Round One Results:
Wow, awesome choices from everyone. I actually feel really bad about having to put any of these at the 'low' rankings, because every choice was fantastic.
Best:
gorille - Pure Reason Revolution - 'Deus Ex Machina' - I've heard of these guys before, but never given them a listen. Awesome blend of hard rock/metal and electronic, with some really cool vocal harmonies. Definitely going to have to pick up this album.
Very Good:
Birch Boy -Frank Zappa - 'Inca Roads' - I only have two Zappa albums, Apostrophe and Hot Rats, and between those Apostrophe's the only one I actually like (though I love it). Inca Roads was excellent, continuing with the same kind of quirky avant-progginess that I love about Apostrophe.
Good:
Orcus - Wintersleep - "Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks" - I originally read the band name as Winterspell, and was bracing for maximum cheese. However, I was pleasantly surprised by some excellent post/indie rock. The vocals were only OK, but they didn't really detract from the music in any way, and I'm definitely inclined to check more of them out.
Voxyn - Thomas Dybdhal - 'Cecilia' - Very good acoustic/singer-songwriter type stuff. I especially enjoyed the female vocals on it as well.
Arrich - Avenged Sevenfold - 'A Little Piece of Heaven' - The only A7X song I've heard was their new single (Nightmare?), it wasn't bad. This definitely blew it out of the water. It would be quite a bit higher but I felt that it could have been a few minutes shorter and been better off for it. Other than that, it was really cool.
Still good, but lower:
King Shmegland - Black Mountain - 'Tyrants' - This was pretty good sludgey/proggy hard rock type stuff. I quite enjoyed it, though I found it dragging a little bit. Nonetheless, I'd definitely check out more.
Also good, but lowest:
73109 - Janis Joplin - 'Me and Bobby McGee' - I'm not a massive JJ fan, but I enjoy her here and there. This song, while good, was definitely the weakest of the bunch, it was still good, but I didn't think it was really on par with other songs of her that I've heard.
Score:
Gorille - 5
Birch - 4
Arrich - 3
Voxyn - 3
Orcus - 3
Shmegland - 2
73109 - 1