Most of those early 00s releases have been five-starred for over a decade now. It's hard to find out if they were ever mistakes that were reverted and then upgraded again or just left that way from the start. If they've always had that rating then AMG probably implemented their current five-star ratings policy long after.Krurze wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:07 pm According to Metacritic, they have given perfect scores right away for (excluding reissues, compilations and classical stuff):
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Diotima was 4.5 stars until it was upped again for the 'End of Decades' list. So it must have been downgraded at some point. More than any other popular genre, metal releases can sometimes slip through the cracks. Metal isn't a widely coveted genre by their staff so 'mistakes' can go unchecked for ages. Songs from the North, Vols. 1–3 by Swallow the Sun spent several years with a full five-star rating as did Negura Bunget's Om. I have my suspicions about Onset of Putrefaction by Necrophasgist too.
As for Live at Reading, it's what is usually labelled as an 'archival' release. Like classical music, archival material is treated differently. It wouldn't make sense for it to 'earn' a full rating as it already has a legendary status amongst music aficionados.
EDIT: I remember now that Daft Punk's Discovery was upgraded in 2011. It must've been downgraded before at some point. There was a discussion about all the 2011 upgrades back in the old forum. Ha, going back there I forgot how some members were annoyed with B-Day (now downgraded again) and Midnight Boom receiving a five-star rating. How times have changed...