RESULTS: ROUND 1!lonestar - Mechanical Poet - Handmade EssenceYou send me something from Russia? Get out!
Nah, as long as Vladimir Putin doesn't play in it, it's alright. Cool prog/power metal song, which has many things stuffed in a little under 4 minutes, it never gets boring. Nice vocalist, he sounds a bit like Michael Kiske.
8,8Scorpion - Agalloch - LimbsYou said this one is a grower, and it might still grow, but at this moment I'm not giving a higher score. The intro was good, but seemed to be a bit out-of-place, because it didn't fit the mood of the rest of the song. The middle-section was my favourite, it has many catchy melodies. Powerful outro. The song has a feel of forest in winter, which a like, but I cannot fully emphatize to it, because it's full spring here
. Pretty weird opener, but a decent song nevertheless.
7? - Verenpisara - TieI remember you mentioning this band in "I'm the only fan of this band in DTF"-topic. Well, I don't think you're alone anymore. Mostly based on one good chord progression, the variety comes from different melodies. Really tasty guitar work overall and my favourite guitar solo of any submissions. The most listener-friendly song I recieved, and it's not bad thing at all.
9obscure - Circa Survive - The Birth of Economic Hit ManAnd the award of the best song title of this round goes to... This really grew on me, after the first listen I would have given a half of the final points. Pretty melancholic and dark piece. One of the best bass tones I have ever heard. At first I couldn't stand the vocalist, but now I like him. The last three minutes of the song are just phenomenal.
9,4Nekov - Riverside - Beyond the EyelidsI like the groove in this track. Proggy, but not too proggy, the instrumentation is top notch. The bass riff at around 2:10 and the manic riffing after it is my favourite part. However, I didn't like the chorus being repeated twice, they should've put something between them. Nice slowly diminishing outro.
8,1WindMaster - Brand New - Sowing Season (Yeah)I had previously heard one song from this band (The Archers' Bows Have Broken), and I somewhat liked it, though not really the vocalist. How wrong was I?! He does fantastic work in this song. Clean intro builds slowly up and then bursts into great guitar melody and heavy power chords. The snare drum is being used an unorthodox way. And the chorus is MASSIVE! I'm so going to learn to play this song by guitar. Excellent submission!
9,6MoraWintersoul - Dark Tranquillity - Wonders at Your FeetI have never really liked melodic death metal. But I had to listen to this song twice on the first listening spree, because I didn't really knew what just struck me! The shortest song I recieved, clocking only slightly over three minutes, and it really packs a punch. I love the chord progression, and the vocalist is nice, sorta sounds like Al Jourgensen. I was giving 0,1 lower score at first, but the guitar and keyboard solos changed my mind, so you are now tied with Austin.
9,6Lolzeez - Haken - The Point of No ReturnOokkay... The first WTF moment was at half minutes, when it turned to some strange circus music. The song indeed took many unexpected turns, into circus music, doom metal, jazz... Maybe a little too messy song. The first four minutes didn't really do anything to me. Instrumental section was, however, really fun, especially the guitar/keyboard/bass/drums-tradeoff solo. Nice epic finish. I also like the vocalist quite a bit.
6,8Standings:
WindMaster 9,6
MoraWintersoul 9,6
obscure 9,4
? 9
lonestar 8,8
Nekov 8,1
Scorpion 7
Lolzeez 6,8
Thank you, this was a great round!
The next one is probably the trickiest one, but I think you can manage.
Round 2 - EthnopopSend me something with some ethnic elements. It can be some more rare instrument, a feel or whatever you like. But I want also the song to be popular music (which is rather loose theme, just don't send fully folk music). And I want the ethnicity really to be present.
Deadline May 2nd