I totaly know that Hahaha, but that was a clear joke from me
Hope u liked it

Hi guys, I wanna hear your opinion about my first reviews. I'm not an english speaker, so, I review albums with double intention, attemping to improve my english level while contributing to the Metal community.

I reviewed 2 albums I enjoy pretty much. One of them is the well-known Testament's album "The Legacy". The other one is an excelent piece of death metal from the most legendary band within my country: Masacre's "Sacro"

http://www.metal-archives.com/userrevie ... t_In_Blood

Please, check it and tell me what I'm lacking or forgetting, and then I'll try to do better reviews based on it.

I've made 2 reviews for Masterplan's full length debut and both got rejected because "good content but formatting problems". The problem is that i don't see such a problem and i even made a "trick" to make the review easier to read (after my long first rejection long and maybe hard to follow for some). The grammar is decent enough i guess too. So maybe there was another reason?

Yes, i know it's kind of "track by track", but to describe this album really good you can't do it differently. It is the first time i feel forced to write in this style. Just read THIS REVIEW and after that listen to the record and you'll see just how worthless it was. IMO, the only 2 reviews on the page that help the reader are the first one and the other created by hells_unicorn.

I don't want to whine, but i wouldn't like to commit the same mistakes in the future! As the moderator didn't write me a short custom message, please tell me what would you do to get it accepted and other recommendations. Is it really that bad? Does the formatting ruin the review in your opinion? How many of the older reviews do you prefer over this one?



Thanks a lot!

Didn't actually read through the review yet so I'm not sure if it's otherwise acceptable but there is a glaring formatting error. In almost every case where you use quotes, the opening end of the quotes appears upside down, almost like a double comma, rather than quotes. If you can't see it I'm guessing it's some sort of character recognition discrepancy between your computer and the Archives. Really strange since not all of the quotes are like this. Anyway, I replaced all of the strange ones with regular ones and fixed one typo where you had written "you" where you meant to write "your."

It seems to be the effect of crappy Microsoft Word auto formatting. The opening ends of the quotes that appear upside down were written in Word, the OK ones were copy-pasted from my first review which wasn't written in this program. I didn't notice this problem, but even if for me it isn't such an earthshaking thing, it may be for others. Thanks a lot!!!

Maybe a good choice too would be opening more sentences without words that are surrounded by quotation marks. I guess i exaggerated a bit with that. If I'll get some honest feedback that will assure me that my content isn't the problem, i will re-submit with these 2 types of problems fixed.

LATER EDIT: It got accepted

I submitted a review 8 days ago and it still hasn't been either approved or declined. Should I submit it again even though it's still waiting for approval? Just curious to know if something is going on, or is still waiting over a shit load of other reviews awaiting approval.

It's by far the oldest unprocessed submission in the queue, and I think it is one of those reviews... you know, the kind that no mod knows how to handle. The first paragraph is an oddity for me personally, and I really don't know what to do with it, because I don't want to reject it without giving you solid reasons for it, but it still doesn't look like one I could approve, either.

Post it here, there are a lot of people who can probably give you plenty of good advice.

EDIT: and kill the emoticon in the sig, please...

So would this work?

When doom metal comes to mind, I'd say most people think My Dying Bride, they happen to be like the Metallica of heavy metal, or the Cannibal Corpse of death metal, or the Arch Enemy of melodic death metal, or the Slayer of thrash metal, and so on.

The big hits on the album were likely Deeper Down, To Remain Tombless, Thy Raven Wings, and I Cannot Be Loved. These songs are all of my favorites for this album. They showed the most instrument addition, best lyrics, and had great guitar parts. I'll say that all the songs seemed dark and heavy. This is what I consider great doom metal, dark, heavy, and unique. and the songs on this album are all, dark, heavy, unique, and some are even desperate. Deeper Down was my favorite, it had the most dark and heavy and desperate sounds, loved the video as well. To Remain Tombless, Thy Raven Wings, and Cannot Be Loved are also good, they were dark and heavy and some even desperate. But the thing that makes My Dying Bride and this album so unique is that, the sound is much different

Overall, guitar and bass parts were very unique, and I liked them. They were really some of the dominant instruments, they are half the reason that gets you that brutal sound. The vocals and lyrics were very good, they really make it seem like I'm in a hospital or somewhere about to die. While not as good as the guitars, they are definitely very good. Drumming was probably the worst thing, but were still up to standards, not much to comment on this other than they can help give it the evil sound. Keyboard additions were great, like in Thy Raven Wings, that keyboard intro makes it sound sad and depressing like someone punched you in the stomach and let all the air out of you.

Being the hardcore metalhead I am, as I've said before, I'd say doom metal is a good underground sub-genre that many metalheads should be exposed to at least some of, and My Dying Bride and Alkonost are two good starting points for newbie doom metal listeners. I might not like doom metal so much I'd worship it, unlike death metal, thrash metal, or melodic death metal, but it certainly is worth being a top 10 favorite metal sub-genres.

Really isn't too much to say here, other than it was good, mostly because of the unique sound and emotional impact it brings to me, which is exactly what a good band does, of course with slightly different impacts. How to describe this in words, quite simple for me to say. Dark, like that kind of feeling you get at a cemetary at night and hear someone scream, that kind of dark, creepy sound. Heavy, I'm talking low tuned guitars that make that brutal sound like that one riff at exactly 0:56 on For Whom The Bell Tolls. Desperate, by this, I mean that sound like on Duality by Slipknot, like get me some asprin before I die kind of desperate. And of course, awesome.

Correct the spelling errors first. Example: insturment(s) to instrument(s)

Consider using less subjective adjectives, like "good" and "great". Describe in a more in-depth nature the actual musical content, eg riffs, tempo changes, atmosphere, intros/outros, etc. Try to take a more objective approach, with appropriate subjectivity, of course.

That whole paragraph about "If you ask me, Doom metal should have, etc etc etc" is awkward, tacky, and unnecesary. Consider removing it entirely.

My review for Ea Taesse got rejected, but I can't see how it could be poorly structured, or any of the reasons given, considering the content itself was apparently okay, could I get some feedback on this please?

I just submitted this review, but I'd like to see if there was anything I fucked up on, left out on, should get rid of, or didn't explain very well.

Not bad at all
100%

I know there have been some critics of Evile saying they just copy Slayer music since Matt sound like Tom Araya, but I still really dont understand these critics and their bull shit they throw out.

I can safely say that Evile and their one album at the time helped me dig more underground into the metal genre and find out that Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth aren't the only thrash metal bands out there. In fact, Evile is what helped me dig deeper into the thrash metal genre, helping me discover other truly excellent thrash metal bands like Kreator, Sodom, and Holy Moses, which to me, all three of those bands and Evile should probably even be mainstream. However I'm drifting off topic so I'll get down to buisness now.

I really liked all the songs except the instrumental song, which was okay, but certainly not great, but the songs that really helped me like the album were Infected Nations, Time No More, Devoid of Thought, Now Demolition, and Plague to End All Plagues. These five songs show true thrash metal in a unique way. I dont know if they down tune those guitars or not, but either way they make these songs very heavy and brutal, along with the war themed lyrics and epic skilled drumming makes me want to rate this album 110/100.

I know war themed lyrics are common in many bands especially thrash metal bands, however unlike Bolt Thrower, Vader, Holy Moses, or System of a Down, Evile has its own distinct way of doing both war based lyrics and and also making ballad songs that should be topping the charts on top of this Nickelback bullshit for the number one hard rock album and half the reason being these unique ballad warfare lyrics. I know Matt sounds like Tom Araya when he sings, but fuck man, Slayer is awesome and last time I checked, Evile was inspired by Slayer and Metallica, along with Annihilator, Exodus, and Sepultura, which I am also very big fans of all those other five bands.

With guitars and bass lines, I'm sad to have to see Mike go (who was my favorite Evile member did I forget to say), Mike and his basslines combined with Ol and Matt and their lead and rhythm guitar parts really makes it a good dark and deep warfare sound. Add those warfare lyrics and drum parts and it's kind of like putting you in a situation where you're a soldier marching up for an invasion, which is what good music is supposed to do. Another compliment about those bass lines is that they are nothing like the ones in rap, which in most metal, rap and metal bass lines are very similar, but not in this case where they make rap and metal sound even more different. Including the fast soloing, heavy and fast intros and outros, with riffs and bridges probably able to compete with Iron Maiden's riffs and bridges.

Drumming and such was nice but not awesome, I really dont pay much attention to drumming, but I'd say that without any drumming, it would be broken, as would it be with any band and I'd rather have it at least decent rather than shit.

Now on to hit songs, my favorite would be a tie between Infected Nation and Time No More, these songs do get old after a while but they are very fun while it lasts which is why listening to them three times in a row isn't the best idea.

So for the wrap up, I'd say any metalheads who want to go deeper than just Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, or Anthrax in thrash metal, Evile, Kreator, and Sodom are your good starting points. So give them a chance,, keep it fucking metal, bow down to the Thrasher, and rest in peace Mike.

Pros: Excellent solos, Fast guitar parts, complex drumming, unique bass lines, truly astonishing lyrics
Cons: Drumming was complex, but only pretty good
Hit songs: Infected Nation, Time No More, Devoid of Thought, Plague to End All Plagues, Now Demolition
Shit songs: Hundred Wrathful Deities

100% with a shit song?

Metallideath, one read through that and I can definitely say that you shouldn't give it a 100%. Your description says that the songs don't have lasting value and drumming isn't great, but "it would be broken" without any. Seems more like a ~80% release than a 100%.

The way you say some things makes it a little awkward to read ("Another compliment about those bass lines is that they are nothing like the ones in rap, which in most metal, rap and metal bass lines are very similar, but not in this case where they make rap and metal sound even more different.")

The part at the beginning "I still really dont understand these critics and their bull shit they throw out," doesn't explain how Evile ISNT a Slayer clone.

I think the second paragraph would go better at the end where you can tie it into how this album is a good choice for going beyond just the big names in thrash.

At first you mentioned epic skilled drumming but at the end you say the drumming is just there. That was a little confusing. That you list the drumming in both the pros and cons adds to that.

And I agree with the two people above that it doesn't sound like it is or you think it is a perfect, 100% album. But you do have a lot of good substance here. Hope this helps.

edited to add: I wouldn't mention system of a down. Not because of personal tastes, but they really don't fit in that list.

I'll kill that bass line rap thing and that first paragraph. So is this better?

Not bad at all
89%

I can safely say that Evile and their one album at the time helped me dig more underground into the metal genre and find out that Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth aren't the only thrash metal bands out there. In fact, Evile is what helped me dig deeper into the thrash metal genre itself, helping me discover other truly excellent thrash metal bands like Kreator, Sodom, and Holy Moses, which to me, all three of those bands and Evile should probably even be mainstream comparable or maybe even mainstream thrash all together. However I'm drifting off topic so I'll get down to buisness now.

I really liked all the songs except the instrumental song, which was okay, but certainly not great, but the songs that really helped me like the album were Infected Nations, Time No More, Devoid of Thought, Now Demolition, and Plague to End All Plagues. These five songs show true thrash metal in a unique way. I dont know if they down tune those guitars or not, but either way they make these songs very heavy and brutal, along with the war themed lyrics and maybe 7 out of 10 drumming would me want to rate this album 100% if they left out Hundred Wrathful Deities.

I know war themed lyrics are common in many bands especially thrash metal bands, however unlike Bolt Thrower, Vader, or Holy Moses, Evile has its own distinct way of doing both war based lyrics and and also making ballad songs that should be topping the charts on top of this Nickelback bullshit for the number one hard rock album and half the reason being these unique ballad warfare lyrics.

With guitars and bass lines, I'm sad to have to see Mike go (who was my favorite Evile member did I forget to say), Mike and his basslines combined with Ol and Matt and their lead and rhythm guitar parts really makes it a good dark and deep warfare sound. Add those warfare lyrics and drum parts and it's kind of like putting you in a situation where you're a soldier marching up for an invasion, which is what good music is supposed to do. Including the fast soloing, heavy and fast intros and outros, with riffs and bridges probably able to compete with Iron Maiden's riffs and bridges.

Drumming and such was nice but not awesome, I really dont pay much attention to drumming, but I'd say that without any drumming, it would be broken, as would it be with any band and I'd rather have it at least decent rather than shit.

Now on to hit songs, my favorite would be a tie between Infected Nation and Time No More, these songs do get old after a while but they are very fun while it lasts which is why listening to them three times in a row isn't the best idea.

So for the wrap up, I'd say any metalheads who want to go deeper than just Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, or Anthrax in thrash metal, Evile, Kreator, and Sodom are your good starting points. So give them a chance, keep it fucking metal, bow down to the Thrasher, and rest in peace Mike.

Pros: Excellent solos, Fast guitar parts, unique bass lines, truly astonishing lyrics
Cons: Drumming was complex, but only pretty good, limited appeal time
Hit songs: Infected Nation, Time No More, Devoid of Thought, Plague to End All Plagues, Now Demolition
Shit songs: Hundred Wrathful Deities

Get rid of the pros and cons parts. It should be apparent what you liked and disliked from your review alone. That, and you want to stay shamelessly en vogue as it ain't 2004 anymore. Longer paragraphs would work better, too. If you don't pay much attention to drumming why comment on it at all? It's a sort of MA cliche to have "you can't hear the bassist at all. But he's a big part of the band's sound and he helps selling merch when he can, too." etc so it won't do you any favours.

I started reviewing about a month ago. Would like some feedback on my OTV review before I write again: http://www.metal-archives.com/review.ph ... 621#151443

I'm working on a review for Violator's Chemical Assault and I decided to start it with a reflection about the New Wave of Thrash within the metal world. This "intro" finished much longer than I initially though. So, it's now more deep than a simple review. Please guys, check and tell me if I make sense, if you agree with my points, and help me to correct the big ammount of errors that it probably have, because I'm not an english speaker. And remember that this is not the complet review, is only the first part of it

PD: I'll give it something between 80% and 95%


This new wave of thrash is making everybody to feel a bit of the greatness that metal had a quarter of century ago, but in this years. It's good, having that the big majority of actual "metal music" is basically a piece of shit, and it makes hard to find any good album with less than 15 years since its recording date. But in the other side, lovers of the old school are having mixed emotions about that. In one hand we find a group of bands making high quality thrash, with very marked influences in classics like Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Sacred Reich, D.R.I., Heathen, Annihilator, Onslaught, Sepultura, Vio-Lence, Dark Angel, Sodom and especially Exodus, most of them (the new ones) thrashin' with their releases much more than the godfathers (the old ones) nowadays, and we have to face it: Some of the godfathers (only some) are contributing with the shitty music of today. I cannot deny the great work that this new bands are doing, because it’s the big stand-out of this new wave.

But in the other hand, we find the same group of bands making the same "straight-line" kind of music and trying so hard to do something already done 20 years before. This is probably the real challenge for bands like Violator: To make music with a level high enough to reach the legacy that their influences left a long time ago. Happily for everybody (maybe not for posers), they're doing it!

Every thrash metal record released on this century can be subject of this question: If it would had been released somewhere in time between 1983 and 1990, would have been a classic? The answer for this one is yes. Chemical Assault is an album with an excellent level of thrash, every piece of it totality smells like Bonded by Blood, Eternal Nightmare or Schizophrenia, and its elements are only inspired on the greatness of 80's. So, are 2000's terrible enough to reduce the rank this way? Well, they have part of the guilt. I know that the MA requires us to review the musical content of the album and not its place in the time, but that place in time is something that really affects the music implied on a record. And the music implied on a record is not only the 2, 3, 9, 10 or 23 songs that it contains, but also the legacy that the 2, 3, 9, 10 or 23 songs are leaving. In example, I can tell you that "Black Magic" is part of the music that Show No Mercy implies, but I also can tell you that "Zombie Ritual" (Death), “Metal Forces” (Onslaught) or “Atomic Nightmare” have a bit of the same music that Show No Mercy implies (because they’re influenced by that masterpiece), so there are not only 10 songs in SNM and that’s it, but also a big mark in thousands of bands influenced by SNM, and both, songs in the album & influenced bands, are part of the music that Show No Mercy is giving us.

The problem with 21th century thrash albums is that they have it hard to leave their seal in the metal history, because almost everything was already done decades ago, and it makes the thrasher audience very exigent: If you make something with the traditional formula (Chemical Assault falls in this group), you probably will get a very solid thrash release, but you’ll influence nobody (because you’re following a recipe already done by your influences, not by you) and then people won´t remember you with the pass of the time in the same way that we remember the pioneers of metal, because they influenced all of us. But if you try to break this traditional formula and give yourself a chance for experimentation or innovation, you probably will be (for the most of people) a fucking sell-out asshole attacking the integrity of the true thrash metal, and I must accept that sometimes I’ll be the first accusing you (But c’mon, If you’re a good thrasher, there are some things that you simply cannot do *cough*’tallica*cough**cough**cough*’thrax. *cough**cough*sepultura*cough**cough*)

In summary, if somebody wanna confront the 10 songs in Show No Mercy with the 10 songs in Chemical Assault, (s)he must take that regardless of the musical quality in each album, the music in CA is also part of the music of SNM, so SNM=SNM+CA(+a million of albums that they influenced) and CA=CA(+a couple of albums they influenced), and that’s basic algebra: If A>0 (SNM is undoubtedly more than 0) and B>0 (also Chemical Assault is more than zero) then (A+B)>B, so, Show No Mercy, only for being released on 1983 (and obviously for being great enough to influence too many people), is infinitely superior than Chemical Assault, even if the musical level of this one is infinitely superior than the one in SNM (but I don’t think so). Basically, this is the big difference between the Old School of Thrash Metal and the “New Old” School of Thrash Metal. Up to this paragraph, this is not only a review for this album, but also a review for that entire movement of New Thrash that is giving everybody something to talk about.

Here's what I'd change:

condense the history and analysis
toss the algebra part
don't say that most metal is shit

I don't know about other people who read reviews, but a lot of the time the history and personal experience and shit seems like filler and I just skip to the part about the music. So making it too long makes me not want to bother sifting through the review to find what I'm looking for. Again, I don't know about others but that's the things I'd change.

Most metal is shit, he's absolutely right to say that.

I wrote a review for Rainbow's Stranger In Us all, but it was rejected and I assume it's possibly because of the pros and cons part, but some of my other reviews were accepted with that.

Anyways here it is:

Yes folks, this is it. This is the last album Ritchie Blackmore played on that could be qualified as metal/rock(really this is more of a metal album then a rock one but more on that later), before he was(as most people say) taken by Candice Night and thrown into the the renaissance inspired albeit surprisingly poppy Blackmore's Night. I don't necessarily agree with this, as I actually do enjoy a few BN albums("Fires At Midnight", "Secret Voyage", "Shadow Of The Moon" I mean they aren't great but if you're in the mood they can be fun), but the funny thing is that about half of this album was co-written by Candice Night. Actually even more surprisingly is that she co wrote what pretty much end up being the best songs on here although this could be attributed more so to Blackmore and White perhaps but it's hard to be sure.

But enough of that, how does the album hold up on it's own? Well one thing's for sure, this is definitely a good album to end on(at least in the rock/metal career) if you ever had to end on one. Blackmore's playing is fiery and enthusiastic as he lets out some great riffs("Black Masquerade", "Ariel") and scorching solos("Silence", "Still I'm Sad"), and Doogie's vocals are powerful and emotive a far improvement over a few of the other vocal performances we had to deal with in the past few Blackmore related albums of this era(yes I'm looking at you Slaves And Masters). The rhythm section isn't particularly special but Greg Smith and John O'Reilly get the job done. Paul Morris isn't particularly prominent here but he's got some good solos as well.

The album opens with "Wolf To The Moon", a neo-classical sounding song with some of the best vocal harmonies we'll hear on this album. The chorus is very catchy, and the solo is kind Uli Jon Roth esque but still having a Blackmore feel to it. Overall a strong opener despite not leaving the biggest impression. After this we have "Cold Hearted Woman" which is a more blues based song with strong guitar playing and a driving groove.

I should probably address the fact that this album basically has two moods going on. One is the neoclassical, heavier sound we hear in songs like "Wolf To The Moon", "Black Masquerade" and "Ariel", while the other is a very bluesy, Burn esque rock inspired sound we hear in songs like "Stand And Fight", "Too Late For Love", and "Cold Hearted Woman".

The best of the latter is probably "Stand And Fight" which sounds a lot like an early era Saxon song, but with a very Blackmore type feel. It's a pretty good song with some nice rhythms, but overall the bluesier numbers on the album don't sound as inspired(probably because Ritchie was going to go full on folk on us pretty soon after this) and a song like "Hunting Humans(Insatiable)" tends to drag.

But let's make this clear right now: The neo classical songs here are absolutely AWESOME! Don't believe me? Take a listen to "Black Masquerade" one of the more metal songs Rainbow has done which has an epic driving beat, an ownage riff, and power metal type melodies and harmonies. Ritchie gets a bit of his renaissance sound here at the beginning of his solo here even though the notes he's playing are actually sound kind of like Yngwie. It really boggles the mind that Candice Night could take part in a song this awesome(the live version of this song has solos that far outdo the original and end up being some of Blackmore's best). Then there is "Ariel" which has a menacing riff, some really good drumming by John, and really strong vocal melodies executed wonderfully by Doogie and, at the end, Candice. There is also some very heartfelt guitar soloing going on here.

But what really surprised me is just how full on metal "Still I'm Sad" sounds here. It was a heavy song on the first album, but here it sounds almost completely power metal! With some great solos, driving drumming, and full on awesome vocals, this is a great way to end the metal career for Blackmore really. It goes really good with "Hall Of The Mountain King" that came before it actually.

So musically, this album holds up pretty well. Keeping us interested with some unusual twists and turns at least for a Rainbow album, abandoning the AOR elements of the Turner era, and providing us with some classic songs. However, the bluesier songs on the album as I said before really sound uninspired. It's like they were only written because they knew the old school fans wanted some more bluesy sounding material. It's really generic and recycled sounding but not particularly offensive so it doesn't take away from the album that much. It just seems like Blackmore was running out of steam at least for this kind of music, and wanted to get his last creative juices on the neo classical songs here, because I think he already had it planned that he would start Blackmore's Night.

One thing you got to give them credit for is that they didn't try to follow any trends. This album doesn't sound 90's like at all, but it's not supposed to. They were really writing from the heart here not trying to adhere to any trends, and sound like they were having a real good time doing it. The music is strong, exciting, and a fitting piece of music to say goodbye to Rainbow with. If they never do reunite, at least we can say they left on a high note.

With such a large abundance of memorable melodies, solos, riffs, and vocals, you can easily ignore the lower moments of the album to acknowledge it as a great release and an album to revisit many times. It may not be a classic, but it sure is a great album and fans of old school Rainbow will eat it up pretty quickly.

Pros:
-Strong melodies
-Memorable riffs and solos
-A rather driving rhythm section
-Great musicianship
-Very clear but heavy production

Cons:
-The songs tend to sound better live
-Bluesier numbers sound uninspired at times
-The bass is very hard to hear

Best Tracks: "Black Masquerade", "Ariel", and "Still I'm Sad".

Why assume? Don't you have your email checkbox checked?

I assume because it didn't tell me distinctly why it was rejected it was one of those "The contents of your review are acceptable, but it is poorly formatted or difficult to read" and I don't see why and the only thing I could guess was the pros and cons section.

I'm not altogether sure why this review of mine was rejected... it was rejected for the formatting, and I can see in places, where I join several words together, that this may be the origin of the problem, but I feel this adds to the effect. Anyhow, here's the review (for Fist In Fetus' self titled EP):

This, Fist In Fetus’ self titled EP, is a combination of progressive metal, grindcore, deathcore, and symphony that would be quite startling if the comparisons to Septicflesh’s ‘Communion’ album weren’t so rife, and although this was released a year before that divisive album, it would be surprising if the group were unaware of the earlier works of Septicflesh, pre-‘Midian’ Cradle Of Filth, and a lot of blasting death/grind.

That said, the introduction of classical elements are a lot more prevalent on this than the former two, and a high level of classical knowledge is obvious on here. However, not all the elements work – the second track, ‘Emancipation’, features hideous breakdowns and such excessive use of pinch harmonics means that they quickly go past the point of being grating, and beyond – indeed, by the end, one feels like copious amounts of finger skin are now mixed in with the proverbial cheddar! Anyway, the combination of these elements makes this particular track almost painful to listen to.

Another example of imperfect combinations is the addition of harsh vocals on the eight minute ‘Communion – which is somewhat coincidentally the closest musically to the aforementioned Septicflesh album of the same name – or rather, not the addition itself, but the style of harsh vocals which are added. They sound completely inhuman, but in this case, this is a negative description, as they are not inhuman in a cool, superfuckingbrutal, Demilich-esque way, and are instead a constant point of annoyance throughout the track, sounding akin to a grandfather clock being wound up at an incessant rhythm and annoyingly high speed.

It is worth noting, however, that the vocals do not retain this incredibly frustrating attribute throughout, and usually revert to run-of-the-mill brutal death style vocals, which, although bog-standard, are nonetheless satisfying, and certainly beat any style of –core scream that they could equally have put in here!

Sometimes, the transitions between metal and orchestral sections are well done, and run smoothly from one into the other, giving a real sense of surprise and satisfaction to the listener, but, for the most part, they are unfortunately poorly done, and often sound jumpy and out of place. I don’t doubt that this is partially due to the production job, which although clear and easily digestible, and certainly closer to Dimmu than Deathcrush, is still a bit raw and on occasion lacklustre, and feels as though it dims the effect of the music a bit.

It is by no means solely the fault of the production though. As with many ‘cooks’ in the first round of Masterchef, FiF take the ingredients to make a decent concoction, possibly a tarragon chicken, and then add custard. This makes the transitions often confusing and incoherent, and to imagine the composer writing a stream of thoughts, doubtlessly drugged-up, would be something along the lines of ‘ORCHESTRAbreakdownGRINDpinchharmonicsMOREORCHESTRAsomethingfuckingweirdFINALORCHESTRAdone’. This must have been a tricky transition onto stave!

That said, when Fist In Fetus do choose to keep it simple, and omit the breakdowns, they hit the spot, and create a really enjoyable piece of music. The problem is, there is not one entire song which sustains this throughout. It would seem that they had enough ideas to write a double concept album and wrote a fucking EP! Evidence of this is that the two long songs, eight and eleven minutes respectively, work a lot better than the shorter ones, which often simply don’t make sense.

Simply put, you can recreate the Fist In Fetus listening experience by taking ‘Cruelty And The Beast’ and ‘World Downfall’ and playing them both at the same time. Okay, so one will finish a good half an hour before the other, but the idea is there. Fist In Fetus have made a start that could be interpreted as promising, and one which is magnificent in places. What they need to do is to take the magnificent places, expand upon them, and write an album based on them. If they refine their ideas, they could be one of metal’s major players before long.

This part:
"ORCHESTRAbreakdownGRINDpinchharmonicsMOREORCHESTRAsomethingfuckingweirdFINALORCHESTRAdone"

It probably stretches out the review window when viewing the site with frames on.

In addition to what batman has stated here, it would also help if you tried to condense the review into say 3-5 individual paragraphs as opposed to the 7 here. If you wish to retain the 7, it would be best to add to their descriptive (musical) value respectively (in essence, 'fatten them up a bit').

I don't think any amount of grammatical errors could ever amount to an added 'effect' (I'm not exactly sure as to your overall reasoning here, so bear with me) so it would be best to fix them. M-A's guidelines are clear about this and such errors should be kept to a minimum (and certainly not induced intentionally).

The special characters ( ‘ and ’) shouldn't be used as they can cause a formatting issue later on so it's best to use the standard ones (' and ').

Thanks. I will edit that part, and try and condense it a little.

Yeah, I didn't even notice those weird quotes that ksevile pointed out. Those are known to cause formatting issues.

Here's a review I just submitted for Evisceration Plague, and I just wanted to know if theres anything I should change or get rid of, or if I fucked up on something or whatever:

Amazing!
97%

I have nothing against Suffocation. Suffocation got me into death metal, however, Cannibal Corpse is just as good and is the second technical death metal band I got into. Evisceration Plague may not be their best album but it's awesome, although I still think Kill was better. Comparing Kill and Evisceration Plague on paper, it's really too close to call, just like comparing Suffocation to Cannibal Corpse, Kreator to Sodom, Metallica to Megadeth, and so on, although I'm getting off topic so I'll get started now.

Stand-out songs would be Priests of Sodom, To Decompose, Shatter Their Bones, A Cauldron of Hate, Evisceration Plague, and Carnivorous Swarm. Best off the album would probably be Priests of Sodom or To Decompose. All these songs really seemed to have a kind of experimentation in them, which is why I can see they call George Fisher "Corpsegrinder", Cannibal Corpse and this album in particular can do several transitions from death metal to grindcore, and even goregrind in some songs, which is something I dont see in Suffocation, and having the experimentation in these songs while not in Suffocation's music makes Cannibal Corpse and this album above almost all Suffocation and Cannibal Corpses other albums.

This album really has good vocals and instrumentation, especially on the guitars and bass lines and bass guitar itself. The complexity of the guitar parts and brutal bass lines plus those badass vocals and probably 9 out of 10 drumming makes some awesome death metal, and I dont know if those guitars are like two and a half steps down or more, but if they are, add that and you got some brutal and nice sounding technical death metal. Those vocals stand out the most, they are awesome, Fisher certainly has a very low growl, and adding in screams here and there is very unique and he does it very well, better then most could probably do. Guitar parts and bass lines are very brutal and complex, which isn't a bad thing, in fact, quite the opposite.

So other than instruments and how gorey the album is, I'd give it a 97% because the drumming could improve and Scalding Hail, was, well, just average.

I'd be inclined to say that because there are already a number of reviews for the album it might be best to forget reviewing this album and focus on another less popular one, but if you do really want to review Evisceration Plague then my only advice would be to double your review length and devote all those extra words to a lot of musical description, as the description you have is somewhat basic and not in-depth, and currently the review is certainly not good enough to become the 19th Evisceration Plague review.

Cut out that stuff about Suffocation. Why would liking EP imply that you have something against Suffocation? It doesn't make any sense.

That review really isn't that great. The whole first paragraph is just silly - if you know you're off topic, just cut that out or trim it down majorly - and the tone is TOO conversational, to the point where it barely even sounds like a review at times. Why even bring up Suffocation? Zoldaten is correct; it just makes it sound like you're talking to a friend or replying to a forum thread instead of writing a critical review. The writing is way too simple and you don't go into depth enough. What makes the vocals badass? Why is the songwriting complex? This isn't telling me much, and certainly is not worthy of a 97% based on your current justifications for such.

Here's another review that I submitted for Lullabies for the Dormant Mind. I'm just going to be doing this until I feel I can write reviews without any real questioning.

I realize that The Agonist is pretty new to the making music industry, though for a band to start go two albums and have the second one be awesome and the first have mixed opinions.

Starting off, I found six stand-out songs: And Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep, The Sentient, Martyr Art, Globus Hystericus, Birds Elope With the Sun, and Thank You, Pain. And Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep was the best off of the entire album and off of their entire song collection in my opinion. Metalcore, is about mixing clean and screaming vocals, and I would probably consider this some good style changes like the idea of clean vocals and screams and even including growls.

Aside from hit songs, I find multiple impressive things on the album. For one, while most metalcore revolves around vocals, though here, the guitars are just as dominant as vocals, like in Birds Elope With the Sun, nice guitar intro, or Thank You, Pain, nice guitar solo. Much better than some "metalcore" bands who clearly dont use any clean vocals and scream the whole fucking song sounding like a three year old throwing a tantrum. Though not here, here we have someone who actually knows what shes doing with her voice, unlike bands like Trivium who sound like a pig getting raped up the ass. I seriously think that Alissa could rape Trivicum in any screaming contest.

The guitar parts are clearly able to be heard and they actually know what they are doing with them unlike some metalcore bands who just grab a guitar and a bass and down tune them two and a half steps and strum a few basic chords throughout the song unlike anything by All That Remains, seriously, even I could do that, and believe me, I suck donkey dick at the guitar.

Bass lines actually go with the guitar parts and they actually use a bassist for the music rather than just for selling merchandise and making the band rich and famous and mainstream. Here they actually are somewhat able to be noticed and are harder than the average folk could ever do.

Drumming was good, it actually makes a difference in the music here and is written nicely and was executed perfectly and wasn't like some metalcore bands who use a drummer just so they can slam on a drum set during a concert just to let out some anger because their girlfriend broke up with them.

I wouldn't give it 100% because honestly, Swan Lake wasn't the best and only a few songs have a long appeal time. Though what is to compliment is numerous and they clearly didn't use a bassist to just sell merchandise, the clean vocals are very nice, harsh vocals actually sound like they're worth listening to rather than listening to some baby on the toilet taking a shit. And drum parts are well written and are not just some guy bashing drums to let out some anger.

95/100

I don't mean to be pressing on the matter, but does anyone have any help with my Rainbow review? I'm doing a weekly series here and I submitted this 8 days ago and I would like to know how I can fix it because I can't find anything.

The first sentence is extremely awkwardly parsed, something which isn't helped by the equally awkward use of parenthasis (which pervades through the entire review completely unnecesarilly). The paragraphs are filled with repetitive language and it seems like a lot of the related content is spread out over several paragraphs. Try rewriting it without so many (or any) parenthasis and focus on grouping together related information. Also, read it out loud, that'll help with the awkward parsing and run-ons.

Also, "metal/rock" is something you only ever see on sites that don't know anything about metal who Varg or whoever "metal rockers".

Also, the pros and cons list at the bottom should not exist. Any pros and cons should have already been addressed in the review, and since we have short term memories spanning longer than a couple minutes we won't need them repeated at the end. Not like we have to memorize them and then take a pop quiz...

Also, all the history lesson stuff should be streamlined or excised if it can't be worked in smoothly.

Also, my hair is on fire.

Sigged.

I said metal/rock because it's generally debated as to whether Deep Purple and Rainbow are metal or rock but I suppose I will just stick to one. The parentheses are a little overkill now that you mention it. I don't know it just seems hard to avoid using the repetitive language in this case. Well I'll have to go over it anyways.

Was there anything in particular in the history or things like that seemed to be particularly unnecessary?

This applies even more to the "95/100" at the end of Metallideath's review, a pointless redundancy if there ever was one.

I would like some insight on how i wrote my review and how i could improve it (no personal opinions about the band).

Artist: The Absence
Release: From Your Grave
Year: 2005
Headline: A Sound Of Their Own
Just ask somebody, “When you think of Florida Death Metal, which ones do you think of?” They would most likely reply with “DEATH, Massacre, Deicide, Atheist, etc”. But what chance would there that they would mention The Absence, a Melodic Death Metal band from Tampa, Florida? Probably very low; this is my main concern. First off, this band is comparable, maybe too much. They draw riffs from Arch Enemy, the vocalist very reminiscent of Tomas Lindberg, and melodies very similar to In Flames. At a glance, this would make a band unforgettable drawing too many comparisons to popular Swedish acts. Although, A majority of metalheads would dismiss this album as being too comparable to other less popular acts such as Dark Tranquility and As I Lay Dying. This is indeed understandable; The Absence is a very modern sounding band. My first objection comes in at this point. They are not a synth-driven band in comparison to the likes of other Melodeath acts. They do not use “core” vocals or useless breakdowns in any sense either. The lyrical subject matter may be a little “emo” but Jamie’s raspy, growly vocals make for a great Melodeath offering. Jamie is a great Melodeath vocalist because his style varies and can still be a little more decipherable than his other Death Metal counterparts (i.e. Tomas Lindberg, Anders Friden). I can hear the other shouts of disapproval, that this album’s production brings it down and songs sound too similar to each other, and that they just feel like one big solo; Very understandable indeed. But what you get from this album is Melodic music. The synchronized guitars have to do something to excite the listeners; why not play at their full potential. From track one with the power metal riffs, to track two. We all may get tired of all this Black Metal soaring leads and blast beats so let’s go for a little “wankery” once in a while, and I emphasize once in a while. The production may just be a little off the mark, but I can still hear the bass! The bass is definitely one of the most integral parts in a metal album. The production also helps give this album’s sound a little more “classic” feeling, like Ride the Lightning meets The Jester Race. Overall, this album would be perfect but there are in fact a few mistakes. At about track 8 Jamie’s growls become a little more strained and undecipherable. This would probably be because the band would play non stop in the production studio or Jamie had a sick day at this time. He can still procure some of the greatest growls, though; it’s just that they are a little shreeky and all too similar to Petri Lindroos’s shrieks (shudder). Sorry, that’s just my personal opinion. People just need time to give this album any thought. Just think about how much they have accomplished on their first full length, how much potential they have (or had) in the future. If you are a true fan of Melodic Death Metal, this is the album for you.