How many hours in a Metal Crypt reviewers day?

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[spudford]

Been a while since I poked my head in here for anything other than catching reviews. I thought I'd try and get back into it (the forum that is, no intention of starting to write reviews again just now )

I'm wondering, where do you guys find the time to review all these albums? Especially Sargon who seems to pump out dozens (hundreds?) of reviews a year! This was the thing that ultimately saw me stop writing reviews.
I was discovering so much music and listening to that (often half a dozen or more new bands/albums a week), and coupled with a 9-5 job, there was just no time to listen to the stuff I had in my review queue. I don't even have a wife/girlfriend. So let's say you listen to an album 5 times on average in order to have absorbed enough of it to write a meaningful review, and you write 3 reviews a week. Now, it's been a long time since I did primary school math so my division is a little rusty (not to mention how to add two numbers! That shit is hard man), but that's a good hour and a half every day listening to albums for review, many of which you're only listening to for review purposes. These are pretty conservative numbers as well I reckon.

Also, how many times do you listen to album before writing a review? How long does it generally take to actually write the review?

[Sargon the Terrible]

Listening varies.  Some albums you can hear once and you know everything there is to know, some take a lot of listens.  It depends on how complex and multilayered the music is.  If I really like something I tend to hold off reviewing it, so I don't produce overenthusiastic reviews like *some* people.  (ahem).

I tend to write short reviews, so it takes maybe 20 minutes or so.  A longer one might take 30, no more than that.

[Chris Foley]

I don't produce overenthusiastic reviews like *some* people.  (ahem).

Ho ho ho.

I normally dedicate a day to doing reviews, when I send them in I normally send in a whole bunch. This keeps me good for a month or so. The rest of the time can be dedicated to listening to music. I tend to refrain from reviewing albums that have already been reviewed, unless my opinion differs.

[MetalCrypt]

I don't know... I almost exclusively listen to promos, but oftentimes I'm not really hearing them (at work anyway).  I try to keep my reviews short, so writing them doesn't take much more than 15-20 minutes.  But I often have a case of writer's block.  When things aren't too "brain-intensive" at work I can usually write a review every day or two (listen during the day, write it in the evening).

Even when I don't write anything, I still have to update the site, which usually takes a minimum of 30 minutes assuming somebody didn't send something in mangled English or left out band or album information that I have to hunt down (............censored......................)

 Manilla Road - Voyager

[MetalCrypt]

when I send them in I normally send in a whole bunch. This keeps me good for a month or so.

Speaking of which.... *taps finger on desk*

 Manilla Road - Voyager

[Dragonchaser]

I work pretty much 9 to 5 on other writing matters, so I just do my Metal Crypt stuff when I have spare time.

[metaldomdom]

Everybody has spare time on the John!! haha

[MetalMike]

I have a regular (40+ hours/week) job and a family so most of my listening takes place in the car or when the family is not in earshot.  I try to give each album a minimum of three spins but I have to agree with Sargon that some albums give up all their secrets a lot easier than others.  I've written reviews I really felt good about in ten minutes and agonized for an hour over ones that still didn't sound right.  I often scribble down a rough draft on paper and then edit once or twice when typing it in the computer.

I don't watch a lot of TV or movies and play no video games so other than family it's all about the metal.

[Sargon the Terrible]

I work pretty much 9 to 5 on other writing matters, so I just do my Metal Crypt stuff when I have spare time.

Oh absolutely.  I'm a full-time writer right now, so I have to find time (or more importantly energy) to sit down and pound out a couple reviews a few times a week.

[metaldomdom]

well... congrats to all of you, you're all doing a good job

[Night Records]

Well, as long as the reviews remain reliable, good and very nice, I don't care how many are produced

[spudford]

HA! I am certainly guilty of over enthusiasm and also unnecessary verbosity When I was writing I always felt it was important to provide as much info as possible, but I know that was the wrong approach now, especially given how easy it is to sample stuff. I tend to appreciate brevity in reviews I read now since all I want to know is if the album is worth my time to jump on youtube and check it out.

I don't know... I almost exclusively listen to promos

Oh man, I couldn't do that. I love the feeling of becoming familiar with great bands and that takes so much time. I have many albums that I really like but just don't have the time to spend with them.

And respect to those writing full time. I'd love to do that, but I have neither the drive nor the discipline required. I know Sargon has been published, has anyone else here got something in print? Or maybe publish to a website?

[Dragonchaser]

You can check out some of my published stories in these books, among others:

http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Frights-III-Lyle-Perez-Tinics/dp/161706114X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327679435&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/This-Ring-Bleed-DEAD/dp/1937758044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327679464&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lounge-Companion-Vol-Collection-Creative/dp/095656870X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327679503&sr=1-1

[Sargon the Terrible]

Well, if we're at it, my stories can be found in these places:

Fast Ships, Black Sails a cool pirate anthology http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Ships-Black-Sails-VanderMeer/dp/1597800945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327706492&sr=1-1

Beauty Has Her Way a collection that my wife is also in http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Has-Her-Joshua-Palmatier/dp/0983099316/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327706597&sr=1-1

My ebooks can be found here: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/pauldbatteiger

And there are now a novella, 3 novels and counting available on our website www.adventurotica.com

[spudford]

I'm reading your blog now, it has some interesting thoughts. It's the rarest of blogs - subject matter I wouldn't normally think about that is interesting enough to keep my attention