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

[425]

Both of y'all had really good EPs, though. Introduced me to Kamelot, who I in turn sent to ToN which was part of the reason why I'm here right now. Full circle.

[Crow]

I also gave you Lorde and you've backstabbed me here by sending her :')

[Train of Naught]

He was sweet enough to give you a mention though 

(as well as Parama’s, who sent it to me)

[425]

Sorry, Parama, I knew you wanted to send Lorde in this round and I'm the only reason you couldn't.

But yeah ToN is right. I try to give credit, particularly when someone introduces me to an artist who isn't exactly a DTF fave.

[Crow]

i tease anyways, i probably should've sent her at some point but i switched out most of my entries for other stuff when Train complained that i wasn't sending him weird bands he'd never heard of 

[Train of Naught]

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

[Evermind]

I'm quite hyped, to be honest. Can't wait to see the results.

[Train of Naught]

... to be announced


Alright, I’ve waited with adding up the scores inbetween listens to prevent biased results to happen, whether it’s subconscious or conscious, it’s something I try to avoid as much as possible, so bear with me. Now it's time for the....


FINAL ROUND!!!





Evermind:

David Gilmour – Faces of Stone

This song is beautiful. After just one listen I was 99% sure this was going to be my favorite song of your batch. This may sound weird, and judging from your posts in my top 50 thread you don’t even know the band, but there were some The Dear Hunter vibes during this song, nice surprise. The ending guitar solo is fucking unbelievable, you took my comments about SOYCD to heart I bet. But in the end, it’s not about small ncie details, it’s about creating a choesive piece with great individual songs as well, you hit it out of the park with this song.

20/20



Jon Lord – Pictured Within

Well, yea, I like me some Deep Purple, this is nothing like it at all though. I never knew he was striving to play classical music, but the stuff I liked most were the rocking guitars, the energetic heavier stuff, the groovy keyboard solo in Highway Star, you name it. I never heard anything from Jon Lord, but following up the glorious ‘Faces of Stone‘ this was a bit of a letdown. I liked it a bit and it grew on me slightly, but the piano is about the only thing that I could enjoy, the rest of it is okay at best to me.

14/20



Marillion – Sugar Mice

Given the subject matter, I guess I shouldn’t say this, but it was actually a fun song IMO, just musically though, the vocal melodies sounded fun, but following along the lyrics you start to realize that that’s not the case.. Anyway, I’ve seen the name Marillion pass by quite a few times, and while they’re a pretty old band compared to the stuff I listen to I can see myself enjoying some of it.

17/20



David Gilmour – Red Sky at Night

Man I love me some sax! (Shoutout to TesseracT’s Calabi-Yau) I actually expected Gilmour to sing, but you mentioned it being an instrumental, oh well, it’s under 3 minutes. Beautifully done; the saxophone is great, the overall atmosphere is FANTASTIC. If I learned anything from this final round, it’s that I need more David Gilmour in my life.

18/20



Evergrey – Hymns for the Broken

Another beautiful song. The “reach out“ part is fantastic, along with the contrast of male/female vocals. They both sound like powermetal/prog-metal singers, and I can always appreciate (for instance the male singer here) people with such a heavy voice singing so emotively. Well you said yourself that this is just a piano version of an actual prog-metal song, so that makes sense, but if you don’t have that information, it actually sounds like this was originally created this way. On top of that, the piano works wonders here, ‘nuff said. Originally, the scores of this song and the previous one were swapped around, I realized I didn’t like the David Gilmour instrumental more than this one, but I felt an extra point for this song wasn’t out of place, it’s fucking beautiful.

So far, a really touching EP with amazing ballads, if it wasn’t for Pictured Within this wouldn’t even be a contest.

19/20



Phideaux – The Claws of a Crayfish

Don’t know if intentional, but this has a very good epic feel to it, to close off the first chapter, nicely done on that count. I don’t know where that headbang moment is supposed to be , I don’t see myself headbanging to a piano melody. Before we close off “Hymns for the Soul“ (which, sorry not sorry, is a very cheesy title), there’s a very soothing atmospheric ending with what sounds like an organ in the background, neat. Pretty catchy song, not sure if it’s something I’d go back to though, I feel like this can only work if the instruments are as good as they are here, because the singer seems like someone that would be pretty distracting to me if it wasn’t for the awesome instrumentation.

17/20


_______________
105/120 = 17.5/20



The EP:

I felt like I was on a journey during this EP, since you decided to take the first spot, the freedom of setting the mood with whatever you desired was there. You opened with one of the best songs of this round, if not the best, and it was actually not just a good separate song that had nothing to do with the rest of the EP! That’s massive. I love how you chose the path of sad ballads, I’m more of a sad-song type of guy myself when it comes to ballads, but that silver lining hidden somewhere every once in a while doesn’t hurt either. Pictured Within is probably the only song in here that I didn’t really care for.

8.5/10

Great start, on to 425..





425:

God Is An Astronaut – Remaining Light

Wow, yes. This is an amazing transition, that Savatage song flows really well into this . But kidding aside, this instrumental is really beautiful. I might be over-using the word beautiful in this round but you guys really did well on the beautiful-meter. I like me some piano, this stuff is next-level though, the climax strangely reminded me of Space-Dye Vest, and that’s one of my favorite piano-driven songs (if you could really call it that). Now I’m interested in the actual post-rock music these guys make.

19/20



Lorde – 400 Lux

Awesome, I like me some Lorde, it’s not just her though, a lot of pop artists these days all of the music is centered around them, but there’s something special in the beat, that really deep echoing bass, I’ll never get enough of that. I know you called your last song dream pop, but this feels really dreamy as well.
This has been growing on me a bit, first I was all crazy about the beat, but the chorus is damn catchy too, starting to dig it a lot.

18/20



Lorde – Buzzcut Season

Okay, I’ve seen this title pass by plenty of times in other roulettes, I think just by you and Parama, but maybe others too. On a side note, I think the flow of this EP is tremendous, obviously you’re the only one with simultaneous songs by the same artists so that might play a big part in it.
I like this song even more than 400 Lux, it has catchy melodies, and still that echoing bass that I talked about previously. The chorus is damn good, I never expected something like this, it’s not your typical pop-song, that’s for sure.

19/20



Taylor Swift – This Love

Well, there’s one main job pop music has to check off, “is it catchy?“ why yes it is. I never really looked into Taylor Swift’s music, though some of the main singles from 4 years ago or so were guilty pleasures of mine, used to be played on the radio where I worked every single day. This Love is good (this love is bad), but I still liked the Lorde songs better.

Just noticed a NUGGET! Glowing in the Dark got mentioned in the lyrics, well, that only took 5 listens for me to notice, wow. Intentional?

16/20



Taylor Swift – Clean

I only know the side ‘happy‘ side of Taylor Swift, even though the subject matter of most songs are about break-ups and stuff, the music is very happy/uplifting most of the times. And that’s why this song appeals more to me than the last. They’re both aight, but I’m going to go ahead and be mainstream and say that I like the popular singles better.
Also, the idea of transitioning from night to day within your EP is pretty cool, and it’s not BS, it actually gives me that feeling when listening to it. I could easily see it affecting the overall experience of the EP had you switched around these two TS songs, so there has obviously gone plenty of thought into this.

17/20



Beach House – Days of Candy

So after your streak of popular pop artist songs, you follow it up with the most dreamy song ever. I don’t have a lot to say about this, simply because words fail to describe the things I think and feel hearing this. There’s so many instruments and other elements all focusing on one big, surreal atmospheric sound. Overall just a fun and at the same time dreamy song, that I cannot possibly come close to describing accurately.
Great way to wrap it up really, I couldn’t imagine what a good closing song for the 2nd part of the album would be like, but now I can.

19/20


_______________
108/120 = 18/20



The EP:

This EP turned from a pretty sad instrumental piano-driven song into a really dreamy atmosphere that invokes joy and happiness more than anything I’ve heard this round. Regardless of how many thought you’ve given your EP, regardless of how much I like the songs separately, this sounds like the best thought-out EP easily, it stood out as a solid center of the album, a piece that connected the first and last EP’s amazingly well with a great variety of moods. I can’t do anything but give you a perfect score for the flow and overall EP experience/quality. The night/day theme just makes it even better because that’s really working well with the songs.

10/10

 



Senecadawg2:

The Antlers – Parade

This was supposed to be a Bon Iver song at first, but I’m not bothered by the replacement, this song has really good moments, especially the vocal melodies, which you mentioned would be a main focus in your EP. It also kinda carries on the vibes and feelings from 425’s EP, not perfectly, but very well nonetheless. Something really has to click for a song like this to appeal to me, and that’s the voice in this case, because usually I would get bored by this kind of music. Off to an alright start.

17.5/20

But then...



James Blake – Retrograde

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, someone hit the jackpot! What a song. The humming in the beginning of the song that blends into the background later on and keeps returning is the best thing ever, so catchy, soothing, relaxing, funky, all of it. I don’t even mind the continuous *clap*, even though that’s what put me off during the David Gray song, here it’s fine.
This was one of the songs I kept wanting to hear over and over again, it’s so good! If this was one of those songs you’ve never sent before in a roulette, please do so from now on, it’s amazing and more people need to hear it!

20/20



Radiohead – Reckoner

Never been a fan of Radiohead, but I never really gave them a fair shot, either. The transition from Retrogade to this is a bit.. odd, but whatever. You mentioned the drums being a bit higher in the mix works well with the previous song, but I don’t feel that way, that cymbal especially is pretty grating IMO. Thom Yorke is unique, that’s for sure, still not my thing though, I guess Radiohead will never be for me. There’s a nice atmosphere going on but overall I’m not really into this.

15/20



Headspace – The Big Day (I actually just now noticed an accidental pun in my last post on here)

So, I’ve heard this album once or twice quite a while ago, I was on the edge of putting this artist on the banned list, but since I didn’t remember any particular song I decided not to. I also noticed Daddy Fucking Loves You has been a go-to song of yours so I kinda expected that one when seeing Headspace in your PM. Hearing the new single I figured this was a very vocally-driven progressive metal band, which is hard to find with a certain amount of quality these days. The thing that hooked me on first listen, naturally, was the badass metal instrumentation. It’s in my nature, I like metal, I can’t help it. But the vocals were eventually what made this song so damn good. Some of the vocal lines remind me of Haken, when Ross does that high-pitched thing where he goes from a harmonic high note into this angry voice, hard to explain, but he does it a lot on Falling Back to Earth if that helps. I’m not often impressed by debut-albums as much as this, I think, judging by this song, that I Am Anonymous belongs right next to the Native Construct album in my batch of favorite prog-metal debut albums of the past 5 years, I can totally see myself checking out this album again a week from now and buying it very soon, maybe before the new release even.

20/20


_______________
72.5/80 = 18.125/20



The EP:

Actually, out of all the three sections, I think I liked the flow and overall quality of this whole piece the least, but you had 2 perfect scores, so that should count for something right?
The The Antlers and James Blake songs both worked very well for the overall flow, you had that going for you at that point, after the first listen I remember thinking "oh man, seneca's definitely got this", the Radiohead song unfortunately killed that vibe (and I'm not even talking about the song quality right now, it's just how I feel about its flow), and the Headspace song, while one of my favorites of the whole roulette, didn’t feel perfectly fitting either, though still way better than the Radiohead song. For this EP, you’d expect any other prog-metal to be completely out of place, but this goes from a slow acoustic song with memorable vocal melodies to a bombastic climax of epic metal, only to close with a mixture of that metal and those vocal melodies I loved so much. So it probably was a better fit than most prog-metal, but I bet you were better off this way anyway, opposed to sending me a slow song that I would like just enough to give a score of like 16/20, after all, the separate scores do count more.

7.5/10





Let's look at the results more closely now:



Evermind:

20/20 +
14/20 +
17/20 +
18/20 +
19/20 +
17/20 = 17.5/20

17.5/20 + 8.5/10 = 26/30



425:

19/20 +
18/20 +
19/20 +
16/20 +
17/20 +
19/20 = 18/20

18/20 + 10/10 = 28/30


Senecadawg2:

17.5/20 +
20/20 +
15/20 +
20/20 = 18.125/20

18.125/20 + 7.5/10 = 25.625/30



Adding them up to the current standings, we get:















425: 86.5 + 28 = 114.5
Evermind: 87.5 + 26 = 113.5
senecadawg2: 86.5 + 25.625 = 112.125





















Congratulations 425!!!!



Every section was truly beautiful guys, this was seriously an album I'd consider buying, sadly that would cost me a lot of money since there's like 13 different artists I'd need to get albums from, unless I buy the separate songs on iTunes or whatever, never done that though. I liked the standard format of the first ten rounds a lot, but this final one really was something different, I would do this kinda thing again if I ever host another one, though I don't know how far from now that would be, I have enough exploring to do on my own for atleast a year now, if not more.
Might post an aftermath thingy in here , but for now, fire away, what did you like? What could I improve on as a host (apart from not liking your song more than I did)? Discuss whatever, the roulette however, is officialy over now. Thanks all!

[Bolsters]

Congrats to the integer!

[jingle.boy]

I'm amazed that all of that fit on to one post!

Congrats 425

[Evermind]

Well, damn, another loss in EP round for me. Don't think I've actually won any of these. Well done, 425!

About this Jon Lord song - total blasphemy. One of the best songs I've ever heard and easily my favourite of the batch. I had reservations about sending it to you though,  which is why it wasn't on the first version of this EP. I just should have included another Gilmour song since I already filled the artist quota.

But well, no regrets from me, I can't regret sending one of my favourite songs and losing with it.

[jingle.boy]

Second place is a bitch, eh Ruslan?  I've got a handful of those under my belt too.

[Evermind]

Second place is a bitch, eh Ruslan?  I've got a handful of those under my belt too.

No kidding. I did lose the same way in 425's roulette - he didn't like Beyond the Bridge - All a Man Can Do as my EP closer and I've finished second losing by half a point. Then it was Brent's EP round, he didn't like that Ian Anderson song and I finished third losing again by half a point. Now this.

Edit: oh, and also, ToN, it's sort of a tradition of mine to give my EPs cheesy names. I've already had "All a Man Can Do (To Win the Roulette)", "Kickass" and now "Hymns for the Soul". Keep an eye on the other roulettes to see what I will come up with next.

[Train of Naught]

425 was the most consistent in the finals, but none of his songs in this round reached my top 3, seneca's Headspace song was terrific, Evermind's David Gilmour opener was fucking beautiful. But James Blake's Retrogade takes the cake, what a fantastic song.
 

I'm amazed that all of that fit on to one post!

Yeah me too..

About this Jon Lord song - total blasphemy. One of the best songs I've ever heard and easily my favourite of the batch.

Dang, that's quite serious, because that first Gilmour song was about as good as it gets for me, I guess you like that Jon Lord song an awful lot then. Tastes. For what it's worth you have triggered me to check out David Gilmour and Evergrey.

[Evermind]

About this Jon Lord song - total blasphemy. One of the best songs I've ever heard and easily my favourite of the batch.

Dang, that's quite serious, because that first Gilmour song was about as good as it gets for me, I guess you like that Jon Lord song an awful lot then. Tastes. For what it's worth you have triggered me to check out David Gilmour and Evergrey.

Indeed I do. As I said (or I didn't, I don't remember), the fact I succeeded in seeing it performed live before Jon Lord passed away is very heartwarming for me, and oh my, was it an amazing experience. The whole night was, but this was something out of this world.

Anyway, you are forgiven because you loved David Gilmour songs. You can either check out his latest album, Rattle that Lock (Faces of Stone is from that album), or his previous, On an Island (Red Sky at Night is from this one). For Evergrey, you can also try their latest, Hymns for the Broken, or some albums from 2001-2004: In Search of Truth, Recreation Day or The Inner Circle. I strongly recommend starting with something out of these four.

I hope you'll also check out some albums from the main rounds. I know you already tried Beyond the Bridge, but anyway, I'm always interested to see what albums clicked with people after their roulettes.

[senecadawg2]

Kind of a bummer to have the highest average score from my submissions and still land in last place, but that's the name of the game. I sacrificed EP cohesion when I realized that two bands not on the banned list at the time were, in fact, banned. Even still, I'm glad to've played and I'm glad you liked two of the songs so much--I wasn't expecting to win this thing, to begin with.

Congrats 425! Condolences to Evermind.

[Train of Naught]

Yea that was bad forgetting to include them, there was always the opportunity to turn it all around, but like I mentioned, I don't think the cohesion was that bad, and if you flipped it all around the average song score would probably suffer from it as well, assuming Retrogade and The Big Day would need replacement. In the end, I think the Radiohead song is what caused the most problems for both scores.

I hope you'll also check out some albums from the main rounds. I know you already tried Beyond the Bridge, but anyway, I'm always interested to see what albums clicked with people after their roulettes.

Lots. In my next batch there's two albums I found out through your songs, The Scarecrow and Damnation. After that, there's still the Amadeus Awad album, the IQ album and the Absolute Priority album. Blind Guardian is a maybe, might consider it when I complete the current list.

[Crow]

yay 425 

[Sacul]

seneca not winning, smh tbh fam. props 425, 420 bro

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Good choice with Beach House, 425. 

[425]

Wow, wow, wow, I actually won something! Very happy that you liked it my EP so much and thought that my theme was actually good!

Credit where credit is due, of course. Three of my EP artists were originally sent to me in my own roulette, so I feel I should credit Scorpion and Shadow Ninja for introducing me to God Is An Astronaut, Parama for introducing me to Lorde, and Shadow Ninja also for introducing me to Beach House. Thanks for introducing me to those artists, guys, not just because they helped me win here, but because they are awesome.




On the off-chance that anyone is interested, here is my writeup that I sent to Train of Naught describing the theme of my EP:

Alright, here is my EP. This is an interesting mix of songs I’ve put together that kind of fit a loose theme. Obviously, I don’t know what Evermind or seneca sent (except I do know Evermind’s last song), but I figured that as the bridge between their two EPs, it makes total sense that mine has kind of the vibe of being a night between two days.

After Evermind’s EP fades into silence, mine begins, very softly, with an instrumental track from Irish post rock group God Is An Astronaut. This piano-driven song is called Remaining Light, and, true to its title, it really embodies the feeling of sunset. Though it is less guitar-heavy than the band’s usual work, this is a beautiful little piece that works well thematically as an instrumental intro for this mix.

The bulk of the EP, then, sandwiched between Remaining Light and another conceptual, ethereal piece, features songs from two of my favorite pop albums from the past few years. The amazing Lorde leads off with two songs from her album Pure Heroine. Released in 2013, when Lorde was just 16(!), Pure Heroine is a dreamy pop album with a strong sense of atmosphere and a heavy emphasis on the artist’s sultry vocals. The two songs I have sent from this album are 400 Lux and Buzzcut Season. 400 Lux is a dramatic song about a passionate romance that illustrates Lorde’s personality and charm in a way that still fits with the vibe of this EP. Buzzcut Season, which is in my opinion (as well as Parama’s, who sent it to me) Lorde’s finest song, explores the idea of escape through a series of memorable choruses. Both are among my favorite pop songs from the 2010s.

The unavoidable Taylor Swift follows Lorde with a couple of deep cuts from her critically acclaimed (even by non-pop-fans) 2014 album 1989. No doubt you’ve heard (or at least heard of) the lead singles Shake It Off and Blank Space, or even Wildest Dreams, which could totally fit on this EP had I chosen it. I opted to go with two of the less acclaimed tracks from this album that have a vibe that is more in keeping with the theme of this EP: This Love and Clean. This Love is a pretty little song about the emotional turmoils of romance. Clean is the closer of the 1989 album and also the beginning of the “morning” phase of this EP—the music is a bit more upbeat than the previous EP tracks and the lyrics describe the end of a personal cleansing process.

The EP concludes with a more uplifting piece from dream pop duo Beach House. This, like the EP opener, is a less hooky and more atmospheric piece than the middle four songs. The subdued female vocals, uplifting music and long, slow conclusion make it an ideal closer for both the Depression Cherry album and this, the Glowing In the Dark EP.

Well played roulette to all who were in it! Evermind and seneca were worthy opponents, and from the looks of things, both put together some pretty stellar songs to create this whole 90 minute thing. I'm definitely going to have to give a listen to this full "album" after seeing how well Train of Naught liked it. Condolences to the two of them and everyone else, but it was a very well-played roulette.

It was also a well-organized one! ToN, you were definitely on top of things in terms of pacing, round themes and scores. You also have some pretty nice writeups! It was great to be a part of this. It was a very fun roulette. I hope we all introduced you to a lot of fantastic music! Thanks for running everything!

[Train of Naught]

I hope we all introduced you to a lot of fantastic music! Thanks for running everything!

Of course I did! Remember, the only real winner in a roulette is the host. I noticed this is your first win, congrats on making the wall of fame.

Definitely do check out that album, you're also in the best position to do so because I don't see people who don't have '1989' buying the album just to listen to this in full. I respect the decision to not put music on Spotify and Youtube and all, but it makes it damn hard for me. I'm not one to buy an album really quickly as I simply don't have the money for it. Spotify has been a great alternative, I'm not gonna have the debate of whether Spotify is fair to artists here, but this will probably prevent me from listening to any of the Taylor Swift songs at all.

[425]

Of course I did! Remember, the only real winner in a roulette is the host. I noticed this is your first win, congrats on making the wall of fame.

Thank you!

Definitely do check out that album, you're also in the best position to do so because I don't see people who don't have '1989' buying the album just to listen to this in full. I respect the decision to not put music on Spotify and Youtube and all, but it makes it damn hard for me. I'm not one to buy an album really quickly as I simply don't have the money for it. Spotify has been a great alternative, I'm not gonna have the debate of whether Spotify is fair to artists here, but this will probably prevent me from listening to any of the Taylor Swift songs at all.

I respect her decision as well, but I also respect that it makes things difficult. I believe her music is on Apple Music, so there is at least one streaming option for 1989.

[Crow]

i actually like Bravado from the bonus tracks about as much as Buzzcut Season and I dig Team and A World Alone a lot too, but yeah the album as a whole is quite good, hope she releases something this year

[Scorpion]

That's a pretty sweet EP Evermind, you'd have won my hypothetical EP round with that.

[mikemangioy]

Congrats 425! This was a cool roulette, I really liked your style TON.

[Train of Naught]

Appreciate it! I won't be doing this for quite a while but you're all welcome once the time has come.

[splent]

Second place is a bitch, eh Ruslan?  I've got a handful of those under my belt too.

Yep. I've had one so far. But it's the best I got.

[Train of Naught]

Hey guys, long time no see! I had abandoned my whole roulette project and the albums I wrote down to check out based on your songs for a bit. But it's a lot of stuff to go through so I don't think I'm late at all with this, some people are still going through roulette stuff a year after their roulette ended from what I understand.

Part of me waited because I didn’t want to absolutely burn myself out on new music, so I’m glad I put it on hold for a bit. I haven’t been keeping track of every single album from the start, but from the last batch of albums, which consisted of like 30-40 albums, these are the ones that are 100% certainly on my list for future purchase (every album that I ranked 7.5 or higher is on this list):

God Is An Astronaut – God Is An Astronaut (8.5/10)
Riverside – Love, Fear and the Time Machine (8.0/10)
Rishloo - Living As Ghosts With Buildings As Teeth (8.0/10)
The Antlers – Familiars (7.75/10)
Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley (7.75/10)
Kauan – Muistumia (7.75/10)
Bent Knee – Shiny Eyed Babies (7.75/10)
Vanden Plas – Chronicles of the Immortals: Netherworld II (7.75/10)
Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase. (7.75/10)
Absolute Priority – Hunter (7.5/10)
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (7.5/10)
David Gilmour – On An Island (7.5/10)
Lorde - Pure Heroine (7.5/10)
East of the Wall - The Apologist (7.5/10)

You shouldn’t be frightened by these scores, anything 7.5 or higher is actually really good for my standards when rating albums, and the 8.5 I gave God Is An Astronaut is absolutely phenomenal, very few albums I checked out reached 8.5, this one’s comfortably sitting in the top 10 favorite albums I got/will get this year, and that’s including 2016 releases.

Aditionally, here’s the list of albums I still really liked, but don’t know if I’ll have enough money to spare for yet:

Beach House – Depression Cherry (7.25/10)
Navarone – Vim and Vigor (7.25/10)
The Dillinger Escape Plan (7.0/10) (I did already get One Of Us Is The Killer though, it got a 7.5/10, so your submission wasn’t in vain Shadow Ninja )
Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things (7.0/10)
Primal Fear – Delivering the Black (7.0/10)
Sleep Party People – Floating (7.0/10)
Theocracy – As the World Bleeds (7.0/10)
Genesis – Selling England By the Pound (7.0/10)


And to finish it off, here’s a list of albums that either were already on the list to purchase, or I have purchased already (note: I didn’t keep track of these so I might’ve forgotten one or two that’ll go on the ‘purchase in future‘ list, if you want to know specifically just ask me and I’ll let you know):

Between the Buried and Me – Coma Ecliptic/Parallax/The Great Misdirect/Alaska (pretty much every 'prog' album except for Colors, sorry mike, this was one of my least favorite BTBAM albums but you still got me to check out their entire discog and I’m a big fan now. That said, White Walls and Ants of the Sky remain some of my favorite BTBAM songs): (The Great Misdirect, since it got the highest rating – 9.5/10)
Thank You Scientist – Maps of Non-Existent Places: (8.75/10)
Dredg – El Cielo: (8.75/10)
Thrice – Beggars: (8.5/10)
Destrage – Are You Kidding Me? No.: (8.25/10)
Soilwork – The Ride Majestic: (8.25/10)
Leprous – Bilateral: (8.0/10)
Amplifier - The Octopus (8.0/10)
Anathema – We’re Here Because We’re Here: (8.0/10)
IQ – The Road of Bones: (8.0/10)
Avantasia – The Scarecrow: (7.5/10)
Fun. – Aim and Ignite: (7.5/10)
Beyond the Bridge – The Old Man and the Spirit: (7.75/10)
Opeth – Damnation: (8.0/10)
Frost* - Milliontown: (7.75/10)
David Maxim Micic – Bilo 1/2/3: (N/A (he gave the download links away for 10 bucks or so and I just bought them without hearing the actual music yet))


So why am I bumping this now? It may seem a little weird as this roulette has been concluded nearly 4 months ago. This does seem like the most appropriate place to post it, I know I always enjoy when people end up enjoying and even buying albums based on something I recommended to them, and with roulettes it’s basically the same concept, but instead of recommending a song you submit them. So I thought it could be fun for some of you to have some insight on my recent+future purchases.


My second roulette is probably not as far away as I first anticipated it to be, aiming for it to be around August depending on the waiting list and my own availability. Think of something along the lines of the first one, structurally, but I’ve had some fun extra’s in mind to implement in my second one to spice it up (don’t worry, it’s not going to be crazy complex). Probably going with the ‘first come, first serve‘ rule again, I’m not a fan of the qualifying rounds thing, if I absolutely have to I will though.

[LordCost]

It's great to have this news even after many months. Surprisingly Digital Veil by The Human Abstract is not even in thelist, and I remember Antebellum was your second or third favourite song (I hope not to confuse survivors  ). But I agree with you, the album as a whole doesn't do a lot even for me. The Rishloo album instead is awesome: Landmines, Dead Rope Machine, Dark Charade, Winslow, Just A Ride.. many great songs and not a weak one

[Train of Naught]

Rishloo I actually forgot to put on the list, but that's because just moments after I scored your song, they offered the download link to their album for free for a period of 24 hours, I took the offer but never actually paid for it and I feel I should, so I put it back on the list to remind me.

Yeah.. the the Human Abstract album felt like a puncht to the face I didn't dislike it, but after hearing Antebellum (which was by far the best pick you could've gone for) it felt like I already heard everything. Tried this album various times but it didn't do much for me.

Now that I think of it, this wasn't the only ocassion, I kinda had the same with Vangough, loved Separation but the album only had like 2 or 3 songs I liked nearly as much.

Jolly is great too and should be on that list, forgot to add it, but since double albums are expensive I might have to hold off for a bit. That's my only gripe with that one too, it's a bit too much, but the album has many great moments, my favorite song is Firewell.

[LordCost]

From Digital Veil I only listen to Complex Terms and Faust really rarely from the other tracks, I was not confident at all when I did the submission because it's not one of my favourite bands. I liked almost every song of the Vangough album instead, but the two previous ones seems not to be as good as Between The Madness.

The Audio Guide To Happiness pt.2 seems better than pt.1. I'm lazy to discover more songs of Pt.1, I know all the songs of part2 and my favourites are Firewell, The Grand Utopia and Despite The Shell.

[Tyrias]

Glad you checked out and apparently loved that dredg album, that's one of my top 10 albums ever probably. Such a strong atmosphere consistently, and it was pretty amazing when I saw them perfrom the whole album live in one piece.
Such intense. Much wow.

That Opeth album is nice as well, but far from my favourite by them.

[Train of Naught]

For me it goes:

1. Ghost Reveries
2. Pale Communion
3. Damnation

Right now. But those are the only three I have/checked out at all, I tend to get kinda lazy when getting into a band when they have a big discography, I should probably get BWP and Watershed sometime soon because this band hasn't disappointed so far.

[Tyrias]

You should add Still Life to that list, it's pretty amazing as well. My top 4 Opeth albums are probably Ghost Reveries, Blackwater Park, Still Life and Watershed, in no particular order. It gets harder after that, everything starting with My Arms Your Hearse is at least good, most things are more between fantastic and amazing.