They can’t all be winners, folks. And this week, we have a perfect example of that. That’s not to say that the music we are featuring this week is abysmal or will actually make your ears bleed, but it’s also not the finest aural assaults we have presented either. But that’s not a bad thing! Why? Because now you don’t have to sit through the entirety of any of these albums like we did. Consider that out belated Valentine’s Day gift to you fine freaks.
Ok, yeah, we know that’s the same thing we do every week, but when we go a whole episode with Brian not giving anything above a three, you know there are some real gems in there we are saving you from.
Reviews: Caliban – Ghost Empire (Century Media); Drawers – Drawers (Kaotoxin); Fear of Domination – Distorted Delusions (Inverse); Mayan – Antagonise (Nuclear Blast)
Caliban – Ghost Empire
Drawers – Drawers
Fear Of Domination – Distorted Delusions
Mayan – Antagonise
The Sideshow Podcast 
Here’s another possibility for the ratings: you could grade on a curve. Since you have a 5point scale, you could divide the albums into 20% ranges. You could say “is this album better than 80% of the albums I’ve listened to in the past 12 months?” If the answer is yes, then it’s a 5. If you’ve listened to 200 albums in the past year, then you could ask if the album you are reviewing is in the bottom 40 of those albums. That would get a 1. I realize that you allude to the fact that even when reviewing 200 albums in a year, you are still weeding out a lot of crap that you don’t review. Presumably, some of the stuff you aren’t reviewing isn’t any good and falls in to skip category, which is why not much gets a 1 these days. But if everything gets a 3, that doesn’t help those of us that don’t buy 200 albums a year. We look to you to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Ooh, we got some classic cuts this week: Alice Cooper featuring Wayne’s World, Maiden, and Pantera. Nice! I can’t hear that Pantera song without thinking about the Beavis and Butthead review of it. If you haven’t seen it, it can be found at http://youtu.be/2khPKg1idaI. “Dammit Pantera, this beer is warm! Get me another one!”
That’s a good way for us to look at the reviews. We could also review stuff we know we are going to give a 1 or 2, but if it is a band that people may know about or have seen mentioned around. I mean, we don’t want to subject ourselves to it, but it would help give some perspective. If we listen to some random band that got promoted to us that you would have otherwise never heard and then we give it a 1, it’s not that helpful.
Glad you liked my not-so-secret Easter Eggs. Whenever I hear “be my valentine” it makes me thing “feed my frankenstein.” ha ha. I had to do it!
Also, I just watched that clip. Amazing! HA HA HA.