I recently received an email from someone nicknamed Napero, rejecting a review I submitted. He argued I was trying to review my own band.
Absolutely false, let me explain the reason: I wrote this review and it was previously translated and submitted by someone who is indeed part of this band, since I didn't have a registered username at the time I wrote it for the local magazine I work for.
He was advised to not to do so. Then I created this account and submitted it again but got this email. I'm not certain about this whole confusion, but I hope we can clarify it.

Cheers

That was really a bad decision of yours to do that in the first place. It's gonna be hard to believe you're not part of the band now.

Oh well, I guess we screwd it.
I rest my case then, thanks for your kind reply, Metantoine

Hi this is my review and it got rejected, please help me

I was fairly open when I first listened to this album, though I thought the band's out put would range from shit to average. I assumed that because these girls were kawaii (assuming they're using iphone's with hello kitty and their rooms are completely pink) that they might just be pretending to be into metal so that they could profit from it. After all, there is about 10 guys to every 1 girl in metal and being hot (if you like asian bitches anyway) tends to be somewhat of a bonus.

I was wrong, turns out these women seem to actually like metal seeing on how well they play their instruments. In fact they play them infinately better than a lot of black metal bands out there. The songs usually have at least 2 solos in them and riffs are for the most part pretty kick ass. Up to the song 6 the album is fairly entertaining, after things get a little less interesting but not bad.

The vocals are clean so no screams here but she has a pretty nice voice regardless.

The drumming is pretty solid as well, I particularly felt the drumming was well played.

Overall, this is a pretty good album, sometimes I even forgot it was chicks playing the instruments, especially when you take into account they look like this http://lh4.ggpht.com/axiuex2/SAUhqmD4cE ... G_0200.jpg. I know Gallhammer have done the who female band thing before but this is different because this band looks more like a j-pop girl band. Worth a listen even if you're just curious to see how these women play their instruments.
39714

Thank you for helping

So, I wrote this review for Destroyer 666's Cold Steel...For An Iron Age, I don't know, anywhere from 2 to 6 years ago (maybe even longer than that, not sure). And I got an email from EM today saying that my review had been rejected/deleted (I am assuming deleted, though I just always had assumed that it had been accepted originally). But I am having real trouble figuring out why it would have been deleted. The only possible thing I can think of is that I use all caps on a few words for emphasis, but browsing the rules, i didn't see that as being forbidden. Anyways, here is the review. Thanks.

3 of the short paragraphs are spent talking about your experience about the band and the album and the rest of the review doesn't have a lot of musical description. I'm in the process of cleaning the site from subpar reviews and yours, well, was in the list. I'm sorry for the trouble.

Ok I submitted 17 reviews yesterday and all were accepted except this one for Brume d'Automne - Brume d'Automne. All I got was it doesn't follow the guidelines. All I can think of is that the mod thinks its a track by track description which it isn't as I missed 2 tunes out. Any comments on why it was rejected at all.


"Autumn Mist or Brume d'Automne has a rather disparate discography most likely due to Athros being a long term member of Forteresse and band companion Nordet also joining him in another black metal band Ur Falc'h. With a full length plus a couple of splits already out there, it is very tempting to check how those releases compare to this self titled album, especially as there is a seven year gap between the full lengths. On the other hand that temptation can often tarnish how the new material is viewed especially if it is radically different compared to previous work. The same applies to the band members other projects, which may be similar in style but offer slightly different nuances or song writing methods. So for this album I approached it as a solitary entity, untainted by any other material from their other bands or previous releases.

Canada isn’t really known for spewing out barbaric black metal acts and it is reasonable to state that “Brume d'Automne” certainly is an aggressive album, but tempered by folk like hints that subtly weave their way into the texture of the songs, though don’t expect some paganesque dancing round fires music here. The sound is particularly raw, very like those seminal releases of the early 90s by Dark Throne, Emperor, Satyricon to quote some well known units. The blasted snare is very blurry once opener “Tels Des Béliers” gets into full throttle. The kick drum and snare are almost synchronous as it feels as though the tune is rattling along out of control, not quite at Impiety’s war like speed but pretty close. The drop in pace is where this Canadian outfit show their creativity with a rather splendid guitar harmony and lead filtering down onto the slower speed. A short interlude that introduces the folk elements is followed by “Lésprit Du Courant” as the primal and chaotic demo like sound has that primitive cave dwelling feel. This tune also incorporates those folk aspects I mentioned earlier and for a change they work, as I’m not a great fan of folk black metal.

“Le Lieu De La Vengeance” is maniacally played with a heavier sound and some crazy double bass that threatens to career the song wildly on the edge of collapse. Again very early 90s black metal is prevalent here as the riffs have that sharp ice shard blast of ferocity smashing through the permafrost of the rhythm section. There is a chilling feel too and though much of the riffing is very familiar it is genuinely vitriolic in its approach and with the vocals torturously stripping the lining off the throat it is hard to find any criticism with the release. “Moé J’me Souviens” returns the flow of the album into a medieval style on the riffing, but generally this is bitter black metal. This track offers a more macho vocal style that has a degree more clarity and even a tad more melodious as well, which makes penultimate song “Saint Eustache - Traditionnelle V” an exceptionally violent song that has touches of Finnish black metallers Thy Serpent. In fact a lot of this album has Finnish black metal features from bands like Azaghal, Behexen, Horna or Satanic Warmaster to name a few well known ones. Closing the album is the epic “Quand les Corbeaux Crient Leur Haine” which has creepy crow cawing to get it going backed up by guitar feedback fuzz. The riff that follows is more akin to thrash and followed by a racket of double kick before settling into a slower more reasonable pace for the riff style and speed. More folk twists are added as the crow returns about half way and signals the arrival of an acoustic guitar piece and a wailing vocal chant before the song ends with harsh acerbic black riffing rage."

"Canada isn’t really known for spewing out barbaric black metal acts" ??????? You never heard Revenge? The review is fine though, was I the one rejecting it? I can't remember. You can submit it again.

Also, note for future, it would be preferable to submit reviews when you write them and not all at once, it makes our job difficult, it personally makes me angry, sometimes I get 2 or 3 reviewers a day who are doing that and it makes the queue huge in no time.

Constructive writing advice:

Tell us about the music! Reading that review, I don't have much of an idea of what the album sounds like. Other than comparisons to early 90s black metal and Finnish BM bands, you're not saying much about the music. Descriptions like "sharp ice shard blast of ferocity smashing through the permafrost of the rhythm section" use a lot of words that aren't normally used to describe music, and thus don't convey meaning to the reader. Try to write descriptions that use common music terms like this one: "The riff that follows is more akin to thrash and followed by a racket of double kick before settling into a slower more reasonable pace for the riff style and speed." - I have an idea of what that riff sounds like from that - most of your other descriptions are just confusing or too vague.

Yeah it was you. I won't send as many in next time. They were reviews I wrote for the webzine RawNerve here in the UK and the web editor didn't mind them being on MA so I submitted them in bulk, apologies. BTW i forgot about Revenge, but Canada still doesn't have that many nasty black metal outfits of note. I'll submit it again and cheers for replying.

Take Zodi's advice, but there's enough musical description in my opinion. I liked the album but their first one is superior, also Forteresse is way better if you haven't heard them. No problems about your number of reviews and all, it's understandable.

4 AM --------> bed time

So no one bothered to tell me what they thought of my Hour of Penance review. Maybe you guys will be more talkative with Wretched?

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/W ... 18/Pr0nogo

One thing I like about sites like sputnikmusic is that they have a comments section below the reviews. Unfortunately, very few people over there have any brains left, so... that kind of counters things.

So how do I get this accepted into the Archives guys and gals?


Stench - Primitive Vulgar and Armed

I procured this gem overseas while amidst a capitalist group of tri-fecal iso-mongoloids. I was presented with two options. They were: A) listen to the disc and suffer endless disembowelments, or B) have my orifices stuffed with lit sticks of dynamite while being exposed to the classic final track ‘Cunt Punt’ as my torso was going through internal combustion. I went with option B seeing as the song title ‘Cunt Punt’ really intrigued me in my final moments of delirium.

So with minutes left to live, the aforementioned sub dormant group of galvanized derelicts subjected me to the glorious ‘Cunt Punt.’ To be frank, this track was mind blowing; I could not believe the sheer trepidation it invoked. The uneasiness I felt in my last moments on this Earth was insurmountable. You would think all these feelings are negative wouldn’t you? Well you’re wrong because this disc penetrates your tympanic membranes and alters your brain chemistry, causing your mind to equate horrible spews of bi-dimensional resonance to pleasantries.

After being subjected to ‘Cunt Punt’ I was presented with more options. These gnarly gentlemen were to either: A) Remove the sticks of dynamite from my orifices and forcibly continue cranking the rest of the album while offering me the possible chance of escape or B) Asphyxiation via my own urethra while of course being presented with the rest of the album and possible chance for escape. I went with option A because for one, I was growing weary of the explosives lodged in my assorted orifices, and I figured being strangled by my own urethra was not in my best interest.

So on I went, listening to the rest of Primitive Vulgar and Armed. As the album progressed, the lack of blood flow to my brain exposed me to a hallucinogenic state in which the Stench album began to rule. The highlight for me was ‘Quickdraw’ with the ultra memorable one liner “You can see your reflection in a toilet that won’t flush.” Instrumentally, there are several throwbacks to the classic traditional heavy metal and thrash. In fact, I swore one of the riffs on this album was an English Dogs riff, but whatever, at the time I just avoided being hung by my own urethra so I didn’t object.

Upon hearing the tumultuous incredibly human and realistic drums on this record, my brain said goodbye as the hypnosis set in and I could no longer have any negative feelings to this record. Uncle Jarek is easily the best thrash drummer in existence, occasionally showcasing his black metal appreciation with his 32nd note blasting abilities.

Anyway, as the gang of tangential war demons witnessed my appreciation for this record, they set me free, only under the condition that this album was permanently embedded in my pre-frontal cortex. Now clear as night, I do not know what to think about this album. I’m going to give it an 18 percent because the previous reviewer gave it an 81 and honestly, I was not in a clear state of mind while being exposed to this record so my initial judgments are invalid. As of now, the only thoughts in my head outside of this review are “Satan’s gonna come for you, satan’s gonna get ya. Take his shit into your house and on fire set ya!”

Preface to these posts: My tone probably sounds like I'm writing a bad review, and I'm picking out the things that should be cut out. Don't take it badly, it's just the easiest to pick out stuff that's off-point and I think could be cut or significantly reduced.



The fourth and fifth paragraphs are good writing, they really give me an idea of what the music is like. The most intriguing description is that the vocals dictate the song structure - that whole section in the middle of that paragraph is an interesting way of observing how the music sounds beyond superficial descriptions.

The downside is that when you're not talking about the music, the review is pretty unpleasant to read. I personally don't like having a personal story about an unexceptional way of your personal history of discovering a band, I'd rather hear about the music.

The third paragraph would be good if it weren't bookended by excessive apologies for the album being deathcore. That kinda kills the flow of the writing, gives it a defensive tone, which detracts from the actual content.

The first paragraphs are unnecessary prefacing, I hate reading stuff like that - it makes it feel like the writer is arguing for their right to get on the soapbox. Lots of words that clumsily proclaim "I have a strong opinion on this!" before actually stating your opinion. Thanking all of the band members at the end is pretty lame too. I understand that biography once had to be included in a review as it was the only source of information, but colorless repetition of information that is already on MA is something that I hate reading, and a detraction from actual content of a review.

"I have to dedicate an entire paragraph to the vocals. I do this for every full-length review, but I felt it was necessary to point it out this time around, because the vocals are that intense."
Once again, you don't need to defend your right to state your opinion. Tell it like it is, and let the grace of your writing carry it.

In conclusion, solid core of the review, but there's a lot of fat to be trimmed off to show off the good stuff in the middle.



Write a review, not goregrind prose. I was two thirds of the way into the review when I figured out that it was a thrash album, before that it sounded like a typical fanboy tribute to a BDM/goregrind band. Here's what you wrote about the music, which should be the majority of the review.



So it's a thrash album with a fast drummer and an English Dogs riff. Stop talking about your orifices and talk about the riffs.

I will start a zine in which I dedicate 7/8ths of the material to foreign objects in orifices while the remainder will be metal reviews. Thank you for the feedback sir.

Hello everyone, this review of mine just got approved and I would like to hear what you think about it.
In the future I wanna try to give some more personality shining through my reviews, and adding some humor in there too.
Constructive criticism much appreciated!

Here are my three latest reviews.

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/C ... 59/Subrick
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/I ... 98/Subrick
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/S ... 14/Subrick

@Zodi

Thanks for the feedback. The bulk of the review's "fat" as you called it was just me trying to express how much of an emotional impact the record had on me, hence the whole "thank you" bit. My other reviews (notably God Dethroned and Hour of Penance) are almost all about the music rather than the pretentious approach I took to this one.

I need a little more clarity to get this one accepted, hopefully someone can give me an honest assessment or clarification on what specifically needs to be done.

I was told I needed to "I'm sorry to inform you, but your review can not currently be accepted. In order for it to be acceptable, it needs more substance and content towards describing the music. Although you have described the music in brief, you should elaborate on it."

By this, do they mean describe the songs in more detail? Describe the guitar, bass and drum work? what exactly? I'm not sure what exactly is being mentioned. Anyways, here's my review that was rejected.

Sister Sin: "Now and Forever",
Review: 87% Comment: "Getting better with every album".

Here's what I wrote that got rejected:

There's a longtime politic when judging reviews on MA that they must contain musical description, something which you only do on the third paragraph and for a couple of sentences. You spend a lot of time telling the reader how the songs make you feel but say nothing about how they sound like.

My advice is this, try to condense the first two paragraphs into only one to serve as and introduction to the review and cut a bit on the "flourishing". It's cool to have a comic and lighthearted tone but too much of that makes it loose the funny aspect. Then between the introduction and the third paragraph make a new one that describes the actual music. If it's fast or slow, if it rocks or makes you sleep and where, which sections are interesting on individual songs and why, what do you like and what you think could be improved, if the production is good or bad and if you can hear all instruments or not, etc. Know what I mean? You don't need to describe every song but let us know something about a few of them and which ones are the best and the worst and why.

Do that and it will most certainly be accepted.

Try making direct comparisons to specific aspects of the sound - all of your references seem to be indirect, almost spiritual references, more like a Kiss song than a review of the music. Your review is currently a stretched out account of your experience of the band rocking your world, which pretty much every band has done to someone, so you're going to need to tell us why.

I have never heard this band, but here are some examples of how you could make this about the music:

DON'T: "Now and Forever" is the fourth effort from this band and what it is, in no uncertain terms is like if the members of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead were to have a daughter that was born to rock. That daughter is Liv Jagrell, and she is a dynamo on the vox.[/quote]

DO: The band has a simple hard rock backbone driven by simple, hard drumming and driving basslines, like Motorhead, and they are fronted by flashy guitar work and crunchy riffs. The vocalist is sharp, shrieking along to the tune like Vince Neil.

You should also get rid of the bit about Design the Skyline, if you're not aware, people have been prolifically bitching about the bands that Victory has signed since at least the mid 90s. It's quite funny to see the complaints about how the label has changed over the years.

Much appreciated. I really enjoyed this album and I hope other people would too. It's weird because I was actually on a roll with people accepting my submissions until I got to this one. I'll try your things (and add more than just what Zodi wrote, although that is good so I will include it) and see if I can catch a break.

Thank you again.

Glad to help, and don't forget that you can and should continue improving your writing far beyond "acceptable". You probably shouldn't include what I said because I have never heard of the band, I was just giving you an example of how to go more in depth with comparisons.

Well, again thank you. I resubmitted, actually almost an entire revamp and they didn't even wait. That was accepted less than a day afterwards. Considering it actually took 3 days before the first review was rejected, I feel a bit proud that it worked.

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/S ... SteveHNo96

You shouldn't base your opinion on the amount of time your reviews are getting rejected/accepted. Sometimes we're too busy with real life to work on the Review Queue and sometimes I like to work on it everyday.

Is this first sentence is good for beginning a review or it's completely useless and I beter put that to thrash?
For my first review on the metal archive, I will review this new metal progressive band from Spain that sings in his own language.

I'm not sure about the use of the term catapult in this sentence:
We are then catapult into what could’ve been described has a power metal song.

How do you do to say that a singer sing low or if you prefer:
The singer has also a much more bass voice that sounds more serious.

This sentence does't seems quite accurate: can I say this with others words, or is it ok like this?
For the bass instrument lovers, ...

That's what I have found in my review that I am not sure about. I will post others things later if I found them.

"On the Metal Archives" & "in its own language"

"We are then catapulted

"The singer's baritone has a much more serious sound compared to..." I lack the context though.

Est-ce que tu peux m'envoyer ta critique par message privé? Ton Anglais semble malheureusement pas correspondre à nos standards. Je peux t'aider un peu si tu veux. Je ne suis pas excellent parcontre!

I'd do away with it. The info on this being your first review on the Archives is useless to pretty much any reader. The info about the band's country of origin and the language they sing is significant though, but can be given in another way.



As Tony pointed out, it's "catapulted". But the correct form for the whole sentence is "We are then catapulted into what could be described as a power metal song". "Could've" doesn't belong in that sentence nor does "has".



"For those who love bass".

Is Spanish is write correctly in this sentence?
Also, maybe you have a better to say this.

They actually have all their vocals in Spanish.

Can you give me some advice on how to improve my next reviews with the first one I did?
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/D ... e_Autumn94

This is one of my favorite albums, and reading yours makes me want to work better at my own (the one under yours). Edit: Just did, now I'm more happy with my own review.

Here is what I'd do for your review. Let's start with the grammar. These are the easy ones to clean up.

- "...but it filled the slight voids, that in my opinion..." should be "...but it filled the slight voids that, in my opinion, ..."
- "...fitting perfectly the music and for 1991, the sound" should be "...fitting the music perfectly. For 1991, the sound..."
- "Another aspect that I really like about this record, is the vast" should be "Another aspect that I really like about this record is the vast..." <---- (no need for the comma)
- "You can't possibly get wrong" should be "You can't possibly go wrong"
- "...which sounds killer to my ears; Torn Apart has..." should be "...which sounds killer to my ears. "Torn Apart" has..."
- "That is why I always return to it after listening a mediocre or not fulfilling death metal composition..." should be "That is why I always return to it after listening to a mediocre or unfulfilling death metal composition..."

Now for the bigger changes.

[1]


This is how I'd rework the above lines without changing too much of your own words:

"The longer tracks, "Override of the Overture," "Dismembered," and "In Death's Sleep," are full of relentless, sick riffs. They are atmospheric when mid-paced and brutal at faster speeds (particularly the melodic intro and solo at the start of the iconic fifth song)."

[2]


This is how I'd rework the above lines without changing too much of your own words:

"The remaining songs "Bleed for Me," "And So is Life" and "Sickening Art" contain more thrashing energy than all the retro thrash bands combined."

[3]


I would omit this only because the sentence is originally confusing and isn't a particularly strong point. You could mention the track in the same sentences as the others or keep the sentence and focus on the structure of the song.

[4]


You say immediately after the first part of the sentence that the bass adds to the sound. Not only that, but you can hear the bass quite clearly among the riffs on this album - it's that thick as munchies grumble and it's very easy to hear. I would omit the first part of the sentence and comment more on the sound of the bass guitar tone.

[5]


I would omit this part unless you can tie it in with commenting on the lyrics, which you sort of do later. Leaving a block of lyrics like this with out making a point about them pads a review.

[6] Try to find similar points that you make in this review and put those points into one paragraph. Like when you talk about the songs and how good the guitars are, have those in one paragraph so that you don't end up talking about it in every one of the little paragraphs.

[7] Comment on how the music sounds. This may be harder, but this is what I mean. Words like "awesome" and "sick" are basic words, but they just tell the reader that you really like something. How do the guitar sound? Can you relate it to something? In my review (and a pretty common term) the word "chainsaw" is used to describe the ripping buzz-tone of the guitars. Stuff like that will help clue the reader in more specifically on what something sounds like. You did this with describing the vocals, so I know you can do it.

Thanks a lot Ozzy, I find your recommendations really constructive. I really like that you are very strict with your reviews and never let out important details. I'm a perfectionist too, it's just that I don't have experience writing reviews. I have read lots of your reviews and I mostly identify my opinion with your thoughts. For example, when I first listened to Like an Ever Flowing Stream, I came to this site to read the reviews and yours was the one that perfectly expressed what I'd felt while listening.

I also happen to agree with you when it comes to Insomnium's Above the Weeping World, it's such a beautiful and captivating album. Because of you is that I started listening to Running Wild (began with Death or Glory).

I want to know your opinion about Hail of Bullet's debut, because I feel it comes very close to Like an Ever Flowing Stream in terms of death metal awesomeness. Anyways I'll improve my review and will update here when I'm finished.

By the way, I read your edited review and it looks better. I could easily notice where are the changes. However, I found a little mistake, which is that you mispelled David Blomqvist last name (missed the "l").

Thanks a ton for the kind words. I really appreciate you reading them, and thankfully not some of my worst (pretty much anything before 2009).

As for the Hail of Bullets debut, I like it a lot. In fact, the chuggy, fat main riff in "Nachthexen" (the one that starts at 50 seconds) is one of my favorite riffs ever. So heavy and massive. I would probably score it 87% though like the average.

I fixed the name error in the Everflowing Stream one (thanks for that).

Hope you stick around. There is lots of room for improvement, and it took me since 2004 when I first started writing reviews to get to my current style of writing (2011-now).

I just finished editing my review. I followed all your advice and put a lot of effort to it, so I hope it's well seen by any visitor of this website.
Nachtexen is truly a brutal song. That whole album sounds awesome in terms of production and riffs. I generally prefer old school death metal and I hope there are several masterpieces awaiting me.

Concerning your writing style, I had observed exactly the same as you said. I particularly trust your reviews from 2009 on, so whenever I see a review older than that, I read through it to see your arguments. For example, today I saw one of your old reviews from 2007, in this case of Týr and the last part was quite funny! Although you've clearly progressed you have always seemed to have the right words.

Why is it taking so long to approve my edited review?

I think I'll let it rot there out of spite.



This is also true for reviews, even more so since there's like 2 or 3 people (myself included and I have midterms this week) working on this queue. So be PATIENT. I'm sure you can survive.

Had I seen this post before I got to it, I would have let it sit. Let me make this abundantly clear: STOP. FUCKING. PESTERING. US. We will get to your shit when we get to it, be patient or we'll let it sit there for as long as we damn well please. Normally we don't, but you're making yourself a special case. Knock it off, be patient, respect the mods who do this as a hobby and not because we want to be your personal little monkeys.

Lay of the Autumn94, you may be concerned that delay equals problems with the review. That's not (always) the case, as mentioned we simply aren't on the site 24/7. Many perfectly alright submissions -reviews or bands- take their time depending on various factors, but often it's just whether one mod happens to come across them or not. I'm repeating the point others made here, but just to convey how important it is let me stress it again: Be patient and don't whine about delays. No submission stays in the queue forever, but you nagging us about yours certainly is a good way of approaching eternal limbo.

Ok, sorry for my inexperienced attitude and stalking. The review has already been submitted.

Hey guys,
I would like to receive some advices on how to improve this review; it has been rejected and the comment of Nightgaunt was not very clear, but at least now I distantly understand what "the purple prose" is about.
***
Comment:
The flow of this review is very disjointed and its thrust is not always clear (though it is at least clearly evident that the overall sentiment is a positive one), due largely to grammatical and other linguistic issues. To be frank, I feel that you may be overreaching your degree of familiarity with English grammar and vocabulary a bit in an attempt to affect a very baroque or florid voice. My suggestion is to proofread the review and try to make it a bit more concise--while we have no rule against purple prose per se, I suspect that simplifying your approach a bit might strengthen the overall effect/intent in your case. Alternatively, you might also try having a friend (or friends) well-versed in the language edit it to clean it up a bit.
***
Review:
Ataraxie - Anhedonie
Starting the journey from “Origin” and followed by subsequent, almost immediate pouring into “Silence of Death”, this literal move bears much more sense than anything else that may seem apparent on this album; it ignites the imagination and tunes it the certain way, getting the listener prepared for the rest of the work. Everything deserves dying and must not afford to go the other way.
The music of Ataraxie on their second full-length album, being a fair exposition of the whole spectrum of heaviness and evilness known before, continues demonstrating an ascetic approach to doom metal in terms of the instrumental package: a well admirable atmosphere on this album also has been created without any synth/keyboards involved, only vocals, guitars, bass and percussion.
The comparison with the precedent album is unavoidable and must have sense, in order to assess the band and the amount of work they have done. The more agile debut full-length “Slow Transcending Agony” showed their clear vision of how the doom metal song should sound like. Tampering the listener with the amount of thick moderate tempo doom/death metal, quite occasionally slowing the time-frame down very nearly to the funeral narration, Ataraxie though did not entirely present their own face, their very musicality and the talent they do possess. Notwithstanding the mentioned, band demonstrated the tendency to progress and the ability to develop unique sound and style, giving a very promising augury regarding their next work... and the next work even had exceeded several very particular expectations.
The funeral doom metal, built strictly on a basis of dry, heavy as hell, guitar sound and the pounding rhythm section, after the short intro “Origin” starts shedding its poison. The approaching next song “Silence of Death” tends to stab the listener with darkness so mercilessly and uncompromisingly that limbs begin to shiver uncontrollably and fear enslaves the posterior moves, so deep and terrifying atmosphere these guys are creating on this track. Growls and particularly the neurasthenic screams should be awarded a special attention, because they do create or even do contour the main musical “canvas”, adding contrast and playing with grey tones, mixing everything up with the pitch black darkness of mind’s unsoundness. The composition itself is very neatly done and the required accents and transfers are very craftily arranged that following the track progress attracts the listener and delivers him a true pleasure. Vocal changes reflect the total disaffection of the first face with the whole world which surrounds him, so emotionally Jonathan expresses the inner experience, that shifting towards the faster drums figures so finely shows the peaks of accumulated aggression’s release. They are just sparks, but supplementing and completing up the whole palette so nicely.
“Walking Through the Land of Falsity” is not only bringing down again the sheer hatred caused by tiredness caused by the environment of “lie-thirsty deceitful living creatures” but also is showing up some new moves in the compositional extension by introducing atmospheric clean tone bass/guitar passages. Along with the mentioned neurasthenic scream (Jonathan Théry has been a proud vocal part of Bethlehem for over 5 years ago, right?) it really does its impression effect of a doomed one, alone in the world of lies, in his own carnal prison.
The next track in line is "Anhédonie”, the lyrical content of which pictures the decay of the earth and unholy funeral chants about the death of mankind. The trick of the song name and lyrics may be hidden in the uncovered desire of everything said become true, so exhausted and worn-out the narrating personality is, but no emotion could be seen on his face about that, no even a tiny wrinkle aside his eyes. In tote, this song is the most concentrated one with the faster heavy pieces, interlaced with guitar feedback stops and crowned with the beautiful clean tone/bass trio along with desperate scream. The sturdy and vehement lines of the song make it standing out of the whole album as the most striking one.
The last track (and the longest one) “Avide de Sens” supposed to be a summing up score, but it introduces the delightful, accented guitar interval-played duo, that sounds more classical if the listener will look backwards the tracklist. This song is the apogee of despair, which according to the lyrics is shown very brightly in a musical sense and has been “cried” over the heads of mankind. The feeling of doom becomes more and more heavy as you go until the end and read out the juice of lyrics (it’s not like the lyrics are the strongest part of the album, but they do the work they have to, definitely). However, this is a very dynamic and diverse track which delivers no aridity and grants a real pleasure to the listener at the end. The band collected everything they have experienced and ever done before, combined into one composition and gave the great culmination to the album.
Speaking about originality, a little bit of resentment (after a given times of this listened) is dwelling around it. The album starts very uniquely and finishes more as a conventional piece of work, more as a classical one, as has been already mentioned above. However, the listening ears of yours truly wanted the continuation of that darkness started on "Silence of Death" and developed on “Walking Through the Land of Falsity”, but was not destined to hear that. Finding the roots of the band’s music, it is very likely that a big influence here is Evoken, following similar directions and somehow repeating the way of riffing (but guitar sound of Ataraxie is really amazing here), but colouring them individually. In other words, the influence becomes more apparent while moving across the album towards the end, and that became the biggest disappointment here. However, that disappointment may be strictly subjective and obviously should not be lapped up by an impressive reader or a supposed listener. All in all, the heaviness and the strong compositional talent are the main positive sides of the band. There is just a need to keep on developing the ideas for a longer time (hopefully until the end of the album). And of course, bilingual lyrics of the album add another positive point here.
All of this makes “Anhédonie” one of the best releases back in 2008 among the genre.
Strongly recommended to anybody, for whom “doom metal” is not just a bunch of empty words.
***
Thanks a lot in advance.