Metal Reviews

I buy tons of CDs and on a few other messageboards I usually post short reviews of the CDs I pick up. It would be cool to have a forum where we could all post fan reviews, even stuff not metal for those who listen to something more than just metal. Nothing fancy, or long, just quick little descriptive blurbs basically, like these:

CONSPIRACY - THE UNKNOWN


A prog rock band featuring a member of the 70's prog band, Yes. Everything about this CD is great—from the cover to the musicians to the production—except the songs themselves. Unfortunately, like many a prog band, it becomes rather tedious and boring. There are some really good songs here, but the majority of them are just meandering prog rock jams with few memorable moments. If you like The Flower Kings, Enchant and Yes, you may enjoy this, though.

TWILIGHT OPHERA - THE END OF THE HALYCON AGE


Nordic black metal from Finland, or something like that! The good thing about this CD is that the singer has more of a melodic death metal voice and not the higher register rasping of a lot of black metal bands, the music is also much more dynamic than your traditional black metal outfit utilizing a variety of musical styles, instrumentation and song structures to break up the monotony that plagues many bands in this genre. There are also clean male and female vocals interspersed throughout the CD and with elements of power metal, traditional metal and gothic rock this CD comes highly recommended! And I'm usually no fan of black metal.

VIENNA TENG - WAKING HOUR


Think Tori Amos and Sarah Mclachlan and you'll be able to grasp where Teng's musical style resides. The songs range from quiet, solo piano ballads to more uptempo piano-driven rock tunes. They all showcase intellectual, poetic lyrics and great melodies and hooks, and strong, emotional vocals. This is her first CD, and from what I've read her, sophomore CD—released this year—blows this one away, and this is a great CD.

BAD ACID TRIP - LYNCH THE WEIRDO


Take one ounce of Mr. Bungle insanity, one cup of Dog Fashion Disco romp, a few shavings of black metal, mix it all together, and you'll have a slight idea of what Bad Acid Trip sound like. I found myself listening to this CD going, "Man, this is crap...no wait...this is pretty kick ass...no...it definitely sucks...well, no wait...this pretty fucking good...um...now it sucks...hmmm...pretty good" and so on and so on. I've listened to it many times and I have the same reaction every time, it's like each song is bi-polar! It's weird, but if you like unstructured insanity for music then you'll probably love this CD.

Whaddayathing?

excellent idea!

are you planning to give scores as well?

Uh...sure.

I'll bet they have the same cover artist as Twilightning.

By the way I like your idea.

Deicide…What can be said? Possibly the best death metal debut in history, followed up by some of the most mediocre satanic crap to come out of metal, along with a band which has now lost half it’s driving force, the guitarist brothers Hoffman...But back to the Deicide.
The debut album from Deicide is absolutely crushing in every way, with every player on top form and lyrics (which, whilst funny to me) offended my mother from the outset: “I killed Jesus, just too see him bleed on his pulpous throne” and also “Where’s my crucifix? I can’t die without it!” The previously mentioned guitarist brothers Hoffman pull out some of the best riffs I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing from a death metal band and the solos are also great-but are definantly not original (see Slayer’s Reign in Blood) and overall the guitar work is brutal stuff, sure to induce at least the occasional head-banging session. The drumming is top-notch and precise, with furious double bass blasts and is played just like the devil wanted them to be. The truly outstanding point of this album is the vocals, penned by a certain Mr. Glen Benton. Now, he may be a poseur of the tallest order but the vocal work on this album is like that of a possessed man with screams and shouts ranging from high pitched to guttural to the clearly decipherable, and at times the layering of the screams over the deep throated growls have been enough to make me want to rip off my clothes and run to hail Lucifer in the woods, it really is that evil and demonic.
The two truly standout tracks on this album for me are Sacrificial Suicide and Carnage in the Temple of the Damned, both being two of my all time favorite extreme metal songs. Sacrificial Suicide is a brutal, almost groovy track which is sure to have you tearing apart your room in blasphemous ecstasy and moshing. Carnage in the Temple of the Damned truly exceeds all expectations with astonishing riffs, great vocal work and brutal drumming, plus the best scream of anti-Christianity ever to be recorded to cd: “YOU WILL NEVER SIN AGAIN!”
The album clocks in at around 30 minutes and for the whole duration of the cd never once gets boring or at all monotonous. Why do you enjoy this album so much? I hear you say. Well, I reply, having this on your cd rack is like having a tiny, lovable, bite sized slice of Satan on your cd rack. You can hate Deicide all you like, but this is an album essential to any extreme metal fan’s collection and really is far superior to most other death metal albums of the time.

Killing Songs: all of them, but standouts are SACRIFICIAL SUICIDE, DEAD BY DAWN, MEPHISTOPHELES, CARNAGE IN THE TEMPLE OF THE DAMNED and CRUCIFIXION.

All hail Satan!


my review of deicide's debut. :oops:

btw, that was a CLASSIC review, but if it had to be rated 97/100

I've seen far worse on MR

let's get it on the website !!! 8)

So there you have it. We demand a review forum!!

We've all talked about the idea because it seems to be an ongoing hot topic of discussion but we haven't really gotten unilateral approval from the whole team. I think the new forums section has been a real positive thing for Metal Reviews although there's always a few who really ruin it for everybody....there's assholes everywhere in life. We try to review as much as we can and granted there are releases that we haven't gotten to yet but we can't review everything. There's a real underground culture that is developing in the forums section and that can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. On the positive side, it allows great discussions to take place and people can hook up with others who share the same taste in metal. On the negative side, some just choose to be assholes but others somehow feel that they now have a say and a voice in what goes on here at Metal Reviews. Sure we'll listen and consider any suggestions that you guys have but posting a review is another story. It's great to chat about albums etc. but lengthy reviews with album graphics that are not properly resized and compressed (something all of us reviewers here have to strictly adhere to) will consistently increase the bandwidth usage for the site. If it gets too high beause of all of this activity, we will get charged more to host the site (an expense that currently comes out Chris and Danny's pockets) and it could all come to an end. The forums are what they are......discussion forums. It doesn't give everyone the "right" to declare open season on reader reviews just because a select few have decided to do so. If you're that persistent about it then we need you on the team!!!! E-mail Jay or Mike and request to join the team. Either that or go out and pay for your own review site and post them there. Some other review sites have reader reviews but I think the chemistry and "team" atmosphere amongst us here at Metal Reviews is what makes it so special. We have a team of reviewers and some of us have families and very little time to actually write quality reviews. It would all seem for not if we take the time to listen and write a review for an album only to find out that someone posted a review for it in the forums weeks prior. It's very difficult for some us to even read the forums let alone monitor them on a regular basis. Like I said before, if you like writing reviews and have the time and commitment it takes to be a reviewer....join the team..............

OK, I hope my comment there wasn't taken as a serious demand? It was not that at all. No way would I come here and demand a review forum and be serious about it.

I can see your point about not wanting to write a review and find out someone else wrote one in the forums, but at the same time that's really not a bad thing. I do understand where you're coming from, though, but everyone's opinion is different so it's not like someone would have posted your review, you know?

You make sense, though, about all the bandwidth and whatnot. Allmusic.com is a great place to snag album covers (see above).

Anyway, I've asked about reviewing here before and haven't gotten any replies, I'll send another e-mail/PM. I currently review on another site (to remain nameless because they are good people) and it's updated once a week, maybe, usually once every two weeks and sometimes you write a review and it doesn't show up for weeks, or at all. Oftentimes the owner of the site reformats what you've written, which is highly annoying. Who does that? I spend all that time writing a review, laying down my thoughts into nice paragraphs and whatnot and then someone comes along and takes three separate paragraphs and turns them into one long paragraph. It kind of sucks because the flow of what you've written gets all messed up.

I like how the reviewers can actually discuss their review with other people here. It's more rewarding that way, I'd think.

So, you make good points. Very understandable. And that wasn't a real demand; the lack of a smiley, new or old school, probably didn't help. Sorry.

LoL Deicide's debut is good but far from being a classic, imo.
I'll give it a 70/100 and all the other relases
are below 60

haha, now that's really deep review!!

why dont we just have a reader review thread?

containing little mini reader review posts? e.g. Eyesore's first post.

this would be much much more effective than searching seperate threads for new stuff. (and much easier than setting up a new forum)

we can have it in helheim, or maybe genre-based reviews in all the other forums.

and maybe add some rules too? like, no posting stuff besides reviews. and no comments. only reviews. that should keep things clean and easy to read.

Because reader review threads go nowhere, people just post and there's generally no discussion. I've done them before. They serve about as much purpose as the "Listening To Now..." threads.

My 2 cents.
When the subject was brought up for the debate I voted FOR IT. In fact, I was probably a very vocal proponent, but after discussing it with everybody the idea got voted down. Marty above makes a lot of the points as to why. I won't go into it futher. I think the issue is pretty much closed at this point.
The way the format of the forums is, no one is really prohibited from starting his own album review thread, or post an album review in the genre section. Sorry, this is the way it will remain.

Eyesore, if you are really so eager, PM Mike or Jay, or myself if you so desire. We will talk, but I can tell you right now, that other site will have to lose you.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't review for two sites. My intention is to move to another site. I still have a couple reviews to finish for them so I'll send you guys something soon.

Pete's review actually isn't bad. Well done, our son.

I'm not really interfering or chosing a side, but I don't think that is true. The pictures can be hosted on a free site like www.imageshack.us for example. There are more like those. The review itself is just text and will not take up any space. Not more than three basic posts that is. Therefore, the bandwidth usage will not be affected. I can imagine though, that's it quite a job to set up a system like that.

indeed Misha... when some see everything as a problem some others look for solutions !

*wipes tear of joy away from cheek*
the little shit did good!