Thank you everyone again for the birthday wishes guys, you're the best.
But while you're all the best, only two people can join the main competition in these qualifiers. Here are the results.
(Damn, but this new title makes me laugh alright.
)
Preliminary Round #2 Results:
Into the Storm:Bolsters: Pantommind – Walk OnSometimes I like my music more intricate, and sometimes something straightforward, heavy and epic works best with me. This song is a perfect example of the latter, because while it’s not that fantastic as Redemption song from the previous round, it’s still mighty awesome and a clear standout from the rest of the round.
First off, both the groovy bass in the beginning and the grinding riff in the very end were quite unexpected for me, to be honest, but they work so well in the big picture. Epic sounding synths and the ringing keyboards beneath, soaring and a bit gritty vocalist does incredible job here, despite the vocal melodies being on a simplistic side. Some metal songs in this vein often try to include some quiet part in the middle which might fit or might sound out of place, and while this songs kind of did go this route too, it feels perfectly in context with the rest of this track, and somehow doesn’t detract the pace from this seemingly relentless rocker. Also, I love that (is this guitar or keys?) small frantic instrumental part beneath the vocals starting at 5:24.
Second fantastic song in a row, and a winner of the round to boot? You’re in without a fucking doubt.
(9/10 – closer to 9.5, actually, but not quite)Big Hath: Dynazty – StarlightThis song is significantly shorter than the one Bolsters send, so there’s no surprise it manages to collect all the “straightforward, heavy and epic” qualities and compress them to the highest concentration. It’s easy to overblow this quality by making the song too straightforward (see Chad’s entry) or too heavy, but this song has it all in nearly perfect amounts.
Less than four minutes long, this tune manages to include a short spoken intro and dissolves into a full-blown metal paradise for me right away, with crunching guitar riffs and unnaturally quick keyboards underneath. The way the singer does the vocal melodies on the verses, slamming each word before getting to the end of the line and going more melodic there (see
“Push me in the back and you’ll be treading on a crack in the i-i-i-i-ice!") is quite appealing, but of course if you want to fit so much musical awesomeness in less than four minutes, you’ve got to speed up your vocal delivery, so it’s all natural. The chorus is more melodic and provides a relief from the pounding verses.
This is a great song overall, but not quite on the Walk On level. I’d say this song is tied up with two tracks that’ll follow below – and I actually might like one of them just a bit more – but your very strong entry for the first preliminary round does the trick and allows you to proceed into the main competition.
(9/10 – solid 9)Into the Void:Scorpion: Myrath – MadnessYou thought I’ll like this song and damn you were right, this is right up my alley. Dramatic keyboards and synths, proggy riffs, eastern influences, all the things I love are there. The whole song is very consistent, with best parts being the choruses (every time they roll with
“My disbelief” and graciously end with
“into the madness” I can’t help but praise this song) and the instrumental break (damn, this is where the eastern influences shine, and I love this kind of things in songs); the weakest parts are probably the vocal melodies on the verses, since I still can’t remember what they’re like after a good number of listens. Still, the strongest parts prevail here, and even where the glorious enticing part ends, we get a great keyboard / guitar exchange (or were it all just keyboard?), and then the song returns to a main theme. I think it could use another chorus, but still, it’s a fantastic song.
After the first round, I was nearly sure I’ll just eliminate you and get on with it – this Heart of Cygnus song didn’t impress me – and you just had to go ahead and make everything way more difficult for me. And, well, I’ve made my decision and I have no regrets, but damn, were you close to making it. In fact, you know, I guess it’s not any consolation for you, but I liked this song just a bit more than Starlight – it’s just Big Hath was more consistent in his entries, while your entry for the first preliminary round failed to interest me that much. I’m definitely going to check out more Myrath, and I thank you for this, but unfortunately, that’s about it for you in this roulette. Sorry, but you’re out.
(9/10 – closer to 9.25, actually)Elite: Dynazty – Starlight(see Big Hath's write-up above)
Well, as I said, this is a great song, but it’s only on the third place in this round, so with your first round entry I didn’t really like, there was no chance you’ll get in. Blame either me for my poor tastes, or Bolsters and Scorpion for sending better songs. Sorry Richard, you’re out.
(9/10 – solid 9)(That’s what you get for eliminating me for that Serious Black song in the second round.)
Sacul: Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy JrI guess this was the folk ballad with breathy vocals then? Well, this is wonderful, and yet this is so creepy to the point of being quite disturbing I can’t help but just ponder this contrast incredulously. I feel everything connects in this song, breathy vocals work fantastic in context, the seemingly beautiful acoustic guitar / piano work hides and covers the true song’s and the protagonist nature, and it gets more intense when it’s needed. I think the vocal melodies in the verses could be a bit better (
“for his humor and his con-ver-sa-ation” feels a bit strained, for example), but when this song gets amazing, it just hits me hard, especially on the
“Oh my God” part. But this must be the most disturbing song in this roulette so far. I know that A7X song featured gore and all, but this… this feels too real and that’s why it’s so creepy. And to think, this could’ve been such a nice folky ballad.
You really had a disadvantage of playing in my first roulette, because well, you sent some music I didn’t like at all back then, and before the roulette started, I was sure I’ll just eliminate you and get on with it, and you just had to go ahead and make everything way more difficult for me.
Apparently you learned something, because both your entries here are probably better than anything you’ve sent me before. Sadly, it’s not enough for you to make it, because some people here just outperformed you, but I really enjoyed both your songs. That’s something, right? Sorry Lucas, but this time you’re out. I do wonder if you had any more gems like this one for me, though.
(8.5/10 – closer to 9, in fact)Tyrias: Bent Knee – Battle CreekThis song is so polarizing for me unlike any other in this round. I mean, I can find some great qualities in every song, and I can point out the things I dislike in almost every song too; but in this song the differences are just startling. And the interesting thing, I don’t dislike any section of the song particularly; I think all the parts just doesn’t work together as a whole song. Probably it happens because as you said, the song reaches its climax in the middle, but the not-quite-traditional song structure doesn’t work for me this time. Everything until 3:15 is just sublime – the intro, the quiet build-up and when the tension is released with those incredible female vocals – this is perfection right there, and then it takes a significant drop in quality. The second time she delivers the chorus (if you can call this a chorus?), it’s calmer and it just doesn’t work for me at all, compared to the magnificent powerful delivery a few minutes back. I probably would’ve loved this song more if it ended somewhere around 3:35 with a fade-out. Blasphemy, I know.
Well, it seems you also took your previous experience into account and were sending the songs for this roulette accordingly, because both your entries were really strong – it’s just the competition was too strong. This song and the Brand New ones were quite interesting to say the least, and in fact I liked how different they were from anything else I received in these rounds. And while we’re speaking of this, how come Parama knows songs like this one but almost always ends up sending me some crap?
Anyway, you didn’t make it to the main competition this time, but I’ll consider inviting you for the next installment, if we live to see it.
(8.5/10)splent: Alan Parsons Project – I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like YouThis one is another 70s song from you, and while I really liked Kansas and I generally encouraged people to send songs from this period in my first roulette – hell, Seneca scored a perfect 10/10 score with Journey – these can also be quite hit or miss with me too, and unfortunately for you, this is a miss.
I guess the problem is just I can’t find anything to like in this song. It’s not bad by any means, and it has some nice bass hooks, cool solos too, chill vocals, all that, but for some reason it all feels bland for me (well, except bass, the bass line is one thing I’ve come to appreciate here). Thinking about it, I think this song is just too happy and too “I-don’t-give-a-fuck”-ish for me. It’s quite difficult to explain what exactly is wrong with it, but it just didn’t click with me.
Splent, well… if there was the 13th spot in the main competition I would’ve probably let you participate just so you could send me all these artists from 70s, because I really want to fill these gaps in my list, but alas, there isn’t one. I might think of inviting you to the next installment though, or maybe I’ll just host more rounds where everyone will be sending older songs… I’ll have to think about it, but for this roulette, you’re out. I’m sorry.
(6/10)Somewhere Far Beyond:jingle.boy: The Chronicles Project – Prologue: Our Souls / ForeverAnother cockblock from our self-admitted dick player, this one starts with the spoken prologue that reminds me heavily of Vanden Plas’ Vision 1ne, only not that well done. The tension-building orchestration can’t hold the candle to the chilling piano runs featured in Vanden Plas’ song intro, but still, the prologue is alright… and honestly, the song that follows is good, but that’s about it. I still don’t know what turned off me from this song so much, because by all my standards this should be a solid 8.5 or more, but it’s not. It’s not vocals, because they’re the high point here; and it’s not vocal melodies either. After five or more listens, I think I’m a bit irritated by the keyboards sound, and also the fairly usual double-bass chorus could use some spicing up too. Solid song, but that’s it.
I’m not sure if you actually cockblocked someone with it or saved them from a potential bullet… I mean, I should love this song, but I’m rather underwhelmed by it. I guess it’s probably just that case where my head says one thing but my heart says another.
(7.5/10)Tomislav95: Puscifer – PotionsYou know, I like to think I’m an attentive listener, so when I listen to the roulette songs, I try to really focus on the tune I’m spinning right now so I take in more and able to remember and judge the songs better. That really doesn’t bode well for you when after a few listens the only thing I remember from your song is a bass line. I mean, other than the guy chopping his own tongue in the video.
This is like that Alan Parsons Project song, only it’s darker, more atmospheric and fuck I just alt-tabbed to the video in the middle of the song and why the hell did I need to do that. So, well, this isn’t exceptionally bad (see the next song for this!), but this is also quite unremarkable on my account. Somewhat interesting, but not something I want to revisit. Best parts are the bass and the atmosphere created by the instruments. Actually, now that I think of it, if you cut the vocals, this song would lose nothing in my book.
(6/10)
Train of Naught: Native Construct – MuteAnd let’s finally dig into the biggest disaster of this round! I don’t even know where to start here. The fact this song is currently playing in my headphones doesn’t help – my thoughts are striving to be just like this very song now, which means a jumbled knot of ideas leading nowhere. I mean, this song just doesn’t mean any sense for me even after a futile numerous listens. There’s that loud part in the beginning, then there’s that less loud part, and everything is actually alright and still listenable until they go into the quiet part which is, honestly, is just annoying as hell and adds nothing to the song in my book. I hated it on the first listen and it didn’t improve at all; it gets better with
“I can finally feel”, but wait, what is it, Evermind actually started enjoying our song? Fuck you, get this full-blown cookie-monster blast beats part.
Remember how I said I want to check this album out because it has a beautiful album cover? Well, uh… yeah, no. I stand corrected and I take my words back. Imagine what a disaster this would’ve been, I see this album in the record store, buy it and it’s full of the songs like this one. And you saved me from it! Thanks?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean any offense, but you said something along the lines you think this song is cohesive and these guys are masterminds. Well, I think this song is a huge disjointed mess.
(3.5/10)Bands added to banned list:Pantommind
Dynazty
Myrath
Sufjan Stevens
Bent Knee
The Chronicles Project
The list of participants (also available in the second post)
- bl5150
- lonestar
- senecadawg2
- Dr. DTVT
- wolfking
- ErHaO
- jingle.boy
- TAC
- Tomislav95
- Train of Naught
- Bolsters
- Big Hath
Topic: Evermind's Second Roulette v. The Aftermath (Read 123568 times)
