Bolsters™ The Roulette ★THE CONCLUSION★

[Bolsters]

Tidbit time. I'll save the personal rankings until after the Round 7 results.


"My biggest criticism is the vocalist I think, I just didn't like him at all. I guess for this sort of alternative rock stuff he's fairly typical, but he just wasn't doing it for me. The guitar was nice when it was clean, but when distorted it was fairly drab."


"I liked the piano ostinato at first but since it also repeats throughout the entire song, even more than the drum beat, I was sick of it before I even finished my first listen through the song."


"This song was as bombastic and unrelenting as I expected it to be. What I wasn't expecting was for there to be as much eastern influence as there is. Right from the start, we have a short introduction driven by the eastern instrumentation, with some strings joining them."


"Some lovely soft organs fill out the sound. There's some strong 70's prog rock influence here for the mostpart, with all the prominent organ playing and the wah on the guitar in places, but it isn't so inspired by the decade that I find it uninteresting."


"So the first half of the song isn't bad; it's a nice slow build, the vocalist is capable and suits this style of song perfectly, and there's some string section action here and there."


"I like how the song builds from here, with the piano increasing in volume as the singer does the same."


"Anyway, this was some pretty solid metal. Nothing groundbreaking or surprising, but well made and enjoyable. The mix is good here too, with highlights being a really fat bass sound with lots of low end, and the drums."


"The vocalist suits this music perfectly, with a softer, husky approach in the verses but putting in more energy for the more upbeat choruses."

[Crow]

"My biggest criticism is the vocalist I think, I just didn't like him at all. I guess for this sort of alternative rock stuff he's fairly typical, but he just wasn't doing it for me. The guitar was nice when it was clean, but when distorted it was fairly drab."

"So the first half of the song isn't bad; it's a nice slow build, the vocalist is capable and suits this style of song perfectly, and there's some string section action here and there."

one of these two, probably the latter bcuz all of that fits my song well

[Elite]

Wow, these aren't all that positive.

[Bolsters]

It's about half and half, I'd say.

[Crow]

half getting a star and half not, woo!

jingle's getting a juicy gold for sure

[Bolsters]

jingle's getting a juicy gold for sure

I wouldn't bet on that.

[Elite]

I don't think I will win this roulette. I would like to though.

[Evermind]

"This song was as bombastic and unrelenting as I expected it to be. What I wasn't expecting was for there to be as much eastern influence as there is. Right from the start, we have a short introduction driven by the eastern instrumentation, with some strings joining them."

This is 100% mine. Doesn't tell me anything about how I scored though, maybe you secretly hate eastern influences in music.

[Bolsters]

There's not much in my library that is eastern influenced, I'll say that much.

[Evermind]

Well, that doesn't mean anything too. There's not much in my library that has growls, but there are some songs with growls I really like.

I'll just wait for the results.

[Bolsters]

Well, that doesn't mean anything too. There's not much in my library that has growls, but there are some songs with growls I really like.

I'll just wait for the results.

Any final stabs in the dark from anyone regarding the stars, before all is revealed?

[Elite]

I think when the results show up, I wish I had sent a different song.

Here we go:

Gold star: 7 points
Silver star: 5 points
Bronze star: 3 points
Purple Star: 1 point

[Bolsters]

The only thing you got right was their order.

[Elite]

Well screw those stars then

[jingle.boy]

jingle's getting a juicy gold for sure

I wouldn't bet on that.

Neither would I.  My entry had piano in it, so it could be good, or perhaps you were sick of it before it even finished.

Gold - 4
Silver - 3
Bronze - 2
Purple - 1

[Elite]

Silver can't be 3 stars and Purple can't be 1 star, based on the two guesses I did. Therefore, I can say that, unless Bolsters uses half points, the only thing you got right was their order.

[Evermind]

Gold - 25
Silver - 20
Bronze - 15
Pink - 5

If I didn't get anything right,

Well screw those stars then

 

[jingle.boy]

Silver can't be 3 stars and Purple can't be 1 star, based on the two guesses I did. Therefore, I can say that, unless Bolsters uses half points, the only thing you got right was their order.

 then...

Well screw those stars

[Bolsters]

There are no half points, each star has a whole number for its value.

But again, no one has gotten anything right other than putting them in the correct order.

If it helps (it won't), if you were to add up every star awarded to the eight of you throughout the roulette, you would have 221 points.

[jingle.boy]

There are no half points, each star has a whole number for its value.

But again, no one has gotten anything right other than putting them in the correct order.

If it helps (it won't), if you were to add up every star awarded to the eight of you throughout the roulette, you would have 221 points.

Well, by that math, Gold has to be worth at least 20.  Need a few more correlations in order to build a formula.  I'll assign it to my kids for some math homework.   

[Bolsters]

That'd be 140 points just from gold stars though, so the other stars would have to be pretty undervalued if that were true. Consider that there are already 14 silver stars just at the end of Round 6, and 20 non-gold stars total.

[Evermind]

Gold - 20
Silver - 4
Bronze - 3
Pink - 1

I can live with that.

(I know pink can't be 1.)

[Bolsters]

That would add up to 223. Not bad.

[Evermind]

That would add up to 223. Not bad.

Hey, I didn't count it, so not bad indeed.

Edit: in fact, I just did.

So far we have:

6 Gold * 20 = 120
14 Silver * 4 = 56
4 Bronze * 3 = 12
2 Pink * 1 = 2

120 + 56 + 12 + 2 = 190

So let's say the next round will award 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze:

1 Gold * 20 = 20
2 Silver * 4 = 8
1 Bronze * 3 = 3

20 + 8 + 3 = 31

190 + 31 = 221

So it all adds up.

[Bolsters]

Edit: in fact, I just did.

So far we have:

6 Gold * 20 = 120
14 Silver * 4 = 56
4 Bronze * 3 = 12
2 Pink * 1 = 2

120 + 56 + 12 + 2 = 190

So let's say the next round will award 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze:

1 Gold * 20 = 20
2 Silver * 4 = 8
1 Bronze * 3 = 3

20 + 8 + 3 = 31

190 + 31 = 221

So it all adds up.

If there was going to be only one bronze and no pink stars in round 7 then yeah, it would add up then. That may not be the case though.

Edit: Round 6 adds up to 186, go crazy.

[Elite]

I don't think gold will be worth so much compared to the rest. Furthermore, bronze can not be worth 3 and nor can purple be worth 1.

[Evermind]

I don't think gold will be worth so much compared to the rest. Furthermore, bronze can not be worth 3 and nor can purple be worth 1.

I was kind of kidding.

[Elite]

Gold: 11
Silver: 7
Bronze: 4
Purple: 3

Last round will see 1 gold, 3 silvers and 1 purple.

[Bolsters]

Round 7 results: The Beginning of The End.


Shadow Ninja 2.0 vs Scorpion

Shadow Ninja 2.0

• Imagine Dragons - Amsterdam

You pondered in your PM whether I'd heard these guys and not liked them, but that wasn't the case. Infact, I'd never even heard of them before. But that was my loss, because this is some decent indie pop rock kind of stuff.

Things start off very nicely. The combination of lower register, dull sounding guitar notes and the brighter higher register notes is nice, and the distant-sounding oooh's from the vocalist flesh out the sound. The bass is mixed well and drives the verses. The vocalist suits this music perfectly, with a softer, husky approach in the verses but putting in more energy for the more upbeat choruses. The breakdown is probably the highlight of the song for me (starting with "but the rain won't fall for the both of us"), when the song strips back and the synths come to the forefront more before building back into the chorus.

Very nice.


Scorpion

• Wolverine - Your Favourite War

Heard the band name, but I don't think I'd heard the music until now.

The song wastes no time getting to the point, starting up immediately with most of the instrumentation at once. As the verse starts everything strips back, and is backed by an industrial-sounding lo fidelity drum beat. There's some nice sounding organs in this track and some string section action at points aswell. The second verse differs from the first, eschewing the industrial drums and having the drummer play instead, and there are some sustained guitar notes playing over the top. The prechorus ("forgive me for your sins") is a good lead in not only to the chorus, but also the guitar solo.

Anyway, this was some pretty solid metal. Nothing groundbreaking or surprising, but well made and enjoyable. The mix is good here too, with highlights being a really fat bass sound with lots of low end, and the drums.

I had a tough decision with this matchup. It seemed like every time I listened to these songs, I wanted to switch around who won. So I figured the loser deserved a pink star either way. I went with the Ninja in the end, so the pink is yours.


jingle.boy vs Parama

jingle.boy

• Echoes - Epilogue (...is where we start) / Rude Awakening

So this was two tracks, with the first being an instrumental introduction to the album leading into Rude Awakening.

Epilogue (...is where we start) was nice, a pretty good way to open the album I'd say. I like the contrast between the synth-driven first half and the heavier, rock/metal-inspired second half of the song.

Then begins Rude Awakening, stripping everything back to just piano. I like how the song builds from here, with the piano increasing in volume as the singer does the same. There's a high-register string instrument in here which enhances these softer piano sections in the song. The singer isn't bad at all. The instrumental section is good, especially the organ/bass/synth bit before the brief guitar solo.

So, yeah. This was a good energetic progressive rock track.


Parama

• Mew - Comforting Sounds

This wasn't a bad song, but it was a bit of a struggle to sit through. So the first half of the song isn't bad; it's a nice slow build, the vocalist is capable and suits this style of song perfectly, and there's some string section action here and there. It's not fantastic, but it's nice. Once it reaches the 4:30 mark or so things get better, the drumming comes in, the strings come to life, it picks up quite a bit which is a welcome change at this point.

However...these few bars are repeated now, with very little variation, for the entire second half of the song - a solid four minutes. I mean, they're a good few bars but repeating them for four minutes just seems excessive and pointless. And it was rather disappointing because I liked this section at first, but it felt like the song got stuck and couldn't move on, and it desperately needed to.


Big Hath vs Evermind

Big Hath

• Beardfish - The Hunter

So, Big Hath actually sent me a "grab-bag" of songs for the final round. Meaning, I received six different songs from him and was told to pick one however I wanted. In the interests of fairness, I decided that chance was the best option; unbiased, unprejudiced, fair. So from those six the song that I used as Big Hath's submission ended up being this.

So, Beardfish. I am quite sure I have heard something from them before, but no idea what. It probably wasn't this song though, because I liked it, and I'd probably have looked into the band more if I had heard it.

The song starts off with the bass driving things, which also becomes more active when the guitar joins it. Some lovely soft organs fill out the sound. There's some strong 70's prog rock influence here for the mostpart, with all the prominent organ playing and the wah on the guitar in places, but it isn't so inspired by the decade that I find it uninteresting (I generally have a hard time getting into actual 70's prog rock bands). The vocalist and the bass player are the highlights throughout most of the song, and the organ solo was probably the only dull bit.

You didn't beat Evermind, but I'll give you a pink star for your effort.

I didn't want to get caught up listening to the other five while I was listening to all of the songs for this round, but when I was done with the writeups I gave them a quick listen. Though I only listened to them once each and I will be extremely brief, I just wanted to give you some feedback on them.

• 3 - All That Remains: Not a bad song, although the singer was a little annoying. I might check out the album, though it's low priority.
• Chicago - Beginnings: Again not a bad song, but Chicago is a band I've never really been able to get into. I don't mind what I've heard and that was the case here, but I've yet to feel compelled to go out and listen to more of their stuff. I did really like the use brass in this song though, so I might check out the album this song is from aswell.
• Fallujah - Carved From Stone: I didn't really like this track at all. It's far too thrashy for my tastes and I don't like the extremely guttural vocal style that is used in the song. I didn't even listen to the whole song, since I didn't have to.
• Dave Weckl Band - Alegria: Nice little jazzy song, and another with brass that I liked. It was a bit dull though, and I think I'd have liked it more had it not been instrumental.
• The Contortionist - Language I: Intuition: This was without doubt the best thing in the grab bag and I like it quite a bit. However, I'd have banned it had you sent it on its own; I actually have the album this song is from, but I somehow messed up and left Contortionist off of my banned artists list. Infact I have a Notepad file with your name on it with ideas of things to send you, leftover from your last roulette, and Contortionist was in there.

Evermind

• Blind Guardian - Wheel of Time

Blind Guardian is a band I'm familiar with of course, but nothing this recent. I'd tried to get into them many years ago when I first started getting into power metal, but didn't like anything I'd heard. If I had to guess, I'd say this was around 2001-2002. I've also become much harder to please when it comes to power metal, usually favouring power metal that is combined with other styles (such as having a heavier, metal edge or such). So, I was interested to see whether this would appeal to me at all.

This song was as bombastic and unrelenting as I expected it to be. What I wasn't expecting was for there to be as much eastern influence as there is. Right from the start, we have a short introduction driven by the eastern instrumentation, with some strings joining them. Then the bombastic part I was waiting for begins with the crunchy guitars, and the strings becoming more prominent. This song isn't all about string sections though, as the brass section takes over around 1:26 briefly and then the guitar plays an eastern-inspired lead - this being one of my favourite sections of the entire song. The chorus is epic, which it absolutely had to be in a song like this so I'm glad they didn't screw it up. The instrumental section is another highlight, when the metal subsides and the eastern bit comes back before building up into a symphonic-driven section and finally adding the brass, the drums, and the guitars. It's a nice slow build and a welcome change from the otherwise relentless metal sections.

I've no doubt you selected this song because of the combination of metal instrumentation, orchestra, and eastern instrumentation and influences, which is a combination of the typical metal/orchestra which I like, but also contains some non-typical instrumentation. A very sound tactic.

It's somewhat cheesy for the mostpart and at times a tad generic (the drumming at times in particular, especially when it's just non-stop double kick), but it also contains original ideas and is epic in scope, so it is a very enjoyable listen.


Sacul vs Elite

Sacul

• DJ Shadow - Building Steam with a Grain of Salt

Well, you were probably expecting this so let's just get it out of the way now...I didn't really like this song much at all.

I guess my biggest gripe is that it's so repetitive. Infact, it may even win the (non-existant) award for most repetitive song I received the entire roulette. For one there's a single drum beat for the entire song, and while the subtle, almost glitchy manipulations of it in places are executed well enough, they don't really add much to the variety of the track. I liked the piano ostinato at first but since it also repeats throughout the entire song, even more than the drum beat, I was sick of it before I even finished my first listen through the song. The spoken word samples are used as a substitute for singing/rapping here apparently but they are a very poor substitute, as they don't really enhance the song at all. A couple of things do come in every now and then (like the funky wah guitar about half way through) but these minor and temporary additions aren't enough to prevent the track from being monotonous and bland.


Elite

• Dredg - The Canyon Behind Her

Not sure if I'd heard Dredg before, to be honest. I'd heard of them of course but don't recall listening to anything.

So, this song wasn't that bad, but I didn't think it was great. Things start off nicely, I like the intro. When things become more exciting it's alright, but the chorus is a bit dull I thought. Things are better in the verses, with the bass and drums driving things and the delay on the clean guitar here works well. But as mentioned, I found the chorus a bit dull because it's just a big wall of distortion and I'm not a fan of the guitar tone in this song when it's distorted. The "I cannot find the other half" section after the second chorus wasn't bad.

My biggest criticism is the vocalist I think, I just didn't like him at all. I guess for this sort of alternative rock stuff he's fairly typical, but he just wasn't doing it for me. The guitar was nice when it was clean, but when distorted it was fairly drab.


Well that's it for the final round, and so the roulette is effectively over. I will be posting part 2 of the conclusion in a following reply to the thread.

Your songs for Round 7 ranked:

Evermind
jingle.boy / Shadow Ninja 2.0
Scorpion / Big Hath
Parama
Sacul

So it's pretty obvious who won here, I think. But, what are the values of the stars? You'll all just have to wait for me to post the final concluding messages of the roulette, won't you.

Here's the personal rankings though.


Shadow Ninja 2.0

• Steam Powered Giraffe - Brass Goggles
• Imagine Dragons - Amsterdam
• The Dillinger Escape Plan - Widower
• Sarah Fimm - Walk Away
• Sigur Rós - Varúð
• Santigold - The Riot's Gone
• Jon Gomm - Passionflower

jingle.chad

• Styx - Pieces of Eight
• Mystery - Pride
• Echoes - Rude Awakening
• Duran Duran - The Reflex
• Seventh Wonder - The Angelmaker
• Roswell Six - I Am The Point
• Animotion - Obsession

Big Hath

• Devin Townsend Project - Supercrush!
• Paramore - That's What You Get
• Beardfish - The Hunter
• Kevin Gilbert - Goodness Gracious
• Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Stay
• Redemption - Walls
• Fair to Midland - Walls of Jericho

Parama

• Thank You Scientist - Carnival
• Bodies Of Water - Under The Pines
• fun. - Benson Hedges
• Mew - Comforting Sounds
• Thomas Giles - Sleep Shake
• Oceansize - Trail of Fire
• Kimbra - Come Into My Head

Scorpion

• Amorphis - Sampo
• Diablo Swing Orchestra - Justice For Saint Mary
• Savatage - Gutter Ballet
• Wolverine - Your Favourite War
• Steve Rothery - Morpheus (feat. Steve Hackett)
• Shadow Gallery - Legacy
• Infected Mushroom - Suliman

Sacul

• Destiny Potato - Love Song
• Marketa Irglova - Time Immemorial
• Janelle Monae - Cold War
• Mastodon - The Motherload
• DJ Shadow - Building Steam with a Grain of Salt
• Jenny Hval / Susanna - I Have Walked This Body
• Burial - Raver

Evermind

• Pain of Salvation - Iter Impius
• Nightwish - Last Ride of the Day
• IQ - The Road of Bones
• Jon Lord - Pictured Within
• Blind Guardian - Wheel of Time
• Mark Knopfler - Dream of the Drowned Submariner
• Mostly Autumn - Evergreen

Elite

• Leprous - Forced Entry
• Karnivool - Umbra
• Agent Fresco - See Hell
• Jolly - Where Everything's Perfect
• Lesoir - Flawless Chemistry
• Thrice - Daedalus
• Dredg - The Canyon Behind Her

[Elite]

My stars don't add up. It's unclear whether I got a silver or a bronze star in this final round.

[Bolsters]

Sorry about that, it's fixed now. You get bronze.

[Elite]

No, I want the silver one!

[Elite]

By the way, I got the points for the stars right, admit it!

[Bolsters]

By the way, I got the points for the stars right, admit it!

I admit nothing.

[Elite]

You will in your concluding post.