You want lunatices? Go to the Megadeth/Slayer concert tonight and see for yourself...

I'm a metal fan but also a fan of most musical genres rock, blues, country, house etc so am probably not as psychotic (just a little) as some who take it way to seriously and metal is their life.

I agreed completely with your Death Magnetic review. That album is pretty average. The AIC review wasn't too offensive, maybe the last album released call you made (fixed now) was the low point.

Chris, can you please post a link to the Linkin Park review? I need a laugh being Monday and all.

Hey 1977. Review is pretty old now - May, 2007 - and is gone from Google and our search engine so can't post a link but I managed to track down a text copy:

CD review: Minutes to Midnight - Linkin Park

You can't blame Rick Rubin for this shambles. Reinventing Linkin Park - the last bastions of nu-metal - is an impossible task, even for a music super producer with a Midas touch.

Minutes To Midnight is the first real stinker to have Rubin's name attached to it. And what a shocker it is, exposing a band that's had its head stuck firmly up its own arse for far too long.

Linkin Park's first new album in four years proves the chart pleasers are wallowing in nu-metal no-man's land. It discards the previously successful riff-rap-rock formula for 12 tracks of self-indulgent wishy-washy experimentation.

It's full of weak ballads (Leave Out all the Rest, Shadow of the Day, In Between), lame hip-hop (Hands Held High) and U2-style bombast (What I've Done). Only Bleed It Out's funky hand claps show any sign of progression or - gasp - sense of fun.

Funnily enough, Linkin Park seem to know how bad it is, bleating on about what a difficult album Minutes to Midnight was to make in the album's bizarre liner notes. Suck it up, losers.

Even lead singer Chester Bennington doesn't seem to like the new album. When he finally gets his heckles up on Given Up, he screams "Put me out of my misery" at the top of his lungs.

If only we could, Chester. If only we could.

Fans of this kind of music are fanatics.

There is no such thing as a casual metal fan. Metal is passion driven emotion filled music, you either don’t understand or comprehend it and write it off as non-music or you fully embrace every aspect of it, read for hours about your favourite bands, wear the t-shirts, yell at people on the street about it, sometimes even tattoo the band logo on yourself... when we love a band we LOVE THEM and if you say anything bad about them without actually taking the time that we have taken to understand and really feel the music then we actually want to physically assault you.

We also get very defensive because there seems to be a common view that heavy metal isn’t a valid form of music and are constantly having to justify ourselves for listening to and loving it. Its a ridiculous viewpoint considering the disposable glamour marketed bull**** that dominates the charts. The majority of the most highly skilled and inspired musicians are involved in alternative/metal.

To get a better idea of why metal fans are why they are you should watch 'A headbangers Journey' a brilliant doco that pretty much sums up a metal heads way of life and thought processes (was available on youtube last time i checked too).

When I ask someone 'what kind of music are you into?' and they reply with 'oh whatever really, anything I can dance to' I think to myself 'you dont deserve ears'

I guess why everyone reacted in a bad way to your review is because Alice in Chains fans are usually DIE HARD FANS and know almost every detail about them, and the review you wrote definitley came across like you arent really that into them hence dont know a hell of a lot about them yet (less than most of the people who posted) and yet you were given the job of reviewing them on a popular news website as if you were some kind of national authority on the matter, die hard fans of any band would take that badly and hit back.

I'm curious about what the lyric is meant to be now! you say it says 'bong' in the booklet, on some lyrics websites it says 'bowl' and others 'bones' it does sound like 'bong' on the audio though.

Still haven't forgiven you for spoiling the next season of Dexter Chris.

I know that TV3 cancelled the current season because you blurted out some major spoilers for the next season on this blog.

Linkin Park aren't metal.

And yes, we're crazy.

Dexter, what did I do to spoil Dexter for you? And what can I do to make it up to you? I find it hard to believe TV3 cancelled a series because of something little old me said...

Not all, but many (in my experience). I think it's broader than just metal fans though - I think you find the same sort of thing in fans of any sort of marginalised genre. They pretty much expect the mainstream media to misunderstand the genre that is so dear to them, and then when the reviewer's opinion does not map precisely with theirs, they draw on their status as a fan/expert to ridicule the reviewer's "amateur" opinion. I've seen the same thing happen with Hip Hop fans, Drum and Bass fans, Dubstep fans, Post Rock fans, etc.

In a sense they have a point, a fan/expert may understand the genre better than the mainstream "amateur", and that fan/expert's opinion is going to be more use to another fan/expert. But the fact is, I would trust someone who is not a fan of metal to tell me whether I (who is also not a fan of metal) will be likely to enjoy a given metal album more than a metal fan, because the non metal fan is more likely to come from a similar point of view as me.

All this to say, I think the people who are critiquing your review aren't crazy so much as they are entirely misunderstanding the point of the review, and trying to shout you down because they think they know better.

Dude, all genres have crazy fans. You want to check out what happens in the comments over at Blog on the Tracks every time Simon Sweetman suggests that New Zealand music isn't by definition good music, or that some hiphop act is rubbish.

Obzen's pretty much got it nailed with regard to metal. Metal fans don't do anything by halves, and that includes defending their favourite band.

Obzen (#4) is pretty much on to it. Most metal fans are pretty passionate about what they listen to so if you criticise it then look forward to a fairly swift and aggressive response. Depending how eloquent they are (or not) and how much hardcore death metal they listen to, the comments might range from reasoned criticism (best case scenario) to flat-out abuse and anthrax in the mail (semi-intentional pun).