Sorry for the delay... did end up spending some time with the misses... I'll let your imaginations run wild. Ok, let's put some minds at ease. I'll include the current round wager as I give you the writeups.
Zook($500)
Stone Sour/
Absolute ZeroI think I tried Stone Sour based on your Top 50 (maybe someone wolfie’s), and very much enjoyed it. This was from a different album, so that makes this band 2 for 2. Straight up, meat-and-potatoes metal. Nothing flashy, nothing spectacular. Just brute force
. Might have to explore a little more.
wolfking ($500)
Sonata Arctica/
Don't Say A WordMason is such a smarty pants. This was a daily double, one of the Mystery Bands, and Kade let it ride for a $1000 wager. Up to this point, I had no idea what kind of music Sonata Arctica was, I just certainly know I wasn’t expecting this. I did end up checking out the original mix of this (vs the edit that was submitted), and found it just as good. By the books power metal. Vocally, I’m amazed how much Kakko sounds like Georg Neuhauser from Serenity. Keyboards have a strong Royal Hunt vibe too. Nice selection.
Elite ($300)
Beardfish/
And The Stone Said "If I Could Speak"Reminded me of Haken – which is another band that I haven’t “gotten”. Lots of creative song-writing and talent here. Guess you’ve never been on WPaPU chat sessions when Nick has played Beardfish? Which is why Mason is a double smarty-pants. While this totally changed my impression of them, it wasn’t quite enough to float my boat.
kirksnosehair ($200)
The Third Ending/
Tungsten BluesSecond instrumental in a row from Barry. After knocking it out of the park in the qualifying rounds, and just missing the money in Round 1, it’s another step back unfortunately. Nothing wrong with this tune, but nothing grabbed my attention.
Lowdz ($400)
Leverage/
DreamworldMore Royal Hunt-ish keys kick this one off. But, it’s perfectly complemented with Silent Force-like guitar riffs. Odd little pause in the middle before the solo that you don’t expect, then BAM! Right back to the riffing. The keyboard melody gets a little repetitive by the end of it though.
Nekov ($400)
Freakeys /
One Cup, One Lighter, One JackWhat the hell did I just listen to? 3:42 of awesomeness, that’s what. Lots of upbeat creativity packed into this instrumental. Bold choice. Risk was taken here for sure, and in the words of the infamous Emil M. Antonowsky,
I LIKE IT. Lots of funky little elements that had me tapping my toes and grooving my head the whole time.
jjrock88 ($400)
Barren Cross/
The Stage of IntensityHow in the hell did Bruce Dickinson not sue this guy for stealing his voice? Seriously, I had to research this right away to see if it was a side project by Bruce. Really nice acoustic intro, before going balls out metal. Nice old school metal too. Wasn’t a damn thing about this one that I didn’t like. A lot.
last.fm ($200)
Iron Savior/
The SaviorWith a lineup led by Kai Hansen, I had high hopes for this. Had a Blind Guardian feel (unsurprisingly), and Blind Guardian is hit-and-miss with me. The guitars were a little hollow sounding, and ultimately was a solid track, but it fell just a little short. This almost beat out Barren Cross, but in this competition, tie goes to the human.
Bolsters ($300)
Big Big Train/
Judas UnrepentantBoldest choice of the round... excellent combination of prog and just a bucket full of fun. I think I tried BBT when everyone was pimping them a few months ago, and was underwhelmed. Maybe I tried Part 2? Well, this starts out fun as hell, and then quickly turns into progressive perfection. Vocally, stunning. Loved the background guitar; vocalist reminds me of John Mitchell from It Bites.
TAC ($400)
Michael Kiske/
Do I Remember A LifeTAC top 10 of all time, eh? Yeah, I can see that. This melodic ballad was by far the most beautiful song of the round. Took a while to get going, and had a very long (2 minute) outro to cool down. It reminds me a lot of In The Hands of Time by Hardline... the perfect final track on a great album, with both powerful and soft moments fantastically feeding off of each other. It’s probably is a million times better in the context of the whole album, and I’m looking forward to listening to the whole thing. I have no doubt that this will be a grower, get better with every single listen, and could very likely in a year or so be the best song from this round – but for the moment, it isn’t.
bosk1($200)
Kick Axe/
Alive and KickingAbsolutely something that would’ve been RIGHT in my wheelhouse 20 years ago. Fairly unspectacular; a simple tune, yet effective. This is something I can see Coz whipping a crowd into a frenzy with. Still enjoyed it a lot today, but it’s just a little too pedestrian for my complete enjoyment these days.
lonestar ($500)
Steven Wilson/
The WatchmakerWhich brings us to the final song. Another Mystery Band selection – and lonestar also let’s it ride, with “total faith” in how good this song is. For all the felating that Wilson gets on DTF, I figure I need to learn why, and was hoping someone would send me something of his that is going to wow me. Pretty much knew it wasn’t going to be Doc or King, as they know my typical “Not this Steven Wilson shit” response from WPaPU chat sessions when Nick plays him. None-the-less, this left a much better impression on me than anything I remember Nick playing. Genesis/Marillion vibe and a godly guitar solo followed up with a nice little keyboard/guitar duel. I wanted to really like it... wanted to love it in fact, but I just couldn’t. Didn’t seem to be any structure to this song at all, and the outro was like a paradox to me - both good and bad - like it tries to be epic, but falls just short (the more I listened to it, the more the whole song struck me that way). The whole time I’m listening to the outro, all I can picture is
Kings of the castle – wolfking, Nekov, Lowdz, Bolsters
Even Steven – Zook, lonestar, TAC, jjrock
Puffy shirt – bosk, last.fm, kirksnosehair, Elite
Standings and holdings:wolfking - $800
Bolsters - $800
Lowdz - $700
Nekov - $700
TAC - $500
lonestar - $0
jjrock - $0
Zook - $-100
kirksnosehair - $-200
bosk - $-200
Elite - $-500
last.fm - $-600
At least you're all beating a computer algorithm.
Round 5 results will be posted by Sunday lunchtime - before the football games.