Chart Rate 'N' Review Club?

I see three or four people adding traditional weekly threads here on all of the clan sites, and since we have so few people here it makes me feel like a fifth wheel.  So I've been trying to think of a weekly game for us all, but I've also been thinking about ways to not only crank up the quality of our top charts page, but to get people maybe even to help each other with list challenges, and of course without getting in the way of the integrity of clan separation.  But the primary focus is the charts.

Here's my idea.  Basically, we pick one album a week to review, one that has only 5 ratings or less on the top releases chart, and hopefully we can bring the amount of votes up to ten.  The idea is to potentially flesh out the ratings of the albums on these charts more, get the top slots with the least votes rated by more members, and more accurately display the overall feelings of the whole community.  The idea is that I'd set one thread up for people to rate and / or post their reviews, and at the end of the week I'll post a report of its change in positioning.  This will also show whether or not we've been dedicated to this.

I trust the community here will not intentionally give low ratings to albums outside their clans.  Honestly, this doesn't feel like that kind of community.

If you want, we can let the clans take turns picking one album, obviously going from the first mentioned on the clans page to the last, meaning Fallen to Sphere.  I'll pretty much let the members decide on separate discussion threads for which album should represent the clan on the next thread, maybe two days in advance.  Whether or not we want the main club thread to be posted weekly in each individual clan forum is up for debate, although personally, I'm against it as the purpose is to branch out a little for the purpose of fleshing out the charts, not necessarily dueling with each other.  Although I'm fine if people want to start a thread on their own clan forums for discussing which should come next.

Another thing: maybe we should start with shorter albums between the 30 and hour range.  We may not all have time for two-hour live albums like Live in Mexico by Therion.Anyway, I didn't wanna go ahead and just post it out of the blue, but since I'm almost done with my job on Movieforums, I'm looking for something else to do to occupy my internet time as well.  Also, this is pretty much a first draft.  Thoughts?

Having just binned the review draft feature because of lack of time and inclination I personally don't fancy having another imposed review responsibility, so will respectfully decline.

Interesting idea, Rex! It would be great to find some albums that have very few ratings and make them more popular. Let's see what anyone else here thinks first...

Wouldn't this kind of just be a weirder feature of the month thing?  I don't know if I'd be much into this since I don't seem to be able to do much beyond about an album review a week anyway and certain clans are only very rarely interesting to me.

Wouldn't this kind of just be a weirder feature of the month thing?  I don't know if I'd be much into this since I don't seem to be able to do much beyond about an album review a week anyway and certain clans are only very rarely interesting to me.

I chose one album a week because anybody can spare time for that, even among the stuff to do on Metal Academy.  Besides, if we need to draw attention, we can start with albums that belong to two different clans, even for pretty weird ones like how Thorns is part of the Horde and the Sphere.

I have to concur with the others that my planned listening time is already maxed out by the monthly feature releases, particularly given my refusal to rate or review a release without giving it at least 3-4 active listens over a couple of days. I work 50+ hours a week & have three young kids who command all of my free time so I'd be reluctant to reduce my free listening time any further at this point when it only really amounts to the time before anyone else wakes up.

Rex, regardless of whether other members would like to participate in your suggested initiative, can I suggest that you join the feature release rosters for your chosen clans? That way you can choose releases that you'd like to have your fellow clan members attention drawn to &, in doing so, can potentially contribute to the cause listed above. It's not a bad way to see Hall of Judgement nominations coming to fruition too & I know you've been keen to contribute there too.

I have to concur with the others that my planned listening time is already maxed out by the monthly feature releases, particularly given my refusal to rate or review a release without giving it at least 3-4 active listens over a couple of days. I work 50+ hours a week & have three young kids who command all of my free time so I'd be reluctant to reduce my free listening time any further at this point when it only really amounts to the time before anyone else wakes up.

Rex, regardless of whether other members would like to participate in your suggested initiative, can I suggest that you join the feature release rosters for your chosen clans? That way you can choose releases that you'd like to have your fellow clan members attention drawn to &, in doing so, can potentially contribute to the cause listed above. It's not a bad way to see Hall of Judgement nominations coming to fruition too & I know you've been keen to contribute there too.

Whether or not you still agree with the actual purpose of this thread, I'm pretty much telling everyone this due to personal beliefs: if time is ever a problem for you, then this skill is for you, and I choose willingly not to "brag" about it because I firmly believe, again, that anyone can catch a whole album even while doing other stuff.  Even now I feel educated enough to write about the effect on my body and soul that those noisy shouts on Elite do and how well they blend with the sound effects, leaving the lyrical content to gleefully remain a mystery and let the emotion of the instruments and presence do all the talking.  I might even like Elite more than Digital Bath for its incredible and unique artistry, while still remaining somewhat consistent with the calmer and more introspective Digital Bath.  And I could go on about how much I adore the shift in style and weird behavior of Rx Queen's percussions, but I have a point to prove: I admit, I struggled a bit with the multitasking at first, but after years of practice, I came to one conclusion: I doubt I'm the only one who can do this.  And while I have this ability, I won't brag about it, but I WILL own it.

And before anyone can say it, yes I heard White Pony once years ago, and completely forgot everything about it later because alt-metal isn't my style.  So memory has nothing to do with it.

Look, I can't speak for anyone else but I can assure you that my opinion on a release changes over three active listens. The first listen is always about resetting my expectations & removing any preconceptions that I may have held about what was in store for me. It's only on the second listen that I start to gain access to some of the nuances & begin to reach an informed opinion. The third listen confirms that my thoughts from the second listen are correct & decides between close scoring calls which is always easier for me on the third listen. Sometimes I may even need a fourth listen to firm up my opinion if the release is quite complex.

Honestly, I don't even want to only listen to a release just the once. I like to become more involved with my music than that. Call me a wanker for saying this but, as a musician myself, I feel that I owe it to the artist in some way. I never do anything requiring brain power while listening to music that I intend the rate or review either as I like to be fully present & immerse myself in the artist's vision so I'm either lying, driving or walking. 

Not everyone has the same skills and abilities, Rex and I must admit, you seem extraordinarily fortunate in your ability to produce a review after one listen. But, speaking only for myself, I personally have an inordinate difficulty producing reviews and really have to concentrate in order to do so. In fact, weird though it sounds, I actually find producing reviews incredibly stressful. Like Daniel, it takes me several listens to firm up my impressions of a record and more often than not, by later listens I find my initial impressions are modified, if not completely changed. Of course if I really hate something on first listen then I am unlikely to follow with further listens. 

Also why do you assume that we only listen to music in order to review it? Isn't it more important to listen for personal enjoyment? Why would I only want to listen to an album I enjoy one time? I understand your enthusiasm, but the nine chosen features (along with three or four 2-hour playlists) are more than enough for me as far as other people determining my listening habits for the month goes and I will pass on this initiative thanks.

I have to concur with the others that my planned listening time is already maxed out by the monthly feature releases, particularly given my refusal to rate or review a release without giving it at least 3-4 active listens over a couple of days. I work 50+ hours a week & have three young kids who command all of my free time so I'd be reluctant to reduce my free listening time any further at this point when it only really amounts to the time before anyone else wakes up.

Rex, regardless of whether other members would like to participate in your suggested initiative, can I suggest that you join the feature release rosters for your chosen clans? That way you can choose releases that you'd like to have your fellow clan members attention drawn to &, in doing so, can potentially contribute to the cause listed above. It's not a bad way to see Hall of Judgement nominations coming to fruition too & I know you've been keen to contribute there too.

Lemme stop you at the 3-4 times bit.  Don't take this the wrong way, and I understand you have a lot on your plate.  But if a nobody like me can write a detailed review after one listen, I know you have the brainpower to do so.  With so much on your plate, you have to have developed a good skill in multitasking by now.  I always stand by a strict belief that anyone is capable of anything with real practice.  You don't have to memorize an album in order to review it.  So whatever you're doing when you're listening to an album, likely working on this site, all you gotta do is let once be enough and keep in mind similar albums to compare it to.  Example, right now I'm planning all of this out while listening to White Pony.  I've already sensed some major creative differences between this and Around the Fur.

Whether or not you still agree with the actual purpose of this thread, I'm pretty much telling everyone this due to personal beliefs: if time is ever a problem for you, then this skill is for you, and I choose willingly not to "brag" about it because I firmly believe, again, that anyone can catch a whole album even while doing other stuff.  Even now I feel educated enough to write about the effect on my body and soul that those noisy shouts on Elite do and how well they blend with the sound effects, leaving the lyrical content to gleefully remain a mystery and let the emotion of the instruments and presence do all the talking.  I might even like Elite more than Digital Bath for its incredible and unique artistry, while still remaining somewhat consistent with the calmer and more introspective Digital Bath.  And I could go on about how much I adore the shift in style and weird behavior of Rx Queen's percussions, but I have a point to prove: I admit, I struggled a bit with the multitasking at first, but after years of practice, I came to one conclusion: I doubt I'm the only one who can do this.  And while I have this ability, I won't brag about it, but I WILL own it.

And before anyone can say it, yes I heard White Pony once years ago, and completely forgot everything about it later because alt-metal isn't my style.  So memory has nothing to do with it.

In my experience, needlessly burning through album after album without taking the time to enjoy them and grow to understand them for me defeats the point of listening to music in the first place.  Don't assume everyone is as "skilled" as yourself either because although you stipulate you are not bragging, it most certainly comes across that way in this post.  How's about "sharing" your personal beliefs instead of "telling everyone"?  Otherwise the above just looks incredibly preachy.

As the other established members of the site have stipulated above, we don't have need for any other challenges as there is more than enough already in place and these have been developed by Ben and Daniel who have put significant amounts of time into the site to get it to where it is today, supported by the members of course - which as Daniel says, you are free to contribute to also.  Your "fifth wheel" seems to be one of your own making.

I'm sure no-one needs to hear another voice on this matter, but I guess I have a slightly different take. I've come to realise that I need a different amount of listens depending on the style of music I'm listening to. When it comes to (as an example) thrash metal, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of it after a single listen. I'll always give it more opportunities to move up or down (usually up if anything), but I often find that my original opinion doesn't change much. When it comes death metal though, for some reason it takes me literally 4 or 5 listens before I feel confident in my opinion. I've heard a lot of new death metal albums lately for which I initially wondered what all the fuss was about, and then suddenly it clicked around that 4th of 5th listen. What was perhaps a 3.5 to 4 is suddenly a 4.5. Having gone through this experience enough times, I just don't feel like I'm doing an album or artist justice by rating it before I hit that confidence mark, no matter how long that takes. I think I gave Gorguts' Obscura album about 8 listens in the last two weeks, as that's an example of an experience that likely can't be fathomed on first listen.

All this said, you be you Rexorcist. Consume metal the way that works for you. I honestly wish that I didn't need to dedicate so much time to every release. I could experience so many more albums if that were the case. I do like to be thorough though, and when I do finally add a score for a release to Metal Academy, I want people to know that I gave it my all before settling on it.

Not everyone has the same skills and abilities, Rex and I must admit, you seem extraordinarily fortunate in your ability to produce a review after one listen. But, speaking only for myself, I personally have an inordinate difficulty producing reviews and really have to concentrate in order to do so. In fact, weird though it sounds, I actually find producing reviews incredibly stressful. Like Daniel, it takes me several listens to firm up my impressions of a record and more often than not, by later listens I find my initial impressions are modified, if not completely changed. Of course if I really hate something on first listen then I am unlikely to follow with further listens. 

Also why do you assume that we only listen to music in order to review it? Isn't it more important to listen for personal enjoyment? Why would I only want to listen to an album I enjoy one time? I understand your enthusiasm, but the nine chosen features (along with three or four 2-hour playlists) are more than enough for me as far as other people determining my listening habits for the month goes and I will pass on this initiative thanks.

A: Where do I ever say "people only listen to music to write reviews?" or "I don't enjoy an album where writing a review?" OR "You're ONLY SUPPOSED to listen to any album once in your life?" The whole purpose of that shpeel was to help give Daniel a little extra time.

In my experience, needlessly burning through album after album without taking the time to enjoy them and grow to understand them for me defeats the point of listening to music in the first place.  Don't assume everyone is as "skilled" as yourself either because although you stipulate you are not bragging, it most certainly comes across that way in this post.  How's about "sharing" your personal beliefs instead of "telling everyone"?  Otherwise the above just looks incredibly preachy.

As the other established members of the site have stipulated above, we don't have need for any other challenges as there is more than enough already in place and these have been developed by Ben and Daniel who have put significant amounts of time into the site to get it to where it is today, supported by the members of course - which as Daniel says, you are free to contribute to also.  Your "fifth wheel" seems to be one of your own making.

Again, I never said I didn't enjoy the music.  And if you read any of my reviews you'd know that I AM sharing my thoughts.  No one else's fault but yours if your feelings take over and misinterpret things.  And no offense to Ben and Daniel, but the charts section hasn't been changing for months, and I'm the only one actually voting and rating those albums on a consistent basis.  You say "supported by the members," well are you actually helping with the site or are you just hanging around the forums?  In case you didn't notice, I'm trying to put some active help into making the website look good too.  Not my fault if you don't appreciate it, but if the feature releases aren't doing much for other areas of the site, then the truth is obvious: Metal Academy needs more than two people.  Sorry if you're convincing yourself to be offended by me balancing my music enjoyment with trying to improve this place thanks to your seemingly second nature of believing any skill you believe you can't do is apparently pretentiousness because you gave up on it.

The charts section is an important part of the site, too.  But I'm not gonna just "wait for others" to show up.

I think it is probably best if we put this one to bed before the mud-slinging gets too bad. Personally, I like the Academy forums because of the respect members show for each other's points of view, whether agreeing with them or not. If we are going the way of other sites then I'm afraid you can count me out and I will just go back to doing my own thing and leave the forums to others.

And just as easy as that we get to you attacking the site.  Your lack of self-reflection is astonishing.  The site does need more people but I am convinced it doesn't need you Rex.

And just as easy as that we get to you attacking the site.  Your lack of self-reflection is astonishing.  The site does need more people but I am convinced it doesn't need you Rex.

That was adorable.  Sorry if I'm willing to help the site.  I'm sure you have your own to worry about 

Let's not continue any further down this path.

Rexorcist, it's obviously great that you want to help the site. The idea you raised here is genuinely a good one, but unfortunately many of the site regulars appear to be too occupied to take part at this time. There's no reason you can't just start doing it and other members can jump in and out whenever they feel they have the time or see an album that tickles their fancy.

The main way everyone can help the site is to keep things respectful and not be combative with other site members, which is something we've for the most part managed to achieve for years now. I won't deny that I'd like for the site to grow, but I'd rather have only a handful of friendly site members than hundreds of regular members that are intentionally combative and making people feel belittled or angry. Speaking for myself, I love the site, and get enough out of its current functionality, and the admittedly small community that we have, that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Alright, then I'll start the thread in the general chat.  One album a week.  And I'll switch between clans to keep it nice and even.  But the only problem I have is people misinterpreting things and twisting my words without even realizing it.  That was the only problem I've had.  It caused a lot of problems for me before.

I was thinking about the one-listen-review concept some more last night & there are two other elements that come into play (at least they do for me personally). I find that mood & context can skew my view on a release one way or the other. For example, if I'm tired & listen to a highly intense or complex death metal album, there's no way that I'll appreciate it as much as if I'm wide awake & energetic. Or if I've just listened to Marduk & then decide to put on Twisted Sister, I'm always going to find Twisted Sister to be fairly light-weight in comparison which may impact my scoring but I still might feel like listening to them. The same goes for production as some production jobs will inevitably sound dodgier or more impressive than they are depending on what you play them after. For that reason, I like to listen to my music in a couple of different headspaces & environments before reaching a consensus on what rating I'll award a particular release & I never do my final listen late in the day when I'm not alert. Perhaps I take this process a little too seriously but... ya know what... Ben & I run an online metal ratings/reviews website so the integrity of our views can be kinda a big deal for parts of our audience.

Daniel's are more of a big deal than mine. At least, that's what he's been telling me since I was 12 years old.

To be fair, I'd listen to his death metal opinions above mine. We often disagree, but then I find myself coming around to his way of thinking more often than I'd like to admit (ssshhhh... don't tell him I said that).

I was thinking about the one-listen-review concept some more last night & there are two other elements that come into play (at least they do for me personally). I find that mood & context can skew my view on a release one way or the other. For example, if I'm tired & listen to a highly intense or complex death metal album, there's no way that I'll appreciate it as much as if I'm wide awake & energetic. Or if I've just listened to Marduk & then decide to put on Twisted Sister, I'm always going to find Twisted Sister to be fairly light-weight in comparison which may impact my scoring but I still might feel like listening to them. The same goes for production as some production jobs will inevitably sound dodgier or more impressive than they are depending on what you play them after. For that reason, I like to listen to my music in a couple of different headspaces & environments before reaching a consensus on what rating I'll award a particular release & I never do my final listen late in the day when I'm not alert. Perhaps I take this process a little too seriously but... ya know what... Ben & I run an online metal ratings/reviews website so the integrity of our views can be kinda a big deal for parts of our audience.

This.  Exactly this.

Let's not continue any further down this path.

Noted Ben.

To be fair, I'd listen to his death metal opinions above mine. We often disagree, but then I find myself coming around to his way of thinking more often than I'd like to admit (ssshhhh... don't tell him I said that).

I'd suggest that people make an exception with melodic death metal Ben. I think we both know that I can't be trusted to provide a fair judgement in that space.