Alright, here are my writeups for round 1!
These are in alphabetical order, not order of scores.
Evermind: David Gilmour - Faces of StoneEvermind is going to kill me if I don’t five this.
Evermind, I’m not quite THAT head over heels here. That said, I really like this song quite a bit. There are some strong emotions here as well as good instrumentation, singing and musicianship.
Gilmour has done a good job on this one at creating a powerful atmosphere and evoking some emotions. The clean guitar and other (kind of Celtic?) instrumentation are really important to this song, and accompany Gilmour’s soft, melancholic voice nicely. His singing is probably somewhat underrated—he does so well at emotional expression and has a really pleasant vocal tone.
The two guitar solos are incredible, of course, because that is what David Gilmour does best. I love the way they transition into and out of the music.
I don’t know what else to write, but I really find this song charming. It got better for me on each listen and is one of the most emotional songs of this round, which is something that I like. Evermind, you've sold me.
jingle.boy: Alpha Rev - Phoenix BurnIf I remember correctly, this is Casey from Flying Colors’ main band? The singer certainly sounds like him. Well, I like Flying Colors, I think they have some pretty good songs, but I was never as in love with them as some people seemingly were.
I like this song better than most songs from Flying Colors. In fact, this song sounds more like what I imagined Flying Colors would sound like from how it was initially described—“new-fashioned music the old-fashioned way.” This song, melodically, could be a very good song from a modern pop rock band, but instrumentally it uses more hard/prog rock instrumentation. The instrumentation is pretty good here, and rather interestingly echos some modern pop rock tropes as in the drumming on the “I’ve taken too much, giving up…” part.
Casey’s vocals are the obviously the centerpiece, and I think he does well here. The melodies are strong and the chorus definitely sticks in my head in a good way. Definitely a memorable song, probably one that will drive me to check out Alpha Rev.
lonestar: Structural Disorder - Corpse CandlesThis is sort of an unusual song. Certainly not what I expected to hear from the artist and song title—this is sort of an odd hybrid of prog rock and metal with occasional death growls.
The verses have a pretty cool vibe in which the singer takes the lead and expresses sort of a worried and uneasy feeling. The growls, I feel, serve somewhat of a purpose here and are pretty brief, so I have no objection to their presence. The chorus is solid but not exceptional.
What is really interesting is the instrumental section, which restores the relatively calm but uneasy vibe from the beginning of the verses. There’s also an instrument that I can’t quite identify but sounds sort of like a harmonica? The presence of that instrument definitely sets this song apart from other prog rock/metal songs, and it plays interestingly off the guitar solo.
The final verse is the best vocal moment of the song, with the line “At least he keeps me company” being a definite highlight. The instrumental section at the end is a good finale as well.
I don’t quite know what to make of this song, but I found it pretty interesting, and it definitely has some good moments.
Nekov: Hammock - (Tonight) We Burn Like StarsThis song has a really strong atmosphere, which is a big plus for me. There’s a lovely feeling of happiness tinged with sorrow here, which I absolutely love. And it’s all punctuated by the dreamy feeling of the whole thing
The chorus is absolutely beautiful and really memorable. It repeats a lot, which is the main thing that could be considered a weakness here, but it’s such a beautiful chorus that I’m fine with it. The instrumentation and vocals are just perfectly paired to create this dreamy, beautiful atmosphere.
And as much as I’ve talked about the atmosphere, I really do think that this is a very good song strictly in a melodic sense. I'm thinking about it, and I think if you paired the vocal melodies with a very different arrangement, what you would get would still be quite a good song, even without the amazing atmosphere. This is my favorite song this round, beating out a handful of others by a nose.
Parama: East of the Wall - Whiskey Sipper/UnderachieverI don’t really know how to describe this song, genre-wise. It’s pretty far from what I would typically listen to. It’s definitely interesting and a good step outside my comfort zone.
The first couple of minutes constitute a pretty interesting buildup, starting with relatively clean guitar and some solid clean vox transitioning into a louder metal section featuring shouted vocals. Overall, the song does fairly well at oscillating between quieter and louder parts. There are certainly some good guitar melodies in there. The vocal melodies aren’t anything too special, but they’re solid. I’m not crazy about the quantity of shouted vocals as I don’t love that style, so that detracts from it a little.
My main objection is that the second half, the “Underachiever” section, I guess, is very busy. The end of “Whiskey Sipper” gets a bit like this, but I’m fine with that as a climax of sorts. Most of “Underachiever,” really, is just full of very rapid drumming and riffing with mostly shouted vocals (again, not my favorite). The music really just doesn’t breathe at all.
Overall, the two parts of this song would score pretty differently for me. This entry would score higher if it was the “Whiskey Sipper” part alone and significantly lower if it was the “Underachiever” part alone. “Whiskey Sipper” is a pretty good song and one that I could see myself going back to, but I don’t really like “Underachiever” that well.
Sacul: Riverside - Driven to DestructionSo Riverside. Sacul told me “don’t hate this” because I was sent Riverside in my roulette and wasn’t too keen on it. This apparently is actually the second track of the album, and I previously got the first track of the album. If I do enough roulettes, I’ll eventually end up listening to this whole album!
But no, I don’t hate this too much. This is actually pretty cool instrumentally. I like that it opens with a good two minute instrumental section, because there are some strong riffs and melodies in there. I’m not crazy about the guitar tone, but that isn’t a huge deal in this case. The vocalist is just alright, but there are some catchy melodies, particularly in the chorus. One thing I find weird about these guys is that in both songs I’ve heard from them, they like to bring volume of the music way down, have the singer sing a line or two, and then play a loud, roaring riff, and then quiet down again for the next line. It’s not bad, it’s just weird and I thought I’d comment on it.
The chorus is actually pretty cool. As is the guitar solo that takes place about halfway through the song. Overall, this is totally a solid prog metal song. I’m still not sold on this band, but I definitely think they’re pretty talented and I think this is a pretty good song.
Scorpion: Amorphis - SampoThe winner of my roulette kicks off the roulette championship with a very strong entry. I’d heard about Amorphis before, but I didn’t really know what they sounded like before I listened to this song, so it was a totally blind listen.
Wow, this band is very talented. The intro is immediately attention grabbing, and there are some pretty strong melodies from the singer, who is a little gruff sometimes but undoubtedly good. I also really like the guitar melodies played under the first set of choruses.
This song really just doesn’t ever stop being good. It moves through a number of different sections, each no worse than the last. The quiet section in the middle is a highlight. Growls totally work here, so that’s fine. And I can’t say enough about how strong the chorus is. This is definitely one of the strongest entries of the round.
senecadawg2: Max Richter - Dona Nobis Pacem 2So, this is kind of an interesting submission, as it’s not really a traditional song—as seneca said, it’s more of an attempt at creating a particular atmosphere. As a result, I don’t know quite how to rank it next to a set of 8 pieces that are more song-like.
However, I do think it’s pretty interesting. I like the concept—a piece that relies on one main melody that mounts and builds from soft to loud and is accompanied by shifting background music. Sort of like an orchestral Hell’s Kitchen.
It’s an enjoyable, pretty piece of music, and I totally respect what it’s trying to do. It’s a little on the short side and doesn’t offer a lot in the way of complexity or anything, but I can’t say it isn’t pretty.
wolfking: Nightingale - ForevermoreThis song is a pretty standard prog metal song in terms of sound, but it’s a really strong one that’s quite charming for whatever reason.
I like the strong presence of keyboards in a fairly heavy song (take notes: this is almost always a plus for me because I love the contrast). There is some solid individual musicianship from the keyboardist as well as the guitarist. I don’t know what it is—there seem to be a lot of singers this round who are somewhat gruff, which I usually don’t enjoy, but I appreciate all of them this round.
The chorus of this song is really strong and is definitely the highlight, it’s stuck in my head in a good way. I like this song quite a bit, it's actually one of the strongest of the round for me, in no small part due to the strength of the chorus.
My scores should pretty much reflect what I said in the writeups, but people who played in or followed my roulette should not be surprised to see the scores being a bit lower than what they would expect based on that. If you multiplied all of these scores by two and compared them to the scores I gave in my roulette, you’d come away with the impression that I found this round to be weak. This isn’t really the case, it’s more the case that I’m trying to be less of a Paula (pre-posting edit: just read Tyrias and Red's writeups and I'm still definitely the Paula of this trio) and am trying to set the bar a little higher. I’m using Tyrias’s score metric that he posted back on page 2 as a guideline and am setting the bar decently high—just because I enjoy a song all the way through doesn’t make it an automatic 4+ or anything.
Anyway, there are my writeups, and I'm sending my scores to Bolsters right now.