Here goes! This was the best round of the roulette so far, so, there will be ties. I enjoyed 9 of the 10 tracks, and pretty much all of these tracks, except the top ones of course, would have scored higher in the last round; this round was just that good. Most of you were wrong in your snippet guesses though.
10. Steam Powered Giraffe - Brass GogglesSent by Evermind
So, um, OK… ? I'm not even sure what to say about this one. I can say with 100% certainly that I did *not* see this coming, so I guess there's that. 😊 You described it as the midpoint of the novel, so, I'm looking forward to the second half which will hopefully sound nothing like the midpoint. For the rest of you - whoever was picking on Sacul - how did you not know that this was going to be the 10? Am I living on a different planet than everyone else?
7. Converge - Phoenix in FlightSent by Sacul
So - why did everyone think I was going to hate this? There's nothing wrong with it. If the vocals are harsh you can barely hear them anyway, and they fit really well with the wall of sound that this track is. It's really intense, but there's a nice part in the middle that, while not really sacrificing the intensity, helps make it a little more melodic. I like it. Now, I wondered if perhaps the other Phoenix track was supposed to go hand in hand with this one, so I listened to it, and no. I mean that track would still have had its work cut out for it to steal the #10 from the giraffe band…But Phoenix in Flight, standing alone from whatever else might be on the album, is intense and interesting. I liked it, and if the album has more like it rather than the 2nd Phoenix track, I'm intrigued. It's not scoring higher because (see the beginning of this post).
7. Echoes - Rude AwakeningSent by jingle.boy
OK, so, I hate doing this - only giving a 7 when I like this better than everything you sent besides Soul Secret. I like the music on this track, a lot. That piano part right at the beginning sets the tone and brings a smile to my face. But I don't like that singer. I almost want to say that he's in the wrong genre, because I imagine him chain smoking somewhere with a drink in his hand slurring his words and singing something that I don't like. But that's probably ridiculous; it's just that I don't like his voice. "This place is a mess" and "there's other people involved" are examples of what I mean. I don't mind him so much when he goes a little higher, but even then, there's some of that quality that's still there. I didn't think to listen to another song of theirs until yesterday, and it has a different singer who I liked much more. If I'd done that right away, I would have offered you to switch. Don't get me wrong - I like the song. This round is just so good. Last round, same singer, this still would probably have scored 4 or 5. This round, with the singer from the other song - I can't say for sure where it would have landed because I love all the other songs too, but maybe it would have been higher.
6. Ocoai - BreathermanSent by Puppies
Good detective work on narrowing down the snippets.
This is a really nice track that puts me in a good, relaxed mood. I don't listen to much instrumental music, but I'm not opposed to it either. This track seems to flow really nicely, has beautiful melodies, and I know you mentioned it's length, but I think that's actually a strong point. It lets you settle in and become immersed in it. Technically, I should jump to 7 in the scoring, but I'm not going to because it's my roulette and I don't wanna. 😊
5. Bent Knee - Being HumanSent by Parama
Let me first just say that this track is great, and it wasn't a misstep or anything like that. If you'd sent it last round instead of Thank You Scientist, you would have gotten the same score. I just really like (almost) all of the songs this round and the top 4 just really grabbed me and didn't let go. I will say that I both like and dislike the singer in the track. I'm not into the beginning vocals so much, but like it when she lets loose later on. I hadn't heard of Bent Knee prior to their being announced for the Leprous tour, and I will definitely get there in time to catch their set.
5. Oceans of Slumber - A Path to Broken StarsSent by Elite
I saw this band open for Evergrey and found them to be a mixed bag. Some potential, but I didn’t walk away with the intention of checking them out. This song makes me want to take another look. It's really beautiful. It's one of those songs that seem very sad, but don't depress me or make me feel sad; rather, it's uplifting in an odd way. Now I'm looking forward to their set at ProgPower this year.
3. O'Brother - DeconstructSent by Train of Naught
I'd never heard of O'Brother before, and this is one of those times where it's good not to judge a band by its name. 😊 I think this band would fit right in on that Leprous and Agent Fresco tour that Elite mentioned. They don't sound like Leprous, but it seems like they would appeal to Leprous fans. This track certainly does to me. This is one of those tracks that made me turn it up and try to sing along.
3. Aquaria - Here Comes the LifeSent by Kattelox
If this was an actual Angra song, it might have been #1. I feel like that Thiago dude could make a way better case comparing this song to Angra than he did with I&W and ADTOE. So, that does bring it down a little bit for me because it feels like every part of the song is something Angra would have done in the order Angra would have done it. Maybe that isn't fair. At this point I think I'm so used to bands that borrow from DT that I don't care anymore, and I've listened to enough of them that they each have their own identities and I can see a distinction between them and DT and them and each other. (Plus, I've yet to find a singer that actually sounds like James). Whereas, I've never heard an Angra clone before, so it makes me way more uncomfortable. Having said that - it's a great song. I love what Angra does, and if you're going to go for it, at least do it well, and in that respect, Aquaria knocked it out of the park. I couldn't help smiling at times. This was the
song. I'd say maybe sometimes the keyboard sound is a little weak (but Angra has that problem too), and I would also say that the guitars aren't quite up to Kiko and Rafael, but the song itself is awesome. I in fact did not read the lyrics to pick them apart, so if there's cheese, I'm still blissfully unaware. You wanted to swap this song out, but at that time I'd already heard it and wanted to enjoy listening to it for the rest of the round. I haven't listened to the alternate song, but if it would have scored high than a 3 in this round, then I'll listen to a Toto album or something as penance.
2. Iris Divine - In the Wake of MartyrsSent by TAC
This was the
song. Every time I played this song I kept turning it up and up. It made me want to bang on some drums or something, and I'm not a drummer. It made me want to drive faster. Brief harsh vocals at the beginning, but this wasn't at all a problem like it was with the Dyssidia track. I like the clean vocals a lot, and I enjoyed that break down part a little over halfway in. I don't have as much to say about this one as some of the others, except
I hope the score makes up for it.
1. Jane's Addiction - Three DaysSent by Stadler
I don't think anyone saw this one coming, including me. But this song is *fantastic*. No one claimed the snippet about the musicians, but this is the one. I know I go on and on about singers, and jingle might think I've lost my mind. I do think Perry Farrell is kinda bad. However - there's a certain, charm, maybe, to his voice, that just seems to work. He's really annoying on Been Caught Stealing, but I've always liked Jane Says. Also, since Stadler didn't provide me with a link, I decided to listen to both the album version and a live version during my listening, and he kind of sounds better live. Everyone else? OMG. The bass line that opens the song is soooo cool, and he's great throughout the song. The drummer - also great. And that guitar solo is
. If he wasn't influenced by Rush, I'd be surprised. Maybe the drummer too. And yet, this song doesn't at all sound like a song that Rush would have released. I just get these hints of influence and maybe that’s only because I almost want to hear it. Anyway. I always had an idea that this band was good and heard some live material in the past that seemed good, but I had no idea they were this good.
Parama: 5 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 5 = 15
Elite: 1 + 10 + 4 + 1 + 5 = 21
Train of Naught: 3 + 4 + 3 + 8 + 3 = 21
Kattlelox: 4 + 7 + 8 + 4 + 3 = 26
TAC: 9 + 3 + 7 + 5 + 2 = 26
Stadler: 8 + 2 + 6 + 9 + 1 = 26
Puppies on Acid: 7 + 8 + 1 + 5 + 6 = 27
Evermind: 6 + 6 + 5 + 2 + 10 = 29
jingle.boy: 2 + 9 + 10 + 7 + 7 = 35
Sacul: 10 + 5 + 9 + 10 + 7 = 41