 |
Like my blogging colleague and inspiration Andrew @ Aversionline.com, I’ve experienced major burnout recently. In the past year, I’ve written on somewhere between 300-400 metal albums and listened to probably at least 1000. I don’t know if this is typical for metal reviewers, but it’s too much for me. The more albums I review, the less time I have to devote to each one.
For some, albums are just MP3’s, downloaded and discarded. But for their makers, they’re dreams captured through hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of work. While not every album is worthy of the ages, every one deserves a fair, complete, and informed review.
Thus, I’m cutting back on quantity to concentrate on quality. I’m normally skeptical of this binary opposition, but it’s true in my case. Some months ago, a combination of deadlines had me transcribing around 37,000 words of interviews in a week. I felt like a machine, and certainly did not produce my best work then.
If I could clone myself, I’d keep up the quantity. There are so many friggin’ labels out there now, and I love discovering hidden gems. But while I’ve reviewed the vast majority (about 90%) of the releases I’ve been sent so far, I just cannot keep that up and remain sane.
 |
Too-Many-Releases-ia |
To minimize waste and maximize efficiency, here are some suggestions for publicists and industry types:
(1) Stop sending CD’s in jewel cases. It’s cheaper to send just the liner notes and discs.
(2) Better yet, send releases as digital downloads – complete with full artwork and lyrics. These do not have to be MP3’s. Metal Blade (and distributee Blackmarket Activities) recently adopted a digital delivery system called Play MPE. Except for the lack of liner notes (which should be as easy to scan and make available as cover artwork), it’s pretty much flawless. It allows the receiver to stream audio, download tracks, and burn CD’s in resolutions as high as .wav files.
With Play MPE, downloading and burning CD’s are sufficiently complex so as to discourage early leaks.Thus, I’ll burn a CD only if the release is a must-have. Less packaging, instant delivery, everyone wins except for the postal service. Of course, if Play MPE contains any malware, spyware, or other such crap, I will stop reviewing Metal Blade/BMA releases faster than one can say “Sony Rootkit.”
(3) Stop sending CD’s that are chopped into 99 tracks or that have promo voiceovers every 30 seconds. I refuse to review releases that come in such a wretched state. Is it too much to ask to review albums as people will actually hear them? I get more than enough releases to review; any one that offers extra hindrance only puts itself at the bottom of the pile. Besides, such nonsense only pisses off reviewers, and do you really want them in such a frame of mind?
OK, rant over. I’ve mostly taken a break from metal the past two weeks, and the time off has been great. Metal batteries recharged! The latest albums by Symphony X, Malevolent Creation, and Behemoth are kicking my ass. Time to get this train rolling again…
Related posts:
Welcome to my world, ha, ha. After almost eight years it’s a miracle I can still stomach any of this, really. Especially since I did, like… 700-ish reviews and maybe 50-ish interviews (or more) a year all by myself for the first three of those years. It’s like every three or four years I hit a wall and have to scale back. Ugh. It’s BAD this time, though. Real bad.
And, dude, yeah… fuck every label that uses voiceovers. I’ve had many a rant about that crap and those 99-track CD’s. Annoying. In my opinion any reviewer that covers voiceover CD’s is a label’s-ass-kissing hack. You CANNOT enjoy or digest a CD with constant interruptions like that. Man, that shit gets my blood boiling, ha, ha…
I gotta say….I’m actually EXCITED that the bloggers I respect (yourself, Andrew Aversion, etc) are dialing it back a bit. I mean, if we slow down and just write/review/rant about records that REALLY grab us…imagine how much more inspired and impactful the writing will be? I mean, I already think “If Andrew is writing about, it’s probably worth at least a cursory listen”…but now, with you guys writing LESS….I’ll REALLY know that the records you choose to spend the time to review are going to be THAT much better. You know?
Slow down…to a crawl even. I’m not a reader who needs to see a couple of posts a day. And really, the only sites that should worry about that criteria are ones living off ad revenue. But for the people who’s musical opinions I really respect…even 1 post a week is enough to keep me searching out new sounds, bands, labels, and records.
Andrew,
I don’t know how you’ve done it, man. That’s an incredible time sacrifice over the years, but it’s paid off as an invaluable service for people worldwide. I hope you never, ever hang up the hat. Remember, we’re doing this for the love of it, right? We’re getting too old to be worn down by industry crap. Even if I never get a free CD again in my life, I’ll still want to tell people about great music – for the rest of my life.
Andy,
Thanks muchly for the nice words. I don’t think I’ll necessarily slow to a crawl, as blogs should have some semblance of publishing predictability. That said, yeah, this hiatus has definitely taught me to write only when I find sufficient inspiration. Welcome to the Best Coast, brother, and let’s get together after you’ve settled in.
IO,
I always enjoy your work!
Welcome to the West Coast, I’m currently vacationing in Sonoma County along the Russian River. “Powertrip” by Monster Magnet fit in with my winery-hopping yesterday.
Damn, Dave, that’s some beautiful country up there. Winery hopping is a blast…for my passengers (I always seem to be the driver, heh). I really need to get more into Monster Magnet – I liked “Dopes to Infinity” when I was a teenager.
I discovered both of your blogs (Invisible Oranges and Aversion) about 2 months ago, and I love them both, and am thankful for any amount of work either of you feel you feel you must put into this. Please take it easy if you must, a little bit of your blogs is better than nothing at all. If either of you guys burnt out and left, that would be a bad bad thing.
I’m also glad you’re scaling back to avoid total burnout. I am not interested in ‘…and then there’s this…’ reviews, just the stuff that grabs you so much you just can’t sleep until you let us know how awesome they are.
point #3… hell yeah! that is a pain in the ass… err… ear.
Sounds like you felt like Greg Smythe trying to finish a breakaway…
Ha! Now if only they sold Greg Smythe throwback jerseys… (for those unfamiliar with the greatest sports video game ever, NHL ‘94, Smythe was the worst rated player in the game, and had the speed of 90 year-old marathoner)
…You’re showing your age.
…And proud of it. I am but one of many to extol NHL ’94’s place in history.