Album Rating: 2.5

Diamond Lightning is best track hands down, other than that..album is so lame

I actually don't remember Diamond Lightning too well, but I do know I was very impressed overall with the first half.

Thanks Paperback! What do you have planned next for reviewing?

@Omaha
I have a few reviews I want to do for some older albums and a few new releases, but school has really been taking up a lot of my time, plus I met a girl so I've been short of time. I'm hoping to get some time to start reviewing again.

Also, I'm listening to some songs on youtube, this is pretty okay so far.

I know what you mean, man. I moved into college last week, so I've been pretty busy around these parts. Everything seems to be settled now though, so hopefully I can start settling into a comfortable routine around these parts! Apparently studying management isn't quite as work-intensive as I would've assumed. :P

"I met a girl so I've been short of time"

Uh-oh - I'm being replaced?

Album Rating: 2.5

So far I still like Omni better.

@Omaha
I'm still trying to settle down and establish my own routine, but I still need more time to get there. But I am the enjoying college lifestyle.

"Uh-oh - I'm being replaced?"
She could never take your place.

Gotcha, man. You living in a dorm? I am, and it has its advantages and disadvantages for sure. And aw shux. ;]

Shh - here's a secret... I haven't heard Omni in its entirety. I've heard probably four or so songs off it, though, and I doubt anything particularly different happens on the rest.

Album Rating: 2.5

That's a pretty bad opinion Omaha, I think you'd be surprised how much you might enjoy it. I wasn't all about it at first but it's about a 4 now for me.

@Omaha
Yeah, I have three roommates who all seem pretty cool so far. But its just such a small room, and there is absolutely no privacy outside of the bathroom. It will take some getting used to.

Album Rating: 2.5

I think the better example of Snyder's monotonous tone is "Lonely Gun", more than "Lies and Eyes" anyways. It just sounded like they were relying too much on that nifty guitar line and Snyder forgets to add any sort of emotion whatsoever to it.

I haven't listened to this yet, but Planet of Ice is one of my favorite albums so I'll get to it soon I guess, but your review isn't very convincing. It's good though.

Well, the first paragraph is pretty solid, but the last sentence seems to lead into a new paragraph about how the band's out of tricks. While I understand that the following paragraph does follow that tangent, the flow of the sentence itself doesn't logically lend itself to the preceding statement. I was expecting more of a "There's this, this, this and this, but that's nothing new." Leaving it as "There's this this, this, and this" sort of leaves the statement on a positive note (I like tapping and atmosphere... oh wait, there's unimaginative lyrics? this doesn't really go together as a positive or negative list...). I hope that makes sense.

"Well, deliberately anyway." seems a bit out of place and vague. He's deliberately hitting the same note to no effect? Or is the track deliberately building up?

Finally, while not a big issue, you throw in the first person more than halfway through the review, which I feel you could have done without since you already went such a long way without it. BUT at the end of the review you toss in a sentence with "one" in place of a "you," which confuses the writing style since you've already addressed the audience directly.

I hope this doesn't come off too prickly. I got my degree in English Education a year ago and I only recently decided that I will not be using it to teach full-time (because I can't stand full-time teaching) and this is the only way I get to exercise my degree anymore :P

Still love you, broseph. Good luck with college, guys. Best years of your life if you make them the best years of your life. Oh and as far as room stuff goes? Become an RA. You get epic stories, a room all to yourself, and no one ever checks to see if you're fucking up because you're the RA, which means you can do whatever you want.

Album Rating: 3.5

cool, good to see some decent writing happening around here again



liked this album but can see why people didn't

Wacknizzle - haha, no harm meant man. I'll check it out sometime for sure.

Paperback - do what i do and hang around campus all day. I rarely spend lots of time in my room.

Pwalcher - you may be right. I honestly can't recall Lonely Gun at all, so that may even be a better example. I just know that the vocals on Lies and Eyes stuck out to me because the rest of the song was so cool. It's funny how that works...

Mindleviticus - definitely still check this album out. I don't ever want people to skip over an album because I didn't like it, because my opinions can be pretty damn weird sometimes lol. Take a listen to at least a few songs, and see how you feel.

AtavanHalen - thanks a ton, buddy. Yeah, I undersell the album in my review but as you can see here it's about a 3.5 for me.

not sure i'll even bother with this

Album Rating: 3.5

cool man

AtomicWaste (you earned your own comment! ;D)

Leaving it as "There's this this, this, and this" sort of leaves the statement on a positive note (I like tapping and atmosphere... oh wait, there's unimaginative lyrics? this doesn't really go together as a positive or negative list...).

I deliberately combined them, knowing that it didn't match the positive connotation - I was trying to show how there are a lot of good things going for it, and that the negative ones can just slip under the radar sometimes. Perhaps I could've said it better, though.

"Well, deliberately anyway." seems a bit out of place and vague. He's deliberately hitting the same note to no effect? Or is the track deliberately building up?

I meant that the track creates an emotional tension it didn't anticipate, frustration that the listener has. Once again, yeah I can understand why that would be confusing. I'll see what I can do.

you throw in the first person more than halfway through the review, which I feel you could have done without since you already went such a long way without it. BUT at the end of the review you toss in a sentence with "one" in place of a "you,"

I don't typically worry much about using the first-person enough, not enough, etc. I've never thought to keep something like that consistent, because a review that's filled with the first-person would just be tough to read. The "one" is a good catch, and I'll fix that up.

Thanks a lot for the help, and I do know you're just wanting to help a fellow friend out. It can be a little tough sometimes when you get a wall of text that's telling you how to write better, but dude, I'd be silly to turn away some help. You bring up some very good points, and I'm happy to hear your suggestions. Initially I may be a little bummed out, but hey, if it can help my writing then might as well. :P a lot of times i find it hard to write a coherent review because my brain is so scattered, but i also want my reviews to be easy to read. it's a tough balance, man.

Satellite, there's no harm in checking out a song or two - I posted some in the opening comment. There are plenty of people that like this album quite a bit.

Album Rating: 2.0

But there's still 50 or so MtB songs that are better than the best song on this by a wide margin.