Welcome to the 13th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge!

Originally the "MA Virgin Reviews Challenge", this is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every spring and autumn, reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible. The challenge is focused on virgin albums: those with no reviews so far. Every day, the reviews submitted and accepted are tallied, so that participants can see how they compare with one another and whether or not as a group we've been able to beat the accumulative totals. Previous challenges can be found here.

The challenge is named in memory of our friend Diamhea, a longtime contributor to this challenge and staff member here at Metal Archives, who sadly passed away on May 21, 2018. He was the first person to have ever written 100 reviews for a single challenge!

This challenge will run from Monday Jun 17 @ 12:00AM EST to Sunday Jun 23 @ 11:59PM EST.

The magic number to beat is 609. That was set in May 2009. It's high but we can beat it.
The second number to beat is 325. That was the total from the last challenge!

Challenge Rules

1. The focus is on virgin albums.
The only albums that count are those that had zero reviews prior to the challenge.

2. Every release listed on the main site is valid including singles, videos, boxed sets and so on.
However, please try to refrain from mass reviewing singles and 'best of' compilations for this challenge. That's lame.

3. Eligible releases have to be virgins at the beginning of the challenge.
Multiple people can review the same virgin. There’s no bonus for getting to it first, so no need to hurry – focus on quality instead.

4. Eligible reviews must have been written during the challenge.
Taking notes is fine, but avoid stockpiling already written reviews in advance.

5. Value quality over quantity!
Everyone is welcome to participate, but keep in mind that the mods won't be more lenient during the challenge.

6. The challenge abides by the default time of the site (Eastern Standard time or GMT-5).
Please ensure that you are submitting your review(s) within the right time frame in order for them to count.

7. The total number of reviews written will be tallied once a day (under normal circumstances).
I will do the tallying as soon as possible. Please don't nag me.

8. Stay cordial and respectful with one another.
Don't hijack this thread with petty arguments or whining. Remember that the mods are watching (and waiting)...

9. The only reward is our eternal appreciation.
The only prize is knowing that there is an album that previously didn't get any love... that now has a review to call its own.

Hall of Fame




The Metal Archives Review Pool

Not sure what to write a review for, or want a change of pace outside of your comfort zone? The Review Pool may be the answer!

The Review Pool is a list of virgin albums submitted by other reviewers for anyone to review during the challenge. Anyone who has at least 5 reviews on MA can submit a virgin album to be included in the pool: just send me a PM with the album name, and I'll include it in the list below. Keep in mind, if it's no longer a virgin before the challenge begins, I will have to remove it. Reviewers interested in using the Review Pool can review any of the albums in the list during the challenge, even if someone else has reviewed it before them. There's no limit.

You can choose your own band, but be aware that reviews may be quite critical and we won't tolerate people whining/begging about scores.

The Review Pool List:

• nothing to see here yet...

Have fun! Looking forward to your participation!

This is gonna go great. I have listened to almost nothing at all so far this year.

Gonna see what I can get done with this, if only to make up on how much I’ve been putting off reviewing for most of this year