Zantera's Roulette of Awesomeness - Roulette Over, Heretic Wins!

[kári]

Sent!

[Zantera]

Got it, thanks! 5 to go.

[Zantera]

So far I have kári and Ravenheart's songs. So please, keep sending. I don't like the way the roulette is going with longer time for each round.

[lateralus88]

I have no idea what to send. Give me some moments. I'll come up with something.

[Zantera]

Okay, so it's been almost a week now and I still only have 2 songs out of 6. I understand that people are busy, but if it's going to be this way, then I might consider ending it sooner, because there's a line of people who want to go next, and it's not fair to keep them waiting.

[Xanthul]

You should have chosen me honey 

[Zantera]

Probably. 

I'll give it another day or two though. I get that people are busy, and it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to end the roulette earlier.

[Gorille85]

sent

[lateralus88]

I honestly don't really know what to send this round, seeing how it's fairly similar to how I interpreted the avant-garde round.

[Zantera]

Well, send something you think blends two different genres very well. If it's Avant-Garde then I have no problem with that really.

[Heretic]

GAHHHH I'm so sorry college is EVIL.

I will have something soon I promise <3

[Zantera]

Right now I'm still waiting on Heretic and ClairvoyantCat. I'm really busy this weekend, so I currently don't know how much time I'll be able to listen, but at best I can have the results up on Sunday, at worst they'll be up on Monday. Seeing how this roulette has been a bit more dragged out then I had initially thought, I'll see if I'll cut it short or something. I'm starting with studies in 1 ˝ week, and soon after that, Mists of Pandaria is released, so I'll be having less and less time. 

[Zantera]

Okay, time for results. Again, I'm sorry that it took longer this time, but as I've said, it's mostly up to you guys. I'll have results up within 24 hours after getting all submissions, this time several people were busy so it took a bit longer.
I didn't get a submission from Seth this round either, so only 5 songs.

*[Gorille85] Everything Everything - Suffragette Suffragette - 8 Points
The name did ring a bell, but I hadn't heard their music. I might be wrong, but I believe SW has mentioned them (and the album the song is from) among his favorite albums from a year, or it has been on his "listening to now"-lists. I feel fairly confident that I've heard about them from there at least.
I really enjoyed this song. Very catchy and just a fun song, the vocals were pretty light, and I really enjoyed the sort of harmonised singing parts of it. Very good tune, and I really enjoyed it. Will check out the album when I have some time.
8 points!

*[Lateralus88] Ihsahn - On the Shores - 8 Points
Okay, so I was really excited to hear this. I'm very familiar with this man, I do know me some Emperor and I've seen at least his two latest albums being reviewed in different magazines here. This sounded pretty much like I expected it to sound, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but from the reviews I've read, I did imagine something fairly Avant-Garde/Progressive with touches of Jazz and Black Metal.
Instrumentally, this song delivers. I'm a huge sucker of anything remotely Jazz-sounding put into a Progressive/Rock/Metal environment, so those aspects of the song really shines for me. Vocally the song has some nice variety, as I've said I do know some Emperor, so I'm familiar with the voice. Nice mix between more clean singing and more harsh singing, the whole song has a nice mix between heavier parts and more quiet parts. Nice song, can't wait to hear more.
8 Points!

*[Ravenheart] Monica Richards - Into My Own - 7 Points
More female stuff to the people! Hadn't heard the name before, so was very interested to hear how it would sound.
Very nice and chill vocals. The song as a whole starts off pretty chill, fairly mellow. I quite dig the instrumentation which feels fairly straight forward, but yet experimental enough to keep it interesting.
But somewhere in the middle, this song really surprised me. It really kicks off with some guitars and drums, and becomes more up tempo. This was very interesting, since I didn't quite expect it. I can definitely see this song growing more with time, but for now it gets a very solid 7 points!

*[Heretic] Rosetta - Départe - 7 Points
Another band I've heard a lot of things about, mostly positive. From what I've gathered, a Post/Sludge-Metal band, which sounds about right after hearing the song. After doing some reading on Wiki, I see that this is the first song on their first album, pretty interesting. Musically this sounded fairly like what I had expected. Post-Rock gone heavier with some vocals thrown into the mix. Seeing as Post-Rock is one of my favorite genres, this kind of music is normally a homerun for me, but it isn't quite in this case. The song all in all was pretty enjoyable, and a pretty solid song, but I'm still not 100% sure about the vocals. They're not bad, but they sound kinda.. just there. I don't think they make the song better in any way, but it's hard to explain.
Still, 7 points!

*[kári] Yeasayer - O.N.E. - 7 Points
I've seen the name here and there, also in the "new albums"-shelf at my local recordstore, but musically I had no idea what to expect. So I start the song, and instantly go.. "hey, this is the FIFA-song", and without hesitation I instantly remember the song from the Fifa 11-soundtrack, I've been a Fifa-player for ~15 years, so I know most of the soundtracks. 
Yet, I didn't want to diss the song, because normally I just enjoy the music in the game as background noise, this time I spent time focusing on it as a song.
This is a pretty catchy tune, fairly poppy. I'm not sure how I would classify it genre-wise, so I think it works well in the fusion-round in that way. All in all a pretty cool track.
7 points!

That leaves us with this table:

1. Heretic - 39 points
    Ravenheart - 39 points
2. Lateralus88 - 38 points
3. Gorille85 - 37 points
4. kári - 35 points
5. ClairvoyantCat - 21 points (Two rounds behind)

Round 6 - New
Two more opposite-rounds. As the title suggests, here I'm looking for something new. A band or an artist with only one album out would be pretty optimal, but if you have one with two albums out, then it's not a big deal.

[Heretic]

liking the new avatar!

[Zantera]

liking the new avatar!

Thanks, it's an awesome album, and artwork. 

[lateralus88]

Awesome. So glad you enjoyed that there Ihsahn track. It's definitely my favourite from him, and well one of my favourites of all time.

Anyway, I like the sound of this next round. Gonna dig through my library for a good one.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

*[kári] The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey - 6 Points
Like with Zander's song, something felt familiar about it. Did some googling and saw that it was used for Lost in Translation.

Just noticed this. Isn't MBV in that movie too? Whoever made that movie really likes noise pop.

[kári]

The soundtrack also features other songs by Kevin Shields

[Zantera]

Updating to say that I've gotten songs from Gorille, Lateralus and Ravenheart. So keep sending.

[kári]

sent

[Zantera]

I got it! So far it's been flowing really nicely. At this time I don't really expect Seth to send a song (since he didn't for the last two rounds), so as soon as I get Heretic's song, I'll start listening.

I also feel like I should warn you that from next week, I'll be more busy with other things. I'm starting studying again, and a new game comes out that I'm excited to play quite a lot, so I'll have less time for listening. With that said, it wont be like in some other roulettes where it's sorta just been drifting away for a few weeks, then months, I still very much plan on finishing the roulette as soon as possible.

[kári]

Take it easy

[Zantera]

Okay, time for results! Another great round, gotten some sweet stuff.
Like with the previous rounds, Seth hasn't sent anything, but I have gotten songs from the rest, so here's the five songs:

*[kári] The xx - Islands - 9  Points
I must say that I have a bit of a history with this band. When the debut came out, I remember that it was praised a lot over here, getting awesome reviews in several magazines. Now, I wasn't that into indie/minimalistic stuff then, so I felt like this wasn't of interest to me, but I remember my dad bought it. He was supposed to play it in the car when we were going for a drive, but for some reason he ended up driving himself that day, and since he played the album then, I never got to hear it. He ended up not really liking it, if I recall right he thought it was a bit too minimalistic for his taste, I didn't really think much about it.
But I know the band has a new album out, and they have been getting some attention again, so they've been on my mind a bit because of that. I've wanted to check them out, so getting this song was a bit of a positive surprise, finally a reason for me to listen!
This is very much indeed how I expected it to sound musically, a bit minimalistic but with some really catchy parts. Some nice vocals that fit the music in a good way, and since the song is rather short, it creates that kind of "I need to hear more"-feeling, which often happens with a great song when they don't repeat everything too much. They go for maybe one chorus less, but the result is that you play the song more often because it's so great. I really liked this.
9 Points!

*[Heretic] Ever Forthright - Screen Scenarios - 8 Points
Okay, so you mentioned that this is the new band of the previous singer in Periphery, which had me a bit intrigued since I must confess; I haven't heard Periphery with him on vocals. So I went into this pretty much expecting Djent-ish music.
The song starts with some nice guitar-picking, but I must say that my first reaction when the song really kicks off was that it felt like a "Periphery Light" so to speak, also reminded me a bit of The Safety Fire with a bit more harsh vocals.
However, while the initial reaction wasn't that special, I must say that the song kept growing more and more with every second. While the song is long, I expected it to be a bit like Racecar by Periphery, sort of maintaining that progressive/djentish sound throughout the whole song, but this is where I was a bit blown away. The Jazz-ish passage that comes in around ~3:20 into the song really surprised me, and being a sucker for jazz-elements in heavier music, I very much loved that.
The song continues with some very strong hooks and melodies, and I really enjoyed this. I don't think it's on the same level as Periphery for example, but the variety and music itself has made me interested in checking the full album out, so that's certainly something I will do. 
8 Points!

*[Gorille85] Caravan Palace - Suzy - 8 Points
So this is really fun stuff. A bit Avant-Garde sounding, my first reaction was a certain similarity to Diablo Swing Orchestra, and after looking up Caravan Palace, I saw the genre "Swing" being tossed around, so they probably do share that certain element. But yeah, otherwise this song was just straight fun all the way through. Not that many lyrics, more focus on the musical aspect of the song, and I think it really worked. I also noticed that they are from France, and seeing as I'm starting to learn French and have developed a bit of an interest for stuff related to France, that was really cool.
Really enjoyed the song, will check them out further.
8 Points!

*[Lateralus88] Ghost - Satan Prayer - 7 Points
So this is a band I've heard a lot about, but actually never heard. It's quite weird. One reason is because they're Swedish, but there was actually a big hype here in Sweden regarding them when their debut hit the stores. Lots of fuzz and good ratings in different magazines, and then a bit later Metallica played here in Gothenburg, and in an interview that was shown in TV, Hetfield said that Ghost was one of his favorite modern bands. Now the band is also starting to get some attention in other parts of the world, I remember them touring with Opeth and Mastodon (?).
Anyhow, this music was actually better than I had thought. To be honest I find their whole gimmick to be kinda lame, but musically this stuff delivers more than I thought it would. A bit more 70's-sounding than I had thought, very catchy chorus, some nice guitars. All in all a very solid song!
7 Points!

*[Ravenheart] Rozz Williams & Gitane Demone - Flowers - 7 Points
Some really nice piano work that really impressed me. The song had a very chill-vibe to it that I really enjoyed, being a sucker for really good piano-based ballad-kind of songs. Lyrically I found it very interesting as well, I haven't quite read up on them, but from the fragments I could take out of the song, it sounded very interesting.
I'm not quite sure why this song didn't click more than it has (so far at least), it has the aspects I'm looking for in a good piano-tune, but I guess I'm sorta waiting for something more. By your description, I get the feeling that this might be a bit more of an "album-song", and that if I hear the whole album, I might be able to appreciate it more, due to it's place on the album, and what part it plays. I still very much liked this, and I do have the album on my computer. So some day.
7 Points!

Which leaves us with this score:

1. Heretic - 47 points
2. Ravenheart - 46 points
2. Lateralus88 - 45 points
    Gorille85 - 45 points
4. kári - 44 points
5. ClairvoyantCat - 21 points (Three rounds behind)

Pretty even in other words.

Round 7 - Old
"Old" can have different meanings. For some, music from the 90's is old, for others the same word applies to music from the 70's. I'm not going to set a year, but I'm thinking pre-90's. If you happen to have something to send from the first years of the 90's, then that's fine too.

[lateralus88]

Yeah, Ghost toured with Mastodon and Opeth last april. Was an amazing performance by them. Probably better than the other two band which is funny for how much I love MastOpeth. Glad you liked them.


Now to find my next entry.

[kári]

Yay

[Heretic]

Question to the others partaking in the roulette (or watchers of the roulette), have any of you listened to the songs others have submitted? I'm going to try and do a run through of all the ones I haven't heard here soon.

[kári]

And sent

[Zantera]

Okay, so I've only gotten half of the submissions by now (7 days since the last round ended), and I think it's time to just round up.
I'd say it's a combination of me having less and less time with each week (due to studies), but also that you guys also seem very busy, and I hate being in the way for those next in line, after all, doing a roulette is mostly because it's so fun.

So, the table after the last round ends like this:

1. Heretic - 47 points
2. Ravenheart - 46 points
2. Lateralus88 - 45 points
    Gorille85 - 45 points
4. kári - 44 points
5. ClairvoyantCat - 21 points (Three rounds behind)

Which means that Heretic wins! For those who still sent songs for the next round, I will check those songs out still. But otherwise, just thanks for being a part of this, and it was fun.

[kári]

Oh. I wanted to win!