Guess I was a bit too subtle there. I was mocking Ribos for his blatent hypocrisy when he said that everything the negative reveiws said were completely true and basically admitted that the 0's were totally justified, but then rated it higher to spite those reviewers while accusing them of wrongly manipulating the scores.

Just waking up. Unseen_Terror can be added to the list of dullards who try to score scene points by playing knight in shining armous, though.

wasn't he basically saying that people really only use zeros for political reasons (making a point, maintaining a low average), and that only truly terrible music deserves a zero, rather than everything that is ordinary or disappointing or an unpredicted plummet into mainstream crap?

I'd generally agree with him, but maybe a radical stylistic change deserves a radically bad rating, as a caution to existing fans (if you expected Black Metal and got a Eurovision/Pop song, that's not really the same as expecting a good Cryptopsy album and hearing a bad one).

So about a week or so ago I submitted a review for End's III album, it has yet to be approved or rejected. So maybe there's something huge I need to fix before it receives approval? I know some of the paragraphs are a bit long. Anyways, here's the review:

'Seldom do I stumble upon an album that I find worthy of deeming an “essential” release. I spend a lot of my free time listening to “new” music and searching for those special works that will stick with me forever. What I look for in those releases I feel is relatively simple; they must be somewhat original, they must have a unique energy/atmosphere/emotion, and they must present material that other bands have tried and failed to successfully deliver. The works of Lurker of Chalice, The Arrival of Satan and Brown Jenkins immediately comes to mind. These bands all have an original take on a tired genre and presents completely fresh material that inspires me each time I listen to their work. Now that you have a general idea of what I’m looking for in black metal, you should be able to guess why I chose to review End’s III.

I have been familiar with Greece’s End for several years now, however I only recently got to actually listen to any of their material. As is habit for me, I started with their debut and worked my way up to their latest release which I am reviewing today. End’s overall style definitely changes with each new release, growing from a raw and sinister sound with their first full length to a more progressive but still “kvlt” and evil style put forth on II. With III we see that progressive trend continue, and despite the general negative connotations with a lot of “progressive” black metal releases, I certainly mean it in the most endearing of ways on this 2009 title. Nothing makes me respect a band more than when they can successfully mature and improve on their music without totally changing who they are and losing that feel that you know they should be able to put forward. End has certainly earned my full respect in this regard, because III is a vastly improved release compared to their previous efforts yet they remain true to themselves and their past work.

Blasting drums, churning guitars and an evil shriek get the album started with the track “Catastrophe”. The fast pace keeps up for most of the track, until closer to the four minute mark things slow down just enough to introduce a dark-groove laden bass line that is sure to pull you straight into the music, yet the drums keep rolling and never lose a beat. The guitars are slightly fuzzy but effective in setting a thick, buzzing, and foggy atmosphere. Slight guitar feedback signals the end of the track, and immediately “Self-Eating Mass” hits you with more blast beats and double picked guitars. This track quickly turns into a catchy tune with mid-tempo double bass carrying along guitar and bass notes going from high to low in a sinister fashion. Towards the middle of the track the drums stop and allow the guitars to play a soft, haunting passage that descends into an even thicker and depressive atmosphere. Deep coarse vocals assail you from both the left and right speakers as if from a far-off distance, coaxing you into despair. Then the fog lifts a little and you find yourself slowly walking through gray dread woods with the track “Sill in Flesh”. The depressive atmosphere is unrelenting, with all the instruments playing at a slower pace to allow everything to sink in. That is until the blasting picks up once more and screeching vocals bring forth panic and anger. Though the rage is temporary, and the song soon reaches a groovy section that is darkly pleasant. A couple more transitions between the slower and faster passages are made before you reach the fourth track, “In the Womb of Sick”. Like the previous track, this song starts off on a slower, more depressive note. Strumming guitars give this song an almost mystical, floating feel; which is only complemented further by the impressive drum and bass guitar work. The vocals are constantly changing in tune from grunts, screeches and agonized wails; all of which are perfectly executed with common rhythm changes of the music. Around the five minute mark the song reaches a more up-beat tune with a borderline thrash arrangement that absolutely fucking rocks and is unexpected. End is full of surprises.

After the fourth track comes probably the most depressive musical arrangement yet with “Lavish Gloom”. At this point you’re still wandering around in those dark haunted woods, totally lost and disoriented. While the depressive atmosphere is prevalent throughout, that special groove is still there; the bass guitar really helps in this area, it really helps to mellow everything out and just makes the music that much more enjoyable. While it would be a lie to say this music is truly of the suicidal/depressive persuasion, those elements are strongly present throughout the structuring of this song. Unlike the other tracks however, “Lavish Gloom” never really picks up in tempo and remains a more moderate paced affair that simply wraps you in its atmosphere. As the song fades away, “Ugly and Bygone” then sweeps you up into an angry and hostile whirlwind you simply cannot escape from. While not as fast as the first couple of tracks, the pace is definitely increased with mild blasting drums and more double picked guitars. This song presents a very ethereal feel, and turns the foreboding atmosphere even more malevolent and vile. Like most of the songs here, a single tempo is not to be found; the song switches back and forth between frenzied playing and single notes floating amongst ancient graves. As usual the tempo changes are done so well it simply blends together beautifully and almost unnoticeably. “The Largest Hearse” is ushered forth with black tremolo riffing and double bass beats that again snatches you from your comfort zone and thrusts you in a new direction. The catchy opening riff is used throughout this song, but once more as found earlier in the album, a dark energy begins to build and is unleashed in a thrashy section that may catch you by surprise. After the groovy thrash section the song simply ends, and once more blast beats grab you by the throat and introduces you to the eighth and final track, “Megalomania”. Presented here is a culmination of your journey through this album, and you can certainly feel what little light may be left in your world is quickly fading away, dying, along with you. For the first and only time found on this cd, clean vocals are introduced and to amazing effect. Not overly operatic or lively, they fit right in with the depressive atmosphere and sound the death knell for your existence. They are kind of low in the mix which makes them sound as if they are moving away from you, like you are lying on the forest floor taking your last dying gasps of air. This journey has been an incredible, haunting, angry, and hopeless one, but alas, it is time for closure; it is time, for the End.

Few bands are truly successful in creating their own unique musical environment in which they are complete masters over. With “III” End has accomplished exactly that; they crafted a dark landscape full of seamless tempo changes, depressive atmospherics, and genuinely innovative hate-filled black metal. Each song flows into the next, drawing very little attention to the fact that the song you were listening to ever even changed at all. For me, that is the sign of an excellent album. When you simply cannot listen to just one or two of the songs, but in fact must turn off the television, turn off the lights, lay back and do nothing but immerse yourself within the whole of the album, you’ve truly found yourself a gem. This release is easily up there with the best, and it makes me wonder what else End has in store for us with their future work.

End’s “III” earns a 98% for being excellently crafted and fresh black metal.'

While some people may use a 0 to drop the review average to satisfy their disdain for a band/album but sometimes a release really does just suck that much. In this case anything above a 0 is proof of severe retardation because there isn't a single ounce of anything redeemable to be found in that single.

It is fucking repugnant and earns every 0 it gets.

zeingard, you are wise beyond your years (whatever age you are).

zeingard, it would be much appreciated if you added a review of your own.

This is my first review, for Rose Funeral's The Resting Sonata. Feedback would very much be appreciated, as I feel it wasn't really of a high standard.

"Quite a while ago, my younger, stupider self was going through a deathcore phase. I was very much into this band, and bought the CD at full price from a record store after school one day. I loved the album, and listened to it on a regular basis, never really being critical of the shitty musicianship. It started to gather dust when I discovered Suffocation and other superior bands. I, now being older and despising most of the deathcore genre, barring a few bands, decided to give it another listen.


Good fucking lord.


To start with, on this album, they got a new vocalist. (Timmy Russel, from what I know, is still with the band) He utilizes a grunt (which sounds a lot like someone straining to take a shit), and high pitched vocals which pretty sound like a better version of Oli Syke's attempts at screams. He doesn't shut up much, only really shutting up during the br00tal breakdowns, though sometimes pops in to yelp something like "GOD, YOU'RE A ROTTING BITCH!!" As you can see from that, the lyrics are really shitty, with attempts at blasphemy like: "You're wasting your time There's nobody there Close your fucking books because nobody cares" Not to mention the same old lyrics about killing someone that's been done a million times. The only song not ruined by the vocals and shitty lyrics is the self-titled interlude, but that itself is ruined by a ultra-br00tal breakdown. Which leads me to the next annoyance.


The guitars. I read somewhere (Don't remember where though) that the guitars on this album were tuned to Drop B. Which from my little knowledge of guitar tuning, is pretty fucking low tuned. The two guitarists, (Ryan Gardner and Jesse Biesner) combined with the vocalist, make for a massive annoyance. In every song, it's an attempt to emulate The Black Dahlia Murder with tremolo picking and screeches. If they're not trying to be TBDM, they're in a breakdown and yes, it's obviously nothing interesting, just the same open-string wanking (and the occasional guitar harmonizing) every deathcore band is known for. They attempt to solo in "Embalming the Masses", and end up sounding relatively decent, but ruin it all with yep, you guessed it. BREAKDOWN! (With the obligatory yelps, courtesy of Timmy Russel)


The drum sound isn't as annoying as the last album. The snare isn't a click anymore, thankfully, but it's the same triggered generic deathcore drumming. Blast blast blast, breakdown, copious amounts of double bass, blah blah blah, you get it. The drummer, Andrew Horton, shows potential though, and could be used for something rather than copying TBDM's drummer, but fuck, he isn't even in the band anymore, along with Jesse Biesner, and Dave Voll, the bassist.


I can't even say anything about the bass. 99% of the time, it's overshadowed by the guitar. I only remember it popping up once before a breakdown in one song.


People usually say that they're bringing something new to the table, but they're just the same old bullshit being churned out by other countless deathcore bands/ (The only new thing they're really doing is beating up kids for playing UNO at their shows) I sold this album to a mate for $10, went out and got McDonald's with it. It was so much more worth than this piece of shit. Avoid if possible."

I'm tempted to but your review nailed it on the head far more accurately than I could hope to. Perhaps if I think up some more colourful adjectives and analogies I may give it a whirl. I have a lot of free time so I don't see why not?

If it's worth saying, it's worth saying a few more times.

I do like this review... very much to be honest. However, I feel that it could potentially 'flow' better if an approach was taken in the course of the more 'all-around, general and refined' style. This review makes utilization of the "paragraph-per-instrument" spirit which truthfully, is quite alright (in most cases), however melding each aspect of instrumentation together (perhaps into 3 whole paragraphs) into one entire piece would be something I recommend you do (to not only improve it's formatting, but also to focus and isolate on centralized/critical/primary points within the musical description itself). When reviews are written in the aforementioned style as explained above, it seems most of them have a tendency to become separate from their preceding/succeeding sections within the read. Reviews (in my honest opinion) should, while being focused on the musical content itself, also be focused on how well one delivers such descriptions. In combining each instrument paragraph together into one, you are essentially making one uni-compositional, embroidered entity/creation.

Thanks a bunch mate.

Here's a review I've been attempting about 85 times, and my e-mail said it was rejected for length. So how much more before its good enough?

My Dying Bride, now that's a great underground doom metal band. This is my favorite album by My Dying Bride. This like Elis can really show emotion in the songs on the album. I certainly would like to pick this one up when I get the chance but dammit those stores sure know how to hide their underground music pretty well. Well, I guess it's time for Amazon.

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.

If asking me, doom metal should have deep and low vocals and low tuned guitars with slow tempos with some keyboard addition. And this really has all of that.

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 insturment 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 and heavy, and the songs on this album are all, dark and heavy, 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.

Overall, guitar and bass parts were good and were really some of the dominant insturments. The vocals and lyrics were very good, not as good as the guitars, but definitely very good. Drumming was probably the worst thing, but it was still good. Keyboard additions were great, nothing more to say.

Being the hardcore metalhead I am, as I've said before, I'd say doom metal is a good underground that many metalheads should be exposed to at least some of, and My Dying Bride and Alkonost are two good starting points for 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, it was good, dark, heavy, desperate, and awesome.

I'd say all it needs is more detail; explain why the guitars good for example and explain what makes it different from other doom metal (all you;ve really described it as are "dark" and "heavy", which could be any doom metal band). Just go into more detail about the lyrics, guitars, bass, keyboards and drums and it should be acceptable. You've only really described them as "good" with no elaboration.

If you're having trouble coming up with rote descriptions of the music, try explaining the total effect it has on you as a listener. How the various things in it play well off eachother (or don't depending on how you are rating it) or what the emotional impact is. It's one thing to say it is dark and heavy, but what kind of darkness and heaviness are we talking? The pitch black dark of a tomb? The serene dark of a starlit night sky? Heaviness of the foibles and failings of the modern world crushing down on your back or agonizing press of narcotic addiction?

If you buy into this stuff, there's a spiritual side to this whole metal thing.

Hail My friends...

I've posted two reviews the last week, and it took me a whole week to approve one of them, and the second one is still stuck without approval, I've wrote a review For a black metal band called "Forgive Me" for the album "Last Drop Of Life" and it seems the administers have forgotten about it, no approval, and yet no rejection, so how can you help me about it ?

I've no idea what's the order of checking the reviews, but in my case I've had to wait everything between 8 hours and 8 days, so it might take a while. If it's still in the queue, I think you just need to wait a bit more.

And just a question from myself - what are the criteria for a review to get 8 points? Because my only 8-point review is actually weaker (in my opinion) than some 5-point ones I've written recently, and the length is similar...

Here's what I said to someone who had the same question about this in another thread.



A moderator might have a better all-around idea, but this is just from my experience of submitting reviews and time spent in this sub-forum.

The point factor of reviews is not bolstered by the actual length of the review, but rather the overall successful/accurate musical description.

The mods seem to focus on big name reviewers first. Specifically HU, nok, autothrall, and other guys with tons and tons of reviews. Why that is the case, I don't really know.

So, as long as you haven't got a rejection letter, it is still in the queue and will be attended to eventually.

And whats your problem if you wait ?
you have to know that mods its like us got there own life besides internet, so understaind that fact, when he will have the possibility to approve your submission he will do dont bother, so have patience please.
If u cant even be patient to wait for a review even for a mounth, why not just avoid sending reviews ?
....

To clear up some misconceptions, please don't take this as a given, though. Different mods have different ways of tackling the queues.

1. It should be kept in mind that all mods are volunteers, who have considerable offline lives (including their own families and careers). We work on MA because we really enjoy it, and hold that the time spent working on it, as a hobby, is time well spent. We aim to please - making sure reviews are dealt with quickly - but occasionally other priorities beckon.

2. Sometimes when you submit a review, it is the luck of the draw. You may end up submitting a review when the review queue is clear and a moderator is on it - BAM!, the review is dealt with immediately. There is always the possibility that the review queue is backlogged and the moderators that work on the queue are offline, in which case you may have to wait some time for it to be dealt with. Nap and I, particularly, hold the belief not to have a review in the queue for too long, regardless. Once and a while, unfortunately, the backlog can be a couple days to a couple weeks.

3. The review queue is highly specialized. The workload required for it is not as extensive as the band queue, but it is not so easy as 'point and click'. The nature of reviews requires us to read all of them, go through the process of judging their acceptability based upon the guidelines of MA, and to ensure that it is valid and not plagiarized. Plagiarism is not uncommon. Reviews, undoubtedly, are not always acceptable for various reasons (many of which are addressed in this thread by us and your peers). Trolling, spamming, and other devious acts do occur every once and a while. The review queue requires constant vigilance, in order to ensure that it runs smoothly and the reviews are credible. Of course, we don't judge the opinions, but we do judge the quality.

4. Points are all dependent upon the mod in question and the way that mod has determined the quality of the review. While we seek standardization in some regards, it is ultimately at the mod's discretion as to how many points a review gets... largely because reviews in themselves are not objective works of art. This means that some mods give out more three pointers and eight pointers than others - it is inevitable. I hold a general principle that three points are awarded to bare-bones reviews that don't address the music of the work wholly, or whose quality is consistently sloppy (but still acceptable). Five points are awarded to good reviews; for me, it is usually the default. The majority of reviews get this. Eight points - from me - are rare. They go to those reviews that go above and beyond in musical description; that provide insight into a work that is creative, intelligent, and poignant. Those reviews that achieve this tend to be incidental; aiming to have all three of these characteristics, (while not fully understanding what they mean in the context of a review), almost always causes the review to fall short of achieving them.

5. Evaluation time is also dependent upon the mod working the queue at any given time. My own strategy for tackling the queue is based on trying to be time efficient; although I know the strategy is different for other mods. Before I begin, I set up a notepad document and clear my browser's cache. A blank slate to begin with.

Initially, I check the users. I pick out the users who have already submitted a significant number of reviews. I read through their reviews in the queue, and approve/reject them. I do this, not out of favoritism by any means, but because it is 'usually' rational to consider that they know and follow the guidelines (even if it turns out their reviews are not acceptable). They have a history, which I know. They have reviews I can compare and contrast with, and gauge trends and patterns from.

At this point, I then tackle the users who have submitted a significant number of reviews at once, or throughout the last couple days. These type of users are those similar to, recently, alexlovestheredchord and autothrall. Even if they are completely new, having multiple reviews at one time can help for a number of reasons; including being able to check for plagiarism by a single user with multiple sources of material to work from, and being able to compare and contrast a user's works at a single point in time.

I then look for reviews for 'big name' albums. More often than not they are quick blurbs that don't constitute a review (usually just a sentence long consisting of "OMG, THIS ALBUM IS GREAT/SHIT") or they were submitted before the album is even officially out.

I follow this by making a quick scan of all reviews for those that are blatantly unacceptable. From here, I usually go from the earliest to the latest, reading thoroughly, checking for plagiarism and acceptability. I will occasionally change my routine around, if there is a review for an album that I am curious about or know a lot about. Likewise, this is true if there are reviews for virgins.

I will occasionally not pass immediate judgement on a review if I feel that it requires more analysis. This may be the case where I feel I have a sense of deja vu with the review (not usually a good sign), the review is lengthy and will take more time to read, the review is by a user with no history or is a known suspicious user, or even if I want a second opinion on it. Between Nap and I, we may discuss a review for some time (into a third or fourth or fifth opinion) or may try to get the input of other mods on it.

At the end, with the queue ideally cleared, I will go through all the reviews I approved and list them in the notepad file. I keep these as records, in case any review is brought up in hindsight and the mod who approved it is needed for input on it.

That's a very brief and incomplete look at how I go about tackling the review queue. It's not as simple as we "focus on big name reviewers first" or that we have a life outside the internet. It is almost an insult, as the process is not as simple as that, and we do find joy in doing this work and don't feel as though it's a chore that takes away from our lives. Nor do we want to come off as playing favorites, when that is certainly not the case.

Didn't mean to offend you, if I did. Thanks for the look into your evaluation process, Derigin.

Thanks for clearing this out, Derigin , great work so much respect.
But either i still have some questions:
Do there is specific modes to accept and reject reviews, for exp you said you and napero most of the time, so just both of you who work actually on the reviews queue or there is another modes do that too?
Also I’ve always wondered, do u actually listen to the music " the release reviewed" to compare if its been well described, or you just read it through and trust the reviewer and accept " of course if it follow the guideline”
Thanks

Nah, no offense made, Zoldaten_ov_Zatan.

kimiwind, all mods have the ability to work on any element of the site, including the reviews queue. There are mods that focus on specific tasks over other tasks, but that - by no means - suggests that those tasks are limited to them. I made mention of "Nap and I" because he is the one I contact most, to discuss the reviews queue, when it comes to tackling it.

The second question is more difficult to answer. We try. Sometimes due to limitations, we can't. What it all comes down to is that we don't judge the opinions of the reviewers, even if they seem strange to us. Trolling is fairly apparent, and misconceptions by users are frequently addressed through one means or another. It's just another part of the process in determining the acceptability of a review. It should be noted, too, that even if reviews are on the site that doesn't mean they are off limits for reassessment. MA has a great reviewing community, determined to make sure reviews are correct, acceptable and of good quality. Much of the credit that goes into making MA a good place for metal reviews goes to you guys.

Fair enough, and thanks, i see now how things work on clearly.
Either personally when i submit a review i try to be as professional as possible not for my career or anything but just to make MA a good resource for reviews internationally and not only providing a huge and great data base for bands but also in reviews.
And i noticed recent reviews 2008 and up are much better than those who have been posted btw 2003 and 2007 if im right (i say most of ), don’t know why , but maybe cause the standard of accepting reviews has increased, but in anyways its very good thing and hope it continues like that.
Goodluck guys

This also answers my questions, thanks a lot.

I just wrote a review for HammerFall's Chapter V, which was rejected for "The contents of your review are acceptable, but it is poorly formatted and difficult or annoying to read. Please see the following list of possible problems, correct those you find in your review and then resubmit your work."

So basically it isn't formatted well. I'm not too sure what the problem is, because the review I did before this had a very similar format and was accepted. Either way, feedback is much appreciated:



The only thing I can think of is that I forgot to hit Enter twice for the paragraph that starts "the only major downside". I'd rather not resubmit it without knowing for sure, though.

Also, I'm not sure if this is normal, but I received two emails saying it was rejected, one minute apart.

I'm no expert, but the only problem I can think of is that the paragraphs are a bit too short, and the review may appear a bit disjointed when read on the Metal Archives (as it's more stretched when displayed on the site). Everything else seems fine, I can't find any coding problems either.

Deleted

Well that doesn't bother me very much, I just want to know how to fix it.

Snowgrave, please keep in mind that at any time there are more than likely multiple moderators evaluating and accepting/rejecting submissions (in this case, reviews). These moderators of course have different standards and measures of what is considered acceptable or not for M-A. Each moderator is obviously going to have an alternate opinion than each other moderator.

I recommend not only attempting to improve the formatting, but also try to rectify how the review has essentially been layed out. All-around, this review is not bad at all, although I will admit that 9 paragraphs is a bit over-extensive/drastic for M-A. Here's what I said to another user that wrote a review that is, in essence, suffers from the same problem as yours, Spiner. One thing to keep in mind here is that while the content/subject matter of this review changes and improves, so will the formatting (of course, if done correctly).



For a review of such a length, I recommend maybe 5 (or even 6, if necessary) total paragraphs. I hope this helps.

Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated! I have edited it down to 6 paragraphs, as well as changed some of the wording towards the end of the review. I'm going to resubmit now!

Yes yes, I am well aware. Just thought I would throw those reviews out there for possible re-evaluation by other mods, as they are indeed quite hard to read (though I suppose this better suits the oven fodder thread).

hi folks

fancy giving me some feedback on my reviews.
its something i'd like to do more often but before i go any further would like some pointers.

i'm fine with all the paragraph and grammer stuff, its more the content and what i'm saying.


thanks

Would this work?

My Dying Bride, now that's a great underground doom metal band. This is my favorite album by My Dying Bride. This like Elis can really show emotion in the songs on the album. I certainly would like to pick this one up when I get the chance but dammit those stores sure know how to hide their underground music pretty well. Well, I guess it's time for Amazon.

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.

If asking me, doom metal should have deep and low vocals, gives it the "badass" sound. Low tuned guitars with slow tempos, gives it the step up in the "badass" department. Some keyboard addition is also a idea, because depending on how the keyboards are played, it can give songs a sad and depressing feeling. And this really has all of that.

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 insturment 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 good and were really some of the dominant insturments, 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 it was still good, 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.

Definitely an improvement and looks to me like it should be acceptable.

I received the "it's good but difficult or annoying to read" rejection reply to this review I submitted about a week ago:

Here we have the debut of what would perhaps later become France’s top power metal band. About 10 years ago, the band started the millennium off with this debut, in what I easily considered to be their weakest effort. Then out of nowhere, they release TWO of the best power metal albums of all time. After releasing some monumental, groundbreaking albums, you think they could never release another weak album again. Then came the end of the decade, and they fell down on their own asses and came out with a really shitty half-assed effort, that being “Carpe Diem” of course. But the focus here is not on their latest work, thankfully, but rather their debut.


The first think I noticed right off the bat is the lack of originality. It’s a complete Gamma Ray clone THROUGHOUT the whole album. I mean, there is not one song where one can safely say, “Oh, well this song sure doesn’t borrow that much from Gamma Ray”. The arrangements of the songs, the choruses, riffs, solos, vocal melodies… you get the point. This formula of theirs works very well in the albums that would follow, but it just doesn’t do it in this one. It is not entirely a bad thing, because they don’t copy Gamma Ray in a bad way, but just like that band, Heavenly just very much so lack heart and energy in this release. That is most sad because the three releases that would follow are filled with said qualities.

The biggest letdown is the production. Something strange about it: the lightly played, ambient keyboards are dominating the songs it seems, along with the somewhat layered vocals which sound like a blend of those from Blind Guardian and Iron Savior. Yet the guitars (especially rhythm), serve as faded, background instruments for the majority of the album. Had the production been along the lines of Virus I would have rated it some 10 points higher.

Aside from stated cons, there are quite a few pros. There are actually enough to make it an above average release, with “Time Machine” being the main focus of the pros. This song is phenomenal from beginning to end. There is not one part that won’t completely kick your ass. The two guest appearances of the album are both featured in this track, and they both deliver killer performances: Piet Sieck of Iron Savior, and Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray. This song explodes right away from the beginning with Piet Sieck’s authoritative vocals killing the first verse, and then we get Hansen delivering on the second verse. They both switch back and forth, until Ben Sotto comes in a little later. The song has quie a few tempo changes and the leads carry it very nicely throughout. Other than this classic, “Riding through Hell” and “Our Only Chance” are the other two very good tracks, both featuring great vocal melodies and a few good leads. The latter has badass verses and a great main riff, but suffers from the production flaws stated earlier. The rest of the album is mediocre for the most part, featuring some great moments, along with some boring ones as well. Recommended for Heavenly fans only. Fans of power metal: pick up any of the three following releases for they will kick your ass, and not put it to sleep like this one. Okay, it's not nearly that bad, but it just doesn’t compare to their other work.


I noticed and fixed two spelling errors, and some minor things and submitted this:

Here we have the debut of what would perhaps later become France’s top power metal band. About 10 years ago, the band started the decade off with this debut, in what I easily considered to be their weakest effort. Then out of nowhere, they release TWO of the best power metal albums of all time. After releasing some monumental, groundbreaking albums, you think they could never release another weak album again. Then came the end of the decade, and they fell down on their own asses and came out with a really shitty half-assed effort, that being “Carpe Diem” of course. But the focus here is not on their latest work, thankfully, but rather their debut.

The first thing I noticed right off the bat is the lack of originality. It’s a complete Gamma Ray clone throughout the whole album. I mean, there is not one song where one can safely say, “Oh, well this song sure doesn’t borrow that much from Gamma Ray”. The arrangements of the songs, the choruses, riffs, solos, vocal melodies… you get the point. This formula of theirs works very well in the albums that would follow, but it just doesn’t do it in this one. It is not entirely a bad thing, because they don’t copy Gamma Ray in a bad way, but just like that band, Heavenly just very much so lack heart and energy in this release. That is most sad because the three releases that would follow are filled with said qualities.

The biggest letdown is the production. Something strange about it: the lightly played, ambient keyboards are dominating the songs it seems, along with the somewhat layered vocals which sound like a blend of those from Blind Guardian and Iron Savior. Yet the guitars (especially rhythm), serve as faded, background instruments for the majority of the album. Had the production been along the lines of Virus I would have rated it some 10 points higher.

Aside from stated cons, there are quite a few pros. There are actually enough to make it an above average release, with “Time Machine” being the main focus of the pros. This song is phenomenal from beginning to end. There is not one part that won’t completely kick your ass. The two guest appearances of the album are both featured in this track, and they both deliver killer performances: Piet Sieck of Iron Savior, and Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray. This song explodes right away from the beginning with Piet Sieck’s authoritative vocals killing the first verse, and then we get Hansen delivering on the second verse. They both switch back and forth, until Ben Sotto comes in a little later. The song has quite a few tempo changes and the leads carry it very nicely throughout.

Other than this classic, “Riding through Hell” and “Our Only Chance” are the other two very good tracks, both featuring great vocal melodies and a few good leads. The latter has badass verses and a great main riff, but suffers from the production flaws stated earlier. The rest of the album is mediocre for the most part, featuring some great moments, along with some boring ones as well. Recommended for Heavenly fans only. Fans of power metal: pick up any of the three following releases for they will kick your ass, and not put it to sleep like this one. Okay, it's not nearly that bad, but it just doesn’t compare to their other work.


Opinions?

What is your problem dude? In that case you better be promoted as a mod here so, holy shit!! I do accept anyone's opinion but in case if its reasonable , yours i would never do , cause actually my reviews are very good looking and formatted very well "as good as possible", unlike many YOU should bring up here instead who got almost 15 liners in one paragraph!
PLUS my reviews are always 5 points!! and I spend hell times to work on them specially last weeks, sometimes it take from my time 5 to 6 hours for the one review, so I can give the best possible view to the release, either the best possible formatting ect ...However your opinion will change nothing, many of my friends liked my reviews and many do, I will still flood them up here and improve my style so don’t worry , ah and by the way, I like the reviews you posted up here which got some nice formatting though and also you describe the music brilliantly, well done winterblaze

Be reasonable and logic ...

Haha, relax dude. Your reviews are just a bit hard to read sometimes because of the grammar. I realize English is not your native language so I can't criticize you for that. You definitely know what you're talking about and I can tell you put a good amount of effort into them.

Also, I've never written a review nor even attempted to write one, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. But thank you?

Look, the way u said it, definitely was very lame, i mean, you can propose your opinion, thats very fine, but not deny all the hard work i put on them first to make em professional as possible and also the formatting it is fine though.
Either here you assume that mods dont know what they are doing, claiming that those are all accepted, you mean that mods dont realize what they are doing and that is not good.

English is not my native language yes, but i talk it fluently, writing it, i still have a few probs here and there so i always check spelling checker.
And also english is my field as im going to start 4 years bachelor studying communication english stream and marketing, and i got accepted in that school due to the good marks already i have in english, but to say i still have alot to improve and also writing reviews help me through too much.
I welcom your criticizing everytime, just drop me a pm regarding any reviw if u dont like, definitely i will try to improve it and make it better.
Everyhting is fine now, cheers