With hindsight...

[Pagan Saviour]

I kinda miss those types of review in some ways. Scroll Blabbermouth or Overdrive and everything is 8/10 +


The odd scathing review fuelled by personal gripe or lack of placement of one's name on a guest list can be ok! 


The thing about Ginger was spot on. They were the same for a ton of uk bands back then and all the publicity in the world didn't really further things for any of them.

[Circlepit]

I don't know what those people reviewed those bands. They clearly had zero interest in that genre.
They all come across as " I'm too good to review this shit and I wish I was a real journalist bit I'm shit and a cunt and I'm shit"

Covenant is excellent, beyond reproach and Kerrang is cuntmuck.

As someone already said Raw and Kerrang seems to be paid adverts for The Wildhearts, Terrorvison and the likes.

[Bürggermeister]

I think it was an English journo thing at the time, the shitty arrogance of the "reviewing". The likes of NME and Melody Maker were exactly the same, frequently populated with snotty and nasty reviews where the journo had a bigger ego than any of the bands they reviewed. It was often just a competition between the cunts to outdo each other in cuntishness. You only have to listen to Mick Wall's podcasts, entertaining as they are, to get an idea of how insufferable those lads must have been at the time.

[astfgyl]

I noticed a things years ago where these magazines would give an awful review to a particular album at the time but then come back with some sort of retrospective and change the score.

I guess they knew back then that no attention is bad attention

[Mower Liberation Front]

The entire Kerrang bunch were channeling their inner Sun reporter everytime they dealt with black metal in the early 90s. There was one where they had Emperor in to review singles, the photo of the band had caption underneath saying "Emperor(L-R): Donut, Donut, Donut, Donut". TBH, it wasn't just death and black metal, they went after the likes of Hellowern etc, because they were obsessed with pushing that Britrock crap.


Funny though, a few years later, they ended up having to put Emperor on the cover and do serious articles, because Emperor were selling records unlike the likes of 3 Colors Red, etc.

[Pagan Saviour]

Definitely. Bands like maiden couldn't buy a good review in the late 90s those mags were laughing at them. Fast forward a decade and it was the likes of maiden etc keeping them in a job

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

In looking up the roots of this tradition, back when the press were panning Zeppelin, for example, I stumbled upon the fact that Ling had also panned Appetite for Destruction. So, yeah, his lack of taste wasn't limited to metal! 

[Eoin McLove]

It's strange to think now but these guys had a lot of influence. They were taste makers in many ways. As a teenager buying MH and the odd Kerrang and being clueless myself, I assumed these dudes all knew what they were on about. I think of them now as probably twenty something year olds,  in college, maybe making a bit of drinking money with a bit of writing and they had some loose connection to the metal scene. Mates with the editor of whatever. Maybe they'd stick the promo CD on while getting ready to hit the tiles on a Saturday night, write up a hilarious couple of hundred words saying how awful it was while necking a 6 pack, then off out the door. You would think the editor might step in and say, lads,  this actually IS a metal mag!

[Pagan Saviour]

Well mr Mclove, those stupid end of year top twenty records that would feature the likes of Oasis, Black Grape and Travis or whatever suggest your theory may not be far off the mark.

[Sworntothecans]

Think it's the UK rock press in general. "We're all in Camden on the blag for drink tickets and passes". The Kerrang crowd didn't like punk until Green Day (and Warner's buying pages of marketing).

[Paul keohane]

The Wildhearts; the media darlings of 90s British rock/metal!

To this day im not actually sure ive heard one note of their music!

Bush were another band they were falling over!

[John Kimble]

Some more for you here...

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

It's like reading reviews of dairy products written by people who are lactose intolerant. Like that Zom review   

[Circlepit]

These have to be pisstakes.

Didn't Leather Mike get really hot and bothered over Zom? I'm sure there was a thread on MI started by him over how  heavy is too heavy relating to Zom as well.

[John Kimble]

A lot of people got hot and bothered about Zom, particularly 'that' review. Odd that Mike would take that position though, considering he liked to push boundaries...