Wow, wouldn't have expected this to end up a double post. Well, I did listen again, and two of you gained a half-point for it. Including the person who originally had the worst score of the round. Congrats.
This was another good round, probably on par with last round on the whole. Once again, we have an outstanding song that takes for itself the highest score of the round, as it is clearly my favorite one here. After that #1 song, the rest of the songs essentially come ranked in two batches, where there are a lot of songs getting the same score. I realize that it's odd to see very little diversity in numerical scores, but with just five points to give, even a half-point's step up is a pretty huge step. For any given score, I can pretty reliably rank the songs within that score, but for whatever reason, none of them deserve the next half-point up or down. Anyway, I figure since I'm one of three judges, differentiation between scores doesn't matter as much as it would in my own roulette.
Here are the writeups:
Evermind: Jethro Tull - Farm on the FreewayJethro Tull is one of those classic prog bands who for whatever reason, I hadn’t really listened to until now. Which was probably a mistake.
This is a song that I like quite a bit despite not typically going straight after music from the 1970s, with a few exceptions. The songwriting here is just very strong. There’s some good musicianiship from the guitarist and the keyboard player, and the moments with the floutist pops in are always highlights, because I’m that prog fan who loves all the flute parts. Love the way the production makes them just pop in there, if you know what I mean. The vocalist’s style… isn’t normally a style that I would like, but he totally makes it work with the music.
This is quite a good song that certainly has increased my interest in checking out the back catalog of this classic prog band, something I probably should have done long ago.
jingle.boy: Meat Loaf - Bat Out of HellTo be quite honest, this is not really an artist I had imagined myself liking before this round. No special reason, I guess, just the overall strangeness of the name “Meat Loaf” causing me to be prejudiced against him.
I actually liked this song quite a bit more than I thought I would. This is actually a pretty awesome rock song that goes through a series of movements and tells a story. The subject matter is a bit unexpected for something of this scope, but something about this whole thing just… works.
The chorus, of course, is huge and anthemic and extremely memorable. There are actually a lot of really cool vocal parts in this song, all of course accompanied by that nice piano-driven rock sound, which is something I can really see myself liking. The best part is that whole section that starts “And I know that I’m damned if I never get out” and ends with the group vocals on the second repetition of the chorus.
If I was looking for something to criticize, I would say that like a one or two other songs this from round, this could be a little shorter. But overall, it’s a strong entry.
lonestar: Mandroid Echostar - Iron HandsThis is a solid prog metal song, nothing less and not much more. There’s a fair bit of variation in the instrumentation, as it goes from some pretty aggressive riffs to some much more melodic parts, which are the parts that I much prefer. The singer reminds me a bit of Claudio from Coheed and Cambria, which is fine with me, though his melodies aren’t as strong as Claudio’s.
The instrumental work here is solid as well, I like the more melodic work from the guitarists and what I think might be a keyboardist.
Honestly, when I listen to this song, I enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with it at all that I can point to. But even after listening to it several times, there’s hardly anything I can remember from the song, which I think shows how I feel about it: It’s a perfectly solid track, but there’s nothing special about it. It’s good, but it doesn’t come close to transcending “just good.” Looking at it now, I see that Tyrias had a similar assessment. And Nekov did too. Sorry to be the third bearer of not-so-great news (let’s hope that our esteemed round host actually likes it so that he/she does not get put in the position of being the fourth in this thread to give this a middling review), but here it is. I did like this song, but it’s not anything special in my book.
Nekov: Pure Reason Revolution - Bullitts DominaeThis song is pretty interesting, stylistically. It seems to live somewhere on the border between prog rock and space rock? Anyway, I like music with a vibe like this, where there’s rock instrumentation and something like a traditional song structure, but a really smooth atmospheric sound.
The singing here is fantastic. The vocal melodies are just excellent and totally in keeping with the vibe. The chorus is fantastic. It’s really amazing. It’s one of those musical parts that feels like home even though I ostensibly first heard it within the past few days.
The instrumentation is awesome as well. The way that the remains smooth while really getting intense at times and swelling, especially on the chorus.
Basically, this song is fantastic. It hits exactly my musical sweet spot in several ways, has some really incredible parts, does so within a fairly compact runtime, and doesn’t do anything that bothers me.
Parama: Baroness - The Line BetweenOkay, this is a pretty cool sludgy track… Which is not my usual favorite style of music (particularly because the fuzziness of the guitar sound is a not exactly my favorite thing), but this song does make it work. The riffs are pretty nice and big, and I like the singer—he reminds me of the side of James Hetfield’s voice that I like. The chorus here is somewhat memorable as well—it’s definitely my favorite part of the song.
This isn’t my new favorite band, and it’s still a style of music that I really would only listen to in small doses. But it’s a pretty cool rock song that actually brings some level of weight, and sometimes the world just needs one of those.
Sacul: Bent Knee - Being HumanOkay, so this a very, very strange song. It opens off with a very creepy, very soft piano intro that does its job nicely. The singer is unquestionably talented, and the melodies are strong
And then things just get weird. The song kind of alternates between these nice little piano parts and these big bombastic, abrasive sections of staccato intrumentation.
I’m going to be quite honest, on first listen, I was completely turned off. I didn’t like this song at all. It got better on repeated listens to the extent that I can make sense of what is going on the entire time. And there’s a significant amount of stuff that I genuinely like. The singer is quite talented and the vocal parts are all pretty good.
The downside: a lot of the instrumentation isn’t really my thing. The staccato parts are not that appealing to me, and I would definitely prefer the piano and vocal parts appearing in a somewhat different song. This is one of those songs that feels a little to me like it’s trying too hard to be different for the sake of being different. On the other hand, I really did like some things about it quite a bit. So while I don’t really get the roulette favorite status it seems that this might enjoy, it will get a decent score from me.
Scorpion: Myrath - My Inner WarSo here’s a prog metal song, one that, on first listen, probably got unfairly lost in the shuffle of prog metal songs this round. On repeat listens, I have to say this is a pretty good song, though not without flaw
There’s some strong instrumentation from the guitars and keyboards, which is always good. When there’s a nice long intro with multiple parts that doesn’t have me waiting for the vocals to come in, that’s a good sign. The singer himself is perhaps fairly typical of prog metal, but he’s quite talented. He does well at shifting between different style and adding just a bit of grit where necessary.
The sole flaw in this song may be its length. There are some really awesome parts in this song (the intro, the first set of verses, the “They will be there” part). And there aren’t really any bad parts, but there are sections that I just see as generic riffing that don’t really do too much for me. It seems that while this is a pretty good 8 and a half minute song, it could have been a really good 6 minute song. Still, this was an enjoyable listen.
senecadawg2: Beardfish - Green WavesOkay, this song is just cool.
This is a song whose style is definitely in a genre that is in my wheelhouse (prog metal) but whose actual sound is not really like anything I’ve heard before. There’s a nice use of melodic heavy riffs that really do sound like waves of music in this song, alternated with some softer parts. The singer does a really nice job of expressing emotion and adding grit where necessary. The vocal melodies are really strong too, quite powerful and memorable.
This is a long song with a lot of moving parts, and I think it’ll take several more listens for to really get everything that’s going on here. There might be a little too much repetition, but the parts that get repeated are good parts, so I’ll totally allow it. This whole thing is a very good ride from start to finish, with an awesome singer and some very powerful instrumentation. As I said at the beginning of the writeup, this song is just cool.
wolfking: Evergrey - King of ErrorsThis round: wolfking sends another cool metal song.
This one has a long spoken word intro, which one could argue is too long, but it’s pretty epic, so it’s okay with me. The song itself is just a really awesome if somewhat straightforward prog-metally track. There’s some nice instrumentation here, with those heavy riffs and keyboard elements, which provide a lot of good atmosphere on the chorus.
And speaking of choruses, the chorus here is really awesome and completely makes the song. It’s massive and epic and has just been completely stuck in my head the last few days, in a good way. I haven’t read all the lyrics, but what I can easily discern in the chorus is awesome lyrically as well. The singer’s voice isn’t jaw-dropping, but he totally fits in with the music, and I like him pretty well.
Also, the setting where they’re playing in the music video is really cool.
Topic: 2016 Roulette Championship v. THE CONCLUSION (Read 106487 times)
