Round 9 ResultsLordCost: Aereogramme – BarriersFirst Impressions:If this band had a split with Isis I am going to be expecting a certain kind of sound but from the way this starts I am not getting anything remotely like that. It’s more like, piano radio rock. Yeah huh, okay. I dig the violin though but it’s a bit buried in the mix. I think what’s not quite clicking for me on the first listen of this is the vocalist, especially when everything in the chorus snaps into place… he just sounds kind of weak in comparison to all the interesting stuff going on around him.
The music behind the chorus itself though is pretty solid, the strings have more to do and the rest of the instrumentation swells sufficiently, it’s maybe a bit cliché in terms of sound but it’s nice regardless. I dunno, I’m just a sucker for that violin I think. This may be a bit on the overly cheery and sugary side for me on the whole though, but it has elements I do like regardless.
Final Thoughts:Okay I’m gonna be honest on relistens this got kind of insufferable for me. I think based on my tastes you could probably figure out I’m not too into overly cheery, sugary music. I’ve even said as much in the writeup for that Ellie Goulding song. And well, yeah, that’s the exact problem here.
Production-wise this actually sounds fantastic, the violins sound excellent, the piano sound plenty full when it’s the primary driving force, the vocalist is pretty good and I have no real problem with him. Even the standard guitar bass and drums sound pretty good. It’s all produced well, it hits a good balance between sounding clean and not sounding too clean.
I just wish it was playing something a bit less, I dunno, syrupy and gruesomely sweet? Because I just cannot relate at all and it kind of makes me gag. I don’t mind love songs in general though they’re not really my thing, but they can work for me if they don’t overdo it. This overdoes it, it’s just oppressively happy. Especially that violin line on the chorus, and the chord progression the song bases itself off of in general really.
Also what the heck was this band doing on a split with Isis, that makes less and less sense the more I listen to this. Really the only part that emotionally clicks with me is the very end, that part works well in contrast to the rest of the song. I can’t really be especially hard on this though because at the end of the day… it all sounds nice enough, it’s just a bit too cheery for me. So ehh.
6.25/10Evermind: Retrospective – The Wisest Man on EarthFirst Impressions:2017 is a bad year though who would ever want to send music from that awful year.
Anyways any song that starts with an atmospheric bass groove is a 10/10 in my books so that’s all that really needs to be said. I worry I’m going to hate this when it kicks in proper though. Gives off tool vibes kind of when stuff starts building up actually, which is, you know, not a bad thing to remind me of. Though wow no vocals come in until like 2:45 wow. And I don’t know how much I like these like, whispered harsh vocals. I can’t quite pin my finger on it but there’s something very off about the distorted guitar sound here, it sounds very muffled and weak. Yeah there is something super wrong about that guitar sound, it’s gross. The vocals are a lot better though when the guy is just singing. Yeah wow that one thing is genuinely ruining the entire song for me, I just can’t get past how bad that distorted guitar sounds. The solo tone is fine though, solid enough solo.
Final Thoughts:Honestly I totally understand why you would send this to me. You do seem to pay attention better than most to what I do and don’t like, and this kind of prog metal, driven a lot by the bass, with a lot of atmosphere, is right up my alley. I’d totally love to give this a good score too.
But holy hell, what the heck happened with the production here? I actually showed this to a few people & got a response saying that apparently what’s happening is that the guitar is fine but the way the bass is mixed, it’s totally destroying how the guitar sounds for some reason or other. I guess I’d liken the sound to what it sounds like when you track two of the same instrument playing the same thing in guitar pro, which is basically, it ends up sounding like crap exactly like this.
And it’s a shame because aside from the bass stuff like I mentioned earlier, the riffs themselves are pretty solid, and the vocals as well are pretty good, it’s a style where I can’t really draw any direct comparisons to other artists but they’re diverse and have a lot of power behind them. And really, most of the song doesn’t sound that bad either? It’s specifically just the chorus where the guitar ends up sounding like total crap. And the chorus would probably be pretty cool without that too.
So at the end of the day, I very much do not have an interest in checking out this band (or at least, this album) further if the production is this horribly botched, but I mean if they put out an album without this mixing disaster ruining otherwise good songs I’d totally be onboard? Since the problems I have with this boil down to just that and basically nothing else, really. But yeah, decent song destroyed by bad production, it’s a shame.
6.5/10Tomislav95: Nokturnal Mortum – The Voice of SteelFirst Impressions:So I’m absolutely positive I’ve checked out this band before but I don’t really remember it & it might have been when I was first getting into black metal but was more interested in the spacier/less folk side of the genre. Because yeah this is decisively rather folky, that violin thirty seconds into the song is evidence of such. I don’t have a ton to say about this at the start though other than it’s maybe a bit lo-fi for my tastes. Then it picks up intensity and transforms into something that sounds like thrash or death metal about 4 minutes in, okay. Yeah if I’m being honest, as far as black metal goes this is okay but a bit unmemorable aside from its folkier moments. And even the folky bits are kind of really short loops that don’t stay interesting for long. It’s got both a good sense of atmosphere and a good amount of intensity, at the very least.
But the production really does not flatter the songwriting and the riffs themselves seem pretty basic and unmemorable too. Feeling really meh about this one unfortunately. No wonder I didn’t check them out further. This album is rated over 3.8 on RYM? Geez. Maybe I’m just the one missing something here, dunno.
Final Thoughts:I find it difficult to really come to any cohesive conclusion about how I feel regarding this song. Stylistically it’s right up my alley, yes. But the production pushes too far in the direction of muddy and obscures the songwriting. But regardless of that there’s solid atmosphere and some cool riffs too. But then it also ends up feeling a bit monotonous, even for as much as it changes.
…so yeah, the issue here more than anything else is the production. It’s my longstanding gripe with a lot of black metal, and one I feel the genre should’ve moved past. A lot of early black metal bands sound like that because the technology wasn’t there. Sounding this fuzzy and muffled in the mid 2000’s is just a bad stylistic choice; you can still be somewhat lo-fi and have better quality production that doesn’t hamper the composition and power of a song.
That bit in the middle really sounds straight out of a Slayer song. And well, if you’ve noticed, I have Slayer on my banned list, in red. That’s… not a good thing to be, at all. I think this is a bit better than Slayer though mostly for having decently evil sounding vocals and not being nothing but fast-picked riffing, though that guitar solo is a bit too reminiscent of the worthless noise Kerry King often puts in songs. I like some dissonance but mindless, tasteless hammering away at random notes I do not like.
The folky loops in this song also just, feel like a gimmick. They’re all short and incidental, there’s that one violin loop that’s solid and pops up occasionally, and there’s the flute loop about two thirds into the song that is way, way too short and repetitive even when it gets harmonies. And those are about the only claim to folkiness this song has. You can maybe count the backing chanting vocals but that’s barely folk in my opinion.
And the song’s also kinda repetitive in general, the first few minutes and the last few minutes all lean on the same two-three musical ideas without a ton of variation. Boy, I just have nothing but bad things to say about this do I, huh.
Well. Overall this is still far from the worst song in the round, it’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t mind having on as background music at all, but as active listening music there’s too much wrong with it and too little here for the runtime to keep me interested in it. And yeah, I do like my black metal with better production than this. It’s just a very underwhelming track and I absolutely do not understand why this is as critically acclaimed as it is, but, oh well.
6.75/10home: And So I Watch You From Afar – Set Guitars to KillFirst Impressions:Another very Evermind-y song title honestly, wow. No clue what to expect from this but it starts pretty dang weird. Then brings in the heavy guitars and I am digging this riff, basic as it is. The lead guitar loop feels a bit weak though, a bit on the repetitive side. Yeah I am… a bit baffled by this one thus far. I think the lead guitars are supposed to be the focus but I dig everything else more than them? Like this bassline that comes in around the four minute mark, it’s pretty cool and the drums play off it well. While the lead guitars are just doing something else entirely that I barely care about. I guess it’s nice in that it creates a frantic background sound, but I think the song could’ve managed that without the leads.
The climax of this is pretty dang intense too. Just a huge wall of noise. Whew. Okay. Kind of mixed to positive feelings here on first listen but I think it’s pretty solid if nothing else.
Final Thoughts:This is one of those cases where I feel like I failed to develop any additional feelings towards this song after the initial listen and it just ended up as being a very “there” song among the rest of the songs this round. Doesn’t really do anything too awful so as to bother me and get a lower score, but it doesn’t do much at all to wow me either.
Like, the heavy riffs in this are fine enough but they are very basic sludgy stuff. Not crushingly heavy or memorable in any way, just… there to be the heavy aspect of the song. And while I like that the bass is present throughout a fair bit of this song, the tone it’s using is pretty watery and weak, and the basslines are often not that interesting even when I can make them out.
And it’s maybe just a me kind of thing, but I am just not interested at all in what the lead guitars are doing here. Again, I don’t really like the tone of them but these melodies seem rather uninspired and not especially pleasant to listen to. The drums here are really the one element that stands out the most, boasting a nice diversity of styles and some pretty technically satisfying rhythms too. But they can’t really carry the song on their own.
And that’s basically all there is to say. It’s hard to really even comment on the song as a whole beyond that for me… I just find it rather unremarkable. Not bad. Not particularly good. Won’t remember it after the roulette and I don’t think I’m better off for having heard it either, but. Ehh.
6.75/10Stadler: Marillion – NeverlandFirst Impressions:So obviously this is a band I’ve from but have never had any interest at all in checking out, I really don’t actively seek out much prog rock tbh. I see this is going the “start out with a piano bit” route. Oh and when it kicks in it definitely seems to be going for a darker vibe which I can always get behind.
This is hardly prog thus far but honestly I’m pretty okay with that because from what I’ve heard up to this point, it’s all really good? Like, nothing that unique but just done really well & strikes an emotional chord for sure. That recurring bassline is also pretty great. It feels like it may have hit its peak a little early though but maybe it has somewhere to go from here, who knows. I guess if there’s one thing to complain about I just don’t care for the vocal style too much? Like it doesn’t sound that out of place here, the tone just isn’t one I’m much a fan of. And yeah this kind of just… rides a high for half its runtime. Then ends with a minute of ambient chimes or something, okay. In the context of an album maybe that’d be okay but I’m not a fan of it here.
Final Thoughts:Honestly on first listen I was more than ready to say this was my favorite of all the songs you’ve sent me this roulette. But man, I was pretty sick of this one by third listen and it never really got better from there. And yes there’s just one major problem…
This song drags on like nothing else, almost half the song is just riding one high, and while there are subtle changes in that high it’s a really similar vibe for something like 5-6 minutes straight without any sense of change or dynamics. And it’s kind of just, boring as hell if I’m being honest. The vocals get a bit annoying here, too, the stuttering lyrics and tone start to grate after a while.
So I’m pretty harsh on basically half the song, but everything before that is still pretty great? It builds up nicely, the bluesy piano lines have a nice restrained groove to them that the bass plays off well, the chorus is quite good too, and there’s just a nice sense of flow and atmosphere. And the bits of guitar lead coming in an out in a floydian kind of way without overstaying their welcome.
I dunno, I don’t think this is awful and it’s pretty good as a whole honestly, I just think it would’ve been a much stronger 7-8 minute song than a 12 minute song. I think if there was something strong driving the ending like a continuously escalating guitar solo, and also maybe less vocals, I wouldn’t be so bothered by it. It’s kind of trying to be the band’s Hey Jude it feels like but misses the mark & doesn’t have a big singalong vibe that makes that song work.
But it’s not a bad song at all and sitting down and listening to it now I’m liking it a bit more than I had been on my past few listens, too, so. There’s that much at least.
7.25/10twosuitsluke: Chthonic – Supreme Pain for the TyrantFirst Impressions:There’s another band with a similar name that I got these guys confused with at first. I can’t recall the name though but they had a popular album in 2016 I think. Anyways this seems to be like, straight up black metal type stuff? I can’t say I’m huge on the vocals, for starters, but the riffs and guitar leads are at least pretty solid. And there’s a symphonic backing in there kind of though it’s a bit downplayed? It’s all elements I’m totally on board with.
I’m tired right now it’s past midnight. I’m using this as a tidbit so it’s not obvious what I think of this song. This is sort of blurring together but I think it’s more because they use kind of similar types of riffs. But that said I mean all of this sounds pretty good, it’s kind of rockin’, decently intense, intermittently beautiful, and never boring. Just not something that hits me hard on first listen.
Final Thoughts:This is the kind of metal song I’m basically inclined to enjoy just on style alone and I’m fairly certain you know that and that’s why you sent it to me. And I mean, yeah, playing it safe with something you know I like is actually how I wish more people would submit songs in this roulette because I am honestly not trying to expand my tastes that much here.
So anyways the song itself. It’s plenty melodic for the style, a lot of the riffs and guitar leads being based in pretty straightforward progression, but there’s the strings also there backing up the song when the riffing gets more angular and chuggy in nature. Basically it ends up being a pretty “nice” sounding song a lot of the time even when it’s being heavy.
But there’s still moments of dissonance to keep you on your toes as well, the guitar lead in the middle of the song is a more notable moment of that, but I mean, most if not all of the vocals are harsh growls which is also obviously not too “nice”. So there’s a good sense of contrast going on here between the more melodic elements and the harsher, more “metal” elements.
If there’s one fault I can accuse the song of, it’s lacking in dynamic enough to the point where it hardly feels like it has any sort of climactic moment, or any moment that stands out from the rest of the song in a big way. It’s just riding a solid feel the whole way through but the ending always catches me by surprised and feels too early because the song doesn’t have any high to hit that can really take it to the next level and make me really feel strongly about it.
So yeah at the end of the day I definitely would say I like this one but it’s not quite there for me to really love it, though I’ll probably end up at least checking out a song or two from this band if not the entire album this is off of. I think the metal on display here is all pretty solid, I just wish they had a better sense of dynamics to back it up.
7.75/10
Topic: Parama's Confrontational Roulette v2.5 (Quick Album Reviews) (Read 69152 times)