So, here are the results. Once again, please don't get too upset on some lower scores I gave this round.
Round 4 Results:
ErHaO: Lyriel – Paranoid CircusHow to get in the upper half of the scoreboard after doing poorly in the first two rounds? Well, it’s simple, you just have to send two awesome songs and there you are. It’s also interesting how some participants had trouble picking out the tunes for this particular theme, yet you sent me the sax-violin-fronted-and-whatnot Suspyre a week ago and now you follow up with this. Great choices, both of these.
This song indeed reminds me of Blackmore’s Night a lot; the main singer even has that kind of voice she could’ve passed for young Candice Night. The quick, swift, wordy verses are serving for a contrast with the more reserved, melodic choruses with fantastic, climactic and captivating vocal melodies. The moments where two female singers join each other’s voices in those short harmonies just for a few seconds are also quite satisfying, but still, when the furtive verses erupt into this calm, yet massive and firm chorus… these moments give me chills. This is a definite hit with me.
While Tim also received 9.5 in this round, his 9.5 is more like 9.25 scaled upwards, and your 9.5 is more like 9.75 scaled downwards, if you get what I’m saying. This band will have a high priority on my check-out list. Nice one indeed.
9.5/10
TAC: Shooting Star – Last ChanceIt seems that even-numbered rounds are definitely the ones you’re doing quite well. Maybe I just have to set the themes that will prevent you to send the longer, heavy progressive metal songs, and then you will have this in the bag. The funny thing is, this song clocks at almost seven minutes – which is only slightly less than Odd Dimension, The Paralydium Project and Iris Divine songs I’ve got – but it doesn’t feel like seven minutes. Or even if it does, it’s the seven minutes of mostly fantastic songwriting and musicianship.
This song is a curious mix between calm parts supported by the kind of Space-Dye Vest-like violin melody and the faster parts, with an excellent instrumental break. Partly, this song might be the most beautiful thing I’ve received in this roulette yet, and partly it’s also one of the grooviest and rocking ones. The soulful, sad vocals that drive the verses along with violin usage might be one of my favourite moments from this whole roulette so far – the parts
“I have witnessed forces like cannons that can ram you to the ground” and
“Should we strike the first blow? He said: “No no no, you don't understand” are pure gold; and the instrumental break is fantastic and probably more impressive than any actual instrumental songs I’ve got in this round. Quiet beginning with piano, then the main violin melody with a considerably quicker pace, and the mighty Hammond organ of course, and then every instrument goes on, the bass, the drums, this is incredible.
The only minor drawback in this song that keeps it from getting 10/10 is the chorus, which is kind of too happy and straightforward to my taste, but it’s still excellent with the guitar supporting it and overall atmosphere. I love how the instrumental part flows straight into it. Still, it’s not as excellent as the rest of the song. I wish it was more on the beautiful side than on the rocking one, but I’m happy with what I’ve got still.
9.5/10
senecadawg2: The Antlers – PalaceAfter doing not so great a job with The Paralydium Project, Sylvan and Dream Evil – but not so terrible a job either – you finally found a song that appeals to me a lot.
There was another very serene song in this round, courtesy of Tomislav, and I admit I’m quite harsh on that one, giving it a 6.5 or something like that, and this one gets a much better score, and I think the huge difference are: first off, the fantastic vocal melodies, and second is how organic and natural the whole tune sounds. I loved the how soft the vocals are, and I liked the brass instruments providing the rich texture in the background. Now, that probably won’t make any sense, but… that Bon Iver song I’ve got sounds lifeless, like it’s made of glass, fragile, brittle, cold to touch and all; and your song just radiates the warmth all around, evoking all the wistful memories of the past. It’s just a pure joy to listen to.
This composition might not have something to elevate it to the absolutely perfect song, but it’s so nice. Chill, simple, soothing and captivating, this is without question your best song in this roulette so far. I bet the whiskey and cat approach will make it even better – I wasn’t able to try it since I’m quite busy at work these days, but I think this Friday will be a fine day to do it.
9/10
Big Hath: Yanni – The Rain Must Fall (live)I don’t necessarily see why it’s a bold submission – I mean, if you don’t send me power or progressive metal, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re going bold with the entries. Well, I do agree that sending a seven and a half minutes instrumental is kind of bold regardless of the genre, but that’s about it.
This is one of the four instrumentals in this round, and I’ll be honest, I was somewhat apprehensive regarding the amount of instrumentals I received in this round – I mean, I don’t mind an occasional instrumental song or two – but four? Still, I shouldn’t have been apprehensive about this particular song, because it basically does a great job on everything, including the lightly sounding keyboards (piano?) in the first section and two solos in the second part. The bass solo is especially awe-inspiring, I totally agree with your assessment of it included in the PM. I don’t know anything about playing bass, but I love how he sounds incredibly clean and not muddy, every note can be heard easily and overall he plays really tight as far as my judgment goes. The violin solo is less impressive, but it still holds the mark. Despite the flashiness of those two solos, I appreciated the first part too. While one might dub it “elevator music”, I thought it was, well, maybe not gorgeous, but certainly beautiful.
So all in all, this track was splendid, kept me interested for the whole length and that’s one quality I appreciate in this kind of tunes. Best instrumental of the round.
9/10
wolfking: The Tea Party – PsychopompI noticed that usually when someone says “I don’t really know what to send for this round, this will probably be a screw-up for me”, he often ends up getting a nice score. I mean, it’s certainly better than say “haha guys, I’ve got this, I’ll win with this awesome song and you suck” and then end up last in the round, but still.
Alternative rock… well, you know, this song is definitely on the better side of the spectrum for this genre based on what I’ve heard – not that I’ve heard much. I mean, it has some of those trademark moments like those busy choruses with some slight vocal effect on the singer’s voice, the persistent, repetitive and somewhat annoying keyboard riff, but overall this is quite a smooth song. I might even go as far as to say it’s great.
My favourite part here is definitely the pre-chorus, the buildup to the chorus with the line I featured in the title when I posted the tidbits. I liked the calm, clean vocals and I thought the song became slightly less appealing when he went gritty on later choruses, but still, I feel they’ve nailed the vocal melodies in this, so despite the vocal effects and my issues with the instrumentation, I’m willing to give this tune a nice score. Still, plenty of time for you to screw-up – we’re only half-way through!
8.5/10
lonestar: Telergy – AstronomerI was surprised when I’ve got an instrumental from you – at this point, I knew about Telergy and I knew this album was mostly instrumental – but I never expected you to send me the song without any vocals. In my book, it was a risk for you, and now it’s you who should decide if it paid off or not.
This is one of the four instrumentals in this round, and I think this one is my second favourite. Seven minutes in length, this one is quite long, yet just like that Yanni tune, it has plenty of things to catch my interest and keep it. After a fairly usual beginning, this song offers a fantastic violin solo which is just gorgeous, but then it takes an unexpected turn and after a few seconds of silence goes into the Ian Anderson-like flute solo which feels absolutely out of place for me. I don’t really mind the follow-up where the guitar joins up, and then we get the reprise of that riff in the beginning, but it mostly feels like they’ve used this to patch those two parts together after they broke the tune right in the middle between those two solos.
All in all, that violin solo was stellar, but you’ll have to impress me more with the instrumental tune to get a higher score. Still, this was nice and enjoyable, and I will check this album some time after the roulette.
8/10
bl5150: Kompendium – The Moment of ClarityI’m looking at the line-up again as I’m writing this, and I’m baffled such a fine line-up (except one person I’ll get into later in this write-up) didn’t manage to impress me with this song that much. I mean, if I had scored this purely judging by your description, it would’ve been a 9.5 for sure. So let me explain why I didn’t.
This song has two strong points in my book: the first one is this beautiful beginning with some nice guitar playing setting the mood for the song, and the second one is the saxophone solo which was a great idea to include into this song, and I like how the vocals behind it seem to support this solo and not the other way around. And when this song gets to its climax, with all the instruments playing around, the vocals are quite passable and maybe even good; but let us rewind the tune back to where the intro section ends and the very first verse starts. At this very moment this song becomes so sugary and sweet I have trouble to listen to it with the straight face – especially knowing some parts about the concept you provided me in your PM. I think it has that Disney atmosphere that people complain about in The Astonishing.
I think part of my dislike of the vocals might be coming from my biased side, because I actually don’t like Steve Balsamo at all since he performed on tours with Jon Lord – the one time I saw him in 2011 he kind of butchered all the songs he was performing on. Pictures of Home, Pictured Within, Child in Time (I think he was on that one) and whatnot. So yeah, it probably wasn’t a good idea to send me something Steve Balsamo fronted, but the strong points of this song are enough to make it good.
Also, this song segues into Tomislav’s Beth / Rest perfectly, it’s like they’re placed in this exact order on one album or something. I haven’t even noticed the transition the first time around. Unfortunately, you both are probably going to get somewhat average (but still decent, just ask Tim or Chad!) score in this round. It's almost 8/10, but it's not.
7.5/10
Bolsters: Circle of Illusion – New AgeI know this is not what any participant wants to see in the very beginning of their write-up, but… I’m not doing it on purpose. I really want to give you a great score, maybe nine or even better, yet for it to happen you have to send me something great, and this is the fourth round in a row you aren’t able to do it. It’s probably surprising for you, and it’s definitely hell of a surprise for me, especially because you were doing so well in qualifiers.
This has that problem I had with The Paralydium Project all over again. The song is long, and it has some great moments – the intro before the singers go in is definitely one of those, the main chorus melody on guitar sounds much better than it does with the vocals later in the song, and the heavy guitars right before the vocals kick in are quite good. I liked some singers much more than others, especially some of the female vocal parts like
“Fate has brought you here where nothing’s real except the inner turbulence you feel” and the operatic vocals in
“Your quest has not ended, new duties will cross your way”; but I totally disliked some other vocal melodies: right in the beginning, the chorus, the ending… Curiously, I didn’t mind the quickly delivered lyrics in the middle, though on the first listen I thought these would be a problem.
There was plenty of what I disliked on this song, but what pushed it in the “good” department for me is that theatrical approach with all those instruments I wanted to get in this round. This seems to be a well though-out epic concept album, and maybe my opinion of this song will change when I listen to the whole thing. I was able to find the booklet on their official site – in fact, I seem to remember someone from DTF actively promoted this album a year or two ago. I think this might be a great album (and, perhaps, a great tune) if I only give it more time. But so far, unfortunately, this is another decent score. I know this must be frustrating, but, well, that’s how it is.
7.5/10
jingle.boy: Shadow Circus – …Then In July, The Thunder CameThis certainly is the most intriguing song title in this round, and with Jon’s The Rain Must Fall those could make a nice pair of the titles. I really didn’t expect this one to be an instrumental on the first listen, kept waiting for some haunting vocals to burst in, and none came. Unlike the thunder, I guess!
This is one of the four instrumentals in this round, and seriously, what this tune does most impeccably is living up to its name with this steady pounding drumming in front of the mix. All the string instruments are definitely fitting, and I like the electric guitar playing over those drums, and I think the break in the pace towards the end helps this song a lot – otherwise it would’ve got too repetitive, and even with the break it kind of already balances on the edge. I mean, I get we get different strings / guitar passages, but when the drums are repeating one beat so overwhelmingly in the song, it could get a bit tiresome. I associated this break with uplifting keyboard sounds with the end of thunder when the sun finally rises and everything gets nice, but then it reverts back to this ominous beat.
Unlike Train of Naught’s song, this one has a decent ending and the instruments are picked just fine, but in my opinion, this tune lacks some pronounced structure and any pay-off whatsoever. I think it could serve as either the instrumental intro or outro on the album, but it’s not something I would get out of the way to listen to. Maybe it makes more sense in the context of the album?
So I won’t do any pep talk, but I kindly ask you not to start sending me Animotion just because you didn’t get a nine this time. I haven’t even heard anything from Animotion, but I trust Dave’s reaction to this song.
7.5/10
Train of Naught: Apocalyptica – PathTo be honest and fair, I can see how Lucas thought these were some badly-mixed overly distorted guitars if he didn’t read your warning indeed. Because while I get those are cellos (rhythm cellos?) they sure do sound like electric guitars mixed by some student in his home-made studio or whatever. Knowing those are cellos helps to appreciate this song a bit more.
This is one of the four instrumentals in this round, and this one feels remarkably like a soundtrack to some videogame. I know you mentioned Zelda in your write-up, but I never played this one. It’s got this slightly epic feeling, building the tension, and I really like how cellos are used in this song, playing both rhythm and lead sections, and I guess the only other things here are bass and drums. While this instruments set-up is eclectic and interesting, I guess this song could use something else. What it definitely could use is the better ending, because despite I don’t want this song to be much longer than three minutes – it does its job quite neatly in this short time – I would like to see the proper ending and not this abrupt lazy attempt at closing up the song. I’ve checked the next song on the album and this ending doesn’t work in context of the album either.
This wasn’t as impressive as some other instrumentals I’ve got in this round, but this was nice. It was consistently good, but I thought it lacked the proper ending and something else I can’t quite pinpoint. I can’t really see myself listening to this kind of songs often and if the whole album is like that, I would probably get bored quickly.
7.5/10
Tomislav95: Bon Iver – Beth / RestReally, I could’ve pulled a short write-up mode for this song and wrote something along the lines “This is chill, but it’s really not my kind of chill” and give you the decent score – because nothing from this tune grabbed my attention – but I’m going to try to explain why I didn’t like it that much.
It’s not that the tune itself is bad. It’s easy on the ears, and it has some really nice moments, serene mood, and some nice guitar / saxophone passages behind the vocals… but it’s just so unmemorable for me. I listened to it a lot of times, and I had to force myself to pay attention to it, because otherwise my mind just drifted away. I guess what this song really lacked is some strong vocal melodies to keep it all together. I couldn’t sing you any vocal line from this song – well, it’s better to say I couldn’t hum any of them to you, because I can’t sing any vocal line from any song for the life of me (except in the shower I guess, but I’m sure I sound awful, maybe I should ask my neighbours about it).
I didn’t look up the lyrics for this song, but I have a strong feeling he sings
“It’s disaster!” at 4:00. No, it’s not a disaster, it’s a decent score.
6.5/10
Dr. DTVT: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – Angle of ReposeWell, no matter how you scored with this song, it definitely earns the “Most interesting band name of the round” award. It’s also by far my least favourite song of the round. I think the fact you were unable to access your music library and pick something better probably affected your choice, or maybe this song is awesome and my music tastes just suck, but I struggled to find anything I liked here.
There are definitely those instruments I asked for in this round. There are some female vocals I think I should’ve liked more – yet I don’t even like them. When the singer goes with her clean vocals, I don’t mind her voice, but she still sounds like she’s a bit fatigued, doesn’t care about anything; and when she adds some rasp and grit in the song climax, well, this is where it becomes grating. But the singer isn’t the only problem here. I mean, I find the very first riffs irksome and irritating. I have nothing to latch on in this song, and what makes this fact even worse, it lasts eight minutes.
You’ve provided me some excellent songs in this roulette and the previous one, but I can say this isn’t one of them. Sorry, but this song is definitely on the worst side of the spectrum for this genre – and I don’t even know what kind of genre this is. Experimental indie-progressive-avant-garde rock? Anyway, I might even go as far as to say this is a disaster. I tried to keep an open mind for this round, but this just isn’t for me. This song had some small redeeming qualities, and it wasn’t downright unlistenable, but that’s about it.
On a somewhat unrelated note, how many times the word “tiny” is used in this song? I haven’t counted but I think the number must be at least ten.
4/10
Topic: Evermind's Second Roulette v. The Aftermath (Read 124817 times)
