Who will win the arse battle?
Epic Conference Finals Round Results, One Shot:Older Bros:
TAC - The aTACkers:Theocracy – Mirror of Souls:Seen from the perspective of virtous marriage between storytelling and songwriting, this is a perfect template for a properly satisfying “epic”. Totally driven by lyrics (beyond compelling for whomever has “been there”) dictating every (never superflous) musical choice, not differently from the way my niche of trade works. Although nothing to write home about as far as technical chops (and maybe that's the charm), the sequence of always different and tasty riffs and melodies is amazing, despite (and because) they are far from original, but heartfelt callbacks to the giants of metal serious narration. You can spot Orion, The Prisoner, Heaven and Hell, and a hundred more 80s staples tied together by good taste, strong purpose, and a vocalist who's got an astounding 28% Kiske in him (impressive feat, if you ask me). The result is something classic yet fresh, never feeling padded. The impressive proportion of sung time could feel a bit crammed, but being the lyrics the all-encompassing deciding force here, everything strangely falls into place. All in all, the 20 minutes touching heroic and vaguely cheesy straight metal behemoth I was waiting for in my teens before DT came in shattering rules and expectations.
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jingle.boy - Boston Bruins Blow:Dimension Act – Drawing the Lines of Mortal Existance:First bus trip: this gave me headache, blamed it on the wee hours, being generally weary, and listening fatigue. Second bus trip: Started from this in order to avoid fatigued judgement, lost the plot after ten minutes, couldn't remember anything. Third bus trip (first leg): I ONLY listened to this, setting the score even with the other submissions on the second leg. Finally, I got it. The first ten minutes are gorgeous: majestic opening featuring 2007 DT covering Rush, classy jazzy yacht solo quiet section, monster technical instrumental segment, cool ballady sung part (the guy is slightly out of tune, the lady is nice and underused). Trim the following twenty minutes, paste the last three minutes of glorious Helloween galloping outro, and you possibly win this matchup. What's the problem with those 20 minutes, you may ask with a bucket full of fock you Indy? They always sound exactly the same, always loud, occupying every possible frequency with exagerated rythm riffing, constant background synth buzzing, and messy cymbals saturation. Amidst the headache, the obsessive insistance on basically a IV-V-IVm repetitive progression doesn't let anything impress the memory, except for an impressive impression of Marco Sfogli making an impressive impression of a Johnny P solo.
Match Winner: TAC. Less is less, more is more. But sometimes less wins when more focused.
Chad, I had the privilege to witness your background work on roulette submissions, and it's been a joy. Furthermore, I discovered a fun nice gracious dude behind the deceased asian dictator, which is as valuable as discovering great music. You are probably gonna shower me with barbed complains for the next 35 posts, nonetheless I still thank you for the wonderful participation (even if you called my mum "Welsh") and still want your EP.
Younger Bros:
Parama - Six Roaming Owls:Poly-Math – Science | We Are the Devil:Oh, what a focking beautiful unpredictable and original piece of art. There is more Robert Frippish intellect inside this than in 50% of King Crimson's most recent offering. There are many distinct islands of brilliance here: from the quirky opening planting the seeds for a brand new strain of “fusion”, to some great heavy groove riffage concealing a rythming sophistication (and top notch rythm sections are your submissions' signature, now that I think about it) not hindering a bit its visceral impact. A masterful manipulation of emotional and musical pulse in the second part, and DAT SAX! Only one thing doesn't work for me, that is those beautiful islands are sorrounded by pretty noisy waters, which I can appreciate are great mood manipulators, but – for the way I'm wired – weaken the whole piece's intensity and muddy up the discourse, contributing to a certain feeling of “plodding”. That's why, although enjoying many musical and expressive (expressionist, even?) moments a lot, the pace seems shackled and the whole tune feels considerably longer (and more diluted) than it actually is. Anyway, there is clearly a genius behind this work, and if you promise no orc vocals, I'm definitely gonna check the whole catalogue out.
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Puppies_On_Acid - West Coast Lost Marbles:Beardfish – Sleeping in Traffic:Black Exploitation, Golden Age of Porn, Classic Prog, New Wave, Balcans Wedding Music, Godfather Waltz, Sabbath Stomp, Silent Hill Credits, Half-Patton Half-Lake Vocals, Tight like Phish, Jefferson Airplane, The Three Gallaghers, Living Colour, Blue Oyster Cult, Traffic, T-Rex, Purple, Edgar Winter, Ozric Tentacles, Ummagumma, Oye Como Va, Lennon, Neil Diamond, Montana Dental Floss, Patrick Hernandez, a Bee-Focking-Gees Parody, Slovak RHCP. Does it or DOES it sound like something I would inevitably fall in love with? Or, in less words, Zappa playing his inspired version of the Abbey Road Medley. Epics are often serious pretentious business, this one - accomplished and tight like the best of 'em - is a miracolous celebration of anarchy and irony.
Match Winner: Puppies. It happens when you submit my favourite song in the roulette in a direct elimination round.
Parama, you never EVER ceased to throw surprising fascinating stuff my way. On paper, our tastes (albeit broad) reside on opposite sides of the spectrum, but you immediately identified what I love in the music you love and went on delivering the goods. You never sent progressive rock or progressive metal, but you absolutely always sent progressive music. It's been a pleasure, and I'd really love to try the same feat on reversed roles.
So, Puppies will challenge TAC in THE Finals. The prize will be selecting your favourite album to either be given the Scenes Treatment or NOT EVER be given the Scenes Treatment, depending on where you stand on, you know, the Scenes Treatment.
Speaking of which, I promised lonestar his special writeup, but I don't want to give it my half-arsed tired by work sunday night. You will get my undivided free monday morning, buddy.
Topic: Indiscipline's Roulette v. The Dirty Aftermath (Read 121906 times)
