Originally posted by Stun
I say: reviews are the stupidest fuckin things on the planet (most of the time) because most reviewers rate things depending on their mood instead of just truly listening to the music. Most people listen to music differently depending on the genre; they're expectations change because of a meaningless word. The reviewer on that site said FtR was SPEED METAL... 
maybe if he just realized it was POWER METAL, or didn't even think of genres and just enjoyed it, he would have thought differently. You can't expect a band to stay the same... and him saying they've 'burnt out'? WTF? They're more talented at playing and songwriting then ever... and his comment about the songs being lethargic just makes me hate him personally.
I like any talented and (at least somewhat) unique music... if you think FtR sounds 'samey' maybe you need to sit down and listen again. No two songs on that album are alike. No two CoB songs are alike, period.
I'm sorry if I'm snappy, I hate it when people who don't know what they're doing judge things.
Look, that's your opinion, but it doesn't make the reviewers opinion wrong either. If he just said "I enjoy this album", then what would be the point in that? Doesn't tell anybody anything...I think perhaps you are the one that is looking at this from only one perspective...perhaps if you looked at it from the point of view of somebody who has never heard Children of Bodom, you would realise that being more descriptive serves more purpose. There certainly is a mixture of power and speed metal on Follow The Reaper, and when I say samey, I mean samey, and I don't need to listen to it again, I've heard it plenty of times, and I've had the album a while now!
But I didn't mean samey across the album, I meant across all three. Children of Bodom do very little that is new and original on FtR, and I think that they have become somewhat tired. There is only so much you can do with a sound like CoB's, before you need to try and take it in other directions. CoB did not do this with FtR, and I think the album suffers. I'm left with a "heard this all before" feeling when I listen to it, and I'd much rather dig out Hatebreeder or Something Wild, when, IMO, they were doing it better.
OK, you disagree with the review, but you seem to be going to an awful lot of trouble to find excuses as to why the review isn't to your liking..."[not] listening truly to the music"...I think that just because an attempt at describing the music was made, that doesn't mean it was reviewed on that basis. A review isn't there just to state an opinion, but also to describe and compare the album to give somebody who hasn't heard it some kind of idea of whether or not it will appeal to them.
Example, reviewer says:
"This is a thrash metal album. I fucking hate thrash metal. This album sucks".
OK, so it wouldn't be a great review, but even though an opinion has been stated, there is a reason, so if somebody comes along who likes thrash metal, they can say:
"Well I love thrash metal, I'm gonna check it out!"
Or...
"I fucking hate thrash metal too, I'm avoiding this"
So reviews can serve a purpose, as long as you don't follow them like they are gospel. I've found reviews incredibly helpful in discovering a lot of new music, and long may that last.
