MORBID SCALE OF NOTATION
Understand my words, as it should be understood.


Since ten years Internet speculation and sensationalism lead some peoples to use even more "powerful" words to describe a band or a feeling, probably to try and be more sensational or over the top, and make other peoples feel something good or special is happening... It could be quite natural, to underline the present feeling is very good... But the problem is: It leads them to always speak over the top, over the top top top, with their high flying words, while this is only about quite nice/ quite cool music, or simply the little sensation of the moment... I noticed it can be quite misleading about the final listening, and you can be disappointed.

Since some peoples are probably used to read this abundance of sensationalism, and even use it themselves, they should feel like my webzine is sooo full of criticism and could imagine I'm always saying everything sucks... While I'm often trying to be down to earth, with a critical part in each review.
So, here's a description of some words' meaning, according to my personal scale:

-Boring: Something that's not enthusiasming, neither entertaining, neither ok to listen, and makes you feel "In the shit"...  Sometimes it's because the content is so predictable, unattractive, or badly played... Or because you don't like the style in question at all, or because you currently "reject" this style...

-Average: It contains about 50% of bad and 50% of good... When I was at school, I often had marks around 9-10-11, so it's not particularly bad in my eyes. I don't believe some peoples get all frightened and scary when they got 12/20 for their record (Do they really play "Altars of madness" on every riff? I'm not sure... If they aren't as good I'm not sure they can get a realistic 17-18 or 19/20... Unless there is a 25, a 26 and a 27/20... ). Sometimes "Ok" and "Average" could have the same meaning, sometimes "Average" is a bit worth...

-Ok: It's something you can bother listening, you can tolerate, but nothing special. I quite often listen to "Quite ok" records, to spend time, to change my mind, by curiosity... (You don't always listen to something passionating or thrilling, right?). So it's not particularly bad... It's just the listener doesn't feel much or isn't passionated by the record.

-Quite nice: Somewhere between Ok and nice. (See both and make your own frozen mix).

-Nice: A bit bitter than ok, it's not bad to listen, maybe quite fresh or a bit entertaining, but the effects might not last more than 5-10 listenings.
(I don't know why some peoples to try turn "Quite nice" records into something sooo good and so cult... Maybe to convert their loss of time listening to average music into something positive? Hu, please don't bite...)

-Quite Cool: Somewhere between nice and cool. (See both and make your own morbid mix).

-Cool: It's better than nice, in my mind it refers to an atmosphere or a mental state of coolness (Hippie?), so it's not bad at all! It reminds me when I was a teenager and had less things to deal with, so the mind was more relaxed and I felt more often in a state of "coolness". I could use this word quite often to describe albums containing a good and quite strong atmosphere, something that embalms your head in good colors or moods, but without being really emotional (In a heart-beat accelerating or skull shaking manner).

-Good: Hey, it's quite hard to describe this basic word... If I say something is good, it should be good, and a good part of the record should be really good... It's meant to be better than "Cool", maybe not sooo much better, but sometimes according to the context it could have the same meaning...

-Quite Killer: It's somewhere between "Killer" and "..." ? Hard to quantify or explain (Yes, I'm half dead, and soon I will be half resurrected... Ah!)

-Killer: Are there really so many records to be killer? This is a very strong word... Think about the initial meaning: Something that realistically kills you is very emotionally intense, to a point you remain sat on the chair for long minutes, thinking about what happened, sometimes with frozen blood and so many thrills... Very often something really killer remains in memory for a long time, and you remember this moment for years and years...

-Absolutely Killer: Hey, when you're dead, you're dead... 

-Excellent: Good luck, I almost never use this word... Because it means every riffs have to be so emotionally intense, every songs have to be composed in a so efficient way, and it has to be so original, that it's almost impossible... Records that were very well composed aren't rare, but it doesn't very often contain a big percentage of so emotionally intense riffs...

-Classic: I don't use it, unless a record is more than 10 years old... And many peoples consider it to be a "classic" or something like that (This word contains a part of  objectivity in itself). How can you know a record is already a classic, while it's probably less than 6 months old? How can you have the distance and listened to the album in so many different ways that you have been able to taste the content under every angles? Maybe you are, but I'm not "mighty" and visionary enough to be able to use this word.

-Instant classic: I don't use selling points, sorry.

-Recommended!!!: I'm not a speculator, and don't use marketing selling points, sorry.

Ok, there are other words between each, and better explanations could have been written, but now you can have a better idea of my "scale of notation"...
Now you got it, when I write "Cool" I mean it's "Cool"; not "ok" or "tolerable", But "Cool"! And this is something good according to myself.



Other things could be taken in consideration:

-I don't expect the same content from a demo than from an album... So what could be very cool for a demo, could taste as less entertaining for an album... I know it's not everyone's case, but this is how it is for me. Maybe I tend to forget a bit this way of thinking because it doesn't always apply to simpler, more natural and less technical musics, but a fact remains: You always (Or very often) expect more from the first album of a band, when you saw them growing and enjoyed them a bit more with each demo... The first album remains something like an accomplishment.

-When you have written a lot of reviews, it's hard not to repeat yourself (That's why I like to play with words, sometimes to an extent it might mean nothing at all to some readers, and who could even in some cases feel quite "offensed" while they shouldn't... But it's my inner "sickened poetry" coming to life...) and it's hard to remain quite coherent with what you wrote in the past... Perhaps that's why I might seem like I'm trying to cut ass-hairs in 4 microscopic pieces by moments...