I was a little curious to see how much the 1's affected the album rating, so I recalculated the ratings of the top 20 albums without them. So if anyone is interested here they are:

1. Thy Catafalque- 8.84
2. Insomnium- 8.74
3. Septicflesh- 8.69
4. Vektor- 8.663
5. Omnium Gatherum 8.662
6. Moonsorrow- 8.61
7. Theocracy- 8.57
8. Heavenwood- 8.54
9. Symphony X- 8.53
10. Myrath- 8.49
11. Obscura- 8.463
12. Machine Head- 8.462
13. Beyond Creation- 8.456
14. Pagan's Mind- 8.452
15. Esoteric- 8.450
16. Animals as Leaders- 8.433
17. Draconian- 8.405
18. Sylosis- 8.39
19. Mastodon- 8.38
20. Azarath- 8.32

To do that list justice, you should recalculate without the 10's as well. A bit of a wate of time imo.

Written by Edmund Fogg on 10.12.2011 at 03:53

To do that list justice, you should recalculate without the 10's as well. A bit of a wate of time imo.

Some of the 10s are justified. I don't think 1s are very accurate because if something deserved a 1 it wouldn't have ever been released. If the musicians sound like they know how to play their instruments and are all playing the same song than it deserves at least a 2 or 3. A 1 would be a monkey chewing on the strings while throwing turds at the drum kit.

Written by M C Vice on 10.12.2011 at 05:18

Some of the 10s are justified. I don't think 1s are very accurate because if something deserved a 1 it wouldn't have ever been released. If the musicians sound like they know how to play their instruments and are all playing the same song than it deserves at least a 2 or 3. A 1 would be a monkey chewing on the strings while throwing turds at the drum kit.

Ten is the symbol of perfection. Music is a work of art. Art is never perfect.

Written by Edmund Fogg on 10.12.2011 at 06:53

Written by M C Vice on 10.12.2011 at 05:18

Some of the 10s are justified. I don't think 1s are very accurate because if something deserved a 1 it wouldn't have ever been released. If the musicians sound like they know how to play their instruments and are all playing the same song than it deserves at least a 2 or 3. A 1 would be a monkey chewing on the strings while throwing turds at the drum kit.

Ten is the symbol of perfection. Music is a work of art. Art is never perfect.

a 10 doesnt have to mean perfection. like you said, it's art, you can interpret the numbers however you wish.

Written by Edmund Fogg on 10.12.2011 at 06:53

Written by M C Vice on 10.12.2011 at 05:18

Some of the 10s are justified. I don't think 1s are very accurate because if something deserved a 1 it wouldn't have ever been released. If the musicians sound like they know how to play their instruments and are all playing the same song than it deserves at least a 2 or 3. A 1 would be a monkey chewing on the strings while throwing turds at the drum kit.

Ten is the symbol of perfection. Music is a work of art. Art is never perfect.

I mean that more of the 10s are honest votes than 1s. A lot are people trying to raise/lower an album, but the 10s contain a highrt percentage of honest opinions than vote tampering compared to the 1s.

Written by JCJen7 on 10.12.2011 at 07:10

a 10 doesnt have to mean perfection. like you said, it's art, you can interpret the numbers however you wish.

how can 10/10 be interpreted differently then flawless? If their is room for amelioration then it is not a 10. You can judge differntly where the album sits between the numbers but both extremes are pretty well clear : 1 worst ever (should never hyappen) 10 perfect (should also never happen, or maybe a once in a lifetime revelation type of things).

I only calculated it that way because it seems that a few people here like to give ones merely to bring the album down in ranking. I would even venture to say they probably didn't even listen through the album, but want to see their bands rise to the top of the rankings. I know people give 10's out freely, but it's probably because they're really into that band and they love the music. I give 10's to my absolute favorite albums, but I haven't given a one out because if I heard a song from an album that was that bad at a show or youtube or somewhere I wouldn't listen through the album and it wouldn't warrant my rating the whole album if I haven't heard it. That's why I wanted to recalculate to eliminate votes from people who are just down voting. I know I left the other extreme out but the ones are a much bigger outlier in the rankings.

I would be interested to see the scores, side by side by side of all, (minus -1's), and (minus 1's and 10's)...

10's dont mean perfection, but they still shouldn't be handed out like whatever is the modern day equivalent of AOL disks ... i have seen far too many profiles from absurd users who score so high i honestly believe if you blindfolded them and turned them loose in a metal record store to grab 10 disks at random, the average score of those random disks would be 9.75.

on a personal level, i have 10 "perfect" scores. that doesn't imply perfection (NOTHING is perfect), but those would be my top 10 metal (metal-related) albums for the proverbial desert island. be stingy. that score should mean something, not just "the opener, the closer and two tracks in the middle were awesome..."

What is the purpose of having those numbers as an option if we're not allowed to click on them???

Written by Edmund Fogg on 10.12.2011 at 07:18

Written by JCJen7 on 10.12.2011 at 07:10

a 10 doesnt have to mean perfection. like you said, it's art, you can interpret the numbers however you wish.

how can 10/10 be interpreted differently then flawless? If their is room for amelioration then it is not a 10. You can judge differntly where the album sits between the numbers but both extremes are pretty well clear : 1 worst ever (should never hyappen) 10 perfect (should also never happen, or maybe a once in a lifetime revelation type of things).

wait, and you have 42 10's...

---

More on topic: I think both 1's and 10's should go, although there are usually more 10's than 1's for most albums. But still, I think both should go.

EDIT: although more methodologically correct, I would remove 10% of the lowest votes and 10% of the highest votes lets say, and I think that would work well even for the albums with a small number of votes.

EDIT 2: by the way that is an idea for an alternative rating that could be used on MS, kind of like what they have on prog archives.

Written by JCJen7 on 10.12.2011 at 10:11

What is the purpose of having those numbers as an option if we're not allowed to click on them???

You are allowed to use them. Just don't overdo it, meaning no bands can release 10 albums that deserves straight 1's or 10's

I'd substract half of the 10's from the score and re-do it. It would be more accurate.

Written by Milena on 10.12.2011 at 12:41

I'd substract half of the 10's from the score and re-do it. It would be more accurate.

why? how about half of the 9's?

Written by K✞ulu on 10.12.2011 at 13:19

why? how about half of the 9's?

9 is a much more natural rating to give an album than a 10 if you ask me.

Well I'd go for three quarters of the 10's actually, but this is easier math

Written by K✞ulu on 10.12.2011 at 10:21


wait, and you have 42 10's...

It's been a while since I updated my profile (except for my pic). So any info on their is inacurate. I'm just too lazy to give a fuck.

Personally, I haven't yet given an album a rating of 10 because it is associated with the word "perfect", which I don't feel is attainable for a work of art like music. Maybe I will feel differently one day if I come across something that just completely knocks my socks off. But, until (or if) that ever happens, the highest ratings I have given is a 9. An interesting exercise, though, to re-calculate the ratings with the 1s removed. I can also remark that I have never given an album a rating of 1 either. It is associated with "worst ever" so does that mean there can only ever be one album you could give this rating to?

Written by [user id=4365] on 10.12.2011 at 13:24

Written by K✞ulu on 10.12.2011 at 13:19

why? how about half of the 9's?

9 is a much more natural rating to give an album than a 10 if you ask me.

if you are saying that chances are higher that a 10 has been given less "cautiously," then I would agree with you. But just removing half of 10's is very arbitrary and biased (unless there is some evidence that half the 10's are usually fanboys/biased --> and then try defining that... ). I suggest doing what I wrote in my previous post. I think that would "clean up" the rating a bit.

The 1's can also be justified. Just as 10 doesn't mean it's the perfect album, 1 doesn't mean it's the worse. I'd give Lulu a 1, yet there are things I consider much worse out there.
So I fail to see why take out 1's and not 10's (1 can be the work of a troll, yes, just as 10 can be of a blind fanboy).


On a sidenote, people should stop bitching about Top 20, or Top-whatever. Make a damn list of favorite albums as alot of people already do if you consider your personal opinion so important.

Take out top 5% and bottom 5% and you get a fair score IMHO.

If you're new list is to have any value, you'll have to give some info about the date you picked the top 20 and provide the original top 20, so people are able to compare the two. Without the original, the value of your list is close to nil.

Just remove all votes except for mine and you got yourself a reliable score.

No seriously, why bother with all those votes at all? I use votes just the way other people use RYM, so it's a thing I do for myself, not for other people. If you can't deal with the fact that other people don't like the music you adore, then do something about it: Write a review to subject our readers to your opinion. Create a list to display your superior taste. Create threads about all your favorite bands and gather new followers. But please, don't rate albums you haven't heard yet. That's just retarded.

Written by JCJen7 on 10.12.2011 at 10:11

What is the purpose of having those numbers as an option if we're not allowed to click on them???

at what point did i say you were not allowed to click on them? jump to extremes much?

they should be used sparing for absolutes, not 200 10's of 240 votes cast... either that or i guess many folks are just far too easily impressed.

I share the oppinion of M C Vice and Decrepit Till that the 10s are more 'honest' than 1s in general, of course also there are fans putting a 10 only having heard the album just one time, but in general is more probable that people votes with 1 only having heard a couple of songs of the disc. So as said Promonex please listen the album before to rate the album with 1 or 10.

By the way, in this list is missing albums like the last of Havok for example:

1. Thy Catafalque- 8.84
2. Insomnium- 8.74
3. Septicflesh- 8.69
4. Vektor- 8.663
5. Omnium Gatherum 8.662
6. Moonsorrow- 8.61
7. Theocracy- 8.57
8. Heavenwood- 8.54
9. Symphony X- 8.53
10. Myrath- 8.49
11. Havok 8.47
12. Obscura- 8.463
13. Machine Head- 8.462
14. Beyond Creation- 8.456
15. Pagan's Mind- 8.452
16. Esoteric- 8.450
17. Animals as Leaders- 8.433
18. Draconian- 8.405
19. Sylosis- 8.39
20. Mastodon- 8.38

Written by BitterCOld on 10.12.2011 at 17:20

Written by JCJen7 on 10.12.2011 at 10:11

What is the purpose of having those numbers as an option if we're not allowed to click on them???

at what point did i say you were not allowed to click on them? jump to extremes much?

they should be used sparing for absolutes, not 200 10's of 240 votes cast... either that or i guess many folks are just far too easily impressed.

I have 36 tens out of 371. An almost Ideal 1/10 ratio (or however you'd like to call it, I'm a math hater and can't be bothered to learn proper English terms for it). So that means I'm awesome *top hat moment*
Seriously though, more people should revisit their votes and up them or lower them when their opinion changes. So many albums have seemed perfect to me, and then faded. And there's a lot of growers too.

Written by Milena on 10.12.2011 at 18:00

Written by BitterCOld on 10.12.2011 at 17:20

Written by JCJen7 on 10.12.2011 at 10:11

What is the purpose of having those numbers as an option if we're not allowed to click on them???

at what point did i say you were not allowed to click on them? jump to extremes much?

they should be used sparing for absolutes, not 200 10's of 240 votes cast... either that or i guess many folks are just far too easily impressed.

I have 36 tens out of 371. An almost Ideal 1/10 ratio (or however you'd like to call it, I'm a math hater and can't be bothered to learn proper English terms for it). So that means I'm awesome *top hat moment*
Seriously though, more people should revisit their votes and up them or lower them when their opinion changes. So many albums have seemed perfect to me, and then faded. And there's a lot of growers too.

36 10s? I find that a lot. But then again I only have 5 10s on a total of 2222 votes and one of those 10s is for a boxset. The original album got a 9 btw, so it actually is 4 out of 2222, and only one 1, no 2, and one 3.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.12.2011 at 18:08

36 10s? I find that a lot. But then again I only have 5 10s on a total of 2222 votes and one of those 10s is for a boxset. The original album got a 9 btw, so it actually is 4 out of 2222, and only one 1, no 2, and one 3.

Well, when I'm 20 years older than now and get to hear 2000 albums, I do imagine the ratio of tens will shrink a bit I've actually rated all the albums I've had the (dis)pleasure of hearing that are featured on MS. Or at least all I remember. Kinda hard to keep track of it all.

Written by Milena on 10.12.2011 at 18:20

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.12.2011 at 18:08

36 10s? I find that a lot. But then again I only have 5 10s on a total of 2222 votes and one of those 10s is for a boxset. The original album got a 9 btw, so it actually is 4 out of 2222, and only one 1, no 2, and one 3.

Well, when I'm 20 years older than now and get to hear 2000 albums, I do imagine the ratio of tens will shrink a bit I've actually rated all the albums I've had the (dis)pleasure of hearing that are featured on MS. Or at least all I remember. Kinda hard to keep track of it all.

Even though the 2222 I rated are only albums I phsyically own that are featured here I am 100% sure those 10s are all the 10s I would award. All in all the ration 10 to number of albums herad is even smaller because I must have heard over at least 10,000 albums in my life

Written by Edmund Fogg on 10.12.2011 at 06:53

Ten is the symbol of perfection. Music is a work of art. Art is never perfect.

+1