Ok, let's wrap up the main competition. Without further ado...
Big Hath -
Jaded Heart / Ain't A Perfect World
Not sure if you’re intending to cheat here, or if this is just dumb luck. I don’t speak of my love for Bormann's voice much, and haven’t done so in quite some time, but he's likely a top 10 modern-day vocalist for me. Love absolutely everything he does – I consider Silent Force’s album last year with him to be their best. This is no exception. He can deliver some great melodies, and the lyrics here are really good, with some pretty sweet riffs to accompany his vocals.
Ranking – 2nd (for 10 points)
bl5150 -
Evidence One / Trust vs Heart
Nice acoustic start, and a very smooth transition to bring in the rest of the band and kick the song into gear. Overall though, it was fairly standard AOR, leaning towards the heavy-ish side. I couldn't put my finger on why the vocals sound so familiar. Research concludes he did a lot of backing for Eden's Curse - and you can definitely here that sound in this song - not just the vocals, but the overall writing. Good song, though not scoring too high during this very competitive round.
Ranking – 7th (for 5 points)
Bolsters –
Gunship / Tech Noir
So, as I’m listening to the (very promising) intro, I’m very intrigued, and I’m thinking “Please don’t be David’s song; please don’t be David’s song; please don’t be David’s song…. Ah fuck, it’s David’s song”.
Sorry dude, I left this style behind the woodshed 29 years ago. I think the only reason I enjoy any of what I do is largely from nostalgic reasons.
Ranking – 11th (for 1 point)… again.
Evermind –
Moonspell / Breathe (Until We Are No More)
Started out good, then hit a brick wall right at the 1:00 mark. The growls on this weren't the problem. The hollow/echo-y feel of the clean vocals, along with the very low range/tone didn't jive – it gave me a Voyager feel. Very distorted sound to the song overall – not sure if that was effect that was intended. The abruptness of the style changes from the ‘softer’ feel of the verses to the ‘heavy’ feel of the chorus also didn’t work for me. Symphonic piece coming out the solo was good, but it was then buried by that same abrupt transitioned, only to return for the outro… just sounded erratic and inconsistent to me.
Ranking – 10th (for 2 points)
jjrock88 –
Obsession / For The Love of Money
To hell with 20 years ago, this floated my boat plenty now. Damn those screams! Great drum fills too; production made it sound a little dated, but that wasn't a show stopper. Reminded me a lot of that Crimson Glory track you gave me in the 1st Roulette, with a little Savatage sprinkled in there. Killer solo. The more I listened, the more I liked this one.
Ranking – 4th (for 8 points)
Lowdz -
Malison Rogue / Scars
Some parts were great, and then some weren't. Something about the vocals that didn't click with me - it just sounded like he was struggling to hit some of the high notes. Had a bit of an Andre-era Angra feel in that regard. Guess you better book that plane ticket, or else just give me a virtual bitch-slap.
Ranking – 9th (for 3 points)
Mystery Machine -
Steelhouse Lane / Seven Seas
AOR if there ever was AOR. Smooth and silky rock tune. Why does this vocalist sound so damned familiar - Keith Slack?? Can't place him, and neither can the internet – just a little MSG touring in the 90s. Sounds more like Toby Hitchcock is providing the backing vocals/chorus, with a little James Christian?? Solid tune though. MR.com surely gave it a 98%.
Ranking – 5th (for 7 points)
senecadawg2 –
Shaaman / Innocence
Musically it was a great ballad – all the right pieces for me to love, and the intro was excellent (sounded a lot like Kuntz). However, Matos (like Kiske) is a weird one for me… tons of talent, and there’s nothing bad about his voice, but there’s a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ about his tone/pitch that leaves me underwhelmed with him on the mic – especially when he tries to get really high in the register. Tastes! You're pre-submission line of questioning may have swayed you in the wrong direction – while I love Fireworks, it’s mostly swayed by the fact it was my first Angra album, and part of my musical discovery period 10+ years ago that started me on a path to discover a shit ton of non North American bands – and I find Matos to be the least-best part of that album. As you’ll see below, you’re really gonna be kicking yourself.
Ranking – 8th (for 4 points)
TAC -
Gary Moore / Wild Frontier
Very ordinary vocal melodies (especially the chorus), and Gary isn't a strong singer to begin with. The verses were better, and of course the guitar work is top shelf. Production was clean as clean can be (maybe because Spotify had a 2002 remaster), which certainly helped the listening experience. In the end, this became a bit of an earworm – not in a bad way, as it improved with every listen, as I was very underwhelmed at first
Ranking – 6th (for 6 points)
Wolfking -
Machine Men / No Talk Without the Giant
Great guitar tone and riffs, with the most metal bass-line dragging the rest of the band along with it. Vocals… who does this remind me of??? Really nice range, and while it almost sounds like screams, it's not really because he maintains an incredible amount of control. Righteous solo, and the drum rhythm exiting it was the tits.
Ranking – 1st (for 11 points)
Zook –
Bloodbound / Dominion
Well, I wasn't nearly as wow'd over this as I was about Nosferatu, but this did the trick nicely - though I do suspect Bloodbound is a one or two trick pony. I remember checking out the album when Zydar gave me them in my 1st roulette, and was mostly underwhelmed – I recall, the few highlights were pretty high, but the rest was so-so. This was closer to the 'high' side of things, and of course, Urban breed makes everything better. Might give this album a shot.
Ranking – 3rd (for 9 points)
Tag Teams:
Wolfking -
Saint Daemon / Way Home
Not a lot to say here - straight up melodic metal… interesting transition into the guitar solo. Solid all the way around, though fairly unspectacular. There are times I have trouble appreciating the more mid-paced rocking tunes. For the most part, I tend to prefer a more frantic/rushed pace to my metal… like the below.
Ranking – 8th
Big Hath -
Black Tora / Fuel My Hunger
This is more like the pace that I like my metal. Great screams, riffs, transitions. Very nice solo… close to shredding, but not quite. Very creative. You nailed it with both of your submissions this round – not sure which one of them was the “risk”, or if you were simply aiming hard with both guns blazing – or perhaps trying to cock-block your competition in the finals. If so, mission accomplished on all fronts.
Ranking – 3rd
Final Standings:wolfking - 59
bl5150 - 54
Big Hath – 51
------------------
senecadawg2 - 46
Zook - 45
TAC - 43
Evermind - 41
Lowdz - 39
Mystery Machine - 34
jjrock88 - 30
Bolsters - 21
Two of the Aussies found my musical sweet spot, and managed not to sway to far from it. Big Hath slams the hammer down in Round 7, and grabs the third spot - Seneca will invariably be doubting his decision to NOT send Bloodbound for a while. Zook and TAC are saddled with a couple of bad rounds each, otherwise they rocked it throughout. The others seemed unable to zone in on my elusive tastes, and are likely either
or
at a few of their scores. Bolsters… pays me back threefold for punishing him with Animotion.
Report Cards:Had I been ranking songs on a 10-point scale, there would have been very little range/variation in scores. Other than Bolsters’ experiments, I didn’t find anything terribly off-putting, so there would’ve been a few in the 6.5 range, but most would have been in the 7s/8s and a handful of 9s. Nothing perfect though. Perfection is reserved for … well… perfect songs – songs that are beyond flawless.
Because I was stack ranking, I had to delineate very finely, so went with a grading/percentage method – and you are all very good students. You all have fantastic musical tastes, and know mine fairly well too. So, right out of the gate, I wasn’t expecting any bad/low grades, let alone anyone failing (which by default is why all scores ended up at 5 or higher on a 10 point scale). Most scores instantly fell in that B range, a handful of Cs for the mediocre stuff, and some (impressive) A’s and A+’s. Rather than making this post any longer, I'll post the specific song-by-song 'grades' later tonight. But overall, here's your report card:
wolfking - 81.9%
bl5150 - 81.0%
Big Hath - 79.7%
senecadawg2 - 78.9%
Zook - 77.9%
Lowdz - 76.7%
TAC - 76.6%
Evermind - 76.4%
Mystery Machine - 75.6%
jjrock88 - 73.7%
Bolsters - 68.1%
Topic: The jingle Roulette Trilogy - Final Results - no more mind games (Read 80527 times)