I don't know what it is, but when i happen to stumble upon single reviews that run from 95%-100%, i feel more enamored by these releases than the more popular ones with 5 or more reviews. Some examples are Spirit Caravan's Jug Fulla Sun, Whorecore's Protection album, and Defyance's Time Lost album. The few exceptions of great albums with 5 or more reviews with 95% or more are Pagan Altar's Mythical and Magical, Dream Theater's Awake, and Lykathea Aflame's Elvenefris album.
What are some albums that you have stumbled upon with one review and a 95%-100% rating that you have been enamored by?

Most of the albums with a 95%-100% rating that I wrote the only review for would qualify.

The only one off the top of my head is Feretrum which Drowned gave a high review for. Managed to find a blog site with it so I downloaded it and it is awesome death metal.

I often enjoy the more obscure releases cause they generally have a less accessible sound and don't sound as polished.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing.

Most people would think the same thing.

Actually, unless I know the person who wrote the review or they have written a particularly good review, I am much less inclined to trust a single high review than a few high reviews. Oftentimes people who write the first review for an album they like exaggerate its quality (whether consciously or subconsciously) so as to catch other people's attention. Also, one review is much more likely to be due to a particular person's idiosyncratic taste than four. Everyone's got that weird shit they like but most everyone else can't stand.

Now, another way to read the OP is: are you more interested in hearing something obscure but praised than something popular? I would be much more inclined to agree with that. There's just something about checking out a really obscure album for the first time that's more fun than getting into, say, one of the Motorhead albums I haven't heard yet, even though I'm reasonably confident the former will blow and the latter will be at least decent. I love that initial thrill of having very little idea what something is going to sound like and how good it's going to be, even if it turns out to be awful later.

That, along with the upcoming review challenge and my desire to own stuff from the greatest number of countries possible, explains my most recent online buying strategy. So far it's been paying off, since I discovered the great power metal band Holy Dragons (Kazakhstan), the most impressive black metal bands Blackthru (Lithuania), Godkiller (Monaco), The Stone (Serbia) and many others, many of which I'll soon review (challenge).

I tend to find the opposite, the single review with a high score never feels all that reliable to me. I'm always finding I prefer some second opinions. Of course, there are some examples of the opposite, such as Disciples of Mockery's only release having a single, poorly written 100% review, which happens to be dead on, but as rule, I'd be more inclined to check out a 5 reviews 85% than a one review 99% album..

Really, I have to read the reviews to actually guess as to whether or not I'll like the album. I don't trust single paragraph reviews with questionable grammar and punctuation, or reviews which don't say much about the actual music other than "it's really good" (tell me why it's good, please). It's pretty easy to tell whether or not a review should be trusted.

Indeed. In fact, you'd have to wonder about people who didn't put much stock in their own reviews...



It also helps if the reviewer in question has good and consistent taste.

I compensate by sizing up the review to other bands I'm familiar with that they might have written for. I'm used to it for when there were only so many reviews for obscure releases on MA, and if there weren't any you did a blind purchase and reviewed it yourself, ha. I think there are some single/positive reviews out there that might be right up your alley of liking. But since they can be buried underneath a bunch more, 95-100% range is usually when people put a "P.I." at the end of their user name and do some investiging trying to pick up guilty clues about your words. We've had the review challenge for the last four years which is filling the gaps in (haha, maybe another challenge to write for other contestants' reviews once it's over, that way there'd be two to make a decision from). I'm sure most of us still use our own intuition just by taking a glance at the band page, something along the lines of: nope, yep, maybe, and the next logical step to pursuing interest is to simply see their releases and who reviewed them. And if it's this lonely writer the only other thing I can think of that's working on their side is that other potential reviewers might have stumbled upon it and said, 'wow that guy summed up close enough to what I wanted to say and I'm not going to review it now.'

I liked your Godkiller review. And I can see now by your post why you referenced Monaco in your review, or opened up with it. You did better than me, because for some odd reason or another (probably for an ice breaker) I kept making really sarcastic/bad jokes when mentioning where it was from; something about that he probably works in a casino or how rich he is. It was hard to refrain at first, till it was distracting and it got reduced to one simple line.

Speaking of this thread, I actually threw around scores for the review somewhere around a 90 or slightly above is what I was going to go with. Believe it or not, and I know this might sound strange, but I thought that it wouldn't have been taken into consideration or passed on if I scored it higher (one man black metal band with programmed drums from Monaco that's not mentioned a lot). At the time I was thinking something like, I want people to actually read it, or might as well use the time to wash the car or just plain listen to Rebirth over and over, haha, it's all mine!

I'm sure you can agree that it was interesting to write for though, where even some other favorable releases are a pain to describe. The idea you have to do countries of lesser known origins should be interesting.

my band only has one review, and its an 85% rating... so maybe you could check us out?

www.myspace.com/angeldeath518


thrashy classic death metal, I guess...? An NYDM band playing Floridian death metal? You tell me, haha.