Train of Naught Debut Roulette - And the winner is...

[LordCost]

Ahaha I don't believe it!  He sent Thrice and PoS which were two bands I would have sent in this roulette. I sent a band that he likes, and it was a quite obvious hole like Parama has said

[Crow]

now i have to worry if you stole an artist i wanted to send 

[Sacul]

Now this makes me worry about how to handle several people sending the same artist in a round when I make my v2  I'll have a special rule that might lead to some trouble like this, but hopefully not 

[Bolsters]

Oh there's also 2 songs from the same artist, but I won't ask any of you to resubmit because they're from different albums and I trust that you know what you're doing

I don't have a clue what I'm doing, actually.

[Train of Naught]

Small announcement: Updated the banlist with some artist that I forgot should be on there, although even if I do receive something I know it shouldn't really be a problem for you to resubmit.

I'm hoping to have all the R4 songs by the end of the day, tomorrow is fine too, but I'd like to start listening by the beginning of the weekend because I'm fairly busy near the end of the weekend. (Sending PM's to the remaining people just in case)

[Crow]

good luck getting the last songs today if the people who still need to send are american 

[Train of Naught]

Gonna give you guys a heads up here, I will score a little more accurately from here on, but my generosity affected everyone in the same amount (honestly), so no one is being favoured here. I just feel that my standards for 'good' and 'great' songs should be higher, even though I'm pretty easily p leased when it comes to music, I'll stick to a format for grading songs that I'll probably post here shortly, so this is nothing more than a confirmation that next round's scores should be looked at with a grain of salt.

Also, while I'm here I might aswell say that I will keep my writeups to the shorter side, I'm already preparing for a top 50 albums thread and on top of that I got school stuff to worry about.
Which means my first impressions will likely be general comments instead of actual quotes. (They'll be up by the end of the weekend at worst)

[Crow]

if your 7.5's were you being generous then i'm excited for your 6.5's from here on

[Train of Naught]

Particularly the last round, althougj the Thrice song would still be 9.5. Idioglossia grew more on me and probably would be higher than a 7.5, but I want to give every song the same amount of time, and at that point I thought it was the right thing to do.

[Crow]

do relistens at some point bro 

[Train of Naught]

I do relisten them a lot, and I'm planning on revisiting everything eventually. But at some point I have to decide that it's been plenty and that it's time to come to a score.

[Train of Naught]

How bold my statement from yesterday might've been, I guess I'm just too easily pleased, there probably won't even be a drop in scores because I just like so much, although highest and lowest scoring songs in rounds will still be apart from eachother enough to make a good difference.
I'm gonna go ahead and announce the double artist here, so you'll both know what you're up to, aswell as the other contestants: Ayreon.
I decided to accept them both, because it's Ayreon, and if I've heard anything from this band, it's that they're diverse, incorporate a lot of guest artists, besides, the songs are from different albums.

I'm noticing a bunch of you are sticking to certain themes/genres, so at this point I almost identify some of you by music taste, pretty neat.
Scores will range from about 6.5/7 to 9.5/10.


And finally, to mix things up a bit, have all the artist names in random order:

- Avantasia
- Voices from the Fuselage
- Árstíðir
- Ayreon
- Santigold
- Queen
- Jeff Buckley
- Celdweller
- Glen Hansard
- Ayreon
- Oceansize
- Destiny Potato

[Crow]

well Glen Hansard is the 9.5

also RIP Oceansize 
damn you LordCost

[Evermind]

I always thought Ayreon is pretty much non-roulette project, because if you send a song by them, you are ripping it out of context and every Ayreon album must be listened in full. I'm curious to see what people have sent.

Árstíðir is probably Tyrias' pick, he sent the same combo (Susanne Sundfor and Árstíðir) in my roulette.

Well, anyway, I'm re-listening to the track I've sent and damn it's so great. I've no regrets.

[Sacul]

You sent Avantasia, didn't you?

[Evermind]

You sent Avantasia, didn't you?

Of course I did.

[Crow]

I always thought Ayreon is pretty much non-roulette project, because if you send a song by them, you are ripping it out of context and every Ayreon album must be listened in full. I'm curious to see what people have sent.

well i suck anyways so it's all ok

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

i wonder who sent destiny potato

[Elite]

it wasn't me

[Tyrias]

Árstíðir is probably Tyrias' pick, he sent the same combo (Susanne Sundfor and Árstíðir) in my roulette.

You know me too well, sir.

Or at least my roulette sending habits

[Sacul]

You sent the same band on my roulette 

I wonder who cockblocked me sending Destiny Potato

[Crow]

[Sacul]

[Crow]

[Train of Naught]

Round 5 - Come To Life

Surprised Parama couldn't guess this one, it seemed pretty obvious to me, Come To Life is a themed round for opener songs (maybe the positioning of the round put you off ), you can go ahead and send me in advance for round 5, though results will likely be up today, so you might want to wait for results first if you care at all. So yea hit me up with your best album openers, or songs you think would fit well as a first song on an album, I'll likely listen to these songs separately instead of the usual album form, to get more of that intro feel, if that information matters for your song choice.

[Elite]

Post results first. I'm notorious for not sending before there are results

[Evermind]

I'll wait for results too. And luckily I haven't sent any real openers in the first four round. Mark Knopfler - Border Reiver is in fact an opener, but I wouldn't say it has that pronounced particular feel.

[Train of Naught]

Round 4 Results!



LordCost
Oceansize – Music for a Nurse:

Meh, this is not doing a whole lot for me, especially the intro seems to go on for way too long, and even if it kinda has a similar sound to Thrice, this strangely has a way lower impact on me, Overall I think the structure of the song is nice, but feels empty alot of times. Definitely falling into the category of 'not for me', though I'm still not sure if I've had a real impression of Oceansize, maybe they're not all that bad, but thsi song doesn't really stand out.


7/10



Shadow Ninja 2.0
Santigold – The Riot's Gone:

Surprise surprise, Shadow sending something I'm totally unfamiliar with, and I'm not only talking about the band, this whole music style is something new to me, although I don't think it's too bad. It's a very happy song, and I like happy songs, though these drums do kinda wear on me, who thought that would be a good idea? Anyway, solid song and kudos for risktaking, but I'm more and more starting to wonder what ever brought you to Dream Theater, your tastes must be all over the place.


7.5/10



Parama
Ayreon – Betrayal:

It's impossible to browse the DTF without noticing the title ,,The Human Equation", naturally I should've checked it out, but didn't, thanks for giving me the opportunity. I guess this is the definition of a rock opera? I am into it, but I bet this is 10 times more fun when they do it live, and also, when listening to the whole album. Nonetheless it's some very epic stuff, mainly the vocals, and the overall concept isdefinitely interesting enough for me to check out the album. Kept enjoying this more on later notice, and even though it has turned out better than it started, the other Ayreon song beats yours.


8/10



Tyrias
Árstíðir – Shades:

One thing I really like about this is how it's way more focused on the instrumentation (mostly the violins) than the vo-cals, and damn, those are some cool violins for sure. Oddly enough, you're not the only person to send me some cool violin leads. Everything works here, even the vocals which seemed underwhelming at first, are starting to grow on me. Solid track, and I can proudly say I have over 10% of the total views of this song.


8/10



Splent
Queen – Killer Queen:

You know, I've always pretty much canceled out things like Queen, because most of their classic hit songs bored me to death, I'm pretty sure I mentioned them in that PM, but We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You are some of the most boring songs I've heard. This on the other hand, is just a super fun little song, fun, exactly the word I wanted to use, which is the same reason why I like Bohemian Rhapsody so much, Queen can just be so quirky while still being interesting. Good choice, you could've probably done much, much worse with Queen, but what do I know, maybe they have tons of these songs.


8.5/10




Mikemangioy
Ayreon – Unnatural Selection:

I wasn't sure whether to accept this submission, but I heard a lot about Ayreon and know they can be very diverse, and I saw that this was from a different album. I'm definitely liking this one more than Betrayal, it's very groovy and has super strong vocals, opposed to those of Betrayal which were more melodic and harmonic. You chose wisely, liking this song a lot and will probably check out both Ayreon albums in the end, but this one has my priority.


8,5/10



Sacul
Destiny Potato – Love Song:

Definitely heard of this band, I think my brother listens to it, he also recognized David Maxim Micic so that must be it. I must be a bigger djent fan than I thought I was, because this stuff is pretty impressive, however that may be because the vocals aren't your everyday standard djenty vocals. Also noticing some bits DMM used in Where Is Now? With the ,,gone away" section. I've strangely been staying away from Destiny Potato, but it's pretty cool, I should check out this band some time.


8,5/10



Bolsters
Celdweller – End of an Empire:

I definitely heard Celdweller before, but only one song (Shapeshifter), pretty sure it was in Need for Speed MW. It kinda reminded me of Linkin Park, but this song is leaning more towards the electronic side that you've been meaning to try out in this roulette. I like what I'm hearing, even though it's kinda repetitive vocally. I guess after some more listening I'm more into those electronic drum beats than I thought, and screw it, there's even a kickass breakdown in this, I can't dislike this. You definitely know what you're doing in these open rounds, hope the next round will suit you better than the last themed round though!


9/10



Senecadawg2
Glen Hansard – Bird of Sorrow:

You're building up quite the reputation here, first Damien Rice and now this? Comparing this to 9 Crimes, I feel there's some moments that surpass that song by miles, but some weaker points aswell, so I'm probably going to end up giving you roughly the same score, which really isn't a bad thing. Talk about emotional vocals, holy crap, I know BIZKIT wasn't sure what his favorite aspect of the song was, but I sure am. At this point I'm actually pretty curious what you have in store when it comes to heavier sounds, but I guess I can't complain if you choose to continue like this.


9/10



Elite
Jeff Buckley – Grace:

I honestly don't know how I don't know this guy, his music sounds like something I would atleast have heard of, I love how this kinda sounds like a less crazy sounding Cedric from The Mars Volta (though there's nothing wrong with his craziness), but aside from that, this guy sure had talent like no one else in this round, even compared to Glen Hansard.
Man this song just starts off pretty normally, and catches me off guard every single listen when Jeff starts singing, could listen to him for days. Instruments in the background aren't doing as much for me as the vocals, but I guess that's the point of  a singer-songwriter.


9/10



Evermind
Avantasia – Scarecrow:

Man, my to-listen list is just too big, thank you for sending me a potential gateway song to Avantasia. The guitarwork on this is simply amazing, and I'm not even talking about the solo, which goes beyond that. But what makes this song so cool is how it starts off powerful, has a very big game soundtrack-ish middle section, and ends even more pow-erful. Hell, they even have some similar-to-Drum 'n Bass shit going on at 9:00, what the fuck , I'm loving this song.
Yea revisiting every round's winner, this one is probably about as good, so I feel like this song suits it well.


9,5/10



425
Voices from the Fuselage – Meteorites:

This is more like it, only a couple of seconds and I'm already into it, really liking this singer, apparently it's the ex-singer of TesseracT, which explains my love for it. Instruments are very strong, although it's not the main attraction[, that is, until the ,,have I lost you" part, that segment is killer! I think you're doing more than fine here, because while you may or may not end up in the top of the leaderboards in this roulette, The Black Halo is already growing on me awfully quickly, and this album is now pretty high on my to-listen list aswell. And in the end, it's not about winning in roulettes, it's about pleasing the needs of a lazy host who lacks the ability to explore music himself.
Okay, final listen, and this one is not only my favorite of the round, but it also beats every winner of previous rounds, I might be favoring Ashe here, he's been one of the best singers in my book for a while now, but it's the power of the instruments that make it so perfect as a whole.
To top it off, I compared this song to all the round winners, and this one was clearly my favorite, well deserved 10.

You'll probably like this okay.

10/10



Current Standings:


Evermind: 34,5
senecadawg2: 34,5
Elite: 34
Sacul: 33,5
425: 33
Tyrias: 33
Bolsters: 33
Parama: 32,5
LordCost: 32,5
mikemangioy: 31,5
Splent: 31
Shadow Ninja 2.0: 27


I'll update the banned during roulette list later on, but you don't need me to point out the banned artists so w/e, I'm just copy-pasting this in a rush, so if the current standings don't add up I'll correct it when I get home.


Am I being too generous? Maybe, but it's not like I don't have any standards at all, I genuinely like the 8+ songs a lot, enough to check them out further, so if that means I'll have to check out like 80 albums afterwards, I don't care, I'll find a way , good going guys, you never fail to amaze me.
P.S. like mentioned earlier, send your album opening songs to me whenever you can, don't have any plans for a certain date to start listening so take your time.

[Crow]

man i wish I liked meteorites that much, i still can barely remember any part of it other than the intro
also why does oceansize always do bad what's wrong with you people

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Oceansize tends to be a grower, I think. They definitely were for me, at least.

[LordCost]

I tried Savant, Trail Of Fire and now Music For A Nurse, but in all those three roulettes I didn't have great results. This time I was particularly not confident about the song, as post-rock songs has ruined my score in your roulette too, Parama
Next time I will try with Catalyst, A homage to a Shame, something simple and direct and if it will fail again I think that we have to stop sending Oceansize

[Crow]

liking post-rock a fair bit also tends to help 
and also i can't complain about unnatural selection beating out betrayal, i'm the weird exception that really likes betrayal while unnatural selection is just a generally great track

and if you don't get high marks with catalyst or unfamiliar then it's a failure of the roulette runners, not the band themselves 

[Evermind]

My only complaint: the song's name is The Scarecrow. It's so epic it deserves this "the".

I'm loving this song.

Oh man, so am I. So am I.

Also, both choices for Ayreon are in my opinion. Unnatural Selection is one of the weakest tracks from 01011001 baring Connect the Dots, Web of Lies, E=MC2 and maybe Newborn Race; Betrayal is just a weird song to send, it's great but it doesn't represent The Human Equation at all. Why not Isolation? Or if you wanted to go weird, why not Loser? We could have had some fun at least with the latter.

(Everything from The Human Equation - except the very ending - worked better live. I can attest to that.)

I really (really really) need to check out Voices from the Fuselage further. I think I've heard this album once and wasn't impressed, but it was on Monday morning at 6 A.M. and nothing usually impresses me at that time.

[Elite]

^ I agree with everything the Russian said.

LordCost, try sending Massive Bereavement next time. Made me an instant fan in my first roulette!

[Crow]

Unnatural Selection would be like #4 or 5 on the album for me, Age of Shadows, Liquid Eternity, Beneath the Waves, and The Sixth Extinction are probably all better tracks. but 01011001 is pretty great yeah.