Alright, this was the best round yet by far! Here we go...
Round 7: Results
ErHaO:
Anton Johansson’s Galahad Suite – Hunted – The Decision
Well, that’s some cheesy music indeed. The quiet, calm parts are actually alright, but the heavy parts are total cheesefest, especially with those lyrics. Also, this has got to be the best story about how you decided to send this song in the whole roulette. Sometimes those spontaneous decisions are the best ones, but sometimes they’re not, haha. I think the song is more like a hard rock with some calm parts, I don’t think it’s really progressive or something, but I know nearly nothing about the time signatures and that kind of stuff, so I may be totally wrong here. My first impressions about this song weren’t that positive, but in fact it’s not that awful. The guitar solo is good, and the calm parts are enjoyable too if only I ignore the forced lyrics; the chorus is unimpressive though. I don’t know about the whole album, but this song could’ve been better indeed.
6/10
Galahad – Empires Never LastNow, this one is absolutely different. You know, listening to this song I’m just glad you’ve made it through the tiebreaker to the final part, because this is just excellent big time. The song sounds very much like Pendragon and IQ, and since I appreciated the former in this roulette, and I love the latter, this one was probably a safe choice, and it turned out to be a total hit, I just love this song. The long intro builds the tension up immensely, and the calm part with a great bass is incredible, bursting with the small heavy sections throughout. My biggest problem with the neo-progressive bands is usually the vocals; and this band nailed them, the vocal delivery is amazing indeed. I can’t help but smirk at the British enunciation this guy does at
“She’ll point the fingah and pull the triggah”, and that moment he just spits the words in
“They al! Ways! Crumble! And fall.” makes me smile too, but I guess that’s the charm of this song! Pre-chorus is awesome and the chorus is absolutely awesome — despite featuring only two short lines, it manages to be epic and incredibly fitting. I just don’t have enough superlatives for this song, man, magnificent tune all around, probably among the top three songs I’ve received in this roulette (another one being that Ten song Brent sent me, and another one is coming up soon in this round). Thank you!
9.5/10
lonestar:
Kingcrow – The Hatch You sure you didn’t send me Steven Wilson’s Ancestral by mistake? The drums are sure sounding like it. It took five full listens for this song to click with me; initially the part about “too much random stuff blended together, in my opinion, and without the needed amount of cohesiveness all the great melodies, riffs and arpeggios just fall apart” was directed at this song, but finally on the last listen it all made sense. I don’t know what the problem was, but now I’m enjoying this song indeed. The somber acoustic intro with the clean vocals all over it, great start for the tune indeed, with a satisfying transition to the heavy part too. The part I hated initially, the one with
“Now I can get out of my maze”, this I still dislike, but otherwise the song grew on me. Good tune all around, but not on your usual level, I think.
8/10
Shineback – Rise Up Forgotten, Return DestroyedFine, this one I’ve definitely heard about, so I was quite eager to find out how good is it. That could be a matter of quality, but both the guitars and the first lines (which are sung with some vocal effect obviously) sound not really convincing and likable, which really sours my enjoyment of what comes next. The vocals aren’t that good even without the effects, which is kind of unusual for your entries; all six rounds and Kingcrow song had top-notch vocals. This song reminds me of those happy progressive rock tunes I’m usually not very fond of, just like Mason’s Xen entry in Round 2. The worst offender here is probably the chorus; it’s annoyingly catchy and just isn’t good to my taste. The instrumental parts in this song are much better though, so in the end they kind of save the day here; and I like the part with harmonies at ~6:20, they remind me of Drag Ropes by Storm Corrosion, so the ending of the song would’ve been quite great if only the chorus wasn’t there again, haha.
6.5/10
bl5150:
Crystal Eyes – Shadow Rider Now that’s what I call a nearly perfect song to headbang along with. Out of your power metal entries, this is definitely the best yet, the vocals are better than Morifade and Angel Dust, the mix really has its punch, and cranking the sound up helps immensely. That’s the kind of power metal I was looking for! The huge chorus reminds me of Sabaton, which are another band often referencing war in their lyrics, the riff is indeed very Iron Maiden-like; and I don’t know enough of Iced Earth to compare this song with their output. This tune sounds like a good song for an encore, the audience will probably descend into madness during this one, and there are good sing along stuff too in the end. Anyway, the whole song is a great pack of fine power metal, and while it’s a bit of a safe choice on your side, it’s definitely not forbidden to send great power metal, so you get your expected high score for this one.
8.5/10
Mattador – TiredTotal dud? More like total awesomeness, man. I love ballads (wonder why almost no one is sending them), and this one had hit home just fine. Soulful and mournful voice over the heartfelt acoustic guitar playing, turns out it’s all that this song needs to be amazing. I really love the guitar in this song, just incredible. This tune is just full of great moments, I especially enjoy the verse-ending parts that go like
“Nothing we can do”,
“What have I become”, and of course
“…and I’m too tired to live”. The song is really short, and the ending, while being not really different from the rest of the song, is just chilling because of the lyrics. You know, after a few listens I finally pinpointed what this reminds me of — Soldier of Fortune by Deep Purple. May be just me though, for the vocals and the melodies are nothing alike, but the atmosphere is kind of similar, I think. All in all, I just can’t stop listening to this song. Absolutely great tune.
9.5/10
Dr. DTVT:
Ice Age – Perpetual Child The two minutes long instrumental intro was outstanding — it actually managed to stay interesting the whole time, giving me the distinctive Dream Theater vibe right away. I even kind of expected
“There was no time for pain, no energy for anger…” line to come up next. I doubted the vocals a bit until the part at 3:15 came in, where I was thoroughly convinced this song is going to be awesome. And it definitely is! Getting more and more epic, this song doesn’t allow any space to breathe or to rest, keeping up with the lofty keyboard arrangements, pounding riffs, the compelling, wide and huge vocal lines, along with intense instrumental breaks. The most epic song of the round indeed. I don’t have a lot to say about it, but I really enjoyed this one.
9/10
Ice Age – The Lhasa Road (No Surrender)Alright, I hope I’m actually listening to the same track you wanted to send me, because the YouTube link was deleted and I still have no access to the file on your Google Drive (whatever you did to make it work apparently wasn’t enough), so I just had to find it elsewhere. But it has the words “Lhasa Road” and “No surrender” in the lyrics, so I guess I found the right one. Curiously, you were the only player who sent two songs by the same band. I enjoy the guitar work on this one, and it’s nice to see the band is capable of writing quite different songs, because this is no Perpetual Child at all, even though some keyboard and guitar sounds feel indeed familiar. I liked this song less than the first one, but there are still great moments like at 3:40 – 4:20, and even the chorus during
“That was on the Lhasa Road” is nice. Good song, but after Perpetual Child I expected something more.
7.5/10
senecadawg2:
Journey – Of A LifetimeYou know, during the whole roulette I was seriously wondering why no one is sending me the tunes from 70s, because I’ve made it quite clear most of my favourite albums come from that decade, and now you’ve finally done it big time. This song has this recognizable, pronounced 70s vibe, and I bloody love this song to pieces. Magnificent guitar work, spectacular atmosphere, great vocals, outstanding song structure… there’s just nothing to complain about. That calm approach, the apparent not-giving-any-shit vocals, the soulful delivery, the fascinating, impressive guitars, all is just top-notch here. This is musical perfection for me, and I can’t believe I didn’t check this band out earlier. The best song I received in this roulette for sure, just bloody awesome, and I don’t even know how to describe it properly. Just brilliant. Thank you so much for this.
10/10
Wishbone Ash – Sometime WorldSeems like you decided to rely heavily on the old school 70s tunes for this round, eh? Well, guess what, amazing decision right here dude. This one isn’t that glorious, of course, but still such a great tune. Nice, lighthearted, acoustic with occasional electric guitar touches (or maybe lap steel, though I doubt it), this song just floors me up until the relatively speedy part comes in, the melody and the rhythm reminding me of Marillion’s Incommunicado a bit. Playful and fun progressive rock song indeed, and I like it, but definitely not as much as your other entry. Still, I think it would be nice to check out the whole album. I like the mood this song is projecting.
8/10
wolfking:
Lost Horizon – Think Not Forever
OooooooooooAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Hell, man! Now that’s the power metal I know and love! I can only assume you were holding this band to send them in the later round, but you kind of nearly didn’t make it, so either you have some impenetrable balls of steel or just sending whatever you think of at the moment (I’m leaning toward the second). To say this song is good is to say nothing, it’s a very fine power metal I’m definitely interested in. Great guitars, vocals and the melodies all around. The singer isn’t afraid to take on the high notes and does them pretty great, also for its six minutes the song feels even more concise; the instrumental break is magnificent too, well, it’s almost as good as power metal gets.
9/10
Pagan’s Mind – IntermissionWhile this song is quite nice and powerful, I couldn’t help but feel it lacks something. It just feels like a tune made totally by numbers, with no soul and no real effort put in it, and while I should like this genre and this song, it just leaves me totally cold. Yeah, it’s good metal I guess, whatever; I don’t think I would strive to hear it again. The vocal effects don’t really help too.
6/10
Standings:
bl5150 - 69.5
lonestar - 66.5
Dr. DTVT - 64.5
senecadawg2 - 64
wolfking - 60.5
ErHaO - 60
The standings are pretty much the same, except RJ lost his lead after an unsuccessful round.
Additions to the banned list:Galahad
Kingcrow
Crystal Eyes
Mattador
Ice Age
Journey
Wishbone Ash
Lost Horizon
And see the next post for the final round write up!