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Byrgan
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:15 am 
 

I know I'm going to be the minuscule minority here, but it seems to take some of the edge off by extending these contests. I felt the same with caspian's.

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Zoldaten_ov_Zatan
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:32 am 
 

It does take the panic factor out of the writing which often yields quite interesting results. (not that I'm in ANY way saying the deadline should be un-extended!!!)
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Byrgan
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:33 am 
 

I guess we look at it somewhat differently.

Zoldaten_ov_Zatan wrote:
...which often yields quite interesting results.


What do you mean by this though? For instance, the results in the way I look at it, would be getting that panic as you describe or uncertainty in the beginning, which causes me to concentrate harder and produce something that I didn't think I was capable of doing by having a pressure applied to do so.

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Zoldaten_ov_Zatan
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:52 am 
 

Byrgan wrote:
I guess we look at it somewhat differently.

Zoldaten_ov_Zatan wrote:
...which often yields quite interesting results.


What do you mean by this though? For instance, the results in the way I look at it, would be getting that panic as you describe or uncertainty in the beginning, which causes me to concentrate harder and produce something that I didn't think I was capable of doing by having a pressure applied to do so.


I was saying that the panic can yeild interesting results.
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Byrgan
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:28 am 
 

Zoldaten_ov_Zatan wrote:
I was saying that the panic can yeild interesting results.


We're on the same page then. Read your post as the opposite for some odd reason.

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Zoldaten_ov_Zatan
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:21 pm 
 

No prob. It is pretty amazing how minor changes in how you parse a sentence can totally change, and even reverse its intended meaning.
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Muhammadabbadabba
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:27 pm 
 

Update: I plan to stick to my deadline, but if it turns out disastrous, I'll consider extending it...again. I truly do NOT want to extend this contest any further, but I also want at least half of the contestants to submit their reviews. So...if you want to get on my good side, send them in by the 10th.
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Zoldaten_ov_Zatan
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:05 pm 
 

Just keepin' ya on the edge of your seat. ;-)
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thomash
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 1:32 am 
 

I'm working on mine. It will definitely be done by the tenth.

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thomash
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:24 am 
 

My review was just accepted. I'm quite proud of it, actually, so I'm interested to see how it performs in the competition.

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Zoldaten_ov_Zatan
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Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:04 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:37 pm 
 

My reivew is just submitted. Hopefully a mod will get to it very quickly. ;)

[EDIT]: Yep, thanks, FSM.

[EDIT2]: Just for everyone's convenience, I'll add all submitted reviews for this contest to this post.

thomash: Black Hole - Black Hole

hells_unicorn: Crystal Knight - Crystal Knight

Tepes_the_Unweeping: Lester Maddox - Gothic Lore

Gutterscream: Penance - Parallel Corners

Malacoda - Cyrstal Knight - Crystal Knight

Has anyone else submitted yet?
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Last edited by Zoldaten_ov_Zatan on Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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WebOfPiss
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:56 am 
 

Dunno if mine will meet the deadline. It's 11am now, I'm leaving for a show in Providence at 5 or so, I've got job apps to fill out...

Who knows, maybe I'll have the energy after brunch.

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Zoldaten_ov_Zatan
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 8:24 pm 
 

Btw, something I forgot to mention in my review. I think the reason the knights on the cover don't have bodies is because they are ghosts. There's no faces in the helmets, and all you see is the gloves/cloaks/helmets/sheilds/weapons floating in the air. Just a theory.
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Muhammadabbadabba
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:51 am 
 

...Alright, folks. I'll extend it to the 17th, allowing one week more. After that, it's over. I've given enough of a reprieve by extending the deadline as far as I did. If you haven't submitted your review by the 17th, I can't accept your reviews; at this point, it's unfair to the other contestants.
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Malacoda
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:08 pm 
 

Submitted. Sorry it took so long - I had essentially written it out a week ago, but I'm a horrific procrastinator. I hope it gets accepted by tomorrow.

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Muhammadabbadabba
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:25 pm 
 

Come the 23rd hour of April 17th, my contest officially ends. NO MORE EXTENSIONS

Submit now or cry later.
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Malacoda
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:06 pm 
 

Accepted, woot.

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Gutterscream
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:44 pm 
 

Malacoda wrote:
Accepted, woot.


Yep, and you did a good job as well.
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Malacoda
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:28 pm 
 

Thanks :) I try to put actual effort into my reviews.

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Muhammadabbadabba
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 11:36 pm 
 

My Contest has officially ended. To those that participated, my infinite thanks to you.

I will now begin the judging process.
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WebOfPiss
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 11:58 pm 
 

:getout: Since when do contests end at 23:00? It's always (ALWAYS!) 23:59pm.

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Muhammadabbadabba
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:05 am 
 

WebOfPiss wrote:
:getout: Since when do contests end at 23:00? It's always (ALWAYS!) 23:59pm. Fuck this.


Assuming you have something, submit it now.

Otherwise, I've shown great clemency to the contestants. While I'm aware and have taken into account my contestants' livelihoods beyond the merry boundaries of this forum, I've allowed the months of February, March, and the midpoint of April before I intended to end this contest. If I'm being too harsh, how so?
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ogmetal
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Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:22 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:07 am 
 

Ok, keeping with the theme, you have 24 hours to finish up the judging and announce the winners.

We need to put an end to this.
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WebOfPiss
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:26 am 
 

Will be submitted shortly, have something to take care of first. My apologies for the inconvenience.

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Byrgan
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:21 am 
 

It finally ended. And damn this contest went on too long for a single review. You'd think some of us were writing an inaugural address. I went through and read each review submitted from start to finish. They were good though and all that time spent was put to use. :p

I can't pinpoint a main reason why this contest felt so off. Maybe it was too specific, however, the choice was yours to sign up or agree to sign up when asked by the contest holder; also the prize factor might of created an all-or-nothing mentality. But that's the challenge or the fun of it to me. For instance, I round up a few people and say let's go bowling and whoever wins gets my sweaty gold plated jock strap. No one there should say, "wait, I've got to practice some more before playing with you guys" or "I'm going to sit this one out since I can't reach a 300 score." Not the greatest example, but essentially that's the fun of it, the experience. I haven't seen it used here but another phrase I don't think should pop up is, "it shouldn't matter how long it took if the review is good enough." I think a line like, "a contest is a contest," supersedes that one even if you or others felt your review turned out just alright in the time frame you had to write it. For instance, Muhammadabbadabba contacted me to participate in February, I accepted a little later and my review was done by early March, then I waited some days and submitted it in the middle of the month. Looking back now I see that it is in some respects too lengthy, only there for certain readers, the beginning part looks potentially cut and pasted even though it wasn't, you have to get into a certain "mode" before reading each chapter instead of straight through evenly, again limiting the readers, and etc. But that was the challenge of it and I went with it.

There was just something amiss here and personal reasons weren't all of it. I mean, how hard would it be to sign into MA, post in this thread and simply say I can't participate anymore; time would have been saved. Now someone's going to make me look like a jerk and post that they broke all ten fingers helping disaster victims in Haiti in an Internet free zone. Just watch, haha.

It just looks that Muhammadabbadabba will have to re-evaluate some things in the next outting.

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WebOfPiss
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:37 am 
 

I'm just a procrastinating asshole. He was more than fair in extending the deadline, but for someone like me the deadline never really matters. I'm not going to bother with it until the 11th hour because those are the conditions I like to work under. I like stress and pressure and knowing I might be shit out of luck if I don't work my ass off. The only downside of this is that my work may not be as great as some stuff I've been working on whenever I desire, but there's an edit review button for a reason.

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Byrgan
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:02 am 
 

WebOfPiss wrote:
I'm just a procrastinating asshole. He was more than fair in extending the deadline, but for someone like me the deadline never really matters. I'm not going to bother with it until the 11th hour because those are the conditions I like to work under. I like stress and pressure and knowing I might be shit out of luck if I don't work my ass off. The only downside of this is that my work may not be as great as some stuff I've been working on whenever I desire, but there's an edit review button for a reason.


To me your last post came off as someone who didn't want to drop the juggling act considering the time it was posted. Though this post explains some things I didn't consider and you have some straight honesty in you and I definitely respect that even though I'd have to disagree with that mind set in this particular contest. Which brings up the factor for time limit that should be reconsidered for the next one, but that's up to the contest holder though.

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Muhammadabbadabba
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Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:03 pm 
 

Byrgan wrote:
It just looks that Muhammadabbadabba will have to re-evaluate some things in the next outting.


In hindsight, I should've been more laissez-faire than I was with this contest.

If I hold another contest, I'll run it better than my first.

Now, and the winner for the "Zarach Baahl Tharagh Spirit Award" is:

hells_unicorn
Don't get me wrong; hells_unicorn's review was objective and to the point. My problem lies in his style. While I understand reviewing something completely foreign may render personal feelings/experiences difficult to articulate, your prose seemed a bit...dry.

The "Mopmongster Food Metal Gimmick Award" goes to:

Byrgan
Byrgan has a talent for improving even the worst reviewing format with his unique style. In this case, the track-by-track review, which our jovial loon named them his personalities, was quite refreshing. Of course, some of the jokes fell flat here and there, but otherwise, Byrgan's analysis of Sorrow's Hatred and Disgust was fun to read.

And Muhammadabbadabba's Obscure Album Review Contest winner is:

Tepes_the_Unweeping
Just read Tepes review and tell me what could possibly be wrong with his review. It's beautifully articulated, accurately analyzed, and most of all, it's just charming to read. If Tepes review doesn't convince you to go out and listen to Lester Maddox...words cannot describe my disappointment with you.

If you all could send me your paypal emails, I send the payments right away. Thanks for participating.
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WebOfPiss
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:06 pm 
 

Mine will be up later today regardless of disqualification.

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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:49 pm 
 

One of the problems that I had with the review I wrote was that while I liked the album, I couldn't quite get jazzed up over it the way I have others in the style. If I had completely loved it, or hated it, there would have been a bit more emotion to it. I also tend to try to talk more to the reader (though generally in the 3rd person) rather than about my own experiences. You will note that I often avoid even using the word "I" a lot of the time.
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Malacoda
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:56 pm 
 

When I first saw the results, I was like WTF because Tepes's reviews often don't critique any element of music whatsoever... but then I read it. Tepes, when you try, you kick ass. You should try more often.

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Byrgan
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:42 am 
 

Muhammadabbadabba wrote:
The "Mopmongster Food Metal Gimmick Award" goes to:

Byrgan
Byrgan has a talent for improving even the worst reviewing format with his unique style. In this case, the track-by-track review, which our jovial loon named them his personalities, was quite refreshing. Of course, some of the jokes fell flat here and there, but otherwise, Byrgan's analysis of Sorrow's Hatred and Disgust was fun to read.


Thanks man! I honestly didn't know how it would have turned out since it was so experimental for me to write. I had to balance out the two sides battling each other: style and substance, and that was a challenge, until I had to submit it before I had the urge to edit it anymore. It was just a lot of little subtleties to get it to blend together and I'm glad you're saying it did it for you in its own way. I think I've only done one other track by track review, it's not something I will gravitate towards, but it seemed a good enough set-up to write the gimmick with. I had a list of other personalities, and it was a process of elimination with the ones that got chosen. I'm glad you had Sorrow up there to choose from as some of the other choices might not have gone over well for me, but who knows.

-----------

I actually liked the flow and subtly of Malacoda's review, while appearing to just be talking while saying everything he wants to say like a breeze and covering all of the bases at the same time. That definitely takes a knack to do seamlessly. And I'd personally like to read more like that from this writer.

I've been reading more of hells_unicorn's reviews for heavy metal oriented groups. And I definitely should have taken up the initiative a while ago, he knows his stuff and gives you a generous tour of the band or that particular time period. He does those long winded, packed-to-the-gills-with-information sentences on some reviews expertly where others muck it up with subject clashing and make you out of breath for nothing and...just kidding.

thomash's review must have been a challenge to write on top of three other existing reviews while pitted side by side among the others in this contest. And I think he did a good job at covering that time period while blending it together with some cross comparisons to Italian horror and from hearing the album myself and being familiar with horror from that country I'd have to agree. The only issue I seen with the review, if I might add, is that in certain areas it tore down the album too much and then rebuilt it with praise. Honestly, I didn't know exactly where his feelings laid till the closing paragraph. While reading I was under the impression that he might have hated some sections, then said they worked in their own peculiar way. But now I see that he was most likely describing it to someone who's never heard it and dispelling some initial defense mechanisms that a new listener might have.

I have to say Tepes_The_Unweeping was very intimate with his writing about the recording and reflected the score he gave it ideally where others give them away like candy. You know, I went to the review page first, skipping all else, and reading it I didn't realize the band's associations till I got to the part where the song "White Power" was mentioned. It was probably intentional since he mostly focused on the music and described how it affected him with some abstract emotional ties.

I liked the aspect of Gutterscream's review that he places you in the context of the time period and shows you a few different alleyways of what other similar bands were doing. However, I think it would have benefited if it was slightly longer and expanded on some ideas. It reminded me in a way of watching the entertainer Robin Williams do an interview in that you'd have to go over it twice or three times to make sure you got everything, it just has that much style and information to project. Just a little more expanded and I think it would have been perfect to me.

Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts as a reader.

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thomash
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 1:53 pm 
 

Byrgan wrote:
thomash's review must have been a challenge to write on top of three other existing reviews while pitted side by side among the others in this contest. And I think he did a good job at covering that time period while blending it together with some cross comparisons to Italian horror and from hearing the album myself and being familiar with horror from that country I'd have to agree. The only issue I seen with the review, if I might add, is that in certain areas it tore down the album too much and then rebuilt it with praise. Honestly, I didn't know exactly where his feelings laid till the closing paragraph. While reading I was under the impression that he might have hated some sections, then said they worked in their own peculiar way. But now I see that he was most likely describing it to someone who's never heard it and dispelling some initial defense mechanisms that a new listener might have.

Thanks! That's some great feedback. It was definitely a tough review to write because, in a lot of ways, the album is charismatically amateurish. There's some raw talent there but the workmanship is a bit uneven. As a result, I found myself sort of unsure about how to score the album. Personally, I love the album and it never gets old for me but it's not the type of album that absolutely anyone could/should be able to enjoy. If you're not a bit of a horror movie/doom metal geek, I doubt the album can get through to you without some context. Consequently, I wasn't sure I could score it all that highly.

Anyway, that gives you a sense of some of the reasons why I wrote the review the way I did. In analyzing the album, I thought it felt like a diamond in the rough - it's sort of ugly on the surface but having patience and engaging with it is very rewarding. So, yes, my review ended up trying to find a way to give someone without a lot of background in Italian horror or underground doom metal the right introduction to the album so that they wouldn't just give up on it as a silly, amateurish little album.

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WebOfPiss
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:28 am 
 

http://metal-archives.com/review.php?id=23229#84116

There you go.

As far as your review goes, thomash, I was severely underwhelmed and confused. You go on for long periods (or at least mention a multitude of times) about the negative aspects of the album and then claim to like it alot. Also, amateurish? Hardly the case. Doom metal? Hardly the case. I just felt alot of it was convoluted, had mixed messages, and was overall rather poor. No offense to you, some of your reviews ain't bad (though your taste is subject to criticism haha), just didn't care for this one at all. Seemed misinformed and misguided. Then again, I thought rather lowly of your Vitus review...

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thomash
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:11 pm 
 

WebOfPiss wrote:
http://metal-archives.com/review.php?id=23229#84116

There you go.

As far as your review goes, thomash, I was severely underwhelmed and confused. You go on for long periods (or at least mention a multitude of times) about the negative aspects of the album and then claim to like it alot. Also, amateurish? Hardly the case. Doom metal? Hardly the case. I just felt alot of it was convoluted, had mixed messages, and was overall rather poor. No offense to you, some of your reviews ain't bad (though your taste is subject to criticism haha), just didn't care for this one at all. Seemed misinformed and misguided. Then again, I thought rather lowly of your Vitus review...

I don't think we're likely to agree on almost any of our respective writings. I'll take it as a compliment that you like any of my writing! :lol:

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