All righty then... so results will come Thursday AND Friday. Time for the mind fuck to begin yet again. Some are definitely getting the axe, some are definitely safe, and some still could swing either way (and I'm not just talking about Zydar's "staff").
Who's in:
Band/Song
Animations/The Manhattan Project - Of all the songs with this title, I think I prefer this one the best. Nice 10 minute instrumental
Pink Cream 69/Shame- quality melodic tune here. Playing it a little safe to get to the competition round I assume though. Better pick up your socks now. This barely squeaked in.
Forward Shapes/Proclivity - really loved the female vocals here (except the chorus); killer instrumental - that arpeggio! Great tune overall. Now you can troll away!
Black Majesty/Firestorm - the only truly safe song with "Fire" in the title. Very good power metal. Not too over the top, nice mix of keys and guitar. Solid vocals. Again... kind of a safe choice. Nothing overwhelming, but nothing underwhelming either.
Waysted/How The West Was Won - being a Zepp-head, I took this song just on the title alone (I was given the choice of two songs by this band). good thing... loved it! One of the better submissions, even though the production was a little dated/thin.
Justified/Temple of the Soul - another dated/thin sounding song vis-a-vis the production. But no matter, really great melodies and overall musical blend of all band members. You were right to have me focus on the bass line - during the outro, it was spectacular.
Lorenguard/The Prince and the Pariah - I give you a mulligan, and this is what you do with it? Well played sir. Very good use of your second chance. One of the better tracks this round.
Who's out:
Nevermore/My Acid Words - I heard Nevermore the first time (and last, until this week) when they were touring with DT during Gigantour way back in '05. Checked them out, and didn't like them. This song didn't change my opinion. Too thrashy for my tastes. Musically they're very talented, but I was not fond of the vocals at all.
Pathfinder/Beyond The Space, Beyond The Time - boy, you weren't shitting me about being over-the-top cheesy. Growls + operatic male AND female vocals + quad bass kicks + harsh vocals + random screams/wails = the pot purri of music. Some parts were good (the chorus's were amazing), but overall this was just too much of a hot mess.
Alessandro Bertoni/Megas Alexandros Pt. 3: To the Ends of the Earth - you win the prize for the longest title, but this instrumental just didn't have anything holding it together, and never really established anything. It was decent enough, just not up to snuff with the other submissions.
And the undecided - 6 of you fighting for 4 spots:
Find Me/Firefight - On first listen, it was pretty standard/run-of-the-mill Frontiers Records material. It got better with subsequent listens.
Jolly/Firewell - I'd listened to the album before (it's not on my last.fm, as I streamed it from progstreaming.com). With all the hype many have given it here, I was truly underwhelmed by it. This song had moments that I did like though. Good thing you had a home run in round 1.
Distorted Harmony/Kono Yume - on first listen, it was so-so; better after multiple listens. Starts kinda meh, but picks up pretty quickly. I wasn't overly high on the vocals, but musically this was an easy A.
Lethal/Fire in your Skin - Great intro, and then explodes with some nice metal vocals... Very 80s Halford/early Tate like in the delivery with the vocals very high in the register. But I was never much of a Halford fan.
Kingcrow/Right Before - Very good... great intro, excellent chorus. Really dig the vocals. By itself, this would get you into the next round, but you laid a bit of a stinker in round 1.
Apple Pie/Gates of Never - some good, some not so good; intro was pretty good, and I loved the outro. In between was kinda meh.
So the $64,000 question for some of you is this; do I just go on this round's performance, or is it a cumulative effort? Gonna noodle on that and get back to you with final results on Friday.