1 star for Devin Townsend - Terria?

I think that rating Devin Townsend - Terria 1 star is ridiculous ... am I alone on this?

Edit: I just used this particular album as an example ... there are many other albums that have average ratings of more than 4.50 which receive 1 star reviews.

Edited by MikeEnRegalia

By the way, Strapping Young Lad is a lot better than Devin Townsend Band, songwriting, not emotion - wise.

Well, I would give Terria 4 stars(it's relaxing and nice, but hardly a masterpiece IMO0, so I voted the first option. If somebody gave it one star, then he's either a) a troll interested in lowering the album's average ranking or b) a person who listened to Terria and did not like it.

Knowing that every person is allowed to not like whatever he wants or even to dislike everything his ears come around, we should respect that and we may not suspect him of being a troll, since we have no idea what people have on their mind when they make decision. This is... internet! So, that's basically it.

If you mean, that one star rating to great albums is unfair, then I am going to tell you that the whole system of counting votes without reviews is unfair, but what can ya do?

I can't enter your poll Mike, but it has aroused my interest. 

Terria has been near the top of my 'to be listened to' list, because I know that so many people like it.  This review (which I read as soon as it was posted) now has me even more intrigued.

On a personal level, my system may be flawed, but if I really don't like a group, I wouldn't review an album by them, because I would just end up offending people unnecessarily.

I also think that no stars should be scrapped altogether, and 1star should be reserved for extremely poor efforts only, as it's quite disrespectful to the artist...

Who would ever give Devin Townsend an One?

Plus the review doesn't seem to say really very much why greenback doesn't like the album.

This music describes the best what is a monolithic electric guitar! I have never heard a more monolithic electric rhythmic guitar than on this record: that's completely ridiculous! This brutal guitar is so distorted and polluted with tons of useless effects that it takes all the available room! As if it was not enough, the musician seems to take a huge pleasure to exaggeratedly sustain each note, a painful torment for the ears! The rhythmic guitar is COMPLETELY unmelodious. The lead vocals are just simply too angry and aggressive for me. When the lead vocals are more mellow, they amazingly remind me David Gilmour and James LaBrie. There are some good acoustic guitar parts. There are some unconvincing TV or radio sounds, a much worse copy of Roger Waters' effects: they seem too coarsely produced. You can hear some whales-like sounds. There are some rare good passages, so that, globally, this record is not worth a complete listen. The only track that retained more my attention is "Deep peace", starting with an imitation of David Gilmour's voice; an Oldfield-esque guitar solo then begins, followed by an Hillage-esque one, featuring his spacy ambience from the "Green" album; then, it changes to a VERY modest & much slower attempt to emulate the symphonic Yngwie Malmsteen himself. This VERY rebel music is probably perfect for the young people who like disturbing moods.

The review in question.

Whatever. I initially PMed greenback confused and kinda shocked as well, but primarily because I thought he was a prog reviewer that had suddenly changed his review from a four or five to a one, since I felt like his review complained about pretty trivial things. Still, an opinion is just an opinion. I should know, I rated SEBTP and CttE 3 stars each!

greenback wrote: fandango wrote: I can't enter your poll Mike, but it has aroused my interest.  Terria has been near the top of my 'to be listened to' list, because I know that so many people like it.  This review (which I read as soon as it was posted) now has me even more intrigued. On a personal level, my system may be flawed, but if I really don't like a group, I wouldn't review an album by them, because I would just end up offending people unnecessarily. I also think that no stars should be scrapped altogether, and 1star should be reserved for extremely poor efforts only, as it's quite disrespectful to the artist... first of all, i voted on this poll: i voted: "1 star is a little too low"; that's why I voted 1.5 stars! Terria is not completely crap (0.5 stars), but it is far below any mediocre progressive record rated at 2.5 stars, for example. I carefully studied the situation before getting a 1.5 star, believe me! i noticed that most of the reviewers rated it 5 stars. really true masterpieces of prog metal are albums like symphony x' s wings of tragedy. , dream theater's images & words, shadow gallery's tyranny... but I'm sorry to say Townsend does not work at all for me. some collaborators will have to be able to cope with different opinions; if not, then we should call it fanatism that can lead to unnecessary tension among the community. there are many controversial ratings here like guys who rate collage - moonshine 1 star, or triumvirat - spartacus 1 star, but i think we have to go beyond those things: this is what we call maturity: live and let live! and let me warn you: this low rating from me will probably happen with the band magyar posse!

please don't get me wrong, Greenback, I'm not questioning your integrity, your right to a point of view or your ability as a reviewer....  I also understand how you feel about 'Terria'...sometimes, an album just doesn't work for you.... you feel its the sort of thing you probably should like, but it leaves you absolutely cold, and perhaps even gets under your skin.  That's fine, it happens to us all every once in a while, and because its music, sometimes its difficult to put into words why you find something quite as awful as you do.

It's quite evident however that Terria has a substantial following in this forum, so if I was in your shoes, I would question whether I was the best person to write the review for that particular album... I guess you have to balance out freedom of speech with unpopularity..

At the risk of sounding boring, a similar sitaution happened to me with Ayreon's 'Universal Migrator', which left me completely cold.  It is possibly the only album I have heard since joining the forum which I would give the dreaded 1* to, but I don't see the point of causing (any more) offense over the issue...I just feel that any review I would do would be counter-productive.

WiguJimbo wrote: greenback wrote: and let me warn you: this low rating from me will probably happen with the band magyar posse! Just out of curiosity, you actually went and bought an album by Magyar Posse, after hearing the samples that you thought were pure crap...?  (this happened in the Collab Zone, when we were voting for their inclusion) If so, feel free to review their albums, but it strikes me a bit weird, that someone would purposely buy an album he knows he's going to dislike... But maybe that's just me.

I did that with Therion - Vovin. Bought it on Ebay for 7 EUR, listened to it about 5 times during about 3 weeks, and then sold it on Ebay - for 5 EUR I think.

Ridiculous, isn't it?

MikeEnRegalia wrote: I think that rating Devin Townsend - Terria 1 star is ridiculous ... am I alone on this? Edit: I just used this particular album as an example ... there are many other albums that have average ratings of more than 4.50 which receive 1 star reviews.

it is quite accurate. nothing interesting on this album. and this is NOT because I'm not really a fan of prog metal (I have heard other prog metal that I rather enjoy) but because I really think it is boring and uninteresting and, most of all, NOT really prog. but we have had this debate before.

as to other albums with average ratings of 4.5 + and 1 star reviews: de gustibus non est disputandum

P.S.: the one star rating was not from me

Edited by BaldJean

BaldJean wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: I think that rating Devin Townsend - Terria 1 star is ridiculous ... am I alone on this? Edit: I just used this particular album as an example ... there are many other albums that have average ratings of more than 4.50 which receive 1 star reviews. it is quite accurate. nothing interesting on this album. and this is NOT because I'm not really a fan of prog metal (I have heard other prog metal that I rather enjoy) but because I really think it is boring and uninteresting and, most of all, NOT really prog. but we have had this debate before. as to other albums with average ratings of 4.5 + and 1 star reviews: de gustibus non est disputandum P.S.: the one star rating was not from me

I wouldn't mind if you made a 1 star review of Terria - as you said, de gustibus non est disputandum. But I think that it is perfectly ok to discuss the reasoning of controversial reviews, or the motivation of the reviewer - at least if he/she "opens that door" by talking about it in the forum. I admit that it's difficult to discuss reviews without getting personal ... but I decided to talk about this particular review because IMO it is particularly controversial and it was made by a special collaborator. Of course there are also other albums which seem to "call for" such controversial reviews ... Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica for example.

The consequence of such reviews is that the guidelines have no meaning anymore. Fanboys are allowed to rate any album 5 stars, people who simply don't like an album are free to rate it 1 star, even when it's obvious that most people who like the genre think of it as a masterpiece or at least a good album. If Terria (or Trout Mask Replica) is rated 1 star by someone, how could that person review Physicist (Safe As Milk) ... -1 stars? There simply is no consistency.