Metal Reviews

I think there should be more reviews of bad albums, just so we know what to avoid.

Reviews of really bad albums are often pretty funny to read, but on the other hand: think about the poor reviewers who have to listen to the garbage

That's what downloading's for.

Now Frigid....You're being a negative nancy...

seriously though, I made a conscious decision a little while ago to not put what I review through a 'screening process'. I just review promos of bands that get sent to us at random. So week in week out it may be something brilliant, something average or something downright awful...*ahem* countime? I may treat myself soon by selecting something to review but for the time being I'm going to carry on doing what I'm doing, it challenges me a bit more.

No, I mean, they don't even have to be reviews, I mean, even just a list of bad stuff would be great.

Well I could mention the prospect of a monthly 'Al's List of Shit' piece to the team but:
a) they'd laugh at me
b) I don't have time to listen to enough shit to comprise an entire list
c) I'd probably get sued for libel at some point

Yeah, its just a reviewer's nature to want to review stuff they like. I have a bunch of promos of bands I've never heard before coming for me to review, so maybe you'll get some there. So far, I've just been mostly reviewing albums I own. The only other way you'd see a really low score from me would be if a band I loved put out a shitty release and I bought it blindly.

On second thought, maybe we should've had Ken review Lamb of God's new one, that would have solved everything.

Why don't U search MR for "Crap Of The Month" ?

there's so much nice music out there that hasn't been reviewed, why give crapyp albums undeserved attention?

as for knowing "what to avoid", you've got alternative review sources and the almighty download.

Why not just make a sticky thread in General Music Discussion called "Albums to avoid" or something? I mean ppl will tell you if stuff is shit in the Recent Purchases threads anyway.

In my experience, reviews that bash an album are interesting, simpy because people have such different tastes, and what one likes, another'll hate. Just take every review you read with a pinch of salt, and try before you buy.

I was thinking the opposite...I'd like to see more reviews of good CD's. There's so many classics that are yet to be reviewed, and we don't even have an album of the month every month. Then again, good CD's aren't released every month but I'd still like to see more reviews of good CD's.

As funny as reading people ripping on albums is, I don't think it would really benefit the site

Well, I think we need.. more reviews, of god and bad albums. And quality reviews, of course.
A list of good/bad albums is worthless without a review. Different reviewers, different scores... but the review gives a lot of indications that will help to decide if I will like a record or no.

We'll be recruiting some outside reviewers soon. The problem is that too many would-be reviewers just don't have what it takes. They want to write "blurb" reviews. Short one or two paragraph reviews that say little. We get asked all the time, but when we say that we basically want writers, not just "reviewers," so to speak, they get scared off. They don't want to write long reviews like most of us do, spending hours, not minutes, on a review.

We also need more reviewers taking on unknown bands, those bands they've never heard. We have too many reviewers reviewing what they want, what they like. We probably pass on 10 bands per week because we don't have enough people willing to review them.

Soon, though. Hopefully.

Maybe, since there's an influx of new blood in the forum and all, you could try seeing if any of them want to do it? Like?

How does one register interest?

No forum members. This forum is more about chatting and hanging with e-friends now than it is about discussing music.

I don't agree with that. Of course there's chatting and hanging, but the great part of the forum members are here just for the music.

And some of the reviewers (and very good ones) are (and were before become reviewers) active in the forums. I don't need to give names.