Round 6 Results:mikemangioy: Animals As Leaders – Physical EducationFirst Impressions: I hope this is good because I really could never get too into AAL from their debut. Too much showing off, not enough interesting songwriting. This does sound a bit less robotic, at the very least. But it’s the kind of technical that’s “this is fine to listen to but will I ever remember or come back to this?” in the sense that it ends up just sounding like a bunch of noise. I can appreciate how talented the musicians are, but I’d much rather see them turn that towards writing interesting music rather than showing off their chops.
Final Thoughts: Man, AAL have actually somehow managed to regress in songwriting capabilities? Like, this is just a trainwreck of a song. The heavy guitars and bass aren’t nearly heavy or thick enough to pack any punch. The guitar tones on the main melody are very thin too. And the synthy sound that plays the melody some of the time is just… the dorkiest sounding thing.
I will say this. The clean section in the middle brings this up from being even lower, because I genuinely like that section. The guitar noodling creates some nice atmosphere and the backing synth swells help.
The rest though, is either: meandering noise, or that goddamn annoying main melody. Seriously, that’s what you base your song around? It’s like, the dopiest sounding thing ever, I can’t stand it, and it doesn’t help that it’s juuust catchy enough to get stuck in your head, even if it’s just plain dumb. The song’s really got no meat on its bones either, it repeats ideas over and over again with no variation on them except maybe slight drum differences that don’t add up to anything in the long run.
I just… cannot get into any of this aside from the minute or so in the middle. At least they had passable songwriting on the AAL debut, but this? I can at least thank you for one thing, you’ve confirmed to me that I never need to check out anything from this group ever again
Score: 4.5/10 (-.5 Penalty) = 4/10 425: Sufjan Stevens - The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!”First Impressions: That’s quite a song title, but it’s no
The Boy Bands Have Won so I’m not too impressed. This is… a really strange thing to send. I have to imagine this is like, a short album opener track? (Apparently not; it’s the second track.) This only barely qualifies as an instrumental, the vocals are pretty prominent but they’re just being used as an instrument so I’ll allow it. I think this is just too short to make an impact in one listen, though. It’s all build-up with no payoff. It probably works in the context of the album but taken on its own I don’t think it works too well at all.
Final Thoughts: This really only feels like part of a song, at the end of the day. It builds and builds but the payoff is, presumably, on the next track. But... not here. So I’m really not sure why you sent this, of all things.
I will also say, the trilly woodwinds get really annoying really fast. They feel awkwardly shoved in and serve mostly as noise, even when they get buried by the rest of the instruments coming in.
Other than that… as buildup by itself, it’s mostly fine, aside from the one annoyance. The trumpets have swell, the “aahh” vocal lines serve mostly to accentuate the chords, the drumming fits the mood and it all comes together well (aside from the woodwinds wailing away).
It’s not like buildup with no payoff necessarily is bad; one of my favorite Oceansize songs is Dead Dogs An’ All Sorts which is nothing if not one long buildup session, but it reaches the heights of payoff by the end while still serving as a build to the crushing opening of As The Smoke Clears. I imagine this would be a lot better in context of the album, and I may check this album out as I did like Chicago a fair bit, but as a standalone track, it’s not standing out very much.
Score: 6.5/10 Sacul: BADBADNOTGOOD – Can’t Leave The NightFirst Impressions: You’re certainly picking some strange things to send now. There’s a fairly nice keyboard-driven atmosphere here but I’m really not sure how much I like the drums; they’re a bit loud and don’t have the greatest tone to them either. I can definitely see that a lot of it is in the subtleties. I would’ve preferred a real bass to an electronic one (I almost –always- will though, real bass just sounds so much better, ugh.)
Final Thoughts: The problem with this kind of song is that if I don’t dig the main melodies of a song, even if the rest is technically sound, I’m going to run into problems enjoyment-wise.
So. That keyboard loop. Sounds like a GarageBand loop from 10 years ago. Man, I remember using GarageBand, I could use all these loops to make cruddy electronica and pretend I was an artist, those were the days. Well this both tonally and melodically sounds like one of those loops, I’m sad to say. It took me a few listens to realize that’s why it irked me. I also don’t like the plucky synth doing arpeggios at some points. I hate plucky synths in general, though, just not a sound that appeals to me.
Aside from that, other gripes come in the form of “the drums really do need to be turned down a notch” and “the electronic bass sounds kind of thin”. The general atmosphere of the track though, is fine enough most of the time. There’s a quiet part in the middle where the drums mellow out and a guitar? is softly plucking notes, with a few piano flourishes, and all the while the drums are building and getting more intense with the rest of the instruments swelling as well. That. Is a cool build. Unfortunately, the momentum is killed shortly after.
But oh well. There are parts of this I like, and parts of this that bore me. I think the parts that bore me outweigh the parts I like, length-wise, but it’s a fairly solid track. I fear this falls into the “not for me” category more than anything else, though.
Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10Train of Naught: Luay Rifai – Faithful SpiritsFirst Impressions: This is mostly just an extended guitar solo, but it’s one focused on melody more than it is showing off; I actually get the impression that this band isn’t made up of particularly “talented” musicians in the general technicality sense, but damn can they carry a mood. Could be totally wrong about that though. That being said, I’m not sure how “special” or “unique” this is but it’ll definitely be good for a few listens.
Final Thoughts: This song definitely wore on me the most out of all the tracks this round, even more so than the AAL track I pretty much hate. There’s two reasons.
1. The background music is just not interesting enough. Light clean picking, straightforward drumming, heavy chords, bass following the chords. I understand that it’s a backing track for the solo, and it does have its own swells to it, but it’s not enough, especially considering the length of the track.
2. The song follows a very strict verse/chorus structure where the guitar is playing basically the same lead every chorus, just with a harmonized guitar and a few flourishes on the later ones. When you listen to the song once, it’s fine. If you keep listening to it, you get a little bit tired of the lead by the end. It wears on you.
The soloing is pretty tasteful though and melodically oriented, so it does grip me more than a 5 minute shredfest would. The guitarist doesn’t really even try to show off chops until near the very end and it’s only a few fast runs that work with the build of the song and make sense. The soloing between the chorus segments is pretty good and the chorus melody, while a bit repetitive, is pretty strong as well on its own. I just wish the song was a bit more diverse in the end, it’s basically just a showcase for the band’s guitarist (or guitarists? I feel like there’s two here but I haven’t actually checked to confirm).
Score: 7.5/10 Tomislav95: Black Tusk – ResistorFirst Impressions: The name made me think of Mastodon for some reason. The music is more in line with The Sword though. Still sludge metal stuff either way, haha. This to me sounds like a lot of the same kind of thing; not that that one thing is a bad thing, but I don’t know how well I’ll be able to distinguish any specific parts of this! I definitely don’t think I like this as much as The Sword but I far from dislike it.
Final Thoughts: This occupies basically the exact same space in my mind as the song you sent from The Sword. Which is far from a bad thing. Some good heavy sludge metal instrumental stuff is always appreciated. It does suffer from a bit of a lack of diversity, I feel; a lot of crushing chord riffs that all kind of blend together even if they’re all pretty cool.
I like the drum breakdown in the middle especially because it breaks up the pace and gives the song a little breathing room from the wall of sound. And the acoustic intro and outro was definitely a good decision. The one main riff does feel a bit hammered into the ground by the end of the song but it’s a good riff and I can’t knock the song for sticking to something that works. This has a bit less flavor to it than The Sword and I don’t know how much else from this band I’d be interested in on the basis of this song, but I do like what I’m hearing here a lot.
Score: 8/10 senecadawg2: Braveyoung – And No Two Walked TogetherFirst Impressions: Y’all are doing well to tap into the kind of post-rock I enjoy this round. The darker, slower, more atmospheric stuff. The kind that sends chills down your spine and fills you with a sense of unease. This reminds me a lot of TWDY, especially. Definitely a favorable comparison. Mono would also be a good comparison, I guess. The build is great, the atmosphere is thick and haunting, it’s not too dark to be smothering but not remotely close to bright either. Definitely digging it.
Final Thoughts: I don’t know why I compared this to TWDY before I compared it to Mono since this is veeeery much Mono-inspired. Again, not a bad thing. The slow tempo and the thick, textured atmosphere do work well for this brand of post-rock, it’s dark and haunting in all the right ways.
The gripe that I have here is, well, it isn’t exactly the most original-sounding thing in the world. It’s very good for what it is, definitely. The build is strong, the atmosphere is fantastic, it’s good both as background music and active listening music. But I have listened to a fair bit of Mono; I have four albums from them and have listened to their older work a fair few times too. And there’s not much this band does to carve their own identity amongst the many post-rock bands out there.
Can I really fault them for that, though? No, not really. Post-rock is a very oversaturated genre and there’s a big-name band in every style that you could point to for other bands taking inspiration from. As for how much I enjoy this on its own, I definitely do. It’s got a lot of things I like about it and nothing I dislike.
Score: 8/10 LordCost: The Ocean - Bathyalpelagic I: Impasses (Instrumental Version)First Impressions: So uhh I actually did listen to the non-instrumental version of this album before, though I don’t remember it so well. But I can definitely dig someone sending me some post-metal. This band keeps appearing in name in comparison to a lot of other stuff I’ve been listening to recently so I probably should check them out further. Especially since I do dig this. Good pretty and atmospheric moments, crushing riffs and drumming, although none of it is especially standing out it’s very good for what it is.
Final Thoughts: I didn’t check out the version of this with vocals yet since I don’t want that to affect my rating of the track without the vocals. But, hell, with how diverse and heavy this song is without the vocals, I almost feel like it probably doesn’t even need them anyways.
The crushing intro gives way to a very laid-back but atmospheric piano line, with more and more texture being added as it repeats, only for the heaviness to kick back in full-force over this build.
The real trick of this song is that the riffs aren’t exactly what I’d call original or special – they’re very djenty, actually – but they aren’t put front and center, they’re just a factor into the heaviness this song brings to the table. They make themselves sound pretty dang awesome in that way.
If I had any real complaints, the slower-paced section awkwardly jumps back into the faster section when it ends, and the overwhelming heaviness of the riffs starts to wear a bit by the end. I imagine the abrupt end is due to the track cutting into a Bathyalpelagic II and I won’t hold that against the song here since it stands its own just fine.
Score: 8.5/10 FlyingBIZKIT: Nine Inch Nails – Just Like You ImaginedFirst Impressions: This one better be good if two people wanted to send it to me, haha. I don’t know why I haven’t listened to more industrial stuff considering I do like Anno Domini High Definition a ton. I really like the 5/4 groove of this one and the drums are pretty cool too. It’s heavy, it’s dark, but it’s constantly introducing new ideas while staying firmly cohesive.
Final Thoughts: So Sacul wanted to send this, and when I told him someone else already had, he immediately guessed that you were the one to send it, I should give him a bonus point just for that
Anyways, this song just has a cool groove to it, and on top of that, it goes lots of different places and never really likes to repeat itself. There’s a lot of things that add to the wall of noise, piano flourishes, heavily distorted guitars, blaring synths, all built upon the drum and bass groove. By the time it gets absolutely huge at the end I’m just absolutely in love with it. The ending may be a tad anticlimactic but that would be only a minor nitpick on an otherwise quite great industrial metal track.
Score: 8.5/10 Shadow Ninja 2.0: Gordian Knot – MutterspracheFirst Impressions: So I very much did listen to both Gordian Knot albums once in the recent past (last month or so) and while I thought they were decent, either a bit too complex or a bit too samey to really sink in from one listen, but I have to imagine listening to a single song instead of a whole album should make the one song stand out. The production here is kind of… eww, especially for 2003. Or maybe the video quality was just crap? Dunno but it reeeally does have an effect on my enjoyment of this. There’s some cool riffs and grooves and the soloing is pretty tasteful, especially the slower melodic one in the middle. There’s definitely a lot of different sections here and it’s very moody. I just kinda wish I could make it all out better.
Final Thoughts: If this album was remastered and put out with a better sound quality, I bet I’d be rating this even higher, but I checked around various videos of this song on youtube and, yeah, I guess that’s what we’re stuck with.
That’s a damn shame too, because the instrumentation here is just, fantastic. The basslines come through loud and clear, the drumming is tasteful while still remaining complex. The guitar leads are technical to an extent, but either have enough groove or melody to make them stay interesting.
I really dig that swelling piano line that happens a few times, it’s just a perfect flourish for building up to a heavier moment. The atmosphere of the track on the less frantic moments is also very nice, piano and synth adding to the mood with some guitar accompaniment and a very, very full bass sound.
The guitar line that comes in at around 3:40 is just a very cool melody, I kind of wish it hammered on that first three-note line a bit more instead of going off into other lines, they could’ve ridden that a bit further.
I think what really makes this work is that none of the instruments are really clashing with each other for dominance. When there’s a solo going on, the other instruments will give it a bit of room without devolving into something boring or banal, and when they’re all working in unison you get a good mesh of grooves and melodies.
There’s a few themes repeated throughout that keep it feeling cohesive but no section is really like any previous section, it’s constantly in motion but grounded by its motifs. The soloing never gets overwhelming, the song’s quite dynamic, the instrumentation is consistently strong.
The only, ONLY downside is that with how muddled the production is, nothing can quite shine through as strongly as it needs to. PLEASE remaster this album. I know it’ll never happen but do it to please specifically me, thanks.
Score: 9/10 Elite: Have A Nice Life – There Is No FoodFirst Impressions: Ooh. The texture and atmosphere on this is fantastic. Roaring guitars and enough subtleties to make it sound very full and unsettling. I’m actually sad this is so short, I would love a really long build of just this kind of sound. It does kind of die out a little at the end though.
Final Thoughts: Goddamn, man, that roaring guitar is like a buzzsaw to the ears, it’s absolutely visceral in the best possible way. The soft-spoken synth and the hihat give this the slightest bit of a pulse, a pulse more like a heartbeat than a rhythm, with the guitar swelling to overtake everything else the farther the song goes on. It’s goddamn poetic, is what it is.
And the dying out at the end… well, yes, that makes perfect sense, in context. Supposedly this is about “starving to death on a desolate moon” and naturally that has to end with death… the final heartbeats at the end as the roaring guitar of pain fades out, bringing the song to a quiet close.
The song paints a strong image and does it well, and it’s just, incredibly unsettling and haunting in all the best ways. The only detractor here is the length, which isn’t even a real problem. Suffice to say, I’m a fan.
Score: 9/10 Current Standings:senecadawg2 – 50
Sacul – 49.5
Elite – 49.5
FlyingBIZKIT – 48.5
Tomislav95 – 48
mikemangioy – 47
425 – 45.5
LordCost – 42.5
Train of Naught – 41
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 37.5
Damn strong round means unfortunately for our one rather unlucky contestant, a massive plummet off the top of the leaderboards
That top 5 is really close now and things are really heating up. Who will win? Or will everyone lose?
Send round 7 entries now to find out!
Also remind me at some point to go back through all the scores I've given out and add them all up to make sure I didn't screw up someone's math somewhere