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
High On Metal420
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:49 pm
Posts: 2
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:48 am 
 

is there any rules for making reviews? i don't know about music writing much so there would be no mention of and chords and notes and stuff like that. it would be just from listening and my thought on the quality and such.

Top
 Profile  
MalignantThrone
Vanished in the Cosmic Futility

Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 1:24 am
Posts: 2789
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:59 am 
 

While your review doesn't have to be heavy on music theory (or even intelligently presented, frankly - certainly lots of morons have had their thoughts posted here as reviews), ideally your review will be able to paint a picture of the album for the reader. I.e., if I have never heard an album you review, your review should be able to give me a general idea of what it sounds like. Like any run-of-the-mill essay, tell your audience the main point of your writing - i.e. your thoughts on the album as a whole, whether you like the music or not - and then elaborate on why you like or dislike it... or, more realistically, what you do and don't like about the individual elements of the music (assuming you don't plan to give something a perfect/flat-out worthless score).
_________________
Guitarpro77889 wrote:
which ones are mainstream cuz i will stop listening to them

Top
 Profile  
Zodijackyl
63 Axe Handles High

Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:39 pm
Posts: 7601
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:20 am 
 

In addition to MalignantThrone's advice, I recommend you ask for some feedback here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16487&start=1800

Reviewing is all about communicating your thoughts to the reader, and it is always important to try to improve and better direct your writing. I recommend seeking feedback on everything you write as you get started, I did that and it helped me adjust my writing and observations to be understandable to others.

[quote="High On Metal420"it would be just from listening and my thought on the quality and such.[/quote]

The essence of good music reviewing, to me, is not to primarily evaluate quality, but to make observations about what is going on and what makes the music what it is. For example, some important things to take note of in reviews would be Death's tendency to have all instruments follow somewhat melodic guitar hooks, Suffocation's percussive pummeling from the drummer hitting everything on every beat paired with the guitar and bass, or Confessor's ability to have a lot going on both rhythmically and melodically while leaving a feeling of space in the production. Some albums might defy your favored terms - black metal tends to be like this where the atmosphere and feel are difficult to describe with words, and even a great description to some might seem alien to others. You don't need to be technical, but you should spend a lot of time thinking about what makes music what it is, both good and bad.

Top
 Profile  
Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
Posts: 12030
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:32 am 
 

Check the workshop or submit it and I'll see if it's acceptable or not. Also, read the reviews we accept on the site, it would give you a pretty good idea of what we want.
_________________
caspian about CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
?????????

Metantoine's Magickal Realm

Top
 Profile  
Morrigan
Crone of War

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:27 am
Posts: 10528
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 6:41 pm 
 

High On Metal420 wrote:
is there any rules for making reviews?

Sigh... really?
http://www.metal-archives.com/content/rules#tab_reviews

Also... click on any review form (e.g. this http://www.metal-archives.com/review/wr ... aseId/3776) and, I dunno, read the instructions?
_________________
Von Cichlid wrote:
I work with plenty of Oriental and Indian persons and we get along pretty good, and some females as well.

Markeri, in 2013 wrote:
a fairly agreed upon date [of the beginning of metal] is 1969. Metal is almost 25 years old

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 298739
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:59 pm
Posts: 324
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:04 pm 
 

There should be a 3,000 word minimum. That would entirely eviscerate all the pre-teen fanboys that have never learned to properly analyze something. I'm really fed up with seeing things titled "BRUTAL!!@ 100% by Johnny Bassdrop" with two paragraphs to follow it up.

Edit: Actually, I see this to be a better idea: 3,000 words for 100% and 0% and then for 50% there will be a 1,000 word requirement, with values in between varying inversely. If something really blew your tits off to the max, you should have no trouble pulling out a few pages about how that went down.

Top
 Profile  
BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:08 pm 
 

Nhor wrote:
There should be a 3,000 word minimum. That would entirely eviscerate all the pre-teen fanboys that have never learned to properly analyze something. I'm really fed up with seeing things titled "BRUTAL!!@ 100% by Johnny Bassdrop" with two paragraphs to follow it up.


My longest reviews don't even break 3000 (I'm almost sure my longest (for Sigh's newest) is roughly ~2955). And that's an extraordinarily rambling and pretentious review. Yeah, it's nice to get real analysis past the minimum (which I see far too frequently) but let's not set the bar too crazily high.
_________________
Lair of the Bastard: LATEST REVIEW: In Flames - Foregone
The Outer RIM - Uatism: The dogs bark in street slang
niix wrote:
the reason your grandmother has all those plastic sheets on her furniture is because she is probably a squirter

Top
 Profile  
Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
Posts: 10167
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:15 pm 
 

Most of my reviews fall between 800 and 1200 words, so there'd need to be considerable padding to reach a 3000 word minimum.
_________________
Earthcubed wrote:
I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

Blacksoul Seraphim Gothic Doom Metal
Autumn's Ashes Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Top
 Profile  
Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
Posts: 12030
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 6:32 pm 
 

I'll write a 5000 words review of my favorite Immortal album for Nhor.

Ridiculous!
_________________
caspian about CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
?????????

Metantoine's Magickal Realm

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 298739
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:59 pm
Posts: 324
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:11 pm 
 

Are you being deliberately obtuse? By the way, I also want to add that reviews that will greater effect the average album rating (say someone put 100% and the next guy puts a 0, the average is skewed by 50pts) should have more requirements for that review to go through.

Top
 Profile  
MalignantThrone
Vanished in the Cosmic Futility

Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 1:24 am
Posts: 2789
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:19 pm 
 

While I agree with your general sentiment (that glowing or abysmal scores should warrant a larger amount of elaboration), to suggest making it *mandatory* is absurd. Good reviews are welcomed here, of course, but the Metal Archives isn't trying to make some elite club of top-class reviewers. I'm pretty sure the system is intentionally designed so that any average neanderthal can vomit a few hundred words of their thoughts here in a semi-intelligent fashion and have it accepted as a review. Forcing people to exhibit excellence to participate will simply discourage those below excellence from striving for it.
_________________
Guitarpro77889 wrote:
which ones are mainstream cuz i will stop listening to them

Top
 Profile  
hells_unicorn
Veteran

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
Posts: 3056
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:27 pm 
 

I definitely concur with BastardHead on this, I think I wrote one review that even came close to 5000 words way back in 2006 for Iced Earth's "The Glorious Burden" (somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500 I believe) and it mostly consisted of pontificating on my disagreements with Jon Schaffer's depictions of Civil War history during the interviews he gave on the album, and the barely 1000 words of actual musical description were formatted in an overlong, overly descriptive track by track approach. I found myself cringing at it about 2 years after having put it up because I realized that almost no one would spend that much time reading a review for an album that they don't already own.
_________________
My music:
Ominous Glory Spotify
Ominous Glory YouTube
Ominous Glory Facebook

My reviews.

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio (July 14, 1942 - May 16, 2010)

Top
 Profile  
hakarl
Metel fraek

Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:41 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:00 am 
 

Nhor wrote:
Are you being deliberately obtuse? By the way, I also want to add that reviews that will greater effect the average album rating (say someone put 100% and the next guy puts a 0, the average is skewed by 50pts) should have more requirements for that review to go through.

Sounds like another "angry because favourite album score was lowered" case. It's the complete opposite, and it should stay that way. Metal-archives review average isn't supposed to be treated as a metacritic score.
_________________
"A glimpse of light is all that it takes to illuminate the darkness."

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 298739
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:59 pm
Posts: 324
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 9:48 pm 
 

Ilwhyan wrote:
Nhor wrote:
Are you being deliberately obtuse? By the way, I also want to add that reviews that will greater effect the average album rating (say someone put 100% and the next guy puts a 0, the average is skewed by 50pts) should have more requirements for that review to go through.

Sounds like another "angry because favourite album score was lowered" case. It's the complete opposite, and it should stay that way. Metal-archives review average isn't supposed to be treated as a metacritic score.


I think you mean "angry because averages are misleading and requirements are too low."

Ex. Little Johnny averages two baths a day. This is because he took zero baths Monday through Sunday for one week, zero bath Monday through Saturday the next week, and fourteen baths the following Sunday.

Top
 Profile  
BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:15 pm 
 

Here's a quick workaround to such an issue: just read the reviews.

PUT ME IN COACH I'M READY
_________________
Lair of the Bastard: LATEST REVIEW: In Flames - Foregone
The Outer RIM - Uatism: The dogs bark in street slang
niix wrote:
the reason your grandmother has all those plastic sheets on her furniture is because she is probably a squirter

Top
 Profile  
Napero
GedankenPanzer

Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:16 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:46 am 
 

Nhor wrote:
Ex. Little Johnny averages two baths a day. This is because he took zero baths Monday through Sunday for one week, zero bath Monday through Saturday the next week, and fourteen baths the following Sunday.

Not to nitpick, but that averages one bath a day.
_________________
Chest wounds suck (when properly inflicted).
-Butch-

Top
 Profile  
hakarl
Metel fraek

Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:41 pm
Posts: 8817
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:53 am 
 

Nhor wrote:
I think you mean "angry because averages are misleading and requirements are too low."

Ex. Little Johnny averages two baths a day. This is because he took zero baths Monday through Sunday for one week, zero bath Monday through Saturday the next week, and fourteen baths the following Sunday.

:lol: Averages are misleading, oh boy. They don't represent the proper opinion on albums, or what?

Fifteen mindless sheep like a Woods of Ypres album. One person capable of critical thinking reviews the album and gives in the rating in deserves. There's another case of "misleading" average. Damn you're thick.
_________________
"A glimpse of light is all that it takes to illuminate the darkness."

Top
 Profile  
Morrigan
Crone of War

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:27 am
Posts: 10528
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 6:03 pm 
 

MalignantThrone wrote:
While I agree with your general sentiment (that glowing or abysmal scores should warrant a larger amount of elaboration), to suggest making it *mandatory* is absurd. Good reviews are welcomed here, of course, but the Metal Archives isn't trying to make some elite club of top-class reviewers.

Not to mention, number of words is not remotely close to being an indicator of quality. I prefer concise and to-the-point reviews over meandering, rambling garbage myself. Suggesting a 3000-word minimum is inanely stupid.

Anyway, the OP got his answer and this thread has outlived its usefulness.
_________________
Von Cichlid wrote:
I work with plenty of Oriental and Indian persons and we get along pretty good, and some females as well.

Markeri, in 2013 wrote:
a fairly agreed upon date [of the beginning of metal] is 1969. Metal is almost 25 years old

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 10 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