Did something go wrong with Twin_guitar_attack's review of Nervosa's Victim Of Yourself? I distinctly recall it being much higher, which is obviously confirmed by the content of the review. Maybe a mistake on the reviewer's part or a site glitch, I dunno.

Panflute: Thanks!

Rykov: I sent him a message to check it out and edit the score if it was a typo.

I don't think I changed it! But yeah iirc I gave it around about 78-80. Re submitted it to the queue!

One I did change was my hydra review as after another listen I felt it deserved more points. Was on my phone and the site doesn't work too well on there, so think I sent it back to the queue without changing the content and forgetting to even change the score.

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/P ... /androdion

Androdion is back after a 1 year break! Great review, dude.

Awesome. He's one of my faves, especially when it comes to death metal reviews.

Thanks for the cheering support mates. I had this talking cricket ringing in my ear saying "Write it down, write it down...", and I actually had some fun writing again. Then I had to proofread it and I was hunting down the cricket screaming "You lying bastard, this is no fun at all!", ha ha ha.

Nah, I had some fun with that one. Can't say I remember the last time I did so by writing a review.

BastardHead, Holopainen's album has nothing to do with the insanely stupid Duck Tales, it's obviously, including the cover art, all about Don Rosa's Scrooge story arc, and thus actually based on a good story instead of that Mc-McDuck crap on telly. It's something you probably won't see in the USA, like, ever, but the tales are actually pretty damn cool, and give old tales by Barks a run for their money, even taking into account the effects of compound interest adjusted comic book quality inflation.

Doesn't improve the music, of course, but certain facts need to be set straight here.

You too Nappy? I mention twice that it takes place before the Disney cartoon.

Yeah, Holopainen is ridiculous, but that's not even remotely astute or humorous.

Man did I warp to an alternate universe where everybody here is German? Jeez.

Yes, I am incapable of appreciating humour. Yours is really god-tier.

Also, from the few German friends I know, they have excellent senses of humour.

I'M PERFECT AND YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF ELITIST ASSHOLES FUCK EVERYBODY

*deletes reviews and runs away crying*

Figures that it would be two Finnish people talking about a review for the Scrooge McDuck comic book album lol

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/A ... 4/mjollnir

Finally somebody else praises Argus' "Beyond the Martyrs"! I've been swearing by that one since it came out last year. The comparisons with Butch's vocals and Harry Conklin's is pretty spot on too. For my year end list it came in at #3 (behind Motorhead and Hail of Bullets) but still good to see the appreciation. I was wondering when it was going to start rolling in.

What do you mean by "start rolling in"? It's the 4th review and the average is 97%... Very good album for sure (not 100% good though). They're better at heavy metal than heavy/doom, their 2nd album was lackluster.

For as amazing as the album is (and I agree, they do trad metal better over doom) I was just expecting more hype/reviews. Then a couple months went by and I never read anyone else waving the flag for Argus. Good to see that shining review today.

They pick great song topics too. The opener "By Endurance We Conquer" is about a South Pole expedition in 1914. Who else would've written a metal song about that?

That album was my pick as best of 2013 by a landslide. I guess it's my age or whatever but that album took me back and reminded me of the old days. Those guys made an amazing and magical album. I think it was 100% material....absolutely.

Solid review of Ningen Isu's Rashoumon by TheStormIRide. For a band with very little coverage on this site he's been avoiding doing the easy thing of just recapping their history and then saying they're like Sabs meets Rush in Japanese, and has done a good job of explaining why the album itself is worthwhile and how it fits into their canon while also describing the music for newcomers. Good shite. I will get round to doing more reviews for them myself eventually.

R.I.P. Michael Grant! But you wouldn't know them since you dislike USPM, fool!

And nice, Rashoumon is indeed pretty damn good, it's their catchiest and more concise album too. Jesus Cop. And Jon, step up your game, you need to write a second Ningen-Isu review!

Thanks guys! I honestly got tired of seeing Ningen-Isu's page so devoid of reviews. They deserve more attention. "Rashoumon" surely has the catchiest choruses of the band's career. I was jamming out to it in the car and just felt the sudden urge to review it!

And a third and fourth! At some point I will get on a roll with it, been listening to 'em plenty but various elements of corporeal existence have delayed my getting round to it just yet.

I don't know which one to review next, I was gonna do Rashoumon but Jesus Cop did it, I feel like doing a shorter one since my first two were pretty long.

Oh yeah and Rashoumon is the name of my laptop haha!

http://www.metal-archives.com/user-reviews/bitterman

"Fat Wiggers Dry Humping Trash Cans: The "Musical", "Nu-Deicide playing WWE wrestler entrance themes", "A Korn song with more bowel movement noises", "Bob Seger with raspy vocals".

LOL. I have to admit I laughed pretty hard at his reviews. This is elitism taken to it's very extreme. Considering he only reviews negatively (see: 0% scores) we don't even know what he actually approves of. But I'm assuming it's the very trvest ov the trve kult. He even invented words and terms as a way to circumvene describing the music as "metal" or "technical". Like calling death metal bands "tek-def" or "nu-meddle". Likening the music to AC/DC when it's actually black/death metal.

I can't take this guy seriously at all. But I did get some spiteful laughs out of his reviews. I wonder what type of lifestyle this guy leads behind the computer.

I always assumed "Bitterman" was just a joke persona that mods let go because the reviews were funny. I hope he isn't an actual human being with those opinions. That would be really sad.

Wrong, it's because they actually do contain musical description, even though it's slightly obscured by all that nonsense.

The totality of his reviews are a gimmick. Basically, if you have fun listening to an album, you've misunderstood metal. Having just swept through a couple, everything is "This is lowest common denominator! Avoid!" So basically, anything catchy - with any resemblance to a song structure used by AC/DC or a million other rock bands. There's no intelligent musical interpretation going on here. He's just winding up his gimmick - which is hilarious since he rails against 'gimmicks' in almost every review.

But again, I think he was a joke. Also hasn't been active in a while. So...probably gone.

Some of his reviews are quite entertaining as well as descriptive....although he does have a strong opinion. His review of Meshuggah - Pitch Black is spot on, I think.

So the other day I was listening to Psalm 9 by Trouble, and decided that I loved it so much that I might want to write about it. So I go to the page and see Acrobat's review for it. That's really one of the most spot on things I've read in eons, and couldn't possibly agree more with it if I tried. Props to you, as always.

Great album! Can't wait to see The Skull play the entire release at Wings of Metal this August. Trouble may be still going but the true spirit of the band is Eric Wagner!

Can someone please explain what's so fucking great about Countess? http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Countess/127 aside from a couple mediocre albums (and bad first 2) he's got some of the highest review totals ever. I remember seeing these years ago and thinking wow this must be amazing... Listened to it then and checked it out again recently, some of it is ok, but I'm just not getting it. Nobody ever talks about this band but apparently he's the greatest black metal band ever or something. Are most of us just not kvlt enough to understand? Kinda surprised there's nothing for his new album yet.

I reckon it's a couple of things. For one Orlok seems to keep a close tab on the various bloggers and reviewers online and send a lot of promos out, plus he comes across as a top bloke from talking to him by email, so I guess he's got a bunch of reviewers who'll always want be prepared to make time and cover his latest stuff, which apparently never really changes in style any more. And many reviewers especially new ones will be quite nice about stuff they get directly requested to review.

That's not to denigrate the actual worth of his records though, as although most of them are in the 60-65% category, he's very true to his vision and clearly immune to trends of any kind, and from the couple of digital albums he's sent me for review Countess stuff does genuinely have the odd moment of absolute excellence. With a full band in tow (proper drumming and groovier sound) Countess could probably knock out a few really killer tracks. Put that together then, good following in the webzine underground and consistent if not life-changing output, and he's got a decent chance of attracting positive coverage.

My two cents anyway, as I'll be having a crack at his latest record soon which, surprise surprise I have a digital promo of lurking on my hard drive.

Stop it, you make me want to listen to more Countess! I do agree about some moments of excellence. Heilig Vuur was the only album I really gave a full listen to. I just find it odd that nobody ever really talks about the band and I only just remembered it existed due to seeing the new release and reviews... not hating or anything, pretty indifferent really, but seriously now I have to go listen to some Countess.

These words sent to me by Albert Witchfinder made the whole review thing worthwhile, receiving this kind of feedback from one of your idols is a big plus.

I hate the album, the band, and the popularity and influence Witchfinder has, but that's pretty dang cool.

Dare I ask why?!

That's mighty awesome Tony, and it's an awesome feeling when something like that happens. I remember when I outed the 100% review for POG's last album and I then went to meet them, interview them and just follow them around. And all of them were just so happy about being understood, more so than recognized actually, that they just kept thanking me again and again. It felt like it I was the musician and they were the fans, ha ha. It was one those "one in a lifetime" kind of things.

I just dislike their music. I think they're ok to very good when they're rocking out and playing like a heavy metal band, but their take on doom seems utterly dull and drawn out beyond belief for me. This is possibly because I don't like the theatrics of Albert's vocals, which puts more of my attention onto their far from compelling riff work which they run into the ground forever and ever; they feel like they're intentionally trying to be boring. RB's popularity is a big factor in so many retro doom acts seemingly sticking to a similar "If a song doesn't have eight minutes of padding, it's not real doom" sort of vibe.

But indeed, that was super cool of him.

Uhm, I get what you mean. I'm on the other side of the fence though, since I find his particular vocal style to be ubber charismatic and a big part of why the band sounds as good as they do. I think that their "unserious" approach to songwriting and the way they intentionally use known riffs actually works out very well. I'm yet to hear So Long Suckers though, but up till the second album things are pretty cool.

If you read my So Long Suckers review, you know what to expect and you might not like, Andro. It's overblown, 25 minutes songs! I understand why this could be a dealbreaker, but come on their debut and Crush the Insects are great and Genghis' taste sucks balls!

TheStormIRide and sushiman: your call, I reviewed my 3rd Ningen-Isu!!! I did a shorter review this time around.

So pretty much you don't like doom? I'm not sure I'd want to listen to RB without that stuff...