5 – The album is excellent, it could also be considered perfect or near perfect. There may be a few glitches or setbacks, but they are not detrimental.

4 – The album is very good. There aren’t too many glitches or setbacks but the ones that are present keep the album from being excellent.

3 – The album is mediocre. While the album is alright, there isn’t anything that makes it stand out above other albums. Some of it is good, and some of it needs work.

2 – The album is bad. Many things have gone wrong, and unless it happens to be within your personal favorite genre, chances are it’s not even worth your time. The band has a lot to work on.

1 – The album is terrible. The album isn’t worth your time, no exceptions.

Note: Be aware that in November 2004 the grading scale was revised to how it is shown above in order to maintain more consistences between our reviewers. Many of the reviews in our Archive may include ½ marks and ¼ marks and please be aware that the ratings at that time were also more open to our reviewers’ interpretations of the rating scale, as opposed to this now absolute grading scale which our reviewers are responsible to follow in their rating procedures.