Round 8 Results:425: Iron Maiden – Sign of the CrossFirst Impressions: This is the second time I’ve been sent a really long song from a band I’ve already heard a fair number of other songs from, haha. I probably should’ve expected that kind of intro considering the band + the length. I’m really liking the slow build at the start here, and that it has a cool bass lick beneath it helps. The non-Dickinson vocalist here sounds a bit out of place to me though, haha. And he’s a bit buried in the mix, though maybe that was on purpose, who knows. I think a problem I’m having is that this song stays at one dynamic level for a while then abruptly switches to a different level, but there’s no build or swell in any of it, so it ends up sounding really flat. There’s at least some build happening in the back half of the song, I guess. The first part here since the intro that I really dig a lot isn’t until 8 minutes into the song, and even then it just sounds like a rehash of the same kind of stuff I’ve heard from earlier Maiden songs, so it’s not unique even if it’s decent enough. I will also say that… this feels a bit mixed wrong, the mix is just, super bass-heavy and it makes everything else sound really washed out. I think that might be why the song doesn’t sound that dynamic to me, really.
Final Thoughts: The production quality is… holy hell. Maybe the worst of any song thus far in the roulette. And here, it definitely gets in the way. The bass is loud as heck and it drowns out everything else, so the end result is a song that’s really loud but really lacking in dynamics. Everything sounds muffled and nothing has any room to breathe.
But even outside of that, the song lacks dynamics or any sense of dynamic shift. It goes from the quiet intro to the louder parts of the song out of nowhere with one of the clumsiest transitions I’ve ever heard. There’s not really much swell to the quieter intro, it builds a little, I guess, but not enough to justify the sudden shift.
It’s not just that Bayley’s vocals don’t really fit with Iron Maiden’s sound. It’s just that I don’t think I like his vocals at all. I mean, yeah, I’m used to hearing Maiden with Dickinson so nobody else is going to sound right taking his place, sure. But if you put this guy in a different band that didn’t sound like Maiden, and if his vocals fit there, I still don’t think I’d want to listen to him. I can’t really ascertain why exactly I don’t like his voice, but I just don’t.
There’s bits and pieces of this I do like and there’s no point of the music I’d really say is “bad” on its own, but it’s not particularly inspired, nor is it good enough to justify 11 minutes. And when there are a lot of different sections somewhat awkwardly crammed together that already aren’t great on their own, the whole thing just really ends up sounding like a drag.
Score: 6/10FlyingBIZKIT: Rage Against The Machine – Settle For NothingFirst Impressions: Pretty decent bass groove for the verses. The spoken lyrics aren’t really to my taste but there’s more than enough emotion and anger showing through them nonetheless. There’s a nice soft/loud contrast between the verses and the chorus that gives the chorus a lot more weight but doesn’t take the weight away from the verses either. I really don’t have a lot to say about this, I’ve never been a huge fan of this band and this isn’t likely to change my mind.
Final Thoughts: One huge problem I think this song has is that both verses are exactly the same, lyrically. It’s redundant, is what it is. And Rage Against The Machine has had this problem before, Killing in the Name has something like 5 unique lyrics throughout the entire song.
That wouldn’t be a problem if the lyrics weren’t so clearly the focus of all their songs. Yeah, musically this is alright, but not amazing. The bassline’s alright enough, the heavy riff in the chorus is alright enough. It mostly serves to accentuate the vocals, though. Quieter but unsettling in the verses, and explosive and angry in the chorus. In that regard, it works well. I just wish there was more to the song lyrically to make the lyrical focus feel justified.
Also, the guitar solo in the middle feels a bit out of place, it’s too bright-sounding compared to everything else. Like, it’s a totally fine solo but it feels like it’s in the wrong song.
I think this is less a case of “this is something that doesn’t work” and more “this is something that works perfectly fine but just isn’t to my taste”. That being said, I can’t give this too high of a personal rating, but at the same time anything lower than this would feel like an insult.
Score: 6.5/10Train of Naught: Slipknot – The Devil in IFirst Impressions: Okay, I’m going to try to not be biased against this since I’ve never enjoyed any other Slipknot I’ve heard. The instrumentation in the first verse is actually pretty solid, a decent atmosphere throughout it and the melodic vocals as opposed to the usual harsher ones match it well. Really, this is more than competent enough, but for what it is, it doesn’t strike me as particularly unique, either. I appreciate that this sounds a bit more alive and less mechanical than the other stuff I’ve heard from them, but I’m not particularly taken by it.
Final Thoughts: As far as Slipknot songs go, this is probably the best I’ve heard; granted, I haven’t heard many because they’ve never been a band that struck me as a band to keep my eye on. All I’m saying is, nu metal-ish stuff… not my favorite.
But this, this is fine. The verse/chorus contrast here is really good, the melodic vocals and high-atmosphere of the verses contrasts well with the heaviness and harsher vocals of the chorus. The chorus riff is also pretty decent, sinister and heavy in the right ways.
I think the biggest thing is that this is a little stretched for content. You have the verse section, the chorus section and riff, and the interlude/bridge riff, and that’s about it as far as musical ideas go. The bridge has a blastbeat thing going on that I think does work well to up the intensity of the song… but then it cuts back into a chorus that’s not really notably different from the previous two.
I definitely wouldn’t say this has made me a Slipknot fan but it’s nice to hear a song from a band I generally dislike that’s actually pretty alright.
Score: 7.5/10Tomislav95: Katatonia – UnfurlFirst Impressions: Again with the heavy atmospheres. Oh, you guys seem to know me pretty well by this point, huh?
I really like how fuzzy the guitar tones are here, and the muffled drum sound in the quieter moments fits really well too. This is striking me as another of those songs in the category of “nothing is particularly unique, but everything it does, it does damn well”.
Final Thoughts: Having listened to this a fair few times now, there’s one thing I note about it:
As much as I enjoy listening to it, I could never remember what this song sounded like afterwards. When I got to it on the writeup list, and it started playing, I was less “alright time for this one” and more “oh yeah, it’s this one.”
I don’t know if that’s the fault of the song in particular or the fact that there were just a ton of great songs this round and this one just didn’t stick with me as well as the rest. The song itself is pretty great, really. There’s a thick atmosphere to the entire song driven by the keys and guitar, with the bass adding a bit of backbone. The tones are fuzzy enough to create a bit of a blur but not too fuzzy as to sound unrecognizable.
The muffled/electronic sound of the drums I think fits well with the atmosphere, two. It always feels like it’s on the edge of something big but never quite wants to get there, and it doesn’t really need to, either.
I think the song does stick a bit too much to one note, though; there’s some quieter moments but most of the time it sticks to the same sound and same dynamic level, and it ends up feeling like 5 minutes of the same sound. It’s not a bad sound, not at all. But it’s hard to pull out any specific “parts” of this song as being superior to any other parts, because they all sound the same to me.
I may check out this band at some point, I’ve heard good things about them but never checked them out myself, and this is certainly a fine enough song, though it’s not making me rush to check out an album from them, either.
Score: 8/10mikemangioy: Nevermore – Dreaming Neon BlackFirst Impressions: This is really reminding me of another band but I can’t quite place my finger on it. The transition between the light verse and the heavy chorus is a bit clumsy both ways, it just kind of happens, different tempo and different level of volume all of the sudden. For what it is I can’t say it seems all that original but I think on a level of pure power it’s pretty good, both vocalists and the heavier riffs are all strong. Probably on future listens this will grow on me.
Final Thoughts: In the trend of the last write-up, the only thing about this song I could ever remember was the chorus with its booming, deep vocals. I think that’s a positive, it’s a good chorus.
I still think the transitions between the verses and choruses are clunky as heck, though, it just… happens. They sound like two different songs awkwardly jammed together. Both parts are really pretty good on their own but I’d have liked something to bridge that gap.
The vocals are definitely the highlight here, there’s a lot of power in his voice on the verses, and the deep vocals on the chorus are just great. The female vocals in the bridge, too, are pretty good, especially with the male vocalist coming in at times to harmonize.
While I do think this is pretty good, for 6 and a half minutes, it again feels stretched pretty thin. You’ve got the verse, you’ve got the chorus, you’ve got the bridge, and there’s some cool stuff in the outro too. But it doesn’t feel very diverse in the end, with each section going on a fair bit. Far from saying that’s necessarily a problem but in the end, for the length it feels like they could’ve done a bit more to hold my interest all the way through.
Score: 8/10LordCost: Soundgarden – 4th of JulyFirst Impressions: Soundgarden is a band I probably should listen to more of anyways. I actually had a submission from them in Round 7 but it was a song I already knew so I had to reject it. I like the really heavy intro riff, that’s just, sludgy as heck in the best way. Cornell’s vocals here sound a bit less powerful than the other stuff I’ve heard from them (Black Hole Sun, Spoonman, Superunknown) but far from devoid of emotion, of course. The heavy distortion throughout and the bass-heavy mix works well here because it doesn’t drown out everything else, everything still comes through clearly enough.
Final Thoughts: This one grew on me a little and I already liked it a fair bit to begin with. That chorus is really pretty strong. And I dig the heaviness of the riffs, and the bass-heavy production adds to that.
Looking up the lyrics, they’re pretty clever too. It’s not exactly clear what’s going on, or what they imply, but I imagine explosions that are… not 4th of July celebrations, to the say the least. And in that sense, the heaviness works really well, fits the mood perfectly.
I find it hard to have much to say about this though. I don’t really see any problems with it, but at the same time I don’t feel it incredibly strongly. Considering I haven’t heard a song off this album that I haven’t liked yet, though, it’s about high time I actually did go and check the album out though, I think.
Score: 8/10Sacul: Chelsea Wolfe – SurviveFirst Impressions: SO I actually did listen to this album in full a few months back and remember it being pretty dang good, just haven’t gotten around to getting it yet. I’m not familiar with any separate songs so I’m allowing this. The first half has a nice bassline going throughout with some good layers of texture in the back and some fitting vocals on top. The background noises are really adding the build to this so I do want to see where it all leads. When it does kick in there’s just, a ton of those roaring guitars in the back with a driving drumline keeping it all grounded. The really heavy bits at the end feel like the natural end result of the long build and the heaviness going on both in front and back just makes this massive and overwhelming. It might be a bit too much build compared to the payoff at the end, but I definitely dig it.
Final Thoughts: The first line of the lyrics is so silly… like, maybe that sounded better in her head but it comes off as so goofy. Other than that the lyrics are fine. And her voice is fine too, though pretty restrained throughout most of the song, maybe a bit more than it should be.
I do think, for certain, that the build here is a bit slow. Especially since it’s just hammering in one bassline and one or two vocal melodies for a few minutes, with not much else happening except some noises between verses. The build is also a bit strange, it goes up and down a few times before everything really kicks in… over 66% of the way through the song. Not that what comes before the build is bad, it’s a fine thing to repeat at least a little but… yeah, too much here.
The payoff to the build, when it is reached, is pretty phenomenal though. Just absolutely huge and crushing, with lots of those roaring guitars adding some texture to it and keeping things tense. If not for the fact that the build was so slow, I’d say the amount we get at the end is fine, but if the song was a little more balanced in favor of the heavier parts I think it would work a lot better. But what do I know.
Score: 8/10Shadow Ninja 2.0: SikTh – TupeloFirst Impressions: I actually tried listening to the other SikTh album but didn’t make it more than like 15-20 minutes in before I kind of got tired of it, either it being too heavy or too overwhelming or something along those lines. The intro here already has me interested alone, a tight bass and percussion groove with some ominous singing. I can tell this is definitely going to be weeeeird, though. Haha. Especially the vocalist, who is just… sounds crazy, almost. There’s a great build going throughout this where more and more layers are added and the vocals get more intense, but slow enough that you don’t notice it happening. The song doesn’t really kick in until about halfway through but since it spent so much time on a long build and still has plenty of time left, I think it’s fine. And damn, those roaring guitars are just fantastic. The vocals probably go a bit beyond my tolerance for weirdness but other than that every element of this really works well.
Final Thoughts: Apparently this is secretly a cover? Alright. It doesn’t matter to me, I’ve never heard the original song before and this is really good on its own. What this makes me think of is… a spaghetti western, actually. Even though I don’t think anything other than the vocals has that kind of vibe to it at all.
I think the bonus point here is almost just compromise for the fact that the vocals are so weird that they get annoying at times, so I get to take half a point off for them and then add it right back, or something. And yeah, the weirdness of the vocals at times is my biggest problem with this.
Musically, it’s… wow. The drumming, the atmosphere, the heavier moments adding some swell, the consistently dark sound to it, it’s all great. And it’s really hard to predict where it’s going to go next, but it all feels natural when it happens. Dunno, can’t really think of a single complaint on this front.
Considering how much there is to this song and how cool I think it is, I really don’t have much to say about it. It’s… an experience, to be sure. A positive experience. I’ve never heard anything like it, especially considering the vocals, but even without them I think it’d be pretty well an entity of its own.
Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10senecadawg2: Enslaved – Roots of the MountainFirst Impressions: Wow, right out the gate and I’m already kind of a little biased against the vocalist. Apparently that passed quickly though, or hopefully the harsh vocals won’t be too prevalent. The riffs of this have a nice heavy but textured sound to them that I just really like, the sort of “epic” sound that a lot of metal bands wish they could have. Both the slower and faster riffs have it, too, it’s a very full-sounding track which is always a plus. I was gonna be all “I’m sure when this stops being really epic I won’t like it as much” but the quieter parts have goddamn great bass grooves to them. I’m just super sad that the kind of cruddy harsh vocals are inevitably going to bring this song’s score down a tiny bit, even if they’re not too prevalent.
Final Thoughts: The award for “single worst second of the entire roulette” has to go to that opening second of the harsh vocals. I really, passionately do not like that one single second.
The other 550 or so seconds are all great though. For one, this song has one heck of a chorus. That riff is great, the atmosphere of the section is the great, the vocals match it perfectly without overshadowing the rest. The heavier riffs are interesting enough to not sound like a wall of noise and they’re not overly dissonant even at their worst.
There’s a nice, tasteful solo during the second chorus that’s just, really cool, helps differentiate the chorus and keeps the song moving forward. And really I think I oversold my dislike of the harsh vocals in my first impression, I really only dislike that one second at the start, the rest of the way through they’re fine, not great or anything but not problematic.
About halfway through there’s some new bits thrown in that are all really cool. The driving drums with the guitar noodling adding to the heavy atmosphere, cutting into one heck of a great bass groove that continues into the next heavier section.
The song has a strange false ending about two-thirds of the way through where I keep thinking it’s over but then it cuts to a clean reprise of the chorus that’s just gorgeous and makes me glad it isn’t actually over.
The song may be a biiiit too reliant on its epic chorus at times, but honestly, I’m not complaining, and the song keeps me interested the whole way through regardless, so yeah. Definitely gotta check these guys out.
Score: 9/10