Round 2 ResultsIncoming fast…
5 PointsSacul
The Stooges – Fun House
Punk-ish Avant-Garde from ‘Funhouse’ (1970)Excuse the blunt question, but what the fuck is this and why did you expect this to ever go down well? I have had literally no enjoyment out of this track whatsoever. It’s repetitive to the point of being boring after about 1,5 minutes of hearing the same groove again, but what really kills it off mercilessly is Iggy Pop’s terrible vocals on top of this. This could have been decent if he had simply shut up, and if the band had done something interesting with the groove instead of playing the same thing for over seven minutes. Well, okay, the saxophonist does some soloing here and there, but the monotonous way in which he does this gets stale after a while too. I don’t really care how influential this might have been, I found this a chore to get through every single listen.
4 PointsLordCost
Thumpermonkey – Sleeve
Progressive Metal – from ‘Sleep Furiously’ (2012)Where your last submission was so good, this one barely does anything to me. I found this to be fairly generic and the relatively bad production doesn’t help it either. The guitars are very tame, and even then they don’t really groove whatsoever. I don’t really find anything memorable about this track, apart from the ‘if you watch my back’-vocal line. This song not really having any hooks or chorus doesn’t help it either. The whole just falls flat. I must give the singer some props for pretty good delivery on the higher registry vocal lines though. I don’t think this band is for me.
Tomislav95
Rishloo – Dark Charade
Progressive Rock – from ‘Living as Ghosts With Buildings as Teeth (2014)I feel kind of bad for giving this such a low score, because there’s quite some good stuff in here and especially the vocalist is seriously good. This song though, tries to do far too much for it’s own good. It’s a disjointed mess with ideas that are decent at least, but they never get time to be fleshed out properly. Prime example of this is the heavy riff that comes in at around the 4,5 minute mark. There’s also far too many moments where the songs just seems to plod along, without going anywhere and despite the length, there’s no climax to be found, which really is a shame. Whatever this band tried to do with this track, it was either far too ambitious and it doesn’t work, or I don’t get it at all. After seven listens (the same amount I’ve given all other tracks as well), it’s still not working for me and the good moments in this track (and their certainly are some!) can not make up for all the lacklustre ones. Sorry, but this is probably not the best introduction to this band for me.
3 PointsTrain of Naught
Jamie Lenman – Hell in a Fast car
Hard Rock – from ‘Devolver’ (2017)So, this song started out pretty well, but dropped fairly quickly. It’s a simple hard rock song, which isn’t really a problem, except that it gets old pretty soon. The main riff is really cool though and sounds huge (moreso than the riffs that
should have sounded huge on the previous two tracks). Can we take a moment for the ridiculously terrible lyrics though? So, there’s not much to this track, but there’s also not a whole lot wrong with it. It’s that there were a couple of tracks that didn’t go down well, but in general this is not exactly what I’m looking for in music.
Nekov
Dave Kerzner - Hypocrites
Progressive Rock – from ‘Static’ (2017)Dave Kerzner is the main man behind the band Sound of Contact (I had to look up who this guy is), and that’s a band that I’ve seen live, but they probably didn’t do much for me, because I have never bothered to check out the band’s stuff after that gig. If their music is anything similar to this track, I can imagine why this is. This one isn’t bad, but it doesn’t really grab me either, it simply goes on, but I can’t really explain what part of it I don’t like. It might be the lack of a clear hook or something else that’s memorable, or the lack of a climax. I also think the track is too long for it’s own sake and would have benefitted from some trimming. The build-up in the last two minutes is actually very good, but the two or three minutes before that barely add anything to the song and a classic case of prog-rock band trying to over-write their songs for no sake other than to make them longer, because musically nothing interesting or important is added there. Like Trainy’s song above, in this round the damage is not that substantial, but these sort of songs don’t usually work for me and in a stronger round overall, this would not have been in the middle of the pack.
2 PointsStadler
The Claypool Lennon Delirium – Ohmerica
Psychedelic Rock - from ‘Monolith of Phobos’ (2016)I had to double-check if that really wasn’t John Lennon singing, but apparently it’s his son. Now this was a strange submission in this round full of experimental and prog music, ut it was a very welcome change indeed. Very interesting stuff going on in this track, even though the main vocal line (the chorus?) is a bit boring and forgettable. The first minute of the track is especially funny, with sort-of random noises introducing the excellent psychedelic atmosphere of the song. The verses are chock-full of very musical touches, mostly by bass-player extra-ordinaire Les Claypool, who has a lead-role in filling up every measure of the song. The instrumental parts are funky and groovy, yet the vocals get ample room to shine throughout. This song has a very distinct (though bluntly obvious ‘psychelic’) sound that really works, which is always a plus for me. I really liked this one!
Puppies_on_Acid
North Atlantic Oscillation – Empire Waste
Post-Progressive / Electronic – from ‘Fog Electric’ (2012)So, this is a weird submission. It’s very laid-back in a funny way, despite being quite up-tempo. The song gradually builds up more layers, but the core melody is audible from the beginning in the vocals. Then the electronica-drums enter, and the vocals enter, but they’re multi-layered this time, creating a very ‘hazy’ atmosphere. It’s barely impossible to hear the words they’re singing, but that doesn’t really matter. It works in this song. The main gripe I had with this track is that the second half of it Is just kind of ‘there’. The entire groove of the song just drops out, leaving just acoustic guitars, synths and different vocal lines. The second half is a nice touch, but to me it feels like it comes out of nowhere, after the excellent build-up in the first half. Nevertheless, this is some great stuff, and I will check out more from this group!
1 PointTAC
Pathosray – Scent of Snow
Progressive Metal – from ‘Pathosray’ (2007)Yeah, this is pretty awesome. In this round, this song had no trouble climbing to the top 3 at all. I’m almost always down for this kind of stuff, as long it stays in relatively low doses. I’m a regular visitor of ProgPower Europe since 2010 and obviously this band has played there, although in a year when I wasn’t there (2008). This would fit in easily indeed. Good riffs, good song structure, great guitar work and the catchiest chorus of the round (even though I can’t for the life of me hit those high notes without sounding weird). Quality stuff. Just a note for you – and other participants reading: sending this kind of stuff to me may be tempting, but for me there’s a thin line between stuff I enjoy and stuff with too much ‘wankery’ going on. This was good, but the instrumental part shouldn’t have taken much longer, Pagan’s Mind sound like mindless drivel to me for instance. But yeah, this was you playing to my ‘guilty’ prog-metal pleasures. Good one, a shame the album isn’t in Spotify.
ariich
Diablo Swing Orchestra – Karma Bonfire
Swing Metal – from ‘Pacifisticuffs’ (2017)Upon first listen, I honestly didn’t expect this track to take the second place as it took a couple of listens to grow on me. I had heard of this band before, and tried (to no avail) to like their 2009 album ‘Sing Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious’, but I found it to be a little boring and they didn’t really blend their fusion and metal well enough; it was disjointed and not polished enough. This track however is incredibly slick. I love the rhythmic riffery, the touches of swing with the trumpet and trombone and the dual lead vocals by the male and female singer. If the rest of this album is equally good, I’ll gladly have a listen. I never followed the band beyond their 2009 album, because I wasn’t too interested, but this might have me listen again!
0 PointsParama
Zu – Ostia
Experimental Metal – from ‘Carboniferous’ (2009)So yeah, Sacul was right in calling the round winner – and it wasn’t difficult for me at all. Pretty weird to have an instrumental top the round, but I can’t have it any other way; this track is amazing. When you said this is similar to Shining’s ‘Fisheye’ (which I think is a superior track to this one by the way), I was immediately intrigued and this is indeed very similar in style, though very different in execution. This goes more into avant-garde territory with the saxophone doing those crazy solos over the grooves. I also feel this band takes a little more influence from electronic music than Shining does, but the result is amazing nonetheless. It’s frantic, it’s fast, it’s heavy and it’s a little weird. Thanks, more stuff to check out!
Current Standings
Parama: 2, 0 (2)
ariich: 2, 1 (3)
Puppies_on_Acid: 1, 2 (3)
Train of Naught: 1, 3 (4)
LordCost: 0, 4 (4)
TAC: 4, 1 (5)
Nekov: 3, 3 (6)
Stadler: 5, 2 (7)
Tomislav95: 3, 4 (7)
Sacul: 4, 5 (9)
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You are free to start sending Round 3 from now on. It would be nice to have all submissions on Saturday, so I can get some listens in over the weekend. I have a long weekend ahead of me and plan to have the next results in a week or so.