Round 4 ResultsParama: Mew – Comforting SoundsSo another parama-favorite here.
I love the second half of this song, it’s almost as dreamy as the Slowdive song I got last round. But this one takes a lot of time to really get going, therefore I can’t fully appreciate it. It seems like that's not the first time this has happened to me with your songs in this roulette.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about these kind of lullaby-like vocals, it fits the mood, that’s for sure, but at times I get kinda bored of the same “dun-dun-dun-dun“ melody over and over. You scored some good ‘ol points for that second half of the song which is pretty beautiful but I don’t think you’ve found a new Mew fan today.
7.25/10Shadow Ninja 2.0: Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Im RauchI guess with this kind of chill stylistically minimalistic song I can really enjoy the mood and I can relax to it, but it’s not doing an awful lot for me. The sax is what really carries this song though and I wish it would be more present at times, gives it that chill jazz-lounge vibe that I’ve really been enjoying as of late. Being mostly the kind of music I’d put on in the background when I’m not really doing anything interesting, this song almost feels like an intermission between the other songs of the round, really chill, but nothing I’d listen to specifically
So still a pretty good song but it seems pretty much everyone is sending really good songs right now, I think people are starting to figure me out.
7.0 + (1.0) = 8.0/10Splent: Sonata Arctica – Still Loving YouYou have quite a standard to live up to here
I said this through PM but splent unknowingly helped me rediscover one of my favorite 80’s tunes, I’ve heard this song my entire life but never knew the name and checking it now I remember how much I love the original, but now I’m dealing with a power metal cover of that song, interesting..
But goddamn this starts out fantastically! I mean, I could’ve done with a slightly slowed down chorus but this
is powermetal so I’m not shocked. The opening phase of this song still gives me the chills, no matter what version, and what I’ve always admired from the whole powermetal scene is the vocals. Whether you like powermetal or not, you can’t deny this music has some of the most talented singers ever. The orchestral elements are a cool addition too, very dramatic sounding which really fits to this song. God I just love when he does that evil laugh and the whole band comes in!
You getting me to rediscover the original is one thing, but putting that aside you stiull delivered this round, great adaptation of the Scorpions song with some nice guitarwork and vocals like no tomorrow.
Please do a vocal cover of this splent.
8.5 + (1.0) = 9.5/10Evermind: Echoes - DespairI think this kinda suffers from the same thing that focus hocus pocus did, it has the same riff repeated a lot, though here it’s a fair bit more natural, it’s basically the main foundation that the piece centers around, everything is based on it but it isn’t repeated in a useless fashion, BUT, I don’t like this riff nearly as much as the one in that song. What does make up for it is that some of the cool stuff that gets thrown in - like the acoustic guitar and the symphonic arrangements, not to mention the Ihsahn-like sax – flows really naturally.
So I still think this is a “fine“ song, in that it is enjoying at certain points, and I wouldn’t turn this off if I had to put a lot of effort into doing so, but nothing of this would make me return to an album full of this kind of stuff (which I hope it isn‘t), let alone an entire band.
6.25 + (1.0) = 7.25/10Bolsters: Blue Stahli – Not Over Til We Say SoI’m glad you’re continuing with electronic stuff because it’s always interesting, no matter how good it might turn out. The BT song was excellent – that chorus is still stuck in my head - but I think I like this even better.
For a band labeled as “related to Celdweller“ this is quite heavy, damn. But I’m digging it! This one left a phenomenal first impact on me: Great grooves, powerful chorus and just a lot of that electronic/metal stuff that I seem to like a lot. Admittedly one of the very few songs this round where my chorus wasn’t the favorite part but with a song this consistently good there’s no harm in that.
8.5/10Sacul: Kashiwa Daisuke – City In The Lake14 minute instrumental? Nah you crazy..
Nevermind this is A-ma-zing! Wow! I don’t mean to offend you because it was like one of your all time favorite songs or something but I think this is way way waaay better than Stella.
I like this intimate piano opening. With Stella, they had this beautiful 4 chord-piano progression that I really liked but they purposely added a lot of glitchiness and distortion to the whole situation to the point where it didn’t really move me, but with this song it’s awesome. The whole violin situation is very dramatic, exactly how I like it, and that wayit builds up nicely into this bombastic core of the song. Then just when I’m about to think the song starts to lose steam and has to do a slow buildup again they start with the funky bass grooves and I’m sold. The entire thing is just so well thought out.
I like everything about this song, and in its 14 minute run-time it doesn’t drag a single second. It’s somehow missing that final spark but everything is great enough to get you your first 9/10, so I think this was a phenomenal choice for your 11+ minute song.
9.0 + (1.0) = 10/10Scorpion: Susanne Sundfor – Knight of NoirSo, most of the time when I reject a song mentioning that every other song by that band is allowed they go with a different band, but I like this attitude, why not? I liked The Brothel so no harm in some more Susanne Sundfor right?
I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why I still haven’t looked into her music. The vocal melodies are always intriguing, something that seems very hard to pull off for singer-songwriters that have already put out lots of music. I will never be all over this kind of music like some people would but this chick is without a doubt one of my favorites already.
8.25/10Twosuitsluke: In Flames – Only For The WeakIt’s funny you mention not wanting to play it safe, sending melodic deathmetal is probably one of the safest things you can do in my roulette.
Anyway, moving on..
So far so good. The guitar melodies are followable and not too complex, which is where melodeath seems to usually lose me if it does. The chorus is just a great, sing-along-able anthem and overall some good replay value here. Though it’s kind of what I expected In Flames to be like, a good accessible band that represents their genre very well and has everything to offer, but I’m missing that little bit of extra magic. Don’t know what exactly, but something about this lacks the depth that gets me to be absolutely amazed by it. It’s still a very good song though – I can’t
not sing along with that chorus once it comes up - and thus you get a pretty good score, but as it seems people are really starting to figure me out and scores start to get more consistent.
7.75/10Elite: Schizoid Lloyd - Suicide Penguin Well this sure is something. These guys seem to have all sorts of influences from all sorts of decades. Really when referring to liking the unconventional stuff in classic/neoclassic prog this is exactly what I mean. I love the what seems like short interactions between different people, which is probably just one incredibly talented guy. The use of falsetto is just great.
Great tune man, I did expect something very weird and got exactly that, but it’s all in good fun and I can really dig this, even moreso than everything you’ve sent before.
8.5/10425: Pure Reason Revolution – Bullits DominaeAlways nice to see songs being passed around from roulette to roulette, I’ve done that a bit in the past aswell and still plan to do so if that person is not participating in the same one.
And Nekov.. he has some pretty great music man. I can see why this was one of your favorites and it definitely has that 425 flavour to it. Some pretty calm comforting music with a great explosive chorus. The male singer reminds me a bit of Steven Wilson at times and the chick, I don’t know, she’s pretty unique, but she has this kind of oriental eastern sound to her voice. So.. a very good song, not a round winner but still very intrigued by this band.
8.0/10Home: Agent Fresco – Dark WaterHmm.. maybe my bonus rewards are actually being used? Either that or I really need to check out Agent Fresco.
Anyway, on some points I want to compare this to the In Flames song, not because they’re remotely close in sound
because they aren’t, but they both have amazing choruses, and I might just give this song the edge because the singer is just fantastic. A lot more intricacy in this song compared to See Hell if you ask me, with the cool piano shit going on and such, and the kind of standard proggy chuga chuga guitar rhythms that I like. In the end, like with most songs in this round actually, the vocals steal the show here, and this is definitely enough to get me to check out this album.
7.75/10Tomislav95: Eluveite – A Rose For EponaNever heard of this band, and with this band name and album logo I honestly expected some dark black metal stuff or something.
But as it turns out this is mainly a mix of folk and heavy metal, and the female singer is absolutely amazing. The use of falsetto in the chorus is simply great and overall it’s pretty rare that I like female singers in metal but this one does the job.
The folkish elements are present here and there but not all that groundbreaking, as goes for the heavy metal riffage which is very good in its simplicity, but the vox really steal the show here, both cleans and harsh.
8.25 + (1.0) = 9.25/10StandingsScorpion: 27.25 + 8.25 = 35.5 (XX)
Tomislav95: 25.75 + 9.25 = 35.0 (XX)
Sacul: 24.25 + 10 = 34.25 (XXX)
Bolsters: 25.0 + 8.5 = 33.5 (X)
Parama: 26.0 + 7.25 = 33.25 (XX)
Twosuitsluke: 25.25 + 7.75 = 33.0 (XX)
Splent: 23.0 + 9.5 = 32.5 (XX)
Home: 24.25 + 7.75 = 32.0 (XX)
Evermind: 24.5 + 7.25 = 31.75 (XX)
Elite: 23.0 + 8.5 = 31.5 (X)
425: 23.25 + 8.0 = 31.25 ()
Shadow Ninja 2.0: 22.5 + 8.0 = 30.5 (X)
(if I forgot to add any bonuses or fucked up the scores let me know, I'll correct any mistakes when I get home)Schedule for next roundLike I just said I will be gone for the upcoming weekend so this round will take a few days longer. That said, I hope to have every song in 48 hours fom now so I can get one or two listens in before I leave. There will be hangman again, but we'll probably not finish it before the weekend so expect the thread to die for a few days by the end of the week.
Aiming to start some more serious listening sessions by the beginning of next week, tidbits on wednesday/thursday (more likely to be thursday) and results on friday.
Poll
Topic: Train of Naught Roulette II v. MURAMASA... MASAMUNE (Read 122530 times)