(Andy Synn celebrates the return of Portuguese Post-Doom prodigies Sinistro)
As a reviewer I happen to think that context is pretty important.
I don’t just mean the usual types of context you might expect – references to the band’s background and influences, considerations about how an album stack’s up to the group’s previous work, etc – but the context of how your review is going to sit in the wider world.
Questions like “is this review coming out at a good time?” or “who else out there has already written about this?” are ones I think are important to ask, especially since I only have a limited amount of time to dedicate to writing here (I do have a life outside the site, you know).
Case in point, knowing I only had time for one more review this week I had to decide whether to write about Blood Incantation‘s new album or the new record from Sinistro, both of which are set for release this Friday.
But considering that practically everyone is going to be writing about Absolute Elsewhere this week (and I may still pen some thoughts about it myself at some point) I thought it more prudent to dedicate my efforts to reviewing Vértice instead, since my words are likely to have more impact on the latter’s success.
