This has to be the only forum on UM...

[Jim LotFP]

What about all the webzines, DBB, that focus on unsigned bands? Many encourage unsigned bands to send in their records for review - not to mention outlets like MySpace, Metal Archives, and others.

By that logic there's no reason to cover any band at all. Might as well quit, everyone else is already doing it.

But it's not like we're going to be kind in the next issue just because these bands are unknown. I haven't had this much venom in my writing for a long time. Maybe I need to finalize that introduction and post it as a teaser for the issue.

 

[DBB]

What about all the webzines, DBB, that focus on unsigned bands? Many encourage unsigned bands to send in their records for review - not to mention outlets like MySpace, Metal Archives, and others.

That is the thing about the Internet, and an argument that carries over into other debates--political, social and cultural. Everything is out there somewhere so everything is apparently equal and level. I cannot claim to look at each and every website, but I think the general tendencies that I mentioned in my previous post hold true

MySpace is a neutral site (well, there are the advertising impressions and the MySpace music store that could be in the works, but there is no need to go into that now), so that is not on the table.

Many major sites and sites which hope to be major some sunny day do not fool around with demos at all or very little, but here are two examples to support what I was getting at above.

Most “demo” reviews are very short and not given the care or attention that “legitimate” releases are and tend to be segregated and sealed off from the rest of the content--even when they are not “demos.”

Maximum Metal has a column called "Featured Demos" that is separate from the reviews which vastly outnumber the “demos” reviewed. The band featured over a month ago, yet still the featured “demo” (check the date--hasn’t been updated in some time), is Dendura and the band released a demo and then a debut album in April 2006 called New Life which is the current “demo” featured by Maximum Metal. But it is not a demo, it is a debut album placed in a ghetto that allows reviewers to be a lazier than if it was an actual review of what it is--an actual album-- and feel good about it because it is regarded as a charitable act.

Others, however, will not engage in such smoke and mirrors and come right out and say what they are doing and chew up space to make a review seem longer in the process:

I review a lot of demos. It's not out of the goodness of my heart, or for the benefit of struggling unsigned bands across the metal scene, but because demos are short and I am lazy. Morgue Supplier, and their especially short demo (three songs, woohoo!).

First off, Morgue Supplier don't sound like an unsigned band. The guitars are rendered as sharply as anything found on the new material Erik Rutan has been pumping out recently, and the drums are nestled snugly in the mix without sounding either too overpowering or synthetic.

Dave Fonseca Morgue Supplier The End of the World Metal Review

What the hell, man. Most small and struggling bands are so desperate (for good reasons) for publicity that anything goes most of the time, but this is just crass and treating “demos” as if they are something not worth examining on their own merits and branding them as inferior right out the gate by not being serious about it.

And what does an “unsigned band” sound like? That kind of blanket statement is just silly and there are plenty of bands out there who sound just damn fine and great compared to the sterile and hermetic sounds produced by some signed bands.

 

[DBB]

Maybe I need to finalize that introduction and post it as a teaser for the issue.

You should save it. I think it'll lessen the overall impact by having it hanging out there like an amputated arm. I'm using it as a guideline in a way.

But that is just my opinion, chief.

 

[Jim LotFP]

You should save it. I think it'll lessen the overall impact by having it hanging out there like an amputated arm.

Fine. But when I get the intro to The Skinless done sometime later summer/early fall, it's going up right away, just like an amputated arm!

 

[DBB]

Fine. But when I get the intro to The Skinless done sometime later summer/early fall, it's going up right away, just like an amputated arm!

Good one!

 

[Some Bastard]

I'm reluctant to call the latest release of my band a 'demo' either. We've recorded it at a friend's studio, who was able to make it sound good for a very affordable price. The drummer and me designed the cover on a sunday afternoon at the computer here at my place. My girlfriend knew someone who was able to copy and print it for a nice price. We ordered 'blank' CDR-s (without a brand name on it) from a company in Germany and just burn 'em at home. The end result is far removed from the crummy cassettes that demos once were, and a large part of it comes from using our contacts in a smart way (of course actually having contacts helps). The only thing not making this a 'proper' release is that we have no record label or distribution channel.

 

[DBB]

You can rest assurred that someone somewhere will call it that, even though it is not. I am not familiar with your circumstances, Mr Bastard, but I've seen numerous bands out there who have put in years of hard work, money and time to self-release an album that is the result of a passionate dedication to making music and then in 100 words or less someone turns it into something amateurish and inferior by not treating it as an album. It is baffling...if people just put a little thought into what they were doing and what they were holding in their hands, they should have the common sense not to call an album a demo, but thinking is not a valuable commodity in the metal media.

 

[circus_brimstone]

What the hell, man. Most small and struggling bands are so desperate (for good reasons) for publicity that anything goes most of the time, but this is just crass and treating “demos” as if they are something not worth examining on their own merits and branding them as inferior right out the gate by not being serious about it.

I can see where you're coming from. However, as far as Dave's comments go, I can see where he's coming from too since many demos we encounter at MR are terrible, or way below average. Some are not, but when you have a "we review everything we receive providing it can be considered metal or pertinent to metal" policy - as we do at MR - and factor in our average number of reviews per month (prolly 80 or thereabouts), it gets tiresome reviewing shit demo after shit demo. Despite our policy of requiring a full release for consideration (i.e. no CD-R or mp3), we still receive a lot of crap.

How does LotFP choose what to review?

 

[Jim LotFP]

How does LotFP choose what to review?

Can't speak for Dave or Andreas, but my methods...

There's only so much space available in the printed issues, and frankly I despise writing stuff for web publication. It's why I've come up with a lot of "form" email interviews and why I have three interviews sitting on tape that I haven't transcribed yet. If they were for print I'd have done that immediately.

Anyway, I have a pile of "active" CDs that are not shelved. Whichever of these inspires a bit of writing (you'll notice a lot of my reviews are... not exactly focused on the album itself, but talk about issues related to the album or band) gets a review written.

This process continues until I have no more space for the issue. It's why I like when the other writers have a bunch of stuff to contribute, because that's less space I have to fill myself, and so only the stuff I'm most interested in talking about makes it in.

There are plenty of albums that just seem to never get reviewed, because there are always more interesting albums that I buy or get sent that are more interesting so they get priority. I can't get too guilty about it because if I bought it, then fuck "responsibility" towards it, and if it was sent, well, I'm sure they'll appreciate not getting a bland review saying how boring their album is. It will probably get tricky for this issue because I've been soliciting stuff directly from a few bands, but I'll worry about that when it becomes a problem.

 

[Cheiron]

Jim you don't do album reviews too much. Well a part of them are. But mostly you do album analyses (difference between a literary review, and a literary analysis).

For what its worth. SoT tries to do about 90-95 % of the albums sent our way. Personally I've done far less than that. Because some albums I can't figure out how to write a review for it other than to say 'Nothing new to see her kids. Just listen to ____ they do it better." And while that review might be great, I can't get myself to actually write it.

I'd love to see more demo reviews. It doesn't mean that you have to them all. Hell its your time. But doing barely anything on a lot, is not nearly as useful as doing something extensive on a few. Perhaps a balance.

Fact is that there are -lots- of unsigned bands out there that have demos/promos circulating. If you were to sit there and just do their reviews, you'd have little time to do others.

But if a band ever sends me a demo, I'll do my best to write it. Even if they end up hating the review. Tough shit. ITs like when a label or band rep says 'hey have you gotten around to listening to the album we sent you? We'd love you to do a review," and well... sometimes they just aren't going to enjoy the review.

 

[Occam's Razor]

My stance on this is similar to Jim's.

I have some interviews here as well that won't see the light of day, simply because they are not worth reading. In some cases, I consider the answers given as an affront even, which in return would hurt the band if people read them...at least in case they consider it important that musicians have something to say - and this is often also reflected in the music: boring sounds - empty words, or songs as unfocused or standardized as their talk.

There may be a mass of demos out there, but the largest part of them fails to make an impression as to show that here is a hungry bunch of people keen on making a difference - and I don't mean by producing mere "innovation", but through any form of improving on their peers, thus contributing relevance to metal beyond the fad of the month (this at best - it is often rather tardy in jumping a particular bandwagon).

Then, you have demos that are a joke - sound- and playing-wise. In black metal, there's even albums of that kind. Just got four of them from Korea...awful!

 

[DBB]

I buy almsot everything I review, so it is somewhat of a self-selecting process. I don't have the time or money to cover the volume of what reviewers are getting for free from a listening standpoint let alone writing.

I really don't want to either, this is not how bands or the audience listens to music so it seems a little artificial to me and it produces an ennui and anger about the overall quality of metal music that is not healthy, I think. The year end issue of Unrestrained! last year was a bitchfest about how much crap is out there (strangely or not so strangely, not reflected in the reviews, but in asides in the short lead editorial and the year end list)--which was directly attributable to the fact that these people are getting tons of unsolicited demos and albums. There is a lot of crap out there that is not good at all--but the trick is not to become or allow yourself to be oversaturated by it--something that is almost impossible to do if the majority of the music you are reviewing and listening to is something you put no effort into seeking and sounding out.

As for the demos....well there is a lot of crap albums, there is a lot of crap black metal, grindcore, thrash, doom, death and almost everything else you can think of. I don't think that this makes the album as a format something to take less seriously and to apply a different metric to demos seeems a bit silly to me.

Now when I sit down and write one of these long-ass articles, I listen to many things I normally would not and explore subgeneresand genres much more deeply than I normally would if I wasn't focusing on say Avengened Sevenfold and touching on metalcore--but it is still limited and circumscribed by the content.