srsly? Did one of these exist? I know plenty of Cthulhu plushies are out there, but a Nightgaunt?

Did it look anything like this: http://www.elfwood.com/art/k/y/kyzhuroth/nightgaunt.jpg

back on topic...

I just might enter this contest. I'm a huge Doom fan, and a huge DooM fan, and I like to play Doom while playing DooM... but I don't have a lot going for me since one of the few reviews I ever bothered to submit were for In Flames' A Sense of Purpose.

That was my first choice. Don't know when I'm going to write it though, rather lacking ambition these days...months...

Pretty sure we're reviewing the same album for Muhammadabbadabba's challenge too, unless I've forgotten who signed up already.

How amusing! If you have deduced that we're reviewing the same album in that challenge, then we must be! Last I checked, there was only one album that had already been taken by two people.

I asked him via PM after it was locked. Think I signed up for it first. In any case, I'm interested in your opinion on these two albums since we have such differing tastes.

I think that is correct. Honestly, I don't think we will have significantly different opinions on these two releases - my taste just tends to be characterized by an acceptance of experimental and next-generation bands that coexists with my interest in hunting down good old-school bands. I can understand how I could give the impression of being obsessed with bands like Deathspell Omega, but I'm just as likely to listen to Pentagram or Liege Lord nowadays.

Funny enough, after I read your review Joe sent me a pic of you with a DsO shirt haha

Oh, yeah. That's one of my prized shirts simply because it's so rare to get an official shirt from DsO. I wear it whenever I'm 'dressing to impress.'

don't stop writing!

I notice things have tailed off a fair bit. Just submitted a review for that diamond in blue Mournful Cries however.

I get the feeling that some reviewers may be doing the sensible thing and steadily working on some blockbuster reviews that will raise the stakes at the end of the month. I'll be saving Die Healing for that epic showdown!

Just submitted another review for "Born Too Late." I really wanted to write something for the seemingly misrepresented "Children of Doom," but I don't have a copy of it personally and couldn't find all of the songs online. From what I've heard today, it seems pretty undeserving of its obscure status.

My one for Born too late is almost finished. But I can't think of any way to describe the solos that is competitive with Vacuum cleaners assaulting other vaccum cleaners.

I might write a review for children of doom as theres only 1 other review for it and it deserves more then that. That or die healing, not sure yet.

there's still time!

Yes, but anyone who rated the debut under a 95 should be disqualified.

Wow, found out about this now... I don't know if I might be able to get a review done in time, but if I do, I'll tell you!

Shhh, forget the master plan? We were waiting for the one secretly known as the cyber-hippie to grace it with that score. If you catch my type.









Well, if you didn't get that, we set it up, waxed the car before the trip, pressed the shirt for the big meeting, placed the tee to your golf ball, tasted your food to see if was poisoned...

I've just landed a new job but my first pay won't come up until somewhere around the middle of march, so no prizes 'til then. Therefore, I might as well extend the deadline to the 14th of March.

Great, this will give me more time to review their debut which I just started writing. And don't worry folks, it will be a 95% review.

Well, I just added another one for Born Too Late. It's kind of rushed, but today is my last day with internet before the contest ends. That headband is mine for sure. For some reason I lost my urge to write precisely when this contest started. I'd been writing mroe than I had in years before it.

And here I was about to hang it up and be satisfied with putting up 3 reviews for the contest. Now you've got me thinking about reviewing their whole discography, damn you.

That'd be funny if he's choosing between two reviews from the same reviewer.

deadline very slightly extended to the 16th of March (that's when I get back from shift work)

Well, I put up reviews for 3 more albums, all of which made the deadline but are not yet approved. I hope you enjoyed them caspian.

Been a good turnout so far. I'll probably spend the next few days reading them all over a few times and announce winners on the weekend.

Deadline still has a few hours left.. If anyone thinks they'll be a few hours late I'll go easy on them.

Thanks for hte reviews guys

Aren't you going by M-A time? Because it has close to a whole day left.

I guess I should, but seeing as I live in THE FUTURE it's hard to remember that. Suffice to say I'll be checking stuff sometime tomorrow, which will be pretty close to midnight MA time anyway

One entry is in and will have to remain the only one due to a massive case of indigestion fucking up my whole day. The remaining three reviews I started will have to be submitted after the challenge because they aren't quite finished yet.

I thoroughly enjoyed droneriot's review, actually it might be my favourite of the challenge. Normally I would have instantly thought of a clever way to question someone's sexuality for being any less than, er, flamingly enthusiastic about the Saint Vitus debut... but this somehow evaded that response from me. So yeah, well done -- just give it a quick edit as the "Shakespear" type-o is offensive to my precious eyes*.



*Yes, I'm aware that's it's very rich of me to call someone out on this sort of thing. While I'm on the subject hells_unicorn should change the "Scott Enrich" one, too.

Edited that.

That wouldn't save that shite review.

Someone's gotta win the Naruto headband .

Heh, the rest of H_U's reviews were pretty solid (like most of the reviews that've been done for this challenge.. haven't read them all yet). Still, I saw the title on that one and pretty much thought "that's going to be the headband winner". A quick read confirms that. I liked the rest of his reviews, though.

I think WoP's going to submit a review for this so I won't close it yet. You guys have given Vitus 18 reviews (probably 19 whenever drone's gets re-accepted)! None for Die Healing though which I was a bit surprised about. All the reviews were of a very high quality with none - no offence intended, guys- being truly exceptional, so judging this might be difficult. We'll see what WoP and Drone's review is like when/if they appear in the queue.

Thanks to all for participating. Hoping for some interesting last minute submissions. Not quite sure when I'll do the next one, but hopefully it goes as well as this!

Just fixed that glaring little typo. And for the record, that review was an actual attempt at getting the "worst review" category, primarily because I knew that comparing any Vitus album to grunge would probably not sit well with anyone, but particularly caspian. I don't plan on keeping that review up after the contest is over and although I put the "posted at metal-observer" tag on it by accident, it was not nor will ever be posted on that site in its current form.



I was able to procure copies of every album I reviewed with the exceptions of "Hallow's Victim" and "Die Healing". Due to the lack of a non-bootleg copy in digital form, I elected to cheat on my no-downloading rule a bit with "Hallow's Victim", but "Die Healing" I was able to locate, but unfortunately not in time for the contest. When it gets in, I'll probably get a review up for it, seeing as I did most of the band's discography already.

hah! brilliantly played, then. Assuming you're not just trying to explain away that review

I guess the "Nirvana sucks" thing was perhaps just a little too obvious, then. Ha.

Nah, no way...

Believe me, this was completely intentional. Although I've come up with some really wacky titles for reviews in the past (such as "Labyrinth's Groovy Nu-Metal Adventure"), I generally don't come up with random titles like "Nirvana Sucks" for any metal album, though I do like to rip on them whenever I review Yngwie albums, or drop their name occasionally when reviewing grungy sounding groove metal.

My review for "Mournful Cries" was an attempt at the best gimmick award, the others were generally attempts at the main category, though I would personally guess that my review for "Born Too Late" has the best shot.

WoP and Drone's reviews are back up. THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. 20 reviews! Very nice. Will get back with results sometime this week.

Aw hell, let's do the results now!


The McGoverny PARTICIPATION awards

These guys don't win anything but my thanks for participating in the contest.

WoP for a short, neat and very informative little piece.
Thomash did a pretty good review on T&M too.
Genghis for some in-depth stuff on Born 2 L8
Twisted_Psychology for another solid review on that album.. lose the pros and cons though
Acrobat got a little tl;dr in his V review but it was still rather good and full of that strange drunken english eccentricity ANA excels at.
Malacoda, who brought a fresh perspective to V and did a pretty good job.


The Mustaine "almost but not quite" Award.

I wasn't going to do anything like this but I really liked all of sushiman's reviews. Really well done, very descriptive and fun to read.. but not really good enough to win best review/best gimmick etc.

JC88 wins a St.Vitus album of his choice, with the provision that it's got to be cheap and easy to find on the net.

Jon, PM me with your postal address and the vitus album that you want to own.


The Trujillo "best gimmick" award.

This was hard. I was tempted to give it to ANA, for his eternal "strange englishman" gimmick, but it didn't really seem appropriate, H_U made a decent attempt with his Puff review, but it came off as just a bit too dry.

So, the prize goes to Byrgan's bizarre and excellent take on the Vitus debut. The hell was he on when he wrote that? it's great.

Byrgan, PM me your shirt size and address. I hope you're not a big fella otherwise getting that shirt could prove difficult (hope the fucker is still in stock too).


The Ulrich Worst Review "award".

Overall H_U did a pretty solid job in this with quite a few good reviews. The one on V did suck a fair bit, though. I don't hate grunge, but it has no place in a Vitus review, and Hells tends to be nigh-unreadable when he's whinging about grunge, groove etc.

Hells, if you don't want a Naruto headband that's fine because it means I don't have to buy one. If you do, though, PM me your address.


The hetfield best review award

Seeing as Drone is one of my favourite reviewers things were always going to be tough for everyone else should the German hobo enter. He did enter, and did an extremely good review. The whole Sabbath bit was great, although points off for being a Frasier nerd. In general it described the music really well and was a pleasure to read.

Shirt size, choice of CD and address please drone.


Thanks all! We'll do this either later this year or maybe early next year again. Should be good. Prizes will be sent out soon.

I think I'll pass on the Naruto headband caspian. Not that I don't trust you with my contact information, but I think the scorn that Web Of Piss visited towards my "V" review (the sort normally reserved for a grimdoom or Tymell review) was reward enough. It's been a while since someone other than drone has had something truly negative to say about any of my reviews, and now I think I remember what it felt like 5 years ago when I got those first few sarcastic rejection notices from whoever was modding at the time.

Call it a strange S&M fetish of sorts, but it was quite fulfilling. I'll leave that "V" review up until sometime tomorrow and then I'll probably rewrite it to better suit that album, which is my 3rd favorite of their entire discography (provided that "Die Healing" doesn't prove to be better when I hear it).