Splent: Gentle Giant - Cogs in Cogs
This might have been the biggest shocker in the round. You've had such a consistently great roulette that I was expecting to really enjoy this, but it really didn't do that much for me. There wasn't anything particularly bad about it, it just didn't really grab me that much. Sorry
Grade: 7
Train of Naught: Native Construct - Chromatic Aberration
Wow, this song was interesting. I thought it started out pretty great, but then it just started going all over the place. There were a lot of good individual sections (that bass jam was awesome), but it kinda felt like 15 separate ideas mashed together, with little to no transitions between them. Still, most of the sections were pretty good. So overall, there's a whole lot of potential here, I just think it could use some cleaning up and just a little more direction in where the music is going.
Grade: 7
Sacul: Igorrr - Tout Petit Moineau
This was really cool. Not sure if I've ever heard anything quite like it. The electronic stuff is great, with a lot of interesting things going on. This is probably blasphemous, but I thought just good, not great, although there were a couple great spots in there. Overall, I really liked the tone of this whole song, and thought it was really unique.
Grade: 7
Tyrias: A Silver Mt.Zion - Mountains Made of Steam
This was another very interesting piece. The music was all good. It was all about the vocals, and they were so weird that I still can't decide if I like them or not. Some times I think they're great, others it's like "what the hell is this?". So yeah, trying to decide on a score for this was really hard. I'm thinking music is like an 8, vocals can range from from 6-7.5. Very memorable song.
Grade: 7.5
Shadow Ninja: Sarah Fimm - Orchids
Nice, melancholic tune. It was very relaxing, with great vocals and some awesome cello. It did end rather abruptly, but everything else was pretty great. Not much else to say on this one, but I definitely enjoyed it.
Grade: 7.5
Parama: The Hirsch Effekt - Cotard
The intro was kind of "meh", and at first I thought I was not gonna like this. But it quickly turned around and I ended up really enjoying it. The vocals are great (although I wish I could understand the lyrics
). The only things I weren't that big on were the intro, and that blast-beat part in the middle that just came out of nowhere. Overall a very good tune.
Grade: 8
Scorpion: David Gilmour - In Any Tongue
I'm not a HUGE Pink Floyd fan, but I like a lot of their stuff. Never listened to much of Gilmour's solo work, though. Looks like this is from his most recent album too, which I'd heard some good things about. Pretty amazing that he can still turn out such good stuff after 40 years. This song is like an instant classic. It's got pretty much everything; solid vocals and instrumentation, and an excellent guitar solo. This was definitely one of my favorites of the round, and even the roulette.
Grade: 8.5
Senecadawg: Ne Obliviscaris - Forget Not
Definitely heard of this band before, but never checked them out in any depth. This song took a little while to get going, but once the drums and bass come in it was pretty amazing. Vocals were pretty awesome as well, including the harsh ones. Oh, and that ending was fantastic. The only part I wasn't too big on was when it went all blast-beat around 9 minutes in, but that was a pretty brief section. I'm definitely getting this album.
Grade: 9 (Congratulations)
Nobody got the dreaded 6.5 score this round. It is truly cause for celebration.
FINAL RESULTS
1. Senecadawg - 60.5
2. Splent - 59
2. Shadow Ninja - 59
4. Train of Naught - 57
4. Parama - 57
4. Scorpion - 57
7. Sacul - 55.5
8. Tyrias - 55
And for the second time in 2 years, Seneca takes the roulette! I wonder what would've happened if Parama had sent the song earlier
Thanks to everyone for participating. I know I wasn't as fast as last time, but I still really enjoyed doing this, and I got a bunch of great submissions.