Doing these final writeups took way longer than it should have... But now that I'm finished, I present the final third of the results.
Lethean
Katatonia
First impression: Not bad, but so far there's not much I really find interesting.
Final review: I’ll admit that of all the artists in this round, Katatonia is probably near the bottom of my rankings. That being said, they have grown on me since my initial impression. I think the main thing I like about this band is the aesthetic it goes for. It’s a very dark and moody kind of metal, yet it also feels mature, if that makes sense. The only real issue here, then, is that most of it isn’t particularly memorable. While that’s not an inherently bad thing, I just found it hard for anything to really stick with me. The one memorable song, and also my favorite, is “Evidence”. It’s a pretty enjoyable song, with the highlight being the last minute and a half, with the “I’m the evidence…” verse being continually repeated until the end of the song. I do wish the fadeout started closer to the end, though. I liked the songs I was sent, there just wasn’t much outside of Evidence that really stuck with me.
Forsaker - 7.75/10
Lacquer - 7.25/10
Evidence - 8/10
Lethean (the song, not the DTF user) - 7.75/10
Roulette score: 7.7
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jingle.boy
Led Zeppelin
First impression: Overall, I'm not quite sure what to think of this one yet.
Final review: This writeup might be a bit lacking, and if it feels that way, that would be because I’ve listened to these songs the least out of all my Round 1 submissions. That’s not because I disliked any of the songs, I just happened to not listen to this submission much. But despite that, I can say that Led Zeppelin is quite alright! My favorite of the songs is “Black Dog”, which has this really cool dynamic where it switches between vocals only to instrumentals only at a somewhat rapid pace. I was unsure what to think of the singing at first, but while it’s nothing I love, I do like the singing and at the very least, I think it fits the music well. I also want to give special attention to “In My Time of Dying”. While I think Black Dog is a better song, IMToD automatically gets a better score because it has probably the funniest ending I’ve heard in any song ever. I’m not gonna spoil it for anyone who hasn’t heard the song, but wow, that completely caught me off-guard the first time I heard it and had me burst out laughing! The other two songs are good, but not quite anything all that special. But Led Zeppelin is a pretty good one, regardless of what my dad may tell me.
Black Dog - 8/10
Gallows Pole - 7.5/10
That’s The Way - 7.75/10
In My Time of Dying - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 7.9
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Puppies_On_Acid
Marillion
First impression: I feel like it's supposed to be more of an emotional kind of music, but I don't really feel that yet; that being said, it's pretty good.
Final review: This is another result where my thoughts aren’t much different from my first impressions. I can feel a little more emotion in some of the songs now, but I can’t help but feel like this band is trying to elicit a very strong emotional response that I simply don’t get from their music. But with that said, there’s some worthwhile stuff here. The highlight for me is “Jigsaw”, which has a really nice atmosphere, and the chorus is quite impactful. To be honest, I don’t have much else to say regarding the other songs; I think saying “It has a nice atmosphere, but I don’t feel as much emotion as they’re trying to convey” accurately describes the other songs for me. The only other thing I have to say is that I find the outro to “Neverland” to be too long. It sounds nice, but nothing would’ve been lost had this ambience been cut in half. (Wow, I think I’ve been making it sound like I usually have issues with ambient parts of songs…) I feel like this writeup might feel negative, but I do think this band is good, though.
Jigsaw - 8.25/10
Sugarmice - 7.5/10
The Space - 7.75/10
Neverland - 7.75/10
Roulette score: 7.8
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romdrums
Genesis
First impression: Reminds me of Rush in a lot of ways. They also seem a lot more technical than I thought!
Final review: Here’s an interesting submission: Two songs live, and one of them is a big 19-minute medley. I’m not familiar with where each section in the “In The Cage” medley begins, so all I’ll say is that it’s consistently great from start to end! There’s lots of instrumental sections, and I think these guys are very talented. I feel like there’s quite a few technical parts here, as well. I don’t mean on the level of, say, your average Liquid Tension Experiment song, but I think it’s comparable to the songs on When Dream and Day Unite in terms of technical proficiency. Talent aside, the music sounds really good, and the aforementioned instrumental sections are the highlight. The vocals also sound good. They’re kind of normal, but also kind of unique in their own way. “Los Endos” is great as well, but the In The Cage/Afterglow medley is the better of the two songs, for sure.
In The Cage medley/Afterglow - 8.75/10
Los Endos - 8/10
Roulette score: 8.4
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MoraWintersoul
Chroma Key
First impression: This is more or less the music I expected to hear from Kevin Moore.
Final review: This is something I’m surprised I didn’t listen to sooner, since this is a Kevin Moore project, and after listening to these songs, I wish I’d listened to Chroma Key sooner! I love this kind of atmospheric music, and I knew Kevin Moore would be the kind of guy to make this music. “On the Page” is a rather melancholic song, almost like a slightly-more upbeat Space-Dye Vest. And that extends to the lyrics. I wonder if Kevin Moore intentionally wrote these lyrics in the same style as that song, but either way, it’s done well. Although I think the sampling could’ve been better… “Another Permanent Address” is a very atmospheric piece, and it sounds lovely. It almost makes me feel nostalgic, listening to it. The lyrics are kind of depressing, but Kevin Moore’s voice here is simply amazing. “Strong” is good musically, but the vocals sound really weird, and I don’t really like them. Still a good song, but not as good as the other two songs. If his time in Dream Theater isn’t any indication, these songs prove that Kevin Moore is a really great musician.
On the Page - 8.5/10
Another Permanent Address - 9/10
Strong - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 8.3
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Luoto
Amorphis
First impression: Honestly, I wasn't expecting much of anything, but this is actually some pretty good music!
Final review: This is an example of why the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” exists. Looking at the name, I went into this expecting bland and generic death metal in the style of Lamb of God or something. What I got was metal, but my predictions were quite inaccurate otherwise! I think these guys sound really good, and they’re quite creative at times, too. I’m not sure what my favorite song is, but it’s either “Skyforger”, which is a somewhat adventurous-sounding song with a really satisfying chorus, or it’s “Death of a King” which has an Egyptian-like aesthetic to it, and it doesn’t feel like a gimmick at all. The other two songs are good as well. “Daughter of Hate” is a bit more straightforward, but it still sounds great even if it’s a little less creative compared to the other two songs I mentioned. I actually might end up looking through more of Amorphis’ discography at some point; I am very impressed!
Skyforger - 8.5/10
Under a Soil and Black Stone - 7.75/10
Death of a King - 8.5/10
Daughter of Hate - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 8.3
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Cyril
The Hirsch Effekt
First impression: Honestly, I like what I'm hearing so far!
Final review: From the moment I saw Cyril ask to be signed up, I was immediately very interested in what submissions I would receive from him. And while I have no idea what I’m in for with the next four rounds, I can at least say this submission is a very good start! The Hirsch Effekt is unique among the other submissions this round, in that the songs are sung in German rather than English. The main highlight in each song is the singing. There’s a lot of instances where the vocals just sound so good. The music is really great, too. It’s usually upbeat, but there are times where it’s more subdued. My favorite of the three songs is “Agitation”, which is sort of a fusion of the other two songs, but those two other songs, “Natans” and “Cotard” are great in their own ways. Natans is quite melodic, whereas Cotard is loud and mostly aggressive. I wasn’t entirely sure what I would think of this before listening to it, but I’m very glad I did listen to them; The Hirsch Effekt is simply great.
Agitation - 9/10
Natans - 8.75/10
Cotard - 8.5/10
Roulette score: 8.8
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I apologize if these writeups feel repetitive. I got burned out on doing these (even though I enjoy writing), so me pushing through it all might not have had a good effect on the quality of the writeups. Well, there we are, all Round 1 results... I'm going to sleep, you guys have fun discussing the results and whatnot, and make sure to send for Round 2 if you haven't already.
Topic: Revenge319's relatively normal roulette: Love list complete! (FINAL RESULTS) (Read 62024 times)