MESHUGGAH - KOLOSS

[mastodon421]

My full review if anyone cares: http://maitlandsmadness.blogspot.com...ah-koloss.html

[Natrlhi]

Originally Posted by mastodon421

...one of the most disappointing records in recent memory...

...easily one of the biggest letdowns of the past five years or so...

Yet you still give it a three out of five. Yeah.

The primary problem with your review is that you, like so many other folks on this site and rookies to the reviewing game, haven't yet learned the value of a little thing called restraint. It's all or nothing with you people. You either love something to bits, or you fucking hate it with all your might. It's all about superlatives and extremes with you. You lack good language skills to describe the middle ground, and so you give the correct score to fit your true opinion, but your words sound like you hated the damn thing with every fiber of your being.

....and by the way, by saying that the album is "one of the biggest letdowns of the last five years", you're lumping it in with monumental piles of shit like Illud Divinum Insanus, which is clearly a whole different fucking neighborhood than where Koloss belongs (again, at least based on the score you granted).

Sorry to be harsh, but obviously I'm tying to get not only your attention, but perhaps that of a few other folks as well who may read your review before listening to the album and decide that it's not worthwhile - which it definitely is. This album is a grower - something you probably wouldn't realize because it seems that you were more worried about getting your opinion out there before anybody else than you were about giving the album a fair assessment (glaring issue number two).

Take your time. Use some restraint. Find the middle ground and get comfortable describing it. Say positive things in the midst of even the most negative reviews (unless whatever you're reviewing really is utter horseshit - which I will tell you is much more rare than you think). Learn to say negative things without coming off as someone who just likes to criticize just to hear himself speak.

Do these things, and you will be taken more seriously, I promise.

Or don't. After all, what do I know?

[treghet]

Nat, you need to teach the people at Metal-Archives how to write reviews.

[JLRedWing13]

Just finished my first listen. I liked it, much more than I thought I would after reading the mostly negative reactions. I'm not as familiar with Meshuggah as most on here, but I enjoyed it and look forward to spinning it again, as well as seeing them live.

[ravenheart]

Originally Posted by MetalIsArt

Never liked this band anyway.

Then why are you in a thread about them?

[Dextrimental]

First impression, I prefer it to ObZen, probably the best first impression I've gotten from a latter day Meshuggah record. Hopefully the album has lasting appeal!

[illuminatus917]

Originally Posted by treghet

Nat, you need to teach the people at Metal-Archives how to write reviews.

Natrlhi > 70-75% of the reviewers there. There's a little coterie of reviewers there though that are truly excellent at what they do, and I'd be willing to bet Natrlhi would admit that.

Originally Posted by JLRedWing13

Just finished my first listen. I liked it, much more than I thought I would after reading the mostly negative reactions. I'm not as familiar with Meshuggah as most on here, but I enjoyed it and look forward to spinning it again, as well as seeing them live.

Where the fuck have you been?

[llama lom]

Although I can get why people were disappointed, I am really happy with this album. It's definitely a lot slower and more of a groove oriented album, but I love the way they did it. The fact that they worked with less riffs made it simpler and a lot easier to enjoy. It also had more of an album feel as opposed to a compilation of tracks they just happened to write. I even enjoyed the two tracks they released beforehand a lot more in this run through than when they came out. My heart was pounding the entire way through it and I don't think any album has ever done that for me ever. The Last Vigil was actually a nice way to bring it back down. This is easily my favorite Meshuggah album.

[mastodon421]

Originally Posted by Natrlhi

Yet you still give it a three out of five. Yeah.

The primary problem with your review is that you, like so many other folks on this site and rookies to the reviewing game, haven't yet learned the value of a little thing called restraint. It's all or nothing with you people. You either love something to bits, or you fucking hate it with all your might. It's all about superlatives and extremes with you. You lack good language skills to describe the middle ground, and so you give the correct score to fit your true opinion, but your words sound like you hated the damn thing with every fiber of your being.

....and by the way, by saying that the album is "one of the biggest letdowns of the last five years", you're lumping it in with monumental piles of shit like Illud Divinum Insanus, which is clearly a whole different fucking neighborhood than where Koloss belongs (again, at least based on the score you granted).

Sorry to be harsh, but obviously I'm tying to get not only your attention, but perhaps that of a few other folks as well who may read your review before listening to the album and decide that it's not worthwhile - which it definitely is. This album is a grower - something you probably wouldn't realize because it seems that you were more worried about getting your opinion out there before anybody else than you were about giving the album a fair assessment (glaring issue number two).

Take your time. Use some restraint. Find the middle ground and get comfortable describing it. Say positive things in the midst of even the most negative reviews (unless whatever you're reviewing really is utter horseshit - which I will tell you is much more rare than you think). Learn to say negative things without coming off as someone who just likes to criticize just to hear himself speak.

Do these things, and you will be taken more seriously, I promise.

Or don't. After all, what do I know?

You're not being harsh at all! I appreciate any form of feedback. I've been writing reviews for a couple of years now and am always trying to improve and you gave me some good tips. I'm going to be honest, I don't always write like I did in the this review, I just couldn't over how letdown I was by the record. I agree, I was definitely too negative in my wording considering it got a decent score, but again it all comes back to how disapointing this record is to me. I had listened to Koloss three times through before I wrote that, so that wasn't just my first impression. I like to give records at least a couple of spins before I write a review. As of right now (I haven't listened to again since I wrote the review), It hasn't grown on me one bit. I still echo what I wrote in the review, the memorable riffs and grooves just aren't there and that's a big part of what makes Meshuggah so great. Anyways, I do appreciate your advice Nat and I will do my best to apply your advice to my writing in the future.

[Seventhzealot]

Originally Posted by ravenheart

Then why are you in a thread about them?

He likes to go against the grain.

..Oh wait