Clan Challenges for The North are up - Black Metal

There are three Black Metal challenges up in the Lists section. The guide for using them is contained within each challenge.

As a member of The North, I am definitely up for the challenge though I have a few questions/concerns. 25 reviews per clan seems a bit excessive, I get the idea of giving people a goal and I'm going to do it but I feel maybe 15-20 albums would suffice. Also I noticed that all the challenges thus far for The North is pretty exclusive to Black Metal but we also include Folk/Viking metal and there's also other clans that seem to be missing some other genre's as well but I haven't delved that deep in other clans as I'm setting myself up for my personal clan challenge. Will there be more lists for them? I would gladly help make a list for a challenge.  

Hi Shezma. I have every intention of adding more Clan Challenges that cover other genres. I've nearly created a challenge for each clan and I'll then make a second pass (including a Folk Metal challenge), and then continue on until I've created challenges for all major genres.

As for 25 albums being too many, I did spend a lot of time considering this very point. In the end I decided that I wanted these to be true challenges. If they were easy to complete, then everyone would quickly gain a fourth clan and that would be that. I want it to feel like a real achievement, I kind of badge of honour, and if it takes ages for some members to achieve it, then that means they've spent a significant amount of time assessing releases that they may not have otherwise (which I feel is a good thing).

I also took into account the fact that some members would already have reviewed most of the releases in some of the challenges (I know I have for my favourite genres), so making it 25 added a bit of certainty that everyone would still have some work to do.

I hope the difficulty doesn't discourage you from attempting the challenges, but even if it does, I hope you still find lots of value in what we're doing here at Metal Academy.

Cheers,

Ben.

You have a Spotify follower in me, I see that you have playlists for The North but haven't posted here yet. I couldn't even find some albums in the 1st decade list so I stopped and went to the second decade, saw that you also were missing some in the playlists as well.  Would love to get a chance to listen to them albums, but some of them are difficult to find. Metal has always been difficult to find and streaming services help but Spotify is definitely lacking in the metal department. Already been a fun challenge for me either way. 

If there is any (legal) way to find those albums for relatively decent price, I would love to listen to everything.

Hi Shezma. Have you tried YouTube? They are usually very good for finding obscure metal albums.

Unfortunately, unless they have had recent re-releases, early black metal albums can be quite expensive to buy on sites like Discogs or Amazon. Always worth looking though!

I always actually forget about listening to music on youtube, I could definitely try that for the albums I can't find on streaming services.  I don't like buying albums anymore, maybe one day when I actually have money and space to store them all where I could get to them easier but technology has made life so much better.

So I have managed to get through the North clan challenge sooner than I expected.  "The 2nd Decade" is complete for me.  What's the process for the 4th clan (probably a thread for it somewhere I missed, apols) do I just pick one and let Ben/Daniel know?

Congrats mate! Another big effort.

Once you've completed challenges for your original three clans (locking them in), you then need to complete a challenge for your fourth selected clan. You will then be added to that clan.

So close now. You're on the way to becoming the first Academy attendee to achieve a 4th clan!

Cheers.  Ok, will have a flick through and see which one appeals.