 UMUR wrote:
I�ve read very short reviews, that were very useful and long ones that were a complete waste of time (and space). It all depends on the reviewer and his/her writing style. |
I agree with that, but I do find that with some really short reviews that they could be talking about pretty much any album of that band or genre. I don't find that helpful at all.
Time Signature wrote:
I rarely read that mag, and when I do, I never read the reviews, but I have read my share of similar reviews in other mags (and here I have to be honest, I think that most main stream print metal mags are next to useless). I think that the type of very short review that you refer to is often next to useless - so we agree there. There can be good reviews of that type nonetheless, but the writer will really have to know the art of information packaging and information compression. And, I think that we do have some reviewers her on MMA who are very good at that.
I find it surprising that the Metal Hammer reviews are as bad as you say they are, because the Metal Hammer writers have worked within that format for ages (and they kind of have an excuse for writing those short reviews, since their mag is a physical one with word limits and layout conventions etc.), so one should expect that they have developed some strategies to get the most out of whatever space they have to write reviews in.
I should say that I did not bash long reviews in the previous post of mine... it's just that I do not have the patience or the time to read them because of the amount of reading I do in my day job, so, when it comes to long reviews, I generally only read the ones about releases that I am really interested in.
|
I have stopped reading the reviews except for the featured ones, since they're longer and more in depth. And I wouldn't say that these short reviews are 'bad', no matter who's doing them, they're just not for me.
I think the important thing to remember with any reviewer regardless of their style is that not every review is going to be the best work they can do. I find with some albums the words just won't flow at all. For albums I was reviewing off my own back I'd just abandon it in such cases, at least temporarily, but for promos I do try to review all of them.
