Round 8 results!!
For this round I took my evil pill.
Parama
The Angelic Process – Dying in a Minor:
Meh, first impression is just meh. I could have this song playing and totally forget about something that happened 2 seconds ago, no reslitening value to me. I want to like these type of songs but it’s just not working. Maybe it’ll get better after 2-3 more listens?
Nope, still not feeling it. After sending your 2 best songs of the entire roulette you managed to follow it up with something I really don’t get, and receives the lowest score of your songs thus far. I thought I had mentioned this in my thoughts after the first listen, but 8 minutes, really? I was done with this song after a minute, I have to see what this album is all about at some point simply out of curiosity.
6/10
LordCost
Cave In – Requiem:
First impressions: The music is fitting to the theme alright, I’m not a big fan of this singer as of yet, and not too fond of the middle section, either. I feel that for a 9 minute song it offers shockingly little. It does get better near the end, and closes on a dark note, but yeah, I’ll have to see if I end up enjoying it more.
I still don’t like how it takes so long to build up to the main part of the song, which ends up being nothing too special. Maybe that’s where the beauty lies, but not for me. When I hear this song I just want to skip ahead to the 6th minute or so, where I finally start to get interested. The dark powerchords around there are pretty cool. The ending climax is still my favorite part, just yea, takes too long for me to get interested in this. I can see why people would enjoy this more than I do though.
6.5/10
Splent
Tori Amos – The Waitress:
Sorry I had to reject Strange Fruit, that’s a wonderful song though and very good for this theme, sends chills down my spine everytime I hear it. The chorus of the Tori Amos song kinda creeps me out though, I don’t know how to react to it, but in the end it’s pretty neat, because I think it serves the song and its atmosphere well. It’s still just.. extra-ordinary. Let’s see how this turns out a few listens from now.
I’m still a bit weirded out by the chorus, but it makes sense for this song I guess. The last minute of the song is significantly better though, and I kept looking forward to it whenever this song came up. Sure the end doesn’t have much to offer musically, but it ends on a very gloomy note and may not have the best vocals technically, but they do fit way better to the atmosphere.
6.5/10
Sacul
Ulver – Eos:
My first impression of this song came from outside my own experience, always heard great things about this song and I just didn’t understand it, well now I got to listen to it in full focus myself, but I still don’t get it, what’s so godlike about this song? I should say with the exception of one or two songs ever, I rarely enjoy ambient, or just any song purely based on creating an atmosphere, out of the context of the album.
For what it is, I like it, but nothing more. The way they create the atmosphere is quite nice, and the violin is very depressing-sounding, but I don’t think I will go out of my ways to listen to this.
7/10
Tyrias
Chelsea Wolfe – Carrion Flowers:
Needless to say, this is dark as shit, so there’s that. The atmosphere is kinda there, I’m not really into this like I am with some of the other songs though, and the singer does not really wow me either. There’s this crazy ass bass guitar (at least I think that’s what it is) throughout the song that’s supposed to invoke a very dark feeling, but it kinda puts me off.
I am now less annoyed by that main bassline (still not entirely sure if that’s a bass), so this did get better, but not much. The song has alright vocal melodies, a fairly good singer which I’m personally not too fond of, but purely objective I’d say it’s a great voice. It’s still in the category of ‘nothing about this makes me want to revisit this‘, not the worst of the round, either.
Okay, I’m starting to get this song a bit more, and it’s alright, still not part of the round 8 favorites but definitely a grower on consecutive listens.
7.5/10
Shadow Ninja 2.0
PJ Harvey – Down By the Water:
First impressions: This song gives me the chills, creepy whistling towards the end of the song, not overly complex, catchy vocals, yeah I’m quite liking this so far, not an outstanding track but it’s pretty good.
Getting some weird blues vibe from the beginning, but in a very dark way. I’m still convinced that I will at some point forget that I ever heard this song, but right now I’m liking this alright. It’s just nothing spectacular, solid scores win the race (unfortunately that’s probably too late for you now though).
Very cool song, I’m beginning to like this a bit more.
8/10
425
Sufjan Stevens – No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross:
For the shortest song of the round, I gotta say this is pretty cool. When you listen to this for the first time it feels like a pretty uplifting song, but then you pay more attention to the song, and it turns out to be this inauspicious little song. So far so good..
Still a very good song, somehow reminds me of Brand New a bit. Overall I don’t think this would be a round winning song, it’s pretty simple but it works very well in its simplicity. Still a very solid song, and offers a lot in just under 3 minutes.
8/10
Bolsters
Primal Fear – When Death Comes Knocking:
Hell yea, a metal tune for this round, why not? It fits the bill. First impressions: Very strong vocals, killer guitarwork, and certainly some dark melodies, the pre-chorus especially. Your other classic-metal sounding tune (from Thunderstone) was great, and I’m on the same page with this song, very, very solid metal.
For sure upper half of the round, I’m confident that this is one of the artists I will check out regardless, because I think I’ve heard a song from these guys that bl5150 either sent or received in a roulette and it was killer. Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove I believe it was called. So overall, this song is pretty amazing, I like the Home guitars (whaddya call them, eastern guitars?) in the pre-chorus and the beginning of the instrumental section, aswell as this killer main riff, the slow pace really adds to the power of the melody. I could do without hearing the title a hundred times in the chorus, but I’m not too bothered by it.
8.5/10
Elite
Obsidian Kingdom – Not Yet Five/Oncoming Dark/Through the Glass/Cinnamon Balls (Mantiis)
So these are the first four songs off the album, which could be seen as one big song. First impression of this piece is that it fits the theme perfectly, first off. Secondly, I went to check the lyrics, ‘Cinnamon Balls‘ is a curious name for a song and you mentioned they sing about fucked up shit. It’s indeed fucked up, the music doesn’t come across as fucked up in an uncomfortable way though, which is nice.
Liking this song, still. The dudes calm voice in Oncoming Dark matches the music amazingly well. All the transitions are close to perfect, but the one from Oncoming Dark to Through the Glass is literally unnoticable. Cinnamon Balls, as the final section of your submission, is about as crazy as it gets, resulting in some weird-ass-yet-amazing breakdown. I didn’t know what I was experiencing half of the time, but I knew I liked it. It’s melancholic at times, it sure as hell was evil. I guess I’ll have to check out the whole ‘song‘ at some point, I’m digging this shit.
8.5/10
Mikemangioy
Swans – Lunacy:
From the first round of listening, I’ve learned that mostly, atmosphere is the name of the game this round, and judging from my first impressions of this song, they do one hell of a job with it. The ‘Lunacy‘ chanting towards the climax at 4:10 is nice, I don’t know how I feel about the rest of the song yet, but it’s well-crafted, it’s definitely got that going.
One of the songs where I feel I was spot on with my first impressions, still feel the same way. This vibe that they carry on throughout the song is wicked gloomy, and while I was still pretty undecided about the final part of the song, I think I can safely say that this is one of my favorites from this round.
Okay I am not undecided anymore, amazing vibe throughout the whole song, not just the middle. This might very well have been the best song for this theme if it wasn’t for seneca, Lunacy is a beautiful disaster, have some points.
This is also the first time I’m doing this during results, but Coming For You was the one song I kept returning to besides the dredg and Thank You Scientist songs, I’m feeling more comfortable about my recent scoring, and a + 0.5 feels like the right thing to do here.
9(+.5)/10
Evermind
Opeth – Windowpane:
Yes, this was allowed, never heard anything from the album Damnation. First impression of this song is actually pretty great, I’m all sorts of excited about the guitarwork on this song, they make a very fine line between a dark atmosphere and just straight up groovy vibes.
Yes or no? Definitely yes, this is cool! Opeth sounds like an uninspired thing to send in a DTF roulette, and maybe you really did not have much of an option with this theme like you said, but screw it, this is awesome. Guitarwork is still groovy as hell, Mikael’s clean vocals have always appealed to me unlike others, and the way he makes it sound so dark and depressing here is enjoyable (as far as enjoyable goes for a depressing song). Have some well-deserved points.
As to your comment yesterday, yea I definitely would’ve found out about this song either way because Damnation was already on my list, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, this album has just become more interesting.
9/10
Senecadawg2
Circle Takes the Square – Enter the Narrow Gates:
If your goal is to creep me out, you’ve done good, those (almost) isolated choir-y vocals in the beginning are kinda haunting. Yeah as far as evil goes, it doesn’t get much better than this. I think I gotta award some bonus points for managing to surpass all the songs by such big a margin when it comes to the theme. Musically, after my first listen, I’m a fan of the riffing during the metal parts, screams add a lot to the power of the song, and the mellow parts are very gloomy which also adds to the theme of the song, I’m liking this.
I’ve gotten some names I’m pretty familiar with, Opeth, Swans, Chelsea Wolfe, Primal Fear, etc. This, I’m completely unfamiliar with, and it fucking blows my mind. From the first listen I knew I would keep liking this, but it has grown on me even more since. The song feels like it’s a 10+ minute song with a crazy yet epic theme to it, all of this is stuffed into a sub 7 minute song with subtle transitions. I might like this song more than your very first song in this roulette, making this your best song so far. Attaboy.
9+0.5=9.5/10
I enjoyed this way of making writeups more than I did previously so I think I'll stick to the first thoughts>final thoughts layout for the rest of the roulette, I feel this way I can get my thoughts across more clearly.
I'll post the standings shortly, just getting this out there so you can have a look and send songs for Round 9 A.S.A.P., we're hopefully finishing the standard 10 rounds within the next 12 days orso and then it's just the best 3 of you doing the finals.
Round 9: Paschendale
It was at this point that I had run out of original song titles and just ended up entering a random name of one of my favorite songs that also sounded pretty cool, open round folks! It's the last open round, so make good use of it.