rio wrote:
(EDIT: Actually, this is kind of a harsh post, but... whatevs)
Yes, like getting pelted with marshmellows in a mildly sarcastic way.
Look, I sympathise with any fan of anything who comes up against someone who doesn't appreciate the object of his affection to the same extent; we've all been there. But as a site which caters to many tastes, we can't satisfy everyone all of the time. And like Charles says, giving a certain genre only to its rabid fans won't produce good reviews. It'll produce the sort of empty-eyed worship that you see on lesser sites. I actively fight being pigeonholed in that way, reviewing as wide a range of metal (and other stuff!) as I possibly can. It's not just for you readers, it's for me - I once got to the stage where constantly facing weekly write-ups of crappy Darkthrone and The Haunted clones was burning me out on metal, let alone as a reviewer. Adding power metal and classic rock to my output helped challenge and improve my writing, and hopefully the website as a whole.
Now, in my opinion, good music can resist being criticised by those unused to it, and it's helpful to see an opposing point of view to help you understand why you like something so much. Charles reviewing funeral doom is like this - it's not like he did something Danny-ite and said how it's all so slow and boring, why not listen to some atmospheric thrash like Korn! He critiqued it from an intellectual viewpoint different to others, and did it damn well. Plus, let's not forget, 78 is a very good score.