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

[Evermind]

Can you guys guess which one is mine? Starts with "Vanden" and ends with "Plas".

[Crow]

omg evermind changed his avatar

also rip Coheed
i hope they picked a good one

(i wonder who sent East of the Wall )

[Evermind]

omg evermind changed his avatar

It's a Christmas / New Year time soon after all!

[Train of Naught]

Can you guys guess which one is mine? Starts with "Vanden" and ends with "Plas".

Really? I thought RUSSKAJA would be yours

[Evermind]

Can you guys guess which one is mine? Starts with "Vanden" and ends with "Plas".

Really? I thought RUSSKAJA would be yours

I'm not that obvious.

I don't even know what kind of band this is.

[Crow]

since I can't now I might as well tell you that the Coheed I would've sent you would probably be Domino the Destitute but there are probably a dozen or so great roulette picks so

[Sacul]

Damn, someone cockblocked me on SW. I know who sent David Gray tho

[Evermind]

Yeah, I know that too. Wonder if the song is Gathering Dust.

[425]

since I can't now I might as well tell you that the Coheed I would've sent you would probably be Domino the Destitute but there are probably a dozen or so great roulette picks so

What an interesting choice...

[Train of Naught]

since I can't now I might as well tell you that the Coheed I would've sent you would probably be Domino the Destitute but there are probably a dozen or so great roulette picks so

What an interesting choice...

[Crow]

ahh, good, now i can send something weird in place of that one

[senecadawg2]

Yeah, I know that too. Wonder if the song is Gathering Dust.

Nope. I'm still scarred from the your response to Gathering Dust.

[Tyrias]

Can you guys guess which one is mine? Starts with "Vanden" and ends with "Plas".

Really? I thought RUSSKAJA would be yours

I'm not that obvious.

I don't even know what kind of band this is.

They are actually an Austrian band, only their singer is Russian.

Also, I'm so damn curious for results for this one. At least it's not gonna be too horrible, given your score range starts at 6.5

[Evermind]

Yeah, I know that too. Wonder if the song is Gathering Dust.

Nope. I'm still scarred from the your response to Gathering Dust.

Well, sorry if the my response was a bit harsh. It was a good song, but still, the most memorable part for me is the way he sings the word "time" in "steal my time".

I also have a feeling 6.5 rating is mine. Of course, my song is 9.5 for me, but you never know.

[mikemangioy]

Damn, someone cockblocked me on SW. I know who sent David Gray tho

Hi there, I'm someone 

[Train of Naught]

[Crow]

i'm retroactively giving you a penalty in my roulette

[Train of Naught]

I JUST pressed the "Post" button jackass, don't interrupt me!


LordCost
Unexpect – Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest:

There's been a lot of submissions way out of my comfort zone, but this one has to be the winner in that regard. I simply can't get into this like the other whacky stuff, it almost seems like some of the stuff going on in the song are not even understood by the band themselves. I'm fine with the instruments being pretty crazy, and I actually think the bass guitar is beyond great, but I'm into the kind of chaotic songs when they feel somewhat systematic, whereas this just feels too chaotic for me to comprehend, maybe I'll get into it with a few more listens though.
I regocnize great musicianship in all of the instruments, including the vocalist(s), but the music just does not appeal to me all that much, too extraordinary for my likings I guess.

6.5/10




mikemangioy
Steven Wilson – First Regret/3 Years Older:

Such a long song, but damn, this is not too shabby. The very lengthy instrumental intro, while not being my favorite part of the song, sets the mood perfectly, with a mix of ambient-ish and progressive rock elements. From what I've heard so far from SW (which is only this song as far as solo stuff goes) I'm kind of impressed, but on the other hand I don't think I will like his music as much as the average DTF member. The songwriting skills of this dude I can see are pretty damn good, but musically I don't like it just as much. I don't know a lot about Steven but from his lyrics I can kind of get how the subject is about something very close to him or something, I usually like my emotional songs plain and straight to the point-ish, and I haven't been into the mellow side of prog rock an awful lot. When it does hit, it hits big time, but this is inbetween.

Man I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for grading a Steven Wilson song below my average


7.5/10




senecadawg2
David Gray – Please Forgive Me:

I didn't like this nearly as much as the previous two songs (which were pretty much in the same category). To each their own I guess. While this guy can sing just as good as Damien and Glen, hell, maybe even better, I like this song significantly less. But yea those two were pretty high up so that still doesn't mean too much. My main issue with this song is those instruments on the background. This song should be all about David Gray, but some things, like that clap beat at 3 mins in is something that makes me lose focus on the singing part of the song. Does he do all the music with a program? If so I hope I'm the only one that's actually bothered by this. Great voice, and some generated background music that I don't understand and probably shouldn't be too distracted by, but in the end it does annoy me. David Gray's talent still got you an okay score for sure though. Of course you know what you're doing here, you're continuing a route of strong singer-songwriters, but unfortunately the laughing avatar man will keep you from expanding your (tied) lead, and will instead keep you in a solid spot to take back that lead.


7.5/10




Shadow Ninja 2.0
Sleep Party People – Change In Time:

Surprise surprise, Shadow Ninja sending me some artist I've never heard before. I gotta say I'm very pleased I received both this song and Sacul's NIN song, they were both very relaxing in their own way to me, while this song would strike one with the word relaxing way quicker than the NIN song. This band is pretty unique, as are Santigold, Tom Waits, w/e you name it, but with this I actually have no idea how to label it, some kind of ambient? Anyway it's a pretty good, relaxing song with odd vocals in a good way, the kind of vocals that act more like an instrument than delivering a message, which fits perfectly for this kind of music. Hell yea I'll have this kind of music play in the background when I'm in the mood, for that, I thank you. 


8/10




Bolsters
Meat Loaf – Bat Out Of Hell:

Cool name, first off. I have heard of Meatloaf before, about how amazing of a singer he supposedly is, but I didn't expect him to have such long songs, thought he was more of a radio-hit kind of guy. It's a pretty catchy song alright, didn't appeal to me on first listen but it's gotten a little better. This feels like what Queen would sound like without the glam and with more of a rock edge. There really barely isn't too much I can complain about, maybe it's a bit too busy as a whole for my liking, but I can definitely say I've enjoyed some music from the one and only Meat Loaf, did not expect that to happen at the start of this roulette.


8/10




Sacul
Nine Inch Nails – Just Like You Imagined:

I'm pretty sure I never heard anything from NIN except for one song, it could very well just be this song, but it doesn't sound familiar. I don't know what kind of music they actually make and what their vocalist sounds like, but this instrumental is pretty good, especially for the theme. They keep the song fairly simple (well except for that piano part), but in a way that it sticks with you and sets the theme for the album, which basically means it's the perfect album opener. Althooooough.... yea like I said they keep it fairly simple, it's not going to be a round winner that's for sure, but it's easily scoring some solid points, liked it a lot. Also, I like this one better than your original submission so you got away good.


8/10




Parama
East of the Wall – some songs tied together:

East of the Wall sounds like one of those typical Parama bands that no one else likes, judging from just the name for some reason. The groovy elements in Linear Failure are just glorious, actually yeah let's talk about Linear Failure, the core of the song, because how I see it, there's 3 tracks that might aswell have been a single one, because it forms one song. Since the first and last are intro's and outro's, my attention was drawn to the middle section the most. I could probably not have asked for better placed screams, this band apparently knows the balance quite well. It's up there with the most experimental stuff in this round, although it doesn't even come close to the shit Tyrias and LordCost sent me , and for those type of songs I always fear that I can't reward it. But this song I did like a lot, and it had more of an epic feel to it than most songs this round, but because of my low standards it doesn't stand out as the best song, definitely a good effort though.


8.5/10




Evermind
Vanden Plas – Vision 11even: In My Universe:

I see this name pop up every once in a while in the GMD and I always wondered but never checked out what they would be like. The style of intro they picked sounds kinda similar to March of Mephisto, which is a great thing. I actually like this guy's voice more than the Kamelot guy though, and I feel like this one has more of an "opening song" type of touch to, making for a perfect fit to the theme, so you seem to have less trouble with opening rounds than happy/uplifting rounds . Wow, I really like that guitar solo, it starts off very slow and emotive and then keeps up with the rhythm's as they pick up pace, that's pretty cool. The choir section is pretty cool, somehow reminds me of A7X lol. I'll take an educated guess based on my past rating skills and say this will end up just above average, like #5 of the round or something (this is without having scored anything yet and only being past the first listen).


8.5/10




Tyrias
RUSSKAJA – Energia:

Would it surprise you that this song is not the furthest out of my comfort zone in this round? Probably. But this one actually worked out way better than LordCost's song. Like they say with those whacky songs, it's kinda ruined when they take themselves too seriously doing it, but this band embraces it like no tomorrow. This song is full of ENERGIA, and the offbeat trumpet (yes guys, offbeat trumpet) makes this song amazingly happy sounding. It's certainly not the best fit to the theme, even though it's the original album opener, but it's still allowed. I love how your risks tend to work in your favor, because that Caravan Palace song was also probably way better than you had expected. I'm going to be frank with ya though, this is 100% sure not a song I'd buy on iTunes and jam along to when riding my bike to school, it's just not. But it has definitely intrigued me to check out some more of these guys, and maybe I've finally found the perfect song to piss off my neighbors when they call the cops on me again for noise disturbance without giving me a warning first.


8.5/10




425
Coheed and Cambria – Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute:

You're lucky I'm sorta used to this guy's voice because it was pretty hard to get used to at first (DW I only know "Welcome Home"). That's  a pretty cool intro, but the transition from intro to verse is pretty damn sudden, would've liked if they went on a little longer there, or made it smoother. No question whether this guy can sing, I'm definitely enjoying the chorus a lot because of that. I actually like the rhythm guitar in this song way more than the leads, or is it just one guy who double-tracked it? Also a very complete track, even though it's an opener, it doesn't feel incomplete and in the need of being followed up with the rest of the album. Anyway I already had the idea in the back of my head to check out C&C, but I could definitely see that idea coming closer now, cool band. I actually thought at some point this might become another 10 but nah, no way it could contest with Meteorites


9/10




Elite
Navarone – Time:

Man, first I'm getting all these mp3 links and now a song that's only on Spotify, that's it I'm getting my 1 month free premium now. I've heard of this name once or twice, but have never heard any of their music I don't think. The amount of distortion combined with the bass is just about perfect to give me a Royal Blood vibe, but fortunately, it's not at all like them, cause I wouldn't really be interested in more of those. This band has their own cool way of making a name for themselves, Merijn van fucking Haren. Who is this guy? After nearly 3 minutes of slow-paced rock you'd expect the song to really remain a bit on the softer side, then he starts kicking ass. The riffage afterwards is pretty neat too. Overall I almost can't not like energetic rock like this, it's in my nature, and this more than satisfies, I think I'm liking this even more than the Jeff Buckley song.


9/10




splent
Yes – Roundabout:

splent dude, you just keep doing your thing. First you send me that killer Queen (ha) song, and now this. I was never used to those classic prog bands (while Queen isn't nearly as proggy as Yes) but I definitely should! Don't be discouraged to send modern stuff though, just trying to say that this stuff is currently working very well for you.
I like how loud the bass is mixed in this, especially enhances the first few minutes, everything combined with this vocalist makes me super relaxed and energetic at the same time, cool combination. Favorite part of the song has to be the groovy keyboard section in the middle though, and the overall thought that has been on my mind is just how sheer happiness of these musicians is seen back in the songwriting, modern bands should take their happy pills before starting to write more often. I've seen some good reviews about Fragile, and never thought this music'd be for me, but this might just be the gateway song to Fragile and eventually more of Yes' neverending discography.


9.5/10



Current standings:

Evermind: 43
Elite: 43
425: 42
Senecadawg2: 42
Sacul: 41,5
Tyrias: 41,5
Bolsters: 41
Parama: 41
Splent: 40,5
LordCost: 39
mikemangioy: 39
Shadow Ninja 2.0: 35



In other news I've corrected a couple of earlier scores since we're halfway done now, I feel I owe these to some of you, IIRC there's about 5 songs I added either ,5 or a whole point to, will post later today. And I'll open the next round in a second.

[Evermind]

Oh, 8.5 is good. Actually, it's a better result than I expected to get.

I hope my Mark Knopfler song is among those that'll get an additional 0.5 points.

[Bolsters]

Man, first I'm getting all these mp3 links and now a song that's only on Spotify, that's it I'm getting my 1 month free premium now.

Spotify is a great service for free even without the premium trial, the limitations are not that bad - just a lower quality stream (160kbps Ogg Vorbis) and some ads thrown in between songs every so often. No reason to stop using it after the trial even if you don't subscribe, if you like it. Anyway, now that I know you're good with Spotify I might be able to stop sending you MP3s at least (we'll have to wait and see, I haven't planned ahead at all).

[Evermind]

I would also go ahead and say this is the weaker Steven Wilson song from HCE. I know it was an opener themed round, but if you take this album alone Happy Returns, Routine, Ancestral, Transience and the title track are better in my opinion.

[Train of Naught]

Right, maybe I'm getting premium afterwards after all, there's currently something going on where you can get 3 months for 99 cents so I just got 3 months of prem already.

Round 6: Goliath

Epic round!

Yea you know it, Goliath is pretty obvious, and I feel like I'd regret rushing this round as the songs will probably take more time to take in and of course are lengthier. I'm not going to force 15 min+ epics, but I'll emphasize the fact that I'll allow songs up to 25-30 mins if you really feel like it could be a hit. As for minimum length, I'm not going too crazy with it so if you're more comfortable sending an 8 minute song I'll take it, setting the minimum to about 7-8 minutes, the theme will still be epics though so please try to send something you feel can be counted as epic.

I would also go ahead and say this is the weaker Steven Wilson song from HCE. I know it was an opener themed round, but if you take this album alone Happy Returns, Routine, Ancestral, Transience and the title track are better in my opinion.

Planning on checking out some of the fan favorites (I think the Raven and that album previous to this one do really well with people) anyway so I'm not too bothered with it.

[Evermind]

25 minutes? I was going to send a 35-minutes long song.

Alright, going to think it over then.

edit: should've saved that Avantasia song for this round.

[Bolsters]

I had a 26 and a half minute song in mind since we all pretty much knew what the theme would be. I'll look for an appropriate replacement tomorrow.

[Train of Naught]

It meant to say 25-30 at max, I'll fix that, 35 is too much though 

[Evermind]

It meant to say 25-30 at max, I'll fix that, 35 is too much though 

You just don't know what you're turning down now. It's 35 minutes, but unlike, say, Kaleidoscope, this song will feel like it's 10 minutes long because it's so awesome. Chad will back me up on this, especially since it's his trademark epic song to send in roulettes.

Anyway, I'll find some meek short song tomorrow to send you.

[Train of Naught]

I really want to believe it's the best song ever, but imagine if everyone is sending me a 30-40 minute song, I'll be listening to every song one time and it'll take me over 6 hours. I'd probably love it personally, but we have to follow the schedule don't we? If everyone's fine with taking a long time inbetween next results I'm down (assuming it's allowed to go on for longer than the normal period of time a roulette takes).

[splent]

This is going to be fun!!



I'll try to send by Tuesday. I have a ton of concerts and recitals today.

[Tyrias]

Nice, I was kind of dreading results for this one, but 8.5 is really good. This song has been my go-to cheer-me-up song for the last month or so, it's so ridiculously funny.

I don't mind people sending longer songs for this round, that last round took pretty long anyway. Also, my song will probably on the shorter side of an epic round (so below 15 minutes), so it will kind of balance out I guess.

Oh, and do you like post rock?

[Evermind]

Don't worry guys, my music library is huge enough, I'll find something shorter.

[Crow]

yeah, i will admit that when it comes to the wacky stuff i got first round of my roulette, Schizoid Lloyd is a fair bit better than Unexpect was, and that was consistent across listening to both their albums, though 6.5 feels a little low for that one even still 
3 years older would not be one of the songs from SW I would send, it's good though
Meatloaf is one of those artists I need to check out further at some point but never have
i've scored pretty consistently well with East of the Wall across the three roulettes I sent them in so I feel p. good about that. actually just went and ordered their 2nd and 4th albums a few days ago, finally 
425 stole my 9, boo
Roundabout is great, though when it comes to Yes I prefer Close to the Edge (the song). I need to listen to more Yes sometime though

and damn, can't send Light of Day Day of Darkness for the epic round, oh well
i'll see what i can find for the epic round 

[Train of Naught]

Nice, I was kind of dreading results for this one, but 8.5 is really good. This song has been my go-to cheer-me-up song for the last month or so, it's so ridiculously funny.

I don't mind people sending longer songs for this round, that last round took pretty long anyway. Also, my song will probably on the shorter side of an epic round (so below 15 minutes), so it will kind of balance out I guess.

Oh, and do you like post rock?

Well in my defense I received the last submission for this round 5 days ago

Post-rock is hit or miss

and damn, can't send Light of Day Day of Darkness for the epic round, oh well

Don't worry, I'd reject it either way, I might aswell do an "album round" in that case. Apparently I stopped listening to this song 15 minutes in after one of you guys mentioned it.

[Crow]

oh man I better snub GYBE before someone else does

[Sacul]

Another 8? Seems like I'm stuck on that score

[Train of Naught]

Didn't Love Song get an 8.5? Pretty sure it did.