Artwork by Jeffrey Smith (for Judd Madden’s Everything In Waves).
You’re going to see some temporary changes here at NCS over the next 10 days, and I thought I’d explain why.
I’ve finally accepted the fact that I’m trying to do too much. Partly because of increasing demands on my day job, and partly because NCS has just gotten way busier than it used to be, I can’t do everything at the site that I’d ideally like to do. Something has to give.
I spend a big chunk of time every day reading e-mails and scouring the internet for metal news and for new song and video premieres, and then every day (or every other day) I spend more time writing about at least a few of the new discoveries that I think are worth sharing. I also write about new songs or videos that we ourselves have agreed to premiere. And I do other shit that doesn’t involve my own writing at all.
All of this has left me little time for reviewing new albums and EPs. My NCS comrades do their part, but we don’t make review assignments here — everyone writes about what they want to write about. And we’re diverse enough in our tastes that what I want to write about often doesn’t get reviewed at all if I don’t do it.
I’m not egotistical enough to think anyone absolutely needs to read what I think about a new album or EP. But although listeners certainly don’t need my opinions, I need to express them! It pains me that I don’t have the time to help spread the word about music that I really think deserves to be heard.
So, apart from our own premieres, I’ve decided to do nothing over the next 10 days but write (or finish writing) a bunch of reviews and post them. Unless one of my comrades (or one of you out there) decides to put together a feature on new music, those things will be gone for a while — except for one final one that you’ll see later today.
17 Responses to “A PARTIAL HIAITUS”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
i’m looking forward to reading your reviews 🙂
Thank you Derek. I hope you’ll find them worthwhile. What I have in mind is quite a mix of different styles.
I have checked into NCS on a daily basis for the last three years and it has got to the point where I cannot imagine life without this site. What you and your colleagues do here is highly appreciated. I fully understand the time constraints etc, I have a “fucking day job” myself. What I want to say is I really hope you keep this thing going in one form or another for as long there are people doing harsh vocals out there!
Thank you so much for your supportive words. My aim is to do as you say — to keep this going as long as there are people doing harsh vocals out there, i.e., forever! Because this isn’t a full-time gig for any of us, there are going to be ebbs and flows in how much we can manage to do, but out of nearly 5 years in the site’s existence, we’ve only failed to post something on 3 days.
I really appreciate your honesty on this matter. Thoughtfull consideration about the music we enjoy is a hard thing to come by. So many of the bands I listen to on a regular basis were first discovered on your site. Its not only a favor to us as listeners but to the artists themselves. Thank you!
Thanks for being understanding about this change.
I’ll do my best to help out in this hiatus of sorts. That said, I start college on Monday, so who knows what kind of time I’ll have.
If you plan on trying to compile new streams of music and whatnot during Islander’s little haitus here, I’d be happy to send you anything that I happen to find…if I had a place to send it.
Either my Facebook (if you can find that) or my email (brendan@sdmetal.com) will work. Thanks!
“I am a reader and a listener of this site since 2011 and I appreciate the time you spend to write reviews, share music and offer your opinion but I understand that you may have time limits, so thank you for the honesty, and over the next ten days I will read your opinions and thank you again! “
Thanks very much for your loyalty — things will return to (ab)normal in 10 days. 🙂
This seems to me more like a wise editorial choice than it does a hiatus (partial or otherwise). There are lots of places to get streams of new music and to check out videos. I’m not a music blogger, but I order a lot of records from distros and labels, and thus get a lot of promotional material /news /streams /links to videos in my inbox every day. Harder to come by–and thus, to me, much more valuable–is the kind of informed commentary that good record reviews can provide. Indeed, without such reviews, it would be more difficult to sort through the glut of new music. I, for one, appreciate your efforts to provide that service, and would rather have reviews than posts collating streams and videos without commenting on them.
All the other writers at this site focus on reviews, so I’ve thought one of the things I should do is try to focus more on news and new songs or videos, in part because I think some readers do appreciate that and in part because I know that in many instances that may be all I can do to help spread the word about a band’s music that I like (since there’s no way, even collectively, we can review everything that we enjoy).
Having said that, I do understand your point, and that’s one reason why I’ve decided to make some time for myself to catch up on reviews. It takes me much longer to write a review than to comment on even an equivalent number of individual new songs or videos, and even after devoting the time I’m usually still not thrilled with what I write. And it’s also really hard for me to decide WHAT to review out of all the very good music that I have to choose from. An abundance of riches!
Re-reading my earlier comment, I hope I didn’t come across as a jerk. I get that posts compiling streams and videos provide publicity for bands, publicity that is especially valuable for a lot of the more obscure and unsigned bands you cover here at NCS. I also should say I think part of why those posts appeal less to me is that I mostly visit NCS while I’m on the computer in my office, where I’m far more likely to read a review than I am to listen to music or watch a video.
Anyway, looking forward to reading your reviews.
Is there gonna be a new Decapitated album review? Please let there be one. I’m very keen on knowing your opinion on this one.
Andy already wrote one, and I try not to duplicate what someone else has already reviewed:
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2014/08/22/decapitated-blood-mantra/
Oh sorry. There just seems to be pretty bipartisan opinions on this one.