Round 2: The Trials
(note: deaths are not in order of song ranking)
The remaining brave adventurers, having braved the charge up the hill, were surprised to be greeted by sentry upon reaching the gate. "Congratulations on making it this far. Please enjoy a beverage of your choice and a concert DVD to watch while you recover." As the adventures relaxed the sentry approached one of the adventurers.
"I assume you took all the food orders. Wait...you're not from the kitchen staff. You must be an assassin, we know women don't listen to prog metal."
With that, the sentry knocked out Obscure and took her to the kitchen, where she was sentenced to 1 year of sammich making.
After their hearty meal, the sentry gatherered the remaining DTF warriors were ushered into a small room by the sentry.
"Your fate awaits you at the end of this hallway. Sadly, most of you will not make it. Starting with you. We let Nekoc through, not Nekov. This mistake will now be corrected." The sentry promptly ripped out Nekov's heart and showed it to him before his death. Before leaving, the sentry tapped Sigz on the shoulder.
"Nice to see you again, Steven Wilson. It's a shame Neal Morse didn't survive."
It was obvious that this hallway has not been occupied recently, as spider webs and stale air filled the place. A large spider skittered across the hall and rested on YtseBitsySpider's foot. Iarwain quickly doused the spider with spider poison, as well as YBS, who's final words were
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUtFHl0r28Q#t=0m16s. The sentry reappeared and promptly decapitated Iarwain. "No one kills anything here except us. That includes spiders. Damnit people the hallway is supposed to be killing you, not me."
The first challenge the adventures came across was old man. "Tell me your claim to fame, and I will determine who doesn't proceed." Kari changed into a cute kitten, which appeased the man. Metty claimed his importance to petroleum production and was spared. LLtWM claimed he wanted to grow the biggest afro, and was given a baseball card of Oscar Gamble to inspire him. jingle.boy sang the ronery song and got a chuckle.
The King in Crimson was humble which impressed the man. Wolfking claimed he was the king of wolves. "I keep wolves as pets, lets see if they obey you." chortled the old man. Somewhere between the wolves growling and pouncing upon the supposed wolf king his royalty was proven false.
"I'm the ultimate metal head." Proudly claimed UMH. The old man responded by simultaneously headbanging and headbutting UMH until UMH's head resembled pudding. "Titanium skull." replied the old man.
Ytserush showed pictures of his music collection, which impressed the old man. The man then asked where ytserush lived so they could hang out sometime. After jotting down his address and giving it to the man, he was quickly dispatched by the old man. "My collection now. Have fun storming the castle!"
The remaining 7 adventurers worked their way up to next floor. They were greeted by a man in traditional Chinese clothing. "I have come to finish what grad school started. Give me your remaining soul, yorost!" Yorost cranked the volume on his chosen song, but unfortunately the kung-fu champion did not return. The fighter proceeded to use the dim mak on yorost, and left him to suffer a slow painful death.
Kari openly mused, "How is the next person going to die?"
"I hope it's not me." replied The King In Crimson.
"This beats running from the law, eh?" chimed in LieLowTheWantedMan.
Sigz then remembered seeing a wanted posted and thought. "Well, I can get a reward if I survive this ordeal. Was it dead or alive? No matter."
Sigz then snuck up and hid a grenade in LLTWM's afro, and walked away. "Mama didn't raise no sucka!" yelled Sigz as LL's head was blown to bits.
As the adventurers moved down the hall, they came across a dead end with a sign, "Please sacrifice one person to continue." Being the polite Canadian, jingle.boy decided to sacrifice himself. The remaining four adventurers then fell down a trap door and after a long, fun slide ended up in a room where Ravenheart and Orcus116 are waiting.
Results:
Advancing:
The King In Crimson: Giant Squid - Tongue Stones - Heavy, weird, fun, assertive. Up my alley
sigz: Kylesa - Tired Climb - Fuck Yeah.
Kari: Lis Er Stille - Lys Over Tid - Loved the first 4 minutes, took a bit to adjust to vocals, but overall a pleasureable experience
metty: Stolen Babies - Filistata - Fun little ditty. Nice mix of heavy and "carnival" for a lack of a better term. Second track from them I've heard, second one I liked.
Deceased (or imprisoned):
jingle.boy: Meatloaf - Bat Out of Hell - I can see how different that song was when it came out. Entertaining for the most part, kinda felt like it belonged in Rocky Horror. The race for the last spot was extremely close. I thought about doing a playoff between you and metty. Like metty, you gave me something I want to hear more of, and will be keeping an eye out for this album as well.
yorost: Hiromi - Return of the Kung-Fu World Champion - Interesting. As. Fuck. I don't know if I could listen to large blocks of this, but this song had my full attention for the nearly 10 minute length.
LLTWM: Big Big Train - Victorian Brickwork - I liked it a good bit, a nice piece to mellow out to. Just not top 4 this round.
ytserush: Mastermind - Brainstorm - Better prog metal. Would have liked to hear a better recording, but I couldn't find one.
Obscure: Pathosray - Sons Of The Sunless Sky - Nothing stood out. By the books prog metal.
UMH: Athiest - Your Life's Retribution - Nothing stood out. Death metal 101
wolfking: Eyefear - Confessions - Nothing really stood out. By the books prog metal.
Iarwain: Les Discrets - Les Feuilles De L'olivier - Nothing stood out or grabbed my attention.
YBS: Asking Alexandria - Closure - There were parts I liked, but there were also parts I cringed at.
Nekov: Eloy - Silent Revolution - Run of the mill prog metal. Honestly, about 5 minutes in I was wanting it to be over.
Round 3 will be posted shortly.