Ravenheart - Loreena McKennitt - Dante's Prayer
I thought this to be some gothic classical piece from the first moments, what with the dark choir movement. It became more of a pop ballad as it progressed, but a very good one. I love a good cello, as most people are aware of, and this song made very good use of it. It sounded like it could fit on Lord of the Rings in that kind of melodramatic style, but not in a bad way. It faded very nicely back into the classical style from whence it came, as well.
6 points
Gorille - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Wings
The production for this song caught me immediately. Perfect balance of electronic and organic. The guy rapping has a nice, distinctive sound, and the lyrics are clever. My favorite part about the song is the frequent transition of moods that really catch you off guard at times. Everything about the song is awesome, actually. I'm not usually a fan of gang vocal choruses, but I had no complaints here. I also appreciate the change of styles from what I've usually gotten.
7 points
Sigz - I Would Set Myself on Fire for You - Six
Hmm. First of all, the viola and the female vocals were really cool additions to this kind of music and felt very natural in the overall presence. I listen to a fair share of Screamo and Emo, and they know what they're doing, undoubtedly. This song just kind of lacked anything for me to really grab onto... the little breakdown section bordered on annoying and the verses didn't really offer anything either. The lyrics are well written, but I think they might be forcing maturity too much (something screamo bands seem much more easily forgiven for) in the manner of writing. It's still a cool band though, from the sound of it. The chick has a nice voice.
4 points
Orcus - The Dillinger Escape Plane - Mouth of Ghosts
I've heard a bit of Dillinger here and there, and every song sounded very different from the others. This one was no exception. The beginning is very unsettling and jazzy. I was expecting it to explode early, but it went for the build up instead, which I was glad to hear, since avant garde bands sometimes tend to try too hard to force randomness on you. It eventually reached a very high level of intensity, but it was a slow and exciting climb. One of the best songs I've gotten in this roulette.
7 points
Sonata - Husker Du - Indecision Time
Pretty blistering punk song. The distorted guitar riffs border on metal, but the vocals are definitely punky. Oh, and "wipe your shit all over your hands" was an awesome line. The shreddy guitar solo was kind of surprising but it made sense enough and added to the energetic intensity.
5 points
Zantera - Sleeping at Last - Watermark
A nice change of pace. The piano line is very pretty. The singer has a fairly typical voice for his style of music, but it fits very well. The string arrangements are very nice. Very pleasant song.
5 points
Antigoon - Elephant Revival - Point of You
More pretty folk music. This one had really nice instrumentation. I like the folkier string instruments being put to use, it has a very "earthy" sound to it. There are nice solos too from lots of different instruments. It went by very quickly - even faster than its 3 minute length would suggest, but it was a very nice 3 minutes. The vocals were sparse, and didn't really seem to the be focus of the song, but they were nice.
6 points
Ariich - Bizali - Uh-huh
Definitely one of the funnest songs I've gotten. This song was very funky. The instrumentation was awesome - there were some very cool, subtle rhythm changes. The focus is the voice, though. She's got a really nice one, and she's backed by some excellent musicians on top of that. Song was awesome, and it was nice to have something relatively less on the serious side compared to other submissions.
6 points