I'm working on one, FYI. It's a little over half done I'd say. Not that I'm trying to forbid you from also writing one, just so you're aware. Probably will submit it by tomorrow at the latest.

Y'all can write a review for the same album, it still counts as a virgin if it wasn't reviewed before the start of the challenge.

Someone has reviewed Iluliarsuit Akornanni? Aw crap. Well I guess I'm happy somebody else likes Arctic Spirits! Good band indeed

Yeah. I was surprised nobody had done the new MR before the challenge. I'll probably get one out before the challenge is done. I also have at least two more I want to get done if I can.

You guys should review some Ningen-Isu too, they're fantastic! Just message me and I'll send you any of their albums. I already convinced RapeTheDead to do one.

I haven't done one of theirs in a few months. Maybe I should dust off another.

I've been called out...now if I don't do it I look like a fuckin goon

Not to mention you will be skipping out on writing a review for one of the best, and probably the most consistent, metal bands ever.

Knowing them, they'll probably have a new album released by then. Someone probably should add their recent collab with King-Show (I'm guessing it would be a new band entry).

You should do it! You're a fan of Japanese metal so you know your stuff and won't make any mistakes!

I'll try to tackle one for Ningen-Isu as well.

OK, if no-one else does it beforehand, I'll break my niche and do Ningen-Isu's Mishiranu Sekai album (the one with the chair and the lamp on the cover) in a few days after giving it a couple of fresh spins. I dig that album.

Hehehe, I was planning to do this and call the review "couch" but I don't think I have anything else to say about the band, do it! I really appreciate when people review them.

Sure, I'll get on that one soon. Its actually a semi-complicated/confusing submission (multiple versions, etc). My only hesitation is if the band is actually admissible. The 1st song qualifies, but the 2nd and 3rd song are covers (of Ningen-Isu and King-Show songs, respectively). It may also be a split: 筋肉少女帯人間椅子 for track 1, Kings-Show for track 2, Ningen-Isu for track 3, 筋肉少女帯人間椅子 again for track 4 (alternate version of track 1). Tracks 5-8 being instrumental versions of the first 4 songs. God, my brain hurts lol

I wish I didn't suck so hard with reviewing, there's a boatload of Japanese albums I could devirgin.

Just do it! I'm no where near good at writing, in fact most of the time I stare blankly at the computer screen dick-in-hand hoping words will magically come to me, but I still manage to write acceptable reviews. Whether or not people actually read them, like them, or find them useful is another story altogether. But I do it because a lot of what I want to review will go otherwise unnoticed. The point is just write something to make yourself feel better and show love to bands that normally wouldn't get any.

Daily Tally for June 10th, 2015
Total Reviews: 39 / 117
Total Virgin Reviews: 33 / 97
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 84.6% / 82.9%

Today's Virgin Reviews:


Participant List for June 10th, 2015
Total Participants: 17 / 30

Today's Totals per Individual:


Did not participate today:

Compared our numbers so far to this time during the last challenge. We're at about half of the virgins as last time (which was 188). That said, it looks like the total number of reviews has also decreased by half, as well (which was 227). The ratio of virgins to the total number of reviews remains practically the same (82-86%)

I'll do my best to drive those numbers up, even if it means that a one-liner/review title I've been waiting for years to find an appropriate album for gets lost in the fray.

Y&T?

It would seem that Zodijackyl's trousers have caught fire, given how many reviews he has posted today.
Many obscure demo tapes, all of them crap. The reviews are short, but the demos are short, so it's fine.
They are very informative, and kind of a reminder that good bands are diamonds in a sea of rough.

Close, sir. Close.

I'm glad to hear you get the point of the short demo reviews, I don't think anyone would care to read more about these. Most of this stuff came out of the band queue, a real reminder of how few good bands there are in a sea of rough.

There's a couple good ones in there, though. The Third Eye Rapists and Trenchgrinder are good, and I like Luciferum Penis even though it has some shortcomings. I'm trying to work out a better numerical reviewing scale that doesn't purely use the high end of numbers to draw attention to things. 50+ is relatively positive and 60-80 are very good for demos, worth checking out.

Zodijackyl is cheating! He wrote almost all of these reviews a while ago. Disqualified!!

While they're short, they're highly desrcriptive and fine in my book. The problem with short reviews like these is that the people who were writing them were bad reviewers.

What I find worrying is that those very short reviews actually contain more description than my own.

I wrote a review. A novel, to offset all of Zodi's little dingleberries. Time to go back to sleep.

Someone really enjoys listening to music they hate or they hate listening to music they enjoy?

Sometimes people like to check out random bands and give an opinion, I have to admit that I've occasionally just hit the "random band" function during a review challenge just to get something different than what I'm used to hearing.

Most of these were recent submissions to the site that I listened to in order to determine if they had a release that was predominantly metal. I do that because I find it interesting. One could have to be crazy to expect to hear something good while screening the first known releases of the 103305th band listed on the site. I find it interesting because these are largely the unfiltered outputs of new bands - they haven't been picked through by a label for what is en vogue, they haven't been streamlined and shaped up by a producer, they haven't been homogenized for safe consumption by an engineer. Being fairly well-versed in the better-exposed bands of the styles I look into, I get a pretty good idea of exactly what most of these bands are doing - the bands and ideas that inspired them which they are presenting. How they approach their instruments and play them. Most importantly, how they put songs together. I find it interesting to hear each instance of this once or twice, which is the time it generally takes me to satisfy my curiosity in analyzing the music. I write reviews that get to the point - they're not promo pieces fluffed up biographies and presskit fodder which stroke the artist's and label's egos - they're just about the music, because the artist is likely irrelevant. If you read four or five sentences about a band, you can decide whether you care to explore any more.

It is very rewarding to find something good amongst all of this. Legionnaire are great heavy metal of a style I love, and there have been some other very good demos from Havukruunu, Nan Elmoth, and The Third Eye Rapists. There's also some enjoyable stuff that needs some work. If I see something new from Luciferum Penis, Achsan, or Panzer, I'll check it out. I enjoyed those for a listen or two, but they're really nothing special. I don't use percentage scores in the column these reviews are written for, so they're a bit of an afterthought, but they're roughly scored like this: (I will add a scoring rubric in my profile eventually, once I adjust old reviews to how I'm scoring now)

60-80% - A very good demo.
40-60% - Generally incomplete and unrefined, but with enough redeeming quality to make it worth a listen. 50 is "the middle."
10-40% - An exhibition of mistakes, poor judgments, and other things that really make me think about why it isn't good music.
1-9% - I mostly use this range when I think something is complete crap but not so bad that it requires scientific observation.
0% - Either puzzlingly incomprehensible, or a proof-of-concept which extensively explores the failures of music. Demos are the former.

This has been refined through years of practice and self-awareness. I reject the idea that only music scored in higher percentiles is worth analyzing and reviewing. Two flaws I had to consciously breed out of myself, both common ones: To react overenthusiastically (i.e. give 100% to any album I really like) and to assign value to something because I "discovered" it and hold it in higher regard as a result. I suspect many others might consider something like Legionnaire to be the greatest, most underrated thing ever because they play a treasured style and are virtually unheard of. I also know, for sure, that many reviewers might hear a band like Ewigreich, recognize the band they are aping, affirm them ideologically, and therefore deem them worthwhile music rather than subject them to critical evaluation.

So I enjoy listening to this music, and examining degrees of success and failure in certain concepts and styles really helps me understand why bands that I like do it well.

Zodi's response is longer than all of the demo reviews combined! I really enjoyed reading those, though. I always enjoy seeing corpse paint described in different fashions.

So, Zodi, you're saying that a demo can't possibly get better than 80% from you? Kind of an odd scale I must say.

No, but an unacclaimed, unnoted demo of that quality would be a very exceptional find. Exceptional enough to make an exception to how I regard and review it. Can't say I've stumbled across a recent demo in that manner, as the very best spread by word of mouth rather than being swept into the dustbin, as I say.



Well, that's the point. It's not that I can't write large amounts, these aren't written as responses to people nor feedback to musicians, they are written as concise distillations which primarily serve as entertainment, much like your local news where you'll get a series of 20-second clips on a craft fair, clambake, opera, politician's visit, and the junior varsity football team's fundraiser. If something tickles your fancy, you can check it out. Every clambake and hot dog joint doesn't deserve a full page from a food critic, but if you're into homemade spicy relish, then oh man I've got the place for you, and I'm not going to write a full page about the place across town just because this one did.

OK, did I make the point? If I didn't do it sufficiently, there's a pub around the corner with the best duck confit fries, there's a 1600-word review of that buried in my thesis on Tuomas Holopainen's solo album.

Glad you liked them, too!

It's gotta be Fastway then. I know it.

I wish there was some kind of red handed smilie to show that you caught me.

Got a commitment for a few hours. Tally for yesterday will be published later this afternoon. Sorry folks.

The problem I seem to be having is that... well.. my frame of reference sucks. So most times I try to review something and I have nothing to compare it to. I get so far out of my depth that I stop mid-review when I realise that I will produce an even worse review than normal.

Hence my need to resort to singles of known bands. I know, it is shameful, and I shall redeem myself tomorrow (by my clock, anyway).

Well that's twice now I've squeezed in a review at precisely 00:00

I like what you've been covering, some obscure stuff from non traditional places!

Daily Tally for June 11th, 2015
Total Reviews: 72 / 189
Total Virgin Reviews: 61 / 158
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 84.7% / 83.6%

Today's Virgin Reviews:


Participant List for June 11th, 2015
Total Participants: 22 / 37

Today's Totals per Individual:


Did not participate today:

Daily Tally for June 12th, 2015
Total Reviews: 25 / 214
Total Virgin Reviews: 20 / 178
Percentage (VIRGINS/TOTAL): 80.0% / 83.2%

Today's Virgin Reviews:


Participant List for June 12th, 2015
Total Participants: 11 / 39

Today's Totals per Individual:


Did not participate today:

Thanks man! I definitely want to pick up that new Remmirath after what you wrote. Sounds like the most bizarre thing possible while still making sense.

I guess I'm done since I'm going camping with some buddies, I wanted to reach the 10 threshold but oh well!