Rate my reviews ...

Everyone is posting their favorite albums and urges people to rate them ... I invite you to rate my reviews:

Edit: I don't expect you to rate all of them - I'd appreciate any feedback that you might have. I know that my english is not perfect (far from it, to be blunt), but I try to get better.

Edit2: I changed the list of reviews - it is now sorted chronologically (in descending order). The earliest reviews have some shortcomings that I'm aware of, I'll rewrite some passages when I get around to it. 

HEAVEN'S CRY - Food For Thought Substitute
GILBERT, KEVIN - The Shaming Of The True
TOWNSEND, DEVIN - Terria
VANDEN PLAS - Beyond Daylight 
STOLT, ROINE - Hydrophonia
POWER OF OMENS - Rooms of Anguish
CHROMA KEY - Dead Air for Radios
ENCHANT - A Blueprint Of The World
TOWNSEND, DEVIN - Infinity
WINDS - The Imaginary Direction Of Time
CASSIBER - Perfect Worlds
DEAD SOUL TRIBE - Dead Soul Tribe
PSYCHOTIC WALTZ - Bleeding
GATHERING, THE - How to Measure a Planet?
DIXIE DREGS - California Screamin'
PORCUPINE TREE - Staircase Infinities 
MORSE, NEAL - One
ROYAL HUNT - Paper Blood
ROYAL HUNT - Eyewitness
PORCUPINE TREE - Deadwing
KAMELOT - The Black Halo
SHADOW GALLERY - Tyranny
SYMPHONY X - The Odyssey
FLOWER KINGS, THE - The Rainmaker
DREAM THEATER - Train Of Thought
SHADOW GALLERY - Room V
AYREON - The Universal Migrator part two: Flight of the Migrator
DREAM THEATER - Scenes From A Memory Metropolis Part II 
FANTOMAS - Suspended Animation
FANTOMAS - Fantomas
SHADOW GALLERY - Legacy
PINK FLOYD - The Wall
DREAM THEATER - Images And Words

^^^

Don't have to be an asshole about this , guy!

Mike is asking how we can help him in his reviews! This is very humble and can only benefit the site.

Well , Mike I cannot tell you much about it now (i will read some ) , but you are not making this easy on me since you and I are on opposite side of the prog spectrum. I'll probably read your Floyd and Dixie reviews (they are the only two albums you reviewed I heard, too), the rest I do not relate to the music and would find reading those reviews fastidious .

I disagree with Sean Trane - this wll not benefit this site. I think this practice is vicious. We are changing the object of our attention from music and artists to reviews of the listeners, which is very wrong. Reviews are already very subjective, per se. And giving rate or review of review will only take us further away from music itself. As far as I see it - the purpose of review is to express an opinion of the listener about certain album by certain artist, and consequently to give subtle recommendation to others whether to gor for or to avoid buying certain albums. A person reading a review of review of review will be completely lost and will never be able to figure out for himself whether album is of interest to him or not. Sometimes I read a 5 stars review by a person who I know has got taste completely different from mine or is just idiot, - then I know immediately - what is good for him/her is clear "no go" for me. But if I post negative review of his positive review, and someone on top will disagree with us both, then the next person reading all this will not know what we are talking about, as the exchanges will not be anymore about music but about different points of view of different people.

You can quote someone else's review or make a reference to it, but please stop rating or reviewing each other's reviews. I already called this tendency vicious when someone started thread about Gatot reviews. Not that I mind to say "thank you, Gatot, for your excellent work", but I find it useless to praise or to sh*t each other here for the reviews, and it will do no good to this site whatsoever.

I read you're Train of Thought Review. It was very fair, but brief, I thought for a Collaborator. Maybe you could have mentioned some more of your favourite moments, or mentioned a track or two? Then again the CD has been reviewd umpteen times so maybe you thought that it wasn't needed.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: Snow Dog wrote: I read you're Train of Thought Review. It was very fair, but brief, I thought for a Collaborator. Maybe you could have mentioned some more of your favourite moments, or mentioned a track or two? Then again the CD has been reviewd umpteen times so maybe you thought that it wasn't needed. You're right - it was one of my first reviews. My recent reviews are much more elaborate, some are near the 1.000 words mark ... that's not necessarily a good thing either. Thanks for your feedback!

Just read your Scenes From a Memory review too. I guess you did your DT reviews first! I agree with both your reviews and their rating BTW!

Mike, I can say the same as Sean Trane: your choice is either unfamiliar or unenjoyed by me. I guess you're in the middle as a reviewer - I'm not turned on by them but not turned off either. The different taste makes it difficult to judge. But  for asking anyway.

 I see no point in arguing against turning attention towards the reviews themselves. Of course all reviews are only individual opinions in the end, but they are WRITINGS (done by amateur writers) and as texts they are always open for valuation. Not as opinions on a particular album but more as the way that opinion is presented and what does it give to the reader. And frankly I prefer "rate my reviews" than "rate my favourite albums" - at least if compared in usefullness.

PEAS.  Nice weekend to all.

"The whole point of reviewing is to give the prospective buyer/listener a pointer or two on which album to invest in (ie : avoiding Focus's Mother Focus because although in the good period of Focus it is a poor album) ."

Well said, at least someone realises!!

MIike, the reviews are great but a bit 2 short... You might try to expand them... and maybe make some review experiments... like try to talk bout EACH song in order, and then see if You like it and if WE like it... Maybe it'd be cool to talk bout each band members performence 2... Add then the overall feeing of the album and You have the mark.. OR Mark each song with stars and then... (damn my english is limited, ow how do You call that math thing...) Ow well You divide it by the number of songs and You have the mark in stars... Experiments are good.. try not to write a review each and every time the same way... Such rewievs are far more interesting to people (Well, at least to me).. I mean Your English is great and You use very nice intersting sentences (Wish I could do that to, then I'd start reviewing to), so You shoulden't have problems with putting these plans into life...

EDIT: Damn Now I see You DID use some of the ideas I mentioned above, sorry