Finals Round 3 Results!
Matchup 1 - bl5150 vs Evermind
bl5150 - Pharaoh - In Your Hands/The Spiders Thread (Resprise) & Cover Your Eyes And Pray vs Evermind - Ehoes - Unfair & Epilogue/Rude Awakening
bl5150 - Pharaoh - Cover Your Eyes and Pray
Brent sends some more solid heavy power metal. This band features Tim Aymar, mostly known from the album he did with Control Denied. He has a great gritty voice which suits the music well. This song really reminded me of a band but I still can't quite put my finger on it. Reminds me of Iced Earth at times, but not the main one I had in mind. This one was a bit of a grower but I really liked it the more I listen, great chorus. Again, this is another band well suited to my liking.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 8.5
Replay Value - 9.0
Would I Purchase - 8.5
Score - 8.8
bl5150 - Pharaoh - In Your Hands/The Spiders Thread (Reprise)
This one I liked quite a bit more than the first one. This one is slightly more uptempo with more energy. Consistent style between the two songs but I like this one more. Great riffs and guitar melodies in there too. The atmosphere I liked in this one too, and the chorus was an absolute winner. It was stuck in my head and something I was singing along too right off the bat. The solo towards the end was especially impressive, and well performed. The Spiders Thread Reprise, even though I don't know the original song, worked really well here as a closer. Great band.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.5
Structure and Songwriting - 9.0
Replay Value - 9.5
Would I Purchase - 9.0
Score - 9.2
Average Score - 9.0
Evermind - Echoes - Epilogue/Rude Awakening
Never heard this band before but not sure why. Don't even think I've seen them mentioned around here much considering they are some solid prog metal. Epilogue starts things off really nicely with a great 3 minute instrumental opener which I appreciated. Rude Awakening starts off pretty somber and the vocals were a bit different to what I was expecting, but I must say the vocals are fantastic, great singer this guy. Things get a bit more standard prog metal when things get get going in the chorus but this is very powerful. The singer sort of reminded me of Chris Cornell is a weird way in his higher register. Nice atmosphere throughout, although I was sort of expecting things to pick up a little, that the impression the song was giving off but it never did. That's not a big thing but would have liked a small shift in pace. The little atmospheric instrumental section was great and again the chorus is excellent. Solid.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 8.0
Replay Value - 8.5
Would I Purchase - 8.5
Score - 8.6
Evermind - Echoes - Unfair
This one started off with the pace that I thought Rude Awakening might have eventuated into. Again I really like these guys vocals, very strong. Solid and standard as far as the music is concerned but everything here is well done. The chorus here again is pretty strong and I enjoyed it the more I listened. The solo was nice here and I liked the pace directly after the solo going into the keyboard solo. Not much more to say, but really there's nothing really new here, but I can't realyl fault anything, perhaps just didn't blow me away like others.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 9.0
Replay Value - 8.5
Would I Purchase - 8.5
Score - 8.8
Average Score - 8.7
Brent gets the half a point here again, great band.
Brent - 9.5 (with bonus half point)
Ruslan - 8.7
Chad also sent me this band. He sent Epilogue/Rude Awakening also, but his second song was Leaf Motif. I'm not going to do a writeup, but the etra track showed me that this band is really cool and something that deservse a listen. Leaf Motif had a very strong DT influence and I liked it just a little bit more than Unfair. Even though it wasn't as heavy, one would think this one would be rated less, but the well done DT influences made me rate it a solid 9, great song this one.
Chad Average score - 8.8
Matchup 2 - Dr. DTVT vs Big Hath
Dr. DTVT - Dimension Act - Cosmic Chaos & Industrial Evilution vs Big Hath - Sanctuary - Future Tense & Frozen
Dr. DTVT - Dimension Act - Cosmic Chaos
As discussed, I've seen this band mentioned a few times and Chad in particular I think giving them a good wrap. This really kicked my ass from the get go. There's nothing new here and nothing I haven't heard before, but I think this was powerful and well done prog metal. Things showed good sings from the start and I thought the vocalist had a really interesting voice, yet strong and I liked it. The structure was good and was refreshing that this was solid prog metal but well written and there wasn't mindless soloing for no reason. Well written and terrific song indeed.
Appeal of Style - 9.5
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 9.5
Replay Value - 9.0
Would I Purchase - 9.0
Score - 9.2
Dr. DTVT - Dimension Act - Industrial Evilution
This one started pretty much with the same melody as Cosmic Chaos. If it wasn't the same, things were close enough, but that sort of thing doesn't phase me, so I knew I was getting another solid tune. Got heavier too a minute and a half in which was brilliant. Not gonna say much more on this one, wasn't as instant as Cosmic Chaos but close enough and quality was just as strong. Nice guitar solo here too, this band really doesn't overdo the technical side of it which is great. I think I should get this album for sure.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 9.0
Replay Value - 9.0
Would I Purchase - 9.0
Score - 9.0
Average Score - 9.1
Big Hath - Sanctuary - Future Tense
Sanctuary are a band I know the name pretty well obviously since I love Nevermore but besides hearing a song or two just never really checked them out. This one is obviously from one of their first two albums and it was actually funny to hear Dane's voice on this one. Definitely a young and not as matured voice but was still instantly recognizable. Get a bit of an old school thrash vibe and just a definite strong American metal vibe. I liked this. It didn't blow me away but there was enough here for me to enjoy and check out more. The production I will say let it down a little but that's nothing major. I loved the dark atmosphere and really if you're a fan of Dane, you'd liked this, no reason not too.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 8.5
Replay Value - 8.5
Would I Purchase - 9.0
Score - 8.8
Big Hath - Sanctuary - Frozen
This one is obviously from their latest one as teh production standards are much higher. This really is just a Nevemore track pretty much. Great thrashy intro with nice solos and the verses were solid. If anything I thought the chorus dragged the tempo down just a bit, but it's not a big thing. Yeah, this is heavy, strong, great vocals and sounds like it would be a good fix for the lack of Nevermore. I'll definitely check out these guys three albums.
Appeal of Style - 9.0
Instrumentation and Vox - 9.0
Structure and Songwriting - 9.0
Replay Value - 9.0
Would I Purchase - 9.0
Score - 9.0
Average Score - 8.9
Mason just edges out Jon here. It was close but I thought teh Dimension Act was really solid and just edged the Sanctuary. But both were awesome.
Dr. DTVT - 9.6 (With bonus half point)
Big Hath - 8.9
Rankings after Round 9 (Finals Round 3)
1. bl5150 - 81.3
2. Dr. DTVT - 80.3
3. Big Hath - 79.5
4. Evermind - 78.5
5. jingle.boy - 77.8
So there we go, it's Brent vs Mason with a single point advantage to Brent. Thank you so much to Chad, Ruslan and Jon, all your submissions have been most enjoyable and welcomed.