Ben's Forum Replies

You might notice that whenever I'm adding new releases, I always try to end up with a quality cover for each clan. Ideally that cover will be representative of the clan overall as well.

The Guardians is always super easy, as about 75% of their album covers are fantasy.

The Revolution is the most difficult as the covers for its genres often don't follow any sort of representing themes. All the Deathcore albums have Horde-like imagery, but the Metalcore ones defy any sort of common theme.

I spend the most time trying to find a great cover for a Fallen release, as that's the first thing people see when they log in.

Yes, I spend way too much time thinking about this stuff. 

I agree with you Tymell. The Guardians definitely have the most consistently awesome covers, but The Horde and The North are totally my bag.

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 2nd to the 3rd of December, 2020.

1. Dimhav (GUARDIANS, INFINITE)

2. Neck of the Woods (INFINITE, HORDE, REVOLUTION)

3. Fleshworld (INFINITE, FALLEN)

4. Déluge (INFINITE, NORTH)

5. Spiritbox (INFINITE, REVOLUTION, GATEWAY)

6. Naeramarth (INFINITE) - requested by illusionist

7. High Priestess (FALLEN)

8. Saturno (FALLEN, NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

9. Nero or the Fall of Rome (FALLEN, NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

10. Xoth (HORDE, NORTH, PIT)

11. Outre Tombe (HORDE) - requested by MacabreEternal

12. Ebony Pendant (NORTH)

13. Stormkeep (NORTH)

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 26th of November to the 1st of December, 2020.

1. Cremator (PIT) - requested by Daniel

2. Rampage (PIT) - requested by Daniel

3. Massive Appendage (PIT) - requested by Daniel

4. Enforced (PIT)

5. Surra (PIT)

6. Screamer (GUARDIANS)

7. Mirror (GUARDIANS)

8. Hello Kitty Suicide Club (HORDE)

9. Phobophilic (HORDE)

10. Ossuary (HORDE)

11. Vomit Forth (HORDE)

12. Omegavortex (HORDE, NORTH)

13. Carnal Tomb (HORDE)

14. Disamara (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

15. Wagner Ödegård (NORTH)

16. Këkht Aräkh (NORTH)

17. Truchło strzygi (NORTH)

18. Lichmagick (NORTH)

19. Ayr (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

20. Czort (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

21. Eternal Valley (NORTH) - requested by MacabreEternal

22. Ifing (NORTH) - requested by MacabreEternal

23. Sulphuric Night (NORTH)

24. Old Corpse Road (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

25. The Infernal Sea (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

26. Faustcoven (NORTH, FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

27. Barren Altar (NORTH, FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

28. Leechfeast (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

29. Green Druid (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

30. Alms (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

31. Ursa (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

32. Body Void (FALLEN)

33. Never Ending Game (REVOLUTION)

34. Thornhill (REVOLUTION, INFINITE)

35. Dead Kiwis (REVOLUTION)

36. Mortality Rate (REVOLUTION)

37. Ray Alder (INFINITE)

38. E-L-R (INFINITE)

I very much enjoyed this one Daniel. I already knew that the Solitude Aeturnus, Draconian and Evoken tracks are amazing (I selected them for that reason), but the Cult of Luna track is just as incredible! I've not checked out the Julie Christmas collaboration album, but I sure will now. Monolord was pretty enjoyable too.

Probably the only tracks that didn't float my boat were Robots Of The Ancient World (have we heard enough bands with this Sabbath-cloning sound?) and Neptunian Maximalism (which just isn't my thing). Still, I'm happy to know what these bands are about now.

Good stuff!

I'm afraid I generally ignore splits. There's the odd occasion where one of my favourite bands is involved in a split (such as Ruins of Beverast), but so often I find that the material ends up being released separately anyway. One of the things I love about metal is that bands create "albums" rather than just "songs". Split releases generally ruin that album length theme and consistency, just as cover tracks so often do.

I'm probably missing out on some great tracks by not really partaking, so maybe it's time I got over my bias.

OK, now I feel bad about all the things I said about you! 

Um... you're welcome!

Like I was wrong about you being a supportive brother?

I've just been salty ever since you openly mocked my love of Summoning on the Metal Academy podcast.

Yeah, I always try to go into listening to something with an unbiased ear. If you go in assuming you're going to hate something, you generally will.

Also, I've found (throughout life really), that Daniel can often be wrong. 

I've now completed the latest run of site improvements. I believe I've implemented all but one suggestion (MacabreEternal's suggestion to add a navigation toolbar at the bottom), which I'll revisit at some point.

I hope you all enjoy the changes and feel like a genuine part of this community. We'll continue to modify the site based on member feedback while we attempt to craft a highly functional metal-focused community website that encourages all types of metal fans and opinions.

I've implemented both of Sonny's suggestions, adding a descriptor for the member selector while making it searchable.

So it's now really easy to see what any particular site member rated the albums on any given list.

I give your rating system a 4. 

Mine would be something like...

5 - A perfect (or as close as you can get to perfect) release. One of the very best!

4 - A really great release, and one that I'll go back to time and time again.

3 - A decent release. Very listenable, but either inconsistent or fails to stand out from the crowd.

2 - A pretty bad release. I'll rarely if ever listen to it again.

1 - A terrible release that's basically unlistenable.

This request has been upheld by the Hall and has therefore been added to The Infinite.

Ben, please add Cremator (Australia), Rampage (Australia) & Massive Appendage (Australia).

You've always wanted a massive appendage.

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 21st to the 25th of November, 2020.

1. Ebonivory (INFINITE)

2. Ghostemane (SPHERE, REVOLUTION)

3. Psychosexual (SPHERE, GATEWAY)

4. Miasmatic Necrosis (HORDE)

5. Kruelty (HORDE, REVOLUTION)

6. Putrescent Seepage (HORDE)

7. Induced (HORDE)

8. Goratory (HORDE)

9. Purtenance (HORDE, FALLEN)

10. Terminal Nation (HORDE)

11. Ecclesia (FALLEN) - requested by Tymell

12. Towards Atlantis Lights (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

13. Deathbell (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

14. Angel of Damnation (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

15. Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard / Slomatics (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

16. The Suns Journey Through the Night (NORTH)

17. Somme (NORTH)

18. Karnilapakte (NORTH)

19. Blaze of Sorrow (NORTH)

20. Baader-Meinhof (NORTH)

21. Batushka (Bartłomiej Krysiuk) (NORTH)

22. Psychonaut 4 (NORTH)

23. Belore (NORTH)

24. Old Nick (NORTH)

25. Darkenhöld (NORTH)

26. Ages (NORTH)

27. Black Veil Brides (REVOLUTION, GUARDIANS)

28. Fever 333 (GATEWAY)

Actually, I've just discovered that two other releases have unbeatable Yes leads. I will push through those changes tomorrow and close them off.

I'm very excited about one of them, as it goes against every other metal site on the internet.

The issue of there not being much activity in the Hall has been lessened by me now having the ability to close off a request earlier when there is an unbeatable lead. I've just closed off both of the Vektor requests and added both of them to The Infinite.

There are a few other releases that are close to being unbeatable. No, I won't tell you what they are. I don't want to sway people's voting by them knowing what the general consensus is. I actually feel this is the number one reason why RYM is often wrong. People feel like they can't state their opinion when it's different to everyone else. Anonymity  and no visibility of other's choices means people can safely give their own (real) opinions.

Hey Ben, could you possibly take a look at the "Apply other person's ratings" button whenever you click into a list? I think that a descriptor or heading would make it much more clear as to what it actually does. Even though I was able to figure it out on my own, it looks out of place since its use isn't immediately apparent. I originally assumed that it was used for Clan Challenges to filter the list of albums to only show the ones the person had completed, but if it's going to be at the top of every list then I think some direction is important. 

The list creation is really nice by the way, the ability to search either artist name or album name without having to change a bunch of search options is way more convenient. Showing the full release information with the reviews/ratings on all the lists is a great call too in my opinion. 

Yes, Daniel had the same question, so it's obviously something I need to make clearer. Will get something added.

I'm all for encouraging people to vote on requests, but I can't say I understand why you're asking people to vote here when they can (and should) just go straight to the Hall of vote there.

So if you don't agree with both requested changes Tymell, your answer should be no.

I generally encourage people to make one change request at a time (the most likely change to go through). The more changes you're requesting at once, the less chance you have of the whole thing going through.

I don't see how I can make the system allow for a yes and a no vote at the same time.

The above suggested categories have been added to the My List section and the relevant filters are available on the Public Lists page.

Please have a play around and let me know what you think!

Would it also be possible to sort by most recently made, so that you could view any newer lists first?

Yeah, I reckon so. So default to most likes, but allow for order of creation.

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 14th to the 20th of November, 2020.

1. Hyperion (GUARDIANS) - requested by Tymell

2. Adamantis (GUARDIANS) - requested by Tymell

3. Precambrian (NORTH)

4. Onirik (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

5. Ceremonial Bloodbath (NORTH, HORDE)

6. Swarming (NORTH, HORDE)

7. Mora Prokaza (NORTH, INFINITE)

8. Botanist (NORTH, INFINITE)

9. Yoth Iria (NORTH)

10. Schizophrenia (PIT, HORDE)

11. Within Destruction (REVOLUTION, HORDE)

12. In Hearts Wake (REVOLUTION, GATEWAY)

13. Melted Bodies (INFINITE, GATEWAY)

14. Kaunis Kuolematon (FALLEN, HORDE) - requested by Tymell

15. Aphonic Threnody (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

16. Kryptograf (FALLEN)

17. Vacant Eyes (FALLEN) - requested by Tymell

18. Bloodsoaked Necrovoid (FALLEN, HORDE)

19. Edenic Past (HORDE)

20. The Last Reign (HORDE) - requested by Tymell

21. Bastard Priest (HORDE)

22. Unurnment (HORDE)

23. Countless Skies (HORDE) - requested by Tymell

An excellent idea. I'll attempt to do just that.

Hi Ben. I'm sorry for being thick, but I'm still not getting it. When you say you select, clan, genre and year do you mean via a function that has yet to be added or do we need to state all those things in the list title? I have begun another list but have not been asked to select any of those categories anywhere.

Sorry if I haven't been clear, but this is a design discussion. I haven't added the categories or filters yet. I just wanted to gather some feedback from the community before I go down that path. There could be a better way to configure things that I haven't thought of.

Has anyone tried using this yet? Keen to know what people think. Could it work better? Is it worth keeping the Select Year filter?

Hi Ben, I am a little unsure what you mean. Do you intend to have different sections within the list section to differentiate years, genres etc or do you mean to have a list section within each separate clan? The latter may help tidy things up for clan-specific lists leaving the main lists section for more generalised listings, such as "Greatest Albums of the 1990's" or other less genre-specific lists.

LIST CREATION IN MY LISTS

I'm suggesting that when you're creating a new list, you have to select the Genre, Clan and Year that it relates too. If the list covers multiple of any of those categories, then you select All or Multiple. So every list will have All, Multiple or a specific value for each of those categories.

VIEWING LISTS IN PUBLIC LISTS

I would add User, Genre, Clan and Year filters on the Public Lists page. You would therefore be able to find any lists that (for example) include ONLY black metal albums from 2020, or perhaps any Revolution specific list that covers any date range, or any Doom Metal specific lists for 2018 created by Sonny92 (which would no doubt be pretty awesome).

Make sense? If anyone thinks the system could be different / better, please speak up. I want to get this as close to right as possible before we plough ahead and start making stacks of lists.

Ben, I just found an issue here, the lists are unable to load in mobile devices like iPhones. Can you please find a way to fix that? Thanks.

I can't see any issue with the lists on my iPhone. Can you be more specific around what you're experiencing? Thanks.

If anyone has any further feedback (either good or bad) on the Gallery functions shown in this thread, please let me know ASAP. I want to make sure everything is all good before closing off with my developer.

If anyone has any further feedback (either good or bad) on the Charts functions shown in this thread, please let me know ASAP. I want to make sure everything is all good before closing off with my developer.

OK guys, I need your help. I really think the My Lists / Public Lists feature could be a really fun and useful feature of Metal Academy, but it needs some work. Let's all put our heads together and design the best possible outcome, then I'll do my best to make it happen.

MY THOUGHTS...

In its current state, the Public List section is going to become a complete mess, as everyone's going to create and "publish" their own stuff. It needs to be organised, and the best way to do that is to use categories. It would be really interesting to see attendee top 10 lists for any given year for example, but it would be even cooler if you could see their top 10 list for any given clan for any given year.

So maybe whenever someone creates a list, it's required that they select what year, clan or genre it covers,. They always have the option to leave one or more of those options blank if its not relevant. I could then display all created lists on the Public Lists page and have a title search function, but also offer the ability to find lists that specifically cover a year, clan or genre, or any combination.

I don't think this system limits anyone from making whatever list they want and sharing it, but it does create some control over how searchable and neat it is. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, and anyone has any other ideas for how it can work (no matter how different they are), please raise them.

Cheers,

Ben.

Yet another bit of functionality has been added to The Gallery page. You can now view all the covers you've rated, and even display all the covers you've given certain ratings. I must admit I think this is pretty cool. 

I've added another bit of functionality to the Charts page. You can now select your own minimum ratings option.

Mors Principium Est - Pure from The Unborn (2005)

Akercocke - Verdelet from Words That Go Unspoken, Deads That Go Undone (2005)

Behemoth - O Father O Satan O Sun! from The Satanist (2014)

Aborym -  Disgust and Rage (Sic Transit Gloria Mundi) from Generator (2006)

Shining - Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie from III - Angst - Självdestruktivitetens Emissarie (2002)

And this month's underground gem is...

Asgaroth - Naked Eye from Red Shift (2001)

Great to see the charts expanded. I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be a problem. When I went onto page two of The Pit chart, it shows the second page of the chart for the combined clans, not just for The Pit releases. Oh, and for The North.

This has been fixed now.

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 10th to the 13th of November, 2020.

1. Lesser Glow (FALLEN, INFINITE)

2. Sleepwulf (FALLEN)

3. Rosy Finch (FALLEN)

4 Anhedonist / Spectral Voice (FALLEN, HORDE)

5. Bismarck (FALLEN)

6. Nova Twins (GATEWAY)

7. Memories of Old (GUARDIANS)

8. Ashbel (INFINITE)

9. Titan to Tachyons (INFINITE)

10. Creature (INFINITE, NORTH)

11. Sxuperion (NORTH, HORDE)

12. Feral Light (NORTH)

13. Oldowan Gash (NORTH)

14. Ljosazabojstwa (NORTH, HORDE)

15. Together to the Stars (NORTH)

16. Ossaert (NORTH)

17. Illkynja (NORTH)

18. Cultus Profano (NORTH)

19. Mefitic (NORTH, HORDE)

20. 156/Silence (REVOLUTION)

21. Fit for a King (REVOLUTION)

22. DEAFBRICK (SPHERE)

23. Tarpan (HORDE)

24. Bear Mace (HORDE)

25. Death Courier (HORDE)

26. Aseitas (HORDE)

27. Pessimist (HORDE) - requested by Tymell

28. Cult of Lilith (HORDE)

29. Pestifer (HORDE)

Great to see the charts expanded. I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be a problem. When I went onto page two of The Pit chart, it shows the second page of the chart for the combined clans, not just for The Pit releases. Oh, and for The North.

Thanks Sonny. Will get that fixed.

According to RYM the sub-genres of doom metal are death doom, funeral doom and so-called traditional doom. So if it's not death or funeral doom it's traditional. In other words it is JUST FUCKIN' DOOM!!!! 

Yep. Which is why I'm ignoring Traditional Doom Metal when creating the subgenres. It's a pet hate of mine too.

Yeah, I've seen that happen myself. I'll try to sort, but might be tricky. The link is recording what page Sonny was on when he wrote that reply. The reply happened to push over to the next page, but that happens after the link is created. I'll see what can be done.

I'm inspired to get my entries in early this month to make sure Draconian's latest albums gets a look in. What a fantastic album! Sonny, I'd be surprised if you didn't dig the track I've selected.

1. Draconian - Ascend into Darkness from Under a Godless Veil (2020)

2. Solitude Aeturnus - Opaque Divinity from Into the Depths of Sorrow (1991)

3. Evoken - In Pestilence, Burning from Quietus (2001)

Feel free to check the album out shadowdoom, but it won't take more than a couple of minutes to know that it doesn't fit in The Fallen in the slightest. Is it gothic? Absolutely! Is it Gothic Metal, absolutely not!

It's actually just a remix / remaster of an album from 1998, so really shouldn't be appearing on RYM as a separate release to the original anyway.

If I had the ability to strip back all the genres and rebuild them, I'd take out descriptive terms altogether. I know that might sound weird, but stay with me. The issue with genre names like Gothic Metal and Symphonic Metal is that people will always apply them to releases that they feel have gothic or symphonic elements in the truest sense. Progressive Metal is no better, as any album that has anything that anyone considers to be "progressive" will be tagged that way.

Genres are useful when they allow fans of distinctive sounding releases / bands to find more music that's similar in style. Being recommended a death metal album that has a symphonic element when your a fan of Epica or latter-day Therion just isn't helpful. Being recommended Negura Bunget's OM when you're a fan of Dream Theater is also unlikely to result in a happy experience.

It's for this reason that I think genre names like Death Metal and Black Metal are great. They fit the sound and thematic tendencies without resulting in loads of releases being incorrectly tagged as them due to the names. No-one is thinking "this album has lots of death in it, so it must be a death metal album".

In a way this is one of the reasons I designed Metal Academy. The clans give us a different way to think about music classifications. The question of whether or not a release fits snugly into a specific genre isn't as relevant here as  questions like "does this release feel right in it's current clan(s)". If it doesn't then, I'd also question whether that release's genre tags are actually relevant. Cradle of Filth is a perfect example. Does calling it Gothic Metal achieve the goal of allowing fans of Paradise Lost to find music they will likely enjoy?

Actually, this is a very apt discussion, as I just ran a best Gothic Metal chart on RYM. Below is the result. Everyone happy with a Cradle of Filth album topping the list?

The Sphere was definitely the trickiest genre to deal with when designing Metal Academy. As you suggested, I was tempted to merge The Gateway and The Sphere together, but in truth they have very little to do with each other. The biggest issue with The Sphere is that any release that has an industrial edge can be given the tag, which means black metal albums that have industrial elements (such as Dodheimsgard and Aborym) are included. Fans of The Gateway are rarely going to be into that, so that option didn't seem like a good one. Daniel and I decided early on that we shouldn't jam genres into clans. If they didn't fit anywhere else, then a separate clan needed to be made. Yes, I may have made an exception when I jammed Trance Metal into The Revolution, but I wasn't about to create a clan to hold what was at the time under 50 releases.

As for Gothic Metal, I personally feel that's a pretty logical inclusion in The Fallen. Bands like Tristania and Draconian would seem out of place anywhere else, and while I admit that Cradle of Filth are a strange sight amongst all the doom, there are outliers in every clan. It still bugs me to see Septic Flesh in The Guardians, but the majority of Symphonic Metal fits quite snugly in that genre.

At the end of the day there was and never will be a perfect set of clans, and personal opinions will always clash with some of our decisions. I'm still pretty happy with what we came up with though. 

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 5th to the 9th of November, 2020.

1. Shards of Humanity (PIT, HORDE)

2. Condor (PIT) - requested by MacabreEternal

3. Reign of Fury (PIT)

4. Vulvodynia (REVOLUTION)

5. Dekadent (INFINITE, NORTH, GUARDIANS) - requested by Revolution666

6. Sadistic Drive (HORDE)

7. AHNA (HORDE, FALLEN)

8. Sanctifying Ritual (HORDE)

9. Shezmu (HORDE, NORTH)

10. Auðn (NORTH) - requested by Sonny92

11. Revenant Marquis​ / ​Lamp of Murmuur (NORTH)

12. Begotten (NORTH)

13. Blasphamagoatachrist (NORTH)

14. Martwa Aura (NORTH)

15. Level 10 (GUARDIANS)

16. Revenge (GUARDIANS)

17. Mammoth Storm (FALLEN)

I agree with Daniel on this one. A very solid release that was actually pretty exciting at the time!

I'm actually pretty happy to see some of the lesser praised Testament albums on your list saxystephens. I really enjoyed those albums back in the day and feel they're harshly judged. You've made me want to go and listen to them again.