EPIC ROUND (EPIC RESULTS)
Tomislav
Atmospheric Black Metal
(Argentina) Downfall of Nur - The Golden AgeThe intro is absolutely beautiful. I love the way the track slowly builds up, adding new instruments, ramping up intensity until it explodes over with fury. I get lots of similarities to Agalloch, Coldworld, early Caina, and Paysage d'Hiver. I love the wall-of-noise-like faster sections with the vocals being used more like another layer of atmosphere or another instrument. Considering I love stuff like the aforementioned Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace the wall of noise thing works for me. It's more ethereal than heavy, even though its fast and aggressive. The instrumentation isn't extremely technical or anything, but it's good enough to do what needs to be done, but it isn't like early Falls of Rauros bad (which this also has some similarities to) as far as technical ability goes. The instruments are played for the song. The quiet section in the second half does go on a bit too long and doesn't change up enough, but that is a minor issue. The rest is pretty fantastic. I'm tempted to give this a 10, but it's not quite perfect.
9.5/10
Parama
Progressive Death/Black Metal
(Germany) Venenum - Trance of Death Part III: There Are Other Worlds...Like the majority of the songs you have sent in this roulette, this one took some time to really understand. It challenged me, made me think. This is kind of what I wanted from this roulette. New sounds to expand my horizons. This works both against you and to your advantage. I may not realize the brilliance of the song in time for writeups. That almost happened with the Esben and the Witch song you sent. And like that one, I initially hated this song. Almost from the very beginning with the first two hits of the hi-hats, which sounded so off time to me, I thought the whole thing sounded like a mess and the blast beats sounded almost sloppy. I eventually came around and understood what was being accomplished. The vocals aren't the greatest, but they aren't terrible and most of the song has no vocals, so plus there. The instrumentation reminds me of Mid-era Opeth at times (which is a good thing), but with more black metal sounds and their own special blend of what I like to call off kilter dissonance (not too unlike Deathspell Omega). The whole second half of the song just absolutely slays, with great guitar leads and keyboards that add tons of great atmosphere. It also uses the Post-Hardcore-like loud to soft to loud concept to great effect throughout. There are also so many memorable parts to this song and they keep running through my head throughout the day. Like the Downfall of Nur song I wanted to give this a 10, but again it's not quite perfect.
9.5/10
TAC
Progressive Metal
(USA) Lor - EidolonYou are back in my good graces with this one. I could nit pick little things here and there with the vocals, some sections that don't flow well, the mix, etc etc...But this song does so many things right and has so many cool parts to it, that I can overlook those other things. There's some tasty guitar riffs, great drums patterns, awesome fast sections, and to top it off, EPICNESS! This song fits my definition of epic pretty well. The harsh vocals caught me off guard at first, but seemed to fit more when I listened to it again. I also love the fact that the bass is audible and has some interesting bass licks. Then probably my favorite part is the guitar solos. They are melodic, technical, fast (sometimes), and full of emotion, which it's hard to nail all of those things in a solo. The slower solo that starts when the song breaks down around the 7:30 mark is a nice contrast to the rest of the song. Then from the 10 minute mark on the song closes out in epic fashion, bringing the whole song home. Great great song. THE FOGEYS STRIKE BACK!
9.5/10
Jingle
Progressive Rock
(Canada) Mystery - Shadow of the LakeThis may not be metal, but it sure kicks all kind of ass. It just further goes to show that Canadians know how to make good music. The lead guitar parts are face melting and the riffs are fantastic. This kind of reminds me of Arena at times. The lyrics are interesting and tell and intriguing story. A dark story. I love when bands use field recordings to good effect and this song has some great ones at the end, a bonus! The one thing that kind of bothers me a bit is the singer's voice. It's not the strongest or the best sounding. It has a bit of that rasp that I don't particularly like, not quite Sass Jordan bad though. Overall it's a fantastic prog rock song.
9/10
KTLX
Symphonic Power Metal
(Brazil) Aquaria - Judgment DayFirst I need to say that this band sounds very Brazilian Power Metal. I don't mean that in a bad way though. There's just little things here and there that I hear throughout that would immediately tell me they are from Brazil. Bits that remind me of Angra, Almah, Hangar, etc. This is definitely epic. The guitar solos are awesome. I love the speedy drums throughout. The keyboards keep it epic sounding throughout and don't fall in to the extreme cheese trap that a lot of power metal like this falls in to. The only real issue I have with the song is the middle part where the song breaks down with the falsetto vocals....I tried to enjoy them, but I just couldn't no matter how many times I heard it. The rest of the time the vocals are good enough. It does end on a pretty epic note though. Another strong track from you.
9/10
Home
Stoner Metal
(USA) Elder - CompendiumWhen this song started, it was not at all what I was expecting based on the bands genre. This kind of sounds like a mix of Pallbearer and Mastodon. Only this is better than anything those 2 bands have put out recently. Maybe if you took the best parts of those bands. Now, the intro sounds slightly out of place or like maybe they should have started the song a different way and pulled those intro licks to be used for a transition in the song somewhere (like they did at about the 2:30 mark). That intro made me not like the song initially. The rest of the song is very good psychedelic/stoner metal. Nice heavy riffs, some cool lead guitar work (that reminds me of Steely Dan for some reason), and vocals that don't annoy me. Full of win!
8.5/10
Train
Progressive Metal
(France) Hypno5e - East ShoreThis sounds like a metal-core version of Gojira. The intro track doesn't really do much for me. But overall the song is pretty enjoyable. The problems really have to do with the transitions from the softer to the louder parts, they aren't the smoothest. The individual soft parts and louder, heavier parts are all pretty good though. Also the vocals seem unnecessarily harsh for the music. There's lots of head bang worthy parts to the song. I find myself nodding my head involuntarily when listening to it. The faint/subtle keyboards are nice too. They add an additional layer to the music that I think elevates the song above just average. I could have done without the spoken word parts (mostly because I don't understand the language). I do want to check out more from this band though.
8/10
Soupy
Power Metal
(USA) Kamelot - Memento MoriIt took a while, but I was finally able to pick out a lot of subtle cool things this song does. The cool sound effects and keyboards and orchestral instruments throughout are really nice. I also like the singers voice a lot. One of the better voices I've heard in power metal. There's a cool drum pattern that starts just after the 2 minute mark that is really cool. I love drum patterns like that. It's fun to play along to on my kit. The softer parts in the verses kind of reminds me of something that Rush might have written (minus the vocals). Me comparing something to Rush is always a good thing. The song falls off the rails a bit after the 5 minute mark, with the spoken word bit, the female vocals, and the weird scream that all just feel kind of tacked on, but the song picks itself back up a couple minutes later. I'm also missing the "Epic" quality in this song that I'm looking for. Not to say it isn't at all epic, it's just not as epic as most of the other songs this round. Still a good song.
7.5/10
Evermind
Power/Thrash Metal
(USA) Dark Empire - From Refuge to RuinThis is power prog with some thrashy elements. I've always liked when bands incorporate that thrash sound in to other metal sub-genres, especially this genre, black metal, and death metal. I think the song suffers a bit because of the vocalist. Something about his voice doesn't sit right with me. I do like the thrashy bits that are thrown in and the soft middle section is really cool with the flute, but I don't think this is quite as epic as the rest of the songs this round. Don't feel too bad about not being able to send that Kamelot song, it would have netted you the same score you are getting for this song.
7.5/10
Current Standings
Tomislav - 7, 9.5, 8.5, 9, 7, 9.5 (50.5)
Train of Naught - 9.5, 7.5, 9, 9, 5.5, 8 (48.5)
Parama - 6, 9, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9.5 (48.5)
Kattoelox - 5.5, 6.5, 8, 10, 9, 9 (48)
Evermind - 7.5, 7, 8, 7.5, 9.5, 7.5 (47)
Jingle.boy - 9, 4, 8, 8, 9, 9 (47)
TAC - 8, 8, 8.5, 6.5, 6.5, 9.5 (47)
Soupytwist - 8, 10, 7, 8.5, 4, 7.5 (45)
Home - 7.5, 7, 7, 7, 7.5, 8.5 (44.5)