Metal Archives.

[hell]

Comment in a line (limit to it no more please) that you think Metal Archives.
(all comments are the responsibility of those who issue and not particularly of Deathmetal.org or its Admins)

[hell]

Good idea, my bible, moderators are fucking Asshole, suckers, and newbies.

[Rotten Ralph]

Handy tool for checking out bands discographies and line-up information. Don't use it for much else though.

[Wild]

Encyclopedia is competent; forums are hilarious.

[Bukkake]

Opeth and Job for a Cowboy praised in the same breath.

[Bukkake]

I suppose that o peth is HIV+

[dead last]

It is useful to me because I'm thorough. After I read a review, I'll look at the reviewer's opinion on other albums I know and try to get an idea of his taste.

Nevermind if this question is too far from op's topic but what do you personally gain from reading (or writing) metal reviews (or any music reviews)? It's just something I'm curious about.

[trystero]

Archives are really good, rest is a toilet.

Some touted reviews are hilarious nerdery, people devoting paragraphs to discuss guitar tone like they are talking about fine wine (in an equally bullshit fashion). Actually, what it reminds me most of is internet perfume enthusiasts. The one big element that is most often missed is music. They get metal, but not music, so the approach becomes something like TVTropes; extreme, systemizing focus on superficial elements. Superficialities are categorized and discussed down to minutiae, simulating depth. This complaint extends beyond MA but they are the worst offenders because they enable each other with cliquish support. Pretty much every detailed or well thought out metal review turns out to be a lot of effort to miss the point.

[Tralfamadorian]

Good points, trystero. As a resource for factual information about metal bands, MA is great. Beyond that, it is a wasteland. Actual content in the reviews is substituted for ill-conceived similes about how an album 'sounds' (eg "THIS ALBUM SOUNDS LIKE A HOARD OF HOMOSEXUAL BUFFALOES FROM HELL SODOMIZING MY EVERY ORIFICE"). The forums follow suit with their genre pedantry, list threads, and wayward trolls.

[Wild]

[trystero]

lol I think that guy actually registered here a week or two ago to post in that Stereo thread. Perhaps it was simply a facetious response to an incredibly stupid question.

Edit: Must check that band out.

Edit 2: Really sorry I did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpUIH2c3WQM

[Wild]

[Humanicide]

Archives are great; really good information laid out in an easy-to-read fashion.

Rest of the site varies from somewhat entertaining (a few reviews I've come across were funny) to worthless (the forums and most of the users).

This is one of the funnier reviews I've read on there.
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Six_Feet_Under/Bringer_of_Blood/25529/MorbidPickle

[ChapelOfTorment]

Edit: Must check that band out.

Edit 2: Really sorry I did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpUIH2c3WQM

Check out those YouTube comments. Hipster black metallers really do act just like Communists. Don't like their music? You're  fascist/reactionary/bourgeoisie!

The band in question is another one of those tiresome ideology before actual musical content bands. The intro just sounds like it will be the start of some generic world music-influenced alternative rock, and that's what the song ends up being, despite the band's attempts to mask it with black metal aesthetics like screams and fuzzy guitars. Narrative song development? No time for that, because music should just be a platform for propaganda. Right view, right intention, right speech, right action, maaaaaaaaan. I mean, I'm an atheist, but Buddhism has a lot of cool ideas, bro. Now for a quick puff on my electric cigarette before the Red Fang show.

Their song titles are good for a laugh at first glance, but they end up teetering more towards the infuriating. "European History Is a History of Rot" "When We Are Gone, the World Will Be Awash With Light" "Destruction, Not Reformation" "The Righteous Is the Enemy of Natural" There really can be no dialog with these people. The funny part is that they aren't even really good at following up on their own agitprop. If white people are so evil, why do the people behind Book of Sand continue to befoul the earth with their horrid whiteness? The fact that they haven't killed themselves yet proves that they are really capitalists at heart. How sad...

Metal-Archives is useful for looking up concrete information on bands, but the forum culture is pretty degraded. A few of the reviewers like this guy, this guy, and this guy seem to be generally on the ball most of the time (word choice is important at the end of that sentence).

[trystero]

Leftism as conceived and practiced by people like that is basically FUCK YOU DAD in philosophical form.