I think every guest reviewer on the site has come across the same problem when they decide to submit there first review, we have all these ideas about discussing an album, but when we try and put it together we draw a blank when it comes to collecting our thoughts into a solid and fair review (hell, I still have problems with this). Having the FAQ by your side does help out a bit, but I wanted to create a thread where we can discuss tips and ideas for writing reviews, so anyone thinking of writing there first review can come to this thread if they need ideas on where to start, and us guest reviewers who already have a few reviews under there belts can learn a bit of improvement.

2 things to say before I start:
@ Staff: Your contribution to this thread would be the most useful.
@ Everybody else: This is not an excuse to take personal attacks at someone elses reviews I.E. "Don't write reviews like _____, his are shit" etc.

Ok, so I'll start (these are just things that I, personally, keep in mind while writing reviews, reading reviews, and reading feedback to my reviews)
-Before writing a review listen to it multiple times for a few days first, mull it over, perceptions can change after a few plays through.
-No album is 100% perfect, try and find something about the album that could've been left out or improved. And visa versa, try and find at least an enjoyable thing or two about a shitty album.
-For the love of god, explain your points, just so people with differing opinions can still find your review at least a little bit useful I.E. "....At times the vocals to be far to cheesey and over the top" not "the vocals become super lame", that way a person who may enjoy some over-the-top vocals will know perhaps that album is for him.
-Use personality (something I have trouble with at times) a little humour never hurt anyone, give people a reason to post something other than "I agree with your rating"

Ok, so those are just my ideas, I would like to hear some others....

Ok, especially for your first review: DO NOT RATE IT WITH 9.9!!!! Seriously, I know that it is very tempting to review your favourite album the first time, but it would be better to start with a more mediocre one. That way you can immediate discuss both good points and bad points. For the small amount of reviews I've written, writing one for a bad album has proven to be much more difficult.

And I'd like to recommend you also to go it through at least once with a good spellingchecker. Also watch out for common made mistakes (there/their/they're, to/two/too). Making these immediately give a bad impression.

Besides these.. well, I suppose it can be said that you must have listened to the album a couple of times of course. Listen to it, find similar bands, ask yourself what the possible influences could have been, is the (lack of) originality bothersome etc. Just think about it.

And finally, get used to a good review format. I personally often use a format with an intro with some basic information about the band/album, then a sound description (of multiple instruments) and last but not least my own opinion on it. Cause really, objectivity is't everything. I personally think if you've written a couple of reviews and people are aware of your taste, some subjectivity is a lot better than a simple sound description.

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 02:45

Ok, especially for your first review: DO NOT RATE IT WITH 9.9!!!!

I'll agree with that. Its especially hard to analyze an album you don't especially care for, which is a big problem of mine, hence why I only have 6 reviews with a rating below 7. Ive been trying to improve that, I need to find an atrociously shitty album to review that hasn't been done yet....damn, "the human equation" already has 2 reviews.

Thats another thing, personally, I'd avoid reviewing albums that already have a review, I've only done that once, and the only reason I did was because the official staff review for it hadn't been posted at the time when I submitted it and I didn't know about the whole 'queue' thing. And besides, theres plenty of albums on the website that do not have a review, why bother writing out an entire review for an album thats already been picked apart.

Written by Doc G. on 07.02.2008 at 03:33
avoid reviewing albums that already have a review ... theres plenty of albums on the website that do not have a review, why bother writing out an entire review for an album thats already been picked apart.

"Picked apart" being the key words there, if the review already up is a pile of crap then it's OK as long as your own one is good.

I would say... try to be concise. Don't use too many words rambling about a certain subject that may not even belong in the review anyway.

Hey Luke, did you take note of Nervy's there/their point?

A tip for me to write your first review. Try to review an album that you don't know? Maybe that you'll find this tip stupid but if you can do it with a bit of honesty and neutrality of course, it will help a lot for your future reviews.

What I want to say actually is that the new reviewers always want to review their favorite albums? How can it be constructive and right if you write a review to only praise your favorite artist? If you can review everything (well of course you can write a review of a band which plays something that you like to listen to (don't review some Power or Black Metal if you hate those genres, you see what I mean?)) for sure you'll become a bit more "right" even with your favorite bands.

When the new reviewers join the staff (ask to Nervel ) I always give some "homeworks" to do with unknown bands and I'm sure that it's helpful!

Written by Doc G. on 07.02.2008 at 03:33

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 02:45

Ok, especially for your first review: DO NOT RATE IT WITH 9.9!!!!

I'll agree with that. Its especially hard to analyze an album you don't especially care for, which is a big problem of mine, hence why I only have 6 reviews with a rating below 7. Ive been trying to improve that, I need to find an atrociously shitty album to review that hasn't been done yet....damn, "the human equation" already has 2 reviews.

It doesn't really need to be atrociously shitty. You could also start with the debut album from one of your fav. bands (usually the least mature, searching for a sound, influences should be more obvious than on later releases, etc.)

everyone has their own style in writing and this isn't a bad thing as long as the point of the review is put across.

personally I prefer to write (and read) reviews that avoid so much 'first person' writing... you know - "I think this album is amazing... and other "I" statements - using this example I would write "The album amazes..." instead

also it is a good idea to keep a thesaurus on hand just for some extra words you can use to describe certain aspects of the album.. it isn't as interesting when you are always using the same word over again (shut up all you "intimate" people... hahahaha) - I am talking mostly about adjectives here though, words that describe something..

metaphors are always nice, pretending the album is a food dish and the elements are the ingedients - things like this are always nice, but not if you use the same idea over and over again (not just in the same review, but regarding when it comes to reading it in every review) - originality is always nice in reviews, but however you may write the review just always make sure the reader understands you

also, and maybe most importantly, know what you are talking about - compare to other bands or albums so the reader can form some mental representation of the album - the point of a review is to make the reader wonder if they would check out the album in question by what you tell them - not to make the reader just read a page of praise of an album, telling you how good they think it is.

be concise, don't waffle on - but then again do not write a review that is so short you could have put it in the shoutbox

and like has been touched on before, don't go overboard with ratings and don't just review your favourite album. review albums you have something interesting to say about!
also don't expect to be able to write a perfect review straight away - my reviews I write now are much more concise than my first few

of course you can always look at one of my reviews or one of the other staff for an idea as well

Written by Baz Anderson on 07.02.2008 at 18:07

also it is a good idea to keep a thesaurus on hand just for some extra words you can use to describe certain aspects of the album.. it isn't as interesting when you are always using the same word over again (shut up all you "intimate" people... hahahaha) - I am talking mostly about adjectives here though, words that describe something..

Yes! I forgot to mention that. I ALWAYS use a dictionary. Good for my english, my vocabulary, and the variety of the review.

Quote:
metaphors are always nice, pretending the album is a food dish and the elements are the ingedients.

Whoever wrote that review must be a genius.

I would also like to add that the saying "kill your own darlings". Someone told me it for the first thing I ever wrote, and it helped me an awful lot. Just sit down with a word document, and write. Write. Write. Write. For every 4-paragraph review, I've possibly written 8-9 paragraphs. Hardly anybody (or at least not me) will be able to spit out a review just like that.

Also, I find it very helpful to sleep a night between writing a review and looking at it again. It takes my mind of it, and I can look at it with new insights again.


I'm wondering who is reading this stuff, so far, almost all the posts are from staffers.

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 18:21

Quote:
metaphors are always nice, pretending the album is a food dish and the elements are the ingedients.

Whoever wrote that review must be a genius.

hahaha, I did briefly with my Subway To Sally review I think I read you did as well though

who knows.. maybe someone will find this thread of use..
if not, that's the last time I spend time and effort on a post! hahahaha

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 18:21

Written by Baz Anderson on 07.02.2008 at 18:07

also it is a good idea to keep a thesaurus on hand just for some extra words you can use to describe certain aspects of the album.. it isn't as interesting when you are always using the same word over again (shut up all you "intimate" people... hahahaha) - I am talking mostly about adjectives here though, words that describe something..

Yes! I forgot to mention that. I ALWAYS use a dictionary. Good for my english, my vocabulary, and the variety of the review.

Quote:
metaphors are always nice, pretending the album is a food dish and the elements are the ingedients.

Whoever wrote that review must be a genius.

Yeah, I know I am

I'm reading carefully don't worry...
But I have my own personal writing and can't actually agree on all ideas here...
And I can't express my own ideas either, since it's my personal style that comes out every time I write...

Theres this band in my town called Lucifixion.

I was trying to make a review for their first album, "Indulge In The Macabre", but I can't think of anything for it. Its there first and only full length album, so I can't really compare anything that they do to anything else they did, hence for reasons to say they did better or worse and whatnot. Any tips for making reviews on a bands only album?

Written by Lord TJ on 07.02.2008 at 19:53

Theres this band in my town called Lucifixion.

I was trying to make a review for their first album, "Indulge In The Macabre", but I can't think of anything for it. Its there first and only full length album, so I can't really compare anything that they do to anything else they did, hence for reasons to say they did better or worse and whatnot. Any tips for making reviews on a bands only album?

Well, first of all start with some information. For me, it works to 'get into it'. Why has there been 6 years between the start of the band and the first full-length? Lots of demos, do they show progress? Or perhaps they just worked 6 years on something really original (if it is original, of course). Or perhaps they worked 6 years on it and still released a crappy copy-cat album?

For the music.. Are they as old-school as the album cover looks like? Fast and brutal or slow stomping death metal? A really thick and bassful production or a 'garbage' sound? Influences? Morbid Angel, like most DM bands?

Ask yourself a couple of questions like these and it should be a lot easier getting started.

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 21:16

Well, first of all start with some information. For me, it works to 'get into it'. Why has there been 6 years between the start of the band and the first full-length? Lots of demos, do they show progress? Or perhaps they just worked 6 years on something really original (if it is original, of course). Or perhaps they worked 6 years on it and still released a crappy copy-cat album?

For the music.. Are they as old-school as the album cover looks like? Fast and brutal or slow stomping death metal? A really thick and bassful production or a 'garbage' sound? Influences? Morbid Angel, like most DM bands?

Ask yourself a couple of questions like these and it should be a lot easier getting started.

Ive never heard their demo, as they have no more copies of it. The reason it took them 6 years to make it, I have no idea. It basically sounds old school, I mean yea I can describe how it sounds, but I have no idea where influence comes from for the album, some members have quit after that album and the current members all have different tastes of personal music.

Its probably just me with this album, I can talk about it but nothing near 250-500 words about it.

Written by Lord TJ on 07.02.2008 at 21:33

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 21:16

Well, first of all start with some information. For me, it works to 'get into it'. Why has there been 6 years between the start of the band and the first full-length? Lots of demos, do they show progress? Or perhaps they just worked 6 years on something really original (if it is original, of course). Or perhaps they worked 6 years on it and still released a crappy copy-cat album?

For the music.. Are they as old-school as the album cover looks like? Fast and brutal or slow stomping death metal? A really thick and bassful production or a 'garbage' sound? Influences? Morbid Angel, like most DM bands?

Ask yourself a couple of questions like these and it should be a lot easier getting started.

Ive never heard their demo, as they have no more copies of it. The reason it took them 6 years to make it, I have no idea. It basically sounds old school, I mean yea I can describe how it sounds, but I have no idea where influence comes from for the album, some members have quit after that album and the current members all have different tastes of personal music.

Its probably just me with this album, I can talk about it but nothing near 250-500 words about it.

As I think Nervel said earlier, look for possible influences, the great thing about being a guest reviewer is that there is no deadline for getting your review in, you have plenty of time to listen to pre-existing bands of the genre, try and find some links and similarities, actually study the album (study might be too strong of a word but I think you get my point.)

you can always check out some reviews at MA too. those guys are the best on the field.

Written by Damnated on 07.02.2008 at 22:44

you can always check out some reviews at MA too. those guys are the best on the field.

I guess this was meant as a sarcastic comment right? Cause 99% of the reviews on MA are just atrocious, and especially WAY too long. A certain guy called UB springs to mind here. Most of them don't even try to be objective.it just smells of fanboy elitism there.

Written by Damnated on 07.02.2008 at 22:44

you can always check out some reviews at MA too. those guys are the best on the field.

Yes and you always can coppy past that rewiew and be banned like greek dude

MA rewiews I hate tham thay sucks more how that site I never read em, and dont care , betetr look at MS rewiews

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 07.02.2008 at 23:02

Cause 99% of the reviews on MA are just atrocious, and especially WAY too long. A certain guy called UB springs to mind here. Most of them don't even try to be objective.it just smells of fanboy elitism there.

i thought it was obvious that that was sarcasm. MA is shit for reviews.

Screw all you guys bagging the MA reviews. They aren't that bad (except the young ones who don't know much about metal or a certain style of it) and some of the humour is great.

Plus, objectivity is not all it's cracked up to be. Don't be afraid to detail some of your own feelings on an album... a review that tries too hard to assume what the audience wants will turn out to suck, just like an album with an originality score below 5.

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 18:21

Written by Baz Anderson on 07.02.2008 at 18:07
also it is a good idea to keep a thesaurus on hand just for some extra words you can use to describe certain aspects of the album.. it isn't as interesting when you are always using the same word over again

Yes! I forgot to mention that. I ALWAYS use a dictionary. Good for my english, my vocabulary, and the variety of the review.

Dictionary and thesaurus are not the same thing, but both are very very useful if you know what you're looking for.
Keep http://www.dictionary.com and http://www.thesaurus.com or similar on hand if you're writing online, to check spellings and definitions, and to find words you can use to reduce repetition ("broaden your vocabulary"), respectively. But try not to use the wrong words... *looks at Jeff, and then half the other MSers*

Oh, I've just thought about that, but I advise people to listen to the album they're going to review with and without earphones. Ultimately, playing it on different stereo systems is nice, to judge the production.

Written by Lucas on 07.02.2008 at 18:21

I would also like to add that the saying "kill your own darlings". Someone told me it for the first thing I ever wrote, and it helped me an awful lot. Just sit down with a word document, and write. Write. Write. Write. For every 4-paragraph review, I've possibly written 8-9 paragraphs. Hardly anybody (or at least not me) will be able to spit out a review just like that.

This is one of the most important things in my opinion. The review needs to be informative and interesting, so you got to get rid of everything that is not, even if one part you'll have to delete contains a metaphor or a turn of phrase you like a lot. I don't write 10 paragraphs like Nervel, but I spend a couple of days turning and returning the review in my head, adding some ideas, removing others, etc before I actually jot it down.

I think the rest has already been said. I also use a dictionary (an English one and a French-English one) all the time. I don't write a review while I haven't listened so many times to the album that I know all its twists and turns. Another important thing is to be able to write your own thoughts, not what you think will make you cool. And remember nothing is all positive or all negative (except Striborg hehe).

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 07.02.2008 at 23:02

Written by Damnated on 07.02.2008 at 22:44

you can always check out some reviews at MA too. those guys are the best on the field.

...and especially WAY too long

I once saw a 2,500 word review at MA!

Some tips though... Hmm, well listening to the CD on various players as Collin said is a good idea, but after you listen to it once or twice, listen to it on your computer (computers nowadays often have good speakers anyway). But this is good because you can listen to the album and have a document open for jotting ideas down. Sometimes when I've had a review to write, I'd put the CD in my car for a couple of days. While this gets the CD listened to, I've had all these ideas running through my head, and nowhere to write them down before I forget them!

So yeah, think of some more stand-out points of the album and these can be the basis of a couple of your paragraphs. And so putting down notes will give you a paragraph structure.

Im reading and learning, maybe some time more in the web site and I will write a review.

As someone without musical training of any sort, I am hesitant to write reviews without first being able to comment intelligently on musicianship, production quality, composition, influences, etc.

Any thoughts from experienced reviewers?

I recently wrote my first review and was stumped after the first paragraph. I had an idea to review the album (Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine: Biomech) using the same themes (water), with words like aqueous, buoyant, and flowing currents, but it just became too wordy and I had to cut back about two paragraphs. I found that once I listened to the album with a pad of paper and pen nearby I was able to describe in more detail exactly what I was hearing. Maybe my next review I can be more concise and avoid attempting to sound pretentious...
even though my ending "sign-off" sentence was as corny as it gets!

Written by Guest on 14.03.2008 at 21:05
As someone without musical training of any sort, I am hesitant to write reviews without first being able to comment intelligently on musicianship, production quality, composition, influences

About influences, you can simply say "it reminds me of _ [in the way that _]". Production is kind of easy, point out how audible all the instruments are and whether the clarity and overall sound are congruous with what you think is the album's intent. Musicianship, hmm... listen closely to the lead guitar in the album version of Seek & Destroy for an example of imperfect musicianship. A basic observation on composition may be the identification of repetition, which may be an indication of verse-chorus structuration. Tion.

Written by Syk on 20.03.2008 at 12:51

Written by Guest on 14.03.2008 at 21:05
As someone without musical training of any sort, I am hesitant to write reviews without first being able to comment intelligently on musicianship, production quality, composition, influences

About influences, you can simply say "it reminds me of _ [in the way that _]". Production is kind of easy, point out how audible all the instruments are and whether the clarity and overall sound are congruous with what you think is the album's intent. Musicianship, hmm... listen closely to the lead guitar in the album version of Seek & Destroy for an example of imperfect musicianship. A basic observation on composition may be the identification of repetition, which may be an indication of verse-chorus structuration. Tion.

composition may also be the chemistry the instruments have, for example, if a song has a stupid two note wonder bassline, a 4/4 beat with a blazing solo over top, thats not the greatest composition.

Written by Doc G. on 20.03.2008 at 23:10
composition may also be the chemistry the instruments have, for example, if a song has a stupid two note wonder bassline, a 4/4 beat with a blazing solo over top, thats not the greatest composition.

Hmm, perhaps, but I disagree with your example... that has potential for awesomness, with a good composer

Ah that may be another thing... what we musicians and physicists know as "dynamics": is there variation in the sound, fierce or mellow or eerie, loud or soft - that would fit under composition. I was about to say it doesn't really matter for death and thrash metal but Morbid Angel and Deadfall, respectively, have made good use of dynamics in the past.

Written by Doc G. on 20.03.2008 at 23:10

Written by Syk on 20.03.2008 at 12:51

Written by Guest on 14.03.2008 at 21:05
As someone without musical training of any sort, I am hesitant to write reviews without first being able to comment intelligently on musicianship, production quality, composition, influences

About influences, you can simply say "it reminds me of _ [in the way that _]". Production is kind of easy, point out how audible all the instruments are and whether the clarity and overall sound are congruous with what you think is the album's intent. Musicianship, hmm... listen closely to the lead guitar in the album version of Seek & Destroy for an example of imperfect musicianship. A basic observation on composition may be the identification of repetition, which may be an indication of verse-chorus structuration. Tion.

composition may also be the chemistry the instruments have, for example, if a song has a stupid two note wonder bassline, a 4/4 beat with a blazing solo over top, thats not the greatest composition.

See, that's the trouble. I'm already lost. Yeah, I know about notes, bass lines, 4/4 time, solos, and all that. But when it comes to understanding how it all fits together, I don't have a clue. I have my musical tastes and preferences. That's not enough to write a decent review. A song either sounds good to me, or it sounds lousy. Unfortunately, I am unable to articulate my listening experience in musically-sophisticated terms.