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hots_towel
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 2:19 am
Posts: 426
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:34 pm 
 

As a musician, one of the things I'm struggling with at the moment is numbing myself to harsh criticism. However, it's an essential part of being in music (especially with metal, where some people have ridiculous standard for what they consider decent. but I wont hide behind that excuse), but i think it hits home a little harder when the person goes into detail of what specifically they hated about the music.

thats pretty much what happened with my first band. When you first start out, your only fans are your friends and yourselves (generally speaking of course). You're getting nothing but good feedback. Then you play a show for a few strangers, and the honesty comes out. We didn't get this criticism up front, one of our friends heard one of the other bands and their buddies talking about us and relayed the message.

According to them, it was obvious by our song writing that this was a first band for most of us. Our equipment sounded terrible, our vocalist sucked (and looked like a poser), and I looked like a giant 8th grader (i was wearing a blank t shirt and jeans, and my hair was in that terrible half short phase).

the thing was though, it was all true. watching the video of that set is pretty embarrassing for me, which is why i think all that bashing hit home harder. I have since done what I can to learn from that criticism and better prepare myself for the inevitable next time it comes around. But how bout you guys? What's the worst thing anyone has ever said about your stuff, and how you went about learning from it?

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Twisted_Psychology
Metal freak

Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 8:22 pm
Posts: 6260
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:16 pm 
 

Honestly, I have never had negative feedback that I couldn't either laugh off or see the logic of and I kinda makes me wish someone would tear my band to pieces just for the hell of it.
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Syntek
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:14 pm
Posts: 655
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:18 pm 
 

Twisted_Psychology wrote:
Honestly, I have never had negative feedback that I couldn't either laugh off or see the logic of and I kinda makes me wish someone would tear my band to pieces just for the hell of it.


This.
Apparently my music isn't inherently bad.

Though this said, I do vaguely remember 12/13 year-old me getting torn a new one over emo poetry I wrote on some blog or other, back in the day.

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ShaolinLambKiller
King Asshole

Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:10 pm
Posts: 13320
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:19 pm 
 

The only thing I can remember because it was incorrect. It was someone who hated me from here so he reviewed my grind band and said there was no rolls played on the ep. The only reason I remembered that was because literally every 4th or 8th riff measure is a roll throughout the entire ep.
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newp
Veteran

Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:07 pm
Posts: 2697
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:07 pm 
 

Criticism has never really bothered me, I guess cause I believe in what we do and we've gotten way more positive feedback. We had some funny stuff in reviews for our last record from some blogs though. One described my synths as being like The Final Countdown and a wall of lasers. I remember one suggested our hometown must be stuck in some 80s eastern European bloc because it was the only way to explain why our primary influences were bands that predated the falling of the iron curtain. Oh and another described us a 'Muse on a budget', which is a pretty good insult, really. There were a couple other good ones, we used to post the best knocks on our band for a laugh but our publicist made us stop haha.

Really, once you reach enough of an audience it's bound to happen that someone doesn't like what you do. As long as what you're doing doesn't genuinely suck and you believe in it, you can just laugh off anything harsh.

ShaolinLambKiller wrote:
The only thing I can remember because it was incorrect. It was someone who hated me from here so he reviewed my grind band and said there was no rolls played on the ep. The only reason I remembered that was because literally every 4th or 8th riff measure is a roll throughout the entire ep.

You've mentioned that one before. I don't know the release in question but as someone who has actually heard your drumming I was like 'huh?'.

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somefella
Veteran

Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:57 pm
Posts: 3134
Location: Singapore
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:03 am 
 

Never gotten any negative feedback for Oshiego but we harshly criticise each other internally in the band all the time, for the sake of pushing everyone's musicianship further. Like really intensely.
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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:05 am 
 

CorpseFister wrote:
You've mentioned that one before. I don't know the release in question but as someone who has actually heard your drumming I was like 'huh?'.

I was the same way when I heard SLK's drumming. :P

Kidding, your drumming is fuckin sick. But as for the topic at hand, I don't remember any particular instance where someone has criticized my music to the point of anal impalement. Maybe I'm just not that well known, because the only feedback I get from friends, neighbors, and fellow musicians is one worded comments. The best criticism I've gotten was here I think, because I received useful feedback that I could use to make my production and songwriting better for future references.
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ShaolinLambKiller
King Asshole

Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:10 pm
Posts: 13320
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:18 pm 
 

CorpseFister wrote:
Criticism has never really bothered me, I guess cause I believe in what we do and we've gotten way more positive feedback. We had some funny stuff in reviews for our last record from some blogs though. One described my synths as being like The Final Countdown and a wall of lasers. I remember one suggested our hometown must be stuck in some 80s eastern European bloc because it was the only way to explain why our primary influences were bands that predated the falling of the iron curtain. Oh and another described us a 'Muse on a budget', which is a pretty good insult, really. There were a couple other good ones, we used to post the best knocks on our band for a laugh but our publicist made us stop haha.

Really, once you reach enough of an audience it's bound to happen that someone doesn't like what you do. As long as what you're doing doesn't genuinely suck and you believe in it, you can just laugh off anything harsh.

ShaolinLambKiller wrote:
The only thing I can remember because it was incorrect. It was someone who hated me from here so he reviewed my grind band and said there was no rolls played on the ep. The only reason I remembered that was because literally every 4th or 8th riff measure is a roll throughout the entire ep.

You've mentioned that one before. I don't know the release in question but as someone who has actually heard your drumming I was like 'huh?'.


Yea it's just goddamn annoying. It's 54R: bastard ministry of the Cloven Hoof. it's a review on this site.
http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/54 ... oof/320020
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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:30 pm 
 

You can tell by the grammar itself that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about.
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Chainsaw Omega
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:43 pm
Posts: 132
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:57 pm 
 

My first band was actually pretty well-received locally and critically, though some people detracted. I remember one guy in another band who I have a lot of respect for referred to us as "Guitar Hero" metal. Another guy who's been in our local scene and was a member of a pretty well-known band said he would never think of doing a show with us, which was pretty sucky considering he was a huge influence on my playing.

I guess the kicker is that now both these dudes are huge fans of my current band, so no big deal.

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CloggedUrethra
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Nov 30, 2002 4:30 am
Posts: 499
Location: Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:44 am 
 

Some guy on another forum said "free is still too much for me to listen to this", and it wasn't even one of my improv eps haha. People didn't like me over there, maybe because I dissed some metal classics.

hots_towel wrote:
When you first start out, your only fans are your friends and yourselves (generally speaking of course). You're getting nothing but good feedback.

This is interesting, being the only member and not a social person, the only kind of feedback I get is from the internet (most of it from here). As long as you're honest with yourself, always try to improve, and enjoy what you're doing, staying motivated shouldn't be a problem.
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ShaolinLambKiller
King Asshole

Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:10 pm
Posts: 13320
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 1:14 pm 
 

CloggedUrethra wrote:
hots_towel wrote:
When you first start out, your only fans are your friends and yourselves (generally speaking of course). You're getting nothing but good feedback.

This is interesting, being the only member and not a social person, the only kind of feedback I get is from the internet (most of it from here). As long as you're honest with yourself, always try to improve, and enjoy what you're doing, staying motivated shouldn't be a problem.



Ditto with this. Most of all my feedback was from the internet completely unbiased. Most of my immediate friends didn't know I had that many projects and was releasing this much music till about 2 years later. And even then they haven't heard it all and that's even meaning the friends I have that have the same tastes exactly.

So I never had any great feedback from friends till shit was released and already been selling and getting reviews online.
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FearTheNome
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2003 8:41 am
Posts: 201
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 1:34 pm 
 

Most of the negative feedback we've gotten is from people who just hate brutal death (and aren't shy about saying so)

I actually kind of want someone smart and knowledgable (and who doesn't come in with a bias) to rip on it.. it's hard to know how to improve without feedback!
Anyone feel like writing a negative review? :P
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somefella
Veteran

Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:57 pm
Posts: 3134
Location: Singapore
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:04 pm 
 

Well if you just post a demo up I'm sure that some of us will be glad to give some critical feedback.
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ThrasherAxeman
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:56 pm
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:08 pm 
 

So, would anyone of you give me some criticism about this, lol? https://soundcloud.com/wrath-of-the-tyr ... ptic-wrath

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sparklewhooves1
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:44 pm
Posts: 33
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:09 pm 
 

ThrasherAxeman wrote:
So, would anyone of you give me some criticism about this, lol? https://soundcloud.com/wrath-of-the-tyr ... ptic-wrath


Dude that's hard to criticize, it sounds pretty nice i have to say. For a modern Thrash effort it sounds pretty original, Chemical War is by far my favorite track. Keep it coming. Was this independent or are you signed?
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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:48 pm 
 

I don't think we oughta turn this thread into a series of posts from people wanting criticism for their music. I sense that would lead to the topic being locked.
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ShaolinLambKiller
King Asshole

Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:10 pm
Posts: 13320
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:34 am 
 

Well maybe we should just have a separate thread for it?



edit: made a thread for it, maybe it'll be worth a shit:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104942
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HowDisgusting
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2003 6:39 pm
Posts: 1489
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:34 pm 
 

Our demo was (rightfully) savaged by a lot of people.

But the full-length has been getting praised pretty much across the board. A couple of outlier negs, but the ones I've seen , I chalk up to the review being well outside our target audience.
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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:37 pm 
 

SLK, I hope so, if someone doesn't fuck it up. It'll do well to keep people from spamming the musician area with "Critique my song, please". (I'm guilty of this on a couple occasions.)
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Nithoggr
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:14 pm
Posts: 156
PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 9:15 pm 
 

I have always just examined what exactly the criticisms were and the qualifications of the critic. For example, if someone who was into black metal told me that my riffs were boring or unoriginal, I would pay much more attention than if, say, a deathcore fan were to proclaim the same. Furthermore, I am far more likely to heed specific criticism than the general kind. Finally, I truly enjoy the music I play, and I truly do write the lyrics I do for religious reasons. So, you know, that helps.
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alexaons
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:13 pm
Posts: 293
Location: Québec
PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 10:46 pm 
 

Maybe your band just suck. Or maybe you are beginners, and still got a lot to learn. If its the second (I hope it is), just keep going, you'll get better and listen to the critisicm. If evey critics always point out the same thing, maybe you are doing that thing wrong. Try to work on it. On the other hand, peoples have different taste and opinion, so there is a possiblity that there is some critics that are just a matter of taste and opinion; you should be able to seperate good, constructive critics from other critics you should not care about.

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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:26 pm 
 

Being into the same type of metal doesn't have much to do with giving good critique. It does help, but the best critique comes from someone who knows the genre well, but doesn't favor it. That's because they sometimes favor certain areas of the genre over the others. The people who know what it generally sounds like are more open and forgiving, so long as you have done a decent job writing, mixing, and performing.
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CF_Mono
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:21 pm
Posts: 1793
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:55 am 
 

Well, it involves a member that posted here so I'll be brief :lol:

Essentially, a demo for a thrash inspired grind song couldn't be grind at all because it was too long and had a thrashy breakdown. Since then, I've finished the grind EP and as a whole the albums sits soundly between deathrash and grindcore. I'm extremely happy with it. The only other negative feedback I've ever gotten has been mix/production related, which I know in the past I've had issues with, and now I have a much better grasp on it than before. Some people still don't like my tone, but I feel it is appropriately dirty so whatevs.
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~Guest 277521
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:42 am
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:53 am 
 

I've taken contemporary classical composition in university for a year, so you DO get torn a new one relatively often in a class like that, but if anything it's healthy and makes you re-evaluate what makes music good or bad. Sure you'll question yourself and doubt yourself once in awhile, but all in all, it is healthy.

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JohnTheDrummer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 2:25 pm
Posts: 590
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:46 pm 
 

I used to do a lot of drum covers back when I first got my video camera. Many of them were just spur of the moment covers, or songs I didn't really care to practice much on and just get a cover up (I am in real bands, I don't need good solid covers to make myself feel like im accomplishing anything :lol: ) and boy oh boy, the first few videos I posted got TORN APART. Especially my cover of "Seasons in the Abyss" by Slayer. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it certainly wasn't the best I could have done. That was back in 2009 and it STILL gets people hating on it :lol: . I am constantly reponding with "Thank you, this was also (insert years ago)" and they come back with "Whats that supposed to mean?" Hmm, I dunno, maybe I've improved a little?

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thrashinbatman
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:31 pm
Posts: 1534
PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 10:12 pm 
 

I haven't gotten it too bad, but to me, nearly any criticism hurts because I aspire to make everything perfect. I know it's impossible, but DAMMIT. I remember my band sent a recording to a blog to get reviewed and the guy refused to even review it, said that it was really amateurish and weak. Which nowadays I'll agree, but damn. We always got a bit of criticism for the vocals, which has been a major construction point for us as a band since then.

A very funny thing is that there was a local band that I didn't like at all and would hate on all the time. I'm now in that band.

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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:10 am 
 

Why are you in a band you hate?
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ShaolinLambKiller
King Asshole

Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:10 pm
Posts: 13320
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:28 am 
 

They might have changed sound or direction and he is part of the new direction. I've joined bands that reached a turning point that wanted to be a better band but keep the name.
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thrashinbatman
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:31 pm
Posts: 1534
PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 2:05 pm 
 

Arkhane wrote:
Why are you in a band you hate?


Because between then and the time I joined the band they got really fucking good. I figured my opinion changing would have been implied. :-P

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Arkhane
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:39 pm
Posts: 1820
Location: South Texas
PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 6:06 pm 
 

It might have been, and I just didn't pick up on it.
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xThe__Wizard
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2012 2:59 pm
Posts: 845
PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:50 pm 
 

alexaons wrote:
Maybe your band just suck. Or maybe you are beginners, and still got a lot to learn. If its the second (I hope it is), just keep going, you'll get better and listen to the critisicm. If evey critics always point out the same thing, maybe you are doing that thing wrong. Try to work on it. On the other hand, peoples have different taste and opinion, so there is a possiblity that there is some critics that are just a matter of taste and opinion; you should be able to seperate good, constructive critics from other critics you should not care about.


Listen to this guy.

http://reeltimerecordss.bigcartel.com/p ... -demo-cass

This is a review of a person I know made. Makes me mad reading it. Pretty much a personal attack.
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Porman
Sweek Souvlaki Muncher

Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:00 pm
Posts: 1703
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:55 am 
 

Some dumbass reviewer called us talentless. I can take a bad review, but I will not tolerate personal attacks. The guy even had the nerve to send me a friend request on Facebook afterwards.

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ThrasherAxeman
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:56 pm
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:55 pm 
 

https://soundcloud.com/wrath-of-the-tyr ... e-storm-ep

We've been criticized about the production, what do you think about it (production and songwriting wise)?

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hots_towel
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 2:19 am
Posts: 426
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 11:15 pm 
 

ThrasherAxeman wrote:
https://soundcloud.com/wrath-of-the-tyrant/sets/beyond-the-storm-ep

We've been criticized about the production, what do you think about it (production and songwriting wise)?
the vocals do kind of overpower the guitars a bit. otherwise production doesnt really concern me that much. the songwriting is pretty spot on though id say, and the vocals sound pretty good too. though i think you would get more responses if you posted in the other thread for feedback.

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xpsychoblissx
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:18 am
Posts: 299
Location: Phoenix, AZ
PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:17 am 
 

lol Look up PsychoBliss on Metal Archives and read our reviews for Dreams of Dystopia....pretty harsh.

We had other more positive reviews, but of course these are the ones that were published on MA.

"The emotion that these five songs conjure best is sympathy. These sullen lovebirds croon their hearts out and sound pathetic."
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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
Posts: 5352
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:34 pm 
 

I've never received any super bad criticism but it sounds like it would be entertaining. BUT, Y'all just wait 'till me and PhiloFrog unleash our next collab!
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suleiman
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:51 am
Posts: 553
Location: Pakistan
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:32 am 
 

This is the worst I have read for any of Burzukh's releases:
www.globaldomination.se/reviews/burzukh-orion‎Cached

Kinda like he reviewed it on the day he got divorced or mugged by a Pakistani...

But to be honest, I did suck especially at the DIY production, or lack thereof ... hard to hear it today without cringing, though some of the songs worked better with an improved production / re-recording or live.

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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:55 am
Posts: 11421
Location: Tyrn Gorthad
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:22 am 
 

Surprisingly I haven't really gotten much really harsh criticism for my projects. Even people who gave the Coma Void album relatively low or middling scores still seemed to "get it" but simply said the album/style aren't for them, which is completely understandable and fine by me. However, one guy who did show a lot of interest in the general style wrote off the bulk of the album as being too "cheesy" which I thought was a bit brutal, but hey, I'm a big boy.
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