Chad // Star One – Master Of Darkness
As you may have already deduced, I’m a more than casual but not diehard fan of Ayreon, having been exposed almost exclusively to THE, his undiscussed masterpiece. Indeed this is the first time I stumble on this other famous project by the kaleidoscopic Dutch artist. The song obviously retains the mark of the artist well in sight, as it should be. What is also very noticeable and pleasant is the heavy low rhythmic guitar that riffs away the backbone of the whole composition with a surprising solidity. With such a good foundation the other instruments and especially the vocals (great but not outstanding) flow and develop with a pleasing and seemingly easy and logical flow. The instrumental sections left me a bit cold, though. It’s some really fast shredding experiences by the guitar and the keyboard which don’t feel really out of place but the song may have probably benefitted had they been swapped out in favour of some milder instrumental material. The song closes with the backbone riff finally rising to the prominence that is of the main actor on stage, an actor whose time is unfortunately limited, as the song meets its end with a rather sharp cut.
Overall, a good song from a project I should better check out before my next attempt at a roulette.
Score: 8,2/10
Kingshmegland // Beardfish – Destined Solitaire
You said you didn’t check if BF was in the list of forbidden bands. It was, but mostly because I was always thrown off by their music the few times I gave them a try, either in form of casual song listening or planned album explorations. This song is not really an exception. They are obviously extremely talented guys who like daring compositions within the progressive rock-metal realm (here leaning more on the metal side, I reckon), and who delivered a number of outstanding instrumental passages throughout the 10 minute long piece that make me sincerely rue my distaste for nearly all the vocal melodies and structures. Never before, I think, I have felt so polar on these two main facets of a song. I’ll just leave it with that: after this song I will most likely grant a few more chances to this band, hoping to find at least an enclave of their output featuring a vocal style I could converge on liking. For now, the incredible instrumental craft earn this piece a strong score despite the vocals.
Score: 8/10
Lonestar // The Omega Experiment - Stimulus
First problem: from the very beginning of the song could tell this song is going to be soaked in that particular choral kind of neo-prog vocals delivered by the whole band that never fully conquered my heart.
The first impression on the music is however positive, albeit with a certain concern over the initial confusion of the instruments.
Overall, I don't have much to say about this song. It's a very vocally oriented song with broad phases rising and sinking like waves and each distinguished by a different deliver of the lyrics (clean, slightly harsher, choir-like, high pitched, backing vocals only).
An individual remark must be awarded to the cool section where a clean guitar takes over the dominant role of main vocals above a carpet laid by the other instruments, joined by some almost hushed backing vocals. The song concludes on a soaring and broad section with minimal Gilmourish guitars (Division Bell era) over a spacey keyboard pad. Once again, the abrupt ending may somehow feel weird to those listening the song as a standalone piece, but it's most likely a sign of an existing super structure within the album. Overall a very good song that earned the band some attention from me. The only problem is that it felt a bit disjointed and maybe not extremely logical in the way the various section and changes unfolded.
Score: 8,5/10
Ville // In Flames - Wayfaerer
What a rocker! I've always heard positive things about this band, but never actually checked them out due to my
atavic fear of oppressively heavy metal of all kind. But in preparation of a heavy Dream Theater album I resolved to
accomodate myself to a somewhat heavier sound, in order not to be turned off by the heaviness of the album. This song, however would have been well appreciated even if it had come four/five months ago. It's a guitar driven instrumental with pleasant but localized interludes of solo guitar (nice broad solo!), keyboard semi-shredding moment and occasional instrumental melodies. The rhythic riffing underneath is quite rocky and obstinate, but nowhere near unpleasant or monotone. The fact that the song is quite short (less than 5 minutes long!) surely helps avoiding the aforementioned issues. I would have liked to hear a somewhat longer composition stemming from the seminal ideas and structures making up this piece, but maybe it's better things stayed this way. Highlights: the melody at 2:00 and the outro guitar solo. Had it come one round ago it would have earned the bonus point.
Score: 8,4/10
Lolzeez // Jethro Tull - My God
This song took me the longest to be appreciated, as expected. I've never been anything more than a very casual fan of Jethro Tull, despite knowing and respecting them for the role in the history of music that we are all aware of. My first reaction to this song was very cold, and I left convinced of having just dealt with a lesser song from the great band. Fast forward two weeks of almost daily listenings: the song comes close to winning the round! I have no idea of how it happened, it's likely that being used to songs from the silver age of prog (the one we're living) it took my brain some time to adjust to a mindset best suiting the different genre parameters that shaped the 70s movement. As with all the JT song I listened (and I'm ashamed to admit the number is not high) the first feature to strike and win me is the distinctive flute that, together the jumping, almost jambic rhythm to the song contributes to create a unique atmosphere that is at the cornestone between apocalyptic, majestic and farcesque.
Highlights: the flute-choir chase and their ensuing "simultaneous solos" - may be the best minute of the round, and the guitar solo.
The only thing that left me less than convinced is Anderson's voice. It's a great performance with a dramatic display of
depth and variety, but the timber itself bothers me a little. Anyway:
Score: 9/10
Scorpion // Myrath - My Inner War
“they manage to combine oriental sounds and prog metal without making it sound gimicky. I also love the vocalist, he sounds a little... well, oriental, I guess, which he is, and that adds to the charm as well. This song is one of my favourites from Myrath because it not only has all that, but also some interesting jazzy touches which make it a very enjoyable combination of genres.”
So, to make this short, since we discussed this song a bit already: Strong instrumentation, GREAT PIANO SOLO at the beginning, great guitar solo at the beginning, less great guitar solo in the middle song. The vocals are weird, the voice is hoarse but with interesting sounding high pitched falsetto excursions. The short guitar interludes in the latter half before the spoken vocals are sweet. Overall the song feels a bit disjointed (the themes expressed in the beginning were maybe underdeveloped) but still phenomenally strong, almost all of them. Worth a mention is the mellow wailing guitar solo at the beginning as well as the HUGE riff at around 6:51. So, to conclude, this song definitely felt very fresh and different from my usual listenings, despire still somewhat falling under the vast lable of progressive metal. you stirred my interest from this band and I’m going to reward this, as the first and foremost purpose of running a roule is to get in touch with a new kind of interesting music.
Score: 9.5/10
Nekov // Von Hertzen Brothers - Insomniac
Another song I had to listen quite a large number of times before it could get to me. It's a very modern sounding vocal heavy rocker starting on a strong guitar riff that definitely feel like an offspring of LZ Moby Dick's. Despite it being quite captivating, the riff isn't thankfully iterated continuously through the song, leaving enough room to develop a number of interesting instrumental idea like the great mono-note build up(s) (yeah, it happens twice!) to the two smmall guitar solos. What is probably the strongest feature of the song is however the authoritative, nervous and hoarse delivery of the vocals which succeed in keeping the listener transfixed on the voice (it's almost as if the singer
were screaming in your face "I'm singing, dumbass, don't you dare listen to anything else!") is itself a lyrical message adding up to the actual words.
My only issue with this song is that its short lenght and structure is not unlike a dress one size too small. It makes all the features stick out in prominence, and when those are good like they are on this song this is not a bad thing, but at the same time it hinders the movements, the breathing and the freedom of the body. Draw your conclusion out of this contrieved metaphor.
I would love to hear more from this band, and see what's their game with something broader, more subtle and less clustered.
As for now, I would recommend this song for a compilation of strong and energetic pieces and will now update my list of bands to check out with the name of the band.
Score: 8/10
Tim // Glass Mind - Your Name In Silence
Starts with a piano solo! I like it! The solo is not intricate neither demanding any techical proficiency, but does succeed in setting up a mood of emotional gravity for the rest of the song. Around the first minute the guitar comes in to have its share of the limelight before hushing to a spacey pad section not much unlkike the small quiet breath before the first line of Learning to Live. Because the song is throughout quite similar to my favourite song of all time in terms of structure and overall pace. And just like with LTL I had to put up a full-fledged struggle with the song in order to undestand what is really going on, to conquer its core. At the end of the day what I can say is that this feels nothing like an ordinary song, not one of the many a group puts out in their lifeframes. The highlights are properly sown all over the song, from the piano intro to the aforementioned spacey intermission, to the AMAZING guitar solo to the guitar melody beneath the first verse. Unfortunately there are also two aspects of the song that appear as flaws before my eyes: a certain fallacity of the vocal delivery that is made even more evident by the low mixing volume
of the lead and bacing vocals, relegating the singing to a sonically secondary role in a song that is supposed to be quite centered on it!
The second shortcoming is the uneventful ending that squanders the emotional tension accumulated throughout the song culminating in the the long and fulfilling guitar solo.
Right in its immediate aftermath a new, barely whispered, verse is introduced and followed by acoustic guitars flowing into a reprise of the main melody folowed by the last chorus. There is however too little space between the end of that and the end of the song, a time just barely filled with a guitar swirl. There could have been much more! So, a great song, albeit flawed. With better vocals and a more fulfilling ending it would have won the round and made a serious claim to the title of best song of the roulette.
Alas, that was not to be.
Score: 8,3/10
Topic: Wasteland's Hospice Roulette v. Round 4 Results POSTED! (Read 17643 times)
