KirksNoseHair's Simple Roulette v. And The Winner Is.....

[jingle.boy]

I can't wait to see the list of submissions. This roulette could cost us all some money!

20-40-60-80- .....  yup.  Good news is I just cashed in all the coins I toss into a jar at the end of a day.  $57.  Got me some music-spending money.  And if RJ's recommendations are any good (by the tally on my recent top 50, that's a given), Karnya and Absolute Priority are and absolute priority.   

[obscure]

RJ has been telling me about reviewing Absolute Priority for about 4 months... they were definitely an absolute priority to him to 




and I won't tell you that I was feeding many other albums down his throat

[lonestar]

I think it's been more like five

[obscure]

ehahahah.. a band name I'd never pick.... provides so much material for bad jokes 



and maybe it's the curse 

[jingle.boy]

So... uhm... it's Monday.  How 'bout it?  The Earth isn't turning any slower!

[kirksnosehair]

OK, sorry it took a while, I was slammed at work today, plus had a new staff member starting this morning.


Anyway, without further delay, I give you the results of Round 1:







Dr. DTVT

Band: MindMaze
Album: Mask of Lies
Song: Never Look Back

MindMaze is a female-fronted hard rock/power metal band from Allentown, PA, featuring a lot of great riffs and harmony guitars.  The track "Never Look Back" reminds me quite a bit of mid-era Iron Maiden musically, although with Sarah Teets (yes, her last name is Teets) on lead vocals, it also has an almost Pat Benetar sound to it as well.  This is not a bad thing.  This track was released ahead of the album as (I suspect) a single.  My only gripe with this song is that after a while it seems a little bit on the repetative side and kind of loses a bit of steam towards the end, but with that said, the track was good enough that I will probably end up buying their album.
Score: 7.5




Elite:

Band: Mastadon
Album: The Hunter
Song: Black Tongue (The Hunter)

Mastadon is a metal band hailing from the USA.  The music is powerful and dark.  Almost overwhelming.  I found it a challenge to understand what the vocalist was actually singing in this song, but with that said, I thought the vocals fit in quite well with this style of music.  In general, I've avoided Mastadon in the past having heard a few of their tracks with coarse vocals, which I do not like.  In the context of this competition, however, this is a very good song and certainly a worthy one.
Score: 7




ich bin besser:

Band: Dante
Album: November Red
Song: November Red

Dante is a German progressive metal band. Musically, this is quite impressive stuff.  A nice blend of I&W/Awake-era Dream Theater style progmetal with keyboards in the mix, but not prominently so.  Plenty of changes in time signature keep you a bit off balance and some unique phrasing on the guitar solos keep things interesting.  Unfortunately, the vocals were not my cup of tea.  They're not bad vocals, per se, just the sound and timbre and delivery at times was a bit distracting.  A band like this would really kill with a Russell Allen type of vocalist.  Lots of potential here for sure.
Score: 6.5


jingle.boy:

Band: Hardline
Album: Double Eclipse
Song: In The Hands of Time

Hardline is an American hardrock band that once featured Journey's Neal Schon.  This song is the closing track on their debut album, it was actually written by Neal Schon as were all 13 tracks on the album.  "In The Hands of Time" This seems to be a band that could have made it big had they hit the scene 7 or 8 years prior to the wave of shitty shoe-gazing grunge that emerged in the early 90's.  This song extremely catchy with a huge sing-a-long chorus and some great guitar work.  Probably not something I'd be in a big rush to go out and buy the CD, but nonetheless, in the context of this competition, it's a fine contender
Score: 6.5


nekov:

Band: Iluvatar
Album: Iluvatar
Song: In The Eye

Iluvatar is a neo-prog band that are likely influenced by Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, Marillion, Arena, Pendragon, IQ and perhaps Jadis.  "In The Eye" reminded me quite a bit -at least musically- of some of the Arena albums I own.  Some excellent guitar work and a quite progressive style of music with some interesting keyboards and meandering arrangement.  No shortage of Mellotrons either, which is always a good thing in prog.  I'm pretty sure that this will be a band I will end up exploring more of once this competition is complete. 
Score: 7


Obscure:

Band: DGM
Song: Reason
Album: Momentum

DGM is an Italian progressive metal band.  "Reason" is the opening track from their 2013 album "Momentum" and this track features Russell Allen (Symphony X, Adrenaline Mob, etc) on lead vocals.  Musically, I was reminded of mid-era Symphony X.  Even though I was given an MP3 file, I found the production values to be very, very good.  Some really great guitar riffing and drums and of course the vocals of Allen are killer.  I wish he'd sing like this in Symphony X.  I will definitely be exploring this band's material in more detail after this competition is completed.
Score: 8


lonestar:

Band: Pomegranate Tiger
Album: Entities
Song: New Breed

Pomegranate Tiger is an experimental instrumental progressive metal band from Ontario, Canada.  They're relatively new to the scene having formed in 2010.  This is very dense and fairly complex instrumental prog metal.  Generally speaking (with a few exceptions here and there) I don't really get into a whole lot of instrumental stuff, but I found this track intriguing enough to motivate me to add them to my list of bands from which I will probably go ahead and make a purchase at the end of the competition.  The music is all over the place.  Time signatures change frequently as does the direction, style and mood of the music.  Many listens were required to "get into" it, but those listens are each rewarded with a new little nuance that was missed on first listen.  Reminded me a little bit of LTE in places, but definitely more complex in terms of arrangement.
Score: 8


Scorpion:

Band: Reverence
Album: When Darkness Calls
Song: After The Leaves Have Fallen

Who the hell are these guys and why haven't I ever heard of them?  Apparently Reverence is a power metal band formed fairly recently and featuring former members of Savatage.  I didn't have a lot of time to look into them and their website is not very helpful, but this is a killer ballad with one of the best guitar solos I've ever heard anywhere at any time.  And the vocals?  Holy shit, this guy's vocal range, style and delivery is just amazing.  The ONLY thing holding this back was the fact that I had to listen to a shitty re-recording of a YouTube video.  Top shelf power metal.  I will be buying their album probably today.
Score 8.5


TAC:

Band: Daedalus
Album: The Never Ending Illusion
Song: A Journey To Myself

Daedalus is an Italian Progressive Metal band that weilds a powerful mix of influences including rock, prog rock, metal, classical, jazz, ambient and even electronica.  Formed in 2000 they released their first album "Leading From a Mistake" in 2003, then released the album from which this song was taken in 2009.  The music reminded me a lot of I&W-era Dream Theater with slightly less-hair-metalish sounding vocals.  Keyboards/synths are prominent throughout, but there are still plenty of guitars here.  This is definitely another band I'll have to dig into further once this competition is complete.
Score: 8


Wolfking:

Band: Vanishing Point
Album: Embrace the Silence
Song: Hollow

Vanishing Point is a Power/Progressive Metal band from Australia - they seem to lean more in the Power direction.  Their music is played in the symphonic style with lots of keyboards/synths and quite melodic with a lot of vocal harmonies incorporated into the choruses.  This song features a very nice guitar solo, flashy, but not over the top.  The band does an outstanding job of carring melodic ideas throughout the entire song, building on a couple of themes through an instrumental section which peaks with a refrain of the chorus.  Sigh....more money I will have to spend!
Score 8


Scores after Round 1:


scorpion 8.5
TAC - 8
obscure - 8
lonestar - 8
wolfking - 8
Dr. DTVT - 7.5
Elite - 7
nekov - 7
ich bin besser - 6.5
jingle.boy - 6.5

[TAC]

Hey Scorp, at least thank me for the Reverence. I started the thread on them last year.

And yes, that album kicks all sorts of ass!

Kirk, if you want to save your money, I'll burn you a copy. Same for Daedalus and DGM. You know where to find me!

[jingle.boy]

TAC... never knew anyone else here with Daedalus.  That's a fantastic album.

Oh, and I told ya'll you had nothing to worry about.   

I know exactly what's going out this round.

[Nekov]

Pretty even round to start with only 2 points separating the best from the worst (which non surprisingly was jboy). This will be a tough one to the end. I think I know what to send next

[TAC]

Yeah it's a great album. That's a great song too.

If Reverence won the round, I might have to go a bit more metal.  I've got a shredder on deck.

[Scorpion]

Yeah TAC, thanks for that.

Anyway, since you seem to be digging the power metal route, I think I'll stick with that.

EDIT: Sent, yo.

[Nekov]

Sent

[wolfking]

Glad you liked VP 

[jingle.boy]

Listened to Scrop's and RJ's.  Nice tunes.  The others I already knew.

I predict improvement this round.  My submission hath been delivered and accepted.

Oh, and people need to stop picking my choices - I had Mindmaze on the shortlist of possibilities, as well as DGM. 

Oh well, there's other Italian powerhouses out there still to be used.

[wolfking]

I have no clue what to send now. 

[Lowdz]

Love that MindMaze album.It's up there for album of the year so far. It's battling with MorningStarlett and Vandroya.

 And the Reverence is good too.

The Hardline album is a Melodic Rock classic.

[Dr. DTVT]

Are we listening to the same Daedalus album?  I only remember it being extremely derivative and unoriginal.  Never cared to give it a third listen.

[TAC]

Will there be an instrumental round?

[jingle.boy]

Will there be an instrumental round?

Any round you want is an instrumental round.

[wolfking]

I kind of wish there were themes for each round, it would make choosing a song a lot easier.

[Dr. DTVT]

Come one guys, coming up with good bands he doesn't have is hard enough.  Why the add the extra level of difficulty?
Then again, Daedalus did well so maybe the bar isn't that high.

[obscure]

Oh, and people need to stop picking my choices - I had Mindmaze on the shortlist of possibilities, as well as DGM. 

Oh well, there's other Italian powerhouses out there still to be used.

[lonestar]

 




And sent....

[TAC]

OK, Round 2 submission is sent.

Torn between two songs (same band). So tough..

[TAC]

Come one guys, coming up with good bands he doesn't have is hard enough.  Why the add the extra level of difficulty?

I would agree with that.

I have one band in mind that has a smoking instrumental, but a really cool epic, which I would rather use the epic. But if there was an instrumental round, I'd use the instrumental.

[kirksnosehair]

Will there be an instrumental round?

Any round you want is an instrumental round.

Right, the only "rule" is send me stuff you think I'll like.


With that said, you're probably putting yourself at a slight disadvantage with instrumental stuff since I don't really listen to or buy a whole lot of it.


Don't get me wrong, I love LTE, but they're pretty unique for me.

[kirksnosehair]

Come one guys, coming up with good bands he doesn't have is hard enough.  Why the add the extra level of difficulty?
Then again, Daedalus did well so maybe the bar isn't that high.

Right, and that list I provided is really only about 75% to 80% of my CD collection.  I still own about 500 Cassettes that aren't even on that list.


Us senior citizens be having big music collections, yo.     

[jingle.boy]

Right, and that list I provided is really only about 75% to 80% of my CD collection.  I still own about 500 Cassettes that aren't even on that list.

I call bull-shit.  If that file is 75-80%, then how come you know 50% of the bands I checked on?  Oh, wait... it's cuz we both have AWESOME tastes in music.  Never mind.

Us senior citizens be having big music collections, yo. 

Word.  Although, some of the 'junior' citizens in this roulette have a big-ass collection.

[TAC]

Will there be an instrumental round?

Any round you want is an instrumental round.

Right, the only "rule" is send me stuff you think I'll like.


With that said, you're probably putting yourself at a slight disadvantage with instrumental stuff since I don't really listen to or buy a whole lot of it.


Don't get me wrong, I love LTE, but they're pretty unique for me.

Yeah that's what I figured. I'll use the epic in a future round.

I didn't send the metal shredder this round. Went with a band that I wanted to get in before someone beat me to it.

[Dr. DTVT]

Oh well, there's other Italian powerhouses out there still to be used.

Good, cause I sure as hell wasn't sending them.

[TAC]

Oh well, there's other Italian powerhouses out there still to be used.

Good, cause I sure as hell wasn't sending them.

I used one in this round.

[Dr. DTVT]

jingle knows what band I'm talking about.  Wasn't trashing the one you sent, just the one I think jingle was implying.

[TAC]

It's all cool. I didn't take it that way. Seems there's an Italian band joke going on on this page that I'm not privy too. 

[wolfking]

Sent.

[kirksnosehair]

Calling Elite and ich bin besser


I can't burn a disc and start listening until you guys submit.


Same game plan as Round 1.  As soon as I have all of the songs, I will burn a disc, copy them to my iPod and listen to nothing but these songs until Monday when I'll post the results.