I am tired of reading reviews that bash doom for being slow, if you hate the genre of music your writing a review for I honestly don't care about your opinions. All it does is make the average rating meaningless unless you bother to read every individual review.

And what, pray tell, is wrong with people actually reading the reviews?

ixsetf doesn't care about our opinions? Aw man. I'm totally crushed now.

Come on, guys; he's obviously a well-traveled, storied member that we should all listen to and take criticism from with open arms.

I don't have a problem with reading every review, but if I want to know which album is the bands best, it would be good to be able to look at the average score to check that.

What I'm saying is I don't care about your opinion on dying fetus if you don't like death metal, so please don't post a review...

Thats all I'm saying.

5 years of reviewing and only now do I feel sad about my negative reviews.

There's your problem, aside from your god-like attitude.

This is just another case of some guy who takes this site too seriously trying to dictate his own beliefs on everyone else. Silly.

Popularity creates buzz, which creates controversy. Therefore, you can expect the major releases by big name name bands from any genre to have a lot of reviews, some of which will not be positive. That's just the way it goes. Read the reviews critically and don't expect the rating to be a signifier of which albums are best, because that's not what it does.

There is something to be said about the futility of reviewing music from genres that you don't even care for or understand.

True, but there is also something to be said about certain genres having few representatives that are really doing anything that most metal listeners would care to hear, and also something to be said about people being warned about this before blowing money on something that sucks. I think this all terminates on how well argued a person's case is.

Come on... why is everyone getting so worked up about this? Yeah I didn't have to say that part about not caring about your opinions, but I never said anything offensive, so why does everyone feel the need to bash? Seriously if you think it's a bad idea say why the idea is bad, and just saying I'm new so I shouldn't be messing with you guys isn't a good reason.

because sometimes shit is shit, and you feel the need to point that out. What's so hard to understand about that? Besides, as H_U says, if it's a well argued review, then it's game on. Just because someone gave your (probably awful) fave band a negative review, there's no need to have a cry.

We are a few steps away from the moment we all have dreaded for years: the amalgam of the frequent "guilty pleasures", "open-mindedness", "only review stuff you like" and "don't bash what you don't understand, you fucking moron" threads. Let's not go down that path, OK?

As a semi-official answer to the OP, the MA offers everybody a chance to express their ideas on any albums in the database, regardless of the subjective validity of the opinion on the music and the genre. And I should know, having approved dozens of reviews with extremely annoying opinions on many of my favourite bands and albums. The point is that, unlike certain websites that are "supposed to" provide at least mildly positive assessments of new albums, no matter what the quality, simply to keep the promo copies flowing and the ad money coming, the MA is on the average quite neutral on most bands, and as a result we tend to have more negative reviews than a lot of other well-known websites; I like to use words like "honesty", "fair" and "balanced", but that is my subjective opinion.

Needless to say, I personally value the opinions of knowledgeable reviewers with a general liking of the genre more than a random dude's bashings of something he does not like by default, especially if the trusted reviewer's opinion on the album is negative. However, that goes the other way around as well: the opinions of a dude who has only written 8 reviews on Dream Theater with an average rating of 99.7% are worth less than a truckload of dead rats in a tampon factory to me.

In other words, read the reviews and forget the ratings. The truth is out there, in the text itself.

S-surely you don't mean...? Y-you must be joking! You can't mean that we should actually... r-r-read the reviews? And maybe even give them some t-thought! My mind is blown.

I always wondered what those things under the ratings were... oh well.

You're all fucking douchebags, yes I can deal with negative reviews, and the one that prompted me to make this topic was for a band I had never heard of.

Fuck you all, you might as well ban me because this is the worst forum community I've ever seen.

I am not a troll, but if I was I would be very successful here, think about that.

Now, now, let's not get butthurt. You got an answer for your superficially passive-aggressive question. And you got the pretty much standard replies that you would have gotten by searching the forum a bit. This discussion has been done to death, and what's more, the skill in using the MA reviews to your advantage is to find a reviewer with a similar taste. You got your knickers in a twist over something I fail to see, considering the way you constructed your opening post, I think. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the crematorium.


No. You were so impolite in your reply that I REFUSE to comply. Get over your puberty, and then I'll ban you.

hahaha

fuck y'all, your just a bunch of pussies that can't take criticism of your shitty review system.

Well except for the few people who actually said something related to the post.

Fixed.

ixsetf,

Others are making assumptions on your motive, largely because you don't give one, but still ask everyone to do what you ask regardless. Whether or not you agree with what they've said, that's where they are coming from.

You ask a lot, and you give nothing in return. Don't be disheartened when this forum community reacts harshly.

What MA really needs is a reviewer who hates all Metal, no matter the sub-genre.

Step 1: Say something mildly dumb.
Step 2: Get a well-reasoned, polite response from a moderator.
Step 3: Go berserk and spam butthurt insults.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit!

That wouldn't be very fun at all, beyond the 3rd or 4th review.

They'd just be "It's all noise and doesn't make sense!"

It's only a problem when the reviewer has no idea what the genre is about. Example: A Dragonforce fan giving Under a Funeral Moon a 10% because of weak production, lack of intricate guitar solos, no keyboards, and ugly vocals. I'd imagine they'd do the same with bands like Satanic Warmaster, Sargeist, Judas Iscariot, etc. Even then it's barely a problem because as a reader, you can tell almost right away if a certain review is irrelevant and worthless to read. And if someone does this a bunch of times, they gain that reputation around the community where no one really takes their reviews too seriously.

It'd be a fair warning to Dragonforce fans. This is a public forum for them as much as anyone.

I don't often give negative reviews to albums (there's only one below 70% and I gave it 23%) because when I sit down to write them, I like listening to the album while writing reviews so that I can cite specific instances of intrigue (or annoyance)*, and frankly, I don't like listening to shit albums often. Given some perseverance, could I actually write some negative reviews with substance? Of course, but I'm often just content with rating only scores on sites other than this one.

* It's also because most of my reviews are track by track. I'm trying to break that habit though.

P.S. On a less serious note, this is one of the most humorous threads I've read in a long time.

Damn, all the veterans are coming out of the woodworks for this kid. He should feel special!

Also, is it so hard to take reviews with a grain of salt? I don't understand people. Differing opinions?! Oh my! Better grab my flak jacket and hope for the best.

I disagree. I love writing reviews for godawful albums, because while the music sucks and it sucks to listen to it, trashing someone else's flesh, sweat and blood work of art, with no attention paid to, or leniency given because of the effort they put into it, is a great way to end an equally shitty day.

One: it is my opinion that people shouldn't review genres they hate. Because of that I only have one black metal review and two goregrind reviews. BUT it is also my opinion that very few reviews in this website fit the "crappy bashing of the genre" category.

Two: the band's best is usually the album with the most reviews - that pattern is easy to identify, actually. Unless, of course, you are talking about major bands such as iron maiden but hey, you should have listened to maiden's discography by now, shouldn't you?

Your review for Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis's Satyriasis and Nymphomania being one of them.

Bullshit. The album with the most reviews is either the most well-known or the most notorious. It has nothing to do with musical quality.

If that was the case, the new Morbid Angel album would be considered their best work, along with St. Anger from Metallica

Those are major bands. And bad albums by major bands always get the most reviews. And I don't think people should stop reviewing genre's they don't like. As long as they have good reasons and arguments on why the album is bad. Also, most reviews without good reasoning and arguments get rejected anyway.

The examples given are major bands.

And yes - the number of reviews has a lot to do with musical quality. Again, it is a pattern very easy to identify among bands with less than 25 reviews, and that you haven't identified that pattern until now baffles me.

About my review on paracocci's debut: it is from someone who admitedly doesn't understand the genre very well. BUT I HAVE listened to goregrind before, and that weak, cartoonish distortion along with messed up drums are completely different to anything else the genre has to offer. I won't give more than 1% to something that everyone can write and record in less than 10 hours. I refrain from writing reviews on goregrind albums that are considered good. That review is for one of the worst albums ever recorded, and that album's genre happens to be goregrind.

Everyone, perhaps, could do those things, but would they? How many truly would have the inclination, impetus and will? There's something to be said for someone being willing to "go there". What if the results turn out great?

You mention in your review that "after listening to more Cock and Ball Torture than [your] sanity allows", you have grasped the absolute ends of the record. However, to assume that Cock and Ball Torture are anything like Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis is a fallacy in itself: this is the equivalent of listening to Demilich, not getting it, and going to listen to Incantation to gain the right to say you now understand Demilich. I mean, they're both death metal, but only a fool would consider comparing them. I'm not implying you simply haven't "gotten" Satyriasis and Nymphomania or that you ever will, but the review quite obviously shows that you jumped headfirst into a genre you're unfamiliar with.

a lot of people consider that paracocci album very good. there's a large contingent of fans in the goregrind scene who think it's top-shelf stuff. i don't think it's quite "one of the worst albums ever recorded."

Man... I hate that album with a passion...

Am I missing something? I fail to see difference between paracocci's and LDOH's compositions - and even then, LDOH at least has a very good drummer.

Then you need to give both bands another listen. I'm not asking you to listen to it until you like it, but rather until you understand the fundamental elements of the genre, to the point where you can distinguish between the bands. I know, I know, it's fun and easy to pick on controversial albums and give them all a 1% saying "OMG THIS SUCKS" (I've done it a couple times myself), but it's a lot more satisfying to be able to understand the genre before you review it, and understand the differences between any two goregrind albums like the fans do. This is why I stay away from reviewing power metal - I know jack shit about it, and while I enjoy most of what I've heard of it to some extent, the description I would use in my review would not be helpful to anyone reading it.

It's not that I can't tell one band from the other - its just that paracocci's compositions seem to take zero effort, while LDOH's ones seem to take [0 + drummer's effort] effort >.>