Hey, sorry about taking a while, guys. For once in my tenure at school, I actually have to, like, do homework and study and stuff. Better late than never, I guess.
FINAL ROUND RESULTS
bl5150After Forever - Evoke
OK first of all the link you sent me was 240p. I should dock you some points for that.
Anyway, I’m vaguely familiar with After Forever, by way of Floor Jansen and Joost van den Broek. I’ve never listened to them extensively, though, and I think this song kind of exemplifies why. It’s a fairly solid piece of symphonic metal, the guitars have a nice tone, some keyboard touches, etc. Floor sounds good, as always. The problem is that the song doesn’t really do anything that distinguishes itself from any other symphonic metal group. Even Floor, while good, doesn’t really blow me away here, and the drastic underutilization of Joost borders on criminal. So while the song is fairly pleasant to listen to, it doesn’t really do anything to grab my attention.
6.5 pointsSaculBen Levin Group - Freak Machine Part 1
OK dude first of all don’t think I don’t realize that this is basically the same band as Bent Knee.
But I’ve been pretty lenient on that kind of stuff so far, so no need to stop now.
This one is a bit weirder/less structured than the Bent Knee one, though. Again, I’m reminded of maudlin of the Well with the overall utilization of strange melodies and instruments, but this time the cacophony brings to mind a strange fusion of DEP and TMV. Honestly, these sections tend to straddle the line between interesting and just annoying, occasionally leaping all the way to annoying. I mean, there is definitely awesome stuff here, don’t get me wrong. The female vocalist (can’t remember her name, if I ever knew it) is still incredible. The range of things she does with her voice is nothing short of incredible. I particularly enjoy the way she uses her voice as a sort of complementary instrument during the instrumental parts.
I think, though, overall, this one is less than the sum of its parts. There’s definitely great stuff here, but it seems like they just tried to cram every single thing into a lot of these sections, which ultimately I think is to its detriment; the best parts of the song tend to be when there’s less going on (or anytime what’s-her-name is singing).
7 pointsBolstersEmma Louise - Atlas Eyes
I kinda wonder where you find this stuff. A lot of the groups people send me I’ve at least heard
of, but I’m not sure you’ve sent me anything so far that I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with.
ANYWAY this song is excellent. The music creates a very ethereal atmosphere, which really complement/is complemented by Emma’s voice. And speaking of which, she has a beautiful voice. It reminds a bit of the singer from Beach House, though that may just be the general association with the style of music. And while on that topic, I really love this sort of dream poppy, spaced out kind of music. I especially enjoy how, although attention is almost never drawn to it, all the instrumentation is fantastic. I think it takes a particular kind of talent to write great parts but keep them from overpowering everything else.
8.5 pointsTomislav95Amesoeurs - Heurt
Yeah, I could tell from the moment the guitars came in that this was the same guy that was behind Alcest. Sacul used this method as well, let’s hope it works out better for you.
The song starts off really well, with those wall-of-sound guitars and the frenetic, black metal drumming. The vocals are female, which surprised me, and also have that sort of “telephone” effect on them, which… I’m not a huge fan of. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. The second half of the song loses me a bit. I read somewhere that this was Neige’s “darker” project, or something to that effect. Unfortunately (and that does seem to be what he’s going for), a lot of the darker or heavier stuff here sounds like pretty generic, stock-metal stuff and doesn’t do much for me. If this song had just been the first half, it would have been incredible, but the second half detracts a bit from it for me.
7.5 pointsTrain of NaughtFeint - Snake Eyes
So this is subtitled [DNB], which I THINK is drums n bass? Not something I’m really familiar with, but this is not exactly the kind of sound I was expecting (in a good way). This song is actually quite atmospheric during the verses, with some nice contrast between the guitar and the electronic elements, and some pretty nice vocals. Unfortunately, as the song goes on, I am introduced to what I believe to be the “drum” in drums n bass. And uh… I don’t like it. I guess it’s part of the style, but the drum sound is just so extremely programmed-sounding, with no variation in the dynamics that it really gets on my nerves. Especially since it’s so loud in the mix that it gets in the way of everything else.
So I guess you took a risk here, and in some ways it paid off, and in others it didn’t. That’s life for you, I guess.
7 pointsScorpionAmorphis - Death of a King
So Amorphis are another band that have been on the periphery of my radar for a while now, but who I’ve never really gotten into for whatever reason. So let’s see if that changes!
The beginning of the song reminds me of Home.
I’m sure that instrument is used in other places as well, but that’s what it always makes me think of. Then the guitars come in, and they’re awesome, and the vocals come in and they are… less awesome. Yeah, they’re not outright bad, but this guy’s harsh style really isn’t doing much for me. Fortunately, a large part of the song is clean vocals, and they are fantastic, particularly on the chorus. The guitar solo is really good as well, even though I’m not big on guitar solos generally. The harsh vocals come back for the outro, but I actually think they work pretty well there.
So I liked this song rather more than anything else I’ve heard from Amorphis, despite not being sold on the harshes.
8 points NekovDream the Electric Sleep - Listen To Me
So here we’ve got some great prog rock. I wasn’t totally sure what to think about this one at first, but it’s grown on me quite a bit. The instrumentation is very good, but not over the top. It’s not heavy enough to really be metal, but the guitars do have more of an edge to them than most prog rock I’ve heard, which I really like. The central point here, though, at least for me, is the vocalist. I tend to be a “vocals first” kind of guy, and for whatever reason, I’ve noticed that prog rock bands almost always seem to do better in that department than their metal counterparts. This guy in particular is amazing. He’s got a pretty light voice, but he still has enough power behind to not get lost in the instruments, and he just puts a huge amount of feeling into every note he sings.
9 pointsTom BombadilSubsignal - The Size of Light on Earth
Oh hey, while we’re talking about great vocalists in prog rock, how about this guy? He is awesome. Actually, this whole song is great. The instrumentation is really fantastic and builds a perfect atmosphere for the vocalist. Honestly, I’m kind at a loss to explain why I don’t listen to this band. I remember someone sent one of their songs in my last roulette and I thought it was great as well, but I guess I never checked them out further. Honestly, the only thing I’m not a big fan of (and I actually I think I said this about the other song as well) are the harmonies. They’re not bad, but they don’t do a whole lot for me, and especially considering how great the singer is on his own, I wish they’d just left them out.
Nonetheless! A very good song.
8.5 points425Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
So, long story short. My sister listens to a group called Celtic Thunder, who did a song called Brothers in Arms, which I only realized was a cover of this song when you sent it to me.
I decided not to ask for a resend because a) you already said you were out of artists and b) as I said, I’ve been pretty lenient on stuff so far. Also I like it. Anyway.
So I said I was a vocals first kind of guy. And if there is one thing that is true about this song, it’s that it is not a vocals first song. Oddly enough, though, it still really works for me. In the cover version I heard first, the vocals were very powerful, and the guy put a lot of feeling into it. I really enjoyed it, so I wasn’t quite sure about this one at first, but the quiet, almost apathetic vocal style actually works pretty well here. And as I said, the main focus here isn’t on the vocals, it’s on the guitar. And wow, this is some amazing guitar playing. I love some good shred as much as the next guy, but I think this is probably much more my preferred style. The “solos” if you can even call them that, are pretty much seamlessly integrated into the music itself, instead of just playing on top of it, and there’s a tremendous amount of emotion in the playing.
8.5 pointsParamabluh - bluh
0 pointsSTANDINGS
Nekov - 59.5
Scorpion - 59
Tom Bombadil - 59
425 - 58.5
Bolsters - 58.5
Tomislav95 - 56
Train of Naught - 53.5
bl5150 - 53
Sacul - 51
And the winner IS…..
NEKOV!!!!!! Congratulations!!