Elite: Fragments of Metal – An EP for TrainsFirst impression/thoughts:With a fairly long EP opener I feel like this EP is the one that feels like it takes the longest to really get going, whch could be good or bad. In this case, I’m not sure, I really feel like the Anna von Hausswolff song shouldn’t have been on this particular EP as of now, I don’t mind the long buildup at all and I think the hauning vibe the vocals give off are great but right after it comes this catchy multi-vocalist progmetal song... followed by another catchy progmetal song
and it just tells me that it could’ve done with maybe a cool short interlude of sorts, instead of the Anna von Hausswolff intro.
That aside, I see that your goal was to build the EP around Fisheye, and I wasn’t really feeling that song but still sure it would need more listens to become better, it reminds me of the Slipknot demo days (Mate Feed Kill Repeat) somehow, not quite as experimental though I don’t know a lot of music that is. I don’t have any major issues with the flow, particularly thought Meshuggah would cause some problems on that ground, but this particular Meshuggah song doesn’t sound quite as poundingly agressive as say, Bleed, for instance.
Anna von Hausswolff – Discovery
Eh, the song takes a really long time to get going, I’m fine with that, it’s a calm intro to the EP and slowly builds to.. something. I don’t even feel like the pay-off at the end of this song is that great, the vocals are quite unusual and hard to get used to, I do feel it became better over time but it’s still my least favorite of your EP.
The first half of the song is a very solid instrumental EP opener, as I’m not a huge fan of the vocals I guess I shouldn’t bother with this chick but I do have to applaud the ability of them/her to create a good dark atmosphere.
13/20 #35 out of 38Flaming Row – Nightingales ChirpThis band is turning out to be one of the most diverse of the roulette from what I’ve heard so far. First I got to see some progressive metalcore kind of influences in Bolsters‘ song and now here’s this super catchy song with the female vocals being the main focus.
I think you said the Voyager song was your most catchy entry but I feel like this one beats it out, this is the chorus I instantly remind myself of when I think of the EP. There’s all kinds of cool stuff though, from the funky bassline in the pre-chorus to the tasty guitarwork in general, this is one of the highpoints of the EP for sure.
17/20 #14 out of 38Voyager – Misery Is Only CompanyYeah, so I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to “V“ a few times and I liked it, but I have somehow just forgot about the band and album and never explored them further.
What a mistake that was. I thought I already knew the best poppy progmetal stuff but this proves me wrong, this is a wonderful song. Some of the lines are really catchy, as are the rhythms in the verses, and that wonderful falsetto in the chorus is so memorable that it has become one of the many staple Train v2 roulette choruses. It's pretty much an essential prog metal tune, they don't experiment much as it's pretty predictable after a listen or two, but in that sense it's a great, catchy song.
17/20 #9 out of 38Shining – FisheyeONE-THREE-SEVEN-FIVE, FISHEYE FISHEYE
I dunno man, I’ve seen this song many times in recent roulette and so I checked it out once, I believe I put it off halfway through because it just bored me. But these guys are insane, I love it. It’s not quite like any of the weird chaotic music I listen to but it’s sparked my interest alright. Saw some Shining CD’s in the record store the other day and was tempted to buy one but they didn’t have Blackjazz so I decided to wait until I’ve made a decision, or maybe you have a suggestion of your own.
Anyway, the sax is pretty cool and reminds me of Ihsahn as it’s the same vibe, a very chaotic saxophone in a heavy setting. But the highlight of this song and probably my favorite part of the entire EP is when the blastbeat kicks in, everything falls into place and all the insanity of this track is released.
18/20 #6 out of 38Flaming Row – Time MirrorAfter hearing two amazing Flaming Row songs this one falls a bit flat in comparison but is still a really good song. What I do like more here than on any of the other Flaming Row songs is the switch-offs between the different vocalists and vocal styles. It also has the cool heavy instrumental section to set it apart from the crowd, with some great grooves and various instruments. The chorus is probably the main reason I don't like it quite
as much as the others but it's still great.
16/20 #24 out of 38Meshuggah – Dancers to a Discordant SystemComparing this to the Meshuggah songs I’ve heard I actually found it fairly easy to digest. It’s not as straight-up agressive as some of their other songs and instead has some dark Tool-vibe going on in the verses. But when it finally blasts out, man does it djent. I noticed that the new DTP song “Failure“ has a stylistically similar guitar tone in the solo, and it’s a really cool hypnotizing tone that apparently isn’t only featured in the Bleed solo, I thought it was a one time thing. You mentioned resemblances to TMV but really I mostly think of a heavy alternative of Tool. The heavier parts are definitely my favorites though, so I guess I won’t have any problems getting into Meshuggah.
No idea why I used to hate their music so much.
Overall a really strong closer, it didn’t quite live up to the highs of the core section of your EP but then again, that was quite a high standard to live up to.
16.5/20 #11 out of 38
Man, I was not impressed with this EP after my first listen according to those notes
but it has become so good over the past few days, everything has fallen into place and it's definitely worthy of the finals.
With the ever-so-slim score differentials in this round I’m pleasantly surprised you managed to get this far, with probably my favorite EP of the round despite not being #1, just because it had the most fantastic songs on it with only one clunker. The way I score these probably wasn’t very favourable for you in the long run because Anna von Hausswolff takes down the average by quite a bit, but eh, no way to foresee that when sending.
Also you get 9 out of 10 additional points, the flow is not “perfect“ to be honest, there’s some awkward changes like Anna von Hausswolff into Flaming Row and Shining into Flaming Row for instance, but the overall replay value of this one is what carried me over, it deserved the #2 spot for sure. Thanks for playing, hope you can live with this placement!
So that makes: 16.25 + 9 =
25.25 (+ 1.25) = 26.5
Tomislav95: Feel the Electricity (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Make the EP)First impression/thoughts:To me this looks like an EP chockfull of typical Tomislav material, the part of your music collection that I’ve really yet to see in this roulette. I mean, I know you’re a huge Mastodon fan so it was only a matter of time before I got some good sludge metal or anything of the like. And it’s all around a properly composed EP with good flow, nothing to really complain about on that count. I think it’s hard to completely miss the bar with sludge metal and stoner rock and whatnot. I certainly felt like it became a little less interesting with the Russian Circles track, felt like a bit of a drag. But there’s this overall catchiness and urge to replay the EP to it that makes it stand out. I’ve gotten a wide array of styles in this last round but I feel like this EP is the most well-rounded one. Mostly focusing on one style and expanding a bit more on it towards the end, but without straying away from the main topic.
Interesting how you chose not to follow up the instrumental with the next The Sword song of that same album, they seem to have a very defining sound that makes this not an issue at all though, their songs probably work together in almost any order since it’s mostly the vibe they give off that connects the song, opposed to a smooth crossfade or something.
The Sword – Acheron/Unearthing the OrbThis starts off rocking with a cool instrumental by The Sword, I didn’t expect something this heavy from them actually. I feel like in just under 4 minutes it still manages to overstay its welcome a bit near the end but the grooves really seal the deal for me, it’s a great way to open the EP and still leaves me wanting to hear some more of The Sword. With that said, let’s move on to the next The Sword song.
16/20 #23 out of 38The Sword – How Heavy This AxeAnd I guess I’m not a huge fan of this band actually, the instrumental was cool but I can’t say I’m loving the vocals. Sounds like a weaker version of Kyuss to me or something. I really don't have much to say, it has some cool guitar leads, some (very loud) cymbals that don't sound particularly welcoming and the vocals are fine but not standing out in the best way possible. In the verses I actually think they're pretty good, but as the song goes on and we move towards the chorus he starts to get harder to understand and more distant, I thought that these types of vocals were reserved for cheap production black metal.
15/20 #29 out of 38Corrosion of Conformity – AlbatrossMan, this track brings up so many childhood memories. I believe it was featured on Guitar Hero: Metallica and despite not being into this type of rock music at all I always found it to be a cool groovy song, I was always especially drawn to the line “I was born a liar“ because it had such a cool funky edge to it. The song ends before it becomes too much of the same and every time it does it keeps me interested enough in the rest of the EP while still having my main focus on this song. At this point I’m just happy that you manage to tone down the EP slightly in terms of pace but you didn’t make any drastic stylistical change to it, going from The Sword to Corrosion of Conformity.
17.5/20 #7 out of 38Russian Circles – Death Rides a HorseThis is the only song on the EP that I feel is slightly misplaced, but only slightly. It may stylistically sound a bit similar but I just feel like an instrumental in general on this EP feels out of place (I’m aware of Acheron but it’s different since that’s the opener) and should’ve been cut entirely or replaced by maybe another (slightly more fast-paced) Corrosion of Conformity song to still keep the flow going. That said, it’s still a pretty good connecting piece between the first and second half of the EP, I find myself waiting for the last three tracks to kick in right when this song begins though, it has some cool riffs and hooks, but overall it’s a bit stale-sounding and nothing really stands out.
14/20 #32 out of 38Red Fang – WiresThis one really reminded me of Kyuss, a lot. It has the simple rhythm section going on, a good basis for a song like this, and then the vocals are just identical, aswell as the phrasing on some of the words sung.
It’s a good safe entry and I actually ended up enjoying it more as I started to familiarize myself more with the EP, being the first song of a great humble EP conclusion (meaning you didn’t go with some crazy long epic tune but instead played it fairly safe).
16.5/20 #13 out of 38Baroness – Try to DisappearI can’t believe Parama dislikes this one as much as he does! Maybe it’s a bit formulaic for a Baroness song or something? Anyway, all I hear is a very awesome catchy chorus that had been stuck in my head the other day pretty much the entire day
and the vocal delivery in the chorus just makes it very pleasurable to listen to.
On top of that, I think the halfway-frantic drums in some parts of this song are a nice touch to it, and it slowly starts to transition into a cool groovy instrumental section which I think is great too. Don’t get me wrong, this is not one of my favorites, but it’s atleast a very good track and one that convinces me to check out the band.
16/20 #21 out of 38 Baroness – EulaAnd as the final song of your EP this comes in as the shortest one of the round (not counting Sacul), everyone sent an epic of sorts, or a long album closer, but not you. I like it because while you end off with two Baroness songs they don’t particularly sound alike, and they still very much have their own identity. The first one was a catchy rocker and this one has more of a beautiful closer type of thing going on. There’s some catchy lines here and there and they don’t repeat them
too often to the point where it gets boring, but the main reason why I love this song is how that synth solo section ties together the EP in a pretty hectic finale, when it continues along with the vocals “Settle down!“ it suddenly becomes one of the most epic tunes in the round, and that’s not an easy job to accomplish considering some of the tunes it’s competing with (Vektor, Beyond the Bridge, Bjorn Riis, Radiohead’s Exit Music, just to name a few).
17/20 #10 out of 38I’m going to add everything up now but I’m pretty sure you’ve won this.
With easily the EP that stayed to the main topic the closest it’s safe to say there’s not much to complain about flow. I think my only minor gripe is the Russian Circles instrumental. Similar to Flaming Row, I like how I got to see different sides of Baroness in this round and I see why you guys sent it, there’s some really strong material between these bands. A bit impartial to The Sword as I mainly liked the instrumental and I still wasn’t head over heels on that one. But it has nothing to do with the flow, you still did very well on that department.
You get 8.5 out of 10 additional points aswell, so with an average score of exactly 16, that makes: 16 + 8 =
25.0 (+3.5) = 28.0Standings1. Tomislav95 - 28.0
2. Elite - 26.5
3. Parama - 26.1
4. Bolsters - 24.5
5. Scorpion - 23.2
So the winner is
Tomislav95!! Congrats dude. In the end you mainly won because of your performance/point lead of the first 9 rounds, but deservedly so. Your best material was in those rounds, and you played it fairly safe in this final EP, with no need to really do more than that. Elite had a killer EP but it just wasn't quite enouh to win it.
Thank you all for playing in my v2, I'm glad with how I runned both of my roulettes but in the end I think this one was a little smoother, I also felt like people had a better idea of my tastes and scores were a little more consistent.
I may become a little less active on DTF in the upcoming weeks, I've kinda burned out for now because all of the roulette hosting and stuff and will most likely just chill out with some of my new music. I also think things may get a little busier in the upcoming weeks with the start of the new school year and stuff. I'll still participate in roulettes though
but may not be as active in the threads.