Ballads and Bows
Visual - 9/10 - The layout is clean and consistent throughout the entire site, and there are 5 different skins to choose from. All skins looked find in Firefox and IE and main navigation is very clear, easy to understand and accessible.. One measly point off because the background behind the headers on some of the skins makes things like the FAQ a little difficult to read and (on my monitor) the link color is just a little too light.
The content itself is interspersed with images and headers which break things up nicely without being overwhelming or distracting. There is enough whitespace in the text to make reading easy on the eye, without making things boring.
Text and Info - 10/10 - There is lots of text. Lots and lots of text, but what would you expect from a site that reviews music? I can't comment on the accuracy of the text because 1) a lot of it are the different reviewers opinions and 2) I don't understand the Japanese or a lot of the languages the songs were translated to. On the other hand, the grammar and spelling is solid for the most part.
The info is organized logically, although I'm a wee bit confused why lyric translations are under "site" and not "specials" but that really doesn't detract from the site.
Interactive - 7/10 - The site was pretty interactive, but now that the reviews have stopped it took apart a large way for people to contribute. Still, there are downloads to listen to and occasional fan mail gets put up.
Originality - 10/10 - Ballads and Bows is unique, as far as I can tell.
Return Factor - 9/10 - If you managed to read everything on the site in one go, I would be quite impressed. I think most visitors would need to return at least once if they wanted to read everything. Its a shame that the reviews are stopping, because that was a great way to make visitors want to return every month.
Overall - 45/50 - An interesting premise that was well executed. Great job.