Shadow Ninja v2Tom Waits – Downtown Train:
I never heard of this guy, although I can kinda guess where it's going. I want to be honest, and not feel that I’ve scored too nicely when I look back to previous rounds, so I will. This singers voice really annoys me, fair enough, you’re a risktaker judging from your submissions in other roulettes, and risks make for fun roulettes, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be facing the non-rewarding consequence of taking risks. I’ll try to avoid the singer for now to form a fair opinion for the rest of the music and take that into account, the guitar for example, is great in its simplicity, but nothing else really dazzles me, if it had some crazy twist or strong climax near the end maybe it would’ve redeemed itself, but I feel like this song is generally appreciated for the notable vocals more than anything, which didn’t work for me, making it a song with few upsides, and a lot of downsides. So eventually after doing my final listens, I found myself getting a liiiittle more used to his voice, but it’s still something that really wears on me, so the deficit you built up here isn’t as big as it would've been if I only did one listen though.
5/10SplentScale the Summit – Stolas:
So I already knew this is a progressive instrumental band, I’ve heard of them, and yea you’re totally right about that music video, not sure what they were thinking when making that. I’m usually not the biggest fan of progressive when it’s all instrumental, because I always miss those great main riffs that the metal instrumentals have (like Suicide & Redemption or To Live Is To Die). This sounds kinda like a mix between Animals As Leaders and CHON, which I both know some songs of, but never really got into all that much, I think that it’s a better balance than either of those bands have managed to reach though, but I gotta say this is the best STS song I’ve heard so far, that’s nothing too positive though because I was never really baffled by them. This song never gets too complex to comprehend or anything, therefore it has more relistening value to me, but that shouldn’t be taken out of context, because comparing to regularly structured songs this is still very much all over the place. I think for the selection of your song you did pretty good, but the artist is my main problem, just not a big fan. Besides, I wouldn’t recommend following the path of instrumentals, as vocals really complement the music for me (oh and you’d be cutting off instrumental bands for a potential instrumental themed round
).
6,5/10LordCostCreed – Pity for a Dime:
This was a pretty obvious hole in my banned list, I admire Tremonti’s work in Alter Bridge, I admire his side project (although the new album don’t live up to the debut standards), so hell, why not try out where it all started? Apparently, Tremonti is not the only Creed member playing for AB, it’s the entire band plus Myles, wow, I never knew that. I wasn’t really a fan of the first part of this song, although the more I listen to it the better it gets, it’s a great buildup to the main section. It’s really slow paced, while what I love more than anything in post-grunge is when singers deliver such great energy, like Shinedown’s Brent Smith for example. Sure enough, the heavier part opens up with a cool guitar riff and quick enough the chorus starts, I found out why you were confident to send this even though Creed wasn’t exactly on my to-go list, but it has very aggressive vocals which really fit this raw sound they’re going for. Mark doesn’t let down, not only the solo, but the guitar leads during the chorus are cool too. Honestly though, other than the guitar, and the chorus, it’s a pretty regular song to me, nothing bad though, not a definite standout, just a solid song
.
7,5/10mikemangioyPFM – E’festa:
So you’re putting your national pride on the line eh? This, along with Shadow Ninja’s song, are the only two artists I have never heard of before. This intro sure is happy, I like it, although maybe a 2 minute intro is a little long for a song of under five minutes, I’m guessing it makes more sense when you listen to the entire album. The singer (aside from the trololo guy) has a very atmospheric vibe, of course I don’t understand Italian, but I’ll see through that, I’m not much of a lyric guy(send Dutch or Spanish songs guys, bonus points for national greatness). The vocal do fit the long intro but only makes me fear this will either end before it reaches any type of climax, or won’t have one at all. Before this guy really got to sing much, this next part happens, and let’s face it, the best part of this song is that killer bass riff, that shit is freaking awesome. I also think it’s pretty safe to say you’re going to be the only one in round one with a flute included. Overall I think I’m more interested in the album as a whole than this standalone song, because I feel that it would make the flow better, it also sounds like it could’ve been a bit longer without dragging, but I don’t really have any problems with this song other than that, and that bass makes up for that.
7,5/10ParamaPain of Salvation – Idioglossia:
Obviously this name has caught my sight numerous times, I’m pretty sure this is one of the bigger names in the prog scene. The intro is very well structured, liking it a lot, although I’m not too big on the first verse, I did mention how vocalists tend to have a huge influence on my opinion, luckily though, it gets better soon. So yeah, finally, angry Portnoy vocals transition into great, memorable melodies. The instrumental section near the 4 minute mark is probably my favorite part of this song, though the chorus is also standing out to me. The guitar solo is nothing spectacular, but the following riffs are awesome. Overall a great song that doesn’t feel dragged out at any point, which can be hard for such lengthy songs, but I gotta say I’m not the biggest fan of this, it’sgreat overall, sure, but the verses still feel a little odd to me, I don’t blame you though, you said this is one of your favorite songs, and those favorites usually do have something that makes it special as to distinguish it from other songs.
7,5/10BolstersJourney – Stone In Love:
Ah Journey, I remember playing Don’t Stop Believing in middle school for some kind of talent show, judging from that song, I had already formed a strong opinion on Journey without trying out anything else by them, a negative one. This however, might just have changed my view, it has the strong guitar lead in the beginning flowing into the verse, great vocals, kickass guitar solo(‘s), damn, you sure know how to take my “straight up rock” taste into account and deliver this first round! The only complaint I have is the way this vocalist sings “Stone In Love”, I’m sure he pronounces it like that to match the timing or something, but it get’s a little annoying after a while, it’s not something huge though, and that second guitar solo makes up for it big time, powerful stuff. Yeah, final thoughts, I still like this, a lot, but the guitar solo’s remain the gamechangers, oh and I didn’t mention this before, but that little keyboard section which leads into the solo is pretty cool too.
8/10425Kamelot – March of Mephisto:
Yes, I’ve definitely heard of Kamelot, I was actually not sure if I should’ve put them on the green list at first, but I figured it has been too long since I’ve heard anything by them anyway. The fact that this is the album opening track doesn’t take a genius to figure out, very clear intro, which is awesome by the way, I like thesemedieval type of intro’s, then the guitar riff kicks in, it’s so in your face! I like it. So you said this song, however associated with, is not power metal, I would agree that this particular song sounds like heavy metal more than anything, and if it sounds awesome, who am I to complain? This singer adapts very well to the moodswings in this song, which makes for a great transition into the guitar solo. I find it hard to say a lot about this, because there’s not all that much to complain about, neither is there much to complement, it’s just a killer heavy song. The one thing I’d like to add though is that keyboard solo, heck, I didn’t even know they had a keyboard player before I heard this song. These type of songs will almost always get solid ratings, but they will probably never be a round favorite, definitely something I wouldn’t want to miss though.
8/10TyriasAZEDIA - Something:
I’ve been wanting to check this submission out ever since I received it so much, I saw you talk about sending dubstep in Tom’s roulette and then discussing an electronic/live studio performance song. Sure enough the artist you sent me appeared on Tom’s round one aswell, and he loved it, more reason to give this one a spin. It starts off super relaxing, and the electronic side of this song is in no way overwhelming, which is pretty much how I had hoped it to be. The relaxing vibe is kind of similar to CHON, except this song doesn’t do anything overly complex, which is by no means bad, although sometimes something a bit crazy can catch me offguard and actually be very profitable. The only thing that kinda wears on me is the chorus, which feels like it repeats way more than it actually does, but to call this song “simple” would be a stretch. Oh and the samples mixed in this don’t really do much for me, though they’re not bringing the score down or anything, they’re just kind of there. So you said you were going to remedy the fact that I’ve never heard melodic dubstep, and I’m not an expert on genre’s but though this is melodic, I’m pretty sure it’s not dubstep. However, I never expected to receive anything even remotely close to something like this coming into this roulette, but you done great mate.
So out of curiosity I went over to MrSuicideSheep’s channel (used to listen to this stuff) and I’ll admit that you were probably better off sending the live studio version, I still like this, but not as much.
8/10EvermindIQ – The Road of Bones:
As far as I know I have not heard any music of this band whatsoever, though the name seems familiar. The slow atmospheric intro only suggests more and more that it’s going to pay off bigtime near the ending, this is a big up in my book, I love building anticipation. Now something I haven’t really discussed of any other song, I’m usually not the guy who claims that production quality is a very big deal compared to the actual music, but this song shows all the more that great production makes for amazing audible basslines. It’s very rare for me to say that I enjoy the bass most out of all the instruments, but that’s definitely the case here, there’s definitely some cool instrumentation built around it, but it’s pretty rare to have the guitar and drums stay more on the background and let the bass guitar kind of ‘lead’ the music. That is of course, until that climax the whole song builds towards, which is honestly by far the best part of the bones, those organ-like sounding piano chords are very simple to pull off and implement, but make this final part so much better, adds that epic feel to it. I’m not too fond of the singers voice here at all, but the vocal melodies stay amazing nonetheless, making it work with his voice either way, and like you said, fits the title “Clarity” pretty damn well.
..Oh nice pun btw, I’m the biggest fan of well-timed puns.
8,5/10EliteLeprous – Forced Entry:
I think this goes without saying, but this is the longest song of the first round, of course Leprous is another one of those bands I was pretty much 100% sure of I would receive somewhere in this roulette, along with Anathema, Pain of Salvation and David Maxim Micic. That does raise my expectations a bit, but I’m not going to let that influence my scoring, I’ll be honest here, I didn’t really enjoy the very first 30 seconds, followed by the first verse, but then that amazing chorus! Gawd dayumn, it kinda has the same impact on me that Feint’s Snake Eyes did when the chorus kicks in (which I’m sure only Shadow Ninja has heard). So afterwards, the choir comes in, and it’s very fitting for this extremely progressive style they’re going for. The instrumental sections sound like something off of ADTOE, the kind of complex that a lot of people find to be over the top, while others love it, I’m an inbetweener in this case, nothing wrong with it but not spectacular. I didn’t really say anything about this on any other write-up, but I feel like I gotta mention this here, holy crap this singer is talented, his range is tremendous, almost like that King Diamond singer
. I only wish the ending was less abrupt, along with the intro, which started off very suddenly, it was probably their intention, but I like my intro’s and outro’s consistently building up, anyway, I don’t know any other Leprous songs so this might’ve been the very best option overall.
8,5/10SaculDavid Maxim Micic – Where Is Now?:
Get creative man! You’re so predictable. Oh well, if predictable serves good music I’ll take it, you forgot to send me some shrooms to go with this music video though, that’s gonna cost you. This is a very cool style of music that I would never see myself listen to on a regular basis, but it works so well that I want to find those situations to listen to this kind of music. So yea you said you sent some djent, was kinda skeptical about it at first, but really only that intro really sounds like djent, and after that, It becomes more of a background rhythm. What I like about this song is that it sounds very grandiose, and from that atmospheric sound with cool electronic bits mixed in (which is the good kind of electronic mix I wanted to hear), they dive right into heavy guitar riffs, joined by some bigband trumpets and some other random shit, and when I finally think I’ve heard everything thinking to myself that Sacul has done right to keep the vocals on the downside as I’m pretty picky with my vocalists, some of the craziest, but at the same time best vocal performances (the scat-man) ever flushes all those thoughts down the drain. I really wonder how this song could hop into so many different styles without ever giving me the feeling that it’s too random, for instance, Haken does that sometimes (looking at you Streams), I literally laughed out loud hearing that scat singer amaze me. I don’t know what this is, where it came from, but I’d like more.
9/10Senecadawg2Anathema – Thin Air:
I remember asking for band suggestions matching my tastes in the /r/progmetal subreddit, and I’ve definitely seen this name pass by, still not sure why I never bothered to check them out, congratulations on cutting everyone off for potential Anathema submissions, you were the first, but you weren’t the first to use this strategy
. I hadn’t actually checked the song length when listening to it, but I felt like it could’ve easily gone on for atleast 1-2 more minutes, no pressure though, because for what it is, it’s an amazing song, I really hope these guys have more songs that fit this calm euphoric kind of style, it builds up very steadily, and in comes the first chorus.. I feel like I could shout the chorus as loud as possible off the top of a mountain when it kicks in.
Seriously though, best chorus of the round, Forced Entry would be the runner-up. I also like how the standard acoustic guitar in the verses remains, but gets much more powerful and memorable in the chorus. At first I thought it would take something very special and extraordinary for me to score exceptionally well, but Thin Air actually stays pretty simple, and why shouldn’t it? Hell it works.
9,5/10Current StandingsSenecadawg2: 9,5
Sacul: 9,0
Elite: 8,5
Evermind: 8,5
Tyrias: 8,0
425: 8,0
Bolsters: 8,0
Parama: 7,5
Mikemangioy: 7,5
LordCost: 7,5
Splent: 6,5
Shadow Ninja: 5,0
Banned during roulette:
Anathema
David Maxim Micic
Leprous
IQ
Azedia
Kamelot
Journey
Pain of Salvation
PFM
Creed
Scale the Summit
Tom WaitsSo now everyone knows which popular picks are off the table, it's time to send in round 2 (if you hadn't already). Go!
Topic: Train of Naught Debut Roulette - And the winner is... (Read 52406 times)
