Post Reply - Adam's Blog #3: On Reviewing

I used to get promos when I worked for the paper and for a now defunct website. I got a few goodies, but I generally found it was hardly worth the effort. Yes, I reviewed everything, but a lot of it wasn't worth keeping. And I always felt bad about writing a really scathing review of something if I had been given a promo, especially one a band had sent me directly, and not via a label.

I suppose I got the tail end of the physical releases. Most came in cardboard slipcases, or had the full artwork, often with the barcode punched, and no case at all. As a result, I have hundreds of slipcases, both cardboard and plastic, full of all sorts of random music! CD-rs were a godsend for bands too, because they were cheap and easy to produce and post. The only time I came across something like watermarking was with Earache Records. They needn't have bothered- it was an Adema album... Each song was cut into about 10 files. It basically wrecked what wasn't much of a listening experience in the first place, because some CD players (mine!) have a minute pause before each track, which chopped the songs to bits. It made for a weird random play experience too...

I love reviewing music, as long as it's not wretched pop music, but had a long time offline where it was a bit pointless. That's why I love this site. I know my reviews are going to be read by at least a few other people who are knowledgeable about metal, and isn't going to get lost in an avalanche of ignorance (as used to happen on Metal Archives), or get completely ignored because no one looks at them (as on Amazon.com). I suppose it's a bit vain, and a bit of an ego booster, but it's my own vanity, and as one of the paper's sub-editors used to say to me when I submitted reviews of stuff like Deicide and Nile, "If you listen to it, there's bound to be other people who do too, and will want to read about it".