EP Results Part 4
Time to find out who lives......and who dies.....
DACUL'S SLOW AND LAZY ASS STILL MANAGED TO PUT TOGETHER THIS COLLECTION OF SONGS FOR HANGMENENG NOW GIMME THE D (aka The Jolly EP)
SaculKendrick Lamar - King Kuta
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
Talk Talk - Desire
Talk Talk - Time It's Time
Sufjan Stevens - 4th of July - LiveThis is a weird EP. I'm not entirely sure how it all is supposed to fit together.
First of all, I still don't like Kendrick Lamar. He was sent in my last roulette and I hated that song. This one is better than that one, but I don't like his rapping style. The underlying music to the song is decent enough, but he just annoys me. Then there's the fact that this song sticks out on the EP like a skyscraper in Hill City, Kansas. I suppose it is catchy though. The more I hear from Sufjan Stevens the more of a mixed bag he is. I have a number of friends that really like him, like almost religiously so. I mean they almost bit my head off and gave me the most incredulous look when I asked them how the hell you are supposed to pronounce his first name. I mean what kind of name is that? And how the hell was I expected to know how to pronounce it? They all have bad taste in music though
Anyway, this song Chicago song doesn't really seem like anything special. The whole thing is pretty repetitive from the music to the lyrics and the song goes on for about 3 minutes too long. I mean, there's nothing on it blatantly annoying or off putting, I just don't see why this guy gets so much praise. On to Talk Talk. This vocalist sounds like he's singing with a mouth full of mashed potatoes..... I can hardly understand anything he's singing. Which is annoying and takes away from the really wonderful music they've created for these songs, especially on Desire. The build up of music in the first half is nothing short of brilliant. Fortunately he doesn't sing very much on the song. I cant help but think if Fish or Steve Hogarth were singing on this it would be 10 times better. The Time it's Time song has a lot more of an 80's groove to it, but the music is still fairly captivating. Unfortunately he sings more on this song. At least he sings better on this one too. If only this band were more self aware of the vocals....They have tons of great musical ideas and a good atmosphere to their music, spoiled by the vocals. Ok, so 4th of July. This song is quite the depressing ending. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. The song is quite emotional. It's also a much more engaging song than Chicago, even in it's simplicity. This kind of stuff I get, but you really have to be in the right frame of mind to really enjoy it.
Overall this is a very mixed bag. There's parts of songs I like, then songs that I very much dislike. Then there's 4th of July, which is the best song here. The flow is a mixed bag too.
12.9 (EP Score) + 2.5 (Flow Score) = 15.4 Total
STOP THE CLOCKS!
StadlerThe Road's Too Long - Cinderella
Time Waits (For No One) - Michael Schenker Group
I'm Outta Time - Oasis
Hourglass - Squeeze
Time Passes - Kelly KeagyYou know, I was never a big fan of Butt Rock (hair/glam metal
), so putting a 6 minute song by a Hair Metal band is a pretty ballsy move. Cinderella was always one of my least favorite of that style of music. This song though is actually pretty good. It's got some good variety with some uncommon instrumentation for the type of music that keeps it interesting. The lyrics also tell a decent coming of age story. Nothing too cheesy here, just some heartfelt lyrics (More on all the songs lyrics later). It does go on a little too long, but not by much. Time Waits (For No One) is another pretty good song. I've always liked Michael Schenker's guitar work. I enjoyed his stuff on the couple Scorpions albums he played on, but never really delved further in to his solo stuff. This is as good of a starting point as any I suppose. I don't particularly care for the vocalist, but he isn't terrible. The star of the song is (obviously) Schenker with some solid riffs and solos. On to Oasis. This is a band that I'm very familiar with just one album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory. I love that album. It played a huge part in my childhood, being 10 when it came out. I know every song on it like the back of my hand, but I never ventured further in to their catalog. This song is a bit different. Perhaps a little more straightforward. A little more tightly constructed. It's still obviously Oasis. You still have the signature Brit-Pop Rock sound with some light Psychedelic influence. I don't think it quite reaches the levels of most of the stuff on Morning Glory, but I don't think any other Oasis could, that album is so ingrained in my brain. Hourglass is where the wheels come off for the EP. This song encapsulates pretty much everything I cant stand about 80's music. Bad use of what I'm pretty sure is a sax, annoyingly bad chorus, Huey Lewis & the News-like sound, I could go on and on. So lets move on. The Kelly Keagy song tries to right the ship. I'm familiar with Kelly Keagy being the drummer of Night Ranger. My parents were huge Night Ranger fans being from the bay area and liked to catch their shows all the time. I actually met Kelly Keagy once at a Night Ranger show years ago, along with the rest of the band. This is probably the best song here though. Nothing too complex just a great tune, with more good lyrics.
Now on to the lyrics. Everything either reminds me of the good times I had in my childhood or the trials and victories I had growing up. It was kind of like taking a trip down memory lane. Obviously it's all helped by lyrics that deal with those subjects in pretty much every song. Thanks for helping me recall lots of great memories from way back in the day
The flow here is actually pretty good, nothing too jarring or out of place with the exception of the Squeeze song. I kind of wish that was exchanged for something else. Oh well. That song hurt the overall score. Also the production disparity of the MSG song from the rest was noticeable.
14.1 (EP Score) + 3.5 (Flow Score) + .5 (bonus song) = 18.1
Dream Theater
TACDistant Dream - Images
Ashes of Chaos - Awake
Oliver Riz - Scenes from a Memory
Flamenhell - Systematic Chaos
Anton Ivanykin - Falling into InfinitySo at least one, maybe two, of these songs I'm pretty sure you pulled out of thin air to fit the theme you came up with
That's ok, because I actually enjoyed every song here, regardless of how you decided on them.
Images is a really cool Post-Rock track and a great way to start the EP. When I looked it up on RYM, I was surprised at the low rating this album has. Is the rest of this album that terrible? Cause this song is good! I mean the second half has that soul rending guitar solo, how do you not like that? Sure, it has some pretty cookie cutter Post-Rock riffing and progressions and they may not have the most original sound, but they wrap it all in a nice atmosphere. Just an all around good track. Awake is the "epic" of the EP. It's pretty standard Progressive Metal and the singing isn't the greatest (neither are the harsh vocals), but there's a lot to like here too. The guitar riffing immediately caught my attention. I like what they are doing with the guitars and drums in the odd time signatures. The instrumental break starting around the 4 minutes mark is classic Dream Theater. Everyone gets a space to show off a bit and they all get to play off each other. It doesn't exactly flow with the rest of the song though. There's also a few moments of disjointedness. I could see these guys pulling out a much better sophomore album. Hopefully they are working on something....with a different vocalist. So next we come to the song that you pulled out of your ass
This actually works as a perfect segue between the first and second halves of the EP. I love piano driven instrumentals like this as long as they don't go on too long. Systematic Chaos picks things back up with some heavy riffing and blast beats in a tasty Death/Thrash package. Death/Thrash is one of my favorite metal subgenre mashups, right up there with Progressive Black Metal and a few others. These guys seem to be relatively unknown, but if they keep up this quality of music and get a little better production they could be a force to be reckoned with. I'm definitely picking up this album. Falling Into Infinity is probably my favorite song here. I have no idea how you found this song or if you knew of this guy before, but I couldn't find any info on him, but good lord can he shred the crap out of that guitar. He makes it sing, cry, shred, melt faces. He's got a little bit of prog, technical metal, jazz, blues, Satriani/Vai shred. It's really that good.
The flow is a bit all over the place, but nothing too terrible. It could have benefited from some editing of the tracks. Other than that, every song was individually enjoyable to one extent or another. I'll send you my version of a Dream Theater themed EP that I thought of, at some point....
16.5 (EP Score) + 3 (Flow Score) = 19.5The Scores so Far
Romdrums - 7.7, 8.5, 8.7, 9.5, 20.1 = 54.5
TAC - 7.6, 8, 9.1, 8.8, 19.5 = 53
Ariich - 9.5, 7, 7.8, 8, 20.2 = 52.5
Evermind - 8.2, 7.5, 8.5, 6, 21.5 = 51.7
Parama - 9.1, 8.7, 6.7, 8.9, 17.7 = 51.1
Jingle - 8.3, 6, 8, 7.7, 19.9 = 49.9
Lethean - 6.8, 7.8, 6.6, 6.8, 21.7 = 49.7
Kattelox - 9, 9, 9, 6.8, 15.5 = 49.3
Elite - 7.8, 7.4, 8.3, 9, 16.2 = 48.7
Sacul - 8.5, 8.5, 5.9, 8.4, 15.4 = 46.7
Indiscipline - 7.5, 8, 5.8, 7, 18.1 = 46.4
Stadler - 6.4, 7, 6, 6.5, 18.1 = 44
Shadow Ninja - 5.5
Lordcost - 4.5
Thanks to Sacul, Indiscipline, and Stadler for participating. Sorry to see you all go, but someone has to die so the others can live on