So things are really tightening up with the scores now - thanks in part to some well timed use of bonus points. Aside from my favourite track I didn’t get much in the way of metal that I really liked this round, which saw a fair amount of lighter rock up the top end. The tracks I had lined up for a possible 6 did grow on me a bit and so the range of scores wasn't quite as big as I initially thought.
1) Damnation Angels: Pride (The Warrior’s Way) – Bolsters Rating :9.5I recall sampling songs from this album and thinking it (and Pellek’s vocals) were a bit too “fluffy” in the power metal stakes , but this song is sure heavy enough for me. I really enjoyed the follow up album too as you know.
The first thing that came to mind when I heard some of the melodies in this was Stratovarius’ album Nemesis. According to the “jingly book of plagiarism” I heard Nemesis first and therefore , even though Nemesis came after , Strato were ripped off big time
When the violins started around 3.30 it felt like the end wasn’t all that far away and I wondered how this was going to make it to almost 10 mins but in the end the song exploded out of the calm interlude and the time was filled out nicely with some rockin’ metal and nice “battle hymn” style melodies. The outro dragged on a bit longer that it needed to but that’s nitpicking. When it comes down to it this type of power metal probably isn’t my favourite style of metal to listen to all day but for what it is it’s a great track.
2) Seven Tears : Reflections – wolfking Rating: 9Good stuff Kade.......a good reminder here of your AOR cred ,although of course you still like Work of Art a bit too much
This is the first artist of the roulette so far where I listen to it and am surprised that I haven’t heard of them...........so brownie points there. They seem to be filed away under prog metal in various circles , but I feel it’s really not that heavy. Anyway – strong melodic song , if a little generic in parts . The vocals are strong without being brilliant but it’s the jumpy rhythm guitar and a nice solo that gives the song a bit of an edge than it otherwise might not have had. If the whole album is just variations on this then it would probably get old fairly quick but I will check the album out. They remind me very much of another band which I might save up for your roulette if you like these guys.
3) Yes : Lift Me Up – erwinrafael Rating: 9The gang vocals that fill this song are quite nice and remind me of any number of pop rock bands on the radio in the late 80’s.......the sort of sound we Aussies heard on albums by John Farnham, Southern Sons, Daryl Braithwaite, 1927 etc..... I am assuming that this is a later version of the Rabin Beverley Hills 90210 lineup (or close) and on the whole I thought it was nice enough pop rock with a much bigger sound than I associate with Yes.
As I neared the end of the song I was thinking an 8.5 would be about right but the outro guitars snagged you an extra half point. I get the impression that whenever I find the time to properly get into the Yes discog that the Rabin era will appeal to me more.
4) Myland : Anytime – Lowdz Rating: 8.5I was aware of this one and I am guessing that at the time it came out I wrote off the vocalist. I have mentioned that I can struggle with “squeaky” vocalists like Rob Moratti (and Pete Morten) and this guy sounds like a cross between Moratti and Hugo.......so it’s testing my boundaries. I have been racking my brain for who the music sounds like and I think it may be Departure. Anyway – this sort of AOR with reasonably heavy guitars and strong soloing used to be my bread and butter and I haven’t listened to much of this style of late. So even though it’s a touch generic it sounded fresher than it might have 10 years ago and I quite enjoyed it . The vocals were probably the difference between an 8.5 and a 9........ I am not sure why they left the duff vocal note in there at 5.06 either? This is probably the first time I have heard those tap slides on the guitar since Richie Sambora in his prime or Van Halen’s Dreams. Nice stuff haha.
5) Vicious Rumors: Dreaming – jjrock88 Rating:8.5I was a pretty big fan of the early Carl Albert fronted albums and so I am not sure why I don’t have this , the last album before his tragic death. This isn’t quite as strong as the best songs from those albums but I still enjoyed the track. As happens on some of their other stuff the rhythm guitar sound is a bit of a muffled mess but the rest sounds great. It was great to hear Albert’s voice on something “new” – he’s great in a ballad too. The solo section could’ve been better if I wanted to be picky.
6) Al DiMeola : Race With Devil On Spanish Highway – Big Hath Rating : 8.5+1 bonus = 9.5The first thing that came to mind for me at the start of this was a “dramatic” moment in a really, really bad 70’s or 80’s action movie From there it went into a more traditional prog sound . As a general rule I don’t like 70’s prog (or much else from the 70’s) but the production and playing on this is a bit ahead of its time , like my all time No 1 album (Van Halen 1) . One thing I often struggle with in 70’s music (with some notable exceptions) is the relatively primitive guitar playing , but none of that here. In the end the only reason this didn’t score higher is the lack of an earworm lead melody but there were some cool rhythms and playing in there,. I do tend to prefer my instrumentals a little more structured/less “loose” but I did enjoy this.
7) Spock’s Beard: Day For Night – jingle.boy Rating:8.5This was a brave submission right after I bagged Neal Morse and his pompy brand of church music
. It was also brave sending Hendrix earlier ,so I appreciate you trying to push me a little. I should say right off the bat that I don’t find Morse’s voice anything special – “pleasant” is probably the best word – but in this style I am not so fussed as long as he can carry the music and he can. This is at the lighter end of my taste and at this level of heaviness/musicianship I would tend to grab some Toto instead to be honest . Having said that – relative to the Morse solo track in the last round there’s a bit more of an edge to the melodies + the rhythm guitars here and hearing that bass out front helped as well. Nice serene interlude in the middle with acoustic guitar and strings. The guitar solo was a bit underwhelming – better effort there and it might have been pushing for a 9 but I have settled on 8.5.
8) The Hsu-Nami : Rising Of The Sun - Sacul Rating: 8.5+1 = 9.5I did hear of this band on DTF quite some time ago (jammindude??) and did check out a song on bandcamp if memory serves correct. I did mean to check them out further but never got around to it. The first part of this song has some quirky rhythms with the strings etc..... and as it progresses it becomes quite catchy. In fact many of the parts of this song feel like they shouldn’t work together but they do. An enjoyable listen Sacul , but I have my doubts about my ability to listen to a full album in this style.
9)Holy Shire: Winter Is Coming – Evermind Rating: 8.5
I see “holy shite” every time I look at that band name
I can’t say that I have a great strike rate with liking “folk metal” but the folky aspect here is just a whiff , it’s not overdone and there’s some nice elements to the song. The underlying melody is nice ,if a little repetitive. Although I liked this it’s not anywhere near my favourite metal tracks with female or male/female vocals and so I struggled to get too far above 8.
If the nice solo/interlude in the middle had gone on for a while longer it could’ve taken the song to another level but alas it did not. If I was involved in this song it also would’ve faded out at around 5 mins.......the extra minute really didn’t add to it IMHO.
10)Coheed and Cambria: 21-13 - splent Rating 7 + 1 bonus =8.The start of this song had me dreading the next 10 minutes but this turned into one of those odd songs where I like parts of it and really dislike others. On the whole I found the song left me a bit flat. T
here’s some catchy rhythms here and there (where it rocked up a bit @ 1.20 , 2.30 etc..) , some decent melodies but the sound lacks any real punch and as a whole I didn’t think the song came together into a cohesive track. And that made almost 10 mins a pretty rough listen. Normally when I struggle with a 10 min song like this it would attract a 6 , but this has enough good stuff in it to snag a 7.
Not that 7 is an awful score but don’t let this rating scare you from sending me progressive stuff – a third of my DTF Top 50 was prog metal . I am just not a huge fan of the prog that C&C dish up it seems. I also had a quick listen to the other song of theirs that you sent (before subbing in this one)and it would’ve rated around 7.5 . I get the impression that Coheed and Cambria will have a few songs I like , but that they will be few and far between.
11) Odd Dimension: Light Speed Journey – TAC Rating: 7.5Like your Rd 5 submission (My Soliloquy) I really didn’t think much of this at all on first listen , but it did grow , just not quite as much. It’s pretty basic prog metal really. My favourite parts were actually the (long) instrumental intro and midsection interlude (nice drumming too) –
in between those the song just plodded along , the chorus was pretty flat and the vocals in general were pretty average IMHO. And that album cover looks very familiar , so I am pretty certain I checked this one out properly and don’t have it for a reason.
When I don’t quite get a band like this I tend to have a little look around at some reviews to see if I’m all alone in my opinions. As it turns out there seem to be two camps on this one – some people seem to think that these guys are the second coming of DT and others (a couple of the big metal review sites) rated it 5/10 and 6/10. I would tend to go with the latter group I think (esp. first impressions) , although it’s not all that bad and my rating reflects that.
12) The Pineapple Thief: 3000 Days – kingshmegland Rating: 7This is the sort of music that I might expect to be punished with if I stole a pineapple...............yeah, I can see that.
Just kidding . As a rule this sort of alternative pop rock vibe doesn’t really grab me , but then again there’s nothing hugely wrong with it and so I’m finding it hard to criticise it outside of the general “vibe”. There’s some melody in there, it’s a smooth listen but the distortion/ heaviness of the guitars in the almost grungy intro and later riff seem almost out of place relative to the rest , especially the “gentle” vocals. I certainly didn’t dislike the song king but it also didn’t really grab me I am afraid.
Before the standings I will do a little summary of bonus points available from here and we’ll just cross them off as used:
DTF Fave Bonus Point Available:
jjrock88
Lowdz
Instrumental Bonus Point Available
TAC
wolfking
kingshmegland
Evermind
No Bonus Points Available
Bolsters
jingle.boy
erwinrafael
splent
Big Hath
Sacul
STANDINGS
I think if we allow for potential bonus points , I can still say that everyone is in with a chance at Top Six. It does look like the Top 5 might almost be there unless someone drops a real turd. So it might be 7 fighting over that 6th place , with Sacul, then Lowdz/erwin currently best placed. It’s getting very crowded at the top all of a sudden too.
jjrock88 10+10+8.5+9+8.5 = 46
Evermind 10.5+9.5+9+8.5+8.5 = 46
wolfking 9.5+9.5+9+8.5+9= 45.5
Bolsters 9+9+8.5+9.5+9.5=45.5
Big Hath 9+9+9+8.5+9.5 = 45
Sacul 9+9+7.5+8.5 +9.5= 43.5
Lowdz 8.5+9.5+9+7.5+8.5 = 43
erwinrafael 9.5+7.5+10 +7+9=43
jingle.boy 8.5+8.5+8.5+8 +8.5= 42
splent 9+8+8.5+8+8= 41.5
TAC 9+8.5+8+8.5+7.5 =41.5
kingshmegland 8+8.5+9 +7.5+7= 40
Banned bands
Al Di Meola
Almah
Amorphis
Anathema
Angelica
Apple Pie
Ayreon
A.C.T
Animals As leaders
Big Wreck
Black Majesty
Blondie
Blind Guardian
Buckethead
Chaos Frame
Coheed and Cambria
Cryonic Temple
Damnation Angels
Dead End
Death
Down
Evil Masquerade
Haken
Haven
Holst
Holy Shite
Ice Age
Iron Maiden
Jimi Hendrix
Jon Lord
Karnya
Last Crack
Mandroid Echostar
Mark Knopfler
Marketa Irglova
Mr Mister
My Soliloquy
Myland
Mystery
Nazareth
Need
Odd Dimension
Opeth
Orphaned Land
Pablo Cruise
Pain of Salvation
Pandora's Box
Portishead
Primal Fear
Queen
Queensryche
Riverside
Sebastien
Seven tears
Shineback
Sieges Even
Spock’s Beard
Skid Row
Steven Wilson
Stream of Passion
Steely Dan
Steve Vai
The Black Mages
The Blitz
The Mob
The Neal Morse Band
The Pineapple Thief
The Sacrificed
The Hsu Nami
Throne of Chaos (TOC)
UFO
U.K.
Vicious Rumors
Warmachine
X Japan
Yanni
Yes
Topic: BL5150 Roulette - Ghost Protocol......GRAND FINAL RESULTS (Read 69596 times)
