Round 10 Results:LordCost: Alter Bridge – The End Is HereFirst Impressions: You get to be the first of the two Alter Bridge songs I got this round! I have heard one Alter Bridge song from guitar hero and like, nothing else. I don’t even remember the song name but it’s neither of these two. Thus far this is falling into the category of songs of “I can say I like this and wouldn’t turn it off, but nothing about it really stands out.” It seems to, more than anything else, rely on an emotional weight that I’m not quite being hit with, at least not on first listen. There’s some okay riffs, but nothing surprising. The vocals are alright, kind of standard for the post-grunge genre. Ehh. Wish I liked this more than I do, mostly.
Final Thoughts: Yeah, this has the dual disadvantage of not being a song I’m too crazy about to begin with, and very clearly weaker than the other song from this same artist I was sent this round. It’s entirely solid. The Alter Bridge singer is passable as a singer, but he doesn’t really stand out to me as great. Fits the music, certainly.
The production job on this one isn’t great, either, rather muddy and I feel like some stuff gets lost in the louder moments. Not awful or anything but far from the best. The hooks and riffs are just okay, too. The womp-womp riff thing is the only thing I was ever remembering about this song when it ended, though. Couldn’t remember the verses, chorus, anything, just that riff. So I guess I’d call that the strongest point of the song, but even then it isn’t particularly strong.
The one thing this has over the other Alter Bridge song is that it knows to end when it should instead of two minutes later, but for all intents and purposes this is just a standard, kind of forgettable post-grunge song to me. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing I’m likely to return to.
Also apparently the singer is Myles Kennedy again? And the guitarist is Mark Tremonti? Train, it seems like someone really wanted to re-enter your artists
Score: 7/10mikemangioy: Rush – The GardenFirst Impressions: I know some Rush, but I’m completely unfamiliar with any of their output in the last, let’s say, 30 years?
Geddy Lee sure sounds a lot different here than on the Rush I’m familiar with, and wow that production is just super muddy. Really, really struggling to have much to say about this one. It’s alright. It just sounds like a kind of standard alt-rock closing ballad? Which isn’t what I expected at all, so props for that I guess???
Final Thoughts: Honestly, if you hadn’t told me this was Rush, I never would’ve guessed it was. Geddy Lee barely sounds like the Geddy Lee I’m familiar with and the music isn’t very Rush-sounding either. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I haven’t heard a single Rush song that came out in like the past 30 years or so, but
That production is really hard to get past. It’s just. It destroys basically all the instrumentation. The instrumentation isn’t even much to write home about to begin with, either… bass does a few cool things, the strings are alright, but other than that, nothing really notable.
Geddy’s singing here is fine enough, and the harmonized vocals that come up later into the song are pretty cool, the song is able to come into its own and sound pretty full and grand in the later sections despite the production and it’s mostly in part because of how cool the harmonized vocals sound and how well they’re used.
Overall this is… fine. It’s certainly not making me too interested in whatever Rush has been doing since the 80’s, but it’s not something that completely bores me or something I’d turn off if it was on the radio (that I don’t ever listen to). But just not really strong enough for me to get much from it.
Score: 7/10FlyingBIZKIT: Smashing Pumpkins – The Beginning Is the End Is the BeginningFirst Impressions: Next on the list of “bands that I know a few songs from but have never checked out on my own”. Probably because I don’t really like Billy Corgan’s voice. APPARENTLY this is from the Batman & Robin soundtrack? Well then. Okay. I just… don’t dig his voice, at all. Not that he’s a bad singer, or that his voice is lacking in emotion; there’s really nothing wrong with it, other than it doesn’t resonate well with me. The song very heavily focuses on his vocals, with an alright electronic and string backbone to it, but if I don’t like the main attraction, the sideshows aren’t really going to be enough to make up for it.
Final Thoughts: Ehh, the vocals grew on me a bit, even if I’m still not the biggest fan of his voice. The harmonies in the chorus are probably what did that. They work a lot better than his singing in the verses.
The instrumental backbone here is solid enough, it wouldn’t stand on its own in the same way that the vocals wouldn’t stand on their own without the instrumentals, but the instrumentals here are definitely the better half of this musical sandwich. The synths and electronic percussion sound a bit dated, even for the song’s release date, but in a kind of charming way. The song really does feel like a product of its time, if nothing else.
The strength of the chorus is probably what elevates this above the previous two songs this round, but beyond that there isn’t a lot I really feel inclined to revisit here. Solid, but not fantastic.
Score: 7.5/10Train of Naught: A.C.T. – A Failed Escape AttemptFirst Impressions: First thoughts are that this is just some pretty solid symphonic metal. The strings might be a bit underplayed, they seem to be mixed in the background when they’re there at all, but they have presence nonetheless. They do add to the song. This feels like perfect 7.5-8.0 bait though, it’s solid enough but not standing out in any real way. I dunno how much of a feeling of finality this has, a little I guess, but not that strongly.
Final Thoughts: Another song in the category of songs where I basically can’t remember a single thing about it after it’s done, but I enjoy it while I’m listening to it. The mixing on this is just a bit weird in general, it feels like, the high end is a lot lower than the low end and the strings, synth, and sometimes the guitar end up drowned out.
‘Tis a shame because the instrumentation is, at a base level, pretty good. Not the most original but the basslines are solid, the drums tend to do interesting things that keep energy high. The guitar riffs are pretty chuggy as a whole but they’re all solid enough, the instrumental break has some nice interplay between all the instruments going on too.
Don’t really have any comment on the vocals. They’re… there. It’s a very power-metal-y voice that generally doesn’t do much for me, but doesn’t bother me either. As a whole I’d say I like this enough to give it a pretty decent score, but I still doubt I’ll remember a thing about this in a week or two from now.
Score: 8/10Sacul: Alter Bridge – BlackbirdFirst Impressions: Man, the vocals here are just on a completely other level from the other song sent by this artist, and the instrumentation seems much stronger too. Maybe it’s the 6/8 feel though because I am a sucker for 6/8. This is clearly a “nothing particularly unique or original but quite competent and with a lot of power behind it” type of song, a type that has, thus far in the roulette, been faring pretty damn well. Also one heck of a solo, wow. It does feel like it outstays its welcome a bit, though. A 6-minute edit of this would probably be more effective.
Final Thoughts: It’s pretty cool how the acoustic guitar line in the intro plays the same melody as the vocals in the chorus, nice foreshadow-y touch. The singing here is just, a lot more powerful than the other Alter Bridge song of the round, too, which I’m thankful for, and the riffs pack a lot more punch, too, that first heavy riff especially, that’s good. That makes me happy.
The bridge has a nice build to it and that guitar solo is pretty good, not too showy and some strong melodies. It’s a good way to transition back into the chorus from the softer bridge, the backing instrumentation having some nice swell to it. The last chorus doesn’t really have anything that elevates it above the second chorus that happened 3 minutes prior, though. And then the song… has two minutes to go, for some bizarre reason.
I think when your second chorus ends 3 minutes in, the song being 8 minutes is… a bit much. Yeah, this song definitely lost points for feeling overlong, I was pretty dang sure about that the first time I listened to it. It just repeats the one heavy riff for a while, then goes to the acoustic line from the verse with a basic solo over it.
It’s not like, a horrible way to end a song, but it really feels like something could’ve been done to tighten up the song, and it doesn’t feel as overlong as the first two or three times I listened to it, but. It’s a solid rock song with a lot of power behind it and if its only real flaw is that it should’ve ended a minute or two sooner I can’t fault that too much.
Score: 8/10Elite: Bruce Springsteen – New York City SerenadeFirst Impressions: This is certainly a strange entry given my tastes, so let’s see how it fares. Apparently, pretty well. The acoustic guitar and piano drive the song, but the strings and sax come in as it all builds up, and the song gets more and more compelling the more it progresses. There’s a great sense of progression, new elements and sections introduced and buildup happening the whole way through, but it’s not afraid to return to familiar themes either to keep things sounding cohesive. Yeah, I can already tell you on first listen that you’re easily in the finals with a submission like this
Final Thoughts: The piano solo intro is pretty strange; it changes between these very classical-sounding passages and jazzier sounding ones but they work surprisingly well together, even though I wouldn’t say piano solos of that kind are something I like that much, but as an intro it’s a good start.
When the song begins for real, the piano and guitar interplay is just very nice and pleasant, and Springsteen’s vocals are just, great. I don’t think that’s a surprise. The piano line that plays in what I guess serves as the chorus is pretty nice, a good hook in its own right.
The build the song gets going as the verses go on and more instruments come in is very effective, climaxing in a much more upbeat passage that comes and goes almost too quickly. I mean, if the entire song was just that I’d get tired of it, but we only get about 20 seconds of it in an otherwise slower-paced song that never really hits as much of a climax after.
The song fades out a little then comes back full force with another big moment, and just kind of holds on it and eventually feels like it’s meandering a bit too much on it. The sax solo is fine and all but I wouldn’t have complained about a minute or so of the ending being chopped off, but maybe that’s just me. Cut down the intro and outro a bit and I’d probably like this a bit more but even as is it’s a very nice ride from start to finish with some big moments and great instrumentation the whole way through.
Score: 8.5/10Shadow Ninja 2.0: Native Construct – Chromatic AberrationFirst Impressions: Well the RNG is a jerk, going from one long prog metal song to another one, fantastic
I actually gave this album a spin once back when this first came out and people were giving it a lot of buzz and I thought it was in the category of “totally fine but not that interesting or unique”. There’s… a lot going on at any given moment, to be sure. It feels a bit overly noisy, actually, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. Just… very chaotic and very proggy. A bit much to take in on first listen. Maybe the effect of having this right after Headspace but this ain’t doing much on first listen, I’m only 4 minutes in and already wondering how much is left to go. It feels more like a string of ideas patched together than it does any sort of cohesive song, mostly. Bleeehh. This needs more listens, clearly.
Final Thoughts: Honestly the first time I listened to this I was fully prepared for it to end up with like, a 6 or something. It was just an absolute mess of a song that went nowhere and ended really pathetically.
And… everything in that last sentence is still wholly true, but it grew on me a fair bit. There’s a few tricks they like to pull a fair number of times; the biggest and probably my favorite being these short bursts that repeat in the middle of other riffs or ideas. The vocals playing off these bursts, especially, creates some cool moments.
For how incohesive and messy the song is, it’s interesting that it at least all flows well. It’s more like a series of different proggy ideas strung together really tightly; the gaps between each section happen smoothly enough that I barely notice them unless I’m really paying attention, it’s strange how effortlessly they’re able to transition from wacky progfests to quieter moments.
And it’s smart that there are breaks from the wackiness that happens. The song starts on a constant rhythm, goes into “what is happening” mode for a bit, then cools down with a simpler, quieter moment. Of course, drums come in to infuse it with some technicality, but it works as a build, strings coming in to give the song some swell.
Also, there’s an absolutely delicious bass groove at 5:45 which is the highlight of the song without any competition. I just love that. The guitar and vocals play off it well and it has another of those bursts in it that I find really amusing.
Around the nine-minute mark there’s a pretty cool climax that is pretty grand and epic and, being the ending movement of a near-epic such as this, works pretty dang well, there’s been more than enough build to deserve this level of swell.
Unfortunately, that isn’t actually the end. Nothing against the heavy moments that come after it, either, they’re fine enough on their own right, but… the song just seems to fizzle out a little in the last few minutes. It just seems like fundamentally
wrong songwriting to me. Aside from the blastbeats, the song doesn’t really do much else new. The last minute is just one heck of an anti-climax, this really heavy riff with harsh vocals that… dies… unceremoniously… it’s super confusing that they chose to end the song and the album this way. Like, what the heck happened?
Now that I’ve had time to process this better, it has grown on me a fair bit, enough to convince me to at least check out this album again, but I wouldn’t say it’s top-tier as far as prog epics or near-epics go and, man, those last few minutes are just unfortunate.
Score: 8.5/10Tomislav95: Thy Light – …And I Finally Reach My EndFirst Impressions: I mean, if you’re gonna use a sample, yeah, make it something pleasant like this song starts with. Atmospheric Black Metal is actually, like, my jam right now, I’ve listened to some Burzum and Wolves in the Throne Room recently along with some Blackgaze stuff too. The production quality of this seems a bit above average for the genre, but this is the remastered version so maybe that happened there. Honestly not complaining. The vocals here seem especially downplayed, which I actually appreciate considering what little of them there are don’t exactly suit my fancy, probably the only element I don't dig here. Not much else to say, it’s an atmospheric track that does atmosphere well. Crushing and evocative but never overwhelming and never overly noisy, just the way I like it.
Final Thoughts: Okay, so, the more I listened to this… man, those vocals are just SILLY, more than anything else. I don’t know what it is about them but those howls or moans or whatever are just dorky and funny and proooobably shouldn’t have been included if it were up to me, but they aren’t a huge distracted in the end and I can kind of ignore them if I don’t listen too closely.
And that is one thing about this, it serves pretty well as background music, possibly better than as active listening music primarily because of the vocals. It’s got enough power to it and enough texture to it to carry its mood pretty far and the thirteen minutes don’t end up feeling that long even though the song is pretty one-note the whole way through. It’s not just like one guitar line the whole way through, though, it has some distinct sections and a break near the end, all that good stuff.
Not a lot to say about this, though, vocals aside there’s no problem I have with it, it’s something I enjoy listening to but I may have been a bit oversaturated with this kind of stuff as of late to where it doesn’t stand out among the crowd. Nonetheless I enjoy it a fair bit.
Score: 8.5/10
Topic: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!) (Read 55115 times)
