.

First of, yes, I'm not a native speaker, and to write that review I've used Grammarly, a lot of the times it pointed out comma misuse for me or even the proper place to put one. I'll see what I can do with it if there are problems related to it.

About Japan, yes dude, it is ''an alien place'', this is just a term to say it is a weird place (I've seen it before and that's why I used it), and this isn't something shocking, it even become a common joke regarding the country's culture anyway (for instance, the ''obsession'' with androgyny in their popular culture). The use of the terms ''over-exposition'' and ''indifferent'', refers to the fact that a lot of the stuff that is popular there have been consumed by occidental people as well nowadays, hence a lot of people (at least on the internet) are familiarized with their products (be it an anime or a show), even though some are not even included in the group mentioned. I mean, at this point who haven't seen at least one meme about the ''Japanophile'' kids? I see that I should have written that more properly, and some word choices are dull. But the general idea was to relate the country's weirdness with the band's weirdness. Also, ''News blogs and tabloids are your reference points?'', on this matter, I think I don't have any other ''reliable'' source.

(I don't know if sounds racist to you, but I thought it was appropriate there.)

''The experimental side of the extreme side of extreme metal (pleonasm alert)''. I should have written ''the EP is an experimental take on the extreme side of extreme metal (pleonasm alert)'', it would sound better I think. By the way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleonasm. No ''strange'' is not the only adjective I can come up with, I used a lot more throughout the review, what happens is, the use of that word is a matter of context, I mentioned 'minimalistic(BDM) and math-y (BDM)' earlier, resuming these sort of BDM with only one word, so I decided to describe Urobilinemia's sound with only one adjective like I've done with the others, though now I think ''abundant'' would sound better.

The lack of standards is not meant to refer to ''lack of consistency'', it's simply meant to say that the band hasn't any specific standard that is followed throughout the album. I even state in the sentence earlier ''there's not a specific idea which is repeated throughout the entire album'', again, it's all a matter of context. But, now it seemed a bit redundant of my part.

The third paragraph was quite ambiguous and misleading, going to re-work it.

On the fourth one, the reason why I mention a specific type of listener after a technique, is because I said ''there's vocals for all tastes'' and then, I thought it was a good idea to specify the oriented public of each one. ''also it may be due to the production.'', this part used to state something like ''it may be due to the production that the drums sound a bit clicky'', but I thought that it lacked depth and a concise justification, so I deleted it, but unfortunately I forgot to backspace the entire sentence, my bad.

To finish, on the last sentence the ''us'' is supposed to refer to ''us BDM listeners''. The subject is occult there.

Anyway, you pointed out some consistent stuff, I think the general idea of my text it's coherent and I'm going to maintain it, I'll have to re-work the part's that seem dubious and poorly structured as of now. Thanks for the feedback mate.

Top
 Profile  
Plagued
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 2:18 pm
Posts: 96
Location: Luxembourg
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:44 am 
 

Currently reworking my review for The Body's No One Deserves Happiness. Haven't had the time to complete it in the last couple of months plus I'm a super slow writer. Will post my draft in the next couple of days and I'm looking forward to what you guys think of it!
I really appreciate everyone's efforts of helping newcomers in this thread, your work is under appreciated.
_________________
Some rise, some fall

Top
 Profile  
Sweetie
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:19 am
Posts: 1091
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 10:02 am 
 

So that review I submitted like four days ago, is that just gonna sit in the "pending" status forever? It can't be that backed up if there's a review for an album that was just released today (Gods Of Violence).
_________________
"It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase" - Deep Purple

Top
 Profile  
Plagued
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 2:18 pm
Posts: 96
Location: Luxembourg
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 10:40 am 
 

SweetLeaf95 wrote:
So that review I submitted like four days ago, is that just gonna sit in the "pending" status forever? It can't be that backed up if there's a review for an album that was just released today (Gods Of Violence).


If this is mini-modding then please delete it!

Reviews can take some time to be either rejected or approved especially those for albums of big name bands like Kreator in this case. Also, the album has only been released today, so I don't think that it will be considered earlier than that, especially not if you have written a review prior to the album's actual release date. Plus, the mods probably have to deal with a lot of people that have submitted a review for this particular album.
_________________
Some rise, some fall

Top
 Profile  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic Go to page Previous  1 ... 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91 ... 108  Next


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

  Print view
Jump to:  

Back to the Encyclopaedia Metallum


Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group