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General => Archive => General Music Archives => Topic started by: Elite on March 23, 2015, 03:00:18 AM
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Yesterday evening I got the notification that apparently another year has passed and it's my turn to do a roulette again. Now, anyone who knows me a little has probably seen that I have been a little less active on the forums the last couple of months and that's because life can sometimes catch up with you. I try however to keep up with everything that's happening here as well.
In the last year I have been in roulettes myself though and I have seen numerous posts were I was the last person to send in a round. If I'm right, I think I should send a song to Big Hath right now as well, as I'm probably the last there as well :lol Please don't see this as some kind of disinterest from my part, it's just that I sometimes forget to check the forums, because I'm busy doing other things. But now it's your chance to get back at me!
The contestants:
I sent a PM to everyone whose roulette I was in this last year, so they can join in and send me music, as well as to jingle.boy who won my last one. I'll have three open spots, of which I want to give out one to lonestar, so he can maybe even up his score on the roulette rankings some more. I haven't had him in a roulette yet, so if he's willing to play, that would be nice.
That said, I'll have the following people:
- Tom Bombadil
- Sacul
- senecadawg2
- Scorpion
- Big Hath
- FlyingBIZKIT
- jingle.boy
- lonestar
- Evermind
- Nihil-Morari
- Dr. DTVT
(Red means unconfirmed as of yet)
Past roulettes:
Then, here's a couple of links to my two previous roulettes.
Roulette 1: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=34217.0
Roulette 2: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=38570.0
What to send:
In the OP of roulette 1 there's a huge list of what you can not send. It might be easier though to just check my last.fm. (https://www.last.fm/user/richardsluijk) There's a lot in there, there's also a lot not in there. If I know whatever you're sending, I'll ask for something else. There's no foolproof way of sending me stuff.
How to send:
You can either PM me through DTF or send me an e-mail (PM me for e-mail address). I prefer Spotify links, or just the artist/title/album combination so I can look things up myself. Please for the sake of being able to listen to everything, do not send anything that's longer than 10 minutes.
The rules:
I decided to take the same approach as with my last roulette, since that worked pretty well. I will have 7 rounds. All of them will be open. Scoring will not go in the traditional way, but like in my second roulette (look back there to see how it worked). In every round, people will be eliminated based on which song I liked least. The first round however, is free for everyone to get a taste of what kind of music I like.
In round 2, two people will be eliminated.
In round 3, two people will be eliminated.
In every subsequent round, one person will be eliminated up to a final round between the two last standing.
Sign me up!
Sure! I give a slight precedence to all the people mentioned above, but if any of them can't or don't want to play right now, that slot can be filled by anyone else. I would also prefer people whose name I have seen on the boards before. Not to be an asshole, but I like having an idea of who is behind the song they're sending. Last two places are open, the other 8 are reserved for the time being until they either confirm or opt out.
Now what?
Now we wait until all 10 slots have been filled in. Then we'll start this roulette!
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I'm in if I'm famous enough for you. ;)
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I'd love to play, Richard!
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Come on in, both of you :)
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Also in.
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You're second roulette was the first one I ever played in. Good memories...
I'll play!
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Sure, I'll give it a shot.
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this is me RSVP'ing
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Count me in, and thanks for the invite. I'll read the op in a bit.
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Let's play.
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You're all in! One spot came free, due to Bizkit not playing right now. Who will join as the tenth contestant?
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One spot left!
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To everybody who's playing, you may start sending your songs :) as stated in the OP, I prefer Spotify links or the artist/title/album combination, so I can look it up myself. You can send songs through PM, e-mail or any other way in which you can contact me personally. There's one spot left open, which I hope will be filled up soon. This last person may also send his/her song immediately.
Hope all is clear and I'm looking forward to hearing your music.
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Just to be sure, the first round doesn't affect the other rounds at all, right?
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That's correct!
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Sent!
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Sent.
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I claim the last spot. Will send when I get home.
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That's quite a list of participants right here, actually.
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And the road to no. 9 begins....
Sent....
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.ƚnɘƧ
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Sent
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is there any kind of cutoff for how many times you've listened to an artist according to last.fm?
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Not really, but if it doesn't have many plays, I probably won't know the artist very well - if at all. Then again, my last.fm isn't really that accurate, as there are probably loads of songs that I do know that aren't featured there. Your best guess would be to send a song and check whether that's ok with me. The last.fm, as well as my last two roulette are guidelines, but nothing's set in stone.
That said, I already had to reject one song in the first round, but that's all set now. I'm just missing submission by both Toms and Nihil.
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Not really, but if it doesn't have many plays, I probably won't know the artist very well - if at all. Then again, my last.fm isn't really that accurate, as there are probably loads of songs that I do know that aren't featured there. Your best guess would be to send a song and check whether that's ok with me. The last.fm, as well as my last two roulette are guidelines, but nothing's set in stone.
That said, I already had to reject one song in the first round, but that's all set now. I'm just missing submission by both Toms and Nihil.
Wait a second, am I missing something? Is there some sort of direction you want to first one in? Or is round one just a random track?
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I'm sorry, I'm blind. I'll go find you somethin'
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It's an open round - just send him something he'll like.
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It's an open round - just send him something he'll like.
It's also a useful round to test his tastes because it will have no repercussions or anything on your further progress in the roulette, so we may send some weird shit we wouldn't send him otherwise. :lol
I didn't do it though. :biggrin:
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The last.fm and the list of banned bands has cockblocked me a lot of potential songs, so I just sent him the usual stuff I use on the first round :lol .
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The last.fm and the list of banned bands has cockblocked me a lot of potential songs, so I just sent him the usual stuff I use on the first round :lol .
David Maxim Micic - Where is Now? :lol
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Oh yes, how did you know? I thought nobody noticed :( .
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:neverusethis:
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You're all playing for second place, bitches.
Again.
:bringiton:
If we ever get playing
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You're all playing for second place, bitches.
Again.
:bringiton:
If we ever get playing
A wild jingle appears!
It tries "music".
It's not very effective.
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Yes, we are playing! Results on Friday, most likely. I'm sorry for taking so long, there was quite some stuff that happened to me during this last week. I do not foresee many difficulties for future rounds, so I suppose I can do a round a week, or even faster.
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It's Friday....
:corn
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Shortly!
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It's Friday....
:corn
Dear god, you're just asking for bosk1 to troll you with that song. :lol
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Three hours and it's not even Friday in my country anymore, so better hurry!
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Four hours and it's Saturday here as well. :lol Typing this shit out takes quite some time! But here we have them, the results for the introductory round! :)
Here’s how this goes. The results are posted in the order of how much I liked them. No scoring, just the songs against each other. In any subsequent round, some players are eliminated, while the rest stay. Two people will be eliminated in each of the following two rounds, while after that one person a round has to go. I hope this is clear, but the ‘rules’ are in the OP as well. I’m keeping this simple, yet competitive. There’s no cumulative scoring, you just have to do your best in every round in order not to be eliminated. Just to make sure everyone understands what’s up: this round was a freebie, no-one is going anywhere just yet. You can all send for the next round.
Just to clarify: I tend to be overly critical or harsh when reviewing music. This is obviously not a personal attack on you, but an honest way of expressing how I feel about music. There’s so much music out there that I’ve already heard (and I’m not really exaggerating here, although there’s a TON I haven’t heard as well) and with every band I get into there’s more to dislike about the next. I’ve found that it’s very easy to appreciate something when there’s not a lot of it around, but with the case of music, I have so much to choose from that it’s far easier to dismiss something as ‘boring’ or ‘bland’ and move on to the next. I’m not one to keep trying to get into a band if my first experience with them stinks, because there’s too much out there that begs to be listened to as well. This can reflect in my write-ups.
Without further ado, here are the results for the first songs you guys submitted.:
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Participant: Dr. DTVT
Band – Song: Kino – Losers’ Day Parade
Kino is a band I had never heard of, but of course I looked up some background information and found out they’re a supergroup consisting of some figures of the contemporary progressive rock scene, most notably Pete Trewavas, Chris Maitland (ex-Porcupine Tree) and John Mitchell (Arena, Frost*, It Bites). This song was however quite a little heavier than the aforementioned bands and the overall style is one I can very much relate to. In fact, this song is a series of awesome parts after each other. I would say the guitar lines in this song are of the most apparent quality, but they’re backed by a solid rhythm section with nice synthesizers and great vocal lines on top. This was the best song I received this round, I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s a shame this band only made one album and it seems like it’s a difficult one to get your hands on as well.
Participant: Scorpion
Band – Song: Dog Fashion Disco – Struck by Lightning
Scorpion knows way too well what kind of music I like. At least for this round, he hit the nail on the head. I’ve seen this band mentioned lots of times before on DTF, but I never got to check them out (and they only have one album on Spotify, so that doesn’t really help). This song is wacky, yet very accessible. I would say that the best part of this song is definitely the chorus, which is catchy as hell. And where you thought this would remain a poppy metal-tune, that weird bridge comes in. This song in a way reminds me of Mr. Bungle (of which I’m a great fan), in particular the album California. I wouldn’t be surprised if this band took that album as an inspiration for this tune. I liked this one a lot and I will check this band out further!
Participant: Nihil-Morari
Band – Song: Gentle Giant – Peel the Paint
I got this submission, because of an apparent lack of ‘older’ prog on my last.fm. You’re right! While I do like some older prog, I tend to delve more into the heavier subgenres of progressive rock/metal, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the older stuff. There’s always a place to appreciate the roots of the music genres you like most. And although I’ve heard all the ‘big’ bands, like Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Marillion and so on, I had indeed never listened to Gentle Giant before. Now, this song was the song that got Nihil-Morari into this band and he thought I might like it too. And I did! Wow, there’s lots of awesome stuff in here, but you have to take the time to listen for it. In fact, the first time I turned this on, I nearly stopped after 2 minutes, because I didn’t get what was going on and found it a little boring overall. But then that second part came in and everything made sense! What I thought to be a boring song at first, turned out to be an awesome song overall and one of the better submissions of this round. Thanks!
Participant: jingle.boy
Band – Song: Vanden Plas – Rainmaker
I’ve seen this band live.. at least twice I think, yet I never went to check them out afterwards. I have no idea why I never did. Perhaps their stage presence do much to me, or the sound at the shows could have been bad. It also could have been a case of seeing them at random Prog festivals where other bands would blow me out of the water and this band got stuck in being ‘just average’, while they are in fact very good. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the music. In fact, this is some very solid progressive metal, with a couple of power metal influences. They remind me a little of Pagan’s Mind or Seventh Wonder. Maybe I should check this band out a little and then I can appreciate them the next time I see them at a random festival. Thanks for opening my eyes and making me realise that there’s no reason not to listen to this band. Although not the best I received this round, this song was still pretty awesome!
Participant: Evermind
Band – Song: Jon Lord – Pictured Within
I’m usually not that into ballads and while I try to be open-minded going into the songs sent, I had some doubts with this one, because ballads tend to be very hit-or-miss with me. But holy shit, this is freaking beautiful. I know Jon Lord only from his work with Deep Purple and this stuff is very different from your Space Truckin’, Lazy or Child in Time. I looked this up and found out that he isn’t singing himself. The singer (Miller Anderson) does a beautiful job and making this piece come to life, but the piano playing by Lord is just fantastic as well. This was a very surprising submission and one that I liked far more than I initially though when I read the description!
Participant: senecadawg2
Band – Song: Helker – No Chance to be Reborn
There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. This is a very straight-forward heavy/power metal song with a very catchy chorus. The singer does an excellent job at sounding absolutely badass – including a ridiculous over the top high note at the end of the chorus. I do like this kind of music indeed; you go that right, but I like it a bit faster usually. And also not too much after each other (not that this is any criterion I’m judging this on) By no means a bad song, but I think this could grow to be stale very quickly, especially if the rest of the band’s output sounds similar.
Participant: Lonestar
Band – Song: Woven Distortion – War-Torn Soul
How the hell did you find this band? I only got a bandcamp link from our resident master chef and this band doesn’t have a website and their Facebook page hasn’t been posted on in over a year and has less than 150 likes. It’s almost like this band doesn’t really exist (anymore), but the music is here. And it’s pretty awesome! The guitar sounds wonderful, as do the other instruments. I would say the weakest part of the song is by far the vocals. The Lines aren’t really that interesting and his voice isn’t too good. I don’t know what happened to the two dudes that wrote this, but they should find a (better) vocalist and continue making music, because this song is just a very solid rocking tune.
Participant: Tom Bombadil
Band – Song: Blackfield - Lullaby
This is indeed one of Steven Wilson’s (side) projects I haven’t really delved into. I also haven’t heard Bass Communion or No Man, so I don’t know where you got the idea that I have listened to ‘pretty much every other Steven Wilson side project’. I’ve heard Storm Corrosion, which I didn’t really think that much of, and of course his solo work and Porcupine Tree. It’s absolutely a toss up between those two which one I like best, but I’m fairly positive I like Wilson’s experimental side more and my favourite albums of his are Signify and Coma Divine (which is technically a live album, but I don’t care; it’s his best as far as I’m concerned). Now, why am I typing all of this? Because this isn’t Steven Wilson at his finest moment, if I may be frank. This song is by no means bad and in fact blows many other depressing songs out of the water and it’s Wilson doing what he’s good at: write a heart-wrenching piece of music, but coming from a man who has written stuff like Heartattack in a Layby, or Insurgentes, this seems a bit too simple and too easy. I do appreciate this song for what it is, but if all of Blackfield sounds similar, I doubt I could listen to a full album worth of this.
Participant: Sacul
Band – Song: David Maxim Micic – Where is Now
You sent me a song from Destiny Potato first and since I heard that one before, I had you send something else. Now, that song from Destiny Potato would have scored a lot better than this one here. The problem with these djent bands (or in this case, it appears to be one djent dude) is that they completely fail to keep my attention. Similar to the song title making absolutely no sense whatsoever, the music itself doesn’t make sense. It feels ridiculously disjointed, with random stuff thrown in. That guitar solo after the random scat-singing part is especially ill-placed, apart from it being a horrendous solo as well. I can appreciate the technicality and the skill of the guitarist, but this didn’t work at all for me.
Participant: Big Hath
Band – Song: johnny Q. Public – P.K.
Another band I had never heard of. Turns out they were a Christian rock band that broke up in 2001, which pretty much explains why I’ve never heard of them or never even seen them mentioned. Well, this was one of the less interesting songs I received this round, and that mainly because it felt bland all the way through. Although the chorus is quite uplifting, the singer does a great job at sounding exactly the same throughout the whole song. There’s not a lot of variation in the vocal lines and that makes it not very interesting to listen to for me, especially when the rest of the instruments follows roughly the same patterns all the way through. The song also has nothing that really stands out – a bridge, or a great solo or anything – so it remains in very ‘average’ territory. I likely won’t listen to this one again.
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So that’s it for this round. Excuse the (very) lengthy write-ups. I doubt I can keep this up for the coming rounds. Had this been the next round, Sacul and Big Hath would be eliminated here, as I liked their submissions the least. However, as stated a million times before, this first round would see no eliminations. Depending on when everybody sends in their next songs, I can have the results for the next round before next weekend. Thanks for the music so far! :)
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Screw you Chad, I was going to send this exact Vanden Plas song in the next round. :lol
I actually thought that Jon Lord song would put me into the would-be-eliminated position, but I'm glad you liked it. The whole album is really beautiful.
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Interesting. I found them by what I call "Bandcamp fishing trips", where I just wander the site clicking on all types of stuff. I've found some very impressive stuff that way. Just testing some new material for upcoming roulettes, broadening my arsenal so to speak.
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note to self: for round 2 don't send the first song that plays on "random" from your music library
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note to self: for round 2 don't send the first song that plays on "random" from your music library
Are you fucking kidding me? :lol
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Cool- I can live with a middle-of-the-pack opener.
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I'm trying to figure out why I sent that song that I knew was extremely safe, and not held on to it - other than the reason I listened to that album the day I sent it :lol
So, are those in order from favorite to least? You sort of implied it, but didn't say it.
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So, are those in order from favorite to least? You sort of implied it, but didn't say it.
Yeah, they are. It's also how I'm going to post the results for all subsequent rounds.
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The results are posted in the order of how much I liked them.
Reading comprehension, Doc.
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The results are posted in the order of how much I liked them.
Reading comprehension, Doc.
Which is what you fail at, because I didn't specify whether it would be top to bottom or vice versa. Then again, I did state the bottom two songs would be eliminated, so that would mean they are poster in the order of favourite to least.
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What do you think about the live tracks by the way? Are we allowed to send these?
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Yay! Totally expected this :rollin .
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You can send me a live track, but I'd rather not have you send me random home-made concert videos, as they tend to be bad. Official live releases are fine however. Just keep in mind that when the sound quality is bad, it can drastically influence my thoughts of the music.
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Got it.
I'm gonna dwell on it for a bit, will send Sunday.
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Good thing I sent that this round. :lol Will send tomorrow.
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Sent.
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Sent.
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Have I sent? So many roulettes that I losing track. :lol
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No you have not!
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I have now.
Yeah, playing in four roulettes was a mistake.
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At least you haven't been eliminated on one of them :rollin .
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Sent.
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Right on, I got just over half the songs so far :) so the other guys, send them in, you know who you are! :)
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At least you haven't been eliminated on one of them :rollin .
Well, Elite can fix that if he wants to :biggrin:
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Great Vanden Plas song, underrated band.
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I'll be sending mine shortly!
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Just thought I ask, how is it going? Have you got all songs?
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Yes, results on Saturday! I actually quite know how the standings are going to be, but I won't have the time to type in and post all that stuff until Saturday evening. Expect results in the same fashion as last time.
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Hey guys, it was nice to play this. Emm, thanks for the opportunity and good luck to all the other participants :lol .
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Typing out the results right now.
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:caffeine:
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:dangerwillrobinson:
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Rich for the last 2 hours:
(https://media.giphy.com/media/11M1k4fIwVqPF6/giphy.gif)
Everyone else for the last 2 hours:
(https://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lufhslz8R41qgixe3.gif)
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And as promised, here are the results for round 2, this Saturday evening. This was a really tough round to judge, since there was quite some awesome stuff I received. I had two songs I cearly liked less than the others though, so as per the rules of this roulette, we will say goodbye to two contestants today. Below are the results, ordered from my favourite to least favourite song of the round.
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Through to the next round :D
Participant: senecadawg2
Band – Song: Dynazty – Starlight
This is the song that clearly stood out this round. Highly energentic, great guitar works and those vocals are amazing. Even more quality (rather straight-forward) power metal and I enjoyed this track a lot more than the song you sent last round. This round had some slower songs than the previous, so this track definitely stood out, because of its speed. Some music genres can be very hit or miss with me, but when performed as flawlessly as this one, topped off with a great sing along chorus, there’s nothing that can go wrong. Fantastic submission!
Participant: Big Hath
Band – Song: Thank You Scientist – My Famed Disappearing Act
About two weeks ago, I was driving back from a Devin Townsend concert with Onno and I had Agent Fresco playing in the car. That band does very weird stuff with their vocal lines, almost as if the vocalist is a separate entity, disregarding the beat of the music at point. It reminded Onno of Thank You Scientist, a band I’ve seen mentioned before and Onno said I should check them out, because I would like them. Guess what, I got them in my roulette. Hooray! Well, what can I say? I did like this one, a lot! What this band does instrumentally is nothing short of amazing. I really wonder if they can pull off that clarity live, but with a line-up consisting of of an actual violin, saxophone and trumpets, I suppose they could. With that very line-up, this band manages to lay down some very interesting sounds, stuff you wouldn’t otherwise hear in progressive rock. It all sounds very fresh and ‘new’. I suppose the band wants the chorus to be your favourite part of the song, as it’s repeated quite often, but the pre-chorus is far more memorable if you ask me, and the guitar solo that ends with those melodies is a great addition to an already amazing song. Wow, I’m going to listen to this album!
Participant: lonestar
Band – Song: IQ – The Road of Bones
I think this one of your favourite bands, is it not? I thought from the start that you would send me a song by IQ at some point in the roulette and I was right. I’ve seen IQ live twice, both times at the Night of the Prog festival, but I can’t really remember much of it. The gist of what happened that evening was that lots of fogeys were singing along to tunes I had never heard before, so it was rather weird standing in that crowd (the exact same thing happened when I saw Marillion, Eloy and Saga at the same festival, so it’s not an isolated case). However, on to the song itself; that was surprisingly awesome. Having never checked out the band, I honestly did not know what to expect, but the build-up is fantastic and you can see this band has been active for a long time by the way every instrument is doing exactly what. A very surprising song that has won me over to check out this band. Thanks :)
Participant: jingle.boy
Band – Song: Alpha Rev – Lexington
I didn’t really expect this sort of stuff from you. In my last roulette, you blasted your way through sending me awesome progressive metal round of round, yet this is something completely different. I just had an enormous ‘duhhh’-moment looking up stuff about this band. I knew I had seen the name pop up before and the singer’s voice already sounded familiar, but dang, this is Casey McPherson, of Flying Colors’ fame, of course! I can actually really appreciate this kind of music and this band pulls it off really well. If Alpha Rev was what Mike and Neal were going by in search of a suitable singer for Flying Colors, I completely understand their choice for Casey. I must say actually, I think he even sounds better in the context of this band’s music than he does in Flying Colors. A very enjoyable song, with lots of nice stuff going on. It’s also fun that the whole song is in 5/4, done in such a way that it doesn’t feel weird at all. Great stuff, I’ll look into this band as well.
Participant: Dr. DTVT
Band – Song: Lonely Robot – Are We Copies?
Mister jingle wondered in his message to me whether you would send me Lonely Robot, which you did indeed. Apparently a follow-up from last round’s Kino, as it features the same singer. I must say, I liked the Kino song better, but this one is really good as well. Is the rest of the album worth checking out as well? The main problem this song has however, is probably that it revolves too much around the chorus during the first part. The verses aren’t really that interesting to be honest, but the chorus is very good. The second part of the song is where it really picks up its pace though, and where it really starts to shine. This John Mitchell surely knows how to forge build-ups into songs. This is another album that’s going on the to-listen list. Lucky for me, it’s much easier to find this one than Kino’s Picture.
Participant: Evermind
Band – Song: Absolute Priority – Fear of the Night
I didn’t get the Iron Maiden reference you made at first and I was looking up the band members and everything, but then I realised Iron Maiden have a song (and album) called Fear of the Dark. In my mind, ‘dark’ and ‘night’ are two completely different words, but I can see how the comparison is made. However, where Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark is a pretty straight-forward metal tune, this one has a whole lot more going on. I have to admit that this one took quite a while to grow for me. I actually didn’t really enjoy it at first, but with repeat listens, I came to like it a lot more. The best part of this song is by far the chorus and the way all the vocal lines come together at the end. The singer has a really powerful voice as well, which is always a plus for me. A nice song, I wonder if this band has some more to offer as I will check them out eventually!
Almost eliminated ???
Participant: Scorpion
Band – Song: Polkadot Cadaver – Bring Me the Head of Andy Warhol
Talk about sending the same stuff again :lol The doc sent me something from the same mastermind and you’re essentially sending me the same band as last round, but with a different name. Now, I like myself some weird avant-garde stuff (I’m a great fan of Mr. Bungle!), but when it becomes too much, it gets difficult to see what’s really going on in the track. And, let’s face it: this track is just fucking weird and strange. I could probably appreciate this a lot more in the context of the album, or after another 20 listens, but it was a bit much to take in just now, especially when I have to judge it against the other songs in this round. I really think I ought to like it, but it will need more time to sink in. I’ll check out the album this is on eventually, because the band, like Dog Fashion Disco, sounds interesting enough for me to try.
Participant: Nihil-Morari
Band – Song: Giraffes? Giraffes! – Werewolf Grandma With Knives (Part Two: Don’t Die)
This one is... interesting. And that’s ‘interesting’ almost in a negative way. I think I listened to this band once before, because they have such ridiculous song titles (the title of this song isn’t even the weirdest they have, I can assure you that) and I never really checked them out after that. I don’t really know why, because the stuff this two-man group does is really interesting in a compositional way. I think the band deliberately made this song sound as low-fi as it does, since their other songs sound a lot crisper, and that’s probably my main gripe with this song. The sound of the recording really detracts from the otherwise excellent song. Nice avant-garde stuff they’re doing, but does it really need to sound this badly? It was a nice submission, but one I liked less than some others. I'm curious to see what you'll show up with next, as this is very different from the Gentle Giant track you sent me last round.
Unfortunately eliminated :(
Participant: Tom Bombadil
Band – Song: Wings Denied – Generation Y
I can totally understand why you would send me this song as it has everything that should make me like it. However, for some reason it just didn’t click at all for me. I mainly disliked the vocals and this song didn’t give me a good initial impression with the growls at the start. This song sounded way too busy overall, although the production as well as the playing is ridiculously tight. This band takes the idea of the melodic djent-riff to a higher level, which is something I can definitely appreciate, but the sound of the band wasn’t for me. I might check out the full album sometime in the future, but from all songs I got this round, this one (almost) did the least for me. As for this roulette; I’m sorry, but you have been eliminated.
Participant: Sacul
Band – Song: Throne of Chaos – Acid Highway
This is straight-forward heavy metal, which isn’t really a problem in itself, but this song doesn’t really have anything going on that makes me go ‘Wow’, or anything like that, while it does have quite some parts that make me cringe a little. The main riff really isn’t that interesting to fill up the whole song with, the lyrics aren’t very good and the sections with the growls feel very forced and out of place. Then there’s the acoustic chorus, before the final part, it’s all a little too standard, and that just doesn’t do a lot for me. While they’re good at what they’re doing, this was just too generic a song for me to like it, especially compared to some of the other stuff I received this round. I’m sorry, but you are out of this roulette.
---
So that’s it. Two people are out and 8 people are left to fight another round. The next round will also see the end for two more people and from then on, only one contestant is eliminated each round. I hope these write-ups give a little insight in my tastes. I’m enjoying a lot of the stuff you guys are sending, so thanks for that! You can send for round 3 now :)
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*frantic typing*
16 seconds later the results are in :lol
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I outlived Sacul, haha. :angel: Guess I should thank RJ for introducing me to this band and album. I wanted to send Vanden Plas in this round, but since Chad sent them in Round 1, I had to improvise a bit.
I didn’t get the Iron Maiden reference you made at first and I was looking up the band members and everything, but then I realised Iron Maiden have a song (and album) called Fear of the Dark. In my mind, ‘dark’ and ‘night’ are two completely different words, but I can see how the comparison is made.
Yeah, that, and also Hallowed Be Thy Name deals with the concept quite similar to this album.
I'll send something tomorrow.
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You sent Absolute Priority? Where's your roulette etiquette man?
I kid bro, I got plenty of magic in my reserves...
I’ve seen IQ live twice, both times at the Night of the Prog festival, but I can’t really remember much of it.
:|
Almost rage quit the roulette right then and there.
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Oh wow! I really thought you would like G?G! As a matter of fact, I've been selling G?G! to nearly everyone I know for a couple of years now, but no one seems interested. I'm starting to think they're just something special to me, for whatever reason, but not for others.
As for the diversity, you should see my record collection ;)
Looking forward to the next round!
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I've seen IQ live twice, both times at the Night of the Prog festival, but I can't really remember much of it.
:|
Almost rage quit the roulette right then and there.
Sorry :angel:
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*bitchslaps*
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You sent Absolute Priority? Where's your roulette etiquette man?
Tell you what, I thought of sending IQ in this round too. :rollin
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hi, seneca!
(https://www.reactiongifs.com/r/fgwv.gif)
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Well. That kinda worked.
Have to improve.
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*bitchslaps*
:sadpanda:
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Hey guys, it was nice to play this. Emm, thanks for the opportunity and good luck to all the other participants :lol .
I knew it :rollin .
I outlived Sacul, haha. :angel:
With a band I don't really dig :P .
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Can't say I'm too surprised. Thanks for hosting.
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Cool! I didn't actually expect to win the round with that kind of song, but thought it was a good and safe choice nonetheless. Glad to be proven wrong. I'll send my next offering soon :smiley:
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Thank You Scientist :heart :heart :heart
My Famed Disappearing Act is probably my second favorite off their debut, but really, so many of the tracks are just fantastic, excited for a second release from the band for sure. Feed The Horses, Blood on the Radio, Carnival, In The Company of Worms, aaagh.
And The Road Of Bones is probably the IQ song I'd have sent too since I've listened to all of one of their albums and that one's my favorite off the album. Great song too :lol
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*bitchslaps*
:sadpanda:
:-*
And sent.
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You sent Absolute Priority? Where's your roulette etiquette man?
Evermind... I like the cut of your jib sir, taking the Jesse The Body" Ventura approach - Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.
And for you RJ... you're such a roulette whore, most of us have a ton of artists in our library that are from you. In fact, I have an idea... let's all cock-block RJ this round. Evermind, you send Silent Memorial; Doc, you send Speaking to Stones; Scrop... Mandroid Echostar; Seneca... Karnya; Big Hath... Thoughts Factory; I'll send InnerShine.
That'll take a bunch of his go-to bands off the table.
:biggrin:
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hi, seneca!
:D great choice, good sir
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You sent Absolute Priority? Where's your roulette etiquette man?
Evermind... I like the cut of your jib sir, taking the Jesse The Body" Ventura approach - Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.
And for you RJ... you're such a roulette whore, most of us have a ton of artists in our library that are from you. In fact, I have an idea... let's all cock-block RJ this round. Evermind, you send Silent Memorial; Doc, you send Speaking to Stones; Scrop... Mandroid Echostar; Seneca... Karnya; Big Hath... Thoughts Factory; I'll send InnerShine.
That'll take a bunch of his go-to bands off the table.
:biggrin:
Wait, all of these aren't banned? I'm on it. :lol
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You guys are dicks.
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You guys are dicks.
Nope, just me.
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You guys are dicks.
Nope, just me.
You're just the ringleader.
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You guys are dicks.
Nope, just me.
You're just the cockringleader.
Fix'd
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I guess I'm taking an even bigger chance with my next one. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think about it, I've just checked some of the higher rated songs from the last two rounds, and I don't think I know any of that sort of music. So if this'll be my last round, so be it. I do think that you can handle some of my more obscure stuff.
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You guys are dicks.
Nope, just me.
And me.
:hifive:
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Sorry, but I sent before jingle put his plan on the table, and I know I'm not cockblocking because I sent a very unknown band.
Well, unknown for now.
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Sent some power metal.
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Sent some power metal.
:neverusethis:
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I got all songs and the results will be in on Saturday once again. I also really appreciate everybody sending some information with the songs they're sending or an explanation why you're sending. My not writing anything back is not a lack of interest, as I do read everything. Based on what I've read, this is going to be a much more cohesive round than the last two, but there's at least one song that's going to stick out stylistically.
Results soon!
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I got all songs and the results will be in on Saturday once again. I also really appreciate everybody sending some information with the songs they're sending or an explanation why you're sending. My not writing anything back is not a lack of interest, as I do read everything. Based on what I've read, this is going to be a much more cohesive round than the last two, but there's at least one song that's going to stick out stylistically.
Results soon!
:biggrin:
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Yes, it's you :biggrin:
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Sorry guys, I screwed up. Results on Monday instead op today. I'm sure there will be something else to enlighten your evening than the results for round 3.
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Yeah, I'm watching Chelsea - MU now.
If I'm eliminated though, you suck for delaying this.
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Just finished an insanely fucking busy Saturday night, and the only thing that was getting me through was the hopes of seeing some results. Thanks for letting me down bro. :'(
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:corn
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It's only 7PM Lonestar! ;)
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It's only 7PM Lonestar! ;)
8PM for me! And since I get up at 5AM every day, I'm going to sleep in an hour. Come on Elite!
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I feel so cheated. :'(
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Why are you in such a hurry to get the boot?
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I’m sorry that these results are in later than I said they would be. Sometimes life can get in the way and that is exactly what happened last Saturday, when I planned to post the results initially, and yesterday, when things did not go as planned at all. Without going too deep into my personal struggles, I'm bringing you the results for round 3. This was without a doubt the most difficult round to rank so far as there weren't really any songs that stood out in a way they did in the previous two rounds. It was a really consistent round, which made the one different track stand out a lot. Here are the results and although I didn't want to kick anyone out this round, I had to since I set up those rules. Again ordered from ‘best’ to ‘worst’.
Through to the next round :)
Participant: Nihil-Morari
Band – Song: B. Dolan – Kate
I have found a huge fault in my ranking system, thanks to this ‘song’. Yes, that’s the word ‘song’ in quotation marks, because this track definitely pushes the boundaries of what can be considered music. So much so, that it almost became impossible to judge the other songs I received this round with this track in mind. Even though this is barely music – because, it is as Nihil-Morari described an ‘avant-garde hip-hop’ track. That basically comes down to spoken-word poetry/rap with soundscapes in the background. I honestly had no idea what to do with this description of the track and decided to just listen to it, in the same playlist I put the other songs in, but this track completely and utterly destroyed my ability to judge all other songs I received this round. I would almost disqualify this track for not being an actual song, if this had not floored me. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was listening to something so intensely and be completely taken away by it, only to be totally demolished by that particular moment in the song (I’m sure Nihil-Morari knows what I’m talking about). There is no real way to describe how I felt after listening to this track. It was the only song I received this round that became stuck in my head, for the sheer fact that I had no idea what was coming. This man’s voice took me away on a journey through his sad story and never let me go. This track is ridiculously powerful and I thank you for sending this. I honestly don’t know whether I would listen to more of his stuff, or maybe even this track, very often, but this was without a doubt the song with the most impact I have ever received in a roulette. Unbelievable, strange, beautiful, haunting and disturbing all at once. Wow.
Participant: Scorpion
Band – Song: Speaking to Stones - Water
Alright, this is just a solid progressive metal song with a very decent build-up and an amazing vocalist. I like the duality of the softer and heavier parts and I think the guitarist has an amazing tone all the way through. In fact, the whole song sounds very crisp and clear. Highlight for me is the guitar solo, which melodically moves through the different parts of the song, remaining interesting all the way through, while also a little flashy. This song’s chorus is nice to song along to, which is quite a feat if you listen to what’s going on in the background. On other tracks I have a lot to say, but here I don’t have much more than this. I would like to hear the full album, but I can’t find it anywhere without paying far too much for it. :(
Participant: Dr. DTVT
Band – Song: Exovex – Stolen Wings
This is without a doubt the song with the best build-up I received this round. Starting out rather slow and brooding, the song develops into a quite nifty progressive rock/metal piece. The singer's voice is reminiscent of something of a combination between Steven Wilson and Daniel Gildenlöw (or is that just me?) and his vocal lines are easily the highlight of the song for me. One of the longer songs I got in this round, but it didn't feel like that at all. I must ask though: how did you find this band?
Participant: lonestar
Band – Song: Shattered Skies – Aesthetics
Okay, this is just some pure quality progressive metal music. I have heard some of this band’s stuff before, due to them playing at ProgPower Europe, but the day they played is the only day in the past 6 years I wasn’t there (I would have seen them live, if not for family business). So again, I band I knew exists, but never checked out properly. This is a fairly recent track, as what I can recall of them was more djent-riffing oriented, which is not often something I am a fan of. This however, is compositionally great, with a nice build-up. On my first listen, the track was rather boring at the start, but subsequent listens made sure I enjoyed it more thoroughly. Very nice one!
Almost eliminated ???
Participant: senecadawg2
Band – Song: Orden Ogan – Nobody Leaves
One of two power metal songs I received this round and this is the longer one of the two. It's also more cheesy and it's frankly the worst song I received from seneca thus far :lol However, that’s not really saying much, because this song still rocks very much. Of the two power metal songs I got, this one was far better than the other one. It’s quite high-paced and therefore rather frantic, but it has its calmer moments as well. The different parts of the song are also very distinctive which is a big plus for songs in this genre. Overall I’d say the vocalist could be better as he simply sounds a little weak or raspy on some of the higher and louder notes. Overall a quite solid submission.
Participant: jingle.boy
Band – Song: Subsignal – Feeding Utopia
This song has some very interesting and unique parts. The main riff, combined with the keys is a joy to listen to and I absolutely adore the guitarist’s tone in this track (funny how one always tends to listen for his own instrument). What bugged me though was the vocalist in the chorus. This song has some splendid parts, namely the riffs, verses and solos, but the chorus isn’t all that interesting and actually drags the song down. That said though, the good parts more than make up for it, and the track as a whole sounds fresh, especially for a progressive metal piece. The dichotomy between the heavier parts and the verses with the electric drums is very nice and worked out well. Overall, I think this is a band that I will check out further, even though it had some bad parts, the good parts more than made up for it and barely saved you from elimination.
Unfortunately eliminated :(
I’m sorry to have to eliminate the both of you. I’m sure you could have sent me some more awesome music in future rounds, but the same thing applies to the other contestants. If there’s any more music you’d like to share, I’m always open for stuff!
Participant: Evermind
Band – Song: Serious Black – I Seek No Other Life
The other power metal song I received was considerably shorter, but paced at around the same speed as the other. This song has a very pronounced chorus, which is easily the highlight of the song (although the guitar solos are quite nice too, even though they sound rather standard. While really a solid song, there’s nothing in here that really lifts it to being a ‘great’ track, if you get what I mean. It feels like I’ve heard this before, but it was a fun submission regardless.
If I'm eliminated though, you suck for delaying this.
I’m sorry to eliminate you. This was not a matter of me disliking the song, but you had some strong competition this round.
Participant: Big Hath
Band – Song: Moon Safari – Yasgur’s Farm
This was some bad luck on your part I think. I got the song Heartland by the same band in a previous roulette and actually enjoyed that one a lot back then, but I never got to check Moon Safari out more. This song just didn’t do anything for me. After listening to all the songs in this round multiple times, it became very easy to pick out one contestant to eliminate, because I didn’t like the song. It sounds dull and became very boring to listen to quickly. I don’t exactly know why, it might be because of the other songs I received this round were all a little heavier than this one. Maybe I should just like this though, but it didn’t work for me at this time. I’m sorry.
---
I really feel like an asshole having to kick people out. Know that this is nothing personal and that I appreciated both of you playing in my roulette. The remaining contestant scan all start sending for round 4, of which the results will likely be posted next Monday or Tuesday.
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Orden Ogan gets through and my song gets me eliminated? As I said, you totally suck, man. :rollin
Anyway, thanks for hosting.
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Orden Ogan gets through and my song gets me eliminated? As I said, you totally suck, man. :rollin
Anyway, thanks for hosting.
What's the deal with Orden Ogan? I had never heard of the band before. I can never do right :(
Thanks for playing! :)
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Nothing wrong, it's a solid band I guess, they just do nothing at all for me.
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I have only heard that track from them. Maybe I will dislike everything else :lol
Power metal is a weird thing for me, I like the odd track here and there, but I can never listen to that stuff for too long.
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Wow Rich, I knew I was taking a gamble, you could've easily said 'that's not a song, you're out', but to me it means a lot that you like it. I suggest you listen to the album that track is on. I love that record, it could very well be in my top 25 albums of all time, but I can't listen to it more often than once or twice a year, and with a bottle of whiskey not too far away ;)
And yeah, 'that moment' It's comes in just as hard as the first track of Steven Wilson second Construct album (for people who know that one) but with the spoken word added it just floores me too.
Basically the rest of the album is a concept album, on how someone thinks he is the last living person on earth, and the only one he's got is a robot, just intelligent enough to keep him entertained. All sorts of stuff passes on this record, the life of Evil Knievel, a regular hiphop song or two, but mostly stories and story telling.
Anyway, I'll go find a song for round 4!
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Glad you enjoyed the song enough to keep me around, Rich! For what it's worth, I completely agree that it's the worst song I've submitted to you so far (in this roulette and your last). The way I see it though, that's more a testament to the other songs than a problem with this song.
Orden Ogan gets through and my song gets me eliminated? As I said, you totally suck, man. :rollin
::)
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Participant: jingle.boy
Band – Song: Subsignal – Feeding Utopia
Overall, I think this is a band that I will check out further, even though it had some bad parts, the good parts more than made up for it and barely saved you from elimination.
(https://lalive.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Phew.gif)
I really feel like an asshole having to kick people out.
So you should! :lol
Participant: Nihil-Morari
Band – Song: B. Dolan – Kate
What the hell did I just listen to!?!?! I don't mean that in a bad way... but I completely understand Rich's writeup now.
Scrop.... I too like the cut of your jib. Well done sir.
Doc... not the song I would've chosen, but :tup album. Rich, if you want some tasty guitar work, hit the latter half of the album. Schwing-worthy stuff there.
And now that I've lulled you all into a false sense of security, it's time to lay the smack down.
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That Subsignal song is boss.
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That Subsignal song is boss.
If you ever got off your ass and ran a roulette, I suspect I'd do fairly well.
hint hint; nudge nudge; wink wink.
Oh, and sent btw. See ya'll next round.
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I really feel like an asshole having to kick people out.
Maybe for the next roulette (if you do another, I mean), you can consider keeping all players till the end :P
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I don't know if I'd put that song in my Subsignal top 5. Not saying it's bad...just not the one that pops into my mind when I think of them.
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I don't know if I'd put that song in my Subsignal top 5. Not saying it's bad...just not the one that pops into my mind when I think of them.
Just curious, what would you say is their flagship song?
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Sent.
As to Shattered Skies, they're still mostly D'jent, that song is just a step outside the standard. Their new album is fucking solid throughout though.
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Sent.
As to Shattered Skies, they're still mostly D'jent, that song is just a step outside the standard. Their new album is fucking solid throughout though.
I don't know what D'jent is or even how to pronounce it ... Shattered Skies is just some wicked heavy and crunchy music.
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Djent, as in...
Good day, djentleman
(https://kimmish.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/goodsirsgentleman-250x287.jpg)
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I have all songs, but NH's and Scorpion's!
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I have all songs, but NH's and Scorpion's!
Still thinking about which one to send. You'll get my entry tonight.
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I have all songs, but NH's and Scorpion's!
Still thinking about which one to send. You'll get my entry tonight.
The night is long :)
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He might be in Iceland right now :P .
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I would have the results today, but I have yet to receive a song from Nihil-Morari. Here's me hoping he will send in quickly.
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I would have the results today, but I have yet to receive a song from Nihil-Morari. Here's me hoping he will send in quickly.
I already did! A couple of days ago.
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I would have the results today, but I have yet to receive a song from Nihil-Morari. Here's me hoping he will send in quickly.
I already did! A couple of days ago.
I never received your PM, perhaps you forgot to send or you accidentally sent it to the wrong person. I have it now, thanks :)
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand :corn
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Speaking To Stones is awesome!
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I hope results are up before I leave on my road trip.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand :corn
Totally out of fucking popcorn man... :(
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This pace makes me glad I'm eliminated. :lol
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This pace makes me glad I'm eliminated. :lol
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Say what you want, I’ve been a terrible roulette host over the past two weeks, not even telling what I was up to and not posting any results. I know, I’ve had some serious issues at home, with my studies and with various other things and I was also ill last weekend, so I simply couldn’t get myself to type these out. Since I’m short on time still, these results won’t have as lengthy write-ups as the past rounds. I’m honestly sorry, I hoped I could do better, but real life unfortunately takes up more of my time than I initially thought. For this reason, I have not listene to every song as much as I wanted to (I would usually go with at least 5 or 6 listens), but this round I have only listened to every song 3 times. Anyway, here are the results for round 4:
Through to the next round :)
Participant: lonestar
Band – Song: Anciients – The Longest River
This is probably the darkest and heaviest song I have received in this Roulette so far, and given that the past few songs with growls all got eliminated, this was a quite risky pick. However, this song is brilliant. Very nice atmosphere, dark and sludgy sound, I liked this one a lot.
Participant: jingle.boy
Band – Song: ReVamp – The Anatomy of a Nervous Breakdown
Very nice track. Very jingle.boy-ish, in the sense that it reminds me of the first time I heard Flaming Row (which was the first round of my last roulette, the one you won). Very solid track with a very solid singer indeed. I’ll check this one out further.
Participant: Nihil-Morari
Band – Song: Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention – Echidna’s Arf (Of You)
Honestly, I kind of expected you to send me Frank Zappa earlier in the roulette, with you being the resident Zappa-person and all that. I have indeed heard some of his stuff before, but nothing much, as I never started checking out his stuff further. This is also a very daunting task, with the man having something like a hundred albums. Any idea where to start? Because I like what I’m hearing.
Participant: senecadawg2
Band – Song: Withem – Burned by Senses
Solid progressive metal, but not much more than that. It reminds me of all the great acts within contemporary progressive metal, but this band doesn’t really do anything new. I can appreciate the musicianship and the singer has a nice voice, but this song wasn’t anything special to me. If anything, they reminded me of Seventh Wonder, but with a slightly less capable vocalist. No bad song by any means, but as stated, nothing special to me either.
Almost eliminated ???
Participant: Dr. DTVT
Band – Song: Tiles – Cactus Valley
For this one, the same commentary I gave to the Withem song applies, only this song is not that good (in my opinion). It long and therefore overly repetitive with little interesting things going on. The song is paced slow, which in the context of the other songs of this round didn’t really help, but the slow pace, combined with little melodic or harmonic intricacies makes it quite a dull song. I also don’t like the singer’s nasal voice. Sorry, but I’m not really feeling this one.
Unfortunately eliminated :(
Participant: Scorpion
Band – Song: Native Construct – Passage
Apparently this album was only released about two weeks ago, but my first thoughts are: I don’t know. Maybe three listens isn’t enough to appreciate this one or to fully grasp what is going on, because there’s a lot of it in this track. And that’s this track’s problem: it’s a mess. I might regret saying this later, when/if I’ve listened to this band more thoroughly, but that was my initial thought. There’s no cohesion, everything seems jumbled together and it made for a very unpleasant listen. The growls turned me off as well, as they seemed to come out of nowhere in the context of the song. However, there’s a shitload of musicianship in there that I could hear, but for now, I’m going to have to eliminate you, because this track failed to prove itself to me in the limited time I have. If it’s any consolation to you; I will try and listen to this band some other time.
---
So there you have it. Sorry Scorpion, but you have been eliminated. The rest can send for round 5. I’ll try to get next round’s results in more quickly, if life lets me.
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:'(
You should definitely not give up on that album, it needed a few listens to truly click with me.
Also, that Anciients track is brilliant. A deserving round winner, I should have sent that one.
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Don't worry about the delay, bud. I hope everything is going well/better with you now. I certainly know how hard it can be to juggle everything, particularly when you're sick. :heart
You're spot on about Withem, by the way. I rarely listen to them :lol and I know it's odd for me to be sending songs that I'm not thrilled about myself, but I figured I'd take some risks in that regard
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Awesome, I'm still in it! Well, if you want a full Zappa treatment, head over to the Zappa thread. The question most asked with Zappa is 'well yeah, he seems like an interesting guy, but where the HELL do I start?'. If you can't find it and want a nice soothing playlist ( ;) ): Roxy & Elsewhere, Apostrophe, We're Only In It For The Money, Just Another Band From LA, etc. etc. etc.
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Hmmm, the risk paid off. I was a bit nervous about the growls, but the overall structure of that song and album are just fucking mindblowing.
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Got all songs but jingle's and lonestar's. Results up soon after having those!
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Got all songs but jingle's and lonestar's. Results up soon after having those!
Sent.
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:D
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I got jingle's entry today, so I'll try to get results up before the end of the week!
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Another week went by, and I finally have the results for round 5, here:
Through to the next round :)
Participant: Dr. DTVT
Band – Song: Pyramid Theorem – Another Day Slips By
Very solid progressive metal song. Nice acoustic guitar intro (which isn’t that special), but it sets the mood quite well. This is progressive metal done by the books and this band pulls it off really well. I remember having heard something by this band before, and while other people would rave over it, it would leave me rather cold. This band has definitely improved and I found this song very enjoyable all the way through. It’s catchy, heavy at parts and the instrumental part fits in nicely with the rest of the song.
Participant: Nihil-Morari
Band – Song: Navarone - Time
From the description Nihil gave me, I thought I wouldn’t really like this track, but this turned out to be one of the better songs I received this round. I’ve heard of and seen this band’s name before, since they are from the Netherlands, but never bothered to check them out. This was a very good, solid rock tune. I really liked the singer’s voice and the unconventional song structure. There’s some very powerful song-writing in this track. This is definitely a band I will check out more from, thanks for enlightening me about some great music from our own country!
Participant: lonestar
Band – Song: Mind Key – The Seventh Seal
Italian band Mind Key delivers a song that’s very powerful, but also quite straight-forward. It’s like I’ve heard this song before, even though I’ve never heard of this band. Looking back through their past gigs, I saw that they have played ProgPower Europe, a festival I visit every year, in 2005 (before my time) and I could definitely see this band on that stage. Progressive power metal done well, but with nothing extraordinary going on either. Solid track, I might check out the full album if I find the time.
Almost eliminated ???
Participant: senecadawg2
Band – Song: Arcane – Selfsame
While not exactly bad, I didn’t really think there a lot enjoyable about this song either. It was a rather straight-forward ‘progressive’ metal song, with actually quite a lot of repetitive sections. The bit in the middle drags on way longer than to me the song doesn’t really feel like a whole, but more like the band just threw some musical ideas together and glued them using the same riffs over again. While this band may have potential, this song didn’t do it for me.
Unfortunately eliminated :(
Participant: jingle.boy
Band – Song: White Lion – Lady of the Valley
This song actually isn’t bad at all and indeed contains some really cool guitar playing, but that singer’s voice turns me off so much that I pretty much cringe every time he sings. Unfortunately for this song, the parts where he sings are the parts where his voice is so dominant (and the rest of the music rather bland), that it’s quite difficult to turn your ears to something else. I agree with you, the guitar playing is nothing short of fantastic, but I couldn’t stand the singer’s voice – and since he’s such a big part of this band’s sound, I didn’t like this track as much as I could have. I really appreciate you having played in my roulette, even from a distance, but unfortunately, it ends here.
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I realise that this roulette has been running way longer than it should and this is mostly due to my poor planning and the inconvenient moment at which I'm running this roulette. I'm sorry that it takes so long, but lately I haven't really found the time to regularly check the forums, or to listen to any music at all, so the time I do have, I spent doing other stuff. To compensate for this, I will only do TWO more rounds in this roulette. Next round will see the last person eliminated, and then the top 3 will enter a special Final Round.
Thanks for your patience and for not getting pissed at this taking so long.
Cheers!
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Cool! Thanks! Now I really need to think about my next track, I'm starting to run out of cool unknown bands.
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I have the guitar solo from that Pyramid Theorem song as my phone's ringtone. Killer tune.
And sent!!!
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Thanks! Yours is the first and so far only one I received. Is the rest still playing?
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Thanks! Yours is the first and so far only one I received. Is the rest still playing?
Searching right now!
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Thanks! Yours is the first and so far only one I received. Is the rest still playing?
I just got home from my trip. Any chance you still have the second song I sent you before I left? Or, remind me if I've forgortten- was the second artist not allowed? I believe I actually sent three... But let me know if it got lost in the pile and I'll make sure to send as soon as possible
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Sure, I can use that one! But if you want to send something else instead, since you sent those songs before your trip, that's fine with me as well.
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Nah... I'll use that one to get into the top 3 :D
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:corn
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Use my second song too. I'm on vacation.
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I figured that already, thanks :) results tomorrow, I was in Berlin with my girlfriend this last weekend, so I couldn't post them then.
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Penultimate round results, as promised! (Is anyone still following this?)
Through to the next round :)
Participant senecadawg2
Band – Song Sylvan – The Sound of Her World
Another band I have seen live before at the Night of the Prog festival in Germany, but never bothered to check out afterwards. The huge number of Sylvan shirts and hoodies at both occasions I saw them there told me that they must have some sort of fanbase and if this song is any indication as to how the rest of this band’s material sounds, I can understand why. Definitely something else from all other songs you have sent me and a very nice progressive rock song overall. I especially like the second half of the song, where the band experiments with some heavy use of Electronics during the choruses. The guitar breaks at the end are also really nice. Great song, thanks!
Participant Nihil-Morari
Band – Song Elbow – The Birds
I have heard of this band, but never actively listened to them before. I understand that this band has been around for over two decades, but only recently (as in the past years) gained some mainstream attention. Although not a genre I would usually listen to, this is actually quite a nice song that evolves nicely in the second half. Thanks!
Participant lonestar
Band – Song Transcend – Reign Over Me
Another case of ‘how the hell did you find this band’? Like with some of the other unknown bands you’ve sent, this band also has a lot of potential, but this song lacks a lot of stuff as well. The production is quite bad and the vocals leave a lot to be desired as they’re weak here and there. However, the instrumental work in this song more than makes up for this. This was probably instrumentally the most interesting song to listen to, so that makes it even more unfortunate that it suffers from poor production and not-so-good lead vocals. This album not being on Spotify makes it a pain in the ass however to listen to it more often, but I’ll try to get a listen of the full album in sometime. Thanks!
Unfortunately eliminated :(
Participant Dr. DTVT
Band – Song Triosphere – Breathless
This isn’t bad by any means, but it fails to grab me as something special. This is a pretty generic power metal-ish song, with a nice unique selling point of having a female singer. Unfortunately, this is not enough to save you from elimination in the context of the other songs I received this round. Quite a nice song, but nothing special. I’ll put the band on my to-listen-to list, but for now this is the end for you. Thanks for your participation anyway!
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THE FINAL ROUND
I’m sorry this has taken so long, but there is just one more round here, with a different submission system than in previous rounds. Every participant will have to send me a maximum of 20 minutes of music. This can be one song, it can be multiple tracks. The limit is 20 minutes, so I will have no more than 60 minutes of music to listen to. The participant that send in the best 20 minutes of music wins the roulette, easy as that.
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Awesome- glad you enjoyed it!
I'll send my final offering in a couple hours
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Oh man, that's a difficult one. I'm gonna send you such a random list of songs, you wouldn't know where to start. I'll look after it tomorrow!
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I'll try and send tomorrow, today is quite a shitstorm.
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Sent! A very modest 3 songs, totalling 19 minutes, 45 seconds.
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Sent as well, three tracks.
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Got all songs, commencing listening soon! Fun fact; everybody sent three songs, as if you guys planned it! :)
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:corn
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:corn
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:corn
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:corn
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:corn
Rooting for RJ here btw.
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:corn
Rooting for RJ here btw.
:RJ:
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:corn
Rooting for RJ here btw.
Give the underdogs a chance. I'm cheering for N-M
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:corn
Rooting for RJ here btw.
Give the underdogs a chance. I'm cheering for N-M
Aww thanks, right back at ya!
Honestly, I'm surprised how long I've lasted. I know next to no prog metal, which let's face it, is the genre Elite is the most interested in. I mean, I've sent a spoken word song, a couple of pop songs, and a number of old 70's smash flop hits.
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You know, the problem with progressive metal is actually that a lot of it sounds similar and that in the contemporary scene, many bands are doing things that have been done before. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as there are many bands out there who deliver quality music, but finding something unique is rather difficult. Leprous, I think, are a great example of a band that sounds totally unlike any other band and I love them for that. During the course of this roulette, I received much similar music, but Nihil-Morari constantly sent something very different. This made it difficult in some rounds to judge the other music.
As for the final round: I've listened to every song multiple time and this is a ridiculously hard round to rank. At the moment, I'm flooded with work at my internship, working more hours than I sleep, so until this weekend, I virtually have no time to post anything. I want to wrap this up though and after this Sunday I'll have more time. I promise to have the final results up before or on next wednesday.
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Stay strong. I hope you get a well-deserved break soon.
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In hindsight, I shouldn't have said yes to running this roulette now abd I should have waited a couple of months :lol .
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In my mind I know who has won this by now. I just need the time to write everything down and I will do so tomorrow afternoon. So, tomorrow, a little over two weeks after receiving the songs for the final round, I can finally end this roulette. Thanks for staying with me, it will be over soon.
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No problem! I'm looking forward to the results!
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I finally got around to typing out these final results. This final round was quite consistent and it eventually came down to just two players’ songs. Even though most of the tracks I received this round I enjoyed a lot.. let’s just say two of you had sent your best song in this roulette in an earlier round. Without a lot of extra information, I’m bringing you the results. Excuse the sober fashion, but it seems quite fitting to end this roulette in this way. Ranked from third to first place, with the songs themselves ranked from favourite to least favourite, here are the results:
Third place!
Participant: senecadawg2
#1: Band – Song: Angra – Spread Your Fire
Congratulations, you did it! You sent the best song of this round and this song will surely prompt me to check out this band’s discography more. Some excellent power metal (which, as I pointed out earlier is not exactly a genre I can listen to all the time), but this song had some extras that made it differ from your usual regular power metal stuff. I enjoyed this one a lot, thanks.
# 7: Band – Song: Need – Mother Madness
And then you sent this.. Were it not for the two instrumental tracks I received, this song would be by far the worst song I got in this round. I’m sorry to say that this track did absolutely nothing to me. The guitars sound terrible, the singer has a monotone voice I absolutely cannot relate to and the whole song through everything sounds the same. Top that of with a not-so-good guitar solo and this song is a recipe for dislike from my part. Not feeling this one at all.
# 9: Band – Song: Gordian Knot – Muttersprache
I don’t really like instrumental rock music. I either find dit boring, overly pretentious, or just plain annoying to listen to. This one is a combination of all three. Having listen to this one as extesively as the rest of tracks, I find myself remembering barely anything from this track, apart from the high sustained guitar notes. I must say the production on this track isn’t that good either. I know how you said this was like your favourite instrumental track, so I’m sorry not to like it, but I fail to see why this track is good.
Overall:
I enjoyed almost every track you sent to me in this roulette. Just in the finals some things went wrong with your song choices. Where we’ll see that it got very close between the winner and the runner-up, you had the bad luck of sending me two songs I didn’t like at all. That said, I want to thank you for participating, staying until the end and for sending me lots of good music throughout. Thanks :)
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Second place!
Participant: lonestar
#3: Band – Song: The Deadstation – Hunderd Foot Drop & Subsistence Defined
This is without a doubt one of the best progressive metal songs I received in the entire roulette. The first track (Hunderd Foot Drop) merely serves as a short interlude of less than 2 minutes and is therefore completely forgettable, but the second one is awesome on all levels. It;s a shame these guys are not on Spotify, since that means I’ll have to go back to bandcamp to listen to this album. Amazing stuff, thanks!
# 6: Band – Song: Maestrick – H.U.C.
As with the previous track, I don’t really have much to say about this one. It’s a solid track, but nothing much more than that. This band doesn’t really do anything I’ve never heard before, but they are good at what they do. Just kind of average I suppose, but in a very good way.
# 8: Band – Song: Pomegranate Tiger – Stars
Another instrumental that, sadly, didn’t really do a whole lot to me. A couple of years ago, I might actually have enjoyed this, but now it sounds like a collection of (good) riff, interspersed with guitar solos and it become rather tiring to listen to all of this for the entire length of the song. Although this song was definitely more interesting than the other instrumental, it still pretty much failed to grab my attention.
Overall:
You have been very consistent in the songs you sent me and I liked almost every single track. Some killer tunes here and there. If I held this roulette at a different point in my life, you actually might have won with the same set of songs. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I think sometimes I get a little tired of the progressive metal madness all the time. This is of course hypocritical, as I play in a progressive metal band myself, but I can;t seem to listen to the genre at all times anymore. That said, this last set of songs was really good, but I have to give the edge to our final contestant, who sent just a slightly better one.
AND THE WINNER IS!
Participant: Nihil-Morari
#2: Band – Song: Gary Clark Jr. – When My Train Pulls In (Live)
This is a genre I have never really delved into. That’s weird. Despite being a guitarist, I have never really looked into blues. You said in your message that I might have played along to blues backingtracks and practised my minor pentatonic scales. Yes, I can fake playing blues for a musically illiterate audience, but honestly, I don’t really have an idea what I’m doing (I shouldn’t say this). However, this song changed the way I look at the music genre. You’re right, that guitar sound is huge. Almost perfect cleans and the fuzz and overdrives are astounding. That solo at the end is gorgeous and overall this song is so damn good, I don’t really know what else to say about it.
#4: Band – Song: Supertramp – Crime of the Century
This is a band I know a couple of songs from. Actually, I think I only know ‘School’ and I might have heard ‘Fool’s Overture’ some times, but never though anything about it. I guess this song is a little comparable to ‘School’ in the sense that it features the majority of the vocals in the first half while exploding into instrumental madness in the second half. (I just checked Wikipedia and found out both can be found on the same album.. Oops.) Anyway, this song rocked my train ride from Eindhoven to Utrecht and I will check out the rest of this band’s workm starting off with this album. Really liked this one, thanks.
#5: Band – Song: Volcano Choir – Still
I’ve listened to Bon Iver before (my girlfriend likes his music, so I’ve had him in the car sometimes) and this sounds a little like him (yes, I know it’s the same dude), but in a very different way. I have actually also heard the hiphop remix with Kanye West and didn’t think a lot of it, but hearing where it came from made me appreciate that one a little more as well. This is a very relaxing track, with indeed post-rock like instrumentation. Very nice and soothing, a nice departure from the other stuff I got this round.
Overall:
I said in my writeup for lonestar that I have gotten a little tired of progressive metal in general. This has reflected throughout the entire roulette. Some songs that I think I would have liked a lot a couple of years back, got sent out in favour of the tracks you sent me – which didn’t belong to this genre at all. You were without a doubt the most inconsistent person in the entire roulette in terms of song choices, as you were all over the place, but you sent me beautiful stuff from genres I never really looked into before. This last batch you sent me was amazing and so diverse that I can not do anything else than crown you the winner. Thanks for enlightening me to new music – not so much new bands, as other players have done - but whole new genres I never thought of exploring myself. Thanks.
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And thus I end my third and (for the moment) final roulette. I know I’ve taken too long and I would be willing to sign up for one again, but not before I get ymy life back on track so that I can work on this at a steady pace. I’m sorry if I’ve kept you waiting, but it’s all over now.
Thanks to all participants for the music you have sent me.
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dude muttersprache is incredible
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Congrats Nihil-Morari and congrats Elite for finding new music- thanks for letting me play!
I agree, Shadow Ninja. I though that would be one of the higher tracks of the round, but oh well. Different strokes. I take comfort in knowing that he enjoyed my Angra submission, which I have been holding on to for the entire roulette. Maybe next time.
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The Deadstation's debut EP is a freebie on Bandcamp, and is phenomenal.
Congrats Nihil, thought I was gonna get no. 9, but it'll have to wait.
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Wow thanks! I'm glad that my weird collection of songs was your taste. I've made a spotify list of my 9 entries, I'll listen to it as a while sometime soon. Should be quite an experience.
PS. I like muttersprache too :D
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Congrats Nihil! Maybe had I used your no-prog approach, I would have reached farther in this roulette. Oh well :lol
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Thanks! Totally would've worked ;) I just promised myself to only send songs that I like. Which worked I guess.
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Oh I like what I sent. But not Elite :lol
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dude muttersprache is incredible
This.
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Sorry to step on everyone's toes. I did not like it. Like I said, I found it boring and not memorable.
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No problem man! I can totally see why anyone wouldn't like it.