So I tore the shit out of Entertainment Weekly in a recent E-Mail I sent them in regards to their Probot review. I'm usually against such petty acts, but they deserved this one:

Ok, please oh please don't review any metal albums in EW. I just read your review (or rather blurb) about Probot and am pretty sickened. Normally I love EW and can't stand all the whining I see people do, so I guess you can call me a hypocrite here.
"...the result is more amusing than menacing" sticks out like a sore thumb in reference to Mr. Kilmester's vocal performance. I'm sorry, but when was Lemmy EVER menacing as a vocalist. As a person, deffinetly, on stage, absolutely. However his vocals have never been about scaring or intimidation. Go and listen to Ace of Spades (the album...not the song) and try to argue that Motorhead was ever supposed to be menacing and/or frightening.
"Other songs, with demonic-frog vocals"...stick to your Beyonce and these marketed bastards that rule the top 40. Leave vocals that actually have character to the underground where it belongs, and prospers. Metal clearly isn't for everyone, and EW leaving it out of your review section more or less has made me (as a metalhead) respect the magazine more than other publications who think that they are clever for calling shrink-wrapped aggression like Korn and Linkin Park metal (that sacred label should never be applied to such garbage BTW)
Also one major flaw in this "review" was the fact that the vocals were the only thing really comented on, clearly Mr. Browne doesn't realise in a market saturated with drum loops, and over produced beats, that there is more to music that lyrics and vocals. Metal, since its conception upon Toni Iommi's freboard, has always been musically driven as opposed to vocaly. The voice is almost its own instrument as opposed to the vehicle in which a message is delivered, melding with the music, creating emotion instead of trying to provoke it.
On a side note...I rememebr a few issues back when you did a feature on The Darkness. Iron Maiden's success was refered to in past tense. Yeap...debuting their 2003 album Dance of Death at #18 on the charts in the US, No 1 in Italy, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Czech Republic. No 2 in UK, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia. No 3 in France, Spain, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Argentina, Austria. No 4 in Japan, Portugal, Belgium, Iceland. No 5 in Canada. No 10 in Denmark. No 11 in Holland. And No 12 in Austrailia deffiently means that they are a band of the past. We'll ignore the fact that in 2001 they headlined the Rock In Rio festival, and played in front of a crowd of 200,000 strong who were screaming along with Bruce Dickinson's soaring vocals. also their Grammy Nomination for 2000's Brave New World must have meant nothing especially considering they were shoulder to shoulder with modern successes like Slipknot and Deftones. Yeap...deffinetly a band of the past.

I'm sorry about all that, I really do enjoy my EW subscription, but please...stick to what you know, if you want to start reviewing/commenting on metal...get someone who actually knows the scene today, and its past. Thanks.
- posted by Casey @ 8:08 PM