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General => Archive => General Music Archives => Topic started by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 09:42:16 AM

Title: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 09:42:16 AM
Parama's Roulette!

10 Entrants!
10 Rounds!
100 songs total! Woo!

Participants:
1. Elite
2. Sacul
3. senecadawg2
4. mikemangioy
5. Tomislav95
6. 425
7. FlyingBIZKIT
8. LordCost
9. Train of Naught
10. Shadow Ninja 2.0



Some rounds will be open rounds, some rounds will be themed. Every round will be named after a song I like that fits the theme title-wise (not necessarily musically).
1. The Start of Something Beautiful
2. Any Colour You Like
3. Music Box
4. A Simple Mistake
5. The Running Free
6. The Silent Man
7. Drumhead Trial
8. A Dark Design
9. Deep Peace
10. Ending Theme

Rules:
1. Do not take any of the wagers. You're really only gonna end up hurting yourself.
2. Any songs I deem "outside of my comfort zone" will get a .5 point bonus regardless of whether or not I like them, because taking risks is fun.
3. Submit songs via PM. Youtube links, bandcamp links, etc. or direct MP3 transfers are all acceptable methods of submissions.
4. Each round is out of 10. No score can exceed 10, even with the "comfort zone" bonus.
5. The Semi-Banned list is mostly artists I've heard one album from and wasn't hugely sold on them from that album. Entering an artist from that list is basically trying to really sell a band to me that I couldn't get into the first time.
6. The wishlist is bands I know of and have heard little to none from. There's no bonus or penalty for entering them, they're more there for me. Entering one might be a risk though because there's a few there I really doubt I'll like. But if we can get every artist knocked off that list by the end of the roulette, that would be great.
7. So I don't end up with like 5 songs from one artist in a single round; only the first two entries from an artist in a round will be allowed, others will be asked to re-send. If two people send the same song, the second will be asked to resend. There may be other cases where I ask people to resend, too.
8. Seriously, do not take any of the wagers. I put them there only as schmuck bait.

Wagers:
1. Any previously entered artist who scored lower than 8.0 can be re-entered, but if the second entry scores lower than the first, there will be a one-point penalty. Regardless of the score, only two entries from the same artist will be permitted.
2. Any artist on the Semi-Banned List can be entered, but if the entry scores lower than 8.0, there will be a .5 point penalty. Any artist on the semi-banned list that gets entered will be moved to the banned list.
3. There is no length limit on entries, but only the shortest song over 12 minutes will not be penalized. The next shortest song will be penalized .5 points, and all longer songs will be penalized 1 point.

Banned Body-of-Work:
Arjen Lucassen
Devin Townsend
Steven Wilson
Tommy Giles Rogers

Banned List:
Anathema
Baroness
Being
Big Big Train
Bing Satellites
Bodies of Water
Burst
Calgiula's Horse
Chimp Spanner
Cloudkicker
Coheed and Cambria
Deafheaven
Diablo Swing Orchestra
Dream Theater
East of the Wall
Esben and the Witch
Exivious
Explosions in the Sky
Fates Warning
fun.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Grace Cathedral Park
Gregor Samsa
Hadoken
Haken
Hammock
Intronaut
Isis
Jakob
Kamelot
Kimbra
Leprous
Levin Minnemann Rudess
Lorde
Mastodon
Metallica
Mew
Mogwai
Mono
Muse
Oceansize
Olafur Arnalds
Opeth
Pain of Salvation
Periphery
Pink Floyd
Protest the Hero
Radiohead
Rosetta
Riverside
Sigur Ros
Skyharbor
Stellardrone
TesseracT
Thank You Scientist
The Mars Volta
This Will Destroy You
Thrice
Tool
Transatlantic
Yndi Halda

Semi-Banned List:
65daysofstatic (One Time For All Time)
A Perfect Circle (Thirteenth Step)
Amplifier (The Octopus)
Arcade Fire (Funeral)
Codes in the Clouds (As The Spirit Wanes)
Cursive (The Ugly Organ)
Dillinger Escape Plan (Option Paralysis)
God is an Astronaut (All Is Violent, All Is Bright)
IQ (The Road of Bones)
Karnivool (Sound Awake)
Kayo Dot (Choirs of the Eye)
Gotye (Making Mirrors)
Green Carnation (Light of Day, Day of Darkness)
Machine Head (The Blackening)
Maybeshewill (I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone)
Pelican (The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw)
Queensryche (Operation: Mindcrime)
Red Sparowes (At The Soundless Dawn)
Rodrigo y Gabriela (11:11)
Russian Circles (Enter)
Wishbone Ash (Argus)

Wishlist:
Cult of Luna
Redemption
Scale the Summit

Banned During The Roulette:
Nightwish
Ben Levin Group
The Sword
Unexpect
Schizoid Lloyd
Brand New
Shinedown
Jolly
Coldplay
Destiny Potato
Circus Maximus
Akira Yamaoka
David Maxim Micic
Foals
Bent Knee
The Cure
Björk
Foo Fighters
Ulver
Boards of Canada
Symphony X
Mr. Bungle
maudlin of the Well
Susanne Sundfør
The Dear Hunter
ThumperMonkey
Agent Fresco
Animals as Leaders
Black Tusk
Braveyoung
The Ocean
Nine Inch Nails
Gordian Knot
Have A Nice Life
Yes
Royal Blood
The Contortionist
Shining
Lesoir
Katatonia
Nevermore
Soundgarden
Chelsea Wolfe
SikTh
Enslaved
Obsidian Kingdom
Cave In
Frost*
Múm
Premiata Forneria Marconi
Alcest
Marketa Irglova
CHON
A.C.T.
Alter Bridge
Bruce Springsteen
Native Construct
Thy Light
Headspace
Dire Straits

Eligible For Re-Entry:
The Tallest Man On Earth
Slash
Dredg
Agalloch
Vangough
Homestuck
Pure Reason Revolution
Seventh Wonder
Kvelertak
Avenged Sevenfold
Voices From the Fuselage
Slint
Tom Waits
Tremonti
Gary Clark Jr.
Taylor Swift
Now, Now
Seether
Death Cab For Cutie
Ed Harrison
Clint Mansell
If Trees Could Talk
Sufjan Stevens
BADBADNOTGOOD
Luay Rifai
Lunatic Soul
OSI
Gojira
Massive Attack
Destrage
Iron Maiden
Rage Against The Machine
Slipknot
Emancipator
Mazzy Star
Helios
Rush
Smashing Pumpkins
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 09:43:40 AM
I'm not going to even start the roulette until a week from today because I want to finish my top 50 albums list, but feel free to sign up for this trainwreck in the meantime.
Do not take the wagers.

Also, pre-roulette minigame, guess what each of the rounds is from the song title provided for them  :biggrin:

also i should mention the wagers are a bad idea because i feel my scoring curve is pretty brutal
if your song doesn't stand out don't expect higher than like a 6
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Evermind on August 24, 2015, 10:02:09 AM
Quote
2. Any songs I deem "outside of my comfort zone" will get a .5 point penalty regardless of whether or not I like them, because taking risks is fun.
4. Each round is out of 10. No score can exceed 10, even with the "comfort zone" bonus.

Does not compute.

I'm sitting this one out. Our tastes are too far apart, and since there are 10 rounds and themes too, I don't think I'll manage well. I may run out of ridiculous stuff to send.

I'll be following though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 10:02:46 AM
wow that's not supposed to be a penalty  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Evermind on August 24, 2015, 10:03:40 AM
Hey, maybe deducting points fits your own concept of fun. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 10:04:08 AM
everyone gets no points for every round, roulette over, thanks for participating
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Bolsters on August 24, 2015, 10:04:17 AM
Also, pre-roulette minigame, guess what each of the rounds is from the song title provided for them  :biggrin:
I'll give that a go.

1. The Start of Something Beautiful - Songs that are openers or could make good openers for albums/concerts
2. Any Colour You Like - Songs that invoke a colour when heard (sad=blue, etc)? Not an easy one this
3. Music Box - Relaxing music, possibly instrumental
4. A Simple Mistake - No idea
5. The Running Free - Upbeat or exciting
6. The Silent Man - Either acoustic or instrumental
7. Drumhead Trial - Songs with great drumming
8. A Dark Design - Dark and ominous stuff
9. Deep Peace - Relaxing/Ambient
10. Ending Theme - Epic closers or that could make good closers


As for participating, if my roulette has been any indication I think I should sit out. ;D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Evermind on August 24, 2015, 10:04:57 AM
Quote
2. Any Colour You Like - Songs that invoke a colour when heard (sad=blue, etc)? Not an easy one this

I think this might be an open round.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Bolsters on August 24, 2015, 10:08:07 AM
Oh right, I forgot that some of them were supposed to be open.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Elite on August 24, 2015, 10:12:36 AM
Yaaaaaay, I'm in.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Sacul on August 24, 2015, 10:58:17 AM
I'll join - expecting last place tho.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on August 24, 2015, 11:03:33 AM
I'd like to play, if you'll have me :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 11:23:44 AM
I'll join - expecting last place tho.
probably not but okay  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on August 24, 2015, 12:22:19 PM
Count me in  :millahhhh
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on August 24, 2015, 01:02:38 PM
I'd like to participate :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: 425 on August 24, 2015, 01:51:06 PM
Yes. I'm so up for this.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 04:01:01 PM
i'm gonna take Intronaut off my wishlist actually because I've listened to three of their albums on youtube now and am super hyped to get an album from them in the near future so woops
i promise to not take nay other bands off my wishlit tho
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on August 24, 2015, 05:03:56 PM
I'm in.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Crow on August 24, 2015, 10:03:56 PM
i'd say "c'mon three more" but there's still a week so whatever  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: LordCost on August 25, 2015, 06:51:09 AM
I would like to partecipate!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on August 25, 2015, 10:17:59 AM
I'd like to participate if there's still room! These are fun
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on August 25, 2015, 12:08:11 PM
Alright man I'm in this
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 25, 2015, 12:24:57 PM
alright it's full up full

I'm gonna give y'all the round 1 theme now, then, and you can send songs if you want but I'm not going to listen to any of them until my top 50 is done.

Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 25, 2015, 12:28:53 PM
Round 1: The Start of Something Beautiful
Opening tracks, or songs that give a feeling of beginning if not necessarily an opening track. Something to really warm me up for the rest of the roulette. Make a strong entrance. Adhere to the rules, don't take any of the wagers, and impress me. I'm expecting some good stuff from y'all.

And I think I left this out of the rules but adherence to theme is required, if I listen to your entry and don't find it to fit the theme at all, I will ask you to resend and dock you .5 points for the round, so please try to keep to the themes  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: 425 on August 25, 2015, 02:19:58 PM
Sent. Hopefully nobody beat me to the punch.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 25, 2015, 02:23:53 PM
you are the first person (besides Evermind, who is not in the roulette) to send me a song, so you're good
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: senecadawg2 on August 25, 2015, 03:27:46 PM
I'll send in a short while!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Train of Naught on August 26, 2015, 03:04:54 AM
Sent. 
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: mikemangioy on August 26, 2015, 03:40:24 AM
Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ACCEPTING ENTRANTS)
Post by: LordCost on August 26, 2015, 04:38:13 AM

1. The Start of Something Beautiful - Songs that are openers or could make good openers for albums/concerts
2. Any Colour You Like - Songs that invoke a colour when heard (sad=blue, etc)? Not an easy one this
3. Music Box - Relaxing music, possibly instrumental
4. A Simple Mistake - No idea
5. The Running Free - Upbeat or exciting
6. The Silent Man - Either acoustic or instrumental
7. Drumhead Trial - Songs with great drumming
8. A Dark Design - Dark and ominous stuff
9. Deep Peace - Relaxing/Ambient
10. Ending Theme - Epic closers or that could make good closers


Only one between A Simple Mistake and Music Box will be an open round, I don't see two open rounds one after the other.
A Simple Mistake if it's not an open round will be something really original (maybe two particular players will have special bonus for mistake, or their two songs submitted will have votes exchanged, or maybe it's permitted to ignore the banned list for one round, but I don't see any mistakes in a roulette to be a good idea ;D). I'd say Music Box - Open Round and A Simple Mistake - No idea too, but not open.
The Silent Man - Instrumental
Any Colour You Like - Songs that invoke a colour or with a colour in the title. I bet it's not open, even if it's probable.
I agree with you for the other other rounds.

I'll send soon.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Tomislav95 on August 26, 2015, 04:48:05 AM
Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on August 26, 2015, 06:33:45 AM
Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 26, 2015, 09:04:06 AM
lot of y'all sending me stuff while i'm a sleep  :lol
I have 8 of 10 entries already.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Sacul on August 26, 2015, 09:19:30 AM
Sended.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on August 26, 2015, 05:11:10 PM
lot of y'all sending me stuff while i'm a sleep  :lol
I have 8 of 10 entries already.

That's because we are good, and excited.

And this is my first roulette I've ever participated in, so I'd like to have a good reputation of sending in things early rather than late. Elite
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 26, 2015, 05:16:58 PM
guess who's the only one who hasn't sent me something yet  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on August 26, 2015, 07:53:37 PM
Elite :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Sacul on August 26, 2015, 08:00:51 PM
Well it'd be weird had he sent something - a man he has to keep his charm, right?  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: mikemangioy on August 27, 2015, 12:48:45 AM
Ironically Elite was the first one to send in many rounds in my roulette
That's the power of cats.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Elite on August 27, 2015, 02:07:33 AM
Oh come on! :lol this roulette hasn't even started yet haha. I'll send soon, if you want that
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 27, 2015, 08:36:53 AM
do please try to have something in by the time i start listening or you might get john cage'd  :loser:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: 425 on August 27, 2015, 03:52:28 PM
In that vein, I've just remembered that I need to track down a song of at least an hour in length to send at some point during this roulette. :biggrin:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 27, 2015, 03:57:19 PM
you can, but you are almost certainly going to get slapped with a 1 point penalty if you do
there is a good reason why i have one of my wagers there, and a good reason why there is no epic round  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: 425 on August 27, 2015, 04:01:46 PM
The problem is that there's like two songs that are that long. And also that I don't want to sabotage my scores just for the purpose of trying to exact a petty form of revenge. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 27, 2015, 04:12:55 PM
i found the other one then woo https://bingsatellites.bandcamp.com/album/complex-silence-18
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: 425 on August 27, 2015, 04:16:52 PM
I was thinking The Whirlwind, also, so we're at three now!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on August 27, 2015, 04:21:17 PM
Ah, The Whirlwind is excellent. :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 27, 2015, 04:31:36 PM
I was thinking The Whirlwind, also, so we're at three now!
it's banned, so  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: 425 on August 27, 2015, 06:13:33 PM
I know. Otherwise you'd be getting it. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 30, 2015, 10:23:37 PM
Alright, list is done, I'll be getting to these tomorrow and posting first impressions!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 31, 2015, 01:07:02 PM
Alright, snippets from first impressions! These are typed up as I listen to the songs but I'm going to avoid being too spoilery with what's posted.

First off, here's all the track times:
2:47 - 3:45 - 4:10 - 4:33 - 4:37 - 5:30 - 6:28 - 6:55 - 8:52 - 9:51

It’s quite a lot to take in on first listen, but I get the impression that even if this song doesn’t end up with a high score, I’ll probably check out an album from these guys out of curiosity.

The riffs themselves aren’t exactly special but they’re plenty competent and there’s a lot of meat to the track so there’s no time to get tired of any of them.

There’s a lot of pieces of this that I already dig quite a bit on first listen, but it loses me at other times. And I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of the female vocalist here.

The vocals are different but not horrid, and the guitar accompaniment is far beyond basic chords, but I don’t see myself getting more out of this on subsequent listens than I did on my first listen.

This on the other hand, is a really cool instrumental with a ton of good riffs and great energy throughout. The production is sludgy but not to the point where it sounds muddled.

I like the presence of the heavier guitar and bass where the other instruments are keeping a mellower feel, it works well, and the vocals are a bit off but have charm to them.

I love the presence of the organ throughout, and the song is impressively cohesive for something so crazy. The brief breaks to do something wacky fit in really well too and they’re gone quick enough that they don’t destroy the flow of the song.

The music isn’t overly complex, and not something “new”, but it knows what works and just does it really damn well, plenty well enough to let the raw emotion of the song seep through.

It’s upbeat and energetic, it’s pleasant to listen to, but it doesn’t stand out, and in a bad way.

I haven’t really talked much about the music, have I? I think that’s because, and I gotta be brutally honest here, it’s totally fine on its own, but it’s just completely overshadowed by what I’ve been listening to recently.


First impressions are non-indicative of the final scores, but if I had to guess, the score range here is going to be about 4.0 to 9.0. Could go lower, could go higher. On the whole I'm pretty happy with what I've been given, and three of you sent me some ridiculously crazy stuff too  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Evermind on August 31, 2015, 01:09:29 PM
There’s a lot of pieces of this that I already dig quite a bit on first listen, but it loses me at other times. And I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of the female vocalist here.

Now that's a surprise.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: Crow on August 31, 2015, 01:11:33 PM
Since I'm satisfied that all the tracks sent to me are in theme enough to count, I'll open Round 2 submissions now, but won't be listening to them until after Round 1 results are posted.

Round 2: Any Colour You Like
You guys came up with some pretty funny theories for an Open Round, haha. No theme restrictions here, throw something at the wall and see if it sticks. Remember to not take any of the wagers and try to send me some cool stuff.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Finishing Top 50, Then Starting)
Post by: 425 on August 31, 2015, 01:25:05 PM
There’s a lot of pieces of this that I already dig quite a bit on first listen, but it loses me at other times. And I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of the female vocalist here.

If this is me please like her more  :'(


And I'll starting thinking about Round 2, though I'm not sure I'll want to send until I see the Round 1 results.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on August 31, 2015, 01:43:24 PM
I have no clue what I sent, so I'm not sure which of those could refer to my song.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on August 31, 2015, 01:44:59 PM
this is why I usually keep notes of what i've sent/what i plan to send  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on August 31, 2015, 01:58:14 PM
I'm doing that as well. Also Parama I lied, I sent for round 2 already, because most of this roulette I'm going to be highly paranoid about somebody beating me to a particular artist.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on August 31, 2015, 02:33:13 PM
I'm confident I'm one of the three that sent 'ridiculously crazy stuff'.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on August 31, 2015, 02:35:08 PM
Round 2 Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Tomislav95 on August 31, 2015, 03:57:08 PM
Two of those could be about my song, one good and other not so good. I hope for the best :D
I think I'll send round 2 song tomorrow, didn't really check that banned list :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: LordCost on August 31, 2015, 04:17:57 PM
I hope to be the first comment and not the third, I sent a band with female vocalist too
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on August 31, 2015, 04:24:19 PM
there were like four or five female vocalists total  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on August 31, 2015, 04:30:51 PM
:lol Okay, now I feel a little safer!

Then I have no idea which description is mine. It's probably not one of the ridiculously crazy ones. Hopefully it's one of the good ones.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: senecadawg2 on August 31, 2015, 06:32:26 PM
I think I know which one is mine. I hope.

Sent round 2!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on August 31, 2015, 09:25:51 PM
I have a rough order of preference for the tracks and I assigned preliminary scores but I'm gonna have at least four listens on every track before I do write-ups and post results. Maybe more listens. Dunno. Generally liking the stuff that was sent though so there's that  :lol

The lowest scoring track is the only one that's getting the risk bonus, though, there's one that's boooorderline and I might end up giving it the half-point too.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on August 31, 2015, 09:34:56 PM
So when should we expect results?  ;D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on August 31, 2015, 09:36:21 PM
Wednesday or Thursday most likely.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on August 31, 2015, 11:41:28 PM
:tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 01, 2015, 06:28:17 PM
I'm through four listens at this point, scores range from 4.5 to 9.5 currently and that 9.5 is daaangerously close to just outright being a 10, someone had a really strong start

i think results should be up tomorrow, i'm going to do writeups next time i listen through.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 01, 2015, 07:47:28 PM
Cast the scores into the waaateeeeeerrrrr!!!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 02, 2015, 10:18:06 AM
Totally forgot what I sent to you for round one, participating in three roulettes at once has its downsides :(.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 03:12:04 PM
have over half the writeups done and I guess I'll probably just post them once I finish, I don't think doing an extra listen is going to get me much else at this point  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: TAC on September 02, 2015, 03:21:20 PM
  I guess I'll probably just post them once I finish,
Always a good idea. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 03:22:58 PM
No, you have to post them all right now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 03:24:13 PM
well that's more because "I could do another listen later tonight just to be certain in my scores" but  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 03:57:16 PM
I'd say there's such a thing as overlistening in these situations. I don't know about anyone else, but when I was doing mine I felt like if I went much over four listens it would just be oversaturation of the same few songs within the same time period.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 04:04:15 PM
Round 1 Results:

Shadow Ninja 2.0: The Tallest Man On Earth – I Won’t Be Found (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_YjK5Hk5Do)

First Impressions:
I am absolutely positive I’ve heard this before, but I have no clue where and it’s mostly just the title drop I recognize. You might notice a lack of folky acoustic singer-songwriter stuff on my list, it’s a genre of music that I find myself struggling to have any interest in. I think this is above average, the vocals are different but not horrid, and the guitar accompaniment is far beyond basic chords, but I don’t see myself getting more out of this on subsequent listens than I did on my first listen.

Final Thoughts:
I have no problem with straightforward music. Some of my favorite songs are pretty straightforward, but it works for them, because they have a depth to them, and they’re endlessly relistenable.

Unfortunately, this song is neither of those to me. On first listen, I got about as much out of this as I did on my last listen. The acoustic guitar is nice, but a bit repetitive by the end, though it’s better than just being straightforward chords. The vocals are alright, a few times his voice kind of breaks, and the inflections aren’t my favorite, but they’re different and far from awful. There’s soul put into this, surely, but it just doesn’t do much for me.

Score: 4/10 (+.5 Bonus) = 4.5/10



Train of Naught: Slash ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators – World on Fire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0KrbsvbxtE)

First Impressions:
It’s impressive but a bit sad that Slash is writing 80’s hard rock in 2014, but for what it is? It’s upbeat and energetic, it’s pleasant to listen to, but it doesn’t stand out, and in a bad way. I feel like I could turn on classic rock radio, listen to whatever pops up there, and probably get about the same experience. And while I have nothing against classic rock, I’d rather listen to it than the pop stations on most days, it’s just something I never find deep enough to merit really listening to much. Again, I don’t think a second listen or third listen of this is going to give me more out of this than a first listen did.

Final Thoughts:
This sounds a lot like 80’s hard rock, but with better production. But… it came out in 2014. And… I really don’t see the merit to this kind of rock anymore, in this day and age. Maybe it appeals to people who grew up listening to this stuff, but I don’t see it doing much of anything that wasn’t done by stuff that came out at the time. The riffs are familiar, the chorus is familiar, the lyrics are familiar, the soloing style is familiar.

I imagine this kind of thing is cool live. In a live setting, the high energy makes for a great rocker. You wouldn’t have to be familiar with the song in that environment to enjoy it, because it’s a pretty mindless, fun track that allows Slash to flex his chops a little. But me sitting at my computer, listening to this alongside the rest of the songs I’ve been given? Yeah, that’s not the environment for something like this.

I vaguely like the quieter bridge with the buildup near the end, and as a whole I have nothing against the song, but I got less and less out of it with each listen and I doubt I’ll ever want to return to it in the future.

Score: 5.5/10



FlyingBIZKIT: Dredg – Pariah (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0rOEvYKTQ)

First Impressions:
At first listen, there’s not really a lot here that stands out, but it’s competent as a whole and I can see this being a grower. I like the presence of the heavier guitar and bass where the other instruments are keeping a mellower feel, it works well, and the vocals are a bit off but have charm to them.

Final Thoughts:
This was the song I had the least to say about the first time I listened to it, and it remains the song I have the least to say about after my fifth listen. This is actually the only track that I felt less and less from each time I listened to it, honestly. The songs that scored lowered, didn’t have much ground to lose to begin with, whereas this, I thought it was pretty alright on my first listen, but I found less and less really grabbing me on relistens.

The strained vocals have a bit of charm to them but when that wears off I get tired of them. The light piano melody that’s played throughout most of the song gets a little old when it’s almost constantly there, as it’s not exactly that special. I definitely prefer the heavier moments over the lighter ones and the chorus is the only part that really grabbed me in any way on my most recent listen, it’s a solid chorus.

I just… don’t have much to say about this one, I want to like it more than I actually do like it, but it looks like that’s not happening at this point.

Score: 6.5/10



senecadawg2: Agalloch – Limbs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBoUQyIuiNQ)

First Impressions:
I’ve listened to a few songs off The Mantle with mixed results. I liked some of what I heard quite a bit, and some of it was okay but didn’t grab me. They definitely have their own sound, and I can certainly respect them for that. I think the one thing that turned me off them the most was their vocals. Those growls sound physically painful to do. That cannot be healthy for your voice. I have to admit, they fit the sound well, in the same way Opeth’s growls fit their sound, though the vocalist here is no Akerfeldt. I haven’t really talked much about the music, have I? I think that’s because, and I gotta be brutally honest here, it’s totally fine on its own, but it’s just completely overshadowed by what I’ve been listening to recently. I imagine it’ll grow on me with more listens, but it’s all a bit of a blur to me on first listen.

Final Thoughts:
What holds this back for me is the growls. I just. Can’t stand this vocal style at all. It’s incredibly raspy and really high-pitched for growls. I’m not going to say it’s bad, I have a feeling that it does fit the music well, but that won’t prevent me from being bothered by it, nonetheless. The entire first half of the song is instrumental, at least, and I like that half better, it’s got a decent build.

But the music itself is… kind of tame. The riffs are either constant chords or simple riffs. I guess technically they’re not “post-metal” in the stricter sense, but they’re somewhere close, but when I’m used to post-metal like Isis and Rosetta, some Pelican too… and I’ve been listening to a lot of random albums in the genre recently, as well… and this? Just doesn’t interest me. It’s far from bad, to be sure. Even if it’s not the most engaging, it’s still a fairly enjoyable listen overall, but judging from both this song and the Agalloch songs I’ve heard prior, I see myself having a hard time getting into this band.

Score: 7.5/10



425: Nightwish – Dark Chest of Wonders (https://youtu.be/ZLcrwOj7A_U)

First Impressions:
This is a bit heavier that I was expecting from what I’ve heard from these guys before. The symphonic elements were more prevalent in the songs, where here the metal elements are taking the forefront, which, honestly, I prefer. The riffs themselves aren’t exactly special but they’re plenty competent and there’s a lot of meat to the track so there’s no time to get tired of any of them.

Final Thoughts:
See, honestly, do you want to know a secret? I have heard quiiiite a bit of Nightwish, but not directly through my own decision. I don’t know if I’ve heard this specific song before or not, because most of the Nightwish I’ve heard just blurs together in my mind. This sounds kind of like the other Nightwish I’ve heard, too, but it’s a bit heavier with more metal riffs, and a bit more interesting. Definitely can’t say the band doesn’t have their own distinctive sound, though. They very definitely do.

But that’s the thing. They have a distinctive sound but most of what I’ve heard from them is very rigidly “that sound”. There’s nothing here that I dislike, far from it, and the song does toy with a fair number of ideas, but it’s hard telling that it does when not listening closely, as even here, it’s just all kind of a blur. Heavy metal music, operatic female vocals, lots of orchestration.

The song is completely and totally competent, though, and I enjoy listening to it a fair bit, it has a nice climax at the end and it’s not long enough to really wear on me, but this isn’t heavily convincing me to go and check out a Nightwish album on my own time.

Score: 8/10



mikemangioy: Ben Levin Group – Freak Machine 1 (Live) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYw3gdMwro0)

First Impressions:
I have no clue what any of this is. How do you describe this song? I will say, the lyrics that I can make out, I’m not a fan of. There’s a lot of pieces of this that I already dig quite a bit on first listen, but it loses me at other times. And I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of the female vocalist here. She definitely sounds alive, if nothing else. This is probably going to be the hardest nut to crack of the bunch for me.

Final Thoughts:
I think this is just weird and offputting enough that I think giving it the bonus is fair. There’s very few genres that this doesn’t touch on at some point or another. Light acoustic rock, prog rock for sure, jazz/blues stuff, definitely some stuff on the edge of metal, cabaret, there’s some rapping thrown in for good measure… it’s like if you put all music ever in a blender.

The few lyrics I can make out clearly I can’t say I’m a fan of (the stuff around 2:45 especially, I get that it’s in-character but that doesn’t make me hate it less). And I’m not a fan of the female basically just wailing over everything.

It’s really self-indulgent music, but it’s pretty cohesive on the whole, and there’s a lot more of this that I like than dislike. The mix of the instruments is really good, too, every instrument is plenty audible and none of them drown out anything else, but what the song wants you to focus on the most is always clear as well. It feels a bit overlong though, the last few minutes don’t do much new or bring anything to the table, this would’ve worked better as a tighter 7 minute track than the 9 minute one

I think if it had a bit more focus to it and cut a few of the elements I don’t like, this would probably get more points, but I still think it’s pretty cool and odds are I’ll give the whole album a listen at some point.

Oh and you gave me a Spotify link to the studio version but I’ve barely used Spotify and couldn’t really get that one to work, so that’s why I went with the live one, don’t know how much of a difference it makes but ehh! They look to be basically the same length, so.

Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) = 8.5/10



Tomislav95: The Sword – Acheron/Unleasing the Orb (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYmgjk22qXA)

First Impressions:
I’ve heard Freya from these guys and one other song, both from guitar hero games, and I thought those were pretty cool songs though they didn’t inspire me to check out much else from the band. This on the other hand, is a really cool instrumental with a ton of good riffs and great energy throughout. The production is sludgy but not to the point where it sounds muddled. There’s not a lot to say about it, but it’s thus far the one I want to relisten to the most.

Final Thoughts:
Of all the songs this round, I think this one wins on the merits of “best fit to theme” because, yeah, this is definitely 100% how you start off a metal album. Slow, hugely distorted intro, before a punch in the face with a fast chugging riff and some guitar wailing. I dig all the riffs here and it’s a huge headbanger of a song front-to-back. It’s not long enough to overstay its welcome, either, maybe another minute of the same and I’d get tired of it before it ends but, nope, ends at just the right time.

There’s not much to say about this, really, except that it’s a very enjoyable, easily accessible listen. Straightforward and loud. I don’t think there’s anything I’d change about this track.


Score: 8.5/10



LordCost: Unexpect – Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46U2y-lO344)

First Impressions:
This is surprisingly cohesive for something all over the place. Really dig the bass groove in the intro. I never expected female vocals and growls at the same time to work so well as a combination. It’s quite a lot to take in on first listen, but I get the impression that even if this song doesn’t end up with a high score, I’ll probably check out an album from these guys out of curiosity. But I do dig a lot of this already.

Final Thoughts:
I think the bass groove at the very start is probably my favorite part of this entire thing, the way it kicks out of the gate after the ambient intro. The song throws a lot of different elements together, too. Female vocals, female grows, choir vocals, strings, synths, and a general heavy sound. The guitar leads get a bit wacky in the second half, too (those trills, what the heck).

If I have to criticize this song for anything, it’s kind of a wall of sound, aside from the intro it never really takes a break from being loud and in-your-face until near the end, and it wears on me a little around the 3-4 minute mark. It’s cohesive though, plenty of ideas but they’re added in and taken out just enough to prevent things from being overwhelming, and the song keeps a constant energy throughout. Aside from me being a little unhappy with the middle of the song, this is a joy to listen to every time for me and definitely a band I’ll check out in the future.

Score: 8.5/10



Elite: Schizoid Lloyd – Suicide Penguin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCLv7a5C9Hk)

First Impressions:
I’m sure a heavy metal rock opera already exists, but this would be exactly the kind of music I’d expect from something like that. I love the presence of the organ throughout, and the song is impressively cohesive for something so crazy. The brief breaks to do something wacky fit in really well too and they’re gone quick enough that they don’t destroy the flow of the song. Definitely one that will require multiple listens to really take it but I see myself loving it every time.

Final Thoughts:
I think the only reason this is higher than Unexpect is the organ, ‘cause I love organ + metal together. But that’s not really true, they’re somewhat similar acts in that they’re wacky over-the-top and they’re metal and both are pretty great songs, but I just like this one better. It’s a bit more dynamic, mostly.

I feel like these guys have listened to a LOT of Between the Buried and Me, too, but they have their own sound, there’s not much metalcore influence here, especially. Yeah, some growls here and there, sure, not a lot though. This is as all-over-the-place as BTBAM’s more recent stuff, but the difference here is that I just like a lot of this way more than I like recent BTBAM. The wacky breaks don’t destroy the pace of the song, the riffs are a lot classier, and that organ is just fantastic. Maybe it’s because the song’s fairly brief, too, there’s not quite enough time for it to get too overwhelming. It’s concise and cohesive. And it’s pretty glorious.

I feel this is my favorite of the wacky crazy stuff sent this round, but only by a hair. That is to say, I liked quite a bit of stuff in this round, quite a lot. Definitely will check out this album.

Score: 9/10



Sacul: Brand New – Limousine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V6mUFUwBGc)

First Impressions: I think this is the only track that wasn’t the first track of an album, but the way it starts, I think it’s plenty fine for the theme. And I rejected your first song, so. I don’t know if you know it, but this hits all the same points as to why I like Thrice. The music isn’t overly complex, and not something “new”, but it knows what works and just does it really damn well, plenty well enough to let the raw emotion of the song seep through. This seems pretty in line from the song I’ve heard from them before, too, so I’m definitely interested in checking out this album.

Final Thoughts:
Honestly, I think the only reason I worry about this score, is that I feel 10/10 isn’t something that happens with stuff I just heard for the first time a few days ago. The kind of songs I put in the 10/10 category I’ve had plenty of time to think over and decide that, yes, I love every fiber of their being and would listen to them for all eternity.

On the other hand, I immediately love every fiber of this song’s being, but give me a few months before I decide if it’s really a 10/10 song that I can put with the company of my absolute favorites. Maybe that’s a bad idea to do for a roulette though. I’m trying to craft a 10-point roulette scale that’s unique from the 10-point scale I’d use for my music library, though. And on that scale, I find it highly unlikely I’m going to get another song that I instantly and immediately fall in love with to this extent.

So. The song itself, then. You sent me Sowing Season off the same album, at first, which I rejected as I was familiar with it. And you should be the lucky one, since this song is just on a whole different level from that one, for me. It’s an incredibly emotional song that’s very well-crafted and has excellent builds. The repetition of the second half is the same reason songs like Comforting Sounds make me so happy, it keeps getting more and more full with every repetition and instead of getting boring it gets more powerful, to the point where I wish it would go on even longer than it does with the build.

The story behind the song, I think, is what pushes it over the edge for me. Because… Christ. Yeah… the emotion of that scene is conveyed absolutely perfectly here. What a tragedy, indeed. Good luck to anyone trying to top an entry like this, though, you’re going to need it.

Score: 10/10



Current Standings:
Sacul - 10
Elite - 9
LordCost - 8.5
Tomislav95 - 8.5
mikemangioy - 8.5
425 - 8
senecadawg2 - 7.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 6.5
Train of Naught - 5.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 4.5



Now is the time to send Round 2 songs, I'd really like to have them all within 24-48 hours max.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 02, 2015, 04:25:14 PM
I guess it's great start for me :D The Sword is great. I especially dig that album (Warp Riders) while older two are more doom/sludge.
Also, that Brand New album is perfect.
Sending you new song right now!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 02, 2015, 04:30:58 PM
oh nooooooo

Will send soon

edit: sent
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 02, 2015, 04:35:56 PM
Cool, looking forward to Round 2 results. :corn
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 04:46:08 PM
Alright, middle of the pack, I'm happy enough with that, though I'm sad that I didn't make a Nightwish convert.  :(

Limousine is an absolutely killer song. I wouldn't give it a ten, and I wouldn't necessarily call it an opener, but it's very good.

Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 04:48:46 PM
it vaguely fit the criteria of being an opener, ehh, the way it built at the start
plus i'd already rejected the first song he sent because i knew it
and it was the only song that wasn't literally an opener
bleh  :lol

if i was gonna be listening to nightwish in the future i'd probably already be doing so though, sorry!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 04:50:04 PM
Eh, fair enough.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 LISTENING)
Post by: TAC on September 02, 2015, 06:53:37 PM

FlyingBIZKIT - 6.5
Train of Naught - 5.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 4.5

Damn, those are some tough score. You mean I could've given J Boy a 4.5 for Transatlantic??
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 06:55:33 PM
if i'm gonna be completely honest i feel my scoring curve is being too nice right now, i was considering redoing all the scores last minute (Brand New would've still gotten a 10 and Tallest Man would've been like... 2  :lol ) but I figured it could get way worse than the 4.0 of the round too so i decided against it
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 06:57:29 PM
Parama's mean. ;)

On the other hand, it could end up benefitting me if I can consistently send songs that you enjoy to a reasonable degree without needing to hit on something you really love. Whether I can do that, though...
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 07:01:38 PM
points mean more when your scale goes from 0 to 10 instead of 7 to 10  :rollin
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 07:10:35 PM
I don't know much about what my V2 will look like if it will ever exist at all, but I do know that there will be no scoring out of ten, because I hated doing that and I was awful at it. :lol I think I gave like one six and that was as low as it went.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 02, 2015, 07:20:20 PM
I think I gave like one six and that was as low as it went.
:'(


Also, fuck yes. Knew you'd love that track - fantastic album.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 07:25:40 PM
it's $6 on amazon right now and i'm having a hard time not just saying "screw it" and buying it and paying for the shipping and crap

more likely it'll just be bundled with my september order of new stuff a few weeks from now
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 07:39:50 PM
I think I gave like one six and that was as low as it went.
:'(

You didn't send the lowest scoring one!


it's $6 on amazon right now and i'm having a hard time not just saying "screw it" and buying it and paying for the shipping and crap

more likely it'll just be bundled with my september order of new stuff a few weeks from now

It is? Wow, when I checked a couple of weeks ago it was way more.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 07:44:09 PM
right here: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-God-Are-Raging-Inside/dp/B000JCETAG/

the defualt price that comes up is the vinyl price for some reason
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 07:48:02 PM
Hmm. So it is. That will have to go on the list for the third roulette shipment, then.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 07:49:37 PM
my wallet is gonna be s o s c r e w e d after this roulette, i bet, between this and like, 6 new releases between today and the end of the year i really want
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 02, 2015, 07:51:25 PM
Yep, that's pretty much where I am right now :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 02, 2015, 07:52:02 PM
i need to get a job soon, screw the job market rn basically
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 02, 2015, 10:52:26 PM
I think the lowest score I would give anything in my first roulette would probably be a 6.5.. I could never give something a 4.5 unless I truly despised it :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 03, 2015, 12:24:46 AM
Hell yeah, that's one freaky song (and album) for sure. Fair scoring  :tup
Sending :soon:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 03, 2015, 06:43:51 AM
I'm interested in Schizoid Lloyd after reading your write up, I thought I had already discovered all the weird bands  :biggrin:
Sent!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 03, 2015, 09:43:50 AM
Schizoid Lloyd are brilliant and I send them in almost every roulette I'm in :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 03, 2015, 10:43:35 AM
got 6 of 10 entries right now, get 'em in please  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 03, 2015, 11:19:10 AM
Will send soon, have to think of something you won't meh :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 03, 2015, 12:38:19 PM
What would be the use of using a 1/10 scale if you're not going to drop below 6, even if you dislike the song, might aswell use a 1/5 scale  :lol.

Also, sending soon.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 03, 2015, 12:39:31 PM
if you wanna know what would get 0/10 from me try turning on the pop station and the first rap song that comes up is prob a 0/10
sunn O))) would probably get a 1/10 most days of the week, don't send them
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 03, 2015, 12:41:11 PM
Thanks for the advice *deletes Kanye link*
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 03, 2015, 12:43:07 PM
kanye is okay, but you probably shouldn't send any of his songs, yes
i am reeeeally not open to hip-hop, it's a genre that at its core bores me
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 03, 2015, 03:55:07 PM
What would be the use of using a 1/10 scale if you're not going to drop below 6, even if you dislike the song, might aswell use a 1/5 scale  :lol.

Imagine saying "I'm going to have a 1-10 scale" and then liking every song you get except thinking one or two are just okay and not really your thing.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 03, 2015, 09:31:45 PM
Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 04, 2015, 01:38:28 AM
Sent!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 1 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 04, 2015, 08:36:02 AM
Alright, I have everyone's songs now. Going to listen and post snippets from first impressions this afternoon probably.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 04, 2015, 06:08:07 PM
oops, someone sent me a link to an album page and i accidentally listened to the wrong song (went to the one it defaulted too :V)

so oops i'm listening to 11 songs instead of 10, but i've got it right now okay
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 04, 2015, 06:40:10 PM
First off, here are the track times:
2:21 - 4:35 - 4:43 - 5:02 - 5:12 - 5:26 - 6:11 - 7:54 - 7:55 - 10:12

The climax near the end of the song is very cathartic, as well, the build there and the addition of the strings combined with her voice make for a very powerful moment.

Luckily for you, I feel like it’s going to pay off here, ‘cause goddamn, man, can this guy sing. Technically sound and very powerful as well.

Really digging the syncopation of the guitar, bass, and drums on the verses, creates a real punchy sound that fits with the kind of music mood I’ve been in lately.

There’s some cool rhythms and the instruments have plenty of breathing room, at least, I see myself warming up to this one with relistens since it does kind of fit in with the stuff I’ve been listening to as of late.

Honestly, songs like this make me remember why I still like prog metal at all anymore, it’s not a show-offy kind of song at all, the band is using time signature changes and technically to make music that has a cool groove and a nice energy to it.

High-pitched male vocals? Ehh, okay. Bad growls? Heck no. But a good female singer who can match the intensity of the music? Yes, I see exactly why this works so well. I'm surprised more people haven't thought of it.

The cleaner guitars on top of the heavier guitars makes it sound very textured, and that’s a full sound that I do like. It’s a bit samey-sounding overall though and I’m finding it hard to say much about this.

And I can appreciate the technicality of the playing. But this isn’t doing as much for me as the other progressive metal stuff this round, at least not yet.

Can’t say I have any real problem with this kind of stuff, even if it’s firmly outside of my comfort zone. This is probably happier than 95% of my music library, for one.

I do really like the atmosphere being created here. A bit empty, but not tooooo empty. Okay, maybe a bit too empty. Spending two-thirds of the song feeling like an intro might have been a tiny bit too much.



Overall I'd say that I like this round as a whole more than the previous one, so that should be good news for at least a few of you  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette!
Post by: Crow on September 04, 2015, 06:52:02 PM
I probably shouldn't be opening song submissions in advance considering that any artist I like enough is getting banned after the round's over but I like at least letting you guys know the theme enough in advance that you don't have to rush to find something fitting it. Not that it matters this round...

Round 3: Music Box
Another open round! Gosh, it's almost like I have the majority of open rounds right at the start, or something  ;D
Send whatever suits your fancy, don't take the wagers, and give me some great stuff.

in other news my Intronaut albums are coming in tomorrow apparently so the roulette entries are going to have to share space with Habitual Levitations  this weekend, but results should be no later than Monday or Tuesday  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 04, 2015, 06:55:45 PM
Okay, there's like two of these that could even possibly be mine, and only one of those I really think is mine. I'm assuming here that  there's one quote for each song. This doesn't look like it'll be quite the outcome I was hoping for, but maybe you at least like it some?

Edit: I'll send soon for round 3. :soon:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 04, 2015, 06:58:06 PM
there is exactly one quote for each song and they are in the (determined by RNG) order i listened to them.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 04, 2015, 07:43:32 PM
sent
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 05, 2015, 03:35:24 AM
I have no idea which of those quotes could be about my song because I sent progressive metal and I see others did too (we hoped for some easy points :P ).
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 05, 2015, 09:31:41 AM
5 of the tracks fit nicely under progressive metal, yes  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 05, 2015, 09:57:37 AM
I think mine fits more under progressive rock, but looks like most of us went with prog anyways  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 05, 2015, 10:03:55 AM
You were not one of the five I would consider "prog metal", yes  :P

a reminder that my favorite track last round was definitively not prog, though, so prog doesn't necessarily equate with easy points from me  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 05, 2015, 10:18:29 AM
It's just Alt. rock/Emo/Post-hardcore. I need more stuff like that actually.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 05, 2015, 10:45:25 AM
I sent something that was definitively not prog. May not be going too great for me right now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 05, 2015, 10:49:07 AM
a reminder that my favorite track last round was definitively not prog, though, so prog doesn't necessarily equate with easy points from me  :lol
I know but since I saw you top 50 I know your favorites are prog albums :D but as I said there, I'll try to send diverse music. I sent you prog just because I thought you would like that band and it may not fit in any theme round so this now is time :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 05, 2015, 01:06:59 PM
Second listen, doing preliminary scores. One of you is facing an absolute tragedy here that I feel is really unfortunate for several reasons (but the score isn't gonna be awful), but on the flip side, one song that didn't click for me much first listen, I really dig on second listen, and as well, one of the tracks here is utterly and completely out of place with the rest and it's kind of funny  :lol
I feel like the scores will overall be higher this round, though I also don't see a 10.0 being the slightest bit likely this time around. 6.5 is probably the lowest anything is going to score. Yay?  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 05, 2015, 01:26:47 PM
An 'absolute tragedy'? Oh dear.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 05, 2015, 01:47:56 PM
One of you is facing an absolute tragedy here that I feel is really unfortunate for several reasons

Yikes...

(but the score isn't gonna be awful), but on the flip side, one song that didn't click for me much first listen, I really dig on second listen,

Okay... Maybe a little better...

and as well, one of the tracks here is utterly and completely out of place with the rest and it's kind of funny  :lol

Maybe me? :lol

I feel like the scores will overall be higher this round, though I also don't see a 10.0 being the slightest bit likely this time around. 6.5 is probably the lowest anything is going to score. Yay?  :lol

Yay!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 05, 2015, 02:17:46 PM
Luckily for you, I feel like it’s going to pay off here, ‘cause goddamn, man, can this guy sing. Technically sound and very powerful as well.

Sounds like mine, atleast I hope it is, anyway, I honestly think my current submission is a better fit to your style, but i'll find that out soon.  ;D

(sending round 3 after results)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 05, 2015, 02:21:34 PM
and as well, one of the tracks here is utterly and completely out of place with the rest and it's kind of funny  :lol
My money is on either the high-pitched male vocals or the 2 minute song.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: LordCost on September 06, 2015, 01:29:48 PM
Luckily for you, I feel like it’s going to pay off here, ‘cause goddamn, man, can this guy sing. Technically sound and very powerful as well.

Sounds like mine, atleast I hope it is, anyway, I honestly think my current submission is a better fit to your style, but i'll find that out soon.  ;D


I hope it's mine too, or one of the good prog metal songs
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 06, 2015, 02:08:30 PM
i listened once this morning (not the best idea to do it right after waking up tho) and i'm prob gonna listen again later today, then do write-ups when I listen tomorrow. five listens strikes me as the magic number for these, right now.

(though to be honest I'd listened to Limousine like ten times last round by the time I did writeups  :lol )
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: LordCost on September 06, 2015, 04:35:00 PM
I've realized now I could be the one who is facing an unfortunate tragedy :huh:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 11:33:05 AM
Round 2 Results:

LordCost: Vangough – Corporatocracy  (https://vangough.bandcamp.com/track/corporatocracy)

First Impressions: Okay, I got the right track this time. I see what you mean, the lyrics here are pretty reminiscent of Pain of Salvation’s Scarsick. But the joke’s on you because I am not a huge fan of that album, and the lyrics are overly preachy even in the songs I do like, oops. And it’s a shame you sent this instead of the first one I listened to, because… this doesn’t jive as much for me. It’s pretty cool, in its own right, but… well, you made the comparison yourself, and while it wasn’t very evident in the first song, it’s WAAAY too evident here. There’s some cool rhythms and the instruments have plenty of breathing room, at least, I see myself warming up to this one with relistens since it does kind of fit in with the stuff I’ve been listening to as of late. But I preferred the other track I listened to a fair bit more, I see myself listening to this album in full at some point at the very least, though.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, see… I don’t unconditionally love Pain of Salvation. Scarsick and Road Salt 1 are pretty mediocre all-around, and even when I do listen to Scarsick I tend to skip about half the album because… some of it is really, truly terrible and pretentious. And this is too. This is very pretentious. I really can’t help but find it pretentious when bands, who sell music to make a living, write about capitalism. The funniest thing is that I had to switch browsers to keep listening to this one because bandcamp was going to make me pay to keep listening. But yeah, I really don’t like the lyrics here, they’re kind of groan-inducing.

And the music? Well, it’s alright. Overall pretty fine, not that special. The best part is, literally, stolen from Pain of Salvation, like, sorry, but that’s not a tribute, that’s plagiarism. It’s weird, ‘cause I kind of can’t stand Miss Modern Mother Mary, but the riff here, being lower in octave, is more listenable, and it’s not an entire song of just that riff either, so. I really don’t like the vocal on the chorus though, they’re kind of grating.

The absolute tragedy of the situation here is that… well, I did accidentally listen to a different song from this album first, and… I liked it, a lot more. Easy 8 or 8.5 right there, I did go and relisten to it a few times and it held up. I think, because of that song, I might still give this album a full listen at some point, but solely on the basis of the one I was sent, I almost certainly wouldn’t have. This song is definitely one I liked less and less with each listen, and I almost feel like the score I gave it is too generous, but at the same time anything lower feels too low because, it’s not awful, just… frustrating.

Score: 6/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Homestuck – Moonsetter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75kJb_aAvKY)

First Impressions: I guess the instruments are probably real. The piano sounds kind of fake but it probably isn’t. It sounds very… artificial, though, even if it’s real. The strings have plenty of life in them though. The melodies here are nice and the piano chords keep it bright and peppy, and it’s short enough to not get tired of it. Can’t say I have any real problem with this kind of stuff, even if it’s firmly outside of my comfort zone. This is probably happier than 95% of my music library, for one. I appreciate you taking risks with your entries, even if they don’t always work out – I don’t imagine this will be one of the highest scoring tracks this round, but I’m glad I listened to it nonetheless.

Final Thoughts: I think that the strings constantly doing new things is what keeps this from getting too repetitive for me, that and the short length. ‘Cause yeah, I definitely wouldn’t want this to be much longer. It’s a nice, cheery piano and strings piece. I used to read Homestuck but stopped a while back, the music did tend to be fairly decent in it though, not that I remember much of it. I think the score is mostly a result of “this isn’t something I’m going to choose to listen to ever again” but it’s far from awful. I at least get something out of it, which is more than I can say about your last entry. And I really do appreciate the risk-taking, keep it up and you’ll get the .5 bonus every round at this rate, and maybe you’ll find something that really clicks with me. (The self-imposed under three minute challenge might not have been the best idea though.)

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10



Sacul: Pure Reason Revolution – Goshen's Remains (https://youtu.be/DDHW8bsHB0w)

First Impressions:
It’s weird because it kind of has no intro in the video linked? I mean looking at the album listing it’s the second track, so I assume it just fades in from the previous track. The cleaner guitars on top of the heavier guitars makes it sound very textured, and that’s a full sound that I do like. It’s a bit samey-sounding overall though and I’m finding it hard to say much about this. Far from bad, just… not the most interesting, especially compared to a lot of the other stuff I’ve gotten this round.

Final Thoughts: Not much to say on this one, either, I think. On the whole, I’m perfectly fine with this. It just… never really got past the “being pleasant but not that interesting” phase. I like the vocal melodies/harmonies. I like that it’s nicely textured, it’s a very full-sounding song. There’s absolutely nothing about this I dislike. It’s the right length, there’s no bad additions that drag the song down. It’s a little mellow the entire way through but I think that works in its favor. The bridge near the end with the vocals layering over each other is a pretty cool moment. There’s just not much about this I have to say. I like it. I don’t love it.

Score: 7.5/10



Tomislav95: Seventh Wonder – Welcome To Mercy Falls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9djQpQI969c)

First Impressions: I like that the bass is mixed just loud enough that I can hear all the cool stuff it’s doing. And I can appreciate the technicality of the playing. But this isn’t doing as much for me as the other progressive metal stuff this round, at least not yet. It’s just like. Yeah, this is technical, and yeah, it sounds pretty decent. It sounds a lot like Dream Theater to me. It’s awash with lots of different riffs and licks, and a fair bit of soloing, but that doesn’t matter as much when none of it really hooks me in any way. I’m gonna give this a fair chance, though, maybe I’ll warm up to it.

Final Thoughts: There’s just something about this… the song has no breathing room. The guitars are all “GOTTA BE CONSTANTLY DOING SOMETHING” so there’s all these 16th note runs where it should probably be more relaxed, and it doesn’t take very long for them all to sound exactly the same to me. I don’t think this song goes five seconds without a 16th note run on guitar, though, seriously, cool your jets, geez. Sure, some of the riffs are pretty decent, but the need to constantly show off just takes me out of it. The riffs could be cooler if they were more polished.

As well, some of the vocals irk me. The “we all have faith in you line” is just sung in the most grating way, and the chorus doesn’t impress me much either. Totally fine as a singer in general, just not really my type of singer. The instrumental break has some cool bits to it, I’m totally okay with the instruments going crazy for a minute or two at that point.

Like, I wish I could like this more than I do, ‘cause I like me some good prog metal, but this ends up muddled down with the prog mindset of showing off instead of writing a good song, or at least to me it does. I still enjoy it plenty, it’s a fine enough song, but it’s not making me too interested in checking out more from this band. The 30-minute song I listened to from them during 425’s roulette I remember being pretty okay though, I guess. This though, ehh. It’s alright! It’s not that strong though.

Score: 7.5/10



FlyingBIZKIT: Susanne Sundfør – The Silicone Veil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyeFciT03i4)

First Impressions: She’s definitely a very good singer, at least technically speaking, though emotionally this is leaving me a bit cold. I think the build at the start of the song takes a bit too long, the song doesn’t really kick in until two minutes in, though it gets more engaging once it does kick in, for sure. The climax near the end of the song is very cathartic, as well, the build there and the addition of the strings combined with her voice make for a very powerful moment. It’s just a shame the first half or so of the song left me cold, but maybe I’ll warm up to it with further listens.

Final Thoughts: Okay, so I warmed up to the vocals. I don’t know why they felt cold to me at first. And it’s probably not too slow to kick in, though maybe it could’ve kicked in a bit sooner. I have no clue what exactly the lyrics are about but they seem pretty heavy-handed, though that fits the mood. The production once the song kicks in is pretty good, has a bit of a pulse and some nice synths and strings. Like I said on my first listen, the climax with the strings is gorgeous.

Still, I’m not hugely sold on this one yet. The ending feels a bit too long, and she’s a good singer but not especially interesting. It’s a very pretty song though. I may check out more from her, I know some people have sent other songs in roulettes and were met with pretty good scores for those entries so maybe there’s something I’m missing.

Score: 7.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 8/10



Train of Naught: Shinedown – 45 (Acoustic) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LlSs-IM-TM)

First Impressions: Well you’ve got guts sending me an acoustic song after my rating for Tallest Man on Earth last round, that’s for sure. Luckily for you, I feel like it’s going to pay off here, ‘cause goddamn, man, can this guy sing. Technically sound and very powerful as well. I’m probably going to check out the non-acoustic version at some point, I imagine I’ll like it even more than this one, but I’m already pretty happy with this one, as simple as it is. The instrumentation doesn’t even feel too small for how powerful the guy’s voice is, though, which is pretty impressive for an acoustic performance.

Final Thoughts: I did give the normal version of this a listen, and… yeah, the vocals seem stronger on this version, I think I agree with that decision. The vocal performance is what really makes this song. The acoustic accompaniment is good too, it can match the intensity of the singer when it needs to, but it’s not the main attraction. The song is probably about suicide, I  guess, it sounds like it. There’s very little I can really say about this, though, just a strong acoustic performance. If I could say anything, I think it did wear on me a little by the fourth and fifth listens, but I still think it’s a pretty powerful song.

Score: 8/10



Elite: Jolly – Where Everything’s Perfect (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tae6mD7kq3A)

First Impressions: Nice bright keyboard intro that deceives the actual heavy nature of the song. Though the song really does have a pretty bright feel all-around. Really digging the syncopation of the guitar, bass, and drums on the verses, creates a real punchy sound that fits with the kind of music mood I’ve been in lately. The instrumental break is pretty cool too, a nice bass lick, and delicious 7/8 time, my favorite time signature. I’m just really digging the syncopation, though, that kind of stuff is cool. I think, maybe, the song might drag a bit at the end though, the entire last minute feels like it could be cut entirely.

Final Thoughts: This is the other song this round that wore on me a little by the fourth or fifth listen. It’s perhaps a little repetitive, mostly. But that doesn’t stop me from recognizing that it’s a pretty cool song. The syncopation throughout works well. The bright atmosphere of the entire song is a bit of a change of pace from most metal but here, it definitely works. The 7/8 instrumental break in the middle is also something I quite dig, for sure, cool bass groove and syncopation, a cool heavy moment.

Not sure I care too hugely for the child bit and the sample before the last verse. Really cheesy. I kind of like the heavy outro with the dissonant piano chords but it maybe could’ve been cut down a bit, yeah. It’s a bit out of place with the tone of the rest of the song, too, but what do I know. I like this one a lot, still.

Score: 8/10



425: Coldplay – Midnight (Live) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkMxw2tWlpc)

First Impressions: I should tell you that I –never- watch videos for songs on youtube (and I’m actually youtube-to-mp3’ing as much as I can so I don’t even have the video) so I hope it’s cool live like you say it is, I might watch it once? I do really like the atmosphere being created here. A bit empty, but not tooooo empty. Okay, maybe a bit too empty. Spending two-thirds of the song feeling like an intro might have been a tiny bit too much. I do see what you mean though, it’s a quiet song and it stays a quiet song, but textured enough to keep a good atmosphere going. Vocoder isn’t my favorite thing ever but it works well enough for this song, also. Mmm. Okay.

Final Thoughts: Yeah… warmed up to this one, for sure. The atmosphere works, very well. And I actually think the vocoder was a good choice for the atmosphere. It fits in. It’s a very haunting, calm song. I actually think the louder parts are probably the weakest, now, but they were probably necessary to keep it from getting monotonous. There’s very little to really say about this but I get why you like it, for sure. Maybe I don’t feel as strongly, but it was one of the better tracks this round.

Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) = 8.5/10



mikemangioy: Destiny Potato – Addict (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_iGVxpeDmI)

First Impressions: I actually listened to one Destiny Potato track before and didn’t like it very much, so maybe putting that on my wishlist was a bit mean, but also not really, ‘cause it sounds like the kind of band I would want to get into. I don’t think it was this track though ‘cause the wackiness of the intro here seems fresh to me. What is that instrument, a sitar I think? Maybe? I dig the crunchy riffs here and, gotta be honest, I don’t think any other djent band has had a singer that fits the music as well here. High-pitched male vocals? Ehh, okay. Bad growls? Heck no. But a good female singer who can match the intensity of the music? Yes, I see exactly why this works so well. I'm surprised more people haven't thought of it. I also dig the instrumental breakdown, mostly because I can’t quite wrap my head around it, but it sounds cool. I think the drums are adding an extra 16th while the rest are keeping a steady rhythm? Or something? Hmm. Oh, okay, there are the token djent growls™. I think that’s a trope that needs to die, my favorite djent stuff has no growls at all (TesseracT, Skyharbor, Cloudkicker etc.)

Final Thoughts: Seriously, this is more interesting than most of the djent stuff I’ve heard solely on the basis of having female vocals instead of the whiny male vocals or horrible growls most djent has. Well, this has the growls for like one section, and that does bring the whole thing down a bit for me, but otherwise. The synths at the start are cool too, a weird darker pop feel to them. And the sitar or whatever, it has good energy and adds a bit of extra flavor to the song. The djent grooves are pretty cool throughout too, the instrumental break has all sorts of fun with rhythm especially. Definitely will check out more from Destiny Potato, not much to complain about and it’s a pretty cool song all-around.

Score: 8.5/10



senecadawg2: Circus Maximus – Architect of Fortune (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__rm908F9MI)

 First Impressions: I think I might have heard something from this band before, but I’m not sure, and I’ve never really checked them out. The kind of groove this song’s intro has is something I really dig, though. This is definitely a darker tune, so I might be biased to dig it more though. Honestly, songs like this make me remember why I still like prog metal at all anymore, it’s not a show-offy kind of song at all, the band is using time signature changes and technicality to make music that has a cool groove and a nice energy to it. Better damn well believe I’m interested in this album, though, if you’re sending me a ten minute track that I dig this much on first listen.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, the riffs here… they are fantastic. Heavy as hell, I can really get into the rhythm of them. It’s just, this isn’t very show-offy. There are technical bits, but they’re not the entire song, and some of the more technical stuff is really goddamn cool, I love the chaotic bit that first appears right before the first verse. And the atmosphere of the quieter verses is fantastic, the chorus is very big and bright as a counterpoint to the darkness of most of the rest of the song, the vocals aren’t over the top at all, not the best singer but it fits the song very well.

The song refrains from being repetitive, too, the first time the chaotic bit is reprised there’s a bit of a twist on it, so it’s not exactly the same. The guitar provides a nice polyrhythm for the second verse and keeps it more energetic than the first. Gotta love the quiet, atmospheric break in the middle, too. This really flies by for a ten minute song, gosh. The guitar solo has a lot of class too, pretty restrained for the first bit, chaotic for the second, and powerful for the last bit. Goes a lot of places without feeling overindulgent or pointless.

A nice long prog metal song with cool grooves and riffs, tasteful soloing, and tons of atmosphere? Yes, please. Was on the fence between 9 and 9.5, but I think in the end I gotta go with the latter.

Score: 9.5/10




Current Standings:
Sacul – 17.5
Elite – 17
mikemangioy – 17
senecadawg2 - 17
425 – 16.5
Tomislav95 – 16
LordCost - 14.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 14.5
Train of Naught - 13.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 11.5


Send Round 3! Would like to have these as soon as possible.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 11:34:00 AM
i feel i was a bit too nice on a few songs here but i think overall i'm okay with these numbers.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 07, 2015, 11:47:25 AM
Goddamnit you mike and biskit, stole me those artists  :lol . Yeah, didn't expect much from this one, but at least it's a decent score - I hope to keep on the lead in the next rounds.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 11:50:09 AM
mike even said "I hope Lucas didn't send this already" in his PM (though two entries from the same artist in the same round are permitted, but not three or more  :lol )
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 07, 2015, 11:59:32 AM
Honestly, I hoped for more but 7.5 is not bad either. Will send you round 3 today.
EDIT: Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 07, 2015, 12:12:18 PM
Not bad, hopefully I can start staying above the 7.5 range.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 12:28:21 PM
well everyone hopes for a 10 but not everyone can have one, sorry  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 07, 2015, 12:29:21 PM
well everyone hopes for a 10 but not everyone can have one, sorry  :lol
;)

Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 LISTENING)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 07, 2015, 01:18:16 PM
I think the drums are adding an extra 16th while the rest are keeping a steady rhythm? Or something? Hmm.

It's 4/4 but in quintuplets, all with a 6/8 feel. One of the most tricky things to pull off ever.

BTW, glad you enjoyed! I will send soon round three.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 07, 2015, 01:21:55 PM
Yay you actually liked it more than I thought from the first impression! I think it might be one of those cases where that song came at just the right moment of my life for me to love it, so my quest to find someone who adores it as much as I do might still take a while, but I'm happy you liked it. I'll send for round 3 tonight.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 07, 2015, 02:04:27 PM
Sweet. I'm glad you enjoyed the song!

It's a good introduction to a great album and band, in my opinion. I'll be sending my round 3 submission shortly
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 07, 2015, 02:10:07 PM
Don't worry, I'm only doing the "under three minutes" thing for as long as it coincides with songs that I want to send. :lol

Also read Homestuck. If you stopped five years ago, you probably hadn't gotten to any of the really great stuff yet.  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 02:22:07 PM
i don't think it was literally five years ago, i think i lost interest in the huge break before that 10 minute animation and never got back into it since  :lol
way too many plot points for me to remember and it was painfully convoluted
mostly i just thought problem sleuth was a lot more engaging/amusingly weird
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 07, 2015, 02:39:30 PM
If that's how you feel, then I'm no longer surprised your music opinions are so bad. :P

(plz dont give my next song a bad score)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 07, 2015, 02:43:46 PM
I think I chose the only song I shouldn't have chosen of that album :D
I've known Separation and other tracks from Between The Madness for some years, and I only learned Corporatocracy a week ago and it was stuck in my head when I sent round 2. I don't put much attention to the lyrics because english is not my native language but everything you've written is right. I think only the track Useless talks about the same Scarsick topics apart Corporatocracy, and the musical standard of the album is always really high, so I advice you to listen to that album ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 05:11:51 PM
Shadow Ninja 2.0: A Bad Song - A Bad Artist (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org)

Atrocious.

Score: 0/10
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 07, 2015, 05:34:40 PM
nooooooooo
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 07, 2015, 07:20:08 PM
Between rounds, so I'm listening to a ton of albums, put on that Unexpect album and god this is overwhelming  :lol
But pretty nice, just overwhelming especially. Gotta listen to a lot of these though, too much cool stuff  :lol
got a lot of other albums I'm checking out on my own discovery too, I am gonna go broke with all the stuff I wanna get at this rate
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 08, 2015, 03:11:53 AM
I just remembered I listened to Circus Maximus (first two albums, they didn't released third back then) and while I liked some of it, it sounded really shallow to me, and a bit technical for sake of it. I think I should give Nine chance then.
P.S. I opened that link on Architect of Fortune and it's thumb up-ed on Youtube. I have no memory of this ???
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 08, 2015, 03:18:20 AM
I knew that snippet was for my song, what I didn't know was the lowest scoring song from last round was acoustic, the funny thing is, when I said I thought I had already sent you my song, I meant to send the normal version, but decided to go for the acoustic one instead.

On a side note: Dangit seneca I wanted to send Architect of Fortune this round :(.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 08, 2015, 03:22:34 AM
I just remembered I listened to Circus Maximus (first two albums, they didn't released third back then) and while I liked some of it, it sounded really shallow to me, and a bit technical for sake of it. I think I should give Nine chance then.
P.S. I opened that link on Architect of Fortune and it's thumb up-ed on Youtube. I have no memory of this ???
Nine is their best album IMO, you should atleast check out Game of Life (goddamn that solo) and Namaste.

EDIT: Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 08, 2015, 03:42:59 AM
Lol, Isolate is so much better :|
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 08, 2015, 07:55:46 AM
got 99 problems but all entries ain't one
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 08, 2015, 07:57:02 AM
Between rounds, so I'm listening to a ton of albums, put on that Unexpect album and god this is overwhelming  :lol
But pretty nice, just overwhelming especially. Gotta listen to a lot of these though, too much cool stuff  :lol
got a lot of other albums I'm checking out on my own discovery too, I am gonna go broke with all the stuff I wanna get at this rate
In a Flesh Aquarium is even weirder!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 08, 2015, 08:04:18 AM
that's the one I can actually get on amazon (and at a fairly reasonable price) so maybe I'll discover that weirdness for myself, at some point  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 08, 2015, 10:11:00 AM
i've been digging this Intronaut album and have been listening to albums from bands like Cynic, East of the Wall, Graviton, Spiral Architect, Anciients, Burst, Baroness etc. so if you have any cool stuff in any of those veins feel free to try for some easy points 'cause i'm digging a lot of this kind of stuff  :lol

I'm not overly familiar with most of the songs from any of those bands either (I'd probably ban The Space for This by Cynic and a few of the Baroness tracks I've heard, but that's about it  :lol )

Also I gave the album from The Sword a listen, lots of cool riffs happening there so odds are I'll get that at some point.

anyways I need two more entries then I can start listening pretty much right away.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 08, 2015, 04:15:38 PM
Sent :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 2 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 09, 2015, 06:48:46 AM
Sent
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 09:18:51 AM
gonna do first impressions after lunch, get hyped
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 10:35:44 AM
oh yeah, I'd heard this Susanne Sundfør song before and thought it was pretty cool, not as big of a fan of her voice here but the music is really great and interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdSB_PcBW3k
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 09, 2015, 10:42:23 AM
That whole album is one of my favorites this year.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 11:13:20 AM
First up, song lengths.

2:31 - 3:24 - 4:25 - 4:31 - 4:34 - 4:50 - 6:53 - 7:35 - 7:47 - 10:57

The focus here is the build of the instruments, anyways, and the atmosphere, and that? That is done well, for sure. It doesn’t really feel like it takes too long to get huge, and it teases at it a little closer to the start.

The song goes a lot of places and incorporates a lot of different/weird elements while still sounding pretty cohesive, though on first listen I wouldn’t say I’m, like, crazy about it, but it’s good!

The guitar and drums are having fun screwing a little with the rhythms in the verses while still maintaining a constant time, it’s pretty cool.

Uhh, hopefully this one’s a grower. They’re doing some mildly cool stuff, but I’m not too in to any of it for whatever reason. Nothing wrong with it, just… eh?

It’s a pretty decent slice of instrumental rock with some violin for good measure, but I don’t know how much I’m really going to get out of this.

Like, okay, this isn’t awful, and it’s short enough to not get grating. But it’s just kind of a wall of sound with one or two riffs and some really unpleasant vocals.

The atmosphere of the quiet parts is something I really dig, though, and her voice matches it well. The “suddenly loud” parts kind of… clash though, they’re cool parts but is this really the same song?

The rest of the song just kind of… happened, though. It’s alright and I’m not tired of that bassline yet so I’m not bored or anything, but… dunno, not that engaging.

There’s enough cool riffs here and some good atmosphere to keep me interested. I don’t really think it stands out in any way from the similar stuff in the genre, though.

This does go a lot more places than what I’ve heard from them before, and it’s… alright, but I can’t say it’s doing a whole lot for me on first listen.



I hope most of you sent growers this time around  :lol
or maybe it's just me, i dunno? ehh.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 09, 2015, 11:18:22 AM
Wow! Based on those write-ups, everybody gets a 5 :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 09, 2015, 11:19:24 AM
Only like 3 or 4 of these are positive based on these excerpts :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 11:21:39 AM
yeah i'm not too pleased with this round, as a whole

oh i should post the theme for the next round though
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 11:24:30 AM
Round 4: A Simple Mistake
The theme of this round is: Non-prog songs! I don't want any wacky tempo changes or complex time signatures, and try to keep the instrumental wankery to a minimum too, a bit of soloing is cool but a three minute solo break ain't gonna fly. Not changing the length limit, you can send a twelve minute non-prog song, but just don't make it prog.

If previous scores for simpler songs are any indication, I want to see some depth from songs, powerful emotions, cool grooves, or good atmosphere. Just a tip.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 09, 2015, 11:28:47 AM
Hmmm. I hope mine is one of the better songs this round.

I look forward to digging out some non-prog
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 09, 2015, 11:46:50 AM
I don't send bad songs. Parama's observations are incorrect.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 09, 2015, 12:21:33 PM
I really thought I sent a cool song but it seems it's a miss for you. Still, I hope it'll grow on you :tup
EDIT: Sent. Hopefully, it won't be a mistake :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 09, 2015, 12:48:12 PM
I don't send bad songs. Parama's observations are incorrect.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 01:16:00 PM
secretly it's revenge for oceansize mwahaha
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 09, 2015, 02:14:49 PM
My song is definitely a grower, and you'll end up loving it :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 09, 2015, 02:42:32 PM
Sent
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 02:55:05 PM
i sure hope these grow on me, i probably picked a bad time to do first impressions or something, i dunno

maybe it's 'cause i listened to them too soon after listening to Intronaut, which I am currently in love with

and I'm listening to an Alcest album right now, definitely need to get an album from Alcest, they are very good.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 09, 2015, 02:56:33 PM
Here's a secret: When I did mine, I would write the first impressions after the first listen, but I wouldn't actually post them until after the second listen.

That way if I wrote something I didn't think made sense at all with how I felt about the song the second time, I could just not post it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 02:57:35 PM
I post snippets from first impressions because those tend to be the most genuine reactions, but first impressions don't necessarily have to line up with my final thoughts (a lot of them haven't thus far)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 09, 2015, 03:00:09 PM
Yeah, I mean I kind of like that yours are pure first impressions, especially knowing that mine... weren't, really. Well, they were, but censored. I just figured I'd mention it in association with you thinking it may have been the wrong time for you to do those.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 03:03:21 PM
for what it's worth round 4 is the perfect time to send me post-rock or post-metal like alcest if you have any of that saved up, most of that i wouldn't count as prog  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 09, 2015, 03:04:42 PM
I think I know what I'm going to send for round 4, and will do so this evening.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: LordCost on September 09, 2015, 05:42:30 PM
Sent round 4!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 09, 2015, 06:07:01 PM
for what it's worth round 4 is the perfect time to send me post-rock or post-metal like alcest if you have any of that saved up, most of that i wouldn't count as prog  :tup

I thought about that, but my first encounter with the wish list has me feeling a little timid. Specially when there are a ton of great bands that don't make either list.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 09, 2015, 06:24:22 PM
the wishlist is basically just stuff I've been meaning to check out and haven't really, it's not indicative of "I will definitely like this"

i can understand your hesitancy though  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 10, 2015, 12:21:41 PM
Through a second listen, I guess things have improved slightly, both my least favorite and most favorite from first listen got more enjoyable and a few of the others were a bit better but some are still leaving me cold  :(

scores are in like the 5.5 to 8.5 or 9 range right now, only one song even stands a chance of getting the bonus +.5 and might get it, not sure. if ben levin got it this one might as well too, i figure? *shrugs*
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 10, 2015, 12:33:05 PM
Worst will be around 5.5? I guess it won't be that disastrous :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 10, 2015, 12:43:34 PM
I'd rather have a 9, but I'll be happy with the 8.5 as well  ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 10, 2015, 01:01:04 PM
preliminary scores don't necessarily mean final scores, some songs get rated down on repeat listens, some get rated up, so who knows
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 10, 2015, 06:02:12 PM
so who knows

You do. You know.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 10, 2015, 10:37:37 PM
A few scattered comments after the third listen.

One of the tracks has a stretch of stuff I don't like surrounded by stuff I dig quite a bit, and that one stretch is probably going to drag the entire thing down.
One of the tracks might be kind of ruined for me by the mixing, it's completely wrong and the song can never achieve a "full" sound that it really needs as a result.
Two tracks that just don't stand out for me in any way and I can't really get into.

be happy
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 11, 2015, 06:48:41 AM
Love that I have the opportunity to play in a roulette anyway. Results aren't the importance for me.  :tup I get to discover music too.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 11, 2015, 07:17:02 AM
The bottom write-up just has to be mine, 99%.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 11, 2015, 07:23:07 AM
Also, i'm pretty sure I didn't send for round 4 so far, correct?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 11, 2015, 08:54:06 AM
you did actually send for round 4 already  :lol

gave the Brand New album a spin, pretty quality stuff, don't think any of it is as strong as Limousine on first listen but I definitely want this album.
expect results tomorrow, I'd say
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 11, 2015, 08:55:40 AM
The other songs will grow on you, believe me. And then you'll love it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 11, 2015, 05:47:25 PM
i seem to easily be able to recognize my favorite song each round on first listen, 'cause that hasn't changed in any of these rounds.
unfortunately it's not gonna get higher than a 9 since i don't think it matches the 9.5 or 10 of previous rounds
i think this round as a whole was a bit disappointing though really  :'(
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: LordCost on September 12, 2015, 06:19:58 AM

The guitar and drums are having fun screwing a little with the rhythms in the verses while still maintaining a constant time, it’s pretty cool.

Uhh, hopefully this one’s a grower. They’re doing some mildly cool stuff, but I’m not too in to any of it for whatever reason. Nothing wrong with it, just… eh?



I hope to be the first of these two and to score a 9 :D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 09:26:26 AM
gave the Schizoid Lloyd album a listen this morning.

...

wow. I need this.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 12, 2015, 09:36:24 AM
:tup

I thought you'd like that ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 09:45:34 AM
this bandcamp page actually has a few other albums i might check out too, hmm.
the mp3 downloads are all "name your price" but i feel bad about just getting them for free lol (also i want a physical copy because heck yeah physical copies but physical copies are a bit pricey everywhere I've looked  :lol )
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 12, 2015, 09:54:24 AM
I don't know where you live, but Blood Music released their first album through their label. You can get it for a very reasonable $12.99 (€12.99 if you live in Europe) on their website, though I have no idea what the shipping costs will be, as the label is located in Finland.

Store: https://www.blood-music.com/store-us/
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 10:05:16 AM
yeah shipping is my bigger worry, unfortunately  :lol
amazon doesn't have it sponsored so I can't get it through them without shipping either. there's a seller for under $12 and $4 shipping though. maybe.

listening for the last time and doing write-ups right now but I'm gonna be interrupted by making lunch so expect them in like 90 minutes or 2 hours from now
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 11:29:40 AM
Round 3 Results:

Shadow Ninja 2.0: Kvelertak – Mjod (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Y7Nr9NdN8)

First Impressions: Whaaaaat have you sent me. This is apparently labelled both “hardcore punk” and “black metal” on rateyourmusic, neither of which are genres I like… much… at all… Like, okay, this isn’t awful, and it’s short enough to not get grating. But it’s just kind of a wall of sound with one or two riffs and some really unpleasant vocals.

Final Thoughts: This one at the very least, grew on me a liiiittle bit from my first listen. That being said, I don’t really know how much of a place I have for this. It’s basically just two riffs, combined with, yes, very much black metal style vocals. I just. Can’t stand those kind of vocals at all. The group vocals on the chorus are okay though. The song does go a fair few places in the short runtime, but it does boil down to just variations on the same riffs. I think the intro bass groove is my favorite part of this whole thing though. Don’t hate this or anything but I don’t get much out of it, sorry.

Score: 5.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 6/10



FlyingBIZKIT: The Dear Hunter – The Thief (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsOxy0glL6Y)

First Impressions: Uhh, hopefully this one’s a grower. They’re doing some mildly cool stuff, but I’m not too in to any of it for whatever reason. Nothing wrong with it, just… eh?

Final Thoughts: This is my fifth listen now and I only vaguely remember hearing any of this before; and I’m not sure why. I give each song the same listening environment and attention, but only this song leaves me entirely cold. The sound is vaguely pleasant, the 5/4 feel is done well, and there’s some decent buildup. The hits that occur on the buildup of the bridge should be powerful and memorable.

And yet… here I am, listening to this again, and just getting nothing from it. I have no clue why, honestly. I’m trying to look at this objectively and objectively it should be getting at least an 8, but… for whatever reason I can’t get into this in the slightest. Sorry. Maybe it’s just too slow of a grower?...

I’ve really struggled rating this one fairly. My mind says it should be 8, my gut says it should be a 6 or lower. I’m going to take the middle ground between those two and hopefully not regret it too much.

Score: 7/10



Train of Naught: Avenged Sevenfold – Save Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ngdc_tZHe8)

First Impressions: I have indeed heard some Avenged Sevenfold before. Entirely through guitar hero and rock band! And they’ve always occupied the space of “this is totally fine but I wouldn’t actively seek it out”. So hopefully your 11 minutes of a band I’m very meh on works out. This does go a lot more places than what I’ve heard from them before, and it’s… alright, but I can’t say it’s doing a whole lot for me on first listen. Maybe it’s because of the mixing of the instruments but the “big” parts at the end don’t feel big enough to me. Like, almost there, but not quite.

Final Thoughts: I like the bass groove at the very start, basic as it is. And I like the guitar leads in general, though they don’t really stand out. The song feels like it kind of meanders for a while until the vocals come in though.

There’s just ooooone underlying problem that persists throughout the song.

Who the hell mixed this. Aside from the intro, there’s very little bass throughout the song, and a lot of the time the song is really attention-guiding to an unhealthy degree. The big chords in the background are too low to give the song the big sound it really needs to, and this is especially noticeable in the buildup at the end, which never really comes to a climax because it can’t get loud enough with the mixing. A lot of the time the lead will drown out everything else, too.

And honestly, you probably should’ve sent something shorter. This is kinda samey for 11 minutes. Half that and I’d probably be able to get more out of it. Alright, here’s a part with a soaring guitar lead. Now here’s a part where they chug on one chord a lot. Here’s some more guitar leads. Have some bells.

I’m far from hating this, don’t get me wrong, but I feel I’ve heard better songs from this band simply through what I’ve previous been exposed to. Beast and the Harlot is pretty good though poorly structured. Bat Country has good energy. This… just drags too much for me to really get into, unfortunately. The only thing not-by-the-numbers about this is the length, I feel. And Portnoy’s drumming, of course, which is pretty good.

Score: 7/10



425: Voices From the Fuselage – Meteorites (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUmGrQkc0Zw)

First Impressions: You did it, you sent a song. Ashe sounds different on the intro to this than his TesseracT stuff but when it kicks in I can tell it’s the same vocalist, yeah. There’s enough cool riffs here and some good atmosphere to keep me interested. I don’t really think it stands out in any way from the similar stuff in the genre, though. Nice to listen to, but nothing special, I don’t know.

Final Thoughts: I kind of feel bad because I kind of pushed you a little to send me this, but at the same time I didn’t really know what to expect other than “prog metal”.

And that’s what I got. Like… fine-tuned prog-metal that technically sounds good, but doesn’t really stand out for me in the slightest. Ashe is a good singer and his voice suits the music well enough. The instrumentation is varied enough and it’s all pretty pleasant and powerful. I certainly enjoy this. But it’s not making me rush to check out more from the band, and I’m probably going to forget about it a week from now.

Score: 7.5/10



LordCost: ThumperMonkey – Wheezyboy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqaea3vcvvI)

First Impressions: Oh god, I dig the bass tone and groove of this intro a lot. The rest of the song just kind of… happened, though. It’s alright and I’m not tired of that bassline yet so I’m not bored or anything, but… dunno, not that engaging.

Final Thoughts: Duuuude. I super dig the guitar/drums/bass groove of the softer parts of this. That’s just a cool thing. The swelling synths in the background are also a nice touch. But then when the heavy part kicks in… ehh. It has energy, sure, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. The vocals especially, I just don’t like them at all here, whereas they’re fine in the rest of the song. And the heavy riff being played isn’t especially interesting, at least compared to everything surrounding it.

Two-thirds of this song I think is pretty cool stuff, though not my favorite or anything, but then there’s the middle third that I kind of wish wasn’t there. Nothing about this is awful though. It just kind of… happens, though, there feels like very little variety for the length. I vaguely like this but I’m not sure I’ll return to it.

Score: 7.5/10



Elite: Agent Fresco – See Hell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Vp_VMcyL4)

First Impressions: I like the singer here a fair bit, nice voice. The guitar and drums are having fun screwing a little with the rhythms in the verses while still maintaining a constant time, it’s pretty cool. This one’s leaving me a bit cold on first listen, though, but hey, that’s why I listen multiple times.

Final Thoughts: The math nerd in me does like the 11/16 riff played over 3/4 time. That’s a cool thing and something I can really get into. And yeah, the singer’s voice is nice. Reminds me of the Haken guy a little, or at least I think that’s who I’m reminded of. I think one thing that gets me about this is that it doesn’t feel dynamic enough. The chorus isn’t that big compared to the verses, but it feels like it should be.

While I do vaguely like this one, I can’t say it’s evoking strong feelings from me in any way. The groove of the song is pretty strong, but it kind of feels like a lot of the same after multiple listens. Doing one thing well, but that one thing isn’t quite enough to make it go from a good song to a great one.

Score: 7.5/10



Tomislav95: Akira Yamaoka – Theme of Laura (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LB7LZZGpkw)

First Impressions: Never played this game myself but I’ve seen a playthrough of it, it’s pretty good. I vaguely remember this song a tiny bit, I guess, but I don’t actually remember the character it’s named after. It’s a pretty decent slice of instrumental rock with some violin for good measure, but I don’t know how much I’m really going to get out of this.

Final Thoughts: Man, this is actually a surprisingly moody song isn’t it. The bright, dreamy intro, the upbeat main lead, and then the darker guitar line that follows it. This is very much a soundtrack song, though, and outside of context there’s not really a lot for me to gain from this. I enjoy listening to this. I probably won’t come back and listen to it again, but it’s been a pretty strong song all-around in this round.

Score: 8/10



Sacul: David Maxim Micic – Where is Now? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psDZdQKgzoE)

First Impressions: I gave this album a single listen before but I don’t remember it very well at all so it’s perfect okay with me for you to send this. It’s a pretty big-sounding song for the first few minutes, maybe drags a little but I like what I’m hearing anyways so whatever. Liking the violin quite a bit, too. The song goes a lot of places and incorporates a lot of different/weird elements while still sounding pretty cohesive, though on first listen I wouldn’t say I’m, like, crazy about it, but it’s good!

Final Thoughts: This guy is just a madman, apparently. First he mixes djent with female vocals and pop influences. Then he mixes progressive metal with… whatever he felt like throwing in the blender. This song is just a constant journey, going to a lot of different places while still feeling impressively cohesive.

The first bit is a big build of a section, and I pretty well love it, it’s diverse enough and gets to be plenty full. When the song finally takes a break, we get a fantastic violin solo and a cool bassline. Then a jazzy heavy riff that’s just fantastic. And then it goes all big band on us with some scat singing and… somehow that doesn’t feel out of place in the slightest, it’s actually pretty damn awesome. The solo after is a bit shreddy but it works, maybe because of the palm-muted beginning. A return to the first section closes out the song full-circle, and both the male and female singers here really give it their all to make it sound as big as possible.

Score: 9/10



senecadawg2: Foals – Spanish Sahara (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYoINidnLRQ)

First Impressions: The vocalist on this isn’t my favorite on first listen, this kind of male vocal sound isn’t something I really care for, but it’s not bad. The focus here is the build of the instruments, anyways, and the atmosphere, and that? That is done well, for sure. It doesn’t really feel like it takes too long to get huge, and it teases at it a little closer to the start.

Final Thoughts: This is one hell of a grower. God, I came to love this song in the last few listens. The lyrics actually helped, I think. This is all about the atmosphere and the build. And I really like the vocalist here now, actually, which helps. Mmm. It’s just a really evocative track. The second time it builds up and gets really full is probably the single best moment of this entire round. I really did not expect to be rating this one this highly on first listen but I am definitely loving it quite a lot, each listen just got better than the last.

Score: 9/10



mikemangioy: Bent Knee – Being Human (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCU_lScCpAM)

First Impressions: 30 seconds in: Oh I guess this is going to be a nice atmospheric female-fronted pop song. Soon after: HEY HI THERE I’M A HEAVY ROCK RIFF. The contrast is very noticeable. The atmosphere of the quiet parts is something I really dig, though, and her voice matches it well. The “suddenly loud” parts kind of… clash though, they’re cool parts but is this really the same song? I dunno. It gets really noisy but in a kind of cool way, later, I will admit that this is probably my favorite so far even if the loud/soft contrast feels a bit clunky.

Final Thoughts: Now that I’ve listened to this enough, the heavy/loud contrast feels a lot more natural. And once that roadblock is out of the way… god damn, this is amazing. The atmosphere of the quiet parts and the classiness of the heavy parts play off each other perfectly. The transitions between the two are done pretty well, too.

The singer’s voice here is really nice, I’m quite a fan of it. The piano and synths here make this very textured and pleasant. It kind of reminds me of Lorde’s Buzzcut Season, though I think the atmosphere there is slightly better.

But then she proves she can sing just fine over the heavier stuff too. Those are some wacky chords but they work so well, and the violin in the mix helps really bring them to life. The breakdown in the middle with the odd rhythms and guitar noise is possibly the best part, though. That is just the perfect embodiment of chaos right there. And the final chorus section is just massive and glorious.

I liked this one the most on first listen and that hasn’t changed, but it went from “this is pretty cool” to “second best song thus far” with relistens. Another good grower.

Also, I can’t believe you secretly sent me Ben Levin again. That’s the second semi-repeat artist of the round.

Score: 9.5/10


Current Standings:
Sacul – 26.5
mikemangioy – 26.5
senecadawg2 - 26
Elite – 24.5
425 – 24
Tomislav95 – 24
LordCost - 22
FlyingBIZKIT - 21.5
Train of Naught - 20.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 17.5


This was a really polarizing round for me. The top three here are among the best and most interesting stuff I've been sent, while the rest didn't really do a whole lot for me. Also subnotes: I ping-ponged between 9.0 and 9.5 on Foals and I'm sorry I went with the lower score but I didn't quite feel a 9.5 from it :<

Anyways, send for round 4! A lot of y'all have been sending me non-prog stuff anyways and I've found a fair bit of it to be pretty strong (Brand New, Coldplay, Foals were all great) so I'm expecting good things.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 12, 2015, 11:34:19 AM
I'm glad that the song grew on you that much! I won't be able to send until tomorrow but I think I know what it'll be.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 12, 2015, 12:09:20 PM
Yeah I totally agree with you, this is not a good song to introduce someone to Avenged, it's nothing like their usual stuff, which also gave me the motivation to send it, I thought it'd be fun to expose you to a different side of them, and I don't regret it that much either.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 12, 2015, 01:20:38 PM
Fuck yes  ;D . That's a fantastic song mike, no shame losing half a point to it. Will send soon.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 01:26:20 PM
i'm actually already listening to that Bent Knee album already because please.
I imagine I'll have to listen several times before it all sets in though, as did Being Human. Seems pretty good so far.

both In God We Trust and Battle Creek stand out to me a bit, thus far
Sunshine is also pretty intense
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 12, 2015, 02:47:39 PM
Now go listen to Bilo 3.0 :neverusethis:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 12, 2015, 03:23:00 PM
Wow, I like my score in this round, not too bad. As I already said, there are great songs in SH soundtrack, some of them feature awesome actor/singer Mary Elizabeth Mcglyn. Now I'm sorry I didn't send you something with her on vocals, maybe it'd be less soundtrack sounding (if you want, check I Want Love).
If I'm not mistaken I sent you something simple and beautiful few days ago ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 03:26:19 PM
Now go listen to Bilo 3.0 :neverusethis:

it's on the list and probably the purchase list too
(i actually did listen to it once before, but that was months ago and all i remember is not liking the vocals in smile  :lol )


also I hope people don't mind me spamming my own thread I like to give feedback and talk with people here  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 12, 2015, 04:43:15 PM
Bummer, I was hoping you'd like The Dear Hunter.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 05:14:17 PM
I have no clue why that song does absolutely nothing for me, it feels like it should  :(
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 12, 2015, 06:38:06 PM
Mmm I should have sent a more complex song of Thumpermonkey, Wheezyboy is composed only by 2 different parts and it's not ideal to showcase everything a band could offer. You've liked every song who crosses between genres since the first round, I should go for weird bands until the end of the game :D

Really curious about the first impressions of round 4, I don't know what to expect from my song..
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 12, 2015, 07:47:29 PM
honestly i am hoping for some really cool stuff from round 4

anyways listening to Bilo 3.0 now
aaahhh one of the melodies in Where Is Now? is a reprise of a part of the opener on Bilo 3.0

sweeeeet

i still really dislike the vocals on smile though :<
the harsh ones where it sounds like she had her throat torn out or something oww that sounds painful
song's cool otherwise though but aaaahh

nostalgia is a cool instrumental track that I like a lot
as is wrinkle maze, though it's a slow build. but cool.

daydreamers is a nice closer. this album is very bright compared to the average metal album and I quite like that
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 12, 2015, 08:34:37 PM
Don't worry, you'll get used to her growls, and love them  ;D

Sending in a while.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 13, 2015, 01:15:44 AM
Hell yeah, that whole album is a beast.

Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 13, 2015, 05:31:28 AM
How, if anything at all, do you feel about Trip-Hop?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 13, 2015, 09:14:16 AM
i don't specifically know what it is but it sounds like something i'd hate  :lol
the only electronic music I tend to like much at all is stuff that's really atmospheric.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 13, 2015, 09:21:38 AM
Ah okay, that's definitely helpful to know
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 13, 2015, 09:26:26 AM
oh, and ronald jenkees. i like ronald jenkees stuff. but yeah most of my electronic music library is: 1. lorde 2. ronald jenkees 3. ambient stuff
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 13, 2015, 10:18:14 AM
listened to the Circus Maximus album. pretty cool stuff, though not sure how much of it sank in on first listen.

the end of the album is ridiculously Yes though and i haven't even listened to much Yes  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 13, 2015, 10:52:21 AM
Sent that round 4 non-prog song.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 13, 2015, 11:13:45 AM
I kind of feel bad because I kind of pushed you a little to send me this, but at the same time I didn’t really know what to expect other than “prog metal”.

:lol Don't feel bad about it, as I said, I probably would have sent it at some point anyway. And given how harsh you've been, 7.5 isn't bad at all! :lol


(Brand New, Coldplay, Foals were all great) so I'm expecting good things.

Yay!

I'm about to send some non-prog right now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 13, 2015, 11:37:03 AM
Sent again.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 13, 2015, 11:46:05 AM
Sent some ambient  ;D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 13, 2015, 11:50:05 AM
i will say this, Voices From the Fuselage seems similar to TesseracT and Skyharbor in the way that the album is probably far more than the sum of its parts, because both Altered State and Guiding Lights have no songs I'd ever send in a roulette but both are damn fine albums in their own right
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 13, 2015, 08:39:54 PM
Sent!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 13, 2015, 08:49:39 PM
alright, looks like I get to do a late-night first listen session today  :lol

after the Destiny Potato album.

Lunatic is friggin' fantastic and this album as a whole is great so far though jesus christ  :heart

edit: JESUS CHRIST soooo
WMG has blocked one of the videos since it was sent to me (it was working when I first got it, omg)
gonna have to see if I can find an alternate
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 14, 2015, 03:41:42 AM
(https://i.imgflip.com/r0rnh.jpg) (https://imgflip.com/i/r0rnh) (https://imgflip.com/memegenerator)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 14, 2015, 09:32:04 AM
First things first, have some song times.

2:35 - 3:46 - 3:55 - 4:20 - 4:21 - 5:05 - 5:05 - 6:30 - 7:10 - 7:19

Here's one other fun fact! Two people sent the same artist. But who?  ;D

And this first section might drag a tiny bit, I feel. Actually, that just seems to be the theme of this song in general. It… drags.

It’s a pretty decent rocker front-to-back, but I worry that it won’t lack enough depth on relistens.

This has a bit more of a pulse and more flavor than other stuff in the genre, though, and I can see it winning me over.

The music is vaguely pleasant but seems to just serve as a backing track for the vocals and… nothing more. It’s a bit light on substance, mostly.

This is a song that’s just plain fun to listen to. Upbeat and with some good rhythm and some good bass.

The singer is the only one really adding any sense of dynamic here, but he does a good job of it and I definitely find his voice fits the music well.

I can definitely see why you sent this particular song though, the music on this one is a lot more subdued and atmospheric, but definitely in a good way, I can get into this a lot easier.

Honestly it gives me chills, which is always a good sign. It’s very emotionally gripping just by how haunting it is.

I think the singer was a bit more convincing on the other song from this artist, but I like the music here a lot more, and that’s what’s most important in the end.

She’s got a pretty powerful and unique voice, and the music itself does a lot of cool things to go along with it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 14, 2015, 09:49:59 AM
These seem to be way more positive than the previous round
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 14, 2015, 10:34:05 AM
Anyone else send a blues rock song?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 14, 2015, 11:03:04 AM
These seem to be way more positive than the previous round
if i'm gonna be honest it's about split down the middle, a few of these bored me on first listen while a few others were pretty great
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 14, 2015, 11:16:48 AM
Absolutely no idea which one's mine. I know it's not the rocker, not the one with good bass and not the male vocalist. But I have no idea which of the others is mine, so this could be good or bad. But most likely right down the middle, as things have gone so far for me here :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 3 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 14, 2015, 02:44:05 PM


And this first section might drag a tiny bit, I feel. Actually, that just seems to be the theme of this song in general. It… drags.

If this comment is mine, give me at least the .5 for the risk I've taken ;D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 14, 2015, 02:59:11 PM
i think at least half of the songs (probably more) are getting the bonus .5 this round  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 14, 2015, 03:39:45 PM
man i'm so mad i don't have infinite money/have to pace myself on albums :lol

just looking over what i plan to get and there's no less than 10 albums at the top of my "gotta get this ASAP" list

i can't believe my roulette started at the worst possible time, right in the middle of a "wow look at all this new music i just found" phase

because now i have two of those going on simultaneously  :lol

i'm actually considering taking a week off from this after the fifth round so i don't get burned out because my pace thus far has been, i'd say, pretty quick  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 14, 2015, 04:04:54 PM

Honestly it gives me chills, which is always a good sign. It’s very emotionally gripping just by how haunting it is.

Pretty sure this is mine, if not, I should have my brain checked for short-term memory loss, I never seem to remember which song I sent.

EDIT: Parama sent me back my actual submission, and I'm starting to think it's the "decent rocker with lack of depth on relistens"   :tdwn
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: 425 on September 14, 2015, 05:11:51 PM
i'm actually considering taking a week off from this after the fifth round so i don't get burned out because my pace thus far has been, i'd say, pretty quick  :P

I think you should. Your pace has been very, very good. I definitely understand the need for a rest.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 14, 2015, 10:49:50 PM
listening to the Foals album, it seems Spanish Sahara is not particularly indicative of the band's sound as a whole, which is a bit of a shame. the rest is a bit more upbeat and nice enough but doesn't hit me in the same way
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 15, 2015, 02:22:36 PM
Round 5: The Running Free
This is... an open round! The last one, actually. I will let you know that much. The next 5 rounds are all themes of some kind. Sent whatever you want, because it might be the last time it'll fit the theme (but probably not). Didn't do this earlier woops. Don't take the wagers.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 15, 2015, 03:07:24 PM
second listen through, i did prelim scores but they are not scored very well (not to say the scores are bad, just that i don't have as strong of an opinion on most of them yet)

tho the range of scores is pretty wide right now  :lol
7 out of 10 entries got the bonus +.5 though, so
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 15, 2015, 03:10:14 PM
And this first section might drag a tiny bit, I feel. Actually, that just seems to be the theme of this song in general. It… drags.

This has a bit more of a pulse and more flavor than other stuff in the genre, though, and I can see it winning me over.

The music is vaguely pleasant but seems to just serve as a backing track for the vocals and… nothing more. It’s a bit light on substance, mostly.

The singer is the only one really adding any sense of dynamic here, but he does a good job of it and I definitely find his voice fits the music well.

I can definitely see why you sent this particular song though, the music on this one is a lot more subdued and atmospheric, but definitely in a good way, I can get into this a lot easier.

Honestly it gives me chills, which is always a good sign. It’s very emotionally gripping just by how haunting it is.

I think the singer was a bit more convincing on the other song from this artist, but I like the music here a lot more, and that’s what’s most important in the end.

Any of these could apply to my song  :rollin . Hopefully it will be that one.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 16, 2015, 11:00:39 AM
so i looked it up and not only are there two songs from one artist, but they are back-to-back songs off the same album. amazing.

they also played back-to-back in this listen through. in reverse order. it's a sign. i should give both of them 0 points.


after third listen, I can firmly say:
scores are literally all over the place this time, haha, though they're mostly pretty solid scores
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Elite on September 17, 2015, 10:07:33 AM
How are you doing?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 10:19:20 AM
i'm doing fine, thank you

and i may do writeups after the fourth listen instead of the fifth, for these, my opinions are pretty settled now and with this kind of stuff i'm not sure doing another listen before doing writeups will be beneficial in any way
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 17, 2015, 11:15:47 AM
i'm doing fine, thank you

and i may do writeups after the fourth listen instead of the fifth, for these, my opinions are pretty settled now and with this kind of stuff i'm not sure doing another listen before doing writeups will be beneficial in any way
You listened through all songs 4 times or are you on 3rd and plan to listen once more? No hurry tho :angel:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 09:39:02 PM
i think i'm going to try to normalize my scoring curve a bit more because my round 2 and 3 scores feel too nice. the 4 and 5.5 of round one feel very right, to me. and there's at least one song this round that I like far less than The Tallest Man on Earth, but using the same scoring of the previous two rounds (three especially I was waaayy too nice) it would've scored higher, which feels wrong. the top end of scores feel totally right to me though, I'll stand by every last 8.5 and up I've given as being 100% representative of my opinions, and i'm not going to go back and redo scores i felt were a little off (i'd be docking stuff like vangough, dear hunter, pure reason revolution mostly, maybe a few others a half point) so i apologize for the score shift, but i'd feel worse being too nice to stuff i don't really ever want to hear again than i would being mean to the same stuff.

on that note, Mjod is probably one of the few scores I gave that was too low, should've probably given that one at least a 6.5
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Sacul on September 17, 2015, 10:12:18 PM
Just give mine a fucking 10, and we'll be fine.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 10:14:49 PM
no tens this round. i'm sorry. a ten is honestly gonna be super rare, i would not be surprised if limousine remains my favorite song of the entire roulette.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 LISTENING)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 10:38:12 PM
Round 4 Results:

LordCost: Slint – Don, Aman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-T63_DK8hc)

First Impressions: Honestly I was never too big on the “post-rock with samples or talky bits” thing, it’s part of why I can’t love GY!BE as much as I’d want to. And this first section might drag a tiny bit, I feel. Actually, that just seems to be the theme of this song in general. It… drags. The song isn’t very full at all. It’s an acoustic guitar and I think a bass at some points. And like one section of electric guitar. This is just really tedious to me, overall, even on first listen.

Final Thoughts: Sorry man, this only got more tedious for me on future listens. Honestly… I can see how this is proto-post-rock, but it’s just, all the elements of post-rock I don’t like. I have never liked the excessive use of samples or talky bits. Singing is fine, though it shouldn’t be the focus, but these words spoken right over the music don’t do much for me. I can look them up, but I’d rather read them than listen to them.

The music is super empty and pretty repetitive. There’s almost no build to it, just one louder sections and one slight break to it early on. The guitar lines aren’t particularly compelling. And the tone of the electric guitar part is just… ugh. Really messy and unappealing. I can’t really get anything out of this song at all, and each time I have to listen to it, I really find myself not wanting to.

Score: 2 (+.5 Bonus) =  2.5/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Tom Waits – Hang Down Your Head (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEY18eXO724)

First Impressions: I’ve heard a little Tom Waits before, I think, and was a bit turned off by the roughness of his voice in what I heard. It’s not as rough a voice here, which I think is for the best. The music is vaguely pleasant but seems to just serve as a backing track for the vocals and… nothing more. It’s a bit light on substance, mostly.

Final Thoughts: My rating here is gonna come down to the fact that I just don’t like Tom Waits’ voice. Never have, don’t think I ever will. Yes, it’s unique, but the roughness of it just doesn’t appeal to me. It turns me off a song as much as awful growls will. It’s more tolerable here than the most recent Tom Waits song I was exposed to prior, but other than that? Nah…

And the music here… it’s pleasant, sure but it’s… nothing. It’s a backing track, the sole purpose of it is to direct attention to the vocals. There’s nothing wrong with it but if you took it on its own you’d barely have a song left. Plus, the song is so short that it barely has time to begin before it ends. Just don’t get much out of this, sorry.

Score: 3.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 4/10



Train of Naught: Tremonti – You Waste Your Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Me1ea4MkH0)

First Impressions: The verse and chorus gives me a very grunge-y vibe, though that could be mostly because of the singer. The riffs, not so much, they’re very much modern metal riffs, and pretty solid ones at that. It’s a pretty decent rocker front-to-back, but I worry that it won’t lack enough depth on relistens.

Final Thoughts: Solid rocker. Solid. Solid vocals. Solid. Solid solo. A bit shreddy and wah-saturated, but solid. Nothing about this is spectacular in any way though. Maybe this is because pure rockers just never have done much for me, great in a live setting I’m sure but not for me here. I can see the lyrics at least have a bit of depth here but they’re so vague and nonspecific that they end up feeling like nothing in the end. The enunciation of “tiiiiIIIIME” on the chorus started to irk me on the third or fourth listen of this and I never found myself really having any desire to come back to this one, but I can’t say anything about it is “bad”, just “not for me”. I can say the same about Tom Waits, to be fair, but this one I at least get a bit of a positive reaction to, though not too strongly of one.

Score: 5.5/10



Elite: Gary Clark Jr. – When My Train Pulls In (Live) (https://open.spotify.com/track/0Lj3qbusp7zvLt8p9coGo8)

First Impressions: Blues has always occupied the space of “I can appreciate the musicianship of the artists” but “generally it doesn’t do much for me when I listen to it” which is kind of funny because my guitar teacher has me do a lot of blues improv and that’s generally pretty fun. This has a bit more of a pulse and more flavor than other stuff in the genre, though, and I can see it winning me over. Though this does feel like it starts to meander, at the length it’s at.

Final Thoughts: Mmm. Again. I imagine this would be really great in a live setting, were I to be there. The musicianship is pretty good, though the mixing is reeeeally guitar-and-vocals-focused, would love to hear the drums, bass, and keys all better. I think, the music feels a bit too bright and cheery compared to the lyrics, too. There’s a bit of emotional depth to this, for sure, the vocals are good.

The solos, while technically fine, leave me a bit cold. Dunno, just, I like a bit of soulful playing in solos and these ones… have a little bit, I guess, but I dunno, I’m not huge on them, and the second solo goes on far too long and meanders a fair bit too much for my taste. It just kind of eventually descends into mindless noise for the sake of noise. Dunno. I vaguely like this, but only vaguely.

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) =  7/10



senecadawg2: The Cure – Pictures of You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-56h8d3gLgk)

First Impressions: I’ve heard a little bit of The Cure before (who hasn’t?) but never really looked into them past that. I’ve always appreciated the full sound they have, though, because I always appreciate full sounds and I have to say it every time. I think the music may be a bit undynamic for my tastes, it stays at a “mid-level volume” for pretty much the entire song with only a few somewhat louder bits. The singer is the only one really adding any sense of dynamic here, but he does a good job of it and I definitely find his voice fits the music well. Kinda wish this was shorter though.

Final Thoughts: This band has a sound that I quite like a lot. Judging from what I know from them (the two songs sent this round, as well as Fascination Street, which is, of course, also off this same album). Very spacey and chill, tons of texture and atmosphere with an overall bright feel. I like that. It puts me in a good mood.

THAT BEING SAID. I find it hard to connect with this on as strong of an emotional level as I’d like to, because, yes, the lyrics are pretty nice, a strong sense of regret in them from what I’m picking out. But lyrics alone won’t sell me on a song, and the bright feel of the song does clash a tiny bit with the lyrics. If ignore the lyrics, I get a nice, pleasant song with some good vocals, but one that might go on a touch too long.

Score: 7.5 (+.5 Bonus) =  8/10



425: Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ)

First Impressions: Well, you have guts seeing as I’ve only kind of liked one Taylor Swift song ever. I can definitely see why you sent this particular song though, the music on this one is a lot more subdued and atmospheric, but definitely in a good way, I can get into this a lot easier. On the other hand, I do wish it wasn’t just “another love song about some boy” from Taylor Swift, Blank Space was lyrically interesting because it wasn’t about anyone other than the character of the song, really. If there’s one big criticism of this, though, that isn’t a nitpick… Taylor really doesn’t bring a lot of flavor to this song, you could probably replace her with any other pop singer and get about the same song.

Final Thoughts: This is definitely my second favorite Taylor Swift song (at least of the ones I know) behind Blank Space, and both are pretty atmosphere-heavy songs musically. I think Blank Space has more personality and better lyrics, though this may have slightly better music. The lyrics are something I, again, can’t really connect with on a personal level, it’s kind of standard love song stuff. And I am aromantic, soooo.

And mostly, I can see myself getting tired of this song fairly quickly; I kind of am at this point after the fifth listen, honestly. It doesn’t have the depth of pop like Lorde’s, honestly, which is one of my few comparison points (Sia is kind of another but I never listened to her album). I definitely like pop-Taylor more than I liked country-Taylor, though. I can say that much.

Score: 7.5 (+.5 Bonus) =  8/10



FlyingBIZKIT: The Cure – Closedown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4K70rsoJkk)

First Impressions: Just from the intro alone, I feel I’m going to like this song more than the other song from this artist. It grabs me a lot more, at the very least. Halfway through and I’m about to go “is this an instrumental” but then the singer comes in. I think the singer was a bit more convincing on the other song from this artist, but I like the music here a lot more, and that’s what’s most important in the end.

Final Thoughts: This one wins out over Pictures of You mostly on the basis of “I like the drums and bass more on this song”, really. It’s much less about the lyrics than Pictures of You is, too. The shorter length might help a little. Again, I like the sound of this band, the bright tones, the texture and atmosphere of the music. I’m probably going to end up checking out this album even if I’m not a super-huge fan of either of these songs (but I liked them both, for sure).

But yeah, the vocals on Pictures of You are more compelling than here, mostly for there being more of them, but the lyrics do admittedly have more depth to inject emotion into them on the other. But I like the sound of this one more, and at the end of the day, I tend to rate songs almost exclusively on how they sound, lyrics being secondary, only really awful lyrics will hamper my enjoyment of a song and that’s not the case here at all. Cool stuff.

Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) =  8.5/10



Tomislav95:  Björk – Jóga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFV4QCq9SEU)

First Impressions: I’m actually not sure how I’ve never heard a single song from her (or don’t think I have). She’s got a pretty powerful and unique voice, and the music itself does a lot of cool things to go along with it. Granted, added strings into a song is generally always gonna be a positive.

Final Thoughts: Honestly, this was going to be higher, but there’s one big flaw this song has. It reeeally drags in the last minute, it could’ve been a much better 4 minute song than a 5 minute one. A minor nitpick that doesn’t really affect much is that I am not a huuuuge fan of when Björk’s voice is more heavily accented. It’s not very obstructive though and at the fifth listen I’m kind of used to it by now.

Her voice is very powerful. She is a very good singer. There’s no denying that. The music can plenty well back up the power of her voice, too. Doesn’t stay dull for a moment, heavy amounts of strings that swell at the right moments, electronic elements to give the song a bit of a pulse for the second verse onward, and a huge build by the end.

But damn. She sings “state of emergency” way too many times at the end, I really don’t see the point of the song going on for as long as it does, and I can’t ignore the fact that I’m not too sad to see the song finally end when it gets around to ending.

Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) =  8.5/10



mikemangioy: Foo Fighters – Rope (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPLft72VLfY)

First Impressions: I know a few Foo Fighter songs, but, as always, only through guitar hero. You weren’t kidding about the groove of this song, were you. This is a song that’s just plain fun to listen to. Upbeat and with some good rhythm and some good bass. Grohl’s drumming is great and the instrumental break is pretty cool.

Final Thoughts: If y’all want to know how I like my straightforward rock songs. Well. Just give me some groove. Because holy hell is the groove of this song addictive. It’s just, super fun to listen to, very upbeat. The stop/start nature of the bass and guitar with the drums accentuating them, the big full sound of the chorus. And Dave Grohl is just a beast on drums, always has been, always will be. This is pretty even with Everlong for me, the chorus of Everlong is probably the best part of either of the two songs but this is easily more enjoyable throughout for me.

Score: 8.5/10



Sacul: Ulver – Eos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kGpx88MoE)

First Impressions: So I actually did listen to this album once before but only once and I really liked it anyways so why not allow this. And yes. The atmosphere of this track is great. Calm and subdued without ever feeling too empty. Honestly it gives me chills, which is always a good sign. It’s very emotionally gripping just by how haunting it is.

Final Thoughts: Really, there’s not much to say about a song like this. It’s incredibly haunting, and I like haunting music. The sound is never too empty. The atmosphere is intense. Calm, but intense. I don’t really need many words to say that I love this, and am definitely gonna have to get this album.

Score: 9/10



Current Standings:
Sacul – 35.5
mikemangioy – 35
senecadawg2 - 34
Tomislav95 – 32.5
425 – 32
Elite – 31.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 30
Train of Naught - 26
LordCost - 24.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 21.5

Send in your round 5 entries as soon as possible, please! Don't take the wagers!
And I'm sorry to those of you who are kinda struggling in this roulette :<
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Bolsters on September 17, 2015, 10:48:31 PM
Well, at least Wildest Dreams got a decent score. :metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 10:52:03 PM
i would not be sad to see that have some radio success, for sure. way better than freaking bad blood, omg
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Bolsters on September 17, 2015, 10:55:46 PM
You could say that about any song on the album though...they're all better than Bad Blood. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 10:58:37 PM
oh and if i'm not pushing the 2-month mark by the time we get through all the main rounds i was considering doing a sort of championship thing at the very end.

maybe something along the lines of the EP round 425 did, maybe sending a full album and having me rate that, maybe an epic round (bad idea???)

the prerequisites though would be scoring 80 points cumulative throughout the entire roulette. I may up this to 85 if there's like 5 people who score that high by the end, since 5 of y'all are currently on pace to do so. may not, though. might just do it for the top 3 and skip having an arbitrary point barrier, if the top three are all close enough.

it might be for all the points or it might not be. I'm thinking a score out of 20 or 25 anyways so being a point or two behind could still easily be made up.

of course, this is all theoretical in the end.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 17, 2015, 11:31:31 PM
I had a feeling Seneca was going to send another song from The Cure. I used to listen to some of them for a while, but props to him for introducing me to that album from them. Really good stuff.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 17, 2015, 11:39:05 PM
Damn, I'm on fire.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 17, 2015, 11:53:40 PM
here is your new avatar, sacul
(https://s2.postimg.org/ulb1cf2hh/282562_mmpu_fire_man1.jpg)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 17, 2015, 11:56:13 PM
 :lol

To be honest I never even expected to do well on this one nor lead it wtf.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 18, 2015, 04:40:09 AM
I was prepared to a 3, not a 2  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 18, 2015, 05:04:25 AM
I've never listened to Disintegration and thought oh wow, this is bright. Other Cure albums? Sure. But Disintegation? No way.

Damn you Sacul for sending EOS
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 18, 2015, 05:39:55 AM
You're right about Joga being little too long. There actually were edited version on Youtube, I think it was 3,5 minutes long. I almost sent that version but I decided to go with original, though (and as you know, they deleted both versions :lol).
I will send something right now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Fluffy Lothario on September 18, 2015, 05:49:48 AM
Of the stuff you've been sent so far, the only ones in my collection are The Tallest Man on Earth, Coldplay and Bjork.

I do intend to get that Susanne Sundfor album, and some Brand New and Gary Clark Jr though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 18, 2015, 07:24:45 AM
:lol

To be honest I never even expected to do well on this one nor lead it wtf.

This
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 18, 2015, 08:37:11 AM
Well, at least Wildest Dreams got a decent score. :metal

Yes indeed! That's my entire goal here at this point, try to keep picking up decent scores and see if the people ahead of me stumble.

I have nothing against Bad Blood and don't see it as the weakest track on the album ("Hey hey hey, while you've been getting down and ou--" Taylor, please stop doing this), but I would put it towards the bottom from the sheer quality of everything else.


maybe something along the lines of the EP round 425 did, maybe sending a full album and having me rate that, maybe an epic round (bad idea???)

Doing the EPs was fun as hell. A lot of my favorite songs came in the EP round and I feel like I got a much better understanding of where every contest thought their tastes would intersect with mine. There were a lot of great multiartist playlists as well. Sacul in particular absolutely nailed the EP concept, though all the people did something interesting.

You do know, of course, that if you have an epic round and I am in it, I will be sorely tempted to find something ridiculous.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 18, 2015, 08:56:59 AM
Back to sending wacky prog then I guess.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 18, 2015, 09:02:39 AM
Back to sending wacky prog then I guess.

I didn't know you liked Gary Clark, Jr. I have that album of his and it's great!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 18, 2015, 10:40:09 AM
I've never listened to Disintegration and thought oh wow, this is bright. Other Cure albums? Sure. But Disintegation? No way.
guess i'm just weird then  :lol

hey 425 if you do another epic round i found one that i like a lot and it's only 16 minutes this time so you won't die i promise.
and I'm sorry Elite, i thought it was alright at least  :(
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 18, 2015, 11:05:40 AM
If I ever do have another epic round, there will be a time limit! :lol
I'm not sure I will, though, because, though I really liked the epic round, given the choice between an epic round and an EP round, I would take the EP round.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 18, 2015, 06:25:03 PM
still waiting on two people now. i will get to these presumably tomorrow unless i get them both within the next few hours.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 18, 2015, 07:29:04 PM
i found another very good album through blood music, ahah. elite's one entry has gotten me two albums to check out now. great.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 19, 2015, 12:35:38 AM
Damn you Sacul for sending EOS
It's one of my all-time favorites, and he seems to love music with huge atmospheres and soundscapes, so it looked like an obvious choice for me ;D

Sent more ambient, but with an electronic edge ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 19, 2015, 01:41:18 AM
i found another very good album through blood music, ahah. elite's one entry has gotten me two albums to check out now. great.

Blood Music is an awesome label :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 19, 2015, 03:26:35 PM
First off have some song lengths.

3:46 - 4:12 - 4:16 - 4:21 - 5:00 - 5:33 - 6:22 - 6:34 - 6:34 - 8:27

This seems a bit awkwardly start-stop at times and while the atmosphere does tend to work decently well, it ends up feeling a bit incohesive.

It’s got atmosphere, energy, and plenty of heaviness, and there’s a pretty nice flow to the whole thing.

I don’t know if this is the “best” song in the roulette thus far (answer: it’s not, at all) but it’s definitely the “most” in one category.

It’s got some good atmosphere and some nice buildup, a very melancholic sound overall, and it’s relaxing.

The second half especially, a very full percussive atmosphere with the other instruments filling in the empty space.

There’s a lot of… parts here, that I like, but taken as a whole it doesn’t do as much for me, though I imagine with more listens that could easily change.

The first thing that immediately jumps to mind is “I’m not sure how much I’m going to like this singer”. Not horrible at all, really, just… a voice that kind of irks me and I can’t explain why.

I can’t really find anything here that strikes me as something new, something fresh, it’s all fine and pleasant enough but, just very inoffensive.

This is like, totally fine, but it’s again, pretty inoffensive. The kind of thing I wouldn’t turn off it if came on the radio, but nothing I’d ever actively seek out.

And while this is a fairly fine piece on its own, it lacks context, and without context, it can’t really reach the power and depth it would be able to otherwise.



I am not sure how I feel about this round overall, honestly. Decent but nothing really stands out? That describes a lot of these songs for me on first listen, for sure.
I shouldn't say "nothing stands out" because that's not entirely true, not at all, really, but  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on September 19, 2015, 04:18:58 PM
Mine's the melancholic one :D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 19, 2015, 04:34:13 PM
Man, I just wonder what the fuck I sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 19, 2015, 06:50:24 PM
i am definitely going to take that weeklong break after this round, but...

Round 6: The Silent Man
...is INSTRUMENTALS! Yes, no lyrics allowed. Non-lyrical singing is a maaaaybe, if it's minimal/not used much in the song.
As for instrumentals themselves. I am not a huge fan of wacky prog instrumentals. My favorite DT instrumental is Hell's Kitchen, if that tells you anything. I like grounded instrumentals, for prog. As far as other genres, the The Sword song from round 1 is a good metal instrumental, and post-rock, post-metal, ambient stuff are all passable ideas for instrumentals as well, though I tend to be a bit picky with those genres. If your instrumental is just nonstop soloing I'm probably not going to be too into it unless the solos are all really good, too. Just trying to give a bit of helpful advice, I suppose!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 20, 2015, 04:53:58 AM
Mine's the unexplanatory annoying singer's voice, I felt that way about him aswell early on, and still do a bit ;D.

Man I'm looking forward to the instrumentals!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 20, 2015, 06:12:27 AM
3 out of 5 songs I sent so far are instrumentals, if I knew I'd save this round's submission for next round. But I'll find something good eventually, at least I hope I will :lol:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 20, 2015, 09:26:53 AM
i am opting to not score the songs on second listen, this time. so i have no guesses what scores will be but i imagine maybe a 4 or 5 for the lowest and 8.5ish for highest?...
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 20, 2015, 10:25:39 PM
I can't believe I got four instrumentals the round before the instrumental round  :lol
Score range isn't going to be too wide, probably from 6 to 8.5 or so. First listen a lot of the songs blended together but now after third listen I think I have a better grasp of things.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 21, 2015, 12:18:59 AM
i've been really getting into blackgaze on my own listening pleasure, also. deafheaven and alcest are bands i need to get an album or two from, looked up a few other in the same vein as well. cool stuff.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Elite on September 21, 2015, 01:59:45 AM
What the hell is blackgaze? ???
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 21, 2015, 05:15:51 AM
What the hell is blackgaze? ???
Pseudo genre :lol it's practically shoegaze with black metal elements (blast beats, shrieking vocals, tremolo picking...)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 21, 2015, 08:15:57 AM
What the hell is blackgaze? ???
Pseudo genre :lol it's practically shoegaze with black metal elements (blast beats, shrieking vocals, tremolo picking...)

What's pseudo about it?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 21, 2015, 10:35:15 AM
What the hell is blackgaze? ???
Pseudo genre :lol it's practically shoegaze with black metal elements (blast beats, shrieking vocals, tremolo picking...)

What's pseudo about it?
Just kidding. I wrote pseudo because people create new genres every day and some of names are laughable :lol but to be honest blackgaze is good name for Alcest and similar bands. Post-black metal is also cool name for subgenre.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 21, 2015, 10:53:36 AM
i like the name "blackgaze" better but "atmospheric black metal" and "post-black metal" both work  :lol
blackgaze is just much more succinct
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 21, 2015, 02:54:55 PM
i really don't think anyone is going to be very happy with the results this round and for that I am sorry  :(
I am gonna try to finish this tonight and do writeups because tomorrow I'm busy the first half of the day and will be in a cruddy mood for the second half of the day, so.

random thought: i should've given spanish sahara a 9.5
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 21, 2015, 03:25:02 PM
You know, you can always go back and give bonus points.  ;) Lots of other people (myself included) have done that in past roulettes.

Why are you going to be in a bad mood tomorrow afternoon?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 21, 2015, 03:40:02 PM
tomorrow i have to drive 90 minutes both ways to go to my former college's career fair bcuz i still need to get a job, and 1. driving is stressful 2. career fairs are stressful 3. i am literally dying from stress right now

i am really pleased that most of the songs this round are pretty chill tho, aggressive metal stuff would probably kill me right now  :lol

and maybe i'll use the break to go back and rescore songs i felt i messed up a little, i'll set a strict rule of not moving anything more than 1 point either way though so i don't turn a 7 into like a 4  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 21, 2015, 03:57:37 PM
Sorry to hear it. Similar situations- career fairs more so than driving- always stress me out, too. I hope it goes well.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 5 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 21, 2015, 10:04:33 PM
Round 5 Results:

Shadow Ninja 2.0: Now, Now – Thread (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfi_WUxfKP4)

First Impressions: Okay, so, the funny thing, apparently this gets compared to Death Cab For Cutie a lot? At least from what I’ve looked up. This, to me, is… umm… the same indie rock song I’ve probably heard somewhere else and wasn’t too taken with. I can’t really find anything here that strikes me as something new, something fresh, it’s all fine and pleasant enough but, just very inoffensive.

Final Thoughts: This probably suffers from the fact that another board that runs a music-listening kind of thing like this has this kind of song in it so goddamn often that I am just entirely null to this flavor of indie rock. I can’t say that it does anything bad in any way, other than that it completely fails to interest me. It has decent atmosphere, it has pleasant vocals, it’s not overly long, it’s just… tame. And there’s no real emotional pull for me here, so this just feels like another dime-a-dozen indie rock track to me. Sorry.

Score: 6/10



Train of Naught: Seether ft. Amy Lee – Broken (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPC2Fp7IT7o)

First Impressions: I feel like I recognize both these voices, though I know I’ve heard at least some of Seether before, somewhere??? This is like, totally fine, but it’s again, pretty inoffensive. The kind of thing I wouldn’t turn off it if came on the radio, but nothing I’d ever actively seek out. It kind of makes me feel like post-grunge never really should’ve been a thing because we already had enough grunge to begin with.

Final Thoughts: The context I have to compare this with is the Shinedown song from round 2. Especially, the vocals. Because both of them are using the same grungy kind of singing (this is post-grunge, after all). And goddamn, does the Shinedown singer just absolutely blow Seether’s singer out of the water.

Also the female singer is apparently the Evanescence chick. I should’ve guessed. She’s okay. I can only think of one Evanescence song off the top of my head (Bring Me Back To Life) and she was decent there too.

Musically this is okay, but not really that special, and those strings sound fake as heck. This is still a little powerful at times, but it’s not especially compelling, and again, I feel like this kind of song is a dime a dozen.

Score: 6.5/10



425: Death Cab For Cutie – We Looked Like Giants (https://youtu.be/5tIVVEIdu2g)

First Impressions: The first thing that immediately jumps to mind is “I’m not sure how much I’m going to like this singer”. Not horrible at all, really, just… a voice that kind of irks me and I can’t explain why. I think the problem here is going to end up being, a lot of enjoyment from this song depends on the singer, the instrumentation is nice on its own but doesn’t strike me as too special, the piano is okay and the opening riff is okay, but nothing that’s blowing me away, or even really impressing me much.

Final Thoughts: Will be completely honest that this probably wasn’t a good choice to send based on the subject matter alone. It’s not something I can emotionally connect with at all and it’s a bit uncomfortable for me, honestly. Sexual stuff, no thank you… the lyrics feel a bit too personal, too, a bit too specific and oversharing.

Now that the awkward part is out of the way, what of the rest? Well, I like the guitar line in the intro. It’s compelling and kind of catchy, and it’s unique to this song. The entire second half of the song seems to just want to jam on some chords and a piano line, which would be fine, except… yeah, that goes on way too long, this is another case of “cut a minute off this please” because I like it for a minute but I don’t really like it anymore after two minutes of the same thing. It doesn’t even have anything to build to either, the song just kind of dies out at the end of that. This is a decent song if I ignore the lyrics, I suppose, but I don’t feel too strongly about it in the end.

Score: 6.5/10



Sacul: Ed Harrison – Annul (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM6eZJRurFk)

First Impressions: Those voices are super unnerving, but I’m not sure if it’s in a good way. This seems a bit awkwardly start-stop at times and while the atmosphere does tend to work decently well, it ends up feeling a bit incohesive. Still, I think it’s pretty alright, don’t know if it will end up being one of my favorites this round though.

Final Thoughts: I think you were going for “haunting” again, but this ends up more “unsettling” than anything else, to me. It’s probably the voices mostly to blame for that, but the bassline also adds to the feel, especially with how persistent it is throughout the entire song. And I don’t really see this as “ambient”, it seems closer to electronica than anything. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I guess what this is going to come down to is the percussion. It’s… ehh. The stop-start nature of it when it basically controls the feel of the song seems a bit off. It switches between being frantic and between being more sluggish, and while I find myself preferring the sluggish feel, the real issue I have is how it comes in and out so often in the second half. The flow of the song just gets completely jerked about by the drums coming in slow, disappearing, coming in fast, disappearing, coming in slow again. And then there’s the fact that, well, it doesn’t really have a build, and it doesn’t really feel too diverse over the course of its 6-and-a-half minute runtime. I would’ve preferred this track to be maybe two-thirds this long, or even as short as half as long.

Maybe I’m being super nitpicky with this one, but in the end…

This is background music… if I don’t pay attention to it too well then it’s a fairly enjoyable listen, for that purpose, and it’s a soundtrack song, again, and for a game, where most of the music tends to be background music. And it probably serves that purpose well! It’s just not that great as active listening music.

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10



senecadawg2: Clint Mansell – Death is the Road to Awe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr0NBPRMe2E)

First Impressions: This is certainly a… strange choice for a roulette. I really don’t think it’s going to work out for you, I don’t think I’ve ever been interested in movie soundtracks. And while this is a fairly fine piece on its own, it lacks context, and without context, it can’t really reach the power and depth it would be able to otherwise. The instrumentation is solid, there’s plenty of string presence and there’s some decent build to it. I can see why you would choose this specific song, but without the context, it ends up feeling a bit meandering and I can’t really connect with it. Decent, though…?

Final Thoughts: I just have a hard time finding this to be too enjoyable as a song by itself because… yeah, it sounds super soundtrack-y. It’s also kinda post-rock-y which is I assume why you sent it, I won’t go saying it’s completely pointless as a standalone track because it isn’t.

That being said, I don’t have much to say about this. The main motif is a 5-note melody that just repeats a lot, in different octaves, at different volumes. I get tired of it pretty quickly. And it’s a pretty long track. It does build well and it gets pretty “epic” at times.

But the second half does a sort of stop-start thing that, I’m sure works well in the context of a movie and fits the scene, but as a song, -that- kind of thing exactly is what steers me away from soundtracks. They have to fit the context of a movie, game, tv show, etc., more than they have to stand on their own, so stuff that may work really well in context doesn’t work well at all out of context. Twice it kind of dies out only to go right back to being loud.

I dunno man. In theory, I like this, and I bet it’s really cool in context. But I can’t really connect with it much. Meh.

Score: 7 (+.5 Bonus) = 7.5/10



Tomislav95: If Trees Could Talk – The First Fire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQSiSqCiaDM)

First Impressions: Post-rock is a genre that I always enjoy listening to but never can really find much to say about. It’s got some good atmosphere and some nice buildup, a very melancholic sound overall, and it’s relaxing. But that’s what I can say about most post-rock.

Final Thoughts: The drumming is the highlight of this one for me, I think. The drums do a lot of different stuff that keeps things fairly interesting, compared to standard post-rock. But everything else here, really, just feels like the same kind of stuff I hear other post-rock bands do. Clean or lightly distorted tremolo picking, several layers of pretty but non-descript guitar parts, a dreamy atmosphere. The bass line is a bit compelling at first but it gets kind of beat into the ground by the end.

Post-rock is a genre I tend to listen to for only a few select purposes, and for those purposes, it’s really good. Background music for when I’m working on something else. Music for long car rides where I want to relax. Sleeping music. Hammock’s Departure Songs is an album that tends to be a favorite for these purposes, in that it isn’t exactly what I’d call a unique or astounding album, but it serves the purpose of being very dreamy, pleasant music very well. This is a fairly decent song by that standard, but as with other post-rock, fails a little in the active listening department. That being said, I may end up checking out this album anyways.

Score: 7.5/10



FlyingBIZKIT: Boards of Canada – Dayvan Cowboy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHoHaBTVbwk)

First Impressions: I really don’t remember anything about this song, other than I know I’ve heard it before like, once or twice, a long time ago. I probably know why I liked it, it’s very post-rockish with a long buildup in the intro. The second half especially, a very full percussive atmosphere with the other instruments filling in the empty space. Though the keyboard thing feels a bit dissonant there, but not a huge detractor.

Final Thoughts: Out of all the instrumental post-rocky songs this round, I think this one did the most for me by a slight margin. Mostly, I think it just captures a sense of build-up the best. The fuzzy atmosphere of the song helps a lot, too.

Also I lied the keyboard is fine, first-listen me was dumb I guess. Though at a point it does kind of reach a peak that I think it could go beyond but never does. It’s a very pleasant listen though, for as simple as it is.

Score: 8/10



mikemangioy: Symphony X – King of Terrors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEqe1OCII4s)

First Impressions: Brief comment about how my wishlist doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll like something, but. I am prepared for the cheese, nonetheless, because apparently this band is cheese to the extreme. The groove that starts about a minute in is pretty cool, simplistic as it is. And the rough edge to the vocals, too, is something I really like. The production on this track is really… rough, for 2002, though, haha. The slow breakdown with the synths going crazy on top creates a pretty cool effect, too. There’s a lot of… parts here, that I like, but taken as a whole it doesn’t do as much for me, though I imagine with more listens that could easily change.

Final Thoughts: This ends up occupying the same slot of “this is a cool metal song, but it isn’t quite good enough to make me hyped about seeking out more from this band”. On the other hand, whereas I’ve heard a fair few other Nightwish songs before, I haven’t really listened to any Symphony X, so you could make a fan out of me yet.

That being said, this seems to be pretty halfway between power metal and prog metal. I really dig how the triplet-feel riff evolves into a standard feel riff in the verse, that kind of thing is a prog thing I love seeing. The chorus strikes me as a bit… ehh, though. The drums are doing the good ol’ double bass thing, the chords aren’t –that- powerful, the vocals are okay, the lyrics seem a bit cheesy (which I expected).

The instrumental break is probably my favorite part, the time signature madness goes through staccato, palm muting, and full-sounding notes with the same kind of structures. The way the synth runs are used in contrast to the relatively sluggish feel of the rest of the band works well, they add texture to the guitar crunch. Really don’t dig that solo at all, though. It’s just shreddy and pointless. Could’ve done without that.

Score: 8/10



LordCost: Mr. Bungle – Ars Moriendi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcQrOG7BJq8)

First Impressions: I have heard vague whispers of the weirdness of Mr. Bungle, I guess it’s time to experience it firsthand. And yep, what the hell is this. I don’t know if this is the “best” song in the roulette thus far (answer: it’s not, at all) but it’s definitely the “most” in one category. Honestly I just have trouble following this at all. It doesn’t sit on any ideas at all and instead bombards you with new ones every few seconds, it’s a bit overwhelming.

Final Thoughts: Okay, my enjoyment of this one is definitely going to suffer from the roulette format. I’d need at least 10, if not more, to really “get” this song, I imagine. The eclectic instrumentation, the constant need for new ideas, it’s very quirky and very unique. It’s overwhelming. I am overwhelmed by this, and not in exactly the best way. At the very least, there are a few melodies to keep it a little bit grounded. And I can’t say I dislike any of the ideas being presented. I just wish it would sit still for a moment so I could have any point of entry into this.

The entire first half seems to have a sense of a slow build to a middle section where the song explodes, then goes off and gets a lot faster-paced. The song is very dynamic though, a lot of louder bits, a lot of softer bits. Tons of instruments represented here, I wouldn’t even be able to begin to name them all, I can’t even tell.

I have to wonder though, if all of the instruments are needed, or if it’s just a gimmick? I really don’t know. This is hard for me to rate because I still don’t feel I’m too familiar with it, even after five listens. It feels stronger than a 7.5 but weaker than an 8, and I’m not letting myself have any middle ground between the two… nor do I let the bonus half point affect my rankings… going to cautiously go with the latter because I can see this growing on me if I had time to give it more listens.

Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) = 8.5/10



Elite: maudlin of the Well – Gleam in Ranks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULkLhotzW0A)

First Impressions: I think I listened to both this album and Bath once a while back but I remember them being… both pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but overall pretty enjoyable. I think this taps in pretty well to my recent musical mood (though, since it was on my wishlist, not a huge surprise). It’s got atmosphere, energy, and plenty of heaviness, and there’s a pretty nice flow to the whole thing. It does kind of just… end, though, haha.

Final Thoughts: It’s really a miracle how all the disparate elements of this song mix together into making a wholly unique as well as pretty compelling song. The piano runs, the swelling synths, the pretty guitar lines, the chugging riffs. There are a lot of little touches that really elevate this, I feel, that really makes the song demand attention. There’s a slow build going on too, the background slowly filling up with more and more noise over the course of the song, the vocals getting more and more intense as everything else builds.

And then… it does really just cut off abruptly after the shreddy guitar bit in the background. I’m not so sure about that ending, it feels a bit anticlimactic. Still, the ride is great, so I can’t fault it for only really getting a bit weaker right at the end.

Score: 8.5/10



Current Standings:
mikemangioy – 43
Sacul – 42.5
senecadawg2 – 41.5
Tomislav95 – 40
Elite – 40
425 – 38.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 38
LordCost - 33
Train of Naught – 32.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 27.5

No rush to get your round 6 entries in, I'm not even going to touch them until next Monday at the earliest.
I think what I will do is go over some entries that I feel scored a bit too low. I think I'll leave any scores that I felt were a little too high, though. I feel it would be too mean of me to lower people's scores, even if there are a few I probably should. Don't expect a huge amount of bonus points, and nothing from round 5 will be rescored except maybe Mr. Bungle, probably none from round 4 either. Mostly though I need a break + i have several albums i need to give a number of dedicated listens to :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 21, 2015, 10:43:37 PM
Ah no! My strategy of "get decent scores and hope that works" is slipping!

I really love that song, but I totally understand your explanation of why you don't like it nearly as much. :tup

I only have the one album The Odyssey, but I think King of Terrors is kind of an odd Symphony X choice. Certainly not the one I would have sent from that album.

Finally, I think taking a break is a good idea. I would have done the same in mine if I hadn't been so damn slow.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 21, 2015, 10:48:34 PM
the break also thankfully coincides with the music shindig over at the other forum i frequent so i'll have to listen to a lot of songs there anyways (though usually I get less good stuff out of 25 songs there than I do 10 songs in a roulette round, so  :lol )

but i do need it, especially since i might have to be dealing with job opportunities calling me or e-mailing me this week yeah aahhh im dying

also funny story: i put mono on in the background while finishing up preparations for tomorrow, i.e. "this is what I use post-rock for"  :lol
never gave their two most recent albums enough listens but I wasn't really too taken by either of them, meh
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 21, 2015, 11:14:30 PM
Maybe I’m being super nitpicky with this one, but in the end…
Of course you are  :P

Thought I'd do better, but oh well. Will take some time to send an instrumental.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 22, 2015, 12:13:58 AM
I feel like Gleam in Ranks serves as a good song introduce people to motW. It's not their best, but it's certainly more accessible than others. I considered sending 'They Aren't All Beautiful' as well, since I think that's a better track, but it's also a lot heavier, so I wasn't sure how it would fare. Glad you liked it! I'll find you an instrumental soon :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 22, 2015, 10:41:26 AM
I wanted to send Heaven And Weak from Bath in the first open rounds. I only know the songs in Bath, I'll listen to Gleam In Ranks soon.

I guessed correctly my first impression, but that "(answer: it’s not, at all)" made me a bit worried. Glad you liked it!
Ars Moriendi isn't even their weirdest song haha! If it helps you to follow the song, I remember that a long time ago I recognized that the song follows a chain structure, not always rigid (something like ABACBCDCDE...), and maybe it's the reason why I found the song strangely cohesive considering his weirdness. If it's not true, at least almost every part is repeated two times..

I'm in real trouble for the instrumental round, I hope I don't have to repeat an artist already sent in this roulette
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 22, 2015, 12:10:27 PM
Good you didn't steal them earlier, although I am a little upset that you sent Ars Moriendi. I send that song in almost every roulette I'm in :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on September 22, 2015, 02:32:44 PM
Good you didn't steal them earlier, although I am a little upset that you sent Ars Moriendi. I send that song in almost every roulette I'm in :lol

Yup. That song is awesome. I actually prefer None of Them Knew They Were Robots, though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 22, 2015, 02:47:00 PM
Goodbye Sober Day, Air Conditioned Nightmare and None Of Them.. are my other favourite songs of California, but apart The Holy Filament there are only excellent songs in that album.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 22, 2015, 02:49:01 PM
Good you didn't steal them earlier, although I am a little upset that you sent Ars Moriendi. I send that song in almost every roulette I'm in :lol
i don't have the PM anymore bcuz i needed to make room, but LordCost specifically mentioned that you always send that song in roulettes in his PM  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 22, 2015, 04:44:39 PM
gave Shadows of the Sun another listen, it's kind of a one-note album but it's a note I like, at the very least
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 22, 2015, 08:09:24 PM
gave Shadows of the Sun another listen, it's kind of a one-note album but it's a note I like, at the very least
More spins shall fix that. Let the Children Go is another highlight on the record ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 22, 2015, 08:32:18 PM
i am giving my first impressions on albums lol, i'll spin it more when i actually purchase it  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on September 23, 2015, 05:00:50 AM
Good you didn't steal them earlier, although I am a little upset that you sent Ars Moriendi. I send that song in almost every roulette I'm in :lol
i don't have the PM anymore bcuz i needed to make room, but LordCost specifically mentioned that you always send that song in roulettes in his PM  :lol
:lol
After a 2 out of 10 I needed easy points, sorry!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 4 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 23, 2015, 04:03:27 PM
I've never listened to Disintegration and thought oh wow, this is bright. Other Cure albums? Sure. But Disintegation? No way.
comment: the two specific songs, yes. the album as a whole, no. listening to it right now and I definitely wouldn't say it's bright, y'all just happened to send the two brightest songs of the bunch  :lol
i already knew fascination street too and knew that one was a lot darker, though
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 23, 2015, 10:58:38 PM
oh btw just because i'm not going to get to them right away doesn't mean you shouldn't send songs asap, i really don't want to have to wait longer after the weeklong break thanks
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 23, 2015, 10:59:59 PM
Will send something tomorrow  :corn
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 24, 2015, 12:20:00 AM
east of the wall is so good, i can't wait to get their second and fourth albums omg
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 25, 2015, 02:14:56 PM
finally got around to freak machine, this is pretty good but kind of overwhelming, as expected
also lol autotune
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 25, 2015, 02:22:54 PM
Yeah, it's quite a crazy record. I highly recommend watching the live version on YouTube - fantastic performance.

edIT: Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 25, 2015, 03:16:30 PM
I sent earlier
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 26, 2015, 02:45:54 AM
By the way, in case you reaaaaaaallly dislike what I sent you, I can give you sth else instead :|
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 26, 2015, 04:27:44 AM
If that was the case, I would have 10 submissions by now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 26, 2015, 08:47:48 AM
if I reeeeally dislike what you sent me you can send me one song per round in the next four rounds  :tup
Need songs from 3 more people at the moment.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 26, 2015, 09:22:33 AM
I sent already, right?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 26, 2015, 09:24:37 AM
yes.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 27, 2015, 10:13:12 AM
i think tuesday is when i'm gonna start listening, so if you don't have your entries in by the time i check the forums tuesday morning i'm going to dock points for lateless  :tup

on a side note it sucks that i'm gonna be basically forced to get MP3 versions of maudlin of the Well because physical copies are way too pricey/rare
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 27, 2015, 12:42:26 PM
I sent you something, right? I remember I did but maybe it get lost somewhere :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 27, 2015, 12:47:24 PM
on a side note it sucks that i'm gonna be basically forced to get MP3 versions of maudlin of the Well because physical copies are way too pricey/rare

Man, amen to this. I've been waiting for Blood Music to do another reissue, but it's kinda looking like it's never going to happen. Alas.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 27, 2015, 01:00:30 PM
I sent you something, right? I remember I did but maybe it get lost somewhere :P
you did.
only waiting on two people and i sent out a PM a day or three ago to those who I still needed something from

side-note: your comment made me check the blood music site and Schizoid Lloyd seems to be 50% off right now, can't find shipping info though so I'm super hesitant + I ordered like 5 albums this morning  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 27, 2015, 06:17:35 PM
god i was way too nice on some things in round 2. i don't wanna lower any scores but seventh wonder is even less interesting to me now  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on September 28, 2015, 09:14:55 AM
god i was way too nice on some things in round 2. i don't wanna lower any scores but seventh wonder is even less interesting to me now  :lol
Your opinion is wrong :P
I don't know why but they were like more technical Pain of Salvation to me. Too bad I sent that song, maybe you'd like something else off that album more (I think it's their best album).
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on September 28, 2015, 09:24:40 AM
Alright, back to this forum.
Sorry for the wait, sent.

EDIT: Nice, I'm leading  :coolio
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 28, 2015, 11:19:47 AM
Alright, back to this forum.
Sorry for the wait, sent.

EDIT: Nice, I'm leading  :coolio

You might want to check that you are hitting "reply" and not "reply all" in the future. In email correspondence as well.  ;)

Sent as well.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 28, 2015, 12:26:41 PM
my banned list probably should've been a bit more thorough but i only really looked through bands i actually own stuff from oops
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 28, 2015, 12:50:52 PM
Sent for real. Payback for the 60 minute song incoming. Sort of.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on September 28, 2015, 12:50:54 PM
You can always just say like 'I know this song, send me something else'. You did that to me :|
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 28, 2015, 12:51:32 PM
He just did that to me; that's what he was alluding to. That's why I resent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 28, 2015, 01:04:08 PM
to be fair i probably should've put metallica on the banned list anyways bcuz they had an entire guitar hero game + i listened to all their albums from RTL through Black Album a few times when i was first getting into metal (never bought any though >.>)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 28, 2015, 01:10:22 PM
It's no big deal. I have a small library so part of the way I make my living in these is shooting the obvious gaps in people's banned lists. Because of that tactic I expect someone to have actually heard the song I send from time to time.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 28, 2015, 04:30:41 PM
this next round is going to be interesting because half the artists i've heard of (someone even sent one off the semi-banned list) and all the ones i've heard of i've heard at least something from, too

and the other half i have literally never heard of a single one of these artists and have zero clue what to expect

should be fun. will start listens tomorrow morning, i wanna finish going back through older entries tonight and seeing which scores i felt were a bit too low. did it for the first two rounds already, gotta do it for 3 and 4 too
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 28, 2015, 06:15:59 PM
jesus christ, i really must've been suffering burnout in round 3, on relistening. even with three of the songs being -great-
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on September 28, 2015, 06:51:46 PM
Does that mean I'll get a higher score? :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on September 28, 2015, 09:22:29 PM
Train of Naught: Tremonti – You Waste Your Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Me1ea4MkH0)

I was probably just a little harsh on this one, but only a little. I like it a little more than World on Fire, so.

New Score: 6/10 (+.5)



LordCost: Vangough – Corporatocracy  (https://vangough.bandcamp.com/track/corporatocracy)

Was really annoyed with this at the time but I probably was a bit harsh. Still not an outstanding song but I definitely underrated it a little.

New Score: 6.5/10 (+.5)



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Kvelertak – Mjod (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Y7Nr9NdN8)

I definitely underrated this one ‘cause it’s kind of catchy and got stuck in my head, and I didn’t hate it getting stuck in my head, so yeah. Not like I’m huge on it even still and I don’t exactly want to check out more from this group either, but!

New Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10 (+1)



425: Death Cab For Cutie – We Looked Like Giants (https://youtu.be/5tIVVEIdu2g)

I’ve had that main melody firmly lodged into my head for the past week so it must be doing something right, dunno. Also probably complained too much about the outro going on too long ‘cause I don’t really tend to mind that kind of thing that much.

New Score: 7/10 (+.5)



FlyingBIZKIT: Dredg – Pariah (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0rOEvYKTQ)

Bumping this one up a bit on the strength of the chorus. It’s a really good chorus that’s part of an otherwise okay song. Chorus only happens twice though and I’d loved to have more of it.

New Score: 7/10 (+.5)



Train of Naught: Avenged Sevenfold – Save Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ngdc_tZHe8)

Here I think it’s more that I’m paying attention to the lyrics more than I did before, I already kinda got this was a tribute to the band’s previous drummer but the lyrics are really pretty good. I still think the mixing is off and it goes on a bit long/is a bit samey but, yeah, this is cool.

New Score: 7.5/10 (+.5)



FlyingBIZKIT: The Dear Hunter – The Thief (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsOxy0glL6Y)

This is probably the most difficult song of the roulette thus far really, which makes sense seeing as I had no clue how to rate it the first time and I actually had to relisten to it twice to properly rescore it. After the relisten… yeah, I’m gonna say screw my gut and go with my brain, ‘cause I do dig this now that I finally have listened to it like, 8 times, hah. Maybe will check these guys out.

New Score: 8/10 (+1)



LordCost: ThumperMonkey – Wheezyboy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqaea3vcvvI)

Maybe because I’ve been listening to a lot of harsher music lately but the heavy part doesn’t bother me as much now. Rest of this is still cool too, so. Yeah.

New Score: 8/10 (+.5)



Elite: Agent Fresco – See Hell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Vp_VMcyL4)

I probably didn’t pay the vocals enough mind when I was first listening to this because they’re very good and add a fair bit to an already decent song.

New Score: 8/10 (+.5)



FlyingBIZKIT: Susanne Sundfør - The Silicone Veil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyeFciT03i4)

Probably slightly underrated this one, I think, though I don’t have anything new to say about it, really. It’s on the same level as Bjork, mostly.

New Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) = 8.5/10 (+.5)



senecadawg2: Foals – Spanish Sahara (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYoINidnLRQ)

I mean, yeah, I told you I was gonna up the score on this one. I’ve actually come back and listened to this more than Being Human, even, though I still vaguely like that one a bit more. It’s a shame the rest of this album didn’t really stand out to me though, heh.

New Score: 9.5/10 (+.5)



Adjusted Scores
mikemangioy – 43
Sacul – 42.5
senecadawg2 – 42
Tomislav95 – 40
FlyingBIZKIT - 40
Elite – 40.5
425 – 39
LordCost - 34
Train of Naught – 33.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 28.5

yes i know over half of these are from round 3  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 5 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on September 28, 2015, 09:44:38 PM
425: Death Cab For Cutie – We Looked Like Giants (https://youtu.be/5tIVVEIdu2g)

I’ve had that main melody firmly lodged into my head for the past week so it must be doing something right, dunno. Also probably complained too much about the outro going on too long ‘cause I don’t really tend to mind that kind of thing that much.

New Score: 7/10 (+.5)

It does that to you!  :lol

Thanks for the points!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: Sacul on September 28, 2015, 09:51:07 PM
Tfw no higher score  :sadpanda:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: Crow on September 28, 2015, 09:52:01 PM
I almost gave Goshen's Remains an extra .5 but that was the only one I really considered at all
I can't even give Limousine more points than it already got lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: LordCost on September 29, 2015, 05:04:18 AM
I didn't expect a + 0.5 on Vangough! I thought even a 2.5/10 on Slint could be more probable than this.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 29, 2015, 06:52:52 AM
I'll take it!

Only one point to make up in 5 rounds :caffeine:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: Train of Naught on September 29, 2015, 07:13:39 AM
I don't even care about the adjustment on the Tremonti song, that chorus is kinda annoying at times, so I saw where you were coming from, what really makes my day is I got you to appreciate Avenged Sevenfold's Save Me a bit more, the lyrics in particular.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: Crow on September 29, 2015, 08:47:23 AM
I didn't expect a + 0.5 on Vangough! I thought even a 2.5/10 on Slint could be more probable than this.
i refuse to ever listen to that slint song again, so, no, no points back for slint  :lol
anyways i'll start listening after i make myself lunch.
this round is the shortest round of songs by 10 or so minutes, which is probably for the best, it means y'all did good to not send me a lot of super long instrumentals  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ADJUSTED SCORES)
Post by: Crow on September 29, 2015, 11:10:53 AM
Song lengths!

2:15 - 3:50 - 4:00 - 4:25 - 4:27 - 4:41 - 4:42 - 5:02 - 6:08 - 6:26

It’s heavy, it’s dark, but it’s constantly introducing new ideas while staying firmly cohesive.

This to me sounds like a lot of the same kind of thing; not that that one thing is a bad thing, but I don’t know how well I’ll be able to distinguish any specific parts of this!

It’s all build-up with no payoff. It probably works in the context of the album but taken on its own I don’t think it works too well at all.

There’s some cool riffs and grooves and the soloing is pretty tasteful, especially the slower melodic one in the middle. There’s definitely a lot of different sections here and it’s very moody.

Ooh. The texture and atmosphere on this is fantastic. Roaring guitars and enough subtleties to make it sound very full and unsettling.

I actually get the impression that this band isn’t made up of particularly “talented” musicians in the general technicality sense, but damn can they carry a mood.

I can appreciate how talented the musicians are, but I’d much rather see them turn that towards writing interesting music rather than showing off their chops.

The build is great, the atmosphere is thick and haunting, it’s not too dark to be smothering but not remotely close to bright either.

Good pretty and atmospheric moments, crushing riffs and drumming, although none of it is especially standing out it’s very good for what it is.

There’s a fairly nice keyboard-driven atmosphere here but I’m really not sure how much I like the drums; they’re a bit loud and don’t have the greatest tone to them either.



This round is definitely looking like one of the better ones, ahah. Hopefully none of these wear on me by the time I do writeups. Nothing here I hate in the slightest and only a few I'm not as keen on from first listen.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Elite on September 29, 2015, 02:33:41 PM
Number 6 is definitely mine
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 29, 2015, 08:49:20 PM
oh and since it's in the mail right now, Brand New's album is gonna be the first one from the roulette that I'm getting, isn't that nice  :lol
i'll probably get the Bent Knee album too, listened to it twice on youtube and while none of the songs strike me as being as good as Being Human there are still a lot that I like and it's decently diverse. that song still rocks me haha it's great

considering doing a second listen tonight but might hold off until tomorrow, dunno
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on September 30, 2015, 12:36:10 AM
Nice to see some love for Brand New  :heart

On Bent Knee I highly recommend watching their live performances, specially of Way Too Long. They're awesome as a live act  :hefdaddy
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: LordCost on September 30, 2015, 10:13:09 AM
Mine is number 1 or 9
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: 425 on September 30, 2015, 10:45:05 AM
This one is like an hour long! Why would someone send something of this length in a roulette?!

I think this might be mine.  :biggrin:




Seriously, I don't know exactly which one mine is but I know a lot of ones that it's not.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 30, 2015, 06:08:50 PM
Through the third listen, preliminary scores are done.
I think most of you will be pretty happy this round, a lot of pretty strong entries already and the ones scoring well have room to score even higher in the next two listens.
That being said, there's a few songs I'm not as fond of as the rest. But whose?  :biggrin:

anyways i forgot to do this earlier mostly because the theme of this round is hard to put into words... hah...

Round 7: Drumhead Trial

The vague, hard-to-define theme of this round is music with a strong emphasis on rhythm. Especially interesting/nonstandard rhythms. Whether it be syncopated riffs, tight drumming, a good groove, etc. I'm not going to be too strict on the theme this round because it's pretty vague to begin with but if something pops to mind when you hear "rhythm-focused music" then you may want to go with that one.

Some good examples from this roulette would be Jolly - Where Everything's Perfect, Destiny Potato - Addict, ThumperMonkey – Wheezyboy, Agent Fresco – See Hell, Foo Fighters – Rope. Other things would be, stuff like Intronaut, Leprous' latest album, djent stuff generally has a strong rhythm focus but PLEASE do not send me djent unless it's like really good/goes beyond Meshuggah-esque riffing, I am reeeally sick of bad djent nowadays  :lol

I'll probably be lenient with this theme, like I said, and it's vague enough that you could probably shove a lot of different songs into the category fairly easily but I will definitely kick your song out if it's an ambient piece with no rhythm section to speak of so don't send me one of those.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 30, 2015, 06:48:37 PM
Well damn. I noticed quite suddenly that neither Steven Wilson nor PT were on the banned list and started to freak out a bit, struggling to pick a song for this next round. Only to see him in the 'banned body of work' list with another top choice that I'd previously missed: Devin Townsend. I should've known.

I'm sending soon.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Crow on September 30, 2015, 07:04:46 PM
yeah the banned body of work is just because those artists have projects i haven't even looked into but i have heard more than enough from any of them and don't need more

but yes it does make my banned list look like it's missing some artists  :lol
i named one of the roulette rounds after a porcupine tree song though so
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 30, 2015, 07:54:00 PM
Oh yeah, forgot about that  :lol

How funny would it've been if I sent the very same song.

I'm going to try again tomorrow.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on September 30, 2015, 08:28:10 PM
note for future shadow ninja: you have sent a song for round 7
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on September 30, 2015, 08:48:38 PM
Which you are not likely to remember
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 01, 2015, 12:05:03 AM
note for future shadow ninja: you have sent a song for round 7

Thank you. I shall keep this as a reminder that I have yet to do this.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 01, 2015, 05:55:43 AM
I'm predicting for round 6, no more Shadow and me at the bottom of the rankings.

EDIT.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 01, 2015, 06:51:30 AM
Which you are not likely to remember

True, sadly. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 01, 2015, 01:40:18 PM
so many of these are stuck at a flat 8 and i'm not sure if that's fair, but they're pretty on par with other 8's I've given out and not as good as other 8.5's or 9's i've given out (for what it's worth maudlin of the Well was probably the weakest 8.5 of the entire roulette, still pretty good though  :lol), but better than 7.5's i've given out too so... 8 is gonna be a theme this round, hah. the listen i do while doing writeups has gotten a fair number of a songs an extra half-point though so some of you may get lucky. Not that every song is an 8, there are a few below and a few above. I will also say that nothing is gonna score higher than a flat 9 but one or two might be up that high.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 01, 2015, 03:55:14 PM
So when can we expect results? :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 01, 2015, 05:37:51 PM
uhh i was originally going to say "tomorrow" but
uhh

my CDs just got here while I was out to dinner and I don't want to have to worry about this tomorrow so I'll do writeups tonight  :lol

gonna put on the Riverside album first after I finish up the Myrkur album on YT, mmm tasty female-fronted black metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 01, 2015, 11:14:38 PM
Round 6 Results:

mikemangioy: Animals As Leaders – Physical Education (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSVwcRcMIk)

First Impressions: I hope this is good because I really could never get too into AAL from their debut. Too much showing off, not enough interesting songwriting. This does sound a bit less robotic, at the very least. But it’s the kind of technical that’s “this is fine to listen to but will I ever remember or come back to this?” in the sense that it ends up just sounding like a bunch of noise. I can appreciate how talented the musicians are, but I’d much rather see them turn that towards writing interesting music rather than showing off their chops.

Final Thoughts: Man, AAL have actually somehow managed to regress in songwriting capabilities? Like, this is just a trainwreck of a song. The heavy guitars and bass aren’t nearly heavy or thick enough to pack any punch. The guitar tones on the main melody are very thin too. And the synthy sound that plays the melody some of the time is just… the dorkiest sounding thing.

I will say this. The clean section in the middle brings this up from being even lower, because I genuinely like that section. The guitar noodling creates some nice atmosphere and the backing synth swells help.

The rest though, is either: meandering noise, or that goddamn annoying main melody. Seriously, that’s what you base your song around? It’s like, the dopiest sounding thing ever, I can’t stand it, and it doesn’t help that it’s juuust catchy enough to get stuck in your head, even if it’s just plain dumb. The song’s really got no meat on its bones either, it repeats ideas over and over again with no variation on them except maybe slight drum differences that don’t add up to anything in the long run.

I just… cannot get into any of this aside from the minute or so in the middle. At least they had passable songwriting on the AAL debut, but this? I can at least thank you for one thing, you’ve confirmed to me that I never need to check out anything from this group ever again :lol

Score: 4.5/10 (-.5 Penalty) = 4/10   



425: Sufjan Stevens - The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRnY5g9vXE0)

First Impressions: That’s quite a song title, but it’s no The Boy Bands Have Won (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Bands_Have_Won) so I’m not too impressed. This is… a really strange thing to send. I have to imagine this is like, a short album opener track? (Apparently not; it’s the second track.) This only barely qualifies as an instrumental, the vocals are pretty prominent but they’re just being used as an instrument so I’ll allow it. I think this is just too short to make an impact in one listen, though. It’s all build-up with no payoff. It probably works in the context of the album but taken on its own I don’t think it works too well at all.

Final Thoughts: This really only feels like part of a song, at the end of the day. It builds and builds but the payoff is, presumably, on the next track. But... not here. So I’m really not sure why you sent this, of all things.

I will also say, the trilly woodwinds get really annoying really fast. They feel awkwardly shoved in and serve mostly as noise, even when they get buried by the rest of the instruments coming in.

Other than that… as buildup by itself, it’s mostly fine, aside from the one annoyance. The trumpets have swell, the “aahh” vocal lines serve mostly to accentuate the chords, the drumming fits the mood and it all comes together well (aside from the woodwinds wailing away).

It’s not like buildup with no payoff necessarily is bad; one of my favorite Oceansize songs is Dead Dogs An’ All Sorts which is nothing if not one long buildup session, but it reaches the heights of payoff by the end while still serving as a build to the crushing opening of As The Smoke Clears. I imagine this would be a lot better in context of the album, and I may check this album out as I did like Chicago a fair bit, but as a standalone track, it’s not standing out very much.

Score: 6.5/10   



Sacul: BADBADNOTGOOD – Can’t Leave The Night (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caY0MEok19I)

First Impressions: You’re certainly picking some strange things to send now. There’s a fairly nice keyboard-driven atmosphere here but I’m really not sure how much I like the drums; they’re a bit loud and don’t have the greatest tone to them either. I can definitely see that a lot of it is in the subtleties. I would’ve preferred a real bass to an electronic one (I almost –always- will though, real bass just sounds so much better, ugh.)

Final Thoughts: The problem with this kind of song is that if I don’t dig the main melodies of a song, even if the rest is technically sound, I’m going to run into problems enjoyment-wise.

So. That keyboard loop. Sounds like a GarageBand loop from 10 years ago. Man, I remember using GarageBand, I could use all these loops to make cruddy electronica and pretend I was an artist, those were the days. Well this both tonally and melodically sounds like one of those loops, I’m sad to say. It took me a few listens to realize that’s why it irked me. I also don’t like the plucky synth doing arpeggios at some points. I hate plucky synths in general, though, just not a sound that appeals to me.

Aside from that, other gripes come in the form of “the drums really do need to be turned down a notch” and “the electronic bass sounds kind of thin”. The general atmosphere of the track though, is fine enough most of the time. There’s a quiet part in the middle where the drums mellow out and a guitar? is softly plucking notes, with a few piano flourishes, and all the while the drums are building and getting more intense with the rest of the instruments swelling as well. That. Is a cool build. Unfortunately, the momentum is killed shortly after.

But oh well. There are parts of this I like, and parts of this that bore me. I think the parts that bore me outweigh the parts I like, length-wise, but it’s a fairly solid track. I fear this falls into the “not for me” category more than anything else, though.

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10



Train of Naught: Luay Rifai – Faithful Spirits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObHRALRZV9g)

First Impressions: This is mostly just an extended guitar solo, but it’s one focused on melody more than it is showing off; I actually get the impression that this band isn’t made up of particularly “talented” musicians in the general technicality sense, but damn can they carry a mood. Could be totally wrong about that though. That being said, I’m not sure how “special” or “unique” this is but it’ll definitely be good for a few listens.

Final Thoughts: This song definitely wore on me the most out of all the tracks this round, even more so than the AAL track I pretty much hate. There’s two reasons.

1. The background music is just not interesting enough. Light clean picking, straightforward drumming, heavy chords, bass following the chords. I understand that it’s a backing track for the solo, and it does have its own swells to it, but it’s not enough, especially considering the length of the track.

2. The song follows a very strict verse/chorus structure where the guitar is playing basically the same lead every chorus, just with a harmonized guitar and a few flourishes on the later ones. When you listen to the song once, it’s fine. If you keep listening to it, you get a little bit tired of the lead by the end. It wears on you.

The soloing is pretty tasteful though and melodically oriented, so it does grip me more than a 5 minute shredfest would. The guitarist doesn’t really even try to show off chops until near the very end and it’s only a few fast runs that work with the build of the song and make sense. The soloing between the chorus segments is pretty good and the chorus melody, while a bit repetitive, is pretty strong as well on its own. I just wish the song was a bit more diverse in the end, it’s basically just a showcase for the band’s guitarist (or guitarists? I feel like there’s two here but I haven’t actually checked to confirm).

Score: 7.5/10   



Tomislav95: Black Tusk – Resistor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1AV9-K0Lj4)

First Impressions: The name made me think of Mastodon for some reason. The music is more in line with The Sword though. Still sludge metal stuff either way, haha. This to me sounds like a lot of the same kind of thing; not that that one thing is a bad thing, but I don’t know how well I’ll be able to distinguish any specific parts of this! I definitely don’t think I like this as much as The Sword but I far from dislike it.

Final Thoughts: This occupies basically the exact same space in my mind as the song you sent from The Sword. Which is far from a bad thing. Some good heavy sludge metal instrumental stuff is always appreciated. It does suffer from a bit of a lack of diversity, I feel; a lot of crushing chord riffs that all kind of blend together even if they’re all pretty cool.

I like the drum breakdown in the middle especially because it breaks up the pace and gives the song a little breathing room from the wall of sound. And the acoustic intro and outro was definitely a good decision. The one main riff does feel a bit hammered into the ground by the end of the song but it’s a good riff and I can’t knock the song for sticking to something that works. This has a bit less flavor to it than The Sword and I don’t know how much else from this band I’d be interested in on the basis of this song, but I do like what I’m hearing here a lot.

Score: 8/10   



senecadawg2: Braveyoung – And No Two Walked Together (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrD0xSYZSjA)

First Impressions: Y’all are doing well to tap into the kind of post-rock I enjoy this round. The darker, slower, more atmospheric stuff. The kind that sends chills down your spine and fills you with a sense of unease. This reminds me a lot of TWDY, especially. Definitely a favorable comparison. Mono would also be a good comparison, I guess. The build is great, the atmosphere is thick and haunting, it’s not too dark to be smothering but not remotely close to bright either. Definitely digging it.

Final Thoughts: I don’t know why I compared this to TWDY before I compared it to Mono since this is veeeery much Mono-inspired. Again, not a bad thing. The slow tempo and the thick, textured atmosphere do work well for this brand of post-rock, it’s dark and haunting in all the right ways.

The gripe that I have here is, well, it isn’t exactly the most original-sounding thing in the world. It’s very good for what it is, definitely. The build is strong, the atmosphere is fantastic, it’s good both as background music and active listening music. But I have listened to a fair bit of Mono; I have four albums from them and have listened to their older work a fair few times too. And there’s not much this band does to carve their own identity amongst the many post-rock bands out there.

Can I really fault them for that, though? No, not really. Post-rock is a very oversaturated genre and there’s a big-name band in every style that you could point to for other bands taking inspiration from. As for how much I enjoy this on its own, I definitely do. It’s got a lot of things I like about it and nothing I dislike.

Score: 8/10   



LordCost: The Ocean - Bathyalpelagic I: Impasses (Instrumental Version) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr8x8vOBW_A)

First Impressions: So uhh I actually did listen to the non-instrumental version of this album before, though I don’t remember it so well. But I can definitely dig someone sending me some post-metal. This band keeps appearing in name in comparison to a lot of other stuff I’ve been listening to recently so I probably should check them out further. Especially since I do dig this. Good pretty and atmospheric moments, crushing riffs and drumming, although none of it is especially standing out it’s very good for what it is.

Final Thoughts: I didn’t check out the version of this with vocals yet since I don’t want that to affect my rating of the track without the vocals. But, hell, with how diverse and heavy this song is without the vocals, I almost feel like it probably doesn’t even need them anyways.

The crushing intro gives way to a very laid-back but atmospheric piano line, with more and more texture being added as it repeats, only for the heaviness to kick back in full-force over this build.

The real trick of this song is that the riffs aren’t exactly what I’d call original or special – they’re very djenty, actually – but they aren’t put front and center, they’re just a factor into the heaviness this song brings to the table. They make themselves sound pretty dang awesome in that way.

If I had any real complaints, the slower-paced section awkwardly jumps back into the faster section when it ends, and the overwhelming heaviness of the riffs starts to wear a bit by the end. I imagine the abrupt end is due to the track cutting into a Bathyalpelagic II and I won’t hold that against the song here since it stands its own just fine.

Score: 8.5/10   



FlyingBIZKIT: Nine Inch Nails – Just Like You Imagined (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P_YISMJ4sQ)

First Impressions: This one better be good if two people wanted to send it to me, haha. I don’t know why I haven’t listened to more industrial stuff considering I do like Anno Domini High Definition a ton. I really like the 5/4 groove of this one and the drums are pretty cool too. It’s heavy, it’s dark, but it’s constantly introducing new ideas while staying firmly cohesive.

Final Thoughts: So Sacul wanted to send this, and when I told him someone else already had, he immediately guessed that you were the one to send it, I should give him a bonus point just for that :lol

Anyways, this song just has a cool groove to it, and on top of that, it goes lots of different places and never really likes to repeat itself. There’s a lot of things that add to the wall of noise, piano flourishes, heavily distorted guitars, blaring synths, all built upon the drum and bass groove. By the time it gets absolutely huge at the end I’m just absolutely in love with it. The ending may be a tad anticlimactic but that would be only a minor nitpick on an otherwise quite great industrial metal track.

Score: 8.5/10   



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Gordian Knot – Muttersprache (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOaoPa3-83U)

First Impressions: So I very much did listen to both Gordian Knot albums once in the recent past (last month or so) and while I thought they were decent, either a bit too complex or a bit too samey to really sink in from one listen, but I have to imagine listening to a single song instead of a whole album should make the one song stand out. The production here is kind of… eww, especially for 2003. Or maybe the video quality was just crap? Dunno but it reeeally does have an effect on my enjoyment of this. There’s some cool riffs and grooves and the soloing is pretty tasteful, especially the slower melodic one in the middle. There’s definitely a lot of different sections here and it’s very moody. I just kinda wish I could make it all out better.

Final Thoughts: If this album was remastered and put out with a better sound quality, I bet I’d be rating this even higher, but I checked around various videos of this song on youtube and, yeah, I guess that’s what we’re stuck with.

That’s a damn shame too, because the instrumentation here is just, fantastic. The basslines come through loud and clear, the drumming is tasteful while still remaining complex. The guitar leads are technical to an extent, but either have enough groove or melody to make them stay interesting.

I really dig that swelling piano line that happens a few times, it’s just a perfect flourish for building up to a heavier moment. The atmosphere of the track on the less frantic moments is also very nice, piano and synth adding to the mood with some guitar accompaniment and a very, very full bass sound.

The guitar line that comes in at around 3:40 is just a very cool melody, I kind of wish it hammered on that first three-note line a bit more instead of going off into other lines, they could’ve ridden that a bit further.

I think what really makes this work is that none of the instruments are really clashing with each other for dominance. When there’s a solo going on, the other instruments will give it a bit of room without devolving into something boring or banal, and when they’re all working in unison you get a good mesh of grooves and melodies.

There’s a few themes repeated throughout that keep it feeling cohesive but no section is really like any previous section, it’s constantly in motion but grounded by its motifs. The soloing never gets overwhelming, the song’s quite dynamic, the instrumentation is consistently strong.

The only, ONLY downside is that with how muddled the production is, nothing can quite shine through as strongly as it needs to. PLEASE remaster this album. I know it’ll never happen but do it to please specifically me, thanks.

Score: 9/10   



Elite: Have A Nice Life – There Is No Food (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F44xQcbvdds)

First Impressions: Ooh. The texture and atmosphere on this is fantastic. Roaring guitars and enough subtleties to make it sound very full and unsettling. I’m actually sad this is so short, I would love a really long build of just this kind of sound. It does kind of die out a little at the end though.

Final Thoughts: Goddamn, man, that roaring guitar is like a buzzsaw to the ears, it’s absolutely visceral in the best possible way. The soft-spoken synth and the hihat give this the slightest bit of a pulse, a pulse more like a heartbeat than a rhythm, with the guitar swelling to overtake everything else the farther the song goes on. It’s goddamn poetic, is what it is.

And the dying out at the end… well, yes, that makes perfect sense, in context. Supposedly this is about “starving to death on a desolate moon” and naturally that has to end with death… the final heartbeats at the end as the roaring guitar of pain fades out, bringing the song to a quiet close.

The song paints a strong image and does it well, and it’s just, incredibly unsettling and haunting in all the best ways. The only detractor here is the length, which isn’t even a real problem. Suffice to say, I’m a fan.

Score: 9/10   


Current Standings:
senecadawg2 – 50
Sacul – 49.5
Elite – 49.5
FlyingBIZKIT – 48.5
Tomislav95 – 48
mikemangioy – 47
425 – 45.5
LordCost – 42.5
Train of Naught – 41
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 37.5

Damn strong round means unfortunately for our one rather unlucky contestant, a massive plummet off the top of the leaderboards  :lol
That top 5 is really close now and things are really heating up. Who will win? Or will everyone lose?

Send round 7 entries now to find out!

Also remind me at some point to go back through all the scores I've given out and add them all up to make sure I didn't screw up someone's math somewhere  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 01, 2015, 11:19:04 PM
i'm not even going to have time to listen to both the albums I have from my latest haul tonight, but I think it was worth it because I liked the songs this round enough.

next round is like practically my musical fetish lately so if this isn't the best round of the whole roulette I'll be super sad
i'm also wondering if mike was aware he was sending me an artist on the semi-banned list because first round he tried to send me BTBAM and he was away from the boards for a while and if you didn't notice that then I'm sorry man but you need to read better  :(

also omg both that NIN album and that Have A Nice Life album are super long ok i'll get to listening to them eventually then
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 01, 2015, 11:56:16 PM
Yeah, The Fragile is a very lengthy album being 2 discs. Took me a while to get into it but it was definitely worth the time and effort. Glad you liked the selection from it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 02, 2015, 01:40:15 AM
I had no clue as to what instrumental to send :P

Damnit Elite, I had Have  a Nice Life prepared for another round  >:(

Btw, do you like rapping?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 02, 2015, 04:06:30 AM
That write-up did NOT match my score, well, the way I perceived it it didn't.  :P

I was right about me and Shadow not being bottom two, and damn Shadow has a well deserved 9, I heard Muttersprache, it's awesome.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 02, 2015, 04:25:08 AM
Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: LordCost on October 02, 2015, 05:49:54 AM
I read many reviewers that said Pelagial instrumental version is better. In origin it should have been an instrumental album, they decided only later to do a version with their vocalist (I think because they didn't want him to do nothing on stage on the Pelagial tour, I don't know)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 02, 2015, 06:45:48 AM
Man I fucked up; you're not supposed to like the songs I send. :P


I read many reviewers that said Pelagial instrumental version is better. In origin it should have been an instrumental album, they decided only later to do a version with their vocalist (I think because they didn't want him to do nothing on stage on the Pelagial tour, I don't know)

Originally Luic was quite sick and Robin didn't think that he'd be able to record vocals. Robin had been writing the album instrumentally anyway, so he was going to continue with that, but when Luic started improving Robin got him to record some vocals. Initially he just wanted the vocals to come in near the end of the album, but once Luic started recording they ended up with vocals all over the album.

Also the vocals are tremendous and the album is exponentially greater with them, even though the instrumental versions are still really good.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 02, 2015, 07:29:40 AM
Sweet  :D :D

Couple artists I might've tried submitting later- Sufjan Stevens (though I never would've thought of him in an instrumental round) and Gordian Knot (came close to submitting that very same song this round)- and also an artist I never would've thought about but in hindsight looks like a really good idea. Nice job Rich- Have a Nice Life does seem right up his alley.

I'll send my rhythmic song soon. I'm just having a hard time finding the balls.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: 425 on October 02, 2015, 08:53:17 AM
I think this is just too short to make an impact in one listen, though. It’s all build-up with no payoff. It probably works in the context of the album but taken on its own I don’t think it works too well at all.

Final Thoughts: This really only feels like part of a song, at the end of the day. It builds and builds but the payoff is, presumably, on the next track. But... not here. So I’m really not sure why you sent this, of all things.

Let me be completely clear, this is exactly what I would have written if someone sent me this. That's why I wanted to make sure you'd heard Chicago, because I didn't want to give you just this weird little intro track as your only impression of the artist.

I sent it because I didn't really have any other instrumentals that weren't similar short opening tracks, and as a joke entry to get back at your long song by sending you a song with a long title. :lol

And also because I'm not going to win.

I'm going to try to figure out what to send for this round. Songs that focus strongly on rhythm are not really something I like too well, so it's going to be a matter of finding something I think will work. And probably get a mediocre score and continue my slow descent.

At least I sent you a song with a 50+ word title.



Couple artists I might've tried submitting later- Sufjan Stevens (though I never would've thought of him in an instrumental round)

Fortunately, my Sufjan entry scored low enough that you can send a real one later.  ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 02, 2015, 09:28:39 AM
Btw, do you like rapping?
noooooooooo
rap is a genre that is just a musical dead zone to me, if you're going to add lyrics at least have them be sung
i don't mind a bit of rapping in a song that's mostly sung (Pain of Salvation does this well) but i generally can't stand straight-up rap and hip-hop
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 02, 2015, 10:02:06 AM
shadow ninja's next submission: rap





:neverusethis:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 02, 2015, 12:10:06 PM
Well, shit!  :lol

Will send soon
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 02, 2015, 12:15:08 PM
i think for the final round i'll do an EP round, and i'll just take the top 3, no arbitrary cutoff number.
bcuz 85 is now too high but 80 is too low, there's 5 people who would fall inbetween those two numbers if the current scores are indicative of final "out of 100" scores  :lol
so just the top 3, and if there's a tie there will be a quick tiebreaker round, then an EP round for all the points.
i'm gonna judge the EP 20 points on song quality and 10 points on cohesion/flow, so make sure to keep those in mind. i'll prob take another quick break after round 10 (if there's no tiebreaker) to relisten to rounds 6-9 songs and award adjusted scores there, though hopefully i won't have as many to adjust as i'm getting more confident in my ratings now  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 02, 2015, 12:59:34 PM
I guess there'll be a time limit on the EP round, right? :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 02, 2015, 01:14:13 PM
not a strict one necessarily but keep it reasonable. 30 minutes should be enough but i won't penalize you if you go like a minute over 30.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: 425 on October 02, 2015, 01:25:25 PM
i think for the final round i'll do an EP round, and i'll just take the top 3, no arbitrary cutoff number.

I know I say this like every five minutes, but: you should, EP rounds are fantastic.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: LordCost on October 03, 2015, 02:50:26 AM
Man I fucked up; you're not supposed to like the songs I send. :P


I read many reviewers that said Pelagial instrumental version is better. In origin it should have been an instrumental album, they decided only later to do a version with their vocalist (I think because they didn't want him to do nothing on stage on the Pelagial tour, I don't know)

Originally Luic was quite sick and Robin didn't think that he'd be able to record vocals. Robin had been writing the album instrumentally anyway, so he was going to continue with that, but when Luic started improving Robin got him to record some vocals. Initially he just wanted the vocals to come in near the end of the album, but once Luic started recording they ended up with vocals all over the album.

Also the vocals are tremendous and the album is exponentially greater with them, even though the instrumental versions are still really good.

Thank you for this news!
I didn't know more than 2 or 3 good instrumental to send, so I listened the instrumental album for the first time. I think that the version with vocals is better too
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 09:16:40 AM
still waiting on 2 people though that's probably for the best as I have all of 5 new albums to listen to anyways so  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 03, 2015, 09:27:50 AM
Dunno what to send actually  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 10:46:00 AM
c'mooon man  :sadpanda:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: 425 on October 03, 2015, 11:01:14 AM
Sacul. Do you know a song that's like "hmm that's an interesting groove" or "wow those are some wacky time signatures"? Send that!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 11:11:14 AM
Sacul. Do you know a song that's like "hmm that's an interesting groove" or "wow those are some wacky time signatures"? Send that!
^^^^^^

especially the former, but the latter is good too
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: 425 on October 03, 2015, 11:18:36 AM
Yay I sent the former
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 03, 2015, 12:18:03 PM
Okay I have a few in mind now, shall send in a while. Thanks  ;D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 03, 2015, 12:24:07 PM
I sent few days ago but to ask anyway: do you like growls?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 12:25:08 PM
I sent few days ago but to ask anyway: do you like growls?
akerfeldt is the one person who does growls in a way that I actually like, there are some growls I don't mind/am used to and others that do hamper the experience a bit

tho post-metal and blazkgaze stuff tend to use growls in a good way (bury them enough to make them part of the atmosphere)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 03, 2015, 12:56:39 PM
What about core-like vocals? :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 12:57:40 PM
i don't know what core-like vocals specifically means
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 03, 2015, 01:00:13 PM
Like in BTBAM and hardcore punk/metalcore.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 01:00:53 PM
ahh. i kind of am meh on them, won't add to a song, generally won't take away. hated them at first though, whereas i never really hated akerfeldt's growls  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Evermind on October 03, 2015, 01:01:51 PM
That's because Akerfeldt's growls are the best growls.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 01:03:21 PM
That's because Akerfeldt's growls are the best growls.
yeah that's basically just a fact at this point
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 03, 2015, 01:19:53 PM
That's because Akerfeldt's growls are the best growls.
yeah that's basically just a fact at this point
He's something.
I hope you'll like growls in song I sent, it's not like anything else I listen to.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 03, 2015, 01:37:28 PM
That's because Akerfeldt's growls are the best growls.

I'm pretty sure you meant to say Dan Swano here
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Sacul on October 03, 2015, 01:39:11 PM
That's because Akerfeldt's growls are the best growls.
yeah that's basically just a fact at this point
He's something.
Definitely.


Sent some hardcore punk.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 03, 2015, 02:18:32 PM
Akerfeldt growls?

I guess it's because I'm new to Opeth, but I had no idea...
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 03, 2015, 02:58:23 PM
go listen to Ghost Reveries

also here's a really good blackgaze/ambient album aaahh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8F8UzWEyDI
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Results)
Post by: Crow on October 04, 2015, 02:26:53 PM
this was going to be a first impressions post but about 10 seconds into one of the songs i realized it was a song I'd heard before fairly recently and needed a resubmission, oops  :facepalm:

Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 04, 2015, 03:40:52 PM
was it mine
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 04, 2015, 03:46:13 PM
no, I PMed the person who needs to resend lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 04, 2015, 07:17:21 PM
on a side note, I cannot get over this East of the Wall album but the songs don't work too well on their own so I dunno if I can send most of these in roulettes  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 04, 2015, 09:59:57 PM
Good old-fashioned track lengths:

2:37 - 3:50 - 4:23 - 5:08 - 5:46 - 5:51 - 6:04 – 6:06 - 7:12 - 8:55

The bass is really high in the mix, which is a plus. Adds a sense of heaviness to even the quieter moments that keeps things tense.

I think its guitar line is strong enough to carry the first half and the raw energy can carry the second half, so it works.

My first time listening to this, a lot of this song is just in one ear and out the other, which I kinda expected to be fair, but oh well.

Frantic but organized music like this is something that seems to work well, and there’s a strong underlying sense of groove to it that keeps it grounded.

There’s a balance between the more chaotic bits and the more straightforward bits that keeps the song interesting. The only thing is that it may be a bit of a blur, musically; a lot of the riffs aren’t that distinct.

This has decent atmosphere to it but it ends up feeling repetitive by the end. The small subtleties that come in and out don’t change up the mood enough to keep me engaged.

This song feels a bit schizophrenic on first listen, even for the genre, it can’t tell if it wants to be really pretty or if it wants to be really heavy or if it wants to be more technical.

The relaxed groove of the instrumentals are nice and the singer’s voice is okay though a bit rough and not particularly powerful.

When it does kick in I do like it a fair bit, even if it’s not exactly original, but up until that point I find it hard to stay interested or focused on this.

I think the biggest thing about this is that not only does it lack much in the way of dynamics, but it also doesn’t have any huge shifts musically.



I think this is a bit of a mixed round, some songs I think are pretty great stuff, some others I'm meh on or already kind of dislike. We'll see what happens, I guess  :lol
And I kind of figured this would happen but a fair number of the entries I don't really feel fit the theme very much at all but I'm not gonna ask like half of you to resubmit just because of a silly theme that I knew was vague/difficult so we'll just called it a glorified open round oh well.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 05, 2015, 02:52:46 AM
I think I'll be in the bottom half this time. That's the price you pay for sending when you're at ProgPower Europe.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 05, 2015, 03:33:00 AM
A lot of these could be mine really, but if it's the bass one, it's probably high in the mix because the band only consists of a drummer and a bass player/lead singer, theres no actual guitar.  :biggrin:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 05, 2015, 09:00:50 AM
I think I'll be in the bottom half this time. That's the price you pay for sending when you're at ProgPower Europe.
yeah, have fun you loser  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 05, 2015, 10:54:30 AM
:lol I'm back home now stop being jealous
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 05, 2015, 12:18:26 PM
oh okay, guess I don't have to dock you that one-point penalty then
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 05, 2015, 01:46:57 PM
My first time listening to this, a lot of this song is just in one ear and out the other, which I kinda expected to be fair, but oh well.

Frantic but organized music like this is something that seems to work well, and there’s a strong underlying sense of groove to it that keeps it grounded.

This has decent atmosphere to it but it ends up feeling repetitive by the end. The small subtleties that come in and out don’t change up the mood enough to keep me engaged.

When it does kick in I do like it a fair bit, even if it’s not exactly original, but up until that point I find it hard to stay interested or focused on this.

Any of these could apply to my song  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 05, 2015, 02:22:01 PM
i will say that this is a pretty diverse round despite having a vague theme to it, haha, none of these blend together in my mind at all
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 05, 2015, 02:40:38 PM
The song I sent you isn't one of my personal favorites from the artist, but it's one of their best displays of the theme you set for the round.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 06, 2015, 11:42:41 AM
there's one or two tracks this round that I just find... boring, and that's one of the worst things a song could be, to me  :(
anyways I need to post the round 8 theme

Round 8: A Dark Design
...is, unsurprisingly, dark songs. On one hand it's hard to define what a "dark" song is, yet on the other hand it seems to be something that's pretty easy to categorize. I don't think it necessarily has to mean one thing in particular but darkness can come in many forms in music and hopefully I'll get a bit of all of them this round.

Let's make me unhappy in the best way? And don't take the wagers.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 06, 2015, 12:32:21 PM
Do I get bonus points if you have suicidal thoughts while listening to the song I'll send?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 06, 2015, 12:34:26 PM
no, but you can send it anyways

also Song For A Dead Friend is banned btw piss off with that one
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Evermind on October 06, 2015, 12:44:15 PM
also Song For A Dead Friend is banned btw piss off with that one

This is one of the few positive things about your roulette. :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 06, 2015, 12:51:09 PM
Why is that a positive thing?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 06, 2015, 12:55:13 PM
love ya too man
(not that i think it's like a bad song or anything but i know it bcuz of y'all, it's okay but wouldn't score high points i don't think)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Evermind on October 06, 2015, 12:57:15 PM
Why is that a positive thing?

Because back then I recall like half a year when people would send this song every time the round theme was a ballad / dark song / depressing song. I've got kinda tired of it.

And because it was banned in my roulette too, of course. :angel:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 06, 2015, 02:25:20 PM
Sent my evil dark songy.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 06, 2015, 09:21:06 PM
i think here's the plan; gonna do a late-night listen tonight after this and the next album I'm gonna put on (side note: every last one of you is getting Exivious in your roulettes and you're welcome) and then I'll do write-ups tomorrow afternoonish
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 06, 2015, 09:25:35 PM
My song works better in a late-night listening  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 06, 2015, 09:31:32 PM
i actually try to get a variety of listening settings for these songs, usually a morning one somewhere, a later night one, a listen where I divide my focus a little and have the music half in the background... gets me a good impression of where different songs work best  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 07, 2015, 12:23:28 AM
what you can expect:
1. me being really frustrated with the really boring song
2. potentially the highest score any song that's received a bonus .5 has gotten, but maybe not
3. at least one recent trend continues
4. there's a ton of songs that feel super in-between whole and half-point scores and i'm regretting not having quarter-scores

my rating system now seems to be "how badly do I want this song to be the next one to come up next on the randomizer"
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 07, 2015, 02:51:56 AM
God, I hopr mine isn't the boring song :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 07, 2015, 04:47:29 AM
I'm really hoping it isn't mine either, on the other side, it only lasts a little over 2 minutes and is full of energy so I can't imagine.  :eek
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 07, 2015, 05:36:11 AM
I would not call mine boring either, but some people probably would. I hope Parama isn't one of those people.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 07, 2015, 06:09:43 AM
Couldn't help but notice your signature sign with a link to your band, you played at Melkweg like last week? that's like next to my house  :lol I should've gone!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 07, 2015, 08:54:36 AM
I hope mine is the boring one, making you suffer as much as possible.  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 07, 2015, 09:05:40 AM
Couldn't help but notice your signature sign with a link to your band, you played at Melkweg like last week? that's like next to my house  :lol I should've gone!

Yes! It was in June, but we took the time to make the videos as good as we could :) the first was released 3(?) weeks ago and this Friday we're releasing the last video. So you live in the Netherlands? Check out our music and come see us live sometime :D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 07, 2015, 09:09:53 AM
plot twist: everyone had the boring song, everyone gets 4 points this round the end
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 07, 2015, 09:12:27 AM
Couldn't help but notice your signature sign with a link to your band, you played at Melkweg like last week? that's like next to my house  :lol I should've gone!

Yes! It was in June, but we took the time to make the videos as good as we could :) the first was released 3(?) weeks ago and this Friday we're releasing the last video. So you live in the Netherlands? Check out our music and come see us live sometime :D
Yeah I checked it out, not exactly my usual taste but I thought it was good, I live in Amsterdam, basically 10 minutes away from Leidseplein with the bike. I might come see you sometime!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 6 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 07, 2015, 01:41:34 PM
Couple artists I might've tried submitting later- Sufjan Stevens (though I never would've thought of him in an instrumental round)

Fortunately, my Sufjan entry scored low enough that you can send a real one later.  ;)

This would've been a good round for it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 07, 2015, 10:39:22 PM
i'm bad and lazy but mostly i was putting these off for a while for no particular reason other than to make you all suffer, i'll start on writeups, expect them in an hour or so
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 07, 2015, 11:38:01 PM
It's already been an hour. I guess I'll have to wait for the so  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 07, 2015, 11:40:14 PM
i didn't start right after I made that post, actually, and most of these writeups are getting to be longer than the songs themselves, somehow  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 12:20:32 AM
Round 7 Results:

senecadawg2: Lunatic Soul – Cold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dIoBU-mJ64)

First Impressions: The first minute has me going “well I don’t know where you’re going with this yet, but I’m intrigued”. This isn’t really, like, a decent fit for the theme at all honestly but ehh. This has decent atmosphere to it but it ends up feeling repetitive by the end. The small subtleties that come in and out don’t change up the mood enough to keep me engaged. And the rhythm is fairly straightforward. Not until near the end is there any real variation, with the drums going a bit more intense and the rest of the instrumentation staying pretty much the same, a few synths coming in too I guess but it’s a little too late at that point.

Final Thoughts: I think the fatal flaw here is that… Mariusz Duda has always been my least favorite part of Riverside. Well, that and the kind of cruddy guitar tones they occasionally use for leads. But yeah. I don’t hate his voice or his singing or anything but I generally don’t listen to Riverside to hear him sing. I listen for the interesting music.

Here, I get… one guitar/synth line repeated over and over in a song with almost no build until near the end, a simple beat, and an okay atmosphere. That’s like… it. And Duda’s singing is fine here but the effects put on the vocals aren’t my favorite, never a huge fan of vocal effects but they don’t even add anything here.

And that’s why this song bores me. It’s fairly undynamic and it puts the music as mostly a backdrop for the singing. And if I don’t find the singing to be that great… I don’t find myself having a reason to come back and listen to the song. It doesn’t help that it’s 7 minutes long.

I also don’t really see how this fits the theme, and that’s part of why it bores me, as well; it’s not really even close to what I’m looking for from this round. Yeah, okay, there’s a flat beat throughout the entire song… but not an interesting one, and it’s certainly not given much focus.

I do think the ending section is alright. There’s a lot more texture to the music and it builds alright enough, the drums get a lot more interesting too. It’s a shame I have to wait over 5 minutes to get to that point, and up until that point this just does not interest me in the slightest.

Sorry, man, but I never want to hear this song again :lol

Score: 4/10



FlyingBIZKIT: OSI – Microburst Alert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvA390s5zjg)

First Impressions: Not that I’ve never listened to OSI before, more that it was a long time since I did and I wasn’t a huge fan when I first did, but who knows. This is super bass-heavy, gosh. Probably too bass-heavy. The bass stops sounding like it has a tone to it and just feels like a percussive hit. Takes a while to kick in, too. When it does kick in I do like it a fair bit, even if it’s not exactly original, but up until that point I find it hard to stay interested or focused on this.

Final Thoughts: Okay, I think you might have taken the theme a liiiittle too literally, since this song is very little but rhythm. The low synths are basically just percussion on top of a decent enough drum beat. There’s a few softer bits with some melodies and decent atmosphere and I’m okay with those sections, though the sampled voices that always accompany them are not my favorite.

The louder part at the end is cool too but there’s not so much any buildup to it as much as it just happens out of nowhere, and it’s not exactly enough to save the song, nor does it last for very long. I think this is short enough that it doesn’t bore me or anything, at least, and I kinda dig the rhythms, but at the end of the day… this is just reminding me why I never got into OSI to begin with.

Score: 5 (+.5 Bonus) = 5.5/10



Tomislav95: Gojira – Esoteric Surgery (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efofJjBGyNA)

First Impressions: Did try to listen to these guys once but didn’t make it through an entire song when I did. Let’s try again. Intro is not attracting any favor, straight kicks and going on a fair bit long and all. Once that passes the rhythm of the song definitely gets more interesting, though it’s a bit lacking in tone; very Meshuggah-esque. Like, yeah, these guys definitely listened to a lot of Meshuggah… and I don’t really care for Meshuggah… oops… I think the biggest thing about this is that not only does it lack much in the way of dynamics, but it also doesn’t have any huge shifts musically. It goes from loud section to loud section to slower loud section with chugging riffs and lots of double bass. It does cool down a little eventually but at that point it’s lost me anyways.

Final Thoughts: You, too, may have taken the theme a bit too literally, though this at least has a fair bit of melodic and musical meat on the rhythm bones. I like how the one vocal line comes in early at the last repetition of the intro, that’s a good touch. And I like the rhythmic breakdown after, it’s pretty cool, the drums do some neat stuff for that part.

A lot of this is just… too straightforwardly heavy for me to get in. Straight double-bass kicks and tremolo picking like this song uses in spades is basically a deathcore trope that I’ve heard done to death by basically every deathcore act I’ve heard, and I do not actively seek out deathcore (can’t stand it, honestly).

The song gets to a much more interesting place for the second half, though, the pace slowing down to give some nice headbanging riffs, even if they’re a bit simple. It never really goes anywhere with it, though, kind of just dying out into a clean section at the end, perhaps a bit too soon.

I think what keeps me from enjoying this more is that nothing about it is really that fresh, nor is it that gripping. The rhythmic breakdown section is a Meshuggah type thing that I’ve heard before. The flat drumming/tremolo picking stuff I’ve heard before. The slower chugging riffs I’ve probably heard in a hundred different songs. Far from calling this a bad song, but just not a particularly interesting one.

Score: 6.5/10



Sacul: Massive Attack – Dissolved Girl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lcZ0redg1s)

First Impressions: I don’t really know what trip-hop implies but apparently not as bad as I’d feared. The relaxed groove of the instrumentals are nice and the singer’s voice is okay though a bit rough and not particularly powerful. I like the use of guitar here, it’s not a primary instrument but it can add texture to quieter moments and heaviness to louder moments. I found myself zoning out a little while listening to this, though. It’s not especially engaging…

Final Thoughts: Well, now I know what trip-hop sounds like, I guess. Vaguely pleasant but not especially engaging, downbeat electronic music. The kind of song I’d put on in the background and not mind at all, but not really notice much either. For 6 minutes it’s stretched a little thin. The climax of the song happens less than halfway through and it has nowhere to go from there. It just… meanders.

I’m neutral on her voice. It’s okay. It’s not great. The synth sounds are okay. Not great. The guitar sounds good and is used well. The beat’s decent but not fantastic or anything.

Man, I just, have a hard time saying much about this. It’s chock full of subtleties, sure, but the subtleties are put onto a framework that’s not exactly great. It’s not making me want to go and check out some trip hop, that’s for sure.

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10



mikemangioy: Destrage – My Green Neighbor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SOEKCWafsg)

First Impressions: Yeah, I can pretty quickly tell where you’re coming from sending this. What the heck is that higher pitched voice even doing, though. I guess it’s a singing voice but it’s hard to tell. This song feels a bit schizophrenic on first listen, even for the genre, it can’t tell if it wants to be really pretty or if it wants to be really heavy or if it wants to be more technical. All three of its moods work well enough on their own though and it’s not like the transitions are bad either. I don’t think any of this is particularly original but it’s plenty competent at the very least. You could do far worse sending me metalcore.

Final Thoughts: This may suffer from the fact that my most recent delve into metalcore stuff happened to be Burst, who did this exact kind of song just a lot better in every way. Cooler riffs, better harsh vocals, very interesting cleaner parts, and a general focus on writing heavy music, but not overly heavy music.

This is trying to be loud and heavy a lott of the time, and that’s fine. That’s where metalcore and death metal stuff in general runs into a problem for me… heavy for the sake of heavy is just not my thing in the slightest.

So I don’t really like the harsh vocals here at all. Especially the higher-pitched ones, they just irk me. And some of the riffs are a bit too “look how heavy this is”. But as a whole, there’s a ton of stuff here I like.

There’s plenty of decent riffs here and you can tell all the band members have definitely practiced, but they use that to build one hell of a hook and some really interesting frantic instrumental breakdowns. There’s one really heavy part with chromatic chords in the middle that I think works well as a really heavy thing. All the elements come together well there.

I kind of don’t like the ending at all though, that sample is… eugh, and the band comes in just for a quick punch in the face that really doesn’t add anything to the song.

The song as a whole, I can’t say I fully enjoy, but there’s so many good parts to this that outweigh the bad parts and I can’t say I dislike it or anything either, I dig this quite a bit actually, but I can’t say I’m especially eager to check out more from the band.

Score: 7.5/10



425: Yes – Siberian Khatru (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0HnIr6jYWU)

First Impressions: Yes, I haven’t listened to much Yes, which is mostly my fault. The guitar lines in this song are pretty noodly but they’re not given too much focus so as to overwhelm everything else. The rhythm is a little flat though, a basic kick-snare-kick-snare beat for the early parts at least. The guitar lines have a bit of groove to them, I guess. My first time listening to this, a lot of this song is just in one ear and out the other, which I kinda expected to be fair, but oh well. It’s a fairly complex song both structure-wise and instrumentally, so. That’s why I give a fair number of listens to everything.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, the groove here definitely comes more from the guitar and synth than it does from the drumming. But it’s there well enough. I don’t think it’s a high level of groove or anything but at least well enough there to please me.

I will say that I’m a little disappointed that this isn’t as adventurous as the other Yes songs I’m familiar with (Close to the Edge and Roundabout, mostly). It makes up for that by just being a damn solid prog rock song, though.

It does kind of hammer in its guitar lines and riffs a bit much, though. There’s two of them that are just played over and over and while they’re cool lines, I don’t think they’re cool enough to sustain so much of the song.

Yes as usual does a lot of cool things vocal-wise, harmonies and ear-catching melodies aplenty. And the quiet parts with more atmosphere are cool in their own right, as well.

I think mostly what keeps me from rating this higher is that… I feel this song could be trimmed out a bit, the writing tightened some, and a much better 6 or 7 minute song could’ve come out of it than the 9 minute song it is. As it stands, it’s basically a classic track off a classic album that I’ve somehow never heard until now. And I like it. Don’t love it.

I keep pingponging between 7.5 and 8 for this one so I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and go for the higher one since I can’t really make up my mind. I wish I had quarter scores :lol

Score: 8/10



Train of Naught: Royal Blood – Loose Change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh7VKu0rOK8)

First Impressions: Oh, that guitar line is delicious. Hmm. When it gets quiet for a moment I expect a louder chorus to come in but it doesn’t. Oh well. Okay, it has to be building to something now, right? Yes, alright. You tricked me the first time. Though it doesn’t have a lot of room to work with this does feel like a complete song. I think its guitar line is strong enough to carry the first half and the raw energy can carry the second half, so it works.

Final Thoughts: Okay, so I have been informed in-thread that that is not actually an electric guitar, it is a bass.

Goddamn, I love the tone on that bass, then. This is easily the grooviest song of the bunch and the kind of straightforward rocker I dig. The vocals fit the music perfectly. The drums just add to the groove of the main riff. It’s short enough that it doesn’t have time to wear out its welcome. You’d have to try really hard to beat an idea completely into the ground in two and a half minutes.

I will say that the faster part of the song probably isn’t as good as the groove of the slower parts, but being “not as good” as “really damn good” is not something to feel too bad about. The way that the vocal line remains the same between the two and the bassline is like, an alternate version of the slower riff keeps it feeling cohesive throughout the tempo shift.

Listening to this song just makes me very happy and if the rest of their album is cool rockers like this song then I’m definitely interested. And you definitely win the “best fit to theme” prize of the round, though there’s no bonus for that.

Score: 8.5/10



LordCost: The Contortionist – Thrive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmEHP030qyw)

First Impressions: So yeah I’ve listened to this album before but I don’t exactly remember the specific songs. I just remember “djent with pretty good atmosphere” and that’s basically what I’m getting here. There’s a balance between the more chaotic bits and the more straightforward bits that keeps the song interesting. The only thing is that it may be a bit of a blur, musically; a lot of the riffs aren’t that distinct. It seems like you went both for the groove and the complexity factors of the theme this round, and shoved in some atmosphere for good measure.

Final Thoughts: Maybe it’s kinda cheating since I already heard this album all the way through once and liked it enough to decide that I’d probably pick it up at the end of the year or something, but considering that I wasn’t familiar with any of the songs at all, and that I was fairly sure I would like it, yeah, felt okay letting this one through.

And I’m glad I did. Obviously. There’s just a lot about this that works. It’s heavily textured and there’s a ton of atmosphere in the quieter moments, but at the same time there’s a frantic energy to it throughout, and a lot of rhythmical complexity that flows well and feels natural.

I’d hesitate to call this djent at all, now that I’m more familiar with it. It’s more a specific flavor of progressive metal that has a bit of djent inspiration in it. The bass does some djenty stuff during the quieter moments that keeps the song’s energy going strong and I really dig that; the bass in general here is actually really good, very audible and it’s not just mimicking the guitar like a lot of bands tend to have it do.

I will say that my feeling of “this kind of blurs together a little” has still stuck, but at the same time, there’s a definite progression and flow to the song to where it doesn’t really feel like a blur even if a lot of the kinds of riffs and rhythms are samey. I just have to hope that the entire album doesn’t sound exactly like this one song, I imagine it doesn’t though.

Score: 8.5/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Shining – Fisheye (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_wF3g01Ktc)

First Impressions: Considering how dissonant and noisy this intro is, you think I’d hate it, right? Uhh. I don’t, it’s actually pretty cool. Frantic but organized music like this is something that seems to work well, and there’s a strong underlying sense of groove to it that keeps it grounded. I worry that once the initial shock of this wears off I won’t find as much making me want to come back to it, though. And it’s a little too consistently loud, also. Oh hey there crazy sax, ahah. Yeah, this song is just… exhausting, more than anything.

Final Thoughts: Please keep sending me weird stuff. This kind of weird stuff definitely pays off well. Even when it’s like, made up of elements I’d usually not like, but everything works together here so well that the chaos just ends up sounding great.

What the heck does ONE THREE SEVEN FIVE mean though, seriously.

Anyways, the guitar line has a ton of groove to it and I love it. Also that crazy noodly thing that happens just before the first “verse” or whatnot is kind of hilarious but super cool.

I think this song really earns the right to be pretty consistently heavy because even when it’s heavy it still has room to build. The really frantic heavy part towards the middle is a clear step up from the heavy groove of the parts before.

And when this song returns to an older idea, there’s always something new added to keep it fresh. Vocals getting louder, guitar noodling over the dissonant synth line, let’s just have a random sax solo out of nowhere because it ups the already manic feel of the song to a new level.

This song is definitely exhausting though, but it never wore out its welcome, each time I listened to this I noticed more subtleties that made each listen better than the last. Something this weird that still ends up working this well definitely deserves both its high score and its bonus point, I’ll definitely dig into more of this band’s stuff, though hopefully it won’t all be as… tiring to listen to, haha, I don’t think I could take 50 minutes of just this kind of song.

Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10

(Continued in next post...)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 7 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 12:20:55 AM
Elite: Lesoir – Battle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hhq5xDC2L0)

First Impressions: Well, I definitely dig the swell at the start of the song. Okay, yeah, from the intro alone I can tell you went for the groove here, which definitely works. I am not sure how well the vocals here match with the music, but the music itself is really cool. Very moody with both a lot of groove and a lot of atmosphere. The bass is really high in the mix, which is a plus. Adds a sense of heaviness to even the quieter moments that keeps things tense. The group vocals coming back in for the chorus after the long break adds a real feeling of climax to the track too. The long slow fadeout at the end might be a bit of a drag with how long it is, though.

Final Thoughts: You didn’t have to worry about being in the bottom half of the set this round at all, you’re crazy for thinking so, like geez man this is just a great song.

Where to begin? How about with the chorus. That riff is great. The booming drums just accentuate it. The female vocals sound as aggressive as the riff. It all works great. Damn, I love that chorus.

First verse. What’s that, a bass groove and some frantic drumming over some softer but still powerful vocals? Yes, you better believe I’m gonna sign on that dotted line.

Then there’s the quieter break in the middle. A foreboding piano melody and some super-thick bass tones over a sluggish but driving drum rhythm. Female vocals come back in with a ominous, almost whispered echo by another vocalist. The vocals themselves have really good dynamics that basically create a build all by themselves even when the other instruments don’t.

The third chorus. Everything great about the first two choruses, with the added bonus of some cathartic group vocals making it even bigger.

Really the only thing about this that isn’t excellent is the long outro. It doesn’t drag the whole thing down a lot, and there’s some nice guitar leans going on throughout it, but it’s a bit of an anticlimax I feel, especially with how long it takes for everything to die out.

But yeah, everything else here? Damn. Hot damn. I gotta check out this album.

Score: 9/10


Current Standings:
Elite - 58.5
Sacul - 56.5
Tomislav95 - 54.5
mikemangioy - 54.5
senecadawg2 - 54
FlyingBIZKIT - 54
425 - 53.5
LordCost - 51
Train of Naught - 49.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 46.5

Pretty mixed round overall but I got a fair number of cool songs out of it for sure so I can’t complain in the end. And I’m sorry so many songs get stuck at 8.5, the 9’s tend to be hard to compare to when I have standards set by previous rounds. Lesoir would’ve totally been a 9.5 with a shorter outro though, and The Contortionist would be like an 8.75 if I gave out quarter ratings, maybe it’ll get the half-point when I do relistens I dunno.

And YEP hit the character limit this time, oops  :lol

Get your Round 8 entries ready, now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 12:35:51 AM
Damn, was kind of worried this would happen. Again  :lol. Yeah, the song meanders a bit, but you should check the album anyways (specially the song Teardrop) - most tunes have great yet subtle buildups and a dark atmosphere. Which would have been perfect for this round, fuck.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 08, 2015, 02:17:48 AM
I managed to impress Parama at last, I'm happy.
Most of Royal Blood's songs are kind of like Loose Change, but the breakdown is actually my favorite part of it, and it's what makes it different from most of the songs. Figure It Out also has a breakdown at the end but does it waaay cooler, other faves are probably Little Monster, Out of the Black and Careless.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 08, 2015, 05:38:10 AM
I guess most of Gojira's songs are repetitive, riff based. And as long those riffs are great I'm pleased :D But maybe I took round theme too literally, yes :P
Elite is maybe too far from me now, but I hope he will fail in at least one round (come on man, you can't send great song in every round ;D ).
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 08, 2015, 07:41:42 AM
I would probably have picked Ocean Planet or Art of Dying for a Gojira submission, but I don't know too many songs by them, and judging from Parama's write-up, Gojira would not work out anyway.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 08, 2015, 07:56:33 AM
Don't worry man, I am totally just going to keep sending you weird stuff. I mean me winning is impossible at this point so I might as well. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on October 08, 2015, 08:23:48 AM
Sent now! If I had chosen another song and got a standard vote like 6.5 instead of a 2 on the post rock round I could have been third  :\
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 09:00:06 AM
please do not send me light of day, day of darkness for round 8, there's a variety of reasons why i won't accept it  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 08, 2015, 09:13:35 AM
Hey LordCost, good things came out of that 2, for instance, I feel better about my own score now.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Evermind on October 08, 2015, 11:50:39 AM
Um, I'm pretty much indifferent to that Lunatic Soul album, but Cold really deserves more than 4/10. Nice song.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 11:59:39 AM
i was tempted to rate it lower, actually, 4 is me being nice  :loser:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 12:02:18 PM
Cold really deserves more than 4/10. Nice song.
Definitely. I'd have sent the opener from that album instead, which is quite more epic and a bit less repetitive, but I guess Parama's tastes aren't that easy to read :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 08, 2015, 12:04:03 PM
i was tempted to rate it lower, actually, 4 is me being nice  :loser:

Well then you should rate it lower. Go on.

I'm not buying your apologies and :lol's anyways.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 12:26:20 PM
Nah, the 4 is fine as is. Just wish I could get more into the song but bleh.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 08, 2015, 12:48:18 PM
please do not send me light of day, day of darkness for round 8, there's a variety of reasons why i won't accept it  :lol

Things I should have said...  :biggrin:

Cool, figured you'd like the Yes but probably not love it, so that score is pretty good for what I was expecting. I'll send for round 8 today today.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 08, 2015, 12:49:02 PM
Damn, Parama is picky.  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 12:50:58 PM
it's true and for that I apologize  :lol

a lot of the time I'm not even really too sure of my own taste
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 08, 2015, 12:54:21 PM
Hey, you like what you like  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on October 08, 2015, 01:10:16 PM
Hey LordCost, good things came out of that 2, for instance, I feel better about my own score now.
We should do a playout round :D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 05:20:43 PM
i'm a little sad that i don't have a roulette for dumping songs on people right now, maybe i should rush the last few rounds here and skip having a final EP round so that the next roulette can start up sooner  :P

i probably won't but I'll definitely try to stay under 2 months and the EP round will probably get axed if it looks like I won't be staying under 2 months, oops  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 06:25:27 PM
Maybe you can do the EP round after this one with all players included  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 06:30:42 PM
i set up 10 rounds and i'm gonna do 10 rounds  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Do you like noisy, heavily distorted guitars? Like the solo on Misunderstood, and the one after Limousine's climax.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 07:19:48 PM
that's more really scratchy guitars  :lol
depends on the context though.
unless you mean something else than what I'm thinking of
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 07:22:41 PM
I'll take that as a "kinda, yes" :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 07:28:29 PM
if you mean like the last minute or so of limousine and the parts of misunderstood where it's just the guitar being scratchy near to the end then... well, not like a huge fan of that kind of thing on its own  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 07:32:58 PM
Nice. I'll send one that's basically a buildup of roaring guitars. With female vocals.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 08, 2015, 07:34:42 PM
Nice. I'll send one that's basically a buildup of roaring guitars. With female vocals.
this sounds intriguing at the very least
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 07:38:20 PM
You said you'd love to listen to a song like that in your writeup of There Is No Food :P

Sending in a while.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 08, 2015, 09:30:22 PM
Sent one of the year's best tunes  :metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 09, 2015, 01:05:51 AM
oh btw unsurprisingly, that Brand New album is really good
I already love Sowing Season, Millstone, Jesus, Limousine (duh), Not The Sun, and Handcuffs and that's like over half the album and I haven't exactly been able to give it a large number of spins either

anyways i'll send out PM reminders tomorrow for anyone who hasn't sent me a song yet so get on that  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 09, 2015, 01:33:57 AM
Holy shit! Definitely did not expect that :D

Sending today!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 09, 2015, 01:27:11 PM
Meeeh I like Destrage at insane levels, and if you consider that metalcore, do not listen to their second album  :lol

Sending soon
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 09, 2015, 02:10:36 PM
i just don't like loud music for the sake of being loud, I guess  :lol
gonna send out reminder PMs even though two of y'all already know 'cause why not  :lol

edit: Elite, clean out your inbox :V
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 7 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 09, 2015, 02:40:28 PM
 :rollin

I guess sending PMs is better than publicly shame them in the thread title. Or not :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (HEY ELITE YOUR PM INBOX IS FULL)
Post by: Crow on October 09, 2015, 09:54:45 PM
someone make sure Elite sees the thread title when he wakes up

in other news, re: recent albums

The Devil and God is probably the best among the five I got, what an album
Riverside's might actually be my least favorite but that's more a result of the others just all being really good too rather than it being bad, I don't think I like it as much as ADHD but it's a big step up from SoNGS. the lyrics of #Addicted are awful but other than that there's no real serious gripes to be made

also: wow this round is full of really heavy stuff + i have at the very least heard of every artist sent to me this round.
elite can be the exception if he wants to be i dunno lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (HEY ELITE YOUR PM INBOX IS FULL)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 09, 2015, 10:06:22 PM
Devil and God is an amazing album.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (HEY ELITE YOUR PM INBOX IS FULL)
Post by: Elite on October 10, 2015, 01:52:30 AM
Oh my god, this thread title :lol
I'm sending within an hour!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (HEY ELITE YOUR PM INBOX IS FULL)
Post by: Elite on October 10, 2015, 02:41:44 AM
I sent the darkest stuff in my library.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 10, 2015, 10:56:29 AM
got everything in, will do listens and first impressions after lunch
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 10, 2015, 01:44:27 PM
The song lengths go on...

4:45 - 4:49 - 5:39 - 5:47 - 5:54 - 6:28 - 7:37 - 9:17 - 11:12 - 12:38

Welcome to the longest round of the roulette, length-wise  :lol

There’s a nice soft/loud contrast between the verses and the chorus that gives the chorus a lot more weight but doesn’t take the weight away from the verses either.

I think a problem I’m having is that this song stays at one dynamic level for a while then abruptly switches to a different level, but there’s no build or swell in any of it, so it ends up sounding really flat.

The heavy distortion throughout and the bass-heavy mix works well here because it doesn’t drown out everything else, everything still comes through clearly enough.

There’s a great build going throughout this where more and more layers are added and the vocals get more intense, but slow enough that you don’t notice it happening.

Really, this is more than competent enough, but for what it is, it doesn’t strike me as particularly unique, either.

For what it is I can’t say it seems all that original but I think on a level of pure power it’s pretty good, both vocalists and the heavier riffs are all strong.

The riffs of this have a nice heavy but textured sound to them that I just really like, the sort of “epic” sound that a lot of metal bands wish they could have.

This is heavy on atmosphere in the best way. There’s some kind of intrusive sounds that come in but I don’t think they’re “out of place” necessarily.

The really heavy bits at the end feel like the natural end result of the long build and the heaviness going on both in front and back just makes this massive and overwhelming.

This is striking me as another of those songs in the category of “nothing is particular unique, but everything it does, it does damn well”.



This is a damn solid round, and also a damn long one, 15 minutes longer than the next longest  :lol
When the worst I can say about any of these songs on first listen is "solid for what it is but I don't feel it too strong" (which is like, a 6.5-7 score final listen comment) and I can see the potential for quite a number of really high scores here... yeah, digging it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 10, 2015, 01:59:16 PM
The heavy distortion throughout and the bass-heavy mix works well here because it doesn’t drown out everything else, everything still comes through clearly enough.

There’s a great build going throughout this where more and more layers are added and the vocals get more intense, but slow enough that you don’t notice it happening.

The riffs of this have a nice heavy but textured sound to them that I just really like, the sort of “epic” sound that a lot of metal bands wish they could have.

This is heavy on atmosphere in the best way. There’s some kind of intrusive sounds that come in but I don’t think they’re “out of place” necessarily.

The really heavy bits at the end feel like the natural end result of the long build and the heaviness going on both in front and back just makes this massive and overwhelming.

Damn, any of these could apply to my tune, specially since I didn't send metal yet I could totally get what you mean there.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 10, 2015, 02:02:17 PM

There’s a nice soft/loud contrast between the verses and the chorus that gives the chorus a lot more weight but doesn’t take the weight away from the verses either.

MINE
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 10, 2015, 02:06:05 PM
The really heavy bits at the end feel like the natural end result of the long build and the heaviness going on both in front and back just makes this massive and overwhelming.

Yup, that's mine.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 10, 2015, 02:10:42 PM
it's really funny for me to watch you guys try to guess when i'm intentionally being vague enough that a lot of these could apply to several tracks  :corn
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 10, 2015, 02:17:55 PM
Okay, 4, 7 or 8 could be mine as well.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 10, 2015, 02:19:22 PM
Many of those could be mine, yes :D I see you are generally pleased with this round but I'm not so much with my submission. I think, it's great song and everything but there are so much dark songs in my library I could always find the one I like more :P
Also, since I love dark music, I can't waith to hear what others sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 10, 2015, 02:35:44 PM
I don't know man, even after you say that, 1 so convincingly sounds like mine.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: 425 on October 10, 2015, 04:00:13 PM
I think a problem I’m having is that this song stays at one dynamic level for a while then abruptly switches to a different level, but there’s no build or swell in any of it, so it ends up sounding really flat.

Mine probably  :-\
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: LordCost on October 11, 2015, 05:06:15 AM
3 could be mine. 5 and 9 doesn't say much and could be everyone's comment :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 11, 2015, 05:56:31 AM
The song lengths go on...

4:45 - 4:49 - 5:39 - 5:47 - 5:54 - 6:28 - 7:37 - 9:17 - 11:12 - 12:38

Welcome to the longest round of the roulette, length-wise  :lol

There’s a nice soft/loud contrast between the verses and the chorus that gives the chorus a lot more weight but doesn’t take the weight away from the verses either.

I think a problem I’m having is that this song stays at one dynamic level for a while then abruptly switches to a different level, but there’s no build or swell in any of it, so it ends up sounding really flat.

I  could be both.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 11, 2015, 07:01:43 PM
Round 9: Deep Peace
The theme this time is relaxing songs. Honestly, this is really vague for me in particular because there's a lot of things you wouldn't think are relaxing that I do find relaxing, and some "relaxing" music I just find boring...  :lol

I won't necessarily say "loud songs are a no-go" because that's not true, there's some loud stuff like Deafheaven and Isis that's perfectly fine as far as being relaxing, and I won't say "fast tempos are no-go" either. It's... subjective in the worst ways, I guess, I dunno, send me something you find relaxing and I'll probably find it relaxing too.


And as far as Round 8 goes: Either tomorrow night or sometime Tuesday, depends on if I feel like listening twice tomorrow. Just through the 3rd listen now and I can say with relative certainty that this will be the highest average-score round of the entire roulette thus far, so. Lowest score right now is 6.5 and most of the songs are 8 or higher.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 11, 2015, 07:21:01 PM
I have some tasty ambient for you  ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 12, 2015, 03:59:46 AM
Going to wait until round 8 results are up this time around, I feel like I rush my submission way too often :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 13, 2015, 02:27:23 AM
I didn't sent first thing that came to my mind because I think it would be same band Sacul sent :P So I had to search through my library to find something and I'm glad I did - I almost forgot about that artist. I would say I'm risking with this one because Parama doesn't have anything similar on banned list but I think he'll like it :D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 13, 2015, 12:24:28 PM
Round 8 Results:

425: Iron Maiden – Sign of the Cross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onmlafcFFGA)

First Impressions: This is the second time I’ve been sent a really long song from a band I’ve already heard a fair number of other songs from, haha. I probably should’ve expected that kind of intro considering the band + the length. I’m really liking the slow build at the start here, and that it has a cool bass lick beneath it helps. The non-Dickinson vocalist here sounds a bit out of place to me though, haha. And he’s a bit buried in the mix, though maybe that was on purpose, who knows. I think a problem I’m having is that this song stays at one dynamic level for a while then abruptly switches to a different level, but there’s no build or swell in any of it, so it ends up sounding really flat. There’s at least some build happening in the back half of the song, I guess. The first part here since the intro that I really dig a lot isn’t until 8 minutes into the song, and even then it just sounds like a rehash of the same kind of stuff I’ve heard from earlier Maiden songs, so it’s not unique even if it’s decent enough. I will also say that… this feels a bit mixed wrong, the mix is just, super bass-heavy and it makes everything else sound really washed out. I think that might be why the song doesn’t sound that dynamic to me, really.

Final Thoughts: The production quality is… holy hell. Maybe the worst of any song thus far in the roulette. And here, it definitely gets in the way. The bass is loud as heck and it drowns out everything else, so the end result is a song that’s really loud but really lacking in dynamics. Everything sounds muffled and nothing has any room to breathe.

But even outside of that, the song lacks dynamics or any sense of dynamic shift. It goes from the quiet intro to the louder parts of the song out of nowhere with one of the clumsiest transitions I’ve ever heard. There’s not really much swell to the quieter intro, it builds a little, I guess, but not enough to justify the sudden shift.

It’s not just that Bayley’s vocals don’t really fit with Iron Maiden’s sound. It’s just that I don’t think I like his vocals at all. I mean, yeah, I’m used to hearing Maiden with Dickinson so nobody else is going to sound right taking his place, sure. But if you put this guy in a different band that didn’t sound like Maiden, and if his vocals fit there, I still don’t think I’d want to listen to him. I can’t really ascertain why exactly I don’t like his voice, but I just don’t.

There’s bits and pieces of this I do like and there’s no point of the music I’d really say is “bad” on its own, but it’s not particularly inspired, nor is it good enough to justify 11 minutes. And when there are a lot of different sections somewhat awkwardly crammed together that already aren’t great on their own, the whole thing just really ends up sounding like a drag.

Score: 6/10



FlyingBIZKIT: Rage Against The Machine – Settle For Nothing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUnb5Y-hxWg)

First Impressions: Pretty decent bass groove for the verses. The spoken lyrics aren’t really to my taste but there’s more than enough emotion and anger showing through them nonetheless. There’s a nice soft/loud contrast between the verses and the chorus that gives the chorus a lot more weight but doesn’t take the weight away from the verses either. I really don’t have a lot to say about this, I’ve never been a huge fan of this band and this isn’t likely to change my mind.

Final Thoughts: One huge problem I think this song has is that both verses are exactly the same, lyrically. It’s redundant, is what it is. And Rage Against The Machine has had this problem before, Killing in the Name has something like 5 unique lyrics throughout the entire song.

That wouldn’t be a problem if the lyrics weren’t so clearly the focus of all their songs. Yeah, musically this is alright, but not amazing. The bassline’s alright enough, the heavy riff in the chorus is alright enough. It mostly serves to accentuate the vocals, though. Quieter but unsettling in the verses, and explosive and angry in the chorus. In that regard, it works well. I just wish there was more to the song lyrically to make the lyrical focus feel justified.

Also, the guitar solo in the middle feels a bit out of place, it’s too bright-sounding compared to everything else. Like, it’s a totally fine solo but it feels like it’s in the wrong song.

I think this is less a case of “this is something that doesn’t work” and more “this is something that works perfectly fine but just isn’t to my taste”. That being said, I can’t give this too high of a personal rating, but at the same time anything lower than this would feel like an insult.

Score: 6.5/10



Train of Naught: Slipknot – The Devil in I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEEasR7hVhA)

First Impressions: Okay, I’m going to try to not be biased against this since I’ve never enjoyed any other Slipknot I’ve heard. The instrumentation in the first verse is actually pretty solid, a decent atmosphere throughout it and the melodic vocals as opposed to the usual harsher ones match it well. Really, this is more than competent enough, but for what it is, it doesn’t strike me as particularly unique, either. I appreciate that this sounds a bit more alive and less mechanical than the other stuff I’ve heard from them, but I’m not particularly taken by it.

Final Thoughts: As far as Slipknot songs go, this is probably the best I’ve heard; granted, I haven’t heard many because they’ve never been a band that struck me as a band to keep my eye on. All I’m saying is, nu metal-ish stuff… not my favorite.

But this, this is fine. The verse/chorus contrast here is really good, the melodic vocals and high-atmosphere of the verses contrasts well with the heaviness and harsher vocals of the chorus. The chorus riff is also pretty decent, sinister and heavy in the right ways.

I think the biggest thing is that this is a little stretched for content. You have the verse section, the chorus section and riff, and the interlude/bridge riff, and that’s about it as far as musical ideas go. The bridge has a blastbeat thing going on that I think does work well to up the intensity of the song… but then it cuts back into a chorus that’s not really notably different from the previous two.

I definitely wouldn’t say this has made me a Slipknot fan but it’s nice to hear a song from a band I generally dislike that’s actually pretty alright.

Score: 7.5/10



Tomislav95: Katatonia – Unfurl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTxOTOBZ9Uo)

First Impressions: Again with the heavy atmospheres. Oh, you guys seem to know me pretty well by this point, huh? :lol I really like how fuzzy the guitar tones are here, and the muffled drum sound in the quieter moments fits really well too. This is striking me as another of those songs in the category of “nothing is particularly unique, but everything it does, it does damn well”.

Final Thoughts: Having listened to this a fair few times now, there’s one thing I note about it:
As much as I enjoy listening to it, I could never remember what this song sounded like afterwards. When I got to it on the writeup list, and it started playing, I was less “alright time for this one” and more “oh yeah, it’s this one.”

I don’t know if that’s the fault of the song in particular or the fact that there were just a ton of great songs this round and this one just didn’t stick with me as well as the rest. The song itself is pretty great, really. There’s a thick atmosphere to the entire song driven by the keys and guitar, with the bass adding a bit of backbone. The tones are fuzzy enough to create a bit of a blur but not too fuzzy as to sound unrecognizable.

The muffled/electronic sound of the drums I think fits well with the atmosphere, two. It always feels like it’s on the edge of something big but never quite wants to get there, and it doesn’t really need to, either.

I think the song does stick a bit too much to one note, though; there’s some quieter moments but most of the time it sticks to the same sound and same dynamic level, and it ends up feeling like 5 minutes of the same sound. It’s not a bad sound, not at all. But it’s hard to pull out any specific “parts” of this song as being superior to any other parts, because they all sound the same to me.

I may check out this band at some point, I’ve heard good things about them but never checked them out myself, and this is certainly a fine enough song, though it’s not making me rush to check out an album from them, either.

Score: 8/10



mikemangioy: Nevermore – Dreaming Neon Black (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp8zbNH24uU)

First Impressions: This is really reminding me of another band but I can’t quite place my finger on it. The transition between the light verse and the heavy chorus is a bit clumsy both ways, it just kind of happens, different tempo and different level of volume all of the sudden. For what it is I can’t say it seems all that original but I think on a level of pure power it’s pretty good, both vocalists and the heavier riffs are all strong. Probably on future listens this will grow on me.

Final Thoughts: In the trend of the last write-up, the only thing about this song I could ever remember was the chorus with its booming, deep vocals. I think that’s a positive, it’s a good chorus.

I still think the transitions between the verses and choruses are clunky as heck, though, it just… happens. They sound like two different songs awkwardly jammed together. Both parts are really pretty good on their own but I’d have liked something to bridge that gap.

The vocals are definitely the highlight here, there’s a lot of power in his voice on the verses, and the deep vocals on the chorus are just great. The female vocals in the bridge, too, are pretty good, especially with the male vocalist coming in at times to harmonize.

While I do think this is pretty good, for 6 and a half minutes, it again feels stretched pretty thin. You’ve got the verse, you’ve got the chorus, you’ve got the bridge, and there’s some cool stuff in the outro too. But it doesn’t feel very diverse in the end, with each section going on a fair bit. Far from saying that’s necessarily a problem but in the end, for the length it feels like they could’ve done a bit more to hold my interest all the way through.

Score: 8/10



LordCost: Soundgarden – 4th of July (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU4L6THYAbM)

First Impressions: Soundgarden is a band I probably should listen to more of anyways. I actually had a submission from them in Round 7 but it was a song I already knew so I had to reject it. I like the really heavy intro riff, that’s just, sludgy as heck in the best way. Cornell’s vocals here sound a bit less powerful than the other stuff I’ve heard from them (Black Hole Sun, Spoonman, Superunknown) but far from devoid of emotion, of course. The heavy distortion throughout and the bass-heavy mix works well here because it doesn’t drown out everything else, everything still comes through clearly enough.

Final Thoughts: This one grew on me a little and I already liked it a fair bit to begin with. That chorus is really pretty strong. And I dig the heaviness of the riffs, and the bass-heavy production adds to that.

Looking up the lyrics, they’re pretty clever too. It’s not exactly clear what’s going on, or what they imply, but I imagine explosions that are… not 4th of July celebrations, to the say the least. And in that sense, the heaviness works really well, fits the mood perfectly.

I find it hard to have much to say about this though. I don’t really see any problems with it, but at the same time I don’t feel it incredibly strongly. Considering I haven’t heard a song off this album that I haven’t liked yet, though, it’s about high time I actually did go and check the album out though, I think.

Score: 8/10



Sacul: Chelsea Wolfe – Survive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVmie3RgX-4)

First Impressions: SO I actually did listen to this album in full a few months back and remember it being pretty dang good, just haven’t gotten around to getting it yet. I’m not familiar with any separate songs so I’m allowing this. The first half has a nice bassline going throughout with some good layers of texture in the back and some fitting vocals on top. The background noises are really adding the build to this so I do want to see where it all leads. When it does kick in there’s just, a ton of those roaring guitars in the back with a driving drumline keeping it all grounded. The really heavy bits at the end feel like the natural end result of the long build and the heaviness going on both in front and back just makes this massive and overwhelming. It might be a bit too much build compared to the payoff at the end, but I definitely dig it.

Final Thoughts: The first line of the lyrics is so silly… like, maybe that sounded better in her head but it comes off as so goofy. Other than that the lyrics are fine. And her voice is fine too, though pretty restrained throughout most of the song, maybe a bit more than it should be.

I do think, for certain, that the build here is a bit slow. Especially since it’s just hammering in one bassline and one or two vocal melodies for a few minutes, with not much else happening except some noises between verses. The build is also a bit strange, it goes up and down a few times before everything really kicks in… over 66% of the way through the song. Not that what comes before the build is bad, it’s a fine thing to repeat at least a little but… yeah, too much here.

The payoff to the build, when it is reached, is pretty phenomenal though. Just absolutely huge and crushing, with lots of those roaring guitars adding some texture to it and keeping things tense. If not for the fact that the build was so slow, I’d say the amount we get at the end is fine, but if the song was a little more balanced in favor of the heavier parts I think it would work a lot better. But what do I know.

Score: 8/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0: SikTh – Tupelo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BZk73UQX98)

First Impressions: I actually tried listening to the other SikTh album but didn’t make it more than like 15-20 minutes in before I kind of got tired of it, either it being too heavy or too overwhelming or something along those lines. The intro here already has me interested alone, a tight bass and percussion groove with some ominous singing. I can tell this is definitely going to be weeeeird, though. Haha. Especially the vocalist, who is just… sounds crazy, almost. There’s a great build going throughout this where more and more layers are added and the vocals get more intense, but slow enough that you don’t notice it happening. The song doesn’t really kick in until about halfway through but since it spent so much time on a long build and still has plenty of time left, I think it’s fine. And damn, those roaring guitars are just fantastic. The vocals probably go a bit beyond my tolerance for weirdness but other than that every element of this really works well.

Final Thoughts: Apparently this is secretly a cover? Alright. It doesn’t matter to me, I’ve never heard the original song before and this is really good on its own. What this makes me think of is… a spaghetti western, actually. Even though I don’t think anything other than the vocals has that kind of vibe to it at all.

I think the bonus point here is almost just compromise for the fact that the vocals are so weird that they get annoying at times, so I get to take half a point off for them and then add it right back, or something. And yeah, the weirdness of the vocals at times is my biggest problem with this.

Musically, it’s… wow. The drumming, the atmosphere, the heavier moments adding some swell, the consistently dark sound to it, it’s all great. And it’s really hard to predict where it’s going to go next, but it all feels natural when it happens. Dunno, can’t really think of a single complaint on this front.

Considering how much there is to this song and how cool I think it is, I really don’t have much to say about it. It’s… an experience, to be sure. A positive experience. I’ve never heard anything like it, especially considering the vocals, but even without them I think it’d be pretty well an entity of its own.

Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10



senecadawg2: Enslaved – Roots of the Mountain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DULdEgVgY8)

First Impressions: Wow, right out the gate and I’m already kind of a little biased against the vocalist. Apparently that passed quickly though, or hopefully the harsh vocals won’t be too prevalent. The riffs of this have a nice heavy but textured sound to them that I just really like, the sort of “epic” sound that a lot of metal bands wish they could have. Both the slower and faster riffs have it, too, it’s a very full-sounding track which is always a plus. I was gonna be all “I’m sure when this stops being really epic I won’t like it as much” but the quieter parts have goddamn great bass grooves to them. I’m just super sad that the kind of cruddy harsh vocals are inevitably going to bring this song’s score down a tiny bit, even if they’re not too prevalent.

Final Thoughts: The award for “single worst second of the entire roulette” has to go to that opening second of the harsh vocals. I really, passionately do not like that one single second.

The other 550 or so seconds are all great though. For one, this song has one heck of a chorus. That riff is great, the atmosphere of the section is the great, the vocals match it perfectly without overshadowing the rest. The heavier riffs are interesting enough to not sound like a wall of noise and they’re not overly dissonant even at their worst.

There’s a nice, tasteful solo during the second chorus that’s just, really cool, helps differentiate the chorus and keeps the song moving forward. And really I think I oversold my dislike of the harsh vocals in my first impression, I really only dislike that one second at the start, the rest of the way through they’re fine, not great or anything but not problematic.

About halfway through there’s some new bits thrown in that are all really cool. The driving drums with the guitar noodling adding to the heavy atmosphere, cutting into one heck of a great bass groove that continues into the next heavier section.

The song has a strange false ending about two-thirds of the way through where I keep thinking it’s over but then it cuts to a clean reprise of the chorus that’s just gorgeous and makes me glad it isn’t actually over.

The song may be a biiiit too reliant on its epic chorus at times, but honestly, I’m not complaining, and the song keeps me interested the whole way through regardless, so yeah. Definitely gotta check these guys out.

Score: 9/10
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 8 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 13, 2015, 12:24:35 PM
Elite: Obsidian Kingdom – Not Yet Five / Oncoming Dark / Through the Glass / Cinnamon Balls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lunr881qwa8)

First Impressions: I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here and I’m gonna listen to all four tracks for at least the first listen. I mean I can already tell from just the start of this that I am totally going to dig at least the first track. Some nice droning ambience with a sluggish bass underneath and some piano and guitar accompaniment coming in. This is heavy on atmosphere in the best way. There’s some kind of intrusive sounds that come in but I don’t think they’re “out of place” necessarily. The second track picks up the pace a little almost instantly, a very nicely textured opening verse that keeps the feel of the previous track intact while clearly being a progression of the sound. It’s a pretty straightforward track overall but just very well-done. Third track pushes things a bit more into the “rhythmically interesting” territory, seems to be a short instrumental track. Again, just the amount of layers make this sound absolutely massive and quite engaging. The fourth track is the heaviest of the bunch, bringing in some really sludgy riffs and harsh vocals, but at this point it’s definitely earned the right and had enough build to use this level of heaviness effectively. I think the end of this track is a good cutoff point, too, because it does kind of end the flow the other tracks thus far have had running through them. Honestly this reminds me a lot of the flow of East of the Wall’s Apologist; the songs all flow together in the same way with a cohesive sound throughout, making it feel less like “tracks we had flow together for the sake of it” and more “separate parts of a unified whole that you wouldn’t even realize are separate tracks if we didn’t divide them up on-disc” and I really dig that kind of album flow.

Final Thoughts: Wow, I really went overboard with the first impressions on this one, huh? :lol

I think part of it is that, yeah, these songs are really meant to flow into each other and any of them on their own feels incomplete, and in cases like that I think I’m fine with allowing this kind of entry.

Another part of it is that the first part on its own would probably score lower than the whole suite combined, considering it’s the buildup to the other three parts. And for what it is, yeah, it’s a good build. There’s more being added in the back while the piano, guitar, and bass fill out the front, but the swell really comes from the backdrop here, eventually overwhelming the instruments in front. The squealing noises that happen may not have been the greatest of choices ‘cause they irritate me a little but they’re not a huge problem.

I think part of it is that this has better flow to it than several of the songs that were literally single songs, so this might as well be a song too for all intents and purposes. And I think this is definitely a case of the whole being more than a sum of its parts. Each of these tracks on their own would be pretty fine and interesting, but if you string them all together you’ve got this fantastic sense of build throughout and the fact that none of them repeat each other but all build on similar themes keeps it sounding cohesive. The xylophone or whatever line from the end of the second track carries into the third track, as does the heaviness built up. And by the time the fourth track is reached there’s been enough build that NOT having harsh vocals would actually sound off; it’s really earned it at this point.

This is also interesting in the way that no point of this overshadows the other parts, but that keeps it sounding fresh each time, because all of the individual moments are great on their own. The slight, sliiiight downside is that it doesn’t end up being particularly memorable at any point to me. But every time I put this one on, I just enjoy the heck out of it from beginning to end, regardless of whether or not it sticks in my head afterwards, and I’m definitely interested in checking out the rest of the album.

Score: 9.5/10


Current Standings:
Elite - 68
Sacul - 64.5
senecadawg2 - 63
Tomislav95 - 62.5
mikemangioy - 62.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 60.5
425 - 59.5
LordCost - 59
Train of Naught - 57
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 55.5


Yeah, I think this was a good round  :lol
On an unrelated note, Elite has taken a sizable lead by scoring highest of everyone in the past four rounds (okay, there was a tie or two point-wise but I rank same-scoring entries in rough order of preference, even if there's basically no difference  :lol )
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 13, 2015, 12:45:57 PM
Finally not an 6.5 +0.5 bonus :lol

Damnit Elite - wasn't planning to send Obsidian Kingdom, but those are some pretty awesome tunes  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 13, 2015, 01:04:08 PM
Oh god yes, finally going good again - except really lower on the list  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 13, 2015, 01:07:39 PM
heartbreaking moment: Sacul almost had an 8.5, but not quite
another moment of "wish I had quarter scores"
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 13, 2015, 01:13:53 PM
Some of the vocals in Sikth border on annoying for me as well, though most of the time I really enjoy them.

Also I had no idea it was a cover. Weird.

edit: Huh, Nick Cave, apparently. That's pretty cool. I like Sikth's version better, though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 13, 2015, 01:15:50 PM
Yeah, that first second is atrocious... Glad you enjoyed the rest of the song though

I'll send my peaceful bit before the end of the night
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 13, 2015, 07:08:09 PM
i didn't listen to the nick cave version yet but i prob will out of curiosity
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 13, 2015, 07:41:25 PM
heartbreaking moment: Sacul almost had an 8.5, but not quite
:'(

Maybe you'll give it when you relisten it later  ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 13, 2015, 08:03:49 PM
Oh well. At this point I'm just proselytizing. "Someone someday will share my appreciation for Blaze-era Iron Maiden!" and all that.

Working on this next round. May be the first one to repeat one of the artists that's eligible for resubmission, because I'm just that dumb. Then again maybe I won't be that dumb?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: TAC on October 13, 2015, 08:08:53 PM
I have actually heard of some of those bands.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 13, 2015, 08:38:10 PM
Oh well. At this point I'm just proselytizing. "Someone someday will share my appreciation for Blaze-era Iron Maiden!" and all that.
You can send them in my v2 :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 13, 2015, 08:58:07 PM
Yeah prob will... I have several things that I just want to proselytize about that are not super likely to score well. Sort of like how you have to always send David Maxim Micic in every roulette.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 13, 2015, 08:58:19 PM
I have actually heard of some of those bands.

Not mine though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 13, 2015, 09:04:47 PM
Sacul sign me up for your v2 so I can enter a lot of heavy stuff
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 13, 2015, 10:45:11 PM
Yeah prob will... I have several things that I just want to proselytize about that are not super likely to score well. Sort of like how you have to always send David Maxim Micic in every roulette.
My goal is to convert him into a DTF fav. It's been tough, but I'm kind of getting there  :lol . Hope you're enjoying his stuff.

Sacul sign me up for your v2 so I can enter a lot of heavy stuff
You're in - expect to end on last place tho :neverusethis:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 13, 2015, 11:08:54 PM
perfect

anyways tomorrow is concert day for me so let's hopefully have a good time

also I'm listening to more of Mantiis right now and I feel like I wasn't even sent the best parts of this album, Last of the Light is absolutely stunning
it looks like I can get a copy of this for a pretty reasonable price too so you better believe i'm gonna be soon
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 13, 2015, 11:59:27 PM
Oh yes, that's an excellent album  :metal I think it's actually one long song split into 12 or so tracks.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 14, 2015, 12:01:18 AM
yes, it is
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 14, 2015, 12:20:39 AM
also I'm listening to more of Mantiis right now and I feel like I wasn't even sent the best parts of this album, Last of the Light is absolutely stunning
it looks like I can get a copy of this for a pretty reasonable price too so you better believe i'm gonna be soon

You weren't, to be honest. There's even better parts on the album like Last of the Light. Also I think the last three tracks or so, with that buildup are the end are completely mind-blowing. I sent you the first four on purpose thou, because I though it would be a perfect fit for this round (which, apparently it was, looking at thise scores). I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you will like the rest of the album as well! :)

Oh yes, that's an excellent album  :metal I think it's actually one long song split into 12 or so tracks.

It is one long song, split into 14 tracks (you were almost right there :p ). It felt kind of weird to only send parts of this whole somg, because I don't think I have ever not listened to the album in full. I figured Parama wouldn't accept a 42 minute song, so I chose to send him a small segment of the song instead.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 14, 2015, 12:26:17 AM
regardless of how many tracks there are it's definitely something i'm gonna get before the end of the month  :lol
have one or two other things lined up to get too because i can never not be drowning in music lately apparently

still trying to digest the last batch of albums i got since it got all of 6 of them at once  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 14, 2015, 06:08:38 AM
I figured Parama wouldn't accept a 42 minute song, so I chose to send him a small segment of the song instead.

That's where you went wrong. Whenever there's an opportunity to send Parama an inordinately long song, you take it! :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 14, 2015, 08:37:33 AM
Considering the points I got, I don't think I went wrong :)

Also Parama, thanks and kudos for those nice long write-ups!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 14, 2015, 10:05:48 AM
Sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 14, 2015, 11:38:25 PM
still need 4 entries, I'll send out PMs tomorrow morning, too lazy right now
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 15, 2015, 01:36:47 AM
Sent some tasty ambient.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 15, 2015, 01:48:05 AM
I will send tonight or this afternoon, depending what time I'm back home from work.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 15, 2015, 04:13:03 PM
i have had no time to seek out new music on my own lately which is probably for the best, got Coheed's latest and TYS's EP alongside the 6 albums i'm still spinning pretty frequently, on top of going through a full round of roulette entries here most days
gosh music is great
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 15, 2015, 05:49:44 PM
I'm still down to a couple of things that I'm debating. Almost out of artists :lol

Will try to send tonight. I'm deciding whether I'm going to be dumb or be a plagiarist.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 15, 2015, 06:53:16 PM
gonna be really annoyed if i end up having to wait three whole days between rounds since i usually get out results faster than that  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 16, 2015, 02:03:40 AM
Sending now, just going through some final options!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 16, 2015, 03:02:05 AM
I have immediate doubts after sending :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 16, 2015, 06:46:17 AM
Yeah no kidding, I don't quite have an enormous library of 'relaxing' music.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 16, 2015, 07:56:40 AM
Hey guys I actually remember what I sent this time.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 16, 2015, 08:47:09 AM
Yeah no kidding, I don't quite have an enormous library of 'relaxing' music.

Neither do I, so I just sent a black metal song by some obscure Norwegian band.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Evermind on October 16, 2015, 09:17:07 AM
Kvelertak?

Because apparently it's the only Norwegian black metal band I know. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 16, 2015, 09:37:12 AM
nah Shadow Ninja sent them in round 3
also that song wasn't relaxing in the slightest lol

i can't believe 425 still hasn't sent me a song  :loser:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 16, 2015, 02:25:01 PM
Calm down, I just sent! :biggrin:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 16, 2015, 02:26:22 PM
alright i'll get to first impressions tonight or something  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 16, 2015, 06:47:57 PM
Hello, song lengths.

3:09 - 3:54 - 4:54 - 4:59 - 5:12 - 5:46 - 6:02 - 6:11 - 7:58 - 8:05

Kind of low production quality aside, which doesn’t really matter so much here anyways, I dig this a lot, good sense of atmosphere and a nice bright sound.

There’s a nice atmosphere to this with the synths and guitars throughout, and the upbeat section in the middle makes for a nice change of pace.

The big group vocals and the somewhat epic feel of the song as it builds at the end are pretty nice, at the very least.

And for what it is, it’s fine, decent atmosphere and all, but it feels like something I’d put on the background and struggle to constantly keep focus on.

Maybe a bit lacking in dynamics, it does sort of hit one note the whole way through, but it’s bright and layered enough that it doesn’t feel empty.

It’s got both bright moments and dark moments, softer moments and louder moments, and damn that drumwork is just great.

There’s not a lot to say really other than that this makes me quite happy listening to it.

The guitar line is just strikingly potent on its own, it’s one heck of a line to build a song around. The vocals aren’t strong but they suit the music well.

The instrumentation is pretty interesting and there’s a lot of subtleties thrown in there to add some texture.

This is mixed very interestingly; you can really easily choose what you want to focus your attention on but no one instrument is drowning out all the others and you can listen to them all in balance as well.


I think every song in this round is pretty distinct and I think that's going to make for some interesting listening experiences. One song I feel only kiiiind of fits in with the theme but the other 9 all work fine and I don't think I'm going to bother asking for a resubmission anyways, who really cares.
I don't know if this will quite be my favorite round thus far but I liked most of these on first listen, so!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening
Post by: Crow on October 16, 2015, 06:51:32 PM
I might as well post this now, too, since, well, easy theme to describe and entries took too long last time anyways  :P

Round 10: Ending Theme
Closer tracks, or songs that have a sense of finality (even if they're not necessarily closer tracks on an album). I feel this mostly speaks for itself  :lol
FOR THIS ROUND ONLY. I am bumping up the length wager cap to 16 minutes. So anything up until 16 minutes is perfectly safe from the length wager. I wouldn't really advise sending me something that long anyways unless it's like, really damn good and you already know I'll love it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 8 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 16, 2015, 08:37:14 PM
And for what it is, it’s fine, decent atmosphere and all, but it feels like something I’d put on the background and struggle to constantly keep focus on.

There’s not a lot to say really other than that this makes me quite happy listening to it.

The instrumentation is pretty interesting and there’s a lot of subtleties thrown in there to add some texture.

This is mixed very interestingly; you can really easily choose what you want to focus your attention on but no one instrument is drowning out all the others and you can listen to them all in balance as well.

pls not the first one
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 16, 2015, 09:04:33 PM
the first one is totally you  :loser:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 17, 2015, 12:58:38 AM
Was mine the song that doesn't exactly fit? I can resubmit if you want.


















(but only if you don't like the track I sent you now :neverusethis: )
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening
Post by: Evermind on October 17, 2015, 01:24:47 AM
I am bumping up the length wager cap to 16 minutes. So anything up until 16 minutes is perfectly safe from the length wager. I wouldn't really advise sending me something that long anyways unless it's like, really damn good and you already know I'll love it.

425, that's the opportunity you waited for! :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 17, 2015, 01:27:35 AM
Kind of low production quality aside, which doesn’t really matter so much here anyways, I dig this a lot, good sense of atmosphere and a nice bright sound.

And for what it is, it’s fine, decent atmosphere and all, but it feels like something I’d put on the background and struggle to constantly keep focus on.

Maybe a bit lacking in dynamics, it does sort of hit one note the whole way through, but it’s bright and layered enough that it doesn’t feel empty.

The guitar line is just strikingly potent on its own, it’s one heck of a line to build a song around. The vocals aren’t strong but they suit the music well.

The instrumentation is pretty interesting and there’s a lot of subtleties thrown in there to add some texture.

This is mixed very interestingly; you can really easily choose what you want to focus your attention on but no one instrument is drowning out all the others and you can listen to them all in balance as well.

Probably one of these? The last part of this quote seems like an 80% chance it's mine tho.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: LordCost on October 17, 2015, 08:48:13 AM
I think the first one is mine, and that my song is the one that only partially fits the theme. I think that that song and album has a similar sound and style of Oceansize's Effloresce, and the same kind of production quality too.

I didn't write anything for the last round, I was busy.. I suggest you to listen at least to the album Superunknown, there are a lot of excellent songs. From the rest of their discography I like only a bunch of songs from Down On The Upside, and Jesus Christ Pose and Slaves & Bulldozers from Badmotorfinger. Maybe I didn't listen enough to these two albums..

My other choice was to send something from the last Enslaved album, but I didn't want to risk, I thought you didn't like the vocals at all!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 17, 2015, 05:47:21 PM
results will probably be monday, yes. through two listens, gonna do another tonight.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 18, 2015, 03:12:55 PM
it's just really interesting how diverse this round is considering the theme. i'm really impressed, did you guys plan this or something?  :lol
i think the round is pretty strong as a whole, though i wouldn't call it my favorite round of the roulette. lotta good stuff though.

it's also getting a lot harder to figure out what should get the .5 bonus now, i think i'll be handing it out pretty liberally this round even though some of them don't feel as far out of the comfort zone 9 rounds into this thing, but whatever  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 18, 2015, 03:26:32 PM
I know I've been listening somethin the other day thinking: if round 10 is closing song round, I should send this. But I have no idea what the song is :/ I hope I'll find it soon enough.
When will results for round 9 be?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 18, 2015, 03:33:52 PM
sometime Monday, I actually got sidetracked last night and only just did my third listen so if I do another listen tonight (possible) then expect results Monday morning/afternoon, if not then Monday evening.

things to expect:
1. a weird exception that's going to get high points through a kind of loophole (i'll explain this better in the writeup, mostly it's an entry that felt unfair to reject but also unfair to accept and i didn't want to deal with resubmissions either  :lol )
2. the highest "lowest" score of any round thus far
3. possibly a 10???
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 18, 2015, 03:46:09 PM
Hell yeah another ten for me  :hat
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 18, 2015, 11:23:05 PM
maybe this will actually be my favorite round, dunno, listening through this set puts me in a good mood and according to the scores this round easily has the highest average score of all the rounds thus far (i don't even have to do the math i just know)

the rng is really screwing with me, though. one song has been first on the randomizer three times and was second the one other time.
the two most similar songs always keep playing together, too
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 19, 2015, 12:37:53 AM
Sounds like, at least, my song didn't bore you to tears, getting a 5 or so  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 19, 2015, 12:50:52 AM
spoilers: with bonus, current lowest score is 7, highest is 10

(both of those have the bonus, actually; natural 10 is unlikely but not impossible)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 19, 2015, 02:32:51 AM
Would you say you CAN'T WAIT to give me my 10?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: 425 on October 19, 2015, 09:02:43 AM
Scores between 7 and 10? Wow, Parama, are you sure you aren't scoring a round in my roulette? :biggrin:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 19, 2015, 09:06:40 AM
yeah i know it's almost like listening to a lot of music like this somehow puts me in a good mood and makes me go a bit easier on the scores  ;D

i'll do the writeups after lunch, whenever that is
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 9 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 19, 2015, 01:06:01 PM
Round 9 Results:

Tomislav95: Emancipator – First Snow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ4FFSBAfoM)

First Impressions: Hmm. This kind of electronic percussion and the samples kind of take me out of this a little almost immediately. There’s a nice atmosphere to this with the synths and guitars throughout, and the upbeat section in the middle makes for a nice change of pace. I don’t have a ton to say about this other than “it’s pretty okay” and “samples are really a distraction” though.

Final Thoughts: I would definitely say this is far from a bad song. I think what gets to me the most is the samples. I just. Really do not like samples. It’s rare that they add to a song, and I don’t think they do here.

As far as this goes musically, it’s got a lot more going for it than some of the other more downbeat electronic stuff I’ve been sent. The song has a lot of distinct parts to it and it doesn’t get repetitive or stale in the least. The middle section has a more upbeat light rock feel to it than the more electronic first half, and I’d say that part of the song is my favorite, though it could also be due to having less samples.

Can’t say I’m a fan of the ending, with the stop/start sample and guitar, though. Feels a bit awkward, for whatever reason.

Far from disliking this, though, it’s an enjoyable enough listen and it doesn’t bore me, but the samples bring it down a bit and while it’s pleasant there’s nothing about it that really stands out.

Score: 7 (+.5 Bonus) = 7.5/10



senecadawg2: Mazzy Star – Fade Into You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uJ61jgFCMM)

First Impressions: There’s some nice guitar and piano work going on throughout and the singer’s pretty decent too. It’s a pretty simple song at its core but it’s plenty pleasant to listen to. Maybe a bit lacking in dynamics, it does sort of hit one note the whole way through, but it’s bright and layered enough that it doesn’t feel empty.

Final Thoughts: More than anything, this probably suffers from being a “decent” song in a round of good or great songs, but I try to review each song ignoring my thought on every other song in a round, and on its own, there’s really not much to nitpick about. Yes, it’s got basically no sense of dynamics, but I wouldn’t say every song needs to, if it does enough to keep itself interesting anyways.

The vocals here aren’t amazing but they’re pretty good. And they definitely fit the music. The acoustic guitar strumming and the simple drums form the backbone of the song and they do well to stay in the background, but at the same time they’re not doing anything really worth paying attention to. The piano throughout and the slide guitar (?) are the more musically interesting parts here. The guitar has a few short solos and adds a bit throughout, and the piano tends to stay behind the other instruments but adds some flourishes of its own.

The song kind of just… ends unceremoniously, though. Fade out in the middle of a chorus and done. It doesn’t feel too short, and it doesn’t feel too long.

It’s just hard to have much to say about this, though.

Score: 7 (+.5 Bonus) = 7.5/10



Sacul: Helios – Bless This Morning Year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFQc70rRaag)

First Impressions: I always seem to get this interpretation that ambient is a specific thing but a lot of other things fall under the classification that are far outside of what feels like should be “ambient” to me; like, this seems like a light post-rock song with electronic elements more than anything to me. And for what it is, it’s fine, decent atmosphere and all, but it feels like something I’d put on the background and struggle to constantly keep focus on. I know I struggled even on first listen.

Final Thoughts: The other laid-back electronic-with-some-guitars song I got this round. This one has the benefit of not using samples, though. (Seriously, I will not stress this enough, I do not like samples, especially not in this kind of music.) This song has a ton more atmosphere than the other one, too, but at the same time it’s a lot less diverse. It’s easier for me to get lost in this track, though, but not as much as I’d like to.

I think my biggest issue with this one is that it isn’t exactly original or interesting… it’s perfectly serviceable for what it is, sure, but I’ve heard songs like it before and it doesn’t do anything to really stand out in the crowd. I certainly don’t dislike listening to it, but at the same time I don’t really ever remember it when I’m done listening to it or want to return to it.

Maybe that’s a problem with me more than it is a problem with this song itself, though. I can’t really fault a song for doing what it wants to do well.

Score: 7 (+.5 Bonus) = 7.5/10



LordCost: Cave In – Innuendo and Out the Other (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5pqLmFRwfw)

First Impressions: The drum work on this is pretty good throughout, is the first thing that catches my attention. I think I like how this sounds like it’s on the brink of exploding into something bigger, but it never quite gets there; it stays in the right range to remain pretty laid-back and middling in volume but dynamic within that range and it goes through a lot of different moods to keep from getting stale. It’s got both bright moments and dark moments, softer moments and louder moments, and damn that drumwork is just great. Amusingly I think this would’ve worked well as an entry for round 7 too, haha. The ending is not exactly my favorite thing ever though, could’ve done without that.

Final Thoughts: This is the rare instance of a song I can never remember much about after I’m through listening to all the songs, but at the same time I enjoy quite a bit while I’m listening to it.

And honestly, I find it hard to say much about this beyond what I already said in my first impression. Uhh… the atmosphere is pretty solid? The build-up of the pre-chorus section with the darker guitar line and the snare role works pretty well. The “whoa oh” vocals that are pretty buried in the mix are pretty cool, kinda wish they were a bit higher in the mix though, it feels like they should be.

But yeah that ending is still… no. I don’t like having my ears hurt in that way.

Score: 8/10



Elite: Frost* – Experiments in Mass Appeal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBax3eERsYE)

First Impressions: A nice interplay of acoustic guitar and piano going on at the start here with some nice vocals on top, yeah. I’m not sure if I’m huge on the vocals though, not that great but not bad either. The song kicks in a bit abruptly perhaps, at least considering the theme. I dunno, I reeeally don’t feel like this fits in with the theme, personally. I really am struggling to have much to say about this, even with that aside. I imagine this is the kind of song you’d need to be somewhat familiar with to really get into. The big group vocals and the somewhat epic feel of the song as it builds at the end are pretty nice, at the very least.

Final Thoughts: Congrats, you sent the most unfitting song of the round! I can see where you’re coming from, I mean, but I dunno how well this fits into “relaxing” music territory. But for what it is, it’s good, yeah.

The alternating soft/loud throughout creates some nice contrast and the group vocal sections are cool and kind of epic. The guitar solo in the middle of the song isn’t amazing or anything but it’s pretty buried in the mix and it’s far from bad. It adds to the frantic feel of the section constantly getting noisier, and a sudden shift back to calmness after.

The build at the end is great, for sure. Exactly the kind of buildup I like.

One thing is that nothing about this is fresh in the slightest to me, though. Like, really nothing at all. That’s more a result of “I have listened to a ton of stuff like this” and less “this is nothing special all on its own”. It’s very solid for what it is, and by the end of the build with the massive wall of vocals I’m really into it, but at the same time nothing about this strikes me as something to check out further.

Really struggling to rate this one properly, honestly. Maybe I’ll come back to this later and it’ll get an extra half-point or something.

Score: 8/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Múm – Green Grass of Tunnel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmdfUlSW18)

First Impressions: Oh hey, another Icelandic artist, great. The instrumentation is pretty interesting and there’s a lot of subtleties thrown in there to add some texture. There’s a nice long build up to when the vocals come in that I like, and it keeps building past that point too. The singer sounds a little on the breathy side, but pleasant enough and it fits with the bright tone of the song. On the whole I’d say it’s a pretty enjoyable song that probably needs a few more listens to sink in.

Final Thoughts: Straight out of the gate: The biggest weakness here is the singer. He’s no Jonsi, he’s no Bjork. His voice is nice and pleasant enough, but not the kind of voice you’d put as the focus of a song, and not very powerful.

Fortunately, I think this band is at least somewhat aware of this, because the vocals don’t even show up until halfway through and they aren’t the only interesting thing going on even when they do show up. The vocals are definitely mixed a bit louder than the rest, though, which maybe wasn’t the right choice; I think putting them a bit lower and letting the backing instrumentation be a bit more prominent would’ve benefitted this song.

The music throughout is bright and textured with interesting instrumentation, though when the vocals come in it does tend to stick on one note for most of the rest of the song, as opposed to the build of the first half.

This is a pleasant little piece that I’m glad I listened to, though, I should probably check out more Icelandic artists since I’ve liked all the ones I’ve heard thus far.

Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) = 8.5/10



mikemangioy: Premiata Forneria Marconi – Impressioni Di Settembre (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0JNhd9Hhpc)

First Impressions: Okay, so, Italian prog rock from the 70’s? Sure. I am really digging the use of orchestration here. This is mixed very interestingly; you can really easily choose what you want to focus your attention on but no one instrument is drowning out all the others and you can listen to them all in balance as well. And considering every instrument is doing interesting things, I think that kind of mixing works; it all comes together very nicely. There’s some good peaks to contrast with the quieter moments, and the soft to loud buildup that happens near the end with some great drumming is definitely a highlight too.

Final Thoughts: Honestly, 70’s prog has been something I’ve always struggled to really get into. It’s all fine enough but at the same time never evocative enough for me to really get into. And this has the added struggle of the language barrier to overcome, too.

I can definitely say I like this song a fair bit, even still. The layers of guitar in the quieter parts, the bass-and-drums-driven swell of the louder parts, the flute accentuating melodies throughout, the passionate vocals. Each instrument is plenty technically proficient and you can hear everything all of the time without having to even direct your attention to something to make it out.

The band isn’t too caught up in making technically complex music, more in making emotionally potent music, and it definitely works. There’s a keyboard solo at one point and the drummer seems to be pretty talented too, but nothing about it screams “technical for the sake of showing off” which is basically how I like my prog.

And the build at the end is just, wonderful. All the instruments working together to produce a slow build with a nice, big climax at the end, not overpoweringly huge or anything but plenty big enough.

Really not much to dislike here. The production isn’t fantastic but it’s not bad, especially not for the time. I’m too lazy to look up the translated lyrics (or song title, even) so hopefully they don’t ruin the song or something, though I doubt it. But yeah. Good stuff, this.

Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10



FlyingBIZKIT: Alcest – Summer’s Glory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caICugPSv0Y)

First Impressions: I mean, I’m already planning to check out some Alcest but it’s completely true that I’m not familiar with any specific songs so I’m definitely allowing this. Kind of low production quality aside, which doesn’t really matter so much here anyways, I dig this a lot, good sense of atmosphere and a nice bright sound. Nothing about this screams “unique” or “original” but it definitely screams “quality” and I can’t fault it for that. Kinda wish it was longer, actually, but it’s far from “too short”.

Final Thoughts: Honestly, any words I say about this song would be pretty pointless. I could try to rationalize this, but I just want to listen to this. I mean, yeah, I’ve already been intending to get an Alcest album or two for a while. Just very beautiful music.

The heaviness just deepens the atmosphere beyond what they’d be able to accomplish without the big wall of sound, but the cleaner guitar lines are what really bring out the atmosphere. Nothing about this is something I’ve never heard before but I just really enjoy listening to it and at the end of the day that’s what really matters.

Score: 9/10



425: Marketa Irglova – This Right Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1eotn3hWGQ)

First Impressions: Immediately I’m struck with the thought that this is very pretty music. The piano playing is very dynamic which makes it sound very alive, adds depth on its own. The harmonized vocals only add to that, I’m not sure if it’s two different singers or one singer harmonizing with themselves, but either way the vocals are pretty powerful but showing restraint when they need to. There’s a good climax in the form of the strings and percussion coming in for the last minute, too. There’s not a lot to say really other than that this makes me quite happy listening to it.

Final Thoughts: The biggest debate here was whether or not to give this the bonus point. ‘Cause I wouldn’t say piano ballads are really out of my comfort zone… at the same time, they’re not something I’ve ever sought out before on their own, more as part of an album where they serve as a bit of a break, a cooldown period.

But I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a piano ballad as evocative as this one before. Probably one or two. Everything’s Alright off the To The Moon soundtrack is in the same category, I guess, but that one misses something without context.

I don’t think this song really needs context. I don’t think the lyrics even matter (and they’re pretty abstract, from what I looked up.) What’s important is that the harmonized vocals are both really powerful on their own, and the dynamic playing of the piano serves to accentuate the emotion of the song.

I don’t even know if it needed the climax at the end with the strings and percussion, but it’s one heck of a great moment nonetheless and I wouldn’t want it to be cut, after having heard it several times over. If there’s one thing to complain about, I actually wish that the ending went on a bit longer, but I can’t say it feels too short either.

It’s a struggle where to place this, honestly, but I think for now I’m going to go with the lower of the two options and maybe on a relisten I’ll come back and give it another half point. Dunno. Sorry for no 10, though!

Score: 9 (+.5 Bonus) = 9.5/10



Train of Naught: CHON – Can’t Wait (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK0dwP9nzJU)

First Impressions: Full disclosure; listened to this album a month or so back and it sent me on a bit of a melodic math rock kick, but I’m not specifically familiar with any songs on it and haven’t picked it up or anything SO I WILL ALLOW IT. Though actually I vaguely remember this one, huh. No wonder this album sent me on a kick if I can pick out a specific song after first listen. The guitar line is just strikingly potent on its own, it’s one heck of a line to build a song around. The vocals aren’t strong but they suit the music well. And in the short runtime the song still goes through plenty of different moods while keeping a bright and chill atmosphere throughout. Yeah, definitely getting this album…

Final Thoughts: About that strange exception; This is the second time where I did recognize a song when listening to it even though I didn’t think I would, though here I at least recognized the artist. I think what led me to accept this one while I asked for a resubmission on the other is that I liked this one a lot, and I’d heard it slightly less (one or two listens as opposed to like, three on the other one.)

Anyways, this isn’t my favorite from the round but it’s definitely the one that got most lodged into my head. Seriously, that guitar line is fantastic. There’s a ton of subtleties to it, but at the same time a strong melodic hook, and it evolves with the pace of the song.

The drums here tend to do most of the work driving the feel of the song, and it’s some great technical drumming that doesn’t overtake the rest of the band either. The vocals are the weakest link here, which is to say “still pretty dang good” though the lyrics are nothing special. The bass isn’t given as much attention but the basslines in the song are pretty cool.

And dang, for three minutes, this sure goes a lot of places. The more subdued verses, the faster chorus, the noodly guitar break, the extended bridge that introduces its own new guitar line, and a verse reprise for the outro. It’s a real experience of a song. Each part works well on its own and they all flow into each other just as well, making it feel like quite the cohesive, moody whole.

Every time I listen to this, I find myself just wanting to put it back on and listen to it again. If that isn’t a sign of a song I enjoy a heck of a lot, I don’t know what is. Really, really gotta get this album; shame it’s so short! What’s up with math rock bands and really short releases, anyways? From everything I’ve looked into that really seems to be a kind of disappointing trend.

Score: 9.5/10



Current Standings:
Elite - 76
Sacul - 72
mikemangioy - 71.5
senecadawg2 - 70.5
Tomislav95 - 70
FlyingBIZKIT - 69.5
425 - 69
LordCost - 67
Train of Naught - 66.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 64


Honestly this round was really hard to rate and I can see a fair number of these going up on relistens. Definitely pleased with this round though.
I think the most frustrating thing is how narrow the point range is despite the big difference between the 7's and the 9's/9.5's. I guess it's more a normalized distribution sort of thing or something.

At this point Elite has pretty much clinched a spot in the final round, but the other two slots are pretty much anyone's game, with a mere 1.5 points separating 2nd from 6th. A need for a tiebreaker round feels really likely at this point  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 19, 2015, 01:10:42 PM
this round was seriously hard to rate, i ping-ponged between half points on just about every song here
hopefully next round will be even better  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 19, 2015, 01:49:37 PM
I took the liberty of extending the theme 'relaxing music'. Hell, I listen to the Obsidian Kingdom record as a means for 'relaxation' and that's not something you would send in this round either. I sent this song, because this is an album in particular that I find myself coming back to after a long day's work to listen to on the train home. It calms me a lot and it's an almost perfect song to start my journey homewards with. The buildup at the end also makes me really happy and you can almost daydream away during that part. To me, it's exactly what relaxing music should be. That's probably pretty weird, but I explained it in the PM I sent as well. I'm glad you accepted the song though - and you liked it as well, considering the score.




Also, can you just stop the roulette now and have me win it? :lol
Because I obviously haven't been paying attention; what is 'the final round' you have to claim a spot for? Is that the part where I send you an EP's worth of music?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 19, 2015, 01:53:21 PM
yes the final round will be the EP thingy  :lol

i haven't finalized all the rules yet but i'll probably post them during round 10 at some point. also gonna start going over round 6-8 songs again and awarding bonus points if i feel songs deserve them.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 19, 2015, 02:03:44 PM
Pfew, glad you didn't decide to let me resubmit, this was really the only "relaxing" band I could come up with, but yeah I also have this weird urge to keep relistening to it :lol

BTW that round was done very quickly mate.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 19, 2015, 02:17:33 PM
wasn't really quicker than any of the other rounds  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 19, 2015, 02:30:23 PM
And I thought about sending you Dead Can Dance but when Sacul said he sent some ambient I thought he sent it because I know he loves it :D but ok, score isn't bad even though it's the worst of round 9.
I'm sending you something right know. Too bad time limit isn't one minute longer because I would send 16:30 minutes long song. I don't think you would like it that much so I'm sending something else instead :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 19, 2015, 05:44:31 PM
I saw CHON last weekend when I went to see The Dear Hunter and they were epic. Really tight band and incredible musicianship!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 19, 2015, 07:27:04 PM
Oh well, time to step up my game :P

That's an excellent ballad 425  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: 425 on October 19, 2015, 07:37:33 PM
That's an excellent ballad 425  :tup

I was going to say, thanks to Sacul for the huge assist!  :tup


Really happy you liked it that much, Parama! The whole album is really good; I've been spinning it a ton this past week. She's got an amazing voice, and all the songs are really excellent, too. Strongly recommend getting the album ASAP.

I think I know what I'm sending for my closer. Hopefully you like it okay and I can finish strong...
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 20, 2015, 12:29:30 AM
i think when i do a second roulette (if i do, which is likely) i'll change the bonus half-point from something less arbitrary to something more concrete

maybe "songs released before i was born" bcuz let's face it most of my music library is from the second half of the nineties onwards
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 20, 2015, 07:07:16 AM
I saw Alcest live for the second time last week. Don't know if you'll ever get the chance to do so, but if you do I'd hiiiiighly recommend trying to make it work. They played Summer's Glory, which was pretty damn good, but they have several phenomenal tracks. Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wxZ1DV9xO4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wxZ1DV9xO4)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 20, 2015, 12:31:25 PM
Heh, almost sent Summer's glory as well.

Round ten will come your way soon, have to think about this.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 20, 2015, 03:57:31 PM
i'm way behind on listening to albums to go along with entries but i gave the Lesoir album a listen just now.
The album feels oddly backloaded; Battle is still great but tracks 2-5 all were a bit weaker, far from bad but didn't do a lot for me. Press Play to Start was great though and after In Reverse everything else was fantastic too, so. At first I wasn't really feeling it but about by the time of the title track I'd decided I definitely wanted this album  :lol

gonna ease off on most of the stuff I got recently (except Coheed, since that's still p. new) and try to spin the albums of every 8.5+ score since round 6, except for the ones I'd already spun once before people sent me songs off them  :lol
(and actually the Alcest I was looking towards getting the most was Ecailles but it probably wouldn't hurt to get both Ecailles and Les Voyages considering I just love this band's sound anyways)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 20, 2015, 04:11:41 PM
You're not going to want to miss out on their debut, while you're at it. I think Shelter is their weakest yet, but it's still got the phenomenal Deliverance.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 20, 2015, 04:15:05 PM
yeah, basically everything I've seen suggests that their first three albums are all great, which is great for me
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 20, 2015, 08:54:41 PM
also listened to that Shining album too, it's... uhh, intense, maybe a bit too much for my tastes right now but it seemed pretty cool, will probably get it eventually
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 20, 2015, 10:49:11 PM
Blackjazz?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 20, 2015, 10:58:48 PM
Blackjazz?
yes, that one
the king crimson cover was pretty cool tho

also i'm listening to a lot of albums i'm trying to decide between for my next order and i'm realizing
obsidian kingdom
lesoir
schizoid lloyd
serdce (indirectly)

a ton of these are Elite's fault
Bent Knee is on the table too 'cause that's basically my second favorite song of the roulette, still, but the album as a whole didn't do as much for me
the seller I'm looking at also has Alcest, Markéta Irglová, Enslaved, and Shining for pretty good prices too but i don't want to get everything at once even if i'd save a little on shipping by getting everything at once  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on October 20, 2015, 11:00:58 PM
Sent a song that fits the theme like no other
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 20, 2015, 11:04:00 PM
Oh yes, the cover is pretty cool, but I'm quite meh on that record overall. Anyways, will send an epic closer... :soon:


And I thought about sending you Dead Can Dance but when Sacul said he sent some ambient I thought he sent it because I know he loves it :D .
I had some DCD planned for the EP round, but still have doubts about whether Parama will like them or not. Feel free to send them tho :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 20, 2015, 11:09:03 PM
Oh yes, the cover is pretty cool, but I'm quite meh on that record overall. Anyways, will send an epic closer... :soon:
i'm gonna get it at some point mostly out of sheer curiosity  but it sounds like something i'd really warm up to after having a few more good listens in
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 21, 2015, 02:03:45 AM
And I thought about sending you Dead Can Dance but when Sacul said he sent some ambient I thought he sent it because I know he loves it :D .
I had some DCD planned for the EP round, but still have doubts about whether Parama will like them or not. Feel free to send them tho :P
I should have send them instead of Emancipator but I had dilemma. Also, I'm sucker for samples. Too bad Parama isn't, I would get better score on song I sent :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 21, 2015, 01:01:08 PM
where should I even start with Enslaved, also, they have 13 albums apparently ???
Maybe I'll just stick with the one I know a song off of and am listening to right now (it seems like Roots of the Mountain isn't a fluke song, at least) but poking around I'm getting conflicting reports  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 21, 2015, 02:50:44 PM
Their newest album is one of my favorite of the year. Top 5-10, at least. Easily. Really solid album, almost no filler at all (for my tastes at least). You should definitely check it out.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 21, 2015, 08:25:09 PM
Sent an epic tune  :metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 21, 2015, 11:33:17 PM
still need two more and i'mma be a bit unhappy if i don't have them by the time i wake up tomorrow, blah  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Sacul on October 22, 2015, 09:53:35 AM
Also, I'm sucker for samples. Too bad Parama isn't, I would get better score on song I sent :lol
I love samples too - some of my all-time favorites have lots of them, or are even completely written with samples.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 22, 2015, 11:19:57 AM
from what i've seen apparently Pelagial is always a 2-disc album? what if i just want the disc with vocals  :lol
(it's pretty good, the vocals work well with the music even when they get harsh so)

anyways still waiting on Elite  :lol
will get to this as soon as i have all songs
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Evermind on October 22, 2015, 11:45:51 AM
anyways still waiting on Elite  :lol
will get to this as soon as i have all songs

It was his birthday yesterday, he's probably still drinking. :angel:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 22, 2015, 11:49:12 AM
happy birthday elite your present is participating in my roulette  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: LordCost on October 22, 2015, 02:15:08 PM
I have the 2-disc album at home, I suppose that a single disc version doesn't exist but I don't know..
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 22, 2015, 02:19:54 PM
i was poking around and everywhere i looked they only had 2-disc versions so i'm just going to assume 1-disc doesn't exist  :lol
which is fine, dunno how much i'd be happy about for paying for basically the same album twice though
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Elite on October 22, 2015, 03:51:30 PM
Sent, with a birthday and uni graduation delay.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 22, 2015, 04:04:10 PM
congratulations  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 22, 2015, 04:12:52 PM
i was poking around and everywhere i looked they only had 2-disc versions so i'm just going to assume 1-disc doesn't exist  :lol
which is fine, dunno how much i'd be happy about for paying for basically the same album twice though

It is worth it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 22, 2015, 10:21:27 PM
i can already tell you in advance that this round will take a bit longer, expect results probably 4 days from now instead of the usual 3  :lol
halfway through the first impressions though, so
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 9 RESULTS)
Post by: Crow on October 22, 2015, 11:09:55 PM
Despite the extended length limit, this round is only about 12 minutes longer than Round 8 was  :lol
Also! Second occurrence of two people sending the same artist. Sweet.

4:58 - 5:18 - 5:34 - 6:59 - 7:06 - 7:58 - 9:56 - 12:28 - 13:06 - 15:00

The strings might be a bit underplayed, they seem to be mixed in the background when they’re there at all, but they have presence nonetheless. They do add to the song.

The vocals here seem especially downplayed, which I actually appreciate considering what little of them there are don’t exactly suit my fancy, probably the only element I don't dig here.

There’s a great sense of progression, new elements and sections introduced and buildup happening the whole way through, but it’s not afraid to return to familiar themes either to keep things sounding cohesive.

Thus far this is falling into the category of songs of “I can say I like this and wouldn’t turn it off, but nothing about it really stands out.” It seems to, more than anything else, rely on an emotional weight that I’m not quite being hit with, at least not on first listen.

Sometimes minimalism is just more effective, the very empty feel of the first verse is quite haunting. It gives a good base to build on. It’s very clear that this song is gonna get huge, and you’re just along for the ride as it happens.

This is clearly a “nothing particularly unique or original but quite competent and with a lot of power behind it” type of song, a type that has, thus far in the roulette, been faring pretty damn well.

I like how this builds slowly from very light to heavy, but even when it gets to “heavy” it doesn’t go all-out loudness, it still has room to build yet.

There’s… a lot going on at any given moment, to be sure. It feels a bit overly noisy, actually, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. Just… very chaotic and very proggy. A bit much to take in on first listen.

Really, really struggling to have much to say about this one. It’s alright. It just sounds like a kind of standard alt-rock closing ballad? Which isn’t what I expected at all, so props for that I guess???

I just… don’t dig his voice, at all. Not that he’s a bad singer, or that his voice is lacking in emotion; there’s really nothing wrong with it, other than it doesn’t resonate well with me.


Yeah... round's gonna need more listens to sink in but I'm overall pretty pleased with these. One song here that neither is nor feels like a closer but it's close enough that I'm not gonna bother asking for a resubmission, blah.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 22, 2015, 11:27:48 PM
I just… don’t dig his voice, at all. Not that he’s a bad singer, or that his voice is lacking in emotion; there’s really nothing wrong with it, other than it doesn’t resonate well with me.[/i]

Yup. :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 23, 2015, 04:28:53 AM
I just… don’t dig his voice, at all. Not that he’s a bad singer, or that his voice is lacking in emotion; there’s really nothing wrong with it, other than it doesn’t resonate well with me.[/i]

Yup. :tup
Oh, I was thinking that would be mine, but I guess it could be anyone's.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: 425 on October 23, 2015, 06:30:00 AM
No idea which is mine. Some of the ones that I think could be mine are good and some are bad.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 23, 2015, 08:50:32 AM
have confidence, everyone's getting a 10 this round
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 23, 2015, 09:43:52 PM
decided after first listen that i probably shouldn't listen to all of these in one sitting again, which is a positive choice, but also guarantees this is gonna take longer than the other rounds

as compensation i will be doing relistens to songs from the other rounds while doing this round, i want relisten scores to be finalized first, actually, so that when i post round 10 results the three people going to the final round will instantly know who they are and can start working on their ep's
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 24, 2015, 07:13:51 PM
The Final Round
Is going to be an EP round.
1. Maximum of 35 minutes, but I would hiiiighly recommend not going very far above 30. Consider 30 a soft limit and 35 a hard one.
2. Up to 20 points will be given out as an overall measure of song quality. Each song will be scored out of 10. The total score will be a sum of song score divided by relative length; a 10-minute 10-point song in a 30 minute EP would be worth 6.6 points, but a 1-minute 10-point song in a 30 minute Ep would only be worth .66 points.
3. Up to 10 points will be given out as a measure of cohesion and flow. This is where I expect people to trip up the most. The songs don't have to be from the same artist, but they should sound like they belong together. As well, song order is important. Don't put a closer at the start of an EP, for example. I'm aware some songs will have endings that don't segue into other songs well and I won't take that into consideration, but if you find a really cool segue, I'd highly recommend putting those two back to back.
4. 15 minutes max per artist. Any artist on the semi-banned or eligible for re-entry list can be entered in the EP round without the wager attached to it, but anything on the banned or newly banned list is ineligible. The cap on a single song length will be 15 minutes flat, as a result. Again, I highly recommend not putting anything longer than 10 minutes on an EP, though; having one song dominate the entire thing is a big risk itself.
5. Please send EPs as a .zip file of mp3's in the order you want me to listen to them, preferably numbered.

A slight spoiler: Elite 100% needs to start preparing an EP. Everyone else in the top 6 should probably start thinking about what they'd want to send me, too. I will try to have the top three finalized by the time I post round 10 results.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask them, also. Wanna try to make this as easy for everyone as possible  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 24, 2015, 09:19:43 PM
did preliminary scores after my third listen just now.

what to expect:
1. no bonus half-points. nobody gets one.
2. one song is a pretty clear standout, a few others might need the extra listens to sink in
3. overall nothing i really dislike that much here, but at the same time a lot in the 7-7.5 range of "okay but doesn't stand out in any real way"
4. the song that feels the most overlong is under 10 minutes, surprisingly

also where is everyone i feel so lonely  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 25, 2015, 02:20:21 AM
I'm here!

Okay then, this is probably the part where I screw up :lol will think of what to send soon
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 25, 2015, 03:05:28 AM
At the same time I want and don't want to go in final round. Next two weeks will me crazy for me :lol but whatever, of course I want to win, this is my no.1 priority :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 25, 2015, 03:06:06 AM
Mine's about 5 minutes I think, I doubt that'll be considered overly long, but you never know  :'(
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 25, 2015, 08:47:33 PM
So since I'm a horrible tease, I'm gonna do something ~fun~!
Slight spoilers for the results of Round 10, but only slight. Figure out which one is you for a hint at where your round 10 score lies  :biggrin:

Round 6
Round 7
Round 1
Round 3
Round 8
Round 9
Round 5
Round 10
Round 2
Round 4

Round 1
Round 3
Round 4
Round 10
Round 8
Round 2
Round 9
Round 7
Round 5
Round 6

Round 10
Round 9
Round 2
Round 7
Round 1
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 8
Round 6

Round 3
Round 2
Round 4
Round 7
Round 9
Round 1
Round 8
Round 5
Round 10
Round 6

Round 6
Round 8
Round 7
Round 10
Round 9
Round 3
Round 2
Round 5
Round 1
Round 4

Round 3
Round 8
Round 2
Round 10
Round 6
Round 1
Round 4
Round 9
Round 5
Round 7

Round 9
Round 6
Round 3
Round 2
Round 5
Round 4
Round 10
Round 1
Round 8
Round 7

Round 10
Round 1
Round 4
Round 6
Round 8
Round 3
Round 5
Round 2
Round 9
Round 7

Round 8
Round 1
Round 6
Round 7
Round 10
Round 2
Round 9
Round 5
Round 3
Round 4

Round 9
Round 7
Round 2
Round 10
Round 3
Round 6
Round 8
Round 5
Round 4
Round 1

Note: At the moment of doing these rankings, I have four listens done on the round 10 songs, and I've relistened to rounds 6-8. I also went and revisited two songs from the first five rounds and upped scores a tiny bit there. And there's a few songs that, if I were to go back, I'd lower by a half point or so, too. So not all of these are 100% accurate to my posted scores   :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: 425 on October 25, 2015, 09:06:28 PM
I think I figured out which one mine is, and if I'm right, I'm very pleased that you like this song that much. It's not like I'm in this thing, really, but it's still really nice to see. That is, of course, assuming that I'm actually right about which list is mine! :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 25, 2015, 09:11:35 PM
on a side-note, i went and redid score sums for every score post thus far.

the end result was catching a total of two errors; Tomislav95 and FlyingBIZKIT each picked up an extra point somewhere, which is a bit unfortunate, but I need to be 100% sure on scores and I'm pretty sure now.
If someone else who isn't me wants to go over them too they can feel free to but I highly doubt anything is wrong at this point

The standings as of the end of Round 9 are:
Elite - 76
Sacul - 72
mikemangioy - 71.5
senecadawg2 - 70.5
Tomislav95 - 70
FlyingBIZKIT - 69.5
425 - 69
LordCost - 67
Train of Naught - 66.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 64
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 25, 2015, 09:17:29 PM
out of curiosity, i went and checked to see what the standings would be if i went with what i have in my relistens doc and round 10 doc right now.

the results are... a tiny bit heartbreaking for one of you  :'(

but some of these scores are subject to change, still  :corn
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 25, 2015, 09:21:56 PM
Round 1
Round 3
Round 4
Round 10
Round 8
Round 2
Round 9
Round 7
Round 5
Round 6
Hell yeah  :metal

It also looks like some have sent their best song on this round.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 25, 2015, 11:47:18 PM
in the meantime i did listen to a number of albums
the two maudlin of the Well albums were alright but I'm not sure how eager I am to rush out and get them, especially since mp3 is really the only feasible option
Deathconsciousness really needs another listen because 1. it's long 2. it's a lot to take in and i don't have much of an opinion on it yet
Emergent is a decent prog metal album but I don't know how badly I need it, especially since I already have a number of options in prog metal from this roulette alone that i preferred over it, but i'll prob get this and gordian knot's debut at some point
the Royal Blood album was decent but I don't think any of the other songs has as much groove as Loose Change, but maybe

also it turns out the homestuck song shadow ninja sent me was by toby fox which

makes a lot of sense
bless undertale
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Elite on October 26, 2015, 01:26:37 AM
So, what happens? Some people gain a couple of points for relistens, others lose some points?
And then the round 10 results points gept added to the total. Since you said I should be preparing the Final round, I guess whatpever halpens, I'll still be in the top 3 (bit maybe not in first place anymore)

Do the results from the first 10 rounds count towards the end result of the EP round?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 26, 2015, 01:55:49 AM
I think this is me:
Round 10
Round 1
Round 4
Round 6
Round 8
Round 3
Round 5
Round 2
Round 9
Round 7
I didn't think you'd like final round submission that much, I'm getting at least 8,5 :)
It's interesting,  my lowest score is 6,5 and highest 8,5.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 26, 2015, 02:40:36 AM
Round 9
Round 7
Round 2
Round 10
Round 3
Round 6
Round 8
Round 5
Round 4
Round 1

This is mine, meaning it's currently sitting at a 7.5-ish score, which is alright, but probably not enough to get me up to that #8 spot  :'(
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: LordCost on October 26, 2015, 08:42:37 AM
Mine is the first one, I'll score 6.5 or 7. Honestly I didn't expect much this round,I didn't find really good closers not banned
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 08:57:03 AM
i don't take off points in relistens even if there are songs i think i rated too highly the first time, i only add points.
and the EP round is going to be for the whole thing, regardless of the results from the first 10 rounds.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 26, 2015, 09:14:55 AM
Can you remind me, is it the top four of three that move on to the EP? I know I read it somewhere before, but I can't seem to find it again. And I take it results coming soon?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 09:27:47 AM
three, and results should be some point today
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 12:20:48 PM
The Relisten Brigade, Pt. 2

senecadawg2: Lunatic Soul – Cold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dIoBU-mJ64)

Mmm. When I’m taking this outside of the context of the theme it’s a bit better, but still not that engaging. I like it more than AAL or OSI, at least? So.

New Score: 5/10 (+1)



425: Iron Maiden – Sign of the Cross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onmlafcFFGA)

Meh. Relistening to this, 6 flat feels just a bit too low for this, but it’s still my least favorite of the round.

New Score: 6.5/10 (+.5)



senecadawg2: Agalloch – Limbs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBoUQyIuiNQ)

Ehh, now that I’ve been actually listening to a lot of black metal, I dig this one a bit more. I think it would be better if the vocals were a bit lower in the mix, like a lot of the stuff I’ve been listening to has been tending to do? But yeah, I feel a half-point back for this one is fair.

New Score: 8/10 (+.5)



mikemangioy: Destrage – My Green Neighbor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SOEKCWafsg)

Ehh, I was already a bit unsure on this score the first time and I think it deserves at least another half-point, though I don’t really have anything new to say about it.

New Score: 8/10 (+.5)



Elite: Frost* – Experiments in Mass Appeal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBax3eERsYE)

Ehh, this one gets a bit better when taken outside of the context of the theme, too. Probably because of the build at the end. Giving you an extra half-point hardly matters anyways at this point but, whatever :lol

New Score: 8.5/10 (+.5)



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Múm – Green Grass of Tunnel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmdfUlSW18)

Honestly if not for this song I might’ve skipped relistening to round 9 at all, but I was just super unsure of this rating. And I’m gonna bump it up, yeah, it’s just a very pleasant song that I quite enjoy, even if the vocals aren’t the greatest.

New Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10 (+.5)



mikemangioy: Bent Knee – Being Human (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCU_lScCpAM)

Out of all the songs in this roulette, this is the one I keep coming back to and relistening to the most. I mean Limousine I listen to on the album and have probably heard more but this one I go seek out on its own. The live version was really cool too and does a few things better, a few things worse. Watching it helped me catch some more of the subtleties I missed before, as well. Also it turns out there’s another minute and a half of reeeeally pleasant ambience at the end of the full version! You should’ve sent me that version, to be honest. I dunno, if any other song in this roulette deserves a 10, it’s this one.

New Score: 10/10 (+.5)



Adjusted Scores
Elite – 76.5
mikemangioy – 72.5
Sacul - 72
senecadawg2 – 72
Tomislav95 - 70
FlyingBIZKIT - 69.5
425 – 69.5
LordCost - 67
Train of Naught - 66.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 – 64.5

Not nearly as many changes this time since I'm getting better at rating stuff and a lot of the ones from the more recent rounds were scores I wasn't so sure of to begin with.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: 425 on October 26, 2015, 12:46:43 PM
Eleven saintly shrouded men...

Silhouettes stand against the sky...

One in front with a cross held high...

Come to wash...

My sins...

Away.

Still sad that you didn't love it but I appreciate the extra half-point! :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 26, 2015, 12:54:01 PM
Tfw I didn't get any extra point  :sadpanda:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 12:59:41 PM
if we're gonna be honest badbadnotgood is one of the songs i would've taken a half-point off of if i was lowering scores
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 26, 2015, 02:05:40 PM
No extra point for Chelsea Wolfe or PRR?  :angel:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 02:10:56 PM
No extra point for Chelsea Wolfe or PRR?  :angel:
i didn't revisit most round 1-5 songs, and chelsea wolfe didn't have that 8.5 shine to it
i wanted to like it more than i did, i guess
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 03:25:55 PM
just started on write-ups, get hyped  :metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 26, 2015, 04:24:49 PM
I'm ready :metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Sacul on October 26, 2015, 04:49:05 PM
*heavy breathing*
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 05:43:37 PM
Round 10 Results:

LordCost: Alter Bridge – The End Is Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIUXaAuJjVo)

First Impressions: You get to be the first of the two Alter Bridge songs I got this round! I have heard one Alter Bridge song from guitar hero and like, nothing else. I don’t even remember the song name but it’s neither of these two. Thus far this is falling into the category of songs of “I can say I like this and wouldn’t turn it off, but nothing about it really stands out.” It seems to, more than anything else, rely on an emotional weight that I’m not quite being hit with, at least not on first listen. There’s some okay riffs, but nothing surprising. The vocals are alright, kind of standard for the post-grunge genre. Ehh. Wish I liked this more than I do, mostly.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, this has the dual disadvantage of not being a song I’m too crazy about to begin with, and very clearly weaker than the other song from this same artist I was sent this round. It’s entirely solid. The Alter Bridge singer is passable as a singer, but he doesn’t really stand out to me as great. Fits the music, certainly.

The production job on this one isn’t great, either, rather muddy and I feel like some stuff gets lost in the louder moments. Not awful or anything but far from the best. The hooks and riffs are just okay, too. The womp-womp riff thing is the only thing I was ever remembering about this song when it ended, though. Couldn’t remember the verses, chorus, anything, just that riff. So I guess I’d call that the strongest point of the song, but even then it isn’t particularly strong.

The one thing this has over the other Alter Bridge song is that it knows to end when it should instead of two minutes later, but for all intents and purposes this is just a standard, kind of forgettable post-grunge song to me. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing I’m likely to return to.

Also apparently the singer is Myles Kennedy again? And the guitarist is Mark Tremonti? Train, it seems like someone really wanted to re-enter your artists :lol

Score: 7/10



mikemangioy: Rush – The Garden (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wztuqskio8)

First Impressions: I know some Rush, but I’m completely unfamiliar with any of their output in the last, let’s say, 30 years? :lol Geddy Lee sure sounds a lot different here than on the Rush I’m familiar with, and wow that production is just super muddy. Really, really struggling to have much to say about this one. It’s alright. It just sounds like a kind of standard alt-rock closing ballad? Which isn’t what I expected at all, so props for that I guess???

Final Thoughts: Honestly, if you hadn’t told me this was Rush, I never would’ve guessed it was. Geddy Lee barely sounds like the Geddy Lee I’m familiar with and the music isn’t very Rush-sounding either. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I haven’t heard a single Rush song that came out in like the past 30 years or so, but :lol

That production is really hard to get past. It’s just. It destroys basically all the instrumentation. The instrumentation isn’t even much to write home about to begin with, either… bass does a few cool things, the strings are alright, but other than that, nothing really notable.

Geddy’s singing here is fine enough, and the harmonized vocals that come up later into the song are pretty cool, the song is able to come into its own and sound pretty full and grand in the later sections despite the production and it’s mostly in part because of how cool the harmonized vocals sound and how well they’re used.

Overall this is… fine. It’s certainly not making me too interested in whatever Rush has been doing since the 80’s, but it’s not something that completely bores me or something I’d turn off if it was on the radio (that I don’t ever listen to). But just not really strong enough for me to get much from it.

Score: 7/10



FlyingBIZKIT: Smashing Pumpkins – The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59g5R8rwqpY)

First Impressions: Next on the list of “bands that I know a few songs from but have never checked out on my own”. Probably because I don’t really like Billy Corgan’s voice. APPARENTLY this is from the Batman & Robin soundtrack? Well then. Okay. I just… don’t dig his voice, at all. Not that he’s a bad singer, or that his voice is lacking in emotion; there’s really nothing wrong with it, other than it doesn’t resonate well with me. The song very heavily focuses on his vocals, with an alright electronic and string backbone to it, but if I don’t like the main attraction, the sideshows aren’t really going to be enough to make up for it.

Final Thoughts: Ehh, the vocals grew on me a bit, even if I’m still not the biggest fan of his voice. The harmonies in the chorus are probably what did that. They work a lot better than his singing in the verses.

The instrumental backbone here is solid enough, it wouldn’t stand on its own in the same way that the vocals wouldn’t stand on their own without the instrumentals, but the instrumentals here are definitely the better half of this musical sandwich. The synths and electronic percussion sound a bit dated, even for the song’s release date, but in a kind of charming way. The song really does feel like a product of its time, if nothing else.

The strength of the chorus is probably what elevates this above the previous two songs this round, but beyond that there isn’t a lot I really feel inclined to revisit here. Solid, but not fantastic.

Score: 7.5/10



Train of Naught: A.C.T. – A Failed Escape Attempt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T51KMAzTGxA)

First Impressions: First thoughts are that this is just some pretty solid symphonic metal. The strings might be a bit underplayed, they seem to be mixed in the background when they’re there at all, but they have presence nonetheless. They do add to the song. This feels like perfect 7.5-8.0 bait though, it’s solid enough but not standing out in any real way. I dunno how much of a feeling of finality this has, a little I guess, but not that strongly.

Final Thoughts: Another song in the category of songs where I basically can’t remember a single thing about it after it’s done, but I enjoy it while I’m listening to it. The mixing on this is just a bit weird in general, it feels like, the high end is a lot lower than the low end and the strings, synth, and sometimes the guitar end up drowned out.

‘Tis a shame because the instrumentation is, at a base level, pretty good. Not the most original but the basslines are solid, the drums tend to do interesting things that keep energy high.  The guitar riffs are pretty chuggy as a whole but they’re all solid enough, the instrumental break has some nice interplay between all the instruments going on too.

Don’t really have any comment on the vocals. They’re… there. It’s a very power-metal-y voice that generally doesn’t do much for me, but doesn’t bother me either. As a whole I’d say I like this enough to give it a pretty decent score, but I still doubt I’ll remember a thing about this in a week or two from now.

Score: 8/10



Sacul: Alter Bridge – Blackbird (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz_j7nVCJJ0)

First Impressions: Man, the vocals here are just on a completely other level from the other song sent by this artist, and the instrumentation seems much stronger too. Maybe it’s the 6/8 feel though because I am a sucker for 6/8. This is clearly a “nothing particularly unique or original but quite competent and with a lot of power behind it” type of song, a type that has, thus far in the roulette, been faring pretty damn well. Also one heck of a solo, wow. It does feel like it outstays its welcome a bit, though. A 6-minute edit of this would probably be more effective.

Final Thoughts: It’s pretty cool how the acoustic guitar line in the intro plays the same melody as the vocals in the chorus, nice foreshadow-y touch. The singing here is just, a lot more powerful than the other Alter Bridge song of the round, too, which I’m thankful for, and the riffs pack a lot more punch, too, that first heavy riff especially, that’s good. That makes me happy.

The bridge has a nice build to it and that guitar solo is pretty good, not too showy and some strong melodies. It’s a good way to transition back into the chorus from the softer bridge, the backing instrumentation having some nice swell to it. The last chorus doesn’t really have anything that elevates it above the second chorus that happened 3 minutes prior, though. And then the song… has two minutes to go, for some bizarre reason.

I think when your second chorus ends 3 minutes in, the song being 8 minutes is… a bit much. Yeah, this song definitely lost points for feeling overlong, I was pretty dang sure about that the first time I listened to it. It just repeats the one heavy riff for a while, then goes to the acoustic line from the verse with a basic solo over it.

It’s not like, a horrible way to end a song, but it really feels like something could’ve been done to tighten up the song, and it doesn’t feel as overlong as the first two or three times I listened to it, but. It’s a solid rock song with a lot of power behind it and if its only real flaw is that it should’ve ended a minute or two sooner I can’t fault that too much.

Score: 8/10



Elite: Bruce Springsteen – New York City Serenade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EooiBaW1BA)

First Impressions: This is certainly a strange entry given my tastes, so let’s see how it fares. Apparently, pretty well. The acoustic guitar and piano drive the song, but the strings and sax come in as it all builds up, and the song gets more and more compelling the more it progresses. There’s a great sense of progression, new elements and sections introduced and buildup happening the whole way through, but it’s not afraid to return to familiar themes either to keep things sounding cohesive. Yeah, I can already tell you on first listen that you’re easily in the finals with a submission like this :lol

Final Thoughts: The piano solo intro is pretty strange; it changes between these very classical-sounding passages and jazzier sounding ones but they work surprisingly well together, even though I wouldn’t say piano solos of that kind are something I like that much, but as an intro it’s a good start.

When the song begins for real, the piano and guitar interplay is just very nice and pleasant, and Springsteen’s vocals are just, great. I don’t think that’s a surprise. The piano line that plays in what I guess serves as the chorus is pretty nice, a good hook in its own right.

The build the song gets going as the verses go on and more instruments come in is very effective, climaxing in a much more upbeat passage that comes and goes almost too quickly. I mean, if the entire song was just that I’d get tired of it, but we only get about 20 seconds of it in an otherwise slower-paced song that never really hits as much of a climax after.

The song fades out a little then comes back full force with another big moment, and just kind of holds on it and eventually feels like it’s meandering a bit too much on it. The sax solo is fine and all but I wouldn’t have complained about a minute or so of the ending being chopped off, but maybe that’s just me. Cut down the intro and outro a bit and I’d probably like this a bit more but even as is it’s a very nice ride from start to finish with some big moments and great instrumentation the whole way through.

Score: 8.5/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0: Native Construct – Chromatic Aberration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRhPii0H-XI)

First Impressions: Well the RNG is a jerk, going from one long prog metal song to another one, fantastic :lol I actually gave this album a spin once back when this first came out and people were giving it a lot of buzz and I thought it was in the category of “totally fine but not that interesting or unique”. There’s… a lot going on at any given moment, to be sure. It feels a bit overly noisy, actually, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. Just… very chaotic and very proggy. A bit much to take in on first listen. Maybe the effect of having this right after Headspace but this ain’t doing much on first listen, I’m only 4 minutes in and already wondering how much is left to go. It feels more like a string of ideas patched together than it does any sort of cohesive song, mostly. Bleeehh. This needs more listens, clearly.

Final Thoughts: Honestly the first time I listened to this I was fully prepared for it to end up with like, a 6 or something. It was just an absolute mess of a song that went nowhere and ended really pathetically.

And… everything in that last sentence is still wholly true, but it grew on me a fair bit. There’s a few tricks they like to pull a fair number of times; the biggest and probably my favorite being these short bursts that repeat in the middle of other riffs or ideas. The vocals playing off these bursts, especially, creates some cool moments.

For how incohesive and messy the song is, it’s interesting that it at least all flows well. It’s more like a series of different proggy ideas strung together really tightly; the gaps between each section happen smoothly enough that I barely notice them unless I’m really paying attention, it’s strange how effortlessly they’re able to transition from wacky progfests to quieter moments.

And it’s smart that there are breaks from the wackiness that happens. The song starts on a constant rhythm, goes into “what is happening” mode for a bit, then cools down with a simpler, quieter moment. Of course, drums come in to infuse it with some technicality, but it works as a build, strings coming in to give the song some swell.

Also, there’s an absolutely delicious bass groove at 5:45 which is the highlight of the song without any competition. I just love that. The guitar and vocals play off it well and it has another of those bursts in it that I find really amusing.

Around the nine-minute mark there’s a pretty cool climax that is pretty grand and epic and, being the ending movement of a near-epic such as this, works pretty dang well, there’s been more than enough build to deserve this level of swell.

Unfortunately, that isn’t actually the end. Nothing against the heavy moments that come after it, either, they’re fine enough on their own right, but… the song just seems to fizzle out a little in the last few minutes. It just seems like fundamentally wrong songwriting to me. Aside from the blastbeats, the song doesn’t really do much else new. The last minute is just one heck of an anti-climax, this really heavy riff with harsh vocals that… dies… unceremoniously… it’s super confusing that they chose to end the song and the album this way. Like, what the heck happened?

Now that I’ve had time to process this better, it has grown on me a fair bit, enough to convince me to at least check out this album again, but I wouldn’t say it’s top-tier as far as prog epics or near-epics go and, man, those last few minutes are just unfortunate.

Score: 8.5/10



Tomislav95: Thy Light – …And I Finally Reach My End (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8KZJeEARRo)

First Impressions: I mean, if you’re gonna use a sample, yeah, make it something pleasant like this song starts with. Atmospheric Black Metal is actually, like, my jam right now, I’ve listened to some Burzum and Wolves in the Throne Room recently along with some Blackgaze stuff too. The production quality of this seems a bit above average for the genre, but this is the remastered version so maybe that happened there. Honestly not complaining. The vocals here seem especially downplayed, which I actually appreciate considering what little of them there are don’t exactly suit my fancy, probably the only element I don't dig here. Not much else to say, it’s an atmospheric track that does atmosphere well. Crushing and evocative but never overwhelming and never overly noisy, just the way I like it.

Final Thoughts: Okay, so, the more I listened to this… man, those vocals are just SILLY, more than anything else. I don’t know what it is about them but those howls or moans or whatever are just dorky and funny and proooobably shouldn’t have been included if it were up to me, but they aren’t a huge distracted in the end and I can kind of ignore them if I don’t listen too closely.

And that is one thing about this, it serves pretty well as background music, possibly better than as active listening music primarily because of the vocals. It’s got enough power to it and enough texture to it to carry its mood pretty far and the thirteen minutes don’t end up feeling that long even though the song is pretty one-note the whole way through. It’s not just like one guitar line the whole way through, though, it has some distinct sections and a break near the end, all that good stuff.

Not a lot to say about this, though, vocals aside there’s no problem I have with it, it’s something I enjoy listening to but I may have been a bit oversaturated with this kind of stuff as of late to where it doesn’t stand out among the crowd. Nonetheless I enjoy it a fair bit.

Score: 8.5/10
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Round 10 Listening)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 05:43:51 PM
senecadawg2: Headspace – Daddy F***ing Loves You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJtD2OYB4O8)

First Impressions: Congrats on the “longest song of the entire roulette” award. There’s no prize, but. Also, only song title I’ve needed to censor. The start is a pretty effective fit of the theme, too. Very pretty. Song doesn’t take too long to really kick in, either. The singer’s voice is pretty interesting. Seems especially high-pitched but pleasant. Oh. This guy’s sung on a ton of Ayreon stuff, apparently. I recognize that voice, yes. I like how this builds slowly from very light to heavy, but even when it gets to “heavy” it doesn’t go all-out loudness, it still has room to build yet. And this is, clearly, proggy as heck. I think this kind of thing runs the risk of being pleasant but unmemorable, especially considering the length, but that’s not something to judge yet, we’ll see how I feel during my final writeup. Some of these riffs are kinda djenty, but it’s far from “djent” as a whole, which is probably the best way to use djenty stuff; in small doses. Anyways this is long but also good yet there’s not a lot to say about it.

Final Thoughts: Man, as far as “starting a prog epic” goes, this has to be high on the list. The intro is a very nice and pleasant beginning that you know is going to betray the heaviness of the rest of the song. Sure, it seems a little detached from even the section that comes right after it, but ehh, I wouldn’t want the song to just skip over that first section.

The relaxed groove of the next section is pretty nice and you can really hear the song building up all the while, until the first heavy riffs kick in. The riffs are passable enough though not really a standout, but soon enough the first proggier section kicks in, I like the frantic descending scale thing that kicks off this section a lot. The rest of this section… it’s fine enough but doesn’t do a lot for me, it’s the same kind of prog metal instrumental you’d hear any other band do, DT has written this section before, Haken has written this section before, a ton of other similar bands that I don’t actually listen to have probably written this section before. It’s all fine enough stuff, just not particularly inventive or grabbing.

The break in the middle for another softer moment is much-needed when it comes in, though it has much darker undertones than the brighter soft moments earlier in the song. And a pretty nice acoustic solo to finish it off, before more of the proggy stuff comes back in. At least here Wilson’s still singing with the riffs and synths and strings providing a backdrop for the more intense vocals. The solos and unisons that happen until the 10-minute mark are fine enough but again, not really that impressive nor original.

And then another softer break with piano and strings, light guitar melodies. Very pretty, haunting stuff. The heavier stuff that comes in after has a solid drumline to it and comes to a really nice climax with harmonized vocals and crushing riffs at the end. And the big climax that follows is pretty great, too, as is the kind of noodly guitar line to close out the song.

Of course, this song also doesn’t end right after the biggest, most climactic moment of the song, same as Native Construct did. The song fades out on its last idea and we get… my favorite thing ever, samples! At least, here, they fit. And the acoustic passage that really closes out the song is very nice and serves as a good outro; end on a light note just as you started on a light note. I think I’d like this ending better if it crossfaded from the guitar noodling to the lighter acoustic line and had just cut out the sample bit altogether, but I don’t think it really felt unnecessary here like the end of the Native Construct song did, and as a closer it works quite well. Despite not actually being a closer on the album. How about that.

So in the end… the proggier this song gets, the less I seem to like it, my favorite parts are the softer, prettier parts, and the huge but straightforward parts. The fifteen minutes go by pretty fast though and the two proggy instrumental breaks are both only about 2-3 minutes each so they don’t dominate the song nor feel too excessive, even if they’re not really memorable in the slightest to me. A very solid song on the whole though, will definitely have to look into this album/band.

Score: 8.5/10



425: Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu4oy1IRTh8)

First Impressions: Dire Straits! I know a few songs from these guys and they’re generally alright. Sultans of Swing is a cool song. The start of this is absolutely NAILING the theme this round, it’s very clear this is an ending, though it’s keeping me on edge whether it’ll be a happy one or a sad one. Sometimes minimalism is just more effective, the very empty feel of the first verse is quite haunting. It gives a good base to build on. It’s very clear that this song is gonna get huge, and you’re just along for the ride as it happens. I really want to look up the lyrics of this one the next time I listen to it, they feel really important here. The organ and the somber guitar leads, the soft-spoken verses… yeah, they get to me a little.

Final Thoughts: So I did look up the lyrics on my second listen, and… they’re serviceable, they carry a good message in simple words, and I wouldn’t say they drag the song down but they don’t elevate it either; the more important factor here is the delivery of those lyrics, which is just fantastic.

Is that a bagpipe or a harmonica or something else in the first verse, I can’t actually tell, whatever it is it’s probably the most important instrument for that section, it just really sells the mood. The song knows not to stay that empty forever, either, with drums and organ coming in to give the song more of a pulse for the second verse, making each of them special in their own right rather than repeating the same thing unnecessarily.

The guitar throughout spends a lot of time playing various short leads that keep a unified sound but are technically different every time (I think? I don’t have them memorized or anything but they all sound different) which is a kind of style I like a lot, it’s a very Floydian thing to do. I have to imagine this song was very Floyd-inspired. Actually, the song it reminds me of the most is Two Suns in the Sunset, a really good song on an otherwise rather forgettable/mediocre album. Maybe that’s part of why I like it so much.

But yes, this is just a very emotional ride all the way through, with the perfect instrumentation to fit the mood, enough swell to keep the tension constantly building but not too much so as to get overwrought and melodramatic. I’m actually sad this one is only 7 minutes, I’d have loved for it to be longer with how powerful the mood it carries throughout is, but it’s not too short and that comes down more to personal preference than anything else.

So yeah. A pretty clear standout for a round otherwise filled with good but not amazing songs.

Score: 9.5/10


Final Standings
Elite – 85
senecadawg2 – 80.5
Sacul - 80
mikemangioy – 79.5
425 – 79
Tomislav95 – 78.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 77
Train of Naught – 74.5
LordCost - 74
Shadow Ninja 2.0 – 73



And that means that the final round will be played by…
Elite, senecadawg2, and Sacul!

Sorry to everyone else, especially mike, who missed the finals by half a point, but only three people could make it in the end!

I’m gonna try and write words at the seven of you who are done soon, probably not tonight but maybe tomorrow, as a sort of post-mortem, as I do have words that need to be said :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 26, 2015, 05:51:08 PM
Glad you enjoyed the song, it always seems to score well in roulettes.

And now the slate is wiped clean, eh? Watch out Richard and Lucas!

I never considered it, but Brothers in Arms is a great choice. Definitely my favorite Dire Straits song, not to mention having a phenomenal atmosphere and top-tier guitar solo. Good thinking, 425
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 05:57:21 PM
i am fully expecting you all to do a good job sending me songs i like but the final results will end up coming down to the 10 points for EP cohesiveness because i know from experience that's way harder to get right than just sending a lot of good music, i'd have given my EP in 425's roulette like a 6 or so for flow and cohesiveness if that had been a factor  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 26, 2015, 06:13:26 PM
Glad you enjoyed the song, it always seems to score well in roulettes.

And now the slate is wiped clean, eh? Watch out Richard and Lucas!

I never considered it, but Brothers in Arms is a great choice. Definitely my favorite Dire Straits song, not to mention having a phenomenal atmosphere and top-tier guitar solo. Good thinking, 425
I think I already said it but Brothers in Arms may be my favorite song ever. I'm always coming back to it (especially that Mandela's birthday version) and love it more and more.
About vocals in Thy Light. Band is labeled as suicide depressive black metal (yes, that exist) and vocals represent pain and depression. Some other songs have lyrics (I think there are just random screams in one I sent). It's interesting album is actually demo and Thy Light is one-man band, kinda cool.
Maybe it's better I didn't enter the final, I really need to study alot and do some homework for exercise (Java programming, pain in the ass right now :P).
Congratulations everyone :) Parama, count me in for your 2nd Roulette, I really had fun in this one :D
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 06:18:21 PM
i haven't worked much with java lately, C++ for me  :lol

and i probably won't be doing a second roulette for a loooong time but i'll try to remember to keep you on the player list when i do another  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: 425 on October 26, 2015, 07:01:48 PM
Glad you liked Brothers In Arms that much! :tup It's one of those songs that I think everyone needs to hear; it's just so powerful.

Too bad I didn't find some of the magic I've had these last two rounds a bit sooner. Then again, I have no idea what I'd put on an EP, so maybe it's better this way, going out on a good note. Mostly I'm just happy you liked some of what I sent, obviously these last two songs in particular.

Thanks for having me! You're obviously invited for my V2 if a) that ever happens and b) you promise not to send another hour-long song. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 07:07:44 PM
next time you get this https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/bull_of_heaven/210__like_a_wall_in_which_an_insect_lives_and_gnaws/
or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybGOT4d2Hs8
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: FlyingBIZKIT on October 26, 2015, 07:50:09 PM
This was fun, thanks for having me! :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 26, 2015, 07:54:05 PM
I'm having a hard time choosing my songs and the order, but I should have it set and sent by tomorrow.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 26, 2015, 07:54:29 PM
Hell yeah :2metal:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 07:57:52 PM
I'm having a hard time choosing my songs and the order, but I should have it set and sent by tomorrow.
honestly there's no rush 'cause i have an off-site music binge i need to do tomorrow/wednesday so i probably won't get to these until thursday at the latest  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 26, 2015, 08:01:29 PM
Time to take huge risks now - I just have to refine the Parama playlist and reduce it to an EP. Should be done by Thursday/Friday at least.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 26, 2015, 08:38:12 PM
btw when i say "there's no rush" that doesn't mean you can't send me rush bcuz they're still on the semi-banned list
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: 425 on October 26, 2015, 08:45:09 PM
next time you get this https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/bull_of_heaven/210__like_a_wall_in_which_an_insect_lives_and_gnaws/
or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybGOT4d2Hs8

There is zero chance of me listening to either of those, so that'll be a score of negative infinity. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 26, 2015, 09:02:13 PM
oh man i really thought i was gonna make it
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 27, 2015, 12:03:46 AM
And now the slate is wiped clean, eh? Watch out Richard and Lucas!

Damnit, you're in the Finals as well :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 27, 2015, 12:11:43 AM
This should be an interesting round  :hat
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 27, 2015, 12:24:17 AM
btw if two people send me the same song whoever sends it first gets priority
just in case that happens, it already did once before
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 27, 2015, 12:28:23 AM
And what's your stance on the 'eligible for re-entry' list with regard to the wagers? Since songs do not get scored out of 10, but rather out of '0.66X', where X is the song length.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 27, 2015, 05:55:47 AM
Seriously, I haven't seen a single roulette without Blackbird since I've joined the DTF's, I guess it is a great closer though.

Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 27, 2015, 05:59:31 AM
Oh man, The End Is Here deserves more than that  :'( probably my favorite actual Alter Bridge closer..
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Tomislav95 on October 27, 2015, 07:22:10 AM
I think it's great time to check Alter Bridge. I'm not sure if I ever heard anything from them. Probably I did but I don't remember anything from it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 27, 2015, 08:45:03 AM
you can safely ignore the wagers for the EP round. anything on the semi-banned list can be entered at no risk.
and every song will be scored out of 10 first, then the final score for the EP will be calculated from those scores.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: LordCost on October 27, 2015, 03:28:31 PM
Oh man, The End Is Here deserves more than that  :'( probably my favorite actual Alter Bridge closer..
Thank you :laugh:
I thought only to the closer of the albums, I didn't think about songs that feel like a closer but they are not! I chose The End Is Here over Fortress and Words Darker Than Their Wings, but it was a difficult choice.. One Day Remains is the album that made me interested to music when I was 13 or 14, so I decided for The End Is Here.

I listened to Chromatic Aberration two times when I was searching a closer but I found it too chaotic even for my tastes. Instead I find the anticlimatic end really unusual and interesting, considering that in the whole album there aren't sections as aggressive as the last minutes of this song. It's clear that they wanted to experiment with everything in their debut, even with the way to close an album.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 27, 2015, 07:46:46 PM
Shadow Ninja 2.0: You actually had the best run of anyone in the last five rounds, but none of your first five submissions did too much for me and really brought you down overall. I appreciate that you basically spent the entire roulette taking risks and entering weird stuff, though, definitely got a few artists on my list to check out from you. Gordian Knot and SikTh especially, but Shining, Native Construct, and Mum were all pretty cool too, and I doubt I'd have found Shining and Mum on my own  :tup

LordCost: Well, round 4 really hurt, and round 2 was a little tragic (I still need to give that album a listen, actually), but for the most part you sent some good and sometimes weird stuff. Unexpect, The Ocean, and The Contortionist are bands I need to at least check out further, and that Thumpermonkey song grew on me a lot too. Nothing was really one of my absolute favorites but a mostly consistent run of quality stuff  :tup

Train of Naught: Out of everyone here, it seems like your tastes lined up the least with my own. CHON was a great entry, even if it was already on my radar, and Shinedown and Royal Blood were also pretty good listens. You seemed intent on avoiding prog stuff pretty much the whole way through though which is a pretty gutsy move considering how much prog was on my banned list and top albums list  :tup

FlyingBIZKIT: It's really unfortunate that I win your roulette and then turn around and give you a lot of trouble in my roulette, oops  :lol Alcest was admittedly kind of a freebie but one I was more than happy to receive, and I was laughing pretty hard when you snubbed Sacul on that NIN entry too. A generally solid run with one or two tracks I wasn't so hot on but I'd definitely be up for participating in your next roulette if you're not planning on revenge-nuking my scores   :tup

Tomislav95: You had the most flatly consistent run of anyone, scores entirely in the 6.5-8.5 range, tending towards the high end of that range too, and sending a fair share of great but not quite amazing stuff, like The Sword, Thy Light, and Bjork, among others. You also avoided prog for pretty much the entire time, which is again a move I find pretty gutsy but certainly appreciated  :tup

425: A pretty solid run for the first eight rounds with two fantastic entries in the last two rounds, haha. Shame you didn't do as well in my roulette as I did in yours, either, but I definitely have a fair few new artists to check out from you! Coldplay and Yes were two artists I'd heard stuff from before and your entries from them were pretty solid, and I loved Marketa Irglova and Dire Straits as well. There seemed to be a trend of artists I was at least aware of and often had heard stuff from before, but hadn't checked out deeply enough to even be on my Semi-Banned list, which is a pretty interesting trend  :tup

mikemangioy: Missing the finals by such a slim margin has gotta hurt, ouch  :lol I quite liked the majority of your entries, but, man, that AAL song just killed your score, didn't it? I'm still not sure you were aware they were on the semi-banned list when you sent them, either, but entries had taken long enough that I didn't want to confirm that you knew, and in hindsight I probably should've checked to be sure, but blah. Bent Knee was a fantastic entry and I definitely have to get that album in the near future. Snubbing Sacul on Destiny Potato was funny, too  :lol Aside from those, Foo Fighters, Destrage, and PFM were also pretty cool entries, really a lot of good stuff from you  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: 425 on October 27, 2015, 08:19:15 PM
425: A pretty solid run for the first eight rounds with two fantastic entries in the last two rounds, haha. Shame you didn't do as well in my roulette as I did in yours, either, but I definitely have a fair few new artists to check out from you! Coldplay and Yes were two artists I'd heard stuff from before and your entries from them were pretty solid, and I loved Marketa Irglova and Dire Straits as well. There seemed to be a trend of artists I was at least aware of and often had heard stuff from before, but hadn't checked out deeply enough to even be on my Semi-Banned list, which is a pretty interesting trend  :tup

I'd like to say that was an intentional strategy, but it's actually just a result of the size of my library :lol Still, happy to have given you some stuff to check out! :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on October 27, 2015, 08:44:12 PM
Hey man I had a lot of fun. I kinda determined early on to just send you strange or offbeat stuff; honestly I was kind of baffled when you started liking my submissions. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 27, 2015, 11:24:40 PM
Train of Naught: Out of everyone here, it seems like your tastes lined up the least with my own. CHON was a great entry, even if it was already on my radar, and Shinedown and Royal Blood were also pretty good listens. You seemed intent on avoiding prog stuff pretty much the whole way through though which is a pretty gutsy move considering how much prog was on my banned list and top albums list  :tup
Pretty much true, believe it or not, Dream Theater has been my favorite band for a long time, but besides them, I never listened to prog, but as I progressed through this roulette I've done my own bit of discovering and found TONS of great prog bands, so that's why in the end things like CHON and A.C.T. started showing up.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 27, 2015, 11:33:49 PM
i've just been digging into a ton of melodic/modern math rock recently because it's just a sound i like, dunno why but i'm enjoying it. only real problem is that i have trouble differentiating a lot of what i've found  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: mikemangioy on October 28, 2015, 02:52:50 PM
mikemangioy: Missing the finals by such a slim margin has gotta hurt, ouch  :lol I quite liked the majority of your entries, but, man, that AAL song just killed your score, didn't it? I'm still not sure you were aware they were on the semi-banned list when you sent them, either, but entries had taken long enough that I didn't want to confirm that you knew, and in hindsight I probably should've checked to be sure, but blah. Bent Knee was a fantastic entry and I definitely have to get that album in the near future. Snubbing Sacul on Destiny Potato was funny, too  :lol Aside from those, Foo Fighters, Destrage, and PFM were also pretty cool entries, really a lot of good stuff from you  :tup

In the end that's what matters  :tup :tup
Oh and I sent AAL just to took that risk, at times it's worth it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 28, 2015, 02:54:29 PM
i'm just like, super past anything djenty at this point, i think, don't have any interest in getting the new tesseract album even
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: LordCost on October 28, 2015, 03:43:47 PM
I had fun too :tup. The writeups were interesting, the first impressions thing was a good idea and the results were always on time! Thumpermonkey play a sort of math rock, listen something from the last two albums ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 28, 2015, 06:45:59 PM
Sent my EP. There will be no  :metal
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 28, 2015, 07:03:27 PM
Damn, I'm still working on it - managed to reduce it from 2.5 hours to just one and a half :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 28, 2015, 07:19:08 PM
seneca was first to send and wins the roulette by default  :P


(there's no rush srsly lol)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 28, 2015, 07:43:37 PM
Will send next year then  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 28, 2015, 07:45:25 PM
deadline is end of the month btw i just decided right now
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 28, 2015, 07:51:08 PM
Fair enough. Btw, what's your take on experimental music? Do you like electronic glitches in your music?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 28, 2015, 08:01:32 PM
answer: no, not at all
really electronic stuff will almost never do well with me
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 28, 2015, 08:44:22 PM
Oh great! I deleted several tracks, and realised I barely reach 29 mins now. Thanks!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 28, 2015, 08:46:22 PM
you had an hour of electronic stuff on your playlist?  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 28, 2015, 11:11:10 PM
Kind of, yeah :lol

And lots of stuff I thought you'd dig, but realised you won't after, eh, reviewing and trying to make sense of your tastes :P

Will send this Friday evening (GMT -3).
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 03:56:47 AM
I'm sending mine tonight, because I'm going to Paris this weekend (starting Friday morning).
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 12:51:30 PM
My god, this is so difficult.. Should I send you the incoherent black metal and ska punk combination, the show-off-all-progressive-metal-band-you've-never-heard-of-disc or the one that showcases a couple of different bands and style while still remaining pretty cohesive?

I think I'm going with the latter, though it will be vastly different from the stuff that scored well for me in this roulette.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 29, 2015, 01:02:05 PM
y'all still get bonus points for sending stuff outside of my comfort zone, though they're applied to each track's individual score  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 01:06:58 PM
Nah, I think I got my EP finished, I'm just listening to that thing a couple of times before sending it. I still really want to send you everything that didn't make the cut though. I really hope this EP will do the trick. Why can't you just let me win now? :|
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 29, 2015, 01:15:23 PM
because i'm a sadist who likes to watch people suffer
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 01:16:21 PM
GOOD THING YOU'RE GETTING SOME TERRIBLY MISERABLE SONGS FROM ME THEN
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 01:16:56 PM
Sending soon to that weird e-mail address of yours. I'll explain my song choices in the accompanying e-mail.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 29, 2015, 01:42:10 PM
What's in store for you in Paris?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 01:44:49 PM
I'm just going a weekend away with my girlfriend :)
I don't know yet what we're going to there exactly, but it will likely be fun regardless!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 29, 2015, 02:36:30 PM
You could go celebrate your 7K posts mark together, that's a great achievement!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 29, 2015, 02:44:35 PM
Oh wow, I honestly didn't even notice that :lol

I sent the EP by the way :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 30, 2015, 12:44:00 AM
oh yeah I listened to the Marketa Irglova album a while back too, it's nice as a whole but i didn't feel any of the other songs as strongly as This Right Here
and I listened to half of The Fragile and decided that, while one song was pretty cool, 100+ minutes of that is a bit much for me, meh, might revisit it later though
and now I have Thy Light on and it's pretty decent though nothing unique for the genre, really, just solid though and that's fine to be

i've been listening to a lot of Nadja aside from that, because drone metal like that is just my jam

and i will get to EPs once Sacul sends me his
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 30, 2015, 01:24:13 AM
I really hope you will like my EP :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 30, 2015, 09:38:29 PM
I shall send within the next 24 hours  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 30, 2015, 10:48:25 PM
Last question before sending: I've noticed a lack of Anathema and Pink Floyd in your top 50. What's your take on them?

PS: Crap I have like two possible EPs, one quite heavy and other very melodic and ambient-ish, dunno which to send help pls.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 30, 2015, 11:39:25 PM
Anathema: I have a few albums and I think they're okay but not one of my favorites
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals are all great albums that I just didn't have space for on my top 50, haha, but I do like Floyd a fair bit. Animals probably should've been someone on my list tbh I rushed that list so much that it isn't exactly perfect  :lol
and I would normally not care between the two but, thus far your ambient-ish stuff mostly hasn't done too much for me, aside from the Ulver track
i can also tell you that if your heavy EP is 30 minutes of just heavy music then it may not be the best choice either though since i honestly don't like constant heaviness going on for too long  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 30, 2015, 11:53:03 PM
Nice to know. Maybe I should just mix up both with the best tracks of each and get a nice score for the songs but a 2 for flow and such  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 30, 2015, 11:54:06 PM
a well-placed breather after a heavy song or two is the kind of thing that will probably net you flow points more than lose them  :P
one of the albums i got recently is really making me thing about album flow because it does it literally perfectly, like, wow this track ordering is just absolutely perfect, haha
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 30, 2015, 11:58:07 PM
Nice. Will send in 12 hours or so, have to get some sleep and then make a final listen before sending.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 12:00:02 AM
my first impressions are gonna be spoopy as heck
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 31, 2015, 12:22:12 AM
spoopy?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 12:34:21 AM
it's halloween  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Elite on October 31, 2015, 01:12:08 AM
What a coincidence that a couple of my songs coincide with that theme!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 01:13:26 AM
Elite's Spooky EP

Too scary for me.

Score: 0/30


ok i'll get sleep now and prob get to these in the morning, or at least one of them, i don't think i'll do them all in one sitting  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Train of Naught on October 31, 2015, 04:24:25 AM
Thank Mr. Skeltal.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 31, 2015, 10:19:25 AM
(https://media.giphy.com/media/3oEduGmXllqfFBSXZe/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 10:37:53 AM
Too late; a rogue skeleton appeared.
(https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/undertale/images/1/12/Papyrus.png/revision/latest?cb=20150920061937)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Sacul on October 31, 2015, 01:07:22 PM
 :lol

Ok, EP finished - uploading it.

Edit: So the Panama EP has been (finally) sent.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 02:06:24 PM
i have all the EP's, first impressions will probably be tomorow
i'm not gonna rush this round as much as the others, especially since there's a lot of music  :lol

I will do this first off though, song lengths.

3:29 - 3:39 - 3:47 - 3:49 - 3:52 - 4:10 - 4:35 -  4:39 - 5:06 - 5:12 - 5:20 - 5:36 - 5:50 - 6:42 - 6:46 - 7:43 - 9:53

Other notes: One repeat artist between the three EP's.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on October 31, 2015, 03:24:14 PM
Both of you sent more songs than I did.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 03:43:31 PM
7 - 5 - 5 is the EP spread actually
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on October 31, 2015, 03:46:09 PM
I counted wrong then.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on October 31, 2015, 04:08:13 PM
Mine's the biggest! Or at least, it has the most parts!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Sacul on October 31, 2015, 05:00:19 PM
Other notes: One repeat artist between the three EP's.
Different albums?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on October 31, 2015, 05:52:47 PM
i dunno i haven't looked it up yet  :lol
seneca's is longest in both length and parts by like, a minute, elite does have the shortest overall
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Sacul on October 31, 2015, 06:33:50 PM
Yet I have the longest song.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (ROUND 10 RESULTS!!!)
Post by: 425 on October 31, 2015, 11:03:03 PM
Other notes: One repeat artist between the three EP's.

Throwback to that time when there were two repeat artists between ten EPs I received and Parama sent both of them. :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 01, 2015, 12:40:04 AM
I took the 30-minute limit serious.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 01, 2015, 10:20:54 AM
i only listened to seneca's yesterday btw i'll get to elite's after lunch and sacul's a bit later
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 01, 2015, 09:58:46 PM
This mostly seems to serve as a dose of slow heaviness with a bit of a pulse and a pretty crushing ending.

This has a lot of 70’s influence in it, pretty clearly. The vocals are kinda weird and kind of for the sake of being weird, or it feels that way to me at least.

I like the use of the horns, they add a bit of life into an otherwise kind of sluggish song. Not necessarily a knock against the song that it feels a little slow, though.

I really don’t have much to say, this is nice and pleasant and all but needs more listens.

It’s very pretty music, but it’s not grabbing me in the same way. The swell at the end is pretty good though.

I should probably be paying more attention to the lyrics than I am, they seem to be the focus here. Despite being a bit low in the mix.

There’s not really much else for me to comment on though, the vocals seem to be the focal point here as well as the most interesting, which is fine, but leaves the music feeling a bit… sidelined and kinda generic.

The rest of the band comes in around the halfway point and the song just gets, a hell of a lot more intense, christ, those vocals are giving me serious chills man.

Man, this has one heck of a crushing atmosphere. The vocals are really buried in the mix here but I’m not sure that was a bad choice either, since I feel if they were louder the vocal style would get to me more.

It’s hard to know what to say on first listen because I can very accurate identify this as a grower on my first listen; pleasant enough to listen to but I can tell I’m not really taking it everything in just one listen.

There’s a few short breaks from the intensity and the ending is a lot calmer too, so I don’t think it ends up feeling too much like a constant wall of noise either.

Thus far this seems like pretty standard metal fare, though, some decent riffs, but I’m kinda waiting for it to go somewhere else. It doesn’t seem that interested in doing so, though… :lol

It may suffer from just being a style I’m never too fond of, even if it does that style fairly well and is far from uninteresting.

It doesn’t really feel like it goes much of anywhere at the end though, there’s no climax or even proper ending, just a slow burnout.

I’m sorry but I can’t just ignore that, ugh, why throw one element into a song that turns it from pretty good to borderline obnoxious?

It does pick up a little bit but mostly stays on one sound, which is fine enough but the end result is that the track doesn’t stand out too well on its own.

The subtleties in the back of the mix help build atmosphere, but other than that there’s not much else to talk about musically. The ending’s a bit sudden, I guess, but fits lyrically.



honestly a bit underwhelmed in general on first listen but this could be a set of growers like Round 3 seemed to be so who knows  :lol
amusingly my favorite song of the whole bunch is off what i'd, on first listen, call my least favorite of the three EP's, so that's both bad and good for one of you
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Sacul on November 01, 2015, 10:19:54 PM
This mostly seems to serve as a dose of slow heaviness with a bit of a pulse and a pretty crushing ending.

It’s very pretty music, but it’s not grabbing me in the same way. The swell at the end is pretty good though.

The rest of the band comes in around the halfway point and the song just gets, a hell of a lot more intense, christ, those vocals are giving me serious chills man.

Man, this has one heck of a crushing atmosphere. The vocals are really buried in the mix here but I’m not sure that was a bad choice either, since I feel if they were louder the vocal style would get to me more.

There’s a few short breaks from the intensity and the ending is a lot calmer too, so I don’t think it ends up feeling too much like a constant wall of noise either.
Pretty sure these are mine  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 01, 2015, 10:44:56 PM
i'll be a dirty tease and say only one of those is yours  :lol
but you don't know which one, nor for which song  :hat
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 01, 2015, 11:27:29 PM
Those descriptions are far too vagie for me to tell which one could be mine.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 01, 2015, 11:47:59 PM
yeah, you've got the idea  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on November 02, 2015, 04:54:05 AM
I never comment on these because I never have any idea.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 03, 2015, 07:13:18 AM
More teasers?
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 03, 2015, 11:00:25 AM
well i'm only through them all twice, yet  :lol
i may do my next listen as all the songs by themselves because i do need to be able to take the songs outside the context of their EP's and a listen like that should give me pretty solid starting ratings for all the individual songs, but i don't have any scores in mind or much to tease you with yet
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 03, 2015, 12:47:21 PM
sorry this round is gonna be super long btw i'm trying to stave off musical burnout a little :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 03, 2015, 11:59:38 PM
i did a third listen standard-roulette style. 90 minutes straight heck yeah. i think there's enough diversity that i can listen this way just fine though.
so i'm gonna be a tease and post my preliminary scores. these are fairly conservative so expect these to mostly go up, rather than down, but there's like one or two that could get worse.

i will also state for the record that one of the songs this time is possibly my least favorite of the entire roulette even though it's not going to end up with an awful score, but i'll explain that later.

anyways here's the things. these are all scores without the bonus half-points.

6.5 - 6.5 - 7 - 7 - 7.5 - 7.5 - 7.5 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 8.5 - 8.5 - 8.5 - 8.5 - 9

i have a good idea of who is going to end up winning this whole thing, at this point, but that won't be set in stone until i do final scores and tally up the points. i haven't done the "EP Score" 10 points yet, which is going to cover flow, cohesion, song order, and everything else that isn't direct scoring itself, so that could throw a wrench in things too
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 04, 2015, 12:13:15 AM
Well, that's interesting.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 04, 2015, 12:29:26 AM
i wonder what's so interesting?

on an unrelated note i am really digging that Lesoir album. Battle's one of the better tracks but A Lady Named Bright, Press Play From Start, My Perfect Self, Flawless Chemistry, and ESPECIALLY the title track are all great too. Man. The title track uses samples in a way I like, too, haha. Good stuff.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 04, 2015, 01:16:56 AM
Especially the part about you least favourite song in the roulette being in this last round. I wonder who sent that track and I also wonder why it still scores (at least) a 6.5.

And glad you like that Lesoir album, I agree with you that the second half is better than the firsr, but Battle is a great opener.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 04, 2015, 08:59:18 AM
I’m sorry but I can’t just ignore that, ugh, why throw one element into a song that turns it from pretty good to borderline obnoxious?

it's this one btw because nothing is sadder than lost potential
songs like the Slint one and the AAL i don't think ever had potential to begin with IMO  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Train of Naught on November 04, 2015, 09:07:47 AM
I really want to hear that awful song now!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 04, 2015, 12:08:02 PM
Is it the third track on my EP? If there's any song on my EP that could fit with that qoute, it would be that one.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 04, 2015, 12:14:13 PM
i can see why you'd think that, yes. it could be that track. or maybe not.
i'm getting better at mentally phasing out what was giving me problems in that specific track though, now that i've heard it a few times, so maybe my mind will have changed by the final write-up. i'm gonna try and go through all the EP's once today and then do write-ups tomorrow  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 04, 2015, 12:33:32 PM
But to be honest, I don't think it is. The second 'tidbit' seems perfect for that particular track.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 04, 2015, 10:04:45 PM
what's the story/concept of Mantiis exactly btw I read through the lyrics booklet but I don't get it  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 04, 2015, 11:15:17 PM
other things:
i figured out a kinda arbitrary scoring for the EP, out of 10 for cohesion, out of 5 for flow, out of 5 for track ordering (last two are similar-ish but i feel needed to be rated separately) then cut that score in half for the 10 EP points total
after fourth listen, the three EP scores are 7.5, 7.5, and 8.5
so y'all did pretty good on that front, i have a feeling it will come down more to the songs than the EP score in the end

ALSO. if there somehow manages to be a tie for first place in the EP round, the tiebreaker will be the results of the main roulette, so if Elite ties with someone, he wins, if seneca ties with Sacul, seneca wins, and Sacul is a little screwed if there happens to be a tie. I haven't actually added up scores yet and am not going to until I have all final scores done and ready to post because i actually dunno who's gonna win at this point and i want it to be a surprise to myself too  :lol

nuggetz: seneca's EP is 1912 seconds long


edit: okaaaay i lied because i was super curious and i added up the points and there's totally time for me to change my opinion on some of these songs a little, but... it's a close one  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Elite on November 05, 2015, 12:09:52 AM
what's the story/concept of Mantiis exactly btw I read through the lyrics booklet but I don't get it  :lol

I have no idea to be honest, but reading through the lyrics it's quite messed up. That's what the singer (who's an awesome dude by the way) also said on stage: "we sing songs about really fucked up stuff". I might be reading into it too much, but I think it's about the kidnapping and abuse of a child. The song titles 'Not Yet Five' and the lyrics of the last two songs contribute to this idea. There's also some necrophily in there I think, just read the lyrics to 'Fingers in Anguish'. It's quite messed up and it helps with the unsettling nature of the album. As far as I know, the band has never released an official statement on what the album is about, but from what I can gather from the lyrics, it is indeed some fucked up stuff.

I can't make more out of the artwork either; the vinyl EP has lots of pictures of bugs along with some very strange lines of text that aren't in the actual lyrics. It's certainly a unique album.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on November 05, 2015, 05:05:39 AM
Looking forward to it!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (Final Round Listening!)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 12:04:12 PM
get hype, i finished the writeups for the first EP
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Train of Naught on November 05, 2015, 01:37:45 PM
:soon:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Elite on November 05, 2015, 02:34:33 PM
Okay, bring it.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: senecadawg2 on November 05, 2015, 02:45:36 PM
:caffeine:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 02:51:48 PM
gimme like an hour
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Elite on November 05, 2015, 03:17:47 PM
no























okay.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Sacul on November 05, 2015, 03:38:41 PM
:caffeine:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 03:40:48 PM
like at literally the last second i realized i should include judging variety in my EP score and that slightly affected individual scores but did not end up affecting the overall ranking, tho it made results super duper extraordinarily close  :lol

but technically I'm basically done now. i know who wins, with absolute certainty.

be back in 24 hours, suckers  :biggrin:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Elite on November 05, 2015, 03:41:23 PM
ok, bye!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 03:47:29 PM
senecadawg2’s EP

Ludovico Einaudi – Uno (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJq7qHMw3b0)

First Impressions: There’s a nice slow build at the start, synth swell and light piano coming in. It does pick up a little bit but mostly stays on one sound, which is fine enough but the end result is that the track doesn’t stand out too well on its own. This is definitely effective as an opening track, though. I can tell you submitted this more as an album opener than anything else, though.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, this ended up not doing too much for me. It’s pleasant enough music, but beyond that not that memorable and rather one-note. It works as an EP opener just fine, though. But on its own it’s just a nice but fairly unmemorable piano-driven instrumental. I really don’t have much else to say about this, sorry!

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10 (11.87%)



Sarah Fimm – Velocity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOERokKDkFs)

First Impressions: She has a pretty nice voice, though it doesn’t particularly stand out to me, sounds like a lot of similar singers doing similar stuff. Granted, uniqueness isn’t always the best thing either. The instrumentation has a lot of subtleties to it and it’s plenty dynamic enough, always matches with the level of the vocals. As far as softer pop songs go this is pretty good, really. It doesn’t really feel like it goes much of anywhere at the end though, there’s no climax or even proper ending, just a slow burnout.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, her voice is what I have the most gripes with here. On one hand she can sing technically well and there’s enough emotion in her voice. On the other hand, her voice is just… really generic, as far as female pop singers go. I wouldn’t be able to pick her out from a lot of similar artists. It’s not necessarily a problem to have a fairly generic singing voice as long as you sing well, though, and she passes on that front.

The instrumentation is plenty atmospheric and pretty dynamic, it does a good job providing a backdrop for the vocals. On its own, I don’t know how much I’d care to listen it, but for a pop song something like this is totally serviceable and fairly enjoyable. The ending really does go nowhere though, it doesn’t feel like this song ends up having a climax at all, really.

Pop isn’t exactly my favorite of genres but this is a pretty good example of the genre, if not a tad generic on the whole. But yeah, may check out more of her stuff in the future.

Score: 7.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 8/10 (14.38%)



The Antlers – Parade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IA1Qucq20Y)

First Impressions: I’ve probably heard something from the Antlers before, knew someone who was pretty big on them and they’ve likely been submitted the other site I frequent for music-related stuff. I like the use of the horns, they add a bit of life into an otherwise kind of sluggish song. Not necessarily a knock against the song that it feels a little slow, though. Vocals are fine enough, the instrumentation creates a pretty full sound too which I always like. And it definitely feels like it gets more intense as the song goes on.

Final Thoughts: The vocal melodies on this feel really familiar, are they a sample from something else? They may not be and I’m just crazy, who knows. Anyways, the vocals are pretty good, they sound very indie-rock but at the same time I can’t say I’ve heard another voice quite like the singer’s, so it remains enjoyable to listen to. I can tell he’s not the best of singers but he’s singing emotionally enough.

The horns are probably my favorite part of the instrumentation here, they add some swell to the bigger moments of the song, they feel like they’re mainly there just for volume, but the vocals always get more intense when they come in. The guitars and drums and synths and whatever else are all pleasant too though they stay pretty firmly in the background for most of the song, either the singer is drowning them out or the horns are. They do end up feeling a bit sidelined though.

This isn’t exactly making me want to run out and check out more stuff from The Antlers but it’s a pleasant piece of slower indie rock and I’m not worse off for having listened to it, it’s alright!

Score: 7.5/10 (16.32%)



The National – Slow Show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCR0Tr2HTfA)

First Impressions: A name with “slow” in the title after three other relatively slow songs isn’t exactly what I was hoping for at this point, but it turns out it’s the most upbeat song thus far :lol Liking that deep voice, it’s a good change of pace from what the usual indie rock in this style tends to use, makes it stand out. There’s not really much else for me to comment on though, the vocals seem to be the focal point here as well as the most interesting, which is fine, but leaves the music feeling a bit… sidelined and kinda generic.

Final Thoughts: The lower vocals here are very much what makes this song stand out, I quite like this singer’s voice. Deeper voices always sound a bit classier and smoother, which is funny here especially because I’m pretty sure this song is about being insecure and feeling dumb or something :lol

The drums do a decent job of changing up the basic rhythm at points and keeping the song musically interesting, which is good since, aside from them, and the piano-driven bridge/outro, this song isn’t really that musically special, the instruments are very clearly just a backdrop for the vocal lines. And vocal-centric rock isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when the vocalist is pretty interesting on their own anyways.

Overall, I don’t know how well this song will stick with me, aside from the vocals, but it’s again a pretty nice listen, if not an immensely enjoyable one.

Score: 7.5/10 (13.08%)



Glen Hansard – Bird of Sorrow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIGCpWi5dIs)

First Impressions: I can tell right off the bat this is going to be a more emotional and evocative track, light piano melodies and somewhat strained vocals pretty much indicate that. Which is something I generally like a lot. The strings coming in right as the vocals get more intense creates a nice swell. The rest of the band comes in around the halfway point and the song just gets, a hell of a lot more intense, christ, those vocals are giving me serious chills man. The Sufjan song better be damn good because this is gonna be hard to top, this feels like one heck of an album closer, haha.

Final Thoughts: Again, he doesn’t sound like the most technically proficient of singers. On the other hand, god damn, this is just pure singing from the heart, and that’s going to win over a technically perfect but soulless vocal performance any day. Really, the biggest gripe I have with this song is that some of the vocal lines just have an awkward/clunky flow to them, too many words being said too fast or something.

The piano serves as a nice backdrop for the quieter moments, playing relatively standard stuff, sure, but that just lets you direct more attention towards the vocal performance that really is the main attraction here. And the strings come in for the swell of the chorus, giving it more weight.

And then, when the full band starts coming in at the second chorus, and the song just gets a hell of a lot more intense… yeah, this part of the song has unfailingly given me chills. The vocals, man. Just raw emotion. I wouldn’t ask for any other singer for this song, Hansard just nails it. If I can nitpick for a second, though, it almost feels like the instrumentation doesn’t quite get big enough to match the vocals.

The slow denouement of the outro as a bit of a cooldown is nice, too, though the way the song transitions from the loud parts to the cooldown feels a little clumsy and sudden. Not a huge problem or anything though.

As a whole, this is another one of those great piano ballads crammed with emotion, and that always seems to do pretty well in my book. Can’t complain. Loving it.

Score: 9.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 10/10 (18.31%)



Damien Rice – 9 Crimes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMGh3Ts5-WQ)

First Impressions: I thought this name sounded familiar and yeah I’m preeetty sure I’ve heard this before but I’ll let it slide because I don’t remember it anyways. I think this is pretty nice but the vocalists aren’t as powerful here and it’s reeeeally overshadowed by the song before this one. Both have the same piano-driven ballad feel with a vocal focus and some nice strings, though. It’s very pretty music, but it’s not grabbing me in the same way. The swell at the end is pretty good though.

Final Thoughts: So the first time, this song just got completely overshadowed by Glen Hansard. Maybe it’s because that was a song I immediately loved, whereas this song has just been one heck of a grower.

Both singers show plenty of emotion both in the softer moments and the louder swell at the end. It’s a very quiet song as a whole, a very pained song, driven almost purely by emotions. The string swell for the climax of the song with both singers singing over each other is just… another moment of chills, man.

I still do think this ends up overshadowed a little by the song preceding it in the end, but at the same time it’s still a damn fine track on its own, and a tad more succinct.

Score: 9 (+.5 Bonus) = 9.5/10 (11.45%)



Sufjan Stevens – Fourth of July (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTeKpWp8Psw)

First Impressions: This has a bit more of a pulse than the last two, fortunately. The rather bright piano and Sufjan’s vocals have an underlying melancholy to it, which the lyrics themselves seem to make evident. I think I have to focus on the lyrics here the most, and while I’m not getting the full story here on my first listen, I at least get pieces of it. The subtleties in the back of the mix help build atmosphere, but other than that there’s not much else to talk about musically. The ending’s a bit sudden, I guess, but fits lyrically.

Final Thoughts: Alright, I get why the lyrics have a lot of the cheesy name-calling going, this is just a really intimate song. I almost feel bad listening to it, like I’m peering into someone’s private life that I have no place actually seeing. I dunno, it’s just, too personal for me, almost.

The dark tone of the song as contrasted with the rather bright piano sound does work pretty well, I feel. The music is a backdrop for the vocals here, again, though there’s enough atmosphere to it in the end.

I dunno. Talking about this feels wrong, I’m sorry, haha. I really do like this song, but there’s not a lot for me to say about it. By the time it comes around I’m a little emotionally spent from the two songs before it, too.

Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10 (14.59%)

Overall Song Score: 17/20



EP Score

First Impressions: The first track is an effective intro track that carries the same mood of the rest of the EP while not overshadowing the others. I understand why, thematically, the Sufjan song is at the end, though all things considered I’d have at least put Glen Hansard after the Damien Rice song, if not at the end. As far as cohesion goes, though, the songs are all pretty soft and focused on atmosphere, so they do feel like they belong together on that front. At the same time, it’s a little one-note, especially since there’s only one track that really picks up the tempo at all, and the last three songs all being completely piano-driven makes them blend a little; I already can’t really remember what the Damien Rice song sounds like, being the weakest of the three. We’ll see how my thoughts on this develop over time, though, this could easily change.

Final Thoughts: I think you picked your opener and closer perfectly. The rest of the track order I’d probably have changed up a little. I dunno, having the two indie rock songs in a row followed by the three piano ballads in a row doesn’t benefit any of them on their own, there’s too high a risk of one of them overshadowing the other by direct proximity (which did end up happening in the case of Damien Rice on my first listen, which is really unfortunate since that ended up being one of my favorites.)

As far as flow goes, though, there’s no sudden shifts of mood or anything and the songs do flow into each other pretty well, probably because they’re all pretty soft songs to begin with. I can’t say there’s really any issues on that front at all. Cohesion is also strong as a result. The only song that feels a little out of place is the Sarah Fimm track, being very electronic and poppy (and being the only purely female-driven track too) but it’s only a little out of place, it still fits in with the relative softness of the EP. At the same time, I’m glad there’s a little something different in with the rest, because this may be a little too cohesive to the point where songs can blur in my mind – again, Damien Rice. As well, having the three piano ballads makes the piano intro track carry even less weight, though it’s far separated from the others in terms of track order.

Overall, as far as an EP goes, this is pretty well organized; the only track that feels like it’s there for the sake of the EP itself is the opener, the rest all stand on their own pretty well. I would have liked maybe a little more variety, but at the same time cutting any one of the three great piano ballads would’ve been a sad loss, haha.

Cohesion: 5/5
Variety: 3/5
Flow: 5/5
Track Order: 3/5
EP Score: 8/10



Final Score: 25/30
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 03:48:39 PM
Elite’s EP

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Up Jumped The Devil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVNkA8Dfi60)

First Impressions: Starting off with a cool bass groove is never a bad way to begin. Can’t say I’m huge on this style of vocals but they’re not bad or anything either. There’s really not anything bad I can say about this, but at the same time it’s not doing a lot for me. It may suffer from just being a style I’m never too fond of, even if it does that style fairly well and is far from uninteresting. Maybe a bit too long though, it does get a bit stale by the end.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, this is just, unfortunately, a style of music I don’t care for at all. I have a friend who would love this (or probably already listens to them) but for me it’s never done anything and I dunno if it ever will. I don’t even know what genre to call this either aahh. It sounds almost like some kind of showtune really.

It’s got a dark tone to it but it’s not dark in a way that’s really enjoyable to me. The instrumentation is pretty unique, but not something that I really care for. The vocal style is interesting and kind of big, but not hooking me in any way.

And the lyrics are pretty good, but a song will never carry on lyrics alone for me, they can make a good song great, they can make a great song mediocre, they can make a bad song worse, but they will never make a decent song great.

It’s a shame that I don’t like this more, but ehh, just not doing it for me.

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10 (19.31%)



Ben Folds Five – One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrWSkQMWlAY)

First Impressions: I have heard at least a few songs from Ben Folds before and generally liked them. This is a pretty fun, upbeat track with some bright piano. I should probably be paying more attention to the lyrics than I am, they seem to be the focus here. Despite being a bit low in the mix. Oh man, piano solo is pretty great. Ben Folds is the pianist, right? I think he is. I’m not sure though, I’ll look it up later. Pretty interesting outro too.

Final Thoughts: This is what every “diss track” should sound like honestly, it’s absolutely hilarious and just plain fun but quite on-point and can cover a general crowd rather than being applied specifically to a beef between two people.

Honestly I think this is what you should’ve started the EP with, it’s got a great intro for starting an album, and it’s just so fun to listen to, haha. Ben Folds is a good singer and his tone just matches the lyrics perfectly, plus he’s just absolutely tearing it up on the piano without overplaying.

The other instruments, especially the bass and drums, both do a great job at keeping the energy of the track and adding a ton of groove too, they provide a solid backbone to the song.

Not much else to say, except that I did indeed like this one.

Score: 9 (+.5 Bonus) = 9.5/10 (14.00%)



Beardfish – South Of The Border (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d552_v06xw)

First Impressions: I vaguely recognize this name as “some prog band” but that’s all I know. That intro has a ton of groove, haha. This has a lot of 70’s influence in it, pretty clearly. The vocals are kinda weird and kind of for the sake of being weird, or it feels that way to me at least. I think the closest reference point to anything else I listen to is Transatlantic, I get the same vibe from these guys as I get from them. That instrumental break is… something. I dunno, I didn’t get much from it, at all. And I kinda don’t like the lyrics at all. Wacky goofy lyrics are just not my thing, sorry :lol

Final Thoughts: Agh. Okay. So when I talk about lyrics taking a good song down to a mediocre one, here you go. Several things. First, right out of the gate. Songs that tell a very straight narrative end up having little relisten value to me because they place too much emphasis on the narrative and once you’ve heard it once or twice that’s basically it, no need to keep rereading a book, no need to keep relistening to a story-song.

On top of that, this is like, not a story I dig at all. I am not for sexual stuff and I’ve said this many times before, plus I am preeetty sure this isn’t how homosexuality works to begin with, you don’t have sex with a dude once and suddenly realize you’re gay. I can’t speak from experience but I do know some gay peeps and none of them were all “suddenly I’m gay” or anything so. Meh.

And then there’s the point where everything cuts out just to let a dumb, cheesy line be sung with an excess of fanfare and, ugh. Freak Machine did the same thing way back at the start of the roulette and probably lost a half-point for that moment alone.

Okay, let’s talk about something else. Uhh. The 70’s vibe is done pretty well. The guitar lines have a ton of groove to them. The singing is mostly fine except for whenever he tries to voice other characters, where he just gets annoying. The instrumental break really just… happens, it feels unnecessary.

The wacky goofy part where the story comes to a head is musically not for me, though, at all. It fits the lyrics, but yeah, I don’t like the lyrics, or the goofy voices, or anything about this section, blah.

The fact that this song is so firmly rooted in its lyrics and story is very definitely what drags it down for me, since while the music is pretty decent, not amazing or anything but pretty solid for the most part, the lyrics are given the focus though and because of them I’m never gonna want to listen to this again. I have to say, the ending provides a great transition into the next track though.

Score: 6.5/10 (27.94%)



The Fall Of Troy – Chapter IV: Enter The Black Demon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Hp_Pu7H9o)

First Impressions: I have been meaning to check out more from The Fall of Troy, know one song from guitar hero but never really looked too deeper into them, which is weird since they’re a mathcore-y kind of band that I can actually listen to and enjoy. This is almost a bit too noisy but it’s not unpleasant. The tempo change is handled pretty well, and I quite dig the first section after the tempo change too. There’s a few short breaks from the intensity and the ending is a lot calmer too, so I don’t think it ends up feeling too much like a constant wall of noise either. Yeah, I can get on board with this.

Final Thoughts: Okay, yeah, I loooove the vibe of this song though. I have definitely gotta check out some Fall of Troy. They do a good job at crafting noodly guitar lines that have a strong hook to them, that opening intro line is great. And the music is frantic and complex, but not like, crazy complex to the point where you can barely follow it.

And the fact that they have cooldown moments and a tempo shift halfway through really prevents it from feeling anywhere close to monotonous. It’s got a good deal of song diversity in most every factor, both heavy riffs and noodly guitar lines, high vocals and harsh vocals, intensity and groove. But it sounds like one song, not just a collection ideas.

On the same note, there’s not really any one part of the song that stands out among the rest, it’s just an enjoyable ride the whole way through. I enjoy this quite a lot.

Score: 8.5/10 (20.28%)



Arcturus – The Arcturian Sign (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uWIg5hI7hE)

First Impressions: Huh. A synthy intro like this isn’t exactly what I expected someone to send to me but it gives way to a nice heavy riff soon enough. Man, this has one heck of a crushing atmosphere. The vocals are really buried in the mix here but I’m not sure that was a bad choice either, since I feel if they were louder the vocal style would get to me more. This has some black metal vibes to it, even, it’s pretty interesting.

Final Thoughts: An electronic intro like this song has is just, the weirdest thing, yo. It doesn’t even fit in with the rest of the song, which is like somewhere between power metal and black metal, I think? Not that the intro is bad, just, weird…

The heaviness and fullness of the sound of this song is its biggest strength, it’s just got crushing atmosphere at its heavier moments, guitars and strings and drums and bass all working together to be heavy. The vocals are probably the weak point here for me, both the cleans and growls are alright but not outstanding.

It also can end up feeling just a little one-note, aside from the synthy intro. It’s a pretty solid wall of noise, not too heavy to be exhausting, but still a bit lacking in dynamics. The blastbeat sections I guess make it a little heavier than the standard level it stays at, they’re not used excessively so I have no problem with them.

Mmm. Hard to know what to rate this one, really, I’m pingponging between two numbers so I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here and pick the higher one.

Score: 8.5/10 (18.47%)

Overall Song Score: 15.5/20



EP Score

First Impressions: Yeah, I definitely see what you were going for in regards to light to heavy flow. I actually didn’t remember that when I started listening but around the fourth track I went and looked at your notes  because I was noticing it pretty clearly and yep you even said it yourself. As far as flow goes I think you’ve pretty well hit the nail on the head here. Cohesion, on the other hand. Hmm. The Nick Cave and Ben Folds songs both fit together pretty well, as do the Fall of Troy and Arcturus songs. The Beardfish track sits a bit in the middle as this goofy 70’s prog-inspired thing though that I guess kiiiind of carries the lighter vibe of the Ben Folds track over. I get that it’s really hard to go from light to heavy without having some drastic genre changes going on, though :lol

Final Thoughts: Aside from maybe switching Ben Folds and Nick Cave around I think the track order here is good, and the flow is good as well, the light-to-heavy vibe is pretty solidly done. If there’s anything to complain about on this front it’s that the ending of the Fall of Troy song is a bit abrupt, but that’s a nitpick.

The biggest problem this has is cohesion, for sure. I can kinda see some of the ties. Nick Cave and Ben Folds both have a heavy piano drive to them but otherwise they aren’t that similar. Ben Folds and Beardfish are both upbeat and a little silly, but don’t share really anything else in common. Beardfish to The Fall of Troy only works because of the transition but other than that it’s a really sudden genre shift. The Fall of Troy and Arcturus both have a heaviness to them and both clean and harsh vocal styles so they fit together pretty well though.

Like I said before it’s pretty hard to go from light to heavy and stay really cohesive, but I gotta say that this ends up sounding like a collection of mostly unrelated songs arranged in a way that makes them flow well.

This EP is also pretty split down the middle between “stuff that I don’t care for that much” and “stuff that’s really pretty great” unfortunately. But as a whole I do like this EP though, at least, though I wish I could like it more.

Cohesion: 3/5
Variety: 5/5
Flow: 5/5
Track Order: 4/5
EP Score: 8.5/10



Final Score: 24/30
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 03:48:49 PM
Sacul’s EP

Converge – Phoenix in Flight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-rtSSY2GQ)

First Impressions: Okay, this is a lot slower than the stuff I listened to from these guys before. The vocals are just buried under the crushing chords but, I think that works just fine. I dunno how I feel about this as an album opener though, it’s just BOOM HEAVY RIFF. It takes a while to go anywhere past the first riff but I don’t get tired of that riff, at least. This mostly seems to serve as a dose of slow heaviness with a bit of a pulse and a pretty crushing ending. Amusingly this is playing more to the side of me that’s been liking drone metal a lot recently, this is a bit more upbeat and fleshed out than a lot of that but still hits in a very heavy way.

Final Thoughts: I have no clue what the lyrics to this song are. Who cares, who needs them, you can barely hear the vocals anyways, they might as well not be there. What I definitely can hear are the crushingly heavy chords of the guitar and the sluggish drums. Honestly what this reminds me of the most is Thrice’s The Flame Deluge, though with less of a melody running through it and more just heaviness.

There really isn’t much else to say about this though, it’s just… heavy music. I like heavy music. I like this. But it sounds more like part of a song than a full one, in the end, I guess. A slow build to something heavier. I dunno what it leads into on the album it’s from. It does transition nicely to the second track on this EP well though, definitely.

Score: 8/10 (12.45%)



Ruined Machines – Karma in Remission (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIc-LNYtdw)

First Impressions: Wow, you actually got a pretty good transition going there from the previous track to this one. Thus far this seems like pretty standard metal fare, though, some decent riffs, but I’m kinda waiting for it to go somewhere else. It doesn’t seem that interested in doing so, though… :lol Not that that’s a point against it, it’s pretty solid instrumental metal. I’m finding it hard to have much to say about this, though. The cleaner bits near the end are a nice change of pace, I guess?

Final Thoughts: I really like the intro to this song, it’s a nice use of synths and has a fair bit of atmosphere to it. If the whole song built off that I would probably dig it a ton.

But… the rest of the song is content to just do fairly standard metal stuff. The chuggy riff is alright but not that engaging as a centerpiece. The other riffs try to have atmosphere to them but don’t end up sounding full enough or engaging enough. This actually ends up sounding a little tedious by the halfway point, so I’m glad the last bit of the song is lighter, clean stuff that stands out a little.

Even then, I have nothing to really say about the lighter parts of the song, either. They’re alright. But… nothing special. Blah. It’s a shame that this song starts out so strong and then doesn’t really go anywhere else after that start.

Score: 7.5/10 (21.86%)



Dead Can Dance – Amnesia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iuukyjCz74)

First Impressions: Yeah it seems like you wanted some smooth transitions between tracks, that’s fine. This is the first song on your EP with audible vocals, haha. Honestly, this is a pretty chill song with decent atmosphere, except for that synth bleep thing? What’s up with that, it really takes me out of the song and it’s pretty constant throughout. There’s some nice symphonic swell around the halfway point that I’m really digging. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. I’m sorry but I can’t just ignore that, ugh, why throw one element into a song that turns it from pretty good to borderline obnoxious? I mean, it wouldn’t be a standout track, but a pretty solid one, but. I feel like this song is going to give me a headache on future listens. I think the vocals are nice and fit the music, and the heavy orchestration gives the song a lot of power, though the flat drumbeat could’ve probably taken out too and improved this one honestly.

Final Thoughts: BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. It’s back in full force now that I am absolutely not dividing my attention between the song and anything else and it’s already grating. Sigh. This could’ve been so good! Lots of orchestration and a thick atmosphere, a nice deep voice with some well-used reverb, some good swells, some pretty on-point lyrics. Everything works well.

Except. That. Goddamn. Beeping. Noise. I dunno if it’s a synth or some instrument or something but whatever it is pisses me off. Every time I listened to the EP I always dreaded this song starting up because I knew my ears were going to be assaulted with over 5 minutes of this obnoxious beeping noise mixed into an otherwise good song. It’s way too loud to phase out and it’s just an unpleasant sound that I would rather do without hearing.

I just can’t get into this song at all and it’s entirely because of one element of the song that refuses to go away. If there was a version of this song without that constant beeping this would’ve gotten probably an 8 or 8.5, maybe even higher. I honestly wouldn’t know though, because that’s not what I was given.

It’s just really disappointing. It’s even weirder that the beeping abruptly goes away in the last minute, leaving the last minute to be really pretty great and the rest of the song to be an exercise in frustration. I’m trying to be fair in this ranking and even this feels too high, but anything else feels like I’m not giving enough credit to the parts of the song I do like, so.

Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10 (22.08%)



Gazpacho – I’ve Been Walking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A03LT3UEEI)

First Impressions: From the intro, I was hoping this wouldn’t be another downbeat chill song. Fortunately, soon enough it goes back towards heavier stuff so I can stop worrying. This goes plenty of places pretty quickly, actually, which I’m totally okay with. Variety keeps me on my toes. It’s hard to know what to say on first listen because I can very accurate identify this as a grower on my first listen; pleasant enough to listen to but I can tell I’m not really taking it everything in just one listen. It’s like…. 10 minutes of music that just “happens”, at least on first listen.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, this is a bit much for me to take in and judge in only five listens, I feel, but what I do get from it I do like. The vocalist has a very prog-sounding voice, is the only way I can describe it, but I like it.

The music itself, it goes a lot of places. Some rock riffs, a lot of strings, some twinkly transitions between segments of the songs, a great buildup near the end and an extended softer outro. It’s not really anything I haven’t heard before, but it’s all done well, if not especially originally. There’s nothing wrong with being “solid” though, not at all. Though aside from the length and the general song structure there really isn’t that much proggy about this either, which is also completely fine, I don’t demand all my music to be crazy prog stuff anyways.

It’s hard for me to rate this one because I enjoy it when it’s on but then don’t remember much of it when it ends. I enjoy this. I’m again torn between two scores and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here, as well, but this is on the low end of its score.

Score: 8.5/10 (32.25%)



Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5ygoDnlGCg)

First Impressions: The other Sufjan song, woo. Both of you chose melancholic, light songs to close things off, apparently. Sufjan is, again, a good singer, and this is pretty nice. Probably need to look up the lyrics. I really don’t have much to say, this is nice and pleasant and all but needs more listens. Which is the same for all the EP songs, honestly, I feel like there are a lot of growers here :lol

Final Thoughts: So yeah apparently this is about a serial killer, which made for some ~fun~ reading material let me tell you. That’s the second Sufjan song here that has a kind of bright sound to it but far from bright lyrics. Sufjan remains a good singer and the song is pleasant to listen to even with the lyrics, and the lyrics are really pretty good, I like them better than Fourth of July even if they’re mostly narrative aside from the last passage.

As far as it goes musically, it’s a bit minimal, acoustic guitar and piano. It fits. Again creates a bit of a contrast between lyrical themes and musical sound but that’s a kind of contrast I like. If I have to compare this to Fourth of July, I’d say I vaguely like the other better mostly for the instrumentation? But they’re both good songs I like a fair bit, definitely convinced me to check out more from Sufjan soon :lol

Score: 8.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 9/10 (11.36%)

Overall Song Score: 16/20



EP Score

First Impressions: As opposed to Elite’s, this one mostly seems to get less heavy as it progresses, rather than heavier. You also have some transitions between tracks, though that seems to stop occurring after the third track, oh well. The tracks flow into each other pretty well regardless, the lighter ending of Ruined Machines flows into the softer Dead Can Dance track, and Gazpacho has its lightest moments at the start and end to transition out of Dead Can Dance and into Sufjan pretty smoothly. And again Sufjan as an album closer works well. It does feel a bit too frontloaded in terms of heaviness, I think gradual build works a lot better than gradual decline as a concept, but at the same time the songs feel like they fit together a bit better than on Elite’s, though not as well as seneca’s.

Final Thoughts: The strongest point of the flow here is the transition between songs, two of them end up working out pretty well and the other two are empty-space transitions that are just fine. Each song seems to be generally lighter than the previous one except maybe Dead Can Dance and Gazpacho, but I highly prefer the track ordering this way than swapping those around. I really would say the track order is perfect here, and flow is pretty strong too.

As far as cohesion goes, it’s again a bit of a mixed bag. A lot of the songs are guitar-driven, except Dead Can Dance, which has strings and orchestra and stuff that Gazpacho also has. It feels a bit less genre-hopping than Elite’s EP, but still not incredibly cohesive. Solid on this front though, while maintaining a decent level of variety, all the songs stand out on their own.

I think the concept of “heavy to soft” does end up not working quite as well as “soft to heavy” but both of them produced interesting results and I got some good songs out of your EP so I’m not complaining.

Cohesion: 3/5
Variety: 5/5
Flow: 4/5
Track Order: 5/5
EP Score: 8.5/10



Final Score: 24.5/30
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS.... soon)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 03:48:55 PM
That means, this roulette’s winner is…
senecadawg2!

Thanks to everyone for playing, it’ll probably be a long while before I do another one of these :lol

I’ll probably have some wrapup posts later tonight or sometime tomorrow since I have more to say but also need to stop writing this word document is 14 pages long.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Train of Naught on November 05, 2015, 03:52:38 PM
That was hella close, wow. Congrats seneca!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Elite on November 05, 2015, 03:55:35 PM
Come oooooooon, that Beardfish track is just fun and silly, it's not supposed to be serious at all. So basically, if I had a slightly better track in that EP instead of the Beardfish song I would have won this? Booooooo :(
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 03:57:51 PM
You had the unfortunate luck of having your longest song drag down your EP score  :(
I know it's not supposed to be serious or anything, that was pretty clear, but I just didn't enjoy it that much, sorry!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on November 05, 2015, 04:31:43 PM
Wow, I honestly was not expecting to win this at all.

During the main competition, most of my favorite submissions underperformed while the rest kept me in it. Then, going into the EP and sticking with relatively one-note (as you said) music and tone felt like potential problem. Add to that the lack of variety, which I was very well aware of, and I'm quite surprised with the result.  :lol

Ludovico Einaudi – Uno
I really don’t have much else to say about this

Me neither!  :blush

The lower vocals here are very much what makes this song stand out, I quite like this singer’s voice.

Indeed

Glen Hansard had me a bit nervous, because of your comments in the early stages of the roulette about singer-songwriters. Ditto for Damien Rice. Glad my risks payed off in both songs.

Glen Hansard – Bird of Sorrow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIGCpWi5dIs)

First Impressions: I can tell right off the bat this is going to be a more emotional and evocative track, light piano melodies and somewhat strained vocals pretty much indicate that. Which is something I generally like a lot. The strings coming in right as the vocals get more intense creates a nice swell. The rest of the band comes in around the halfway point and the song just gets, a hell of a lot more intense, christ, those vocals are giving me serious chills man. The Sufjan song better be damn good because this is gonna be hard to top, this feels like one heck of an album closer, haha.

Final Thoughts: Again, he doesn’t sound like the most technically proficient of singers. On the other hand, god damn, this is just pure singing from the heart, and that’s going to win over a technically perfect but soulless vocal performance any day. Really, the biggest gripe I have with this song is that some of the vocal lines just have an awkward/clunky flow to them, too many words being said too fast or something.

The piano serves as a nice backdrop for the quieter moments, playing relatively standard stuff, sure, but that just lets you direct more attention towards the vocal performance that really is the main attraction here. And the strings come in for the swell of the chorus, giving it more weight.

And then, when the full band starts coming in at the second chorus, and the song just gets a hell of a lot more intense… yeah, this part of the song has unfailingly given me chills. The vocals, man. Just raw emotion. I wouldn’t ask for any other singer for this song, Hansard just nails it.

Bolded for truth

If I can nitpick for a second, though, it almost feels like the instrumentation doesn’t quite get big enough to match the vocals.

Agreed. But at the same time, I'm not sure anything could match the vocals.


Fair point about the ordering of the songs, and sticking 3 piano ballads in a row. I did that mainly because of the individual transitions  between songs, despite the samey-ness of it.

Sufjan Stevens – Fourth of July[/url]
Final Thoughts: Alright, I get why the lyrics have a lot of the cheesy name-calling going, this is just a really intimate song. I almost feel bad listening to it, like I’m peering into someone’s private life that I have no place actually seeing. I dunno, it’s just, too personal for me, almost.

Yeah, man... I went and saw Sufjan last night and I've got to say- it's especially weird seeing him perform these songs in a live setting. Still, love this album to death (top 3 album of the year for me) and I'd highly recommend checking it out when you recover from all of this.


Thanks for running the roulette! I had fun playing and I can't complain about a thing, now.

And damn, I've never seen such long write-ups for a roulette before  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 04:42:01 PM
Honestly I felt my write-ups for this round were on the shorter side of things, just that there were a lot more of them than usual, haha...
And your EP grew on me the most of the three for sure, it was my least favorite the first time around but repeated listens can often fix that problem, clearly.

And if it makes you feel better I'll probably get that Agaloch album at some point, though it's not at the top of the list of things to get, and I'll also likely have like 5 Enslaved albums in a year or two as well since they have soooo many  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Sacul on November 05, 2015, 04:43:08 PM
I swear I had never noticed the "beep" in that song before your writeup :lol I think it's a string repeating the same note, but every timeiI'd listened to the album and song, never really noticed it after the other instruments kick in. I guess I don't pay that much attention to details in my music :P

Congrats Seneca!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 04:47:37 PM
It's just the kind of thing that really gets to me, sorry  :(

If it makes you feel any better, the 8.5 I'd have given without the beep would've still only tied you with seneca and he had the tiebreaker, so  :P

Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 05, 2015, 04:48:45 PM
Really I think everyone's a winner here because everyone sent at least one or two artists who I'm definitely gonna check out further, but maybe that just makes me the winner in the end, hm...  :hat
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Shadow Ninja 2.0 on November 05, 2015, 06:03:38 PM
Sarah Fimm is awesome, props to seneca.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: TAC on November 05, 2015, 06:06:35 PM
Those are some serious write-ups for the EPs! :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 06, 2015, 03:39:57 PM
Okay, I put this together as best as I could but there's probably not 100% accuracy here. Nevertheless, full ranking of all 117 songs  :lol

1.   Brand New – Limousine
2.   Bent Knee – Being Human
3.   Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms
4.   Foals – Spanish Sahara
5.   Glen Hansard – Bird of Sorrow
6.   CHON – Can’t Wait
7.   Obsidian Kingdom – Not Yet Five / Oncoming Dark / Through the Glass / Cinnamon Balls
8.   Have A Nice Life – There Is No Food
9.   Marketa Irglova – This Right Here
10.   Damien Rice – 9 Crimes
11.   Schizoid Lloyd – Suicide Penguin
12.   Enslaved – Roots of the Mountain
13.   Circus Maximus - Architect of Fortune
14.   David Maxim Micic – Where is Now?
15.   SikTh – Tupelo
16.   Alcest – Summer’s Glory
17.   Gordian Knot – Muttersprache
18.   Ulver – Eos
19.   Ben Folds Five – One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces
20.   The Contortionist – Thrive
21.   Lesoir – Battle
22.   Headspace – Daddy F***ing Loves You
23.   Jolly – Where Everything’s Perfect
24.   The Ocean - Bathyalpelagic I: Impasses (Instrumental Version)
25.   The Fall Of Troy – Chapter IV: Enter The Black Demon
26.   Sufjan Stevens – Fourth of July
27.   Foo Fighters – Rope
28.   Destiny Potato – Addict
29.   Thy Light – …And I Finally Reach My End
30.   Royal Blood – Loose Change
31.   Native Construct – Chromatic Aberration
32.   Destrage – My Green Neighbor
33.   Agent Fresco – See Hell
34.   ThumperMonkey – Wheezyboy
35.   Unexpect – Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest
36.   The Sword – Acheron/Unleasing the Orb
37.   Múm – Green Grass of Tunnel
38.   Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
39.   Bruce Springsteen – New York City Serenade
40.   Gazpacho – I’ve Been Walking
41.   Shining – Fisheye
42.   Nine Inch Nails – Just Like You Imagined
43.   Arcturus – The Arcturian Sign
44.   Premiata Forneria Marconi – Impressioni Di Settembre
45.   Coldplay – Midnight (Live)
46.   Soundgarden – 4th of July
47.   Frost* – Experiments in Mass Appeal
48.   Yes – Siberian Khatru
49.   maudlin of the Well – Gleam in Ranks
50.   Björk – Jóga
51.   Susanne Sundfør - The Silicone Veil
52.   Ben Levin Group – Freak Machine 1 (Live)
53.   Chelsea Wolfe – Survive
54.   Agalloch – Limbs
55.   Converge – Phoenix in Flight
56.   Braveyoung – And No Two Walked Together
57.   Alter Bridge – Blackbird
58.   The Dear Hunter – The Thief
59.   Black Tusk – Resistor
60.   Nevermore – Dreaming Neon Black
61.   Nightwish – Dark Chest of Wonders
62.   Shinedown – 45 (Acoustic)
63.   Symphony X – King of Terrors
64.   The Cure – Closedown
65.   Akira Yamaoka – Theme of Laura
66.   Katatonia – Unfurl
67.   Cave In – Innuendo and Out the Other
68.   Mr. Bungle – Ars Moriendi
69.   Boards of Canada – Dayvan Cowboy
70.   A.C.T. – A Failed Escape Attempt
71.   Pure Reason Revolution - Goshen's Remains
72.   The Cure – Pictures of You
73.   The Antlers – Parade
74.   Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams
75.   Sarah Fimm – Velocity
76.   Smashing Pumpkins – The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning
77.   Avenged Sevenfold – Save Me
78.   Ruined Machines – Karma in Remission
79.   Luay Rifai – Faithful Spirits
80.   The National – Slow Show
81.   Voices From the Fuselage – Meteorites
82.   If Trees Could Talk – The First Fire
83.   Rush – The Garden
84.   Slipknot – The Devil in I
85.   Alter Bridge – The End Is Here
86.   Dredg – Pariah
87.   Clint Mansell – Death is the Road to Awe
88.   Seventh Wonder - Welcome To Mercy Falls
89.   Mazzy Star – Fade Into You
90.   Death Cab For Cutie – We Looked Like Giants
91.   Dead Can Dance – Amnesia
92.   Beardfish – South Of The Border
93.   Helios – Bless This Morning Year
94.   Emancipator – First Snow
95.   Gojira – Esoteric Surgery
96.   Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Up Jumped The Devil
97.   Iron Maiden – Sign of the Cross
98.   Gary Clark Jr. – When My Train Pulls In (Live)
99.   Kvelertak – Mjod
100.   Seether ft. Amy Lee – Broken
101.   Ludovico Einaudi – Uno
102.   Rage Against The Machine – Settle For Nothing
103.   Massive Attack – Dissolved Girl
104.   Homestuck – Moonsetter
105.   Ed Harrison – Annul
106.   Now, Now – Thread
107.   Sufjan Stevens - The Black Hawk War…
108.   Vangough – Corporatocracy
109.   Tremonti – You Waste Your Time
110.   Lunatic Soul – Cold
111.   BADBADNOTGOOD – Can’t Leave The Night
112.   Slash ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators – World on Fire
113.   The Tallest Man On Earth – I Won’t Be Found
114.   OSI – Microburst Alert
115.   Tom Waits – Hang Down Your Head
116.   Animals As Leaders – Physical Education
117.   Slint – Don, Aman


I'm most sure about the top few and the bottom few but everything in-between could be wrong 'cause there's no good way to rank 100+ things easily, blah  :lol

Someday I'll write something that takes a list and does 1v1 comparisons of songs until there's a definite best-to-worst sort list generated from it, ahah. Maybe something like that already exists out there, I dunno.

Terrifying thought: #47 is the last song I'd rate 8.5 or higher by my current feelings on the songs, some of them it's been a while since I listened to them though. But that I have 47 songs here I'd rate 8.5 or higher is ~insane~.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 06, 2015, 03:45:33 PM
As far as other things I want to say. Uh. I think everyone put at least two albums on my "to get" list, and I've already gotten three albums from roulette submissions, with plans to get somewhere in the range of 7-10 more before the end of the year, which is awesome  :tup

Was definitely fun running this, though a bit exhausting at a few points.

If I had to pick a favorite and least favorite round, uhh, hmm, Round 5 runs away with least favorite, favorite would probably be Round 3 judging by my current feelings on things  :lol But Round 1, Round 6, Round 8, and Round 9 were all great too and the EP round was pretty satisfying as well.

Other things, hmm. Rating my judging accuracy...
Round 1: A bit harsh on the lower end, I think, but mostly good.
Round 2: Most things scored a bit higher than I'd put them now, but pretty good.
Round 3: Everything was too low the first time, almost literally everything. Even some of my relistens ended up feeling too low by the end.
Round 4: I rebounded to grading a bit harshly on the low end, but the upper end I did well.
Round 5: I was too nice to most everything because the round as a whole was not very strong.
Round 6: A bit too nice to the low end, a bit too harsh on the upper end, the spread should've been wider here.
Round 7: A bit harsh on the whole, I think. I was probably a little unhappy the theme didn't work out too well.
Round 8: Maybe a sliiight bit too nice to Obsidian Kingdom but barely. Everything else good.
Round 9: Probably a little nice on the whole, but barely if so, this round was just great.
Round 10: Nah, I nailed it here.
EP Round: Again, pretty much nailed it. Maybe a few half-point discrepancies that wouldn't have affected the final outcome.

I feel my judging as a whole got better the further this went on, a little unsure of what to rate at first but when I had other songs to compare to I could pretty easily figure out what deserved what, for the most part. Still wish I'd done quarter-points though, but oh well, maybe next roulette  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Sacul on November 06, 2015, 09:00:04 PM
You've got some free time on your hands, bro  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 06, 2015, 09:01:06 PM
yeah i'd love to have a job rn but the job market sucks apparently
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: LordCost on November 07, 2015, 05:15:10 AM
I bet the 117th place was the only easy choice in making the ranking :lol
However it's great to have five songs over the 47th place! I noticed that Wheezyboy who initially had a 7.5 vote is a lot higher than Ars Moriendi who was the second best song on his round. Round 5 was easily your least favourite, even Gleam In Ranks isn't ranked 8.5 now
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Train of Naught on November 07, 2015, 05:41:08 AM
Can't Wait was probably my least favorite or second least to favorite out of my 10 submissions :lol glad you liked it though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 07, 2015, 08:53:01 AM
further proof that my music tastes are just outright backwards  :hat
and yeah Mr. Bungle didn't really stick with me but I've gone back to listen to Thumpermonkey and Agent Fresco a few times and they're pretty solid growers, so  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: 425 on November 07, 2015, 10:10:48 AM
Well, I didn't make the finals, but I did get two of the top ten, so I'm happy with that.  :)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 07, 2015, 10:23:03 AM
you got the best 9.5 too  :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: 425 on November 07, 2015, 10:55:30 AM
More good news! Glad you liked at least some of what I sent. :tup
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Evermind on November 07, 2015, 11:14:32 AM
Well, Parama, your tastes are awful as far as I'm concerned, but you loved Brothers in Arms, so there may be some hope for you yet. ;)
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: jakepriest on November 07, 2015, 11:28:32 AM
116.   Animals As Leaders – Physical Education

I wasn't really following this but wow. PE is a totally killer Animals As Leaders song.  :tdwn
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Sacul on November 07, 2015, 11:59:23 AM
Well, Parama, your tastes are awful as far as I'm concerned, but you loved Limousine and EOS, so there may be some hope for you yet. ;)
Fixed for me  :P
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Evermind on November 07, 2015, 12:07:19 PM
Well, Parama, your tastes are awful as far as I'm concerned, but you loved Limousine and EOS, so there may be some hope for you yet. ;)
Fixed for me  :P

You reached the Final Round in his roulette. You can't say his tastes are awful. :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 07, 2015, 12:15:46 PM
 :heart you too Evermind

And jake I just... don't like AAL as a whole, wasn't crazy about their debut and Physical Education is the only AAL I've heard since then, they bore me for the most part.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Sacul on November 07, 2015, 12:16:57 PM
You reached the Final Round in his roulette. You can't say his tastes are awful. :lol

Well you won my roulette, yet your tastes are... :neverusethis:
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Evermind on November 07, 2015, 12:34:13 PM
Touche.

I blame it all on your bonus points system though.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Sacul on November 07, 2015, 02:04:10 PM
My purpose with them was to encourage risk-taking, but I feel I should have used them in a different way, like, needing a minimum of 8/8.5 for a song from a genre I dislike instead of a 7.5, and maybe just 3 points or 2 to the song the best fits the theme instead of 4. But I won't have that system on v2 - maybe on v3, who knows.
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 07, 2015, 03:09:18 PM
my bonus points system was maybe a little arbitrary but i think it worked out well for the most part, next roulette i do i'm just gonna have it be "anything released before 1990 gets a bonus halfpoint" or something really objective at the very least  :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: senecadawg2 on November 07, 2015, 05:51:49 PM
5 in the top 15! Woohoo!
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Sacul on November 07, 2015, 07:32:25 PM
2 in the top 20? How the hell did I reach the finals? :lol
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 07, 2015, 07:41:32 PM
3 in the top 20, actually, and you reached the finals because your lowest score in any round was like a 7
also because mike would've reached the finals if not for the AAL song bombing hardcore
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Elite on November 08, 2015, 04:11:04 PM
I'm not a good loser. I genuinely thought I was going to win though, with that huge point difference at the end of round 10.. shame you didn't count those towards the final result.

Anyway, I sent you 7 songs in the top 25, so that's good I suppose.

Thanks for running this, hope you gained some new music to enjoy
Title: Re: Parama's Coincidental Roulette! (FINAL RESULTS!)
Post by: Crow on November 08, 2015, 04:24:44 PM
they counted for the tiebreaker that almost came into play considering how close the EP scores were? sorry  :sadpanda: