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Sorry to pick on this review .. but I am wondering .. what was the original purpose of the Killing Songs portion of the review? Was it to guide people in their MP3 downloading choices, or was it to spark debate as to what were the best songs?

Too often I just see people put 'All' in there, like all the songs were equally as good. In my experience, 99.9% of the time that is not the case. Some songs are always better that others.

Well, it says all because all the songs are killing. There isn't a track here that stands out as especially better than the rest.

It's not there to spark any debate, it's a formality that you get asked for when you submit the review.

This deserves to be in the classics, cause that is what this is.

I have to agree with this actually. The 97 is enough to convey that every song is awesome, but like diomedes said, in almost all cases there are usually a handful of tracks that stand out from the rest. Its a minor nitpick and your not the only one that does it, but it would be nice to know which songs are the creme of the crop even on flawless albums.

Sorry, but no. There is plenty enough to go in in the review itself, and on the myspace link you can stream pretty much all the songs anyway. You can decide for yourselves rather than follow some contrived suggestions which is going to change from person to person anyway.

Where there are clearly high points and low points on an album, I will fill that in, but where it is consistent the listener should use their initiative to find out what they like themselves.

Anyway, reading the review should make it clear which ones I single out for particular mention, so that will get you further than scrolling straight down to that tagline

Like I said in the review I think a classic should be something that changed the face of a genre, which IMO this didn't. It's just a great album, is all.

Agreed. People rely too much on score and the number of 'killer' songs. Surely being told that all the songs are killer is a good thing? And no, we don't make it easy for people to download an album and then pick out the best tracks, personally at least I like listening to albums all the way through, chopping it up can mean it's a totally different experience. If you're new to the band, why do you need to know which song is teh killingest? Listen to the whole thing, it got a score of 97, which means it's a pretty damn good listen!

I think the "ALL" factor in the killing songs should be forbidden.
Anyway, good album. 80/100.

Why, so the reviewer has to arbitrarily pick out some songs from a consistently good collection, just so they can say that they are extra extra special instead of just great? No no no no no. My opinion on which are the best songs here changes regularly. You might think that is indecision, but to me it is the sign of a great album.

It's especially true with this particular album. You don't need to look for specific samples to download. It's very easy to hear. Two thirds of the songs can be streamed on the myspace the review links to. And the entire thing can be streamed at Vibrations of Doom, albeit it in .ram format.

Again: the review does in fact single out some songs, so why not take those as recommendations, if you really have to have some highlights pinpointed?

Anyway, glad you also like the album, although apparently not as much as me

I don't think it's indecision, just laziness.
There isn't one album in the shitload I own with which I would say it has "all killer songs", I can always single out my fav' and so should an apt reviewer.

So you think I spent ages writing a fairly long review and then didn't fill in the killing songs section because I'm lazy?

You need to get your head out of your arse.

It seems you and zad are worried people won't read the review which is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is thinking people will just listen to the songs off the highlight list and not get the full effect of the album. Even if that were the case, why do you think bands use singles? If you stroll through every bands myspace they advertise the best songs of their discography for a reason.

You all are blowing it out of proportion I think. Its simple, whats the point of having a killing songs section if you are just going to write "all". Even the best albums ever have songs on them that stand out from the rest. If nothing else it could possibly create more lively discussion on the forums by using it properly.

Well, in my 5 years here I've never once seen a discussion sparked off by the killing songs section.

I don't mean to be harsh with you and General D, belowthelights; if you wanted to see something in that section then I'm sorry to disappoint you, although I can't see at all why it matters. I just feel like it's uneccessary in this particular case, and really wouldn't add anything. In the vast, vast majority of my reviews, by the way, I do indeed fill it in.

Now, what does make me slightly annoyed is the emergence of certain smug tossers who like to imply (or even just straight out say) that the reason I have left it blank is because I am lazy, or because I am not an "apt" reviewer. Those people, whoever they may be, can go fuck themselves, the bellends.

I, likewise, rarely put 'all', but when I do it's probably for one of two reasons. Either:

1. The album is a classic, and every song on the album must be listened to because, well, it's a goddamn classic and you should own it whether one song is more catchy than another or not.

or

2. The album is all atmospheric and experimental and listening to a track here and there won't give you the full experience.

Most (metal) bands don't use singles, at least not the ones I review, and the MySpace example is a bad one - it's to give you a general idea of their sound, and whilst some may put their best songs up, others with more extreme sounds may just stick anything up there.

I think you guys are just denying that bands can have albums which have uniformly brilliant songs. Which is crazy.

And yes, a big up-yours to people calling Metal Reviews.com Reviewers lazy. We give huge amounts of our time to this site and to get a bollocking because we haven't sat down and chemically worked out which three or four songs are slightly better than the rest is ridiculous.

Must you always be so condescending? It really gets old.

As for this little debate, its entirely up to personal preference, and there is no right answer. Personally, I always list 3 songs in the "killing songs" section (my top 3) unless said album has less than 3 killer songs. I do this because when sampling a new album, I like to know what I should check out first, and assume there are others like me. Its just the way I prefer to do it, but I have never had an issue with others listing "All" at the bottom if that's what they want to do.

That said, I can't count the number of times I've been chastised with "How is (insert track title) not a killing song?! OMG!!11!!!!". Its not that I don't think certain songs are awesome, I just list my personal top 3 is all. Obviously, there is no way to approach the "killing songs" section in a way that will please everyone.

I don't know who's the laziest... Us because we put "all" in killing songs, or the readers not checking it out because it says "all" and not specific tracks.

Um, the first track on the album? Then the second, and then the third.

Serious that people don't start listening to a new album from the beginning.

OK smart-arse, I'm saying that when deciding whether to spend my hard earned money on an album, I like to sample the tracks that others have recommended first. I don't see what's so ridiculous about that, but then again, we're talking about personal preference.

Well, then too. Personally, if I read a review of an album by a reviewer I trusted, and he was all 'zomg every single song on this album is a killa' then I'd feel pretty confident about buying it. Even if you download something, which I'm sure no-one here has ever done, would it not be logical to start at the beginning?