Round 6 results! 
TyriasMono – Everlasting Light:
Being the only instrumental in this round, this was a very nice breather between all the other epics (of course, I won’t take that into account when ranking, but for my 3 hours listening routines it was a nice adjustment). With a pretty slow buildup and a relatively short song overall, though 10 minutes is pretty long for an instrumental, you gotta wonder where they’re going with the song when you’re about 4-5 minutes in. The second half of the song is amazingly well fitting to the theme of ‘epics’ though, that’s some very huge sounding instruments. This was a great epic for sure, and it’s a pretty high score, just.. compared to the other songs this round this one had the least to offer I feel.
8,5/10MikemangioyBetween the Buried and Me - White Walls:
It’s funny you should send this, I actually listened to Coma Ecliptic the other day and then tried to check out Colors, I didn’t last very long. My brother kept telling me I had to listen to White Walls though, as it’s supposed to be one of their best, I guess the time has come. Listened to viridian first as everyone recommends it, and it sets the mood quite nicely. The thing that really makes that intro epic is that guitar riff, really huge sound there. The vocals don’t scare me off the way I thought they would, when you’re used to it they actually sound pretty energetic and even harmonic to a certain extent. Which brings me to the clean part, which oddly, was actually my least favorite part of the song. BtBaM have always been 100% about instrumentals for me, but this song made me appreciate the vocals more (maybe because I was forced to give them more than one listen
). Great epic song!
9/10Senecadawg2Enslaved – Roots of the Mountain:
I actually did really dislike the vocals in the intro at first, the chorus however, was great right off the bat, and kept me from disliking the song. Getting into the song more and more on consecutive listens, I started to like how such aggressive vocals mixed with the calm ones ended up working out. That said, most of the instrumentals on here are actually very uplifting, something I wouldn’t expect from a song with such an aggressive intro. There have been one or two songs that beat this song in terms of ‘epicness’, but you’re right, the chorus is incredibly epic, I dig that. The best part though, is when the chorus returns one last time with the growls and cleans combined It’s not too far from a perfect score, but definitely very great, and I’m glad it started to grow on me quickly.
9/10425Transatlantic – Into the Blue:
Two Transatlantic songs, well I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about them at the “best MP side project album” thread. So I have heard a bit of Neal Morse (one or two songs from his side projects), and of course I have heard MP play before, this should be interesting. Being the longest song along with the other Transatlantic song, I can see that they know their way around the 26 minute epics pretty damn well. The intro, while being pretty long, does not feel like it drags, and introduces us to the main riff, that’s like the grooviest thing ever, I was simply blown away by it. Even though the voice just sounds like a standard classic prog voice, it doesn’t take away from the music or anything, and the instrumentals are definitely the main attraction of both TA songs I received. Very ‘epic’ conclusion aswell, kinda reminds me of Octavarium.
9/10Evermind
Need – Orvam:
Unlike most of the other lengthier songs on this round, this one is pure energy from the beginning of the road all the way to the end. It has both the very happy sounding proggy sections and the dark heavy metal sections. I feel like most heavy metal songs make the songs conclusion sound very big, but when they actually focus on it, it becomes something as powerful as this tune here. And when everything is supposedly said and done, that creepy piano with the spoken words ends the song on a very good note, incredibly creepy, though not as creepy as Devil Doll by a country mile, it’s getting there.
9/10BolstersFrost* - Milliontown:
Already starts out beautifully with the piano, and man, do they deliver with that intro. Comparing this to the Pink Floyd tune (as it’s kinda similar in length and style), I think the intro is slightly less interesting, while still amazing. The instruments get way more interesting as the song progresses though, with a very happy sound. I can’t help to think this band is perfect for making long songs, it’s all so well tied together with seemingly no problem. That keyboard solo near the end though, has to be my favorite part of everything, being a great climax to a more than solid epic. Dang, I need more of these guys.
9,5/10EliteTransatlantic – Duel With the Devil:
I actually nearly liked both Transatlantic songs the same, this one just got the edge though. Duel With the Devil has more of an epic feel to it and the superior instrumental sections makes it a more enjoyable 26 minutes. I’ll go ahead and repeat myself here on a few counts. Neal Morse, I never listened to his music all that much, I’ve heard a couple of his side project songs but I’ve always acknowledged his talent. Mike Portnoy goes without saying, phenomenal drummer technically and most of all, creatively. I haven’t heard much of the others but I know they’re big names, and boy do they make it count on this song, mind-blowing solo sections. Into the Blue, in my opinion, had a superior main riff, I loved the groove on that one and is probably the most memorable thing in this entire round. But yea this song was an easier listen and never felt below that ‘excellent’ level.
9,5/10SplentPink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond:
That’s THE best intro on this entire round, it’s crazy good, both groovy and energetic. That said, it goes on like 9 minutes, which is almost a third of the entire track, pretty perfect for an intro that never at any point feels like it’s dragging out the song. I think I’ve heard bits of this song once or twice on the radio or something, but I never knew it was Pink Floyd, the only song I knew from them was Another Brick in the Wall and it didn’t do much for me. Once again though, you give me the right song to convince me those classic bands aren’t all that bad. I sure hope they have more of these instrumental-oriented songs, ‘cause while I did enjoy the vocals, the instruments were the real treat here.
9,5/10 SaculDestrage – Are You Kidding Me? No.
Wow. I’m blown away by this. This does definitely remind me a bit of Protest the Hero, but with a crazier voice, I love it. Probably the only song of this round to not really have an ‘epic’ intro though, but this still classifies well. What makes this epic song so epic is NANA nununu NANA nununu NANA nununu NANA!
Nah, it’s the epic trumpets with a very latino-ish touch to them, great to get some of those. These following vocals are very musical-like and remind me of A Little Piece of Heaven, strangely, because it doesn’t sound like that at all. As with most of the songs on here, growls didn’t turn me off at all, I think I’ve developed an immunity for it, but they still don’t appeal all that much to me either. It’s a pretty small portion of the song though, and these vocals do work very well with the music so they actually came out nicely. Whaddya say, does a perfect score sound nice to you? Close enough.
9,5/10
Shadow Ninja 2.0Devil Doll – Mr Doctor:
I’m just going to state right away how I feel about this: It’s so damn gloomy and sinister and that’s exactly why I love it so much! The vocals are out of this world (while not being particularly great technically) and actually kind of creep me out. That said, this song would probably even do better in R8 if that didn’t have a length limit. You know that Courage the Cowardly Dog episode of The Great Fusilli? That’s exactly what came to my mind when hearing this song, and it’s creepy as hell. There’s one part of the song that I can kinda consider to be metal, and it’s pretty cool, with additional chants in the background, but what follows.. I know I said this song kinda creeped me out, but that “Mr Doctor” near the 17 minute mark after all the instruments go silent was
actually chilling and really did creep me out. I have no real idea of what Devil Doll is, but I imagine it being similar to this, so it’s definitely a band I’d check out some time, now you see what happens when one of your weird songs DOES work out.
10/10LordCostThe Human Abstract – Antebellum:
Clocking in at 7 and a half minutes, this is the shortest song I’ve received. Surprisingly, it’s one of the most epic songs I’ve heard, so it’s a good fit to the round. Starts off slow, but in the 10 seconds that they take to build up, they cover the 4 minutes that songs with this factor of epic-ness usually take. Again, like pretty much every song that included growls in this round, they weren’t repelling at all, they complemented the music, like growls are supposed to. The chorus, which was all clean however, is the thing I kept returning for, and was constantly stuck in my head… in a good way.
10/10ParamaNe Obliviscaris – Forget Not:
Starting with a very harmonic guitar thingy, it progresses very smoothly into a very cool violin lead (who woulda thought I’d ever say that) and already gives me the epic feels. I probably wouldn’t even care if they just extended those instruments into a 12 minute fully instrumental epic. Though one of the best things of this song is at about 7-8 minutes, where they do incorporate growls, but mix it in the background to accentuate the cleans, that served me pretty damn well. Finally, they do go all harsh, making this song exactly what I expected it to be going into it, constantly escalating tension up to the very end, I love when they do that!
10/10I really, really enjoyed this round, I'd be surprised if this won't be my favorite round at the end of this. After 6 rounds I think it's pretty fair to make such a statement. Scores ranging from 8.5-10 I would've never imagined before doing this, just take a look at all these songs, they're all excellent.
Anyway I'll be updating the standings shortly, gotta go somewhere real quick so I figured I'd give you the results now.
Current standings:Elite: 43,5 + 9,5 = 53
Evermind: 43 + 9 = 52
Parama: 42 + 10 = 52
425: 42,5 + 9 = 51,5
Senecadawg2: 42,5 + 9 = 51,5
Sacul: 41,5 + 9,5 = 51
Splent: 41 + 9,5 = 50,5
Bolsters: 41 + 9,5 = 50,5
Tyrias: 42 + 8,5 = 50,5
LordCost: 39 + 10 = 49
Mike: 39 + 9 = 48
Shadow Ninja: 35 + 10 = 45
I'm going to figure out the best way to break a tie without having to delay the roulette ASAP, and make it public to you guys, give me a day max. I'm currently thinking about taking the average of everyone's top three songs after round 10 is over, to have a 2nd score in case of ties, this way, the sheer luck someone could've had with a single 10/10 wouldn't automatically qualify them to win any tie, and it would be more about the participants consistency. Thoughts/ideas?
Topic: Train of Naught Debut Roulette - And the winner is... (Read 51773 times)
