Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

Message board

* FAQ    * Register   * Login 



This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.
Author Message Previous topic | Next topic
Death157
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:15 pm
Posts: 64
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 1:03 pm 
 

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?

Top
 Profile  
EntilZha
Retired

Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:22 pm
Posts: 2115
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 1:08 pm 
 

Death157 wrote:
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. :nods:
_________________
Join my awesome last.fm groups: -1- / -2- / -3-

Top
 Profile  
Visionary
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:57 pm
Posts: 1766
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 1:54 pm 
 

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.
_________________
taleskiss on Kiss wrote:
They influenced MOST of the metal bands of our days, and they are not part of this site? This is unacceptable!!!
I would like to know why is that???
Because they are not considered metal? This is not fare!!!

Top
 Profile  
Ice_As_Steel
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:51 am
Posts: 659
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 1:57 pm 
 

EntilZha wrote:
Death157 wrote:
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. :nods:


Funny, I was thinking the same thing.
_________________
The horrible answer is before you.

Top
 Profile  
rexxz
Where's your band?

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:45 pm
Posts: 9094
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 3:14 pm 
 

Most people would think the same thing.
_________________
Hexenkraft - diabolical cyberpunk darksynth
Cosmic Atrophy - extradimensional death metal

Top
 Profile  
failsafeman
Digital Dictator

Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
Posts: 11852
Location: In the Arena
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 3:37 pm 
 

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.
_________________
MorbidBlood wrote:
So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

Top
 Profile  
MaDTransilvanian
Caravan Beyond Redemption

Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:56 pm
Posts: 3789
Location: Romania
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 4:11 pm 
 

failsafeman wrote:
A
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).
_________________
The band career analysis thread.

Top
 Profile  
lord_ghengis
Still Standing After 38 Beers... hic

Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:31 pm
Posts: 5953
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 7:00 pm 
 

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..
_________________
Naamath wrote:
No comments, no words need it, no BM, no compromise, only grains in her face.

Top
 Profile  
Oblarg
Veteran

Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:59 pm
Posts: 2974
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 7:57 pm 
 

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.

Top
 Profile  
Ice_As_Steel
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:51 am
Posts: 659
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 8:05 pm 
 

rexxz wrote:
Most people would think the same thing.


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

Oblarg wrote:
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.


It also helps if the reviewer in question has good and consistent taste. :P
_________________
The horrible answer is before you.

Top
 Profile  
Byrgan
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:35 pm
Posts: 403
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2010 10:16 am 
 

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.'

Top
 Profile  
Byrgan
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:35 pm
Posts: 403
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2010 11:21 am 
 

MaDTransilvanian wrote:
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 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.

Top
 Profile  
AngeldeathGreg
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:36 am
Posts: 498
PostPosted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:29 pm 
 

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.

Top
 Profile  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

  Print view
Jump to:  

Back to the Encyclopaedia Metallum


Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group