Metal Month: your views?
 

I know I'll get a lot of slagging over this, be called a whiny bitch and so on, and that's fine, but I just want to get a feel for what people think of this in general. Few if any of you know the amount of work that goes into each Metal Month, and it's a massive investment of my time and effort, which I'm happy to do; nobody's forcing me, I know so don't tell me.

But from the paucity of comments this year and the weak response to things like albums to be recced etc, I just wonder how many people actually read it, were interested in it? Next year's is planned to be the biggest yet, but even so, I find myself wondering should I bother? If I'm writing for a handful of people, is it worth it? That's not to denigrate those who would be, shall we say, fans of the series, but in a way is it not like writing albums worth of material and three people turn up to your gigs? Probably not; but I would just like some sort of either moral support to push me towards continuing, or else an admission that it's not really worth it and I probably should stop before I kill myself. ;)

I mean, I'm happy to continue this for as long as I can, but as my ideas get bigger and the scope widens, it becomes necessary to research earlier in the year each time, and if there's no real payoff in terms of people enjoying what I do then it's kind of a waste of my time. I know people like Frownland and Batty in particular certainly seem to enjoy it, but does anyone else?

So if you don't mind taking a moment to vote, and drop in any comments, observations, suggestions or criticisms you have (if anyone wants to tell me what they liked/hated about MM III or any of the series that would be great) I'd really appreciate it, and I'll have a good idea as to whether or not Metal Month IV will go ahead.

It might be time to finish it up, or it could be just getting going. But I've no way of knowing until I hear how, if at all, you guys react to it.

Thanks.

Don't think I really knew much about it last time it came on, mostly because I didn't spend much time in Rock and Metal, to be honest I still really don't know. I'd be happy to join in next time, but care to fill me in a bit (sorry, too lazy to dig for the thread)?

I admire all the hard work you put into it.
Since my interest in metal is somewhat limited, I didn't read all your reviews, but those read, I enjoyed very much.

You know how it is with the lack of responses in in-depth threads like this. It just it what it is. Like I told The Identity Matrix, just have faith that quality posts will bring in quantity of readers.

I'm still pretty new here and have not had a chance to check up on the Metal Month threads thus I will not vote on the poll. However, I would be looking forward to it if I had an idea of what is going to be so big about it. I will most likely spend a lot of time on it since I enjoy metal.

Personally im not into it but i like having it around and i like seeing the dedication you put in to it TH.

I imagine there are some members here that love metal but either didn't know about it or are not outspoken members but the metal demographic is probably the biggest one here so it makes sense to keep Metal month around.

I personally preferred Bowie month, we should do more events like that around here.

I voted for the "not really bothered" option because I'm not into metal and I can't see that changing anytime soon. Regardless, the work you put in is incredible and I read some of your reviews.

Not sure why you're surprised by the lack of comments in metal month considering you post between 3-5 posts per day during that time. It's almost impossible to give any commentary about one thing, especially with the length of your posts detailing everything that people would want to say anyway. So my answer is...not really bothered. I mean, I know it happens every year, but honestly, I usually just glance over the reviews and stuff because I don't really have anything to say about any of it.

Thanks for the responses. For those who are not aware, Metal Month began (initially as Metal Week but then I realised that was nowhere near enough time) as in the first year just a month dedicated to reviews of metal albums, trying to take in as many subgenres (death, doom, power, black etc) as I could. Year two saw me put more structure on it, so we had things like "Freshly Forged", which was and is albums newly released that year, "The International Language of Metal", which is where I explore the metal bands of four different countries, "Don't listen to that, listen to this!" where members recommend albums to me, and tons of other stuff. There's also the lighter and weirder side of metal with "When worlds collide" and some guest reviewers such as, er, Satan and Ned Flanders. Year three (this year) expanded the format a lot to add in extra sections and year four is slated to go even further.

It's impossible to give anyone a sense of Metal Month in a few lines, but if you're interested but don't want to read all the reviews, check my index (in my sig below) and just look at the lineup. I usually spend about 2-3 months reviewing and writing, and this coming year will probably start earlier (it always takes place throughout October). So with so much put into it, I just wanted to know if people were reading. Even if you're not commenting (I know less than one percent of people who read anything comment on it) it would be nice to know that I was at least writing for more than a handful of people.

Had I any work ethic, I would try to take some of the burden off of you, but I do not, so I shall not. Sorry not sorry.

But if this is starting to become a thankless chore, then maybe you should just streamline Metal Month into something that satisfies you rather than as something that "encompasses" anything. Erase every feature you've done up till now from the chalk board and just concentrate on what you want to learn about metal this year (or in the few months preceding Metal Month) and just say "**** all of you!". After three years I think people are suitably impressed with what you've done, so it's not like we have any right to expect bigger and better, or even maintaining your current level of work ethic. I'd be happy for you to just enjoy the experience and learn about your deficiencies.

Listen to more grindcore and powerviolence is what I'm basically saying. I'll consider you a failure until you do.