ROUND 3 RESULTS
OK sorry about taking so long on this guys. Future rounds should proceed faster. Some of these writeups may be slightly truncated because of time concerns.
Tom BombadilTwenty One Pilots - Hometown
I’m not totally sure what kind of music this is. The song opens with some layered falsetto vocals that remind me some indie bands; nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either. Then, however, the song proves me wrong by introducing an electronic sounding beat and vocals. The electronic elements combined with the continuing indie aesthetic of the piece makes for a very interesting sound. The vocalist also has a lower-register tone on most of the song, rather than the higher pitch that I’d tend to associate with indie bands. The vocalist does use this approach on several parts of the song, and I’m honestly not a huge fan of it, but it works alright. My absolute favorite part of the song is the chorus; it’s still stuck in my head.
8.5 pointsSaculBent Knee - Being Human
Yeah, she has an awesome voice. The rest of the band is pretty awesome as well. I love the use of the violin as a full piece of the band, rather than just being used for solos. Musically, this song is pretty different. Honestly, the thing it reminded me most of was maudlin of the Well, both in the song construction and vocal approach. I don’t have a ton to say here, this is just a really great submission.
9 pointsbl5150Street Legal - Starship Trooper
I will admit, I didn’t care for this piece as much as your previous submissions. This is a fairly solid metal song, with reasonably good performance all around. Unfortunately, the song really doesn’t do much to distinguish itself. The vocals are OK, but not outstanding or particularly distinctive, and that kind of holds true for the rest of the song. Solid, but not overly interesting. The guitar solo is pretty awesome, though.
6.5 pointsBolstersEllie Goulding - Every Time You Go
I believe I’ve heard the name Ellie Goulding before, but I don’t recall whether I’ve listened to any of her music. I probably should, though, as it seems like it would be right up my alley. The focus of this song is Ellie’s voice, and she’s fantastic. I really like the rapid pace of the vocals on the verses, and the more melodic delivery on the chorus. The instrumentation is really great as well; the drums are tight and fast, and I really love the monophonic-sounding synth tones.
9 pointsTomislav95Editors - Munich
This is a really great song. It actually reminds me a lot of dredg, from the rapid drum beat to the guitar approach. I love this kind of energetic quality to the instrumentation, especially the drums, in contrast with the slower delivery of the vocals. Speaking vocals, they’re excellent as well. In contrast to my dredg comparison earlier, this vocalist sings in a mostly lower register, which works extremely well here.
8.5Train of NaughtSilver Fist - Ave Fenix
This song suffers from a lot of the same issues as bl5150’s, except I think the performances on that one were better, particularly the vocals. What we have here is a fairly standard metal song, with fast drumming and riffing guitars. Nothing wrong with them, but they don’t really try anything interesting either. The vocals aren’t horribly bad, but they’re not great either. I don’t really think the guy has the talent for this kind of thing, at least not without more practice.
I will say though, it was pretty cool hearing a metal song in Spanish, and the guitar was fairly good.
6 pointsNekovShineback - Bedlam Days
Yes, this is definitely different from your last submission.
The song starts out with an audio clip that sounds kinda like it came from a radio show in the 60s or something. Strange, but alright. I can roll with it. It then goes into a sort of trippy sounding electronic section, with some neat melodies from the synths and fantastic drumming (probably programmed? Still good). Unfortunately, then the vocalist comes in, and he’s really not to my taste at all. He’s not awful, but his voice definitely sounds too weak and thin to carry the music, and this is especially apparent on the harmonies.
So this is kind of a weird one; it has some parts that I think are great, but others that just don’t do much for me. You definitely aren’t playing it safe, though, so props for that. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out,
7 points425Death Cab For Cutie - We Looked Like Giants
I’ve heard probably one song by this band before, that I listened to thinking it was a different song. Consequently I realized this, and moved on. I don’t recall thinking too much of that song, but this one is a different story.
This piece is pretty much just fantastic all around. The bass is fantastic (and audible), the drums and guitar are good, and as you mentioned, Ben Gibbard’s voice is fantastic. Oddly enough, at some points he reminds of the singer from Owl City
(not necessarily a bad thing, I like Owl City). Anyway, the song is fantastic, both vocally and instrumentally. I like the band does some longer instrumental sections as well, rather than sticking too closely to the verse-chorus formula.
I liked the bonus song as well, and collectively they are more than enough to interest me in checking this group out further.
9 pointsScorpionAccept - Shadow Soldiers
I’m fairly sure you sent me this song at some point in the past, but since I apparently managed to forget everything about it, I figure that’s OK! Anyway, this is an awesome song. Most of what I’ve heard from Accept has been a bit faster paced, and I’m glad they can write great slower paced songs as well. Now let’s talk about Mark Tornillo. Mark Tornillo basically has the perfect metal voice. Every band should have him as their singer. He’s got a great, gritty voice in the midrange, but he can bust out some fantastic shrieks when he wants to as well. I should also relevantly mention, the guitar work is absolutely phenomenal, both the guitar solos and the regular riffing. Have some points.
9 pointsSTANDINGS
Scorpion - 26
425 - 25
Nekov - 25
Tom Bombadil - 24.5
Train of Naught - 24.5
Sacul - 24
Tomislav95 24
bl5150 - 23.5
Bolsters - 23.5
Now it is time for
ROUND 4!!