Curious to hear other reviewer's worst experiences with posting a review that was negatively viewed by the reviewed band. Recently received quite a bit of flack on a set of reviews written for my site/metal archives and was curious to hear other anecdotes on reviews being taken way too seriously. What was your reaction to their inability to come to grips with someone's differing opinion? I posted the review, received a large handful of negative comments on my site - accepted them all anyway - and the band continued to throw a fit on their facebook page not only attacking the review but also other stuff I've released that was totally irrelevant to the review in question. I responded with my defense of my review and the principals that guide my reviews.

Any similar experiences?

you better print up some prajna shirts, i want to wear one when going to see portal. Which i hope will happen soon enough.

I still get angry emails and PMs from time to time about a review I wrote of a "private" release a few months ago. The funny part is that my email isn't publicly listed, some people just send hate mail to username at gmail. Most of it is just calling me a false/disgrace/loser, nothing serious, plus one notable one about hyping something that allegedly doesn't exist.

I also get plenty of rude remarks about an unpopular positive review, since it really seems to have gotten into people's heads!

I don't believe I've had a negative response to any of my negative/positive reviews, except for one old (admittedly poorly-written) Stratovarius review, which Empyreal and hells_unicorn cursed. Well, what can you do...

Wow dude. Wow. I can't believe a band like that would be so unbelievably unprofessional.

I'm trying to remember which album that review was for. Did you rewrite it after Empy and I got on your case about it? Sorry for not remembering, but I've been banging my head to a steady diet of early 90s death/thrash and I think I may have given myself short-term memory loss.

On my end of things, I've never gotten a really negative response from a band whose material I've reviewed, though I experienced a full blown shitstorm of hate on my myspace page after my reviews of Pantera's "Vulgar Display Of Power" and "Far Beyond Driven". I literally had some Phil Anselmo cultist from Sweden promising that he would reenact the album cover of "Vulgar Display" right on my face.

I still don't get why you hate 90s Stratovarius so much. It's just one of those musical mysteries to me.

I've gotten some shit from small bands like Daggerspawn and also for reviewing negatively bands like Astral Doors or Arghoslent, and possibly Nevermore, etc. But nothing too serious.

Not really the band themselves, but I've been contacted by the guitarist of a brutal death metal band called Urethral saying that my reviews were shitty and inconsiderate to his friends' BDM bands, and that some, like Abominable Putridity and Eighty Thousand Dead, had complained to him about my reviews (keep in mind I gave ETD a 76% and this was still apparently a low enough score to take issue with me...to this day I'm not sure whether bands were actually complaining, or if that guy was just trying to scare me into thinking I was universally disliked.) He then tried to threaten me by saying that he had connections to the dude who runs Sevared Records, and that if I didn't stop reviewing he'd make sure that none of my hypothetical future bands ever got signed there. Funny stuff.

Of course, I've had my fair share of "You're a faggot, why don't you like Fallujah" and "You gave a deathcore album a rating above 0%? POSER", but the Urethral situation still takes the cake for me.

Haha, 76% is too low? Must be the same person who told me that 31% for Satanity was way too high (wait, was that you?)

The most recent negative criticism I've gotten for a negative review was a Nile fanboy telling me that I know nothing about death metal because of my age after I said that Nile's most recent album wasn't very good.

Oh, right, just remembered another one. (Making a new post for it because my phone's text box becomes extremely laggy once you type a lot, and so I can't really edit my last post to add more. Hope that's alright.)

Consider the following chain of events:
- Like a band a lot. Add their vocalist's profile on Facebook, we talk occasionally.
- Review band's debut full-length on MA, give it a 94%. Show review to vocalist, vocalist is pleased.
- Months later, band releases new EP. I pick up a copy and listen to it, it's good but I'm rather disappointed.
- Vocalist asks me about a month after its release for a review, and I reluctantly agree. I review the EP, give it a 76% and say that I preferred the full-length a lot more.
- About a week later, the band posts to Facebook linking to my review and acts offended that I dislike the change in their sound. They go off on the "bands evolving is natural" rant and generally act pissed off at me (again, keep in mind that this is still a positive review overall).
- Meanwhile, the vocalist, without saying a word to me, unfriends and blocks me.

I swear, there's something about the number 76 that drives bands into a psychotic frenzy.
And hush, Zodi.

I'll occasionally get an e-mail that tells me I suck and I'm stupid, but not so much anymore; I'm really not sure why. Sometimes I get wind of a post on a forum or facebook page about a review, but it's never a big deal. Portalgate on the other hand is amazingly stupid; that's takes the title, I think.

Well, you are THE GAY NUMBER 1 after all.

Necro, "I love your band, "You are my love."

My shitty little review for Orphaned to Hatred's equally shitty little EP. I posted it the same day they were added on here. Apparently the singer took the time to google me, because the next day my now-defunct Myspace inbox had a bunch of hatemail in it. Among the highlights of his rantings: that he had a friend on the East Coast prepared to find and kick the shit out of me, that Nick Menza (who was in the band) and his buddy Tom Araya thought MY band sucked, and that I would never amount to anything in life.

They broke up a few months afterward. I like to take credit for that.

That's a pretty funny response. I have the audio files for that crappy EP still sitting in my hard drive, but I never got around to reviewing it. But didn't they stay around in some capacity until 2011 and even cut an album called Re-Destroy The Cowardice that never got a proper release? I found the files for it on a low-price mp3 website selling for a scant $1 for the whole album.

I still get nagged by a certain artist, because I opted to keep that "private" release on MA.

No shit? After our brief little back-and-forth I didn't really bother to keep a tab on them. I just remember checking on here, seeing they hadn't released anything else and had broke up, and assuming they were long gone. Should they ever properly release it, it'd be worth a buck to get to rip those crybabys a new orifice.

It's also worth mentioning that the additional info posted on their MA page is bogus. There was nothing about them being a Pantera tribute when they first promoted that EP, and that Bobzilla guy wasn't even in the band at the time.

I've been contacted by bands about some reviews I wrote some time ago, one of the responses was like 'you should give it at 85%-90% at least'. I know people love their own music, but c'mon.

I HATE when bands say "you should've given us x-percent" and whatnot.

If enough people read your reviews, you'll inevitably get some criticism for the numbers you stick on the writing. I've been criticized for rating Satanity too high, apparently 31% is a confusing rating even when it's explained in the text.

Some guy got pissed at me for giving a band a 3% instead of a 0%.

http://illogicalcontraption.blogspot.co ... ceous.html

I get a lot of comments like that on my movie blog nowadays. People seem to think that putting effort into writing anything on the internet means you're sad and have no life...

Wow, you guys get comments on your reviews? I have not once, not a single time, received a comment on a review I've written, other than the occasional "thanks for the review" and complete silence if the review wasn't in favour of the band.

Some of us write for more popular blogs/sites/webzines.

Well that was a bit uncalled for, don't you think?

I wasn't being facetious or condescending. You expressed surprise as to why we've gotten feedback from bands, and I was merely explaining why that might be. The 'more' in my response wasn't meant to compare our blogs/sites/webzines to yours, but to serve as a vague qualifier. In fact, I only now noticed that you had a blog linked in your signature.

Also, please note that popularity doesn't beget quality. You really have no feasible reason to complain, even if I were trying to attack your blog.

Still, it was an obvious answer and it was a bit belligerent.

If you can get that much attitude and meaning out of so few words, you should be worshipping my reviews.

It wasn't meant to be belligerent. Unless I'm intentionally trying to incur a negative response from someone, I'm not responsible for what meanings they derive from my posts.

I didn't think Pr0nogo's post was belligerent. Pretty harmless and very accurate (although it doesn't pertain to me, but that's not the point) comment .

Got a lot of shit to deal with it today, sorry guys. Back to the topic, I guess

Never really got a lot of response from band members, but I've sometimes been told I was 'clueless and arrogant' based on my reviews. This didn't necessarily had to do with my verdict of the album in question, but with sideways comments about punk being dead and such. O:)

I've gotten some hate mail for my reviews on here and Metal Temple. Whatever. Nothing exciting worth sharing really.

This popped up out of nowhere on one of Zod's recent reviews: http://contaminatedtones.blogspot.com/2013/01/judas-ancestry-forces-of-nazarene.html

"Anonymous said... Nobody likes you, kill yourself."

I, of course, allowed the comment to exist being that it wasn't some spam stuff but why would someone post that on a rather positive review? Lol.

Thanks for sharing!

I got hate mail once for my review of Blood Rain by Taka Minamino. It was from someone in Japan whose command of English wasn't all that great. I don't remember the name, but it was someone involved with the band or the release, maybe a producer. This person complained that my (negative) review amounted to defamation of character, especially the part where I complained about the vocals sounding like an alcoholic who had recently fallen off the wagon and was wailing away drunkenly. Which they do.

He demanded that I take down the review, which I did not do, though I did remove the sentence mentioning alcoholism. Hit too close to home maybe. I'm not out to insult anyone necessarily, but if you suck I'm going to say you suck.

Band members who write to a reviewer complaining about a negative reception given to their own release is both sad and hilariously bush league. I'm surprised to hear it's occuring as often as it does.