Well, glad I was able to get at least this first part of the results out sooner than Round 3’s first results.
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Nekov
Pure Reason Revolution
First impression: Somewhat hit-or-miss for me at the moment.
Final review: So after giving this group a fair amount of listens, I think it’s still kind of hit-or-miss for me. Fortunately, there’s more hits than misses. I think this band has a pretty good sound to them, though in execution the results are mixed for me. Let’s start with a positive: “The Twyncyn / Trembilin Willows” is my favorite song here, and by a pretty sizable margin. It has this cool, almost mysterious atmosphere, and the male vocals add a lot to it. The female vocals are good, too, and I think they work better as backing vocals rather than lead vocals like they are on some other songs. There’s one part I particularly enjoyed at about three minutes in, where it gets quiet and there’s just vocals, but then it transitions into this heavy, almost intense guitar riff, and then there’s some fast-paced singing… It’s really cool. Moving onto another song… “Deus Ex Machina” isn’t all that good. Not bad by any means, the music’s at least good, but there’s something kind of annoying about it. Probably the lyrics, or maybe more specifically that the singer pronounces “machina” wrong. Now, I’m not one who should be criticizing the mispronunciation of words (it took me way too long to pronounce some really easy words correctly), but considering how many times the phrase “deus ex machina” is said, it gets on my nerves after a while. But that song is really the only one I’ve got any issues with. I don’t have much to say about the other songs here, but they’re generally enjoyable from start to finish. If they’ve got more songs like The Twyncyn / Trembilin Willows, I’d be interested in checking them out further, but I can nonetheless say this artist is pretty good overall.
Bullitts Dominae - 7.5/10
The Twyncyn / Trembilin Willows - 8.75/10
Deus Ex Machina - 6.75/10
Maelstrom - 7.25/10
Roulette score: 7.6
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HOF
McStine & Minnemann
First impression: Some cool moments here and there, but overall it's just alright.
Final review: I don’t want to make this review underwhelming, but my first impression really is just about the best way I can describe this one. The songs have mostly grown on me, but they’re not anything I’d call special. There’s a lot of ideas here that sound really good (the ones that immediately comes to mind is the intro to “Top of the Bucket” and the guitar solo in “Tear the Walls Down (No Memories)”, but there’s definitely others), but when everything comes together it’s not really anything special. “Your Offenses” sounds nice and comes close to being a song I’d call great, but there’s just not enough that truly works for me. That being said, there’s not really anything here that outright doesn’t work. The only thing I thought was weird was this woman laughing (or crying? I can’t tell) at the end of Tear the Walls Down. There’s probably a reason for it, but it just sounds a little uncomfortable more than anything. I think if they developed the more interesting ideas or improved the songwriting, I could find these guys more than just “good”. Or maybe they’re simply not for me. Maybe I’ll check out that album they’re releasing this week and see if the sequel is an improvement.
Your Offenses - 7.75/10
Top of the Bucket - 7.5/10
Tear the Walls Down (No Memories) - 7/10
Activate - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 7.4
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jingle.boy
AC/DC
First impression: This sure takes me back to when I was younger... and surprisingly, I think it still holds up!
Final review: A bit of backstory before I get into discussing these particular songs… I believe I’ve mentioned before that when I was younger, my parents would usually listen to stuff that was modern at the time. But they did play some old/classic stuff, and AC/DC was one of the classic bands they’d play. I don’t remember much of the songs they played (though I think Hells Bells was one of them), but one song that really stuck out to me was Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. For a while, I loved that song. And I think I mostly enjoyed the other songs I heard from them, so in a way, AC/DC was kind of my introduction to appreciating music. So once I was sent these songs and gave them a listen, I was actually really surprised to find that I still enjoy this stuff. Now, I don’t recognize any of these songs (aside from Hells Bells, but it’s been so many years since I heard it), but I genuinely enjoy these songs. “For Those About to Rock” is a fun anthemic song that, while I do wonder if it’s a bit overlong, at the same time I can only imagine how fun this would be at a concert. Taking the song into that context, I enjoy it a little more than I already do. “Highway to Hell” is rather cheesy, but it’s so catchy and upbeat that I honestly get a smile on my face when I hear the chorus of this song. I’m just overall surprised at how much I like this band today. Not that it’s one of my favorites, but considering my musical tastes and standards nowadays, I was somewhat expecting this to be a band on the level of KISS, if not worse. So this was a pleasant surprise, to be sure. I can even see myself coming back to these songs every once in a while.
Hells Bells - 8/10
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) - 8/10
Problem Child - 7.5/10
Highway To Hell - 8/10
Roulette score: 7.9
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Stadler
Rainbow
First impression: Of all the classic rock bands I've been sent, this one's probably the most in-the-middle for me.
Final review: These classic rock types of bands are always interesting to me. While for the most part, I don’t find them to be one of my favorites, I think it’s cool to be able to hear music made long before my time. And what’s even better than that? Hearing classic rock that I find really good! Now, my first impression still holds up to some extent; it’s a bit like my scoring for Deep Purple, in that there’s one song I really enjoy, and the other two songs are just good. It’s more drastic than that, though. The two “good” songs are a little less good, but the one great song is really great. And let’s start with that really great song, “Stargazer”. The only thing I can really complain about is that there’s this really awesome, fast-paced intro, but then once the main riff comes in there’s nothing like that for the rest of the song. Pretty great way to open the song regardless, though. As for the rest of the song, it’s simply great rock, but there’s a grand, almost symphonic element to it. The vocals are very good, as well. If they’ve got more songs like this, I would very much like to check them out! Now, on to the other two songs… “Fire Dance” is pretty good. It’s nothing too special, it’s just got some interesting instrumentation going on. And then there’s “All Night Long”... The lyrics don’t bother me that much, but they’re still a bit weird to me. “Don’t know about your brain, but you look alright” Glad this guy’s got his priorities straight… But aside from that, as well as an awkward intro, the song’s not bad at all. It’s pretty catchy, in fact. I’m definitely most interested in more potential songs like Stargazer, but I think Rainbow might be worth looking into even if they don’t.
Stargazer - 8.75/10
All Night Long - 7.25/10
Fire Dance - 7.75/10
Roulette score: 7.9
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Buddyhunter1
Anamanaguchi
First impression: This... This is the GOOD STUFF.
Final review: That’s probably the most excited I’ve sounded in a first impression (aside from maybe my impression of Devin Townsend), but… Actually, I think some of that excitement has gone away. That’s not to say I don’t like Anamanaguchi now, because I still do enjoy this artist. What I mean is that the first time I listened to these songs, I expected at least three of these to score a 9/10 or higher. So a little bit of the luster of this music has been lost, but I still very much enjoy it overall. If nothing else, this is one of the most consistent submissions this round in terms of its quality. Anyway, on to the songs themselves... It’s hard to pick a favorite, because I like all of these songs about the same. But I suppose the most standout song is “Endless Fantasy”. All of these songs have a retro video game aesthetic, and this one in particular has a very retro feel to it. It’s mixed together with modern electronic sound, in a way that it wouldn’t feel out of place in VVVVVV’s OST. And that game has a great soundtrack, so that is certainly a compliment. I do like the more modern side of the electronic sound, though as a result, the composer does make use of a couple things I don’t particularly care for, like using voices as sound effects (or at least using sound effects that sound like voices). It just sounds awkward to me, but at least whenever they’re used here, it’s not enough to really detract from my enjoyment of the song… which is a bit surprising to me, because it sounds especially jarring at the beginning of “We Die”, but if I had to choose a favorite, it might be We Die (if not Endless Fantasy). I really like the overall sound of Anamanaguchi, and I think it’s likely I’ll find nothing but good things if I go deeper into their discography.
Endless Fantasy - 8.25/10
Sunset By Plane - 8.25/10
Air On Line - 8/10
We Die - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 8.2
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Cyril
A Novelist
First impression: It's about what I expected, yet it's quite different than I expected. Nonetheless, I like it!
Final review: At this point, I am beginning to suspect that there is a conspiracy going on to alienate the masses from really good music, and Cyril is a sort of prophet who is spreading the truth… Only joking! But if that wasn’t any indication, I have enjoyed yet another one of Cyril’s submissions. Here’s the thing about A Novelist that I find different from East of the Wall and Exist, though… With those two bands, I can understand why people might not like them. East of the Wall has a very unusual style of harsh vocals, and Exist might be a little too much for some people, despite their more melodic instrumentals. But with A Novelist… Sure, sometimes the vocals can be rather ugly (of all of Cyril’s submissions, these are probably my least favorite vocals), but if you look past that… I think the stuff these guys do is really great in just about every aspect. I mentioned that these are my least favorite vocals of Cyril’s submissions, but I still like them. The clean vocals have some really good moments, and oddly enough I found myself liking the harsh vocals at their most extreme. Instrumentally, it’s mostly the normal kind of stuff you’d expect from a death metal band; the intro to “His Kingdom Is Vast” does sound like an intro I’ve heard before in some other song somewhere. But notice how I said “mostly” normal. That’s because there’s something more unique this band does here… There’s a lot of usage of saxophones and woodwind instruments. Now, in a band that isn’t symphonic metal, that’d easily come across as overly bombastic and/or too gimmicky, but this band really makes it work. It’s more subtle, but never to the point where it feels like they’re not really needed. This makes quite a few parts of these songs really stand out, and they sound really great with the inclusion of these instruments. The most standout moment is easily the first minute or so of “Caveat Lector”, which is my favorite song of the bunch. Say what you will about the rest of the song, but the combination of the guitar, saxophone, and keyboard here makes for an amazing instrumental intro. I’m just so impressed by this band. If I had to choose whether this or East of the Wall is better, I’d go with East of the Wall, but A Novelist is not far behind. I absolutely want to listen to the entirety of “Folie”. I’ll probably do that after I finish writing this.
His Kingdom Is Vast - 8.5/10
Acacia Crown - 8.75/10
Caveat Lector - 9/10
Stockholm Blues - 8.5/10
Roulette score: 8.7
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I can’t say for sure when the rest of the results will be ready, but I’m working on scoring them still, and hopefully the next part of results won’t take too long.