Great first round, guys. None of the submissions were bad, but some were better than others. Basically, the rankings work like this-- rather than me giving every song a 1-10 score, I rank the songs with the top one getting the most possible points (8) and the lowest one getting the least possible points (1). Of course, there's always a chance that there will be a tie when I can't decide what I like more, as had happened twice in this round.
First Place, 8 Points: H- Frost*, Hyperventilate
Wow, the intro to this song is really beautiful. What don’t I know about this band? Really liked what I heard with this submission. It was seven minutes long, but sadly it felt like it was over in 3. Which is saying a lot for me considering that it was an instrumental. Man, can’t get over how awesome this was. "Hyperventilate" is the perfect name for it, really! This album is definitely on my “to get” list.
Second Place, 7 Points: Zantera- Oceansize, Music for a Nurse
Glad you sent this, because I’ve had a lot of this bands’ albums sitting on my harddrive for ages and haven’t listened. Anyway, I really liked this a lot. It was really soothing, and reminded me a lot of what I like most about bands like Explosions in the Sky. It’d be number one if it were just a little bit more concise.
Third Place, 6 Points: Nick- Karmakanic, Send a Message From the Heart
Wow. Another great song. If length were everything, Nick would have won this round. However, in this instance, Nick’s length may have proven disadvantageous to him. This song has a great beginning and huge pay-off, but there’s a lot in the middle I still haven’t digested yet simply because it’s two times as long as the next longest submission. This may very well wind up being my favorite song from this round when all is said and done, but I’m not really capable of digesting epics fast enough to tell for now, so I’ve gotta give it third place.
--tied with--
Third Place, 6 Points: Zander- Nightingale, Dreamreader
Heh, I was not expecting Zander to bring the metal but he did. I like this a lot. Nice, melodic, good lyrics, catchy, etc. There was also a tasty synth solo in there. What pushed it over the edge, though, was the piano interlude. The thing that draws me to metal isn’t flash or bullshit riffing, but the incredible sense of melody that so many metal bands seem to have. By that criteria, this was pretty much perfect.
Fifth Place, 4 Points: Ariich- Thrice, For Miles
This is another band I’ve known I need to check out for awhile. Overall, I thought it was a solid song but not much about it really reeled me in. Maybe it was the production was part of the problem? When I was listening to it, I noticed there were a lot of cool parts going on that I felt like I simply could not hear because they were buried or the guitars were too loud or something. But anyway, I liked the melodies. It made me think of the Deer Hunter a little bit, actually. Is that ridiculous?
--tied with—
Fifth Place, 4 Points: MasterShakezula- King Crimson, Happy Family
As a big classic prog fan, I’ve always known KC were a band that I needed to give more time to. I’ve heard ITCOTKC and love it, but not much else. Anyway, this song is apparently from a very different era than the aforementioned album and, while it’s good, I wasn’t really a big fan of the vocals or the flute. God, I hate flutes. Otherwise, pretty good! I can’t say its put KC much higher on my list of bands to get more into, but it’s definitely reminded me that I might like them more if I try.
Seventh Place, 2 points: UMH- The Cat Empires, Fishies
An interesting pick that I was not expecting at all from the UltimateMetalHead. I guess the thing I liked least about it is I really dislike horns in rock music (in addition to the aforementioned flutes). This song wasn’t bad by any means, it was just nowhere near my favorite from this round.
Eight Place, 1 points: Four Points: Energythief- Live, I Alone
Listening to this song brought back vague memories of hearing it on the radio. Never seriously listened to it before, though. Anyway, it was pretty good, but I didn’t really feel connected to it or drawn to it in any way.
H- 8
Zantera- 7
Nick- 6
Zander- 6
Cup- 4
Ariich- 4
UMH- 2
ET- 1
Remember, if your score is low it doesn't mean I didn't like it! It just means that it didn't rank up as well compared tot he other submissions. I wanted to do things this way to make it more competitive. Don't worry, this is definitely still anyone's game!
OK- for the next round we're doing happy songs. I'm in the mood for happy metal lately so that might be something to consider, provided my mood doesn't change by the time you send your submission!