OK here we go again! Results! Woohoo!
ROUND 6 RESULTS
bl5150Angel Dust - Bleed
This power metal song immediately sets itself apart from other metal songs, by opening with some really cool piano instead of immediate, balls-to-the-wall guitars and drums. It continues this trend even when the guitar and drums come in; the song is still more ballad-like then I suppose is typical for prog metal, and I really like the way the piano lines recur in the background. The very best thing about this song, though, is the vocalist. His voice is absolutely amazing. He sings in a lower register and with more grit than most power metal singers, which really helps to set this song apart from other power metal, plus he shows at several points during the song that he can really shriek those high notes if he needs to.
9 points425Voices From The Fuselage - Meteorites
I am familiar with Tesseract, of course. I loved
One, and thought Dan Tompkins was basically the best thing ever. I heard a bit of
Altered State, and while I thought Ashe’s voice was pretty good, it wasn’t really doing anything for me. I still haven’t listened to most of the album, actually. Then I started listening to this song, and wondered if I should give AS another try. Ashe’s voice is brilliant here; gorgeous and incredibly smooth. Then the heavy instrumental comes in, and it’s awesome too. Then Ashe’s voice comes in over the instrumental, and I remembered why AS didn’t do much for me. As amazing as Ashe clearly is, his voice just absolutely does not work with heavy instrumentation. His tone is nearly full or harsh enough to really pull it off. It’s honestly a shame, because the parts that are just instrumental are fantastic, and the parts that are mostly just Ashe’s voice are amazing, but the combination of heavy + Ashe just does not work for me.
Hmm. The above actually sounds harsher than I mean it to. I actually really like this song, it’s just that I feel like Ashe is really out of place on the heavy stuff.
7.5 pointsTomislav95Fleet Foxes - Myokonos
I’ve heard of Fleet Foxes before, but I believe this is the first time I’ve listened to them. Musically they are mostly what I would expect them to be, a kind of indie/folk thing. The vocalist surprised me, though. Normally singers for these sorts of bands are a bit more higher-register, so this was a nice surprise. He’s also got a bit of… I wouldn’t call it “grit”, but
something in his voice that makes him sound a bit less polished, but in a really good way. Actually, he reminds me a bit of Casey from TDH, if I had to make a comparison. Overall the song doesn’t blow me away, but it’s really solid, and I really like the singer.
8.5 pointsBolstersPassion Pit - Constant Conversations
This band is an interesting mix of electronic music stylings, and some more indie-sounding vocals. The first time I listened to this one, I actually didn’t like it at all.
It has grown on me quite a bit, though. The falsetto vocals combined with sparse drum/clap backing makes for a really unique atmosphere.
Hmm, apparently I don’t have too much to say here. I guess my only complaint is that the song doesn’t seem to have anything to push it from “good” to “awesome.” I definitely enjoy it, but I’m not dying to listen to it again.
8 pointsNekovMoon Safari - Diamonds
Wow, this is such a cheerful song. Usually I’m not a big fan of happy music, I guess because it tends to feel contrived to me, but these guys absolutely pull it off. Instrumentally, it reminds me a lot of Yes (or what I’ve heard from Yes), except quite a bit more focused. The vocalist is amazing as well, basically perfectly suited to this kind music; his voice is light and smooth and extremely melodic. The composition of the song is really great too; this is really the kind of prog I love, where even though they have cool/weird instrumental sections, they always fit perfectly with the rest of the song. The guitar/keyboard solo in particular is really beautiful, cheerful, melodic and impressive all in one.
This band has been on my “to check out” list like a million years ago, and based on this song, I guess it’s time I finally got around to it.
9.5 pointsTom BombadilPhish - Dirt
I’ve heard Phish described as a sort of jam band, and while I imagine that’s more true of their live material, I think you can definitely hear some of that here. The whole song seems very loose, but still manages to be coherent as a song. The instrumental side of the group is very good; the guitar in particular has some really great moments. The vocals aren’t bad, but they don’t really stand out in any way either. Maybe that’s the point, though? The main focus of the song does seem to be on the instrumental aspect. I do feel like maybe the loose, relaxed sort of attitude of the song prevents it from really doing anything to blow me away. I do think the song is quite good, but I think it’s missing something to push it up to great.
8 pointsSaculBoris - Jackson
Uh…. sorry bro. Not a bonus this time. Like I said, sometimes you hit, and sometimes you miss, and this was…. a miss. Man, where do I start with this. Ok, so the song has a sort of dance/house whatever kind of electronic beat. It’s nothing great, but in and of itself, not that bad. So then we have the vocals. Ugh. Man, they really just do nothing for me at all. I assume the guy is singing in English, but it mostly just comes sound like garbled yowling. There are some other random sounds in the song that irk me.
I feel pretty bad about this, because you’ve sent me a lot of great stuff, but man, I really didn’t like this one. Sorry bro.
4 pointsTrain of NaughtThe Script - Hall of Fame
So I remember one song by The Script that got played on the radio forever ago that I fucking hated. I think I may have heard this one once as well, but it was so long ago I’ve mostly forgotten, so I decided to go ahead with it.
And I definitely liked it more than I would have expected to. Musically, it’s a fairly straightforward pop/rock song, but it’s done pretty well; the piano in particular is nice, and it works. I’m not a huge fan of vocalist, at least on the verses. He has this weird thing where he seems to cut off the words before he finishes singing them, and it kind of annoys me. He doesn’t do this on the chorus, though, and as a result, the chorus is great, probably my favorite part of the song.
I also liked will.i.am on here. Whoda guessed.
7 pointsScorpionAngra - The Shadow Hunter
So basically all I know about Angra is that Andre Matos used to be in the band and now he’s not. Fortunately, you sent me a song without him (not a big matos fan). Instead we’ve got guy-who’s-name-i-can’t-remember, and he’s pretty good. Fairly standard power metal voice, but he does some pretty smooth melisma stuff that I really like and which kinda sets him apart, and of course he still does those power metal shrieks that we all love. Musically the song is good as well; despite being 8 minutes, it’s varied enough that it never gets boring. I should make particular mention of the guitar solo, which is really really super great. I’m not huge on guitar solos generally, but this one has just the right amount of melodic technicality to put it right in my comfort zone.
8.00001 pointsSTANDINGS
Scorpion - 51
Nekov - 50.5
Tom Bombadil - 50.5
425 - 50
Bolsters - 50
Tomislav95 - 48.5
bl5150 - 46.5
Train of Naught - 46.5
Sacul - 44
OK so now it is time for the
FINAL ROUND!!! Maybe I will post results sometime before we all die.