Posted on: January 12, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Dagger #38 / $2 / :45 / http://www.indiepages.com/dagger / 

There are a lot of reviews in this issue of Dagger. So many, in fact, that about 90% of the non-advertisement space in this issue is dedicated to all fo the different albums and DVDs that Dagger ahs received in the space since the last issue was released. But is this a good thing? There is just not enough in the way of different segments in this issue to keep individuals reading. Of course, there are quite enough top lists (top ten, fifteen, and thirty) to go around, but the amount of interviews is small, and there are nothing in the way of feature articles for individuals to flip through. The one positive that can easily be assigned to Dagger is that the bands focused on are not the same acts that are being pushed in a number of more popular magazines Thus, there are interviews with Paula Frazer and Thalia Zedek in this issue. The CD, vinyl, and DVD reviews bounce around a lot in regards to the style; each staff member seems to have a different style and while this might be good in breaking up the tedium that fifty pages of reviews formatted the same way, the quality control needs to be increased to ensure that all bands are given their deserved time in a review. The one other issue that one can see in this issue of Dagger is that (in the zine reviews particularly) there is little, if any constructive criticism given in the reviews. While good reviews may do a lot to placate the ego, they do not in any way help out the creators of these magazines, who want to (presumably) create the best product that they can..

Rating: 4.6/10

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