At long last. Here it is. The epic round results.
First of all, I decided to not give any bonus points this round. I know that there are a couple of people who might think that they should get the bonus, but ultimately I came to the conclusion that every song sent this round could be classified as either progressive rock or a fusion of progressive rock and something else (like alternative rock, or world music, or freaky opera). So every score is just straight-up out of ten.
I've been immersed in these songs for a good long while. I have to say that I enjoyed and appreciated every submission, but also that I haven't completely digested any of them at all and just kind of went with it on scores. I might have liked to take another round of listens to get a better grasp on what scores I'm going to put, but a) that would have driven me insane, b) that would have driven you insane and c) we need to move on. So without any further delay.
Round Seven Results
Sacul: Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn, Pt. 1
This is among the more interesting and hard-to-categorize pieces that I got this round. It’s an unusual combination of prog rock and folk/world music, I suppose, and that combination has some very pretty results in this song.
The song opens right up with a demonstration of its beauty. The atmosphere set by the keyboards, bass and other instrumentation is nice, and the acoustic and then electric guitar playing the lead melody is quite pretty. I really like the way this song builds in intensity over its first few minutes using this musical progression. Overall, the guitars are really used incredibly well in this song to contribute to the happy feeling that is provided by the other instruments, like the keyboards and woodwinds. Even the long electric guitar solo sections take on a happy, carefree air.
I had the same struggle with this one, initially, that I did with the OSI song that I received this round from OpenYourEyes311: I have a harder time comprehending really long instrumental songs than I do with long epics that have vocal parts. That’s presented a challenge for me in coming to appreciate this song in just a very few listens. It’s been really hard for me to get a handle on everything that is happening here in just a handful of listens.
My biggest gripe with this song is the drumming. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of repetitive tribal drumming of the kind that is included in here. It’s not the worst thing ever, but it gets a bit annoying after a while, just hearing it over and over again, especially on the section where it’s really just the drums and the voices. I know that style of drumming is an element of “world music” (which is part of why I’ve never really looked into that genre very seriously), but I just personally find it bothersome. Personally, I would like the song better if the drumming wasn’t there. It doesn’t negate the fact that there’s really a lot of great, pretty, multi-instrumental stuff going on here, but it does, unfortunately, detract somewhat from my interest in listening to the song.
Score: 7.5
OpenYourEyes311: OSI - The Thing That Never Was
Obviously, I have heard of OSI before, as two members of Dream Theater have been involved in this project. I’d never really gotten around to checking them out, though. I was never a head-over-heels Kevin Moore fan, and there are just so many bands on my list that I never got around to this one.
From what I understand from my research, this song was kind of an interesting choice for what to send from this band. It’s a bonus track, and, as I understand it, it’s much more of a prog metal song than the rest of the band’s work, because it’s what the project was originally going to be before Kevin took the reins.
There’s not much to complain about here in terms of musicianship. Some really strong playing by all the band members—the song moves through a variety of different sections that all feature strong instrumentation and often very good melodies. Mike is spot on. Kevin’s involvement is more limited, but his contributions are also quite good. The highlight here, for me, might be the guitarist, who I suppose is the guitarist from Fates Warning. He plays a lot of memorable riffs and also drives a lot of the pleasant calm sections. The bassist is also good, so everyone is good.
The first two times I heard this one, I had trouble with a perceived lack of cohesion. It seemed like a collection of riffs and ideas with little connection between them. Which, I’m discovering, is a personal problem of mine when it comes to really long instrumental songs, where there’s not a singer really providing clear lines to mark the different parts of the song. But on the third listen, this one is really settling into my mind as more of a cohesive song. There’s pretty good pacing here between the heavy parts and the quiet parts, which makes the piece seem more like a thoughtfully composed 17-minute song than a collection of unused riffs. I guess, knowing at least a bit of the history behind its creation and knowing who Mike Portnoy is, it’s a bit of the latter turned into the former.
This one isn’t going to get top marks from me, simply because it wasn’t as powerful to me as some of the others. It’s an enjoyable listen for sure, with a lot of good musical ideas and everything, but it doesn’t quite bring the sense of journey or “wow-factor” that I hope to see in a song this long. It feels somewhat like an instrumental song that grew and grew until it reached a monster length, which is fine, it’s absolutely good at doing that, but it’s not as epic as some of the others I received this round.
Score: 8.0
lonestar: Maestrick - Lake of Emotions
This is an interesting prog rock epic, here. The opening is really strong, with some great vocal performances in the first few minutes by both the male and female singers, and some very nice melodic parts done by the keyboard player. The keyboard player is the standout of this track for me; he’s by far my favorite of the instrumentalists and gets some of the song’s very best melodies—in fact, when listening to this, I often find myself awaiting the keyboardist’s next big part. For example, he powers most of the very good instrumental bit at around 9-10 minutes in. And again at around the 12 minute mark, and the symphonic part thereafter.
The vocal melodies have some really good moments, though they sometimes fall short, for me. When the male and female singers are switching off, the melodies are pretty good. The quiet part and the bombastic section between the 7 and 9 minute marks are also really good—among the best parts from a vocal and full-band perspective. The “Love and truth” section is good as well, from both standpoints. One of the weaker sections is the verses between the very first two and the quiet part—I just don’t find the vocal melodies there to be that inspired.
Honestly, to a great extent, this song gets better as it goes on. The first few minutes are good, but the next little bit isn’t that great until the quiet section brings things up a bit, and they keep improving from there. The more symphonic section that comes in around the 13-minute mark heightens the excitement and is a really well-written part. The calm part at the climax of the song is also really quite good. I love the counterpoint between the singers, it’s quite a powerful part, and the musical buildup to the finale thereafter is quite good, too. It’s kind of strange the way the music come back after the song has seemed to have ended, but it’s kind of an interesting reprisal of some of the better themes found in the song and sets it apart by doing something somewhat unexpected.
Overall, this song has some good parts and some parts that don’t really do a lot for me (particularly a good portion of the first half). Hopefully, upon future listens, some of the parts that didn’t really do much for me on the first few listens will become more memorable down the road.
Score: 8.0
TAC: Constantine - The Darkest Grace
Here’s a pretty exciting, high-octane prog metal song. It starts right out with some pretty great riffs and guitar melodies. There’s a clear Iron Maiden influence, in a very good way. Some nice galloping bass and dual guitar melodies. The opening instrumental really is a clinic on how to write a very good heavy metal instrumental section.
I’m sure this refrain is getting a bit old by now, but the vocal style of this singer is far from my favorite style. It just seems a bit emotionally two-dimensional, to me. That said, the vocal melodies themselves are pretty good on this song. The chorus is quite good and very memorable. The growled vocals placed way in the background are, I think, an interesting but good choice.
The second big instrumental section is a bit on the bland side, but the final vocal section is good. The bassist demonstrates some pretty nice work at the beginning, and though the vocal melodies aren’t as good as on the first section, they’re solid.
This song’s biggest weakness in this round might be the fact that, at 14 minutes, it’s on the short side, especially by comparison to the meaty (and stylistically similar) pieces that Evermind and Scorpion sent, as well as, of course, Parama’s full album submission. That said, this one was an enjoyable listen through-and-through. The singer was definitely not my favorite, but he didn’t really detract from the experience for me. This one also started out well and only got better on repeat listens. Very nice submission.
Score: 8.5
ShadowNinja 2.0: Devil Doll - Mr. Doctor
This is the weirdest song I’ve ever heard.
Let’s just start there.
I mean, this has tons of different genres thrown in here. There’s a symphonic aspect, something resembling opera? And straight-ahead rock music. The singer is doing some very creepy half-sung performance vocals. I absolutely did not believe I would be receiving a song like this in the roulette.
Now, everything is well-done. I mean, this is a very good dramatic piece of music. It runs through a variety of moods and scenes. The big bombastic rock parts provide a nice counterpoint to the creepy quieter parts. There’s a definite importance placed throughout on setting the mood, since everything fits in well with the overall creepy tone. And there was a definite result. This song scared me on first listen. It was just fascinating in a really scary, creepy way. It’s among the songs that affected me most upon first listen, in this roulette. It wasn’t an entirely positive effect, but it was powerful.
This has been a tough score to come up with. On one hand, this is a well-done, very powerful song that affected me. On the other hand… I’m just not sure how inclined I am to listen to this song more in the future. It’s so out there musically, and the macabre tone is not really something I go for all that often. It loses a bit of steam, too, between about 9 and 13 minutes in, though not too markedly. I also think that a lot of the song, especially the second-last verse, around the 13 minute mark, is just too much lyrically. That grosses me out and I don’t really appreciate it. All that said, this is a really good composition that affected me and that I’m sure I will come back to at least at some point. It deserves a score that reflects the quality and power of this submission, while also reflecting my hesitation about it.
Score: 8.5
Big Hath: Symphony X - The Odyssey
You have a habit of sending me material from prog-power albums that I’ve only listened to once. I listened to this Symphony X album once, and nothing really jumped out at me, so, like your Redemption submission, this was allowed because it’s forcing me to take another look at something that, frankly, might have continued to gather dust on my shelf, otherwise.
This song really starts brilliantly. The symphonic metal section at the start is truly stellar and is totally how I would imagine The Odyssey to be scored. This, in my opinion, is this style of music at its best: creation sweeping melodic music with a heavy accent. I like the way the guitars also contribute to the melodies and are not just there providing the low end. The first vocal part is almost as good. Russell Allen has never been a favorite of mine—he’s an exemplar of that power metal style that I find overly gritty and head-voice-y. But on this quieter first vocal section, where he sings mostly clean operatic vocals, he really does shine. He’s a talented guy. And the music here is very good as well.
The series of heavy passages that follow were a bit of a letdown for me initially after the very good intros. As I have listened to the song more, though, they’ve improved in my view. I’ve begun to see how fitting they are. This, musically, really does fit into the idea of a treacherous sea voyage, and I can really see Allen as Odysseus/Ulysses (hey, there seems to be a bit of a Greek/Roman confusion within the song). He has a lot of good vocal parts and does carry the song by combining the desperation and masculine toughness that you’d expect from the Greek hero. That said, some of the riffing is not as good as I’d like it to be. That might be the greatest weakness of the song—that the guitar work is sometimes very good, but sometimes just there. I definitely have nothing to complain about from the orchestral folks or the keyboard player, and Allen does his part.
Things return to the very high level of quality provided in the first few minutes as we move towards the finale. I’m a big Iron Maiden fan, and I love the Steve Harris gallop that we get here, and the teasing of the big final vocal melody played on the guitar. Once again, this genre of music at its best. Allen singing some very good clean vocals over some powerful music. And then “Triiiiii-um-phaaaaaaant” is an excellent part.
I have to say, this one is borderline for me, between two scores. Ultimately, though, I’m going with the lower one. Still a very good entry, though.
Score: 8.5
kingshmegland: The Pineapple Thief - Remember Us
Here’s a long, melancholic prog rock song with a whole lot of emotional power. There’s a lot of great work done here at setting the mood from the musicians, especially the guitarist and keyboardist.
The first couple of minutes are a very good melancholic opener, which then go into a brief vocal section in which the singer sings some really great melodies; I like his voice quite a bit and would like to hear a bit more of him in some of the bands other songs, where there are a bit more vocals.
That said, the instrumental work on this song is so good that it doesn’t really need any more than the brief moments of singing. The instrumentals are really good and set a nice mood. I really like when the song gets briefly experimental and includes a bit of an electronic influence. That was a perfect time and place to bring in that element; some really admirable experimentation. It also helps set up a really good moment when the song is at its most intense and the vocals come back in. That boost in energy carries nicely through the rest of the song.
Overall, this is quite a nice prog/alternative rock piece. Not as stunning as the top songs of this round, but a very good entry.
Score: 8.5