Evermind's Second Roulette v. The Aftermath

[TAC]

I think the emot you're looking for is

Yes, that is the one!

  Take The Astonishing for example... it's growing on me.

The Astonishing is awesome!

[Evermind]

Right, here we go. I had to eliminate some people. No hard feelings.

Round 6 Results:

Big Hath: Avatarium – Moonhorse

You seemed to be so sure about this song, even going as far as claiming you wanted to send this song back there when we played Round 1. Well, seeing that you won this round, who can blame you?

Now, there are some things about this tune I wasn’t fond of. I mostly didn’t like the heavy, slow-paced, plodding instrumental parts of the song – the one in the beginning and the one after the first vox part. I know that’s how this song is supposed to be, but it doesn’t mean I should instantly like it. Djent is supposed to be those heavy weird rhythms and I mostly can’t stand it. But that’s a minor drawback – even though it kept you from receiving a higher score – of an otherwise incredible song. My complaints about the instrumental parts end at ~3:20, where the song quickens its pace a bit. But let’s get back to the beginning. I don’t like those heavy instrumental parts, yes, but the quiet acoustic-guitar driven passages with the wistful, full yet kind of innocent female voice singing those excellent vocal melodies… I tempted to say they’re the best thing ever. In terms of pure utilization of the female singer’s voice, this is the best track of the round. Her voice starts being more forceful and heavier later, but these acoustic moments, they’re just pure bliss for me. They were a huge part of the reason I liked this song so much. Hell, I craved to get to this song in the rotation again just so I could get to these three passages scattered throughout this tune.

If anything on The Girl With the Raven Mask is as good as this tune, I consider my $4 well spent.

9/10

TAC: Forgotten Tales – Broken Wings

Second guessing is a bitch. Truth be told, you never needed to worry, your song was one of the two original standouts in this round (Moonhorse is the other one), and even after more listens those two songs ended up being my favourites. But I knew you were struggling having to choose between two songs, since you kindly told me that, and I wanted to have a bit of fun with it so I’ve made some vague comments – which, really, could’ve been interpreted either way – and you got ready for the worst, apparently remembering your previous experience with Odd Dimension and Iris Divine. Maybe I’m a bitch instead of second guessing, but hey, that was kind of fun.

I like how song starts with intense and pronounced power metal sound – and it’s a perfect transition from the ballad that preceded it on the playlist (Landfill). At first I thought it was one excellent progressive song, but turns out it’s actually two different tunes with only one of them being excellent. I absolutely don’t mind the pace here, in fact, I think the fast-paced song might’ve scored worse. I like groovy power metal songs, and I think your description of this band being “female-fronted Kiske-era Helloween” is more or less spot on. I like how the singer is quite powerful but knows where to sing more or less softly and doesn’t belt out high notes for no reason (this isn’t a jab at Kiske; I just expected the singer to be more high-pitched). I won’t bother listing all the nice parts of this tune, I’ll just say this is an excellent song, very enjoyable, one of my favourites of the round. I’ll definitely look into this band further.

9/10

senecadawg2: Tori Amos – Winter

This was an interesting tune as well. I liked this ballad from get-go, but I didn’t love it, I was thinking 8 for this one, but I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe it was some stupid prejudice against Tori Amos in the back of my brain, maybe it was something else – hell, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it, but this song clicked with me today big time. “When you’re gonna make up your mind”, heh, well, I’m reasonably sure I’ve made up my mind now.

But let’s talk about this song first. Now that I’m writing this, I don’t know why I thought this song deserved only an eight, because I can’t find anything I outright dislike here, and I’m finding a lot of things I’ve grown quite fond of. Her voice is gorgeous, and the vocal melodies here are memorable and a perfect choice for this song as far as I’m concerned; the quiet – and sometimes intense – piano instrumentation is spot on, and the subtle strings are doing this song justice too. This is just a great ballad – you seem to hit all my soft spots with your ballads lately – this one isn’t an exception. Regarding Splent’s story… I’m not sure I would’ve started crying if I forgot my mittens in the snow, but hey, that’s tragic alright.

On a more serious note, this song is really touching and I can totally see how this (crying in the middle of the song) could’ve happened. Anyway, this was the biggest grower on the round, and looking back, I don’t know why I didn’t enjoy this song from my very first listen. It’s not quite a round winner, and this mark is closer to 8.5 than the other two, but it’s a nine nonetheless, which means your song did pretty damn great.

9/10

Bolsters: Pandora’s Box – It Just Won’t Quit

Sending the ballads is always tricky, as I said before and as you noted in your PM. I assume this tune is something special for you, since you said you love it very much, and you were afraid I won’t appreciate it on the same level. Well, I’m afraid you were at least partially right.

I liked how the ballads in this round divided into happy ones and the sad / bitter ones, and all of them were of roughly the same quality until some of them grew on me and some of them didn’t. The different moods made it a good contrast. This is a nice rock ballad, with some memorable melodies, cool usage of backing vocals, and overall it’s just quite pleasant to listen to. The female vocals are definitely an advantage in this tune, and the somewhat repetitive chorus didn’t bother me one bit.

I’ve got to say this song was the toughest to rank this round. My thoughts about those ballads kept changing with every listen – this tune is among the happy tunes overall, even though it was that edge of sadness to it too, and at the point of writing tidbits I thought that I liked it just a bit more than the others. Of course, that was where most of the ballads had 7.5 or 8 for their score, but on that last day of listening, they grew on me a lot, and this song did grow on me too, but not that much. I was originally going to give it an eight, but as I said, it grew on me a bit, so 8.5 it is. Hopefully it will help you… because I remember you were tied with Nelson and he has got a higher score.

8.5/10

Tomislav95: Daughter – Landfill

You said we have rather different tastes in ballads, and while I suppose this is true, since neither Bon Iver nor Klone song didn’t strike me as being great, apparently we can find some correlation between our ballads preferences – maybe you just needed to send me a female-fronted song – because while I didn’t think much about this song at first, it ended up being one of the three growers I mentioned in the thread. I’m not sure if that will save you, but even if not, you’re going to go out on a strong note.

I’ve made some comments – I think it was for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum song – about how I didn’t like how the singer sounded slurred, tired, not caring about her vocal duties and all that. Well, I think the singer in this song sounds tired and slurred too, but the thing is it fits the atmosphere and the message of this song so much. I’ve coated it with sarcasm in the tidbit, but I really like the lyrics here. “I want you so much, but I hate your guts” isn’t that nice, but it makes sense in context of this tune. The first lines without any music behind them are very chilling, and overall the whole song is chilling, bitter and kind of hopeless. And the more I listened to it, the more I appreciated the mood created here and the more I liked the whole composition.

8.5/10

bl5150: Floor Jansen and the Metropole Orchestra – Sound of the Wind (Final Fantasy Chronicles)

See, on one hand, Floor Jansen’s voice on the song is always an advantage. On the other hand, sending me the music from some video game isn’t such a smart choice, because I usually find them quite bland. It didn’t really matter if you mentioned that video game bit or not, because this song just screams “video game” for some reason. Perhaps because the actual instrumental was written with that in mind? I didn’t listen to the original, so I can’t really tell.

And this track isn’t an exception. While it’s calm, folky and overall enjoyable, I still can’t help but find it quite bland. It should be indeed a fine soundtrack, when you’re caught in the game and the music serves as the background one. And then there’s Floor Jansen, who manages to turn this song from the quite bland to an interesting one. You pretty much said this all in your PM to me, and I mostly agree with everything. Live shots in the video were the highlight too. Especially when they showed Floor. Damn, she’s hot.

However, even Floor can’t turn a bland track into a brilliant one. I think I’ve said it before in this roulette, but, well… this song is good, and that’s about it.

7.5/10

wolfking: Beautiful Sin – This is Not the Original Dream

Alright, let me get this straight from the very beginning, I like how Magali sounds on Ayreon’s 01011001. And I also like how she replaced Dilenya Mar on the live Beyond the Bridge performances. But I don’t really like her in this song.

This is kind of a blend between power metal and some melodic rock I guess, and I found it lacks some edge and probably some heaviness too, kind of like The Chronicles Project song I’ve got earlier. Well, I probably worded this wrong, because it is quite heavy, but the whole song with its vocal melodies sounds a bit too in the happy metal vein or I don’t know. And I wasn’t even sure the vocals were female at times, honestly – I could definitely tell it in Ayreon or Beyond the Bridge, but in some moments at the choruses and on the second verse at 1:22, I thought this song had two vocalists. This, and the fact I didn’t like the chorus in this tune were the main reasons I had to lower the score. But don’t get me wrong; maybe the write-up is a little harsh, but I thought it was a good song.

The very last line where she sings “This is not the original dream!” without any instrumental support still sounds like a male person singing to my ears. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. Oh well.

7.5/10

Dr. DTVT: Fanticide – Drowning in Serenity

This was a curious one. I don’t know how Bolsters managed to guess it, since you claimed the band was relatively unknown, but it doesn’t really matter.

This is pretty much a progressive metal song, and it’s filled with some good parts and some sections I’m not too fond of. The main problem of this song – I need to get it out of the way early – is that while it’s filled with some good parts, I just can’t grasp it for some reason. I’ve done about ten listens to this song, and I was paying attention on the most of them, and yet if someone asked me to describe this song and outline its structure I would be all “uh, this is progressive metal, female vocals too, which sometimes sound like male”. Perhaps it’s a good sign in a long term thinking – I wasn’t able to get into Haken after numerous listens but now I really like their output – but it’s not that good a sign for the roulette. I do remember some melodies, both instrumental and sung, and I do enjoy this song when I listen to it, but it’s still blurry in my mind when I don’t listen to it. I guess it’s either a very demanding song or something is off with me.

7.5/10

jingle.boy: Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit

Alright, that was a bold move – sending me something from 60s, no less. I’m going to be honest here once again – you didn’t manage to go out on a high note, but I appreciate you didn’t go with the Animotion route. More on that in your farewell message after the results.

First off, this song is even shorter than Enemy Within, and I’m always surprised when it ends so ridiculously fast. Second – at least that’s how I interpret it – this song’s focus is mostly the bass and drums, and the vocals become prominent only in a few moments towards the end. Overall, this is a nice song, but it’s just too short to make any lasting conclusions for me, and while I liked the intense buildup and the fact the song eventually reached its highest point in the end, I was bummed it simply ended after that. So, well, this is good, and that’s about it.

7.5/10

ErHaO: Seven Kingdoms – After the Fall

I’ll just say this as a warning, this write-up may be quite harsh, but I thought the song was good enough. I hope the people who wrote and performed this song won’t ever read it.

I wonder how much generic power metal bands are out there, and how many of them are writing the songs based on A Song of Ice and Fire. Because seriously, this seems to be a main trend in the generic dull power metal now. I mean, fine, but the series aren’t even finished. And I’m actually a fan of the series, but those attempts to write a song about it are always so cringeworthy for me, and it doesn’t help that the music going with those songs isn’t very original at all. Blind Guardian actually did a good job with A Voice in the Dark – which covers the same thread this song does – and a slightly less good job with War of the Thrones; I thought Holy Shire did fine with Winter is Coming – at least it was more proggy and less generic – I’ve even sent them in a few roulettes.

Now, this tune wasn’t actually as bad as I made it sound. The best thing about it was the female vocals, honestly; the vocal melodies were alright too, and the rest of the song was fairly predictable and unexciting. Still, despite my grumbling about how unoriginal this tune was, I can’t say I disliked it. It was generic, yes, but it wasn’t too bad.

7.5/10

Train of Naught: Ignea – Alga

Well, I don’t want to sound harsh, but I don’t want to do any comforting talk either. It is one of your weaker songs. Perhaps the theme did indeed hinder your ability to send something great, or maybe there were some other reasons, but I thought this song was a bit amateurish and not quite great.

Actually, you explained it all yourself in your write-up. I agree it has some nice riffs and overall the instrumentation is by far the best thing this tune has to offer. I do like the vocal melodies, especially in the chorus, but then I’m still kind of meh towards the singer even after 10ish listens; I think she sounds flat and not powerful enough for this kind of symphonic rock/metal song. Well, except on that death metal growl moment. Did that song really need to feature that death metal growl? That was indeed just so random and unneeded. And it doesn’t really affect your score. Death metal growl or not, I thought it was an alright song with some good parts, which just doesn’t cut it in this crowd.

7/10

lonestar: Heart – Barracuda

Well, I know I’ve probably misled some of you guys with that 70s-related comment for the previous round – but I was honest, I do like a lot of bands / artists that were active in 70s, even the ones I didn’t know before I hosted my first roulette here. Journey and UFO were the definite hits for me. This one, well, not so much.

I imagine some of you guys who grew up with this song will disagree with what comes next, but, well, here goes. Overall, I can’t say this is a bad song, and it’s certainly better than mediocre, but it’s just not that good either. It sounds kind of like a really ordinary rock song from the past with that one oddity which is featuring female vocals. It’s no secret I paid a lot of attention to the vocals this time, like I did in another vocal-related round in my first roulette, and frankly, this song has been somewhat of a disappointment in this regard. There are a lot of moments where I felt the vocals just don’t fit the song, like in the very first verse; but there were some moments I felt the vocals were a good fit, too. I also disliked the way she sings – or maybe even speaks – some parts, like “Now, wouldn’t you” or “No, you better”.

I mean, I can indeed see how this song pretty much blasted the door open for all other woman to rock and roll, as you said in your PM, but this song didn’t do a lot for me. I enjoyed some parts of it, true, but that’s about it. Sorry, RJ, I know that's probably blasphemy or something, but here it goes.

7/10

Bands added to banned list:

Avatarium
Forgotten Tales
Tori Amos
Pandora's Box
Daughter
Floor Jansen and the Metropole Orchestra
Beautiful Sin
Fanticide
Jefferson Airplane
Seven Kingdoms

The scoreboard:

wolfking - 52
Big Hath - 52
TAC – 51
bl5150 - 49.5
senecadawg2 - 49.5

lonestar - 49
Bolsters - 49

Tomislav95 - 47.5
jingle.boy - 46.5
Train of Naught - 46.5
ErHaO - 45
Dr. DTVT – 44

[Evermind]

Here are some farewell messages that didn't fit into my previous post because of exceeded characters limit.

Tomislav, well, I don’t know what you think about your overall performance in this, but I thought it was decent. Unfortunately, you’ve blown what appeared to be your best song on the qualifiers, but you know I’ve already bought a Beardfish album and The Smiths album too, and I’ll be checking Redemption as soon as I can. Daughter will probably make my list too. You’re eliminated now, yes, but you’ve made me discover and buy some new music, and I think that’s the most important thing. Thank you for playing!

Chad, I’m going to be honest since I know you don’t like pep talk and such things I’m disappointed, and you’re probably disappointed in me too. I’ve never expected you to be eliminated here, I expected you to proudly stride to the top of the scoreboard with some excellent power / progressive metal entries. When you did send some of those like Damnations Angels, Vandroya and Glass Mind (by the way, Tim is kind of pissed off in my PM about it, if it offers you some comfort ), you were doing remarkably well, but when you went with Slaughter and Jefferson Airplane, that’s where it all shattered. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for participating. I’m sure you’ll keep introducing me to some great bands (like you did with Phantasma through Nick’s WPAPU show), so it’s not the end of the world or anything. Let's see how you manage to kick my ass in the Bolsters roulette (hint: you won't )

ToN, I honestly don’t think you had ever expected to make it through the cut. A lot of your entries were just good, nothing more, but sometimes you managed to send just the right song for me – The Dear Hunter being a great example. Actually, the mere fact you managed to make me want to buy some TDH albums is probably worth your participation in this roulette all along. After all, you properly introduced me to your favourite band!

Casper, well, I think the problem here was just that you were terribly inconsistent in this one. You’ve sent some amazing bands like Suspyre and Lyriel (can’t wait to explore this one), and sometimes you sent the duds like Beyond Twilight and Agnes Obel. I’m glad you still decided to play in this roulette despite your real life stuff and the fact you almost don’t play in the roulettes – I feel kind of honored.

Mason, I’m surprised you did so poorly, but I suspect the huge part of it was the time commitment problems with your musical and all. You actually didn’t do too bad, despite being at the last place; I really liked Sieges Even and Subsignal tracks, and Lee Abraham was very interesting too; Orphaned Land I didn’t like, but you could’ve survived with one mediocre score, what truly killed all your chances was that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum entry. Anyway, thank you for finding the time to send me some great (and some not-so-great) songs, I appreciate it.

RJ and Dave... scroll down to the next post. You're going to compete in a short tiebreaker.

[Evermind]

Round 6½: Tiebreaker

So well, since RJ and Dave both have the same score and there's only one place left among the final six players, we're going to hold this tiebreaker, just as we did in my first roulette.

The rules are simple: you both have to send me one song. I'll do a few listens (not ten listens as usual, something like five) and will post my write-ups and songs' rating. Whoever sends the best song proceeds to the Round 7, and the other participant is eliminated.

The players who are already in the Round 7 - and the ones eliminated - are free to gloat and joke as they see fit.

The time-limit for this round is 10 minutes.

[TAC]

Wow. That was torturous!



Boy, I sure would like to send a couple of Glass Mind tracks in the next round. But then again, so would J-Boy!!!

[Tomislav95]

It was my pleasure playing in your roulette, Evermind
I'm disappointed a little I didn't sent any song you liked as much as Redemption but even though we have many bands in common I think our tastes are pretty different (and I don't have such big music library as most of other players), so I'm not too surprised.

[Train of Naught]

Nooooooooooooo

Of course I saw this coming. I said it in my PM, but yeah, female vocalists heaily limits my music. I think out of the bands with vocals I listen to, less than 5% is female vocals. Needless to say, this was easily my personal least favorite song from the things I sent also.

Despite only being 6 rounds, this roulette was smooth as fuck, probably the best I've been in schedule-wise (taste-wise, the worst ). I'll probably throw some shit that didn't make it your way soon, I wouldn't be surprised if the things I ended up not sending because of second guessing would have done better

Good luck Bolsters and lonestar, and the rest of you in the upcoming rounds, will be following this, Train out!

[Evermind]

Yeah, if you guys want to send me any leftovers that you wanted to send but didn't have an opportinuty, you're welcome. My next roulette will take place in three years or something like that, so you probably shouldn't worry about saving the songs for it. I won't listen to your songs until this roulette is finished though.

Boy, I sure would like to send a couple of Glass Mind tracks in the next round. But then again, so would J-Boy!!!

This genuinely made me laugh.

[Big Hath]

whew, sweated that one out!

were you saying you thought those parts were djent?  That's some good ol' doom right there.

anyway, great song!


and how will the scoring play out for these next two rounds?  How is it weighted, what are the points, etc?  Sorry if you already said this somewhere earlier.

[Evermind]

No no no, wasn't saying it was djent. It's just you said the song's parts were supposed to be plodding, and I acknowledged it and said I don't have to like it. Kind of like djent is supposed to be heavy and weird, and that's why I dislike it actually.

I'll send you guys the details for Round 7 and 8 tomorrow in the evening.

[Big Hath]

holy crap, just realized I was now tied with wolfy at the top!

[TAC]

That's cuz you cheated! 

Misty green and blue hoo hoo...

[Big Hath]

never forgive, never forget

[TAC]

[bl5150]

So far the 2 rounds where I thought I was taking a bit of a risk have been a total failure.  Let's see if I can make it 3/3. 

What an awesome prediction 

See , this is why I introduced optional bonus themes into my roulette - because I feel sorry for people like me who usually stuff up themed rounds (ballads aside).

Ah well - surprised to still be in it after 3 dud rounds.  And I think I am still in it with what I have lined up .  Let's see 

[lonestar]

Fucking criminal. Oh well, enough fucking around, sending now....

[senecadawg2]

Regarding Splent’s story… I’m not sure I would’ve started crying if I forgot my mittens in the snow, but hey, that’s tragic alright.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the song! I can't speak for all of Tori Amos's music, but that album is pretty great start to finish.

On to the next round, with only a couple points to make up

[jingle.boy]

Fucking criminal. Oh well, enough fucking around, sending now....

No shit.  Kids these days.   

Well, I am disappointed too.  That's tastes for ya though.  Slaughter killed my chances, as there just wasn't a way to recover from a bad score when everyone was pretty much nailing 8s and above at some point.  Such is Roulette'ing.  White Rabbit wasn't what I would've played if I was close, it was something I was taking a chance with.  Seems as though "classic" tunes just aren't your thing... again, so be it.

And I am gonna kick your ass in Dave's.  And RJ's.  And Kade's. 

[TAC]

And I am gonna kick your ass in Dave's.  And RJ's.  And Kade's. 

You're just lucky I'm not playing!

[jingle.boy]

And I am gonna kick your ass in Dave's.  And RJ's.  And Kade's. 

You're just lucky I'm not playing!

Glass Mind was already banned.

[bl5150]

Sented 

[Bolsters]

8.5 is about as good as I thought I would get, so I can't be disappointed that my expectations were met.

I might actually put some small amount of thought into what I send for the tiebreaker, but I will definitely be sending today, so that you don't have to wait too long to start listening to our songs.

[wolfking]

holy crap, just realized I was now tied with wolfy at the top!

*shakes fist*

I knew I'd choke and let the gap close.  Oh well, bring on round 7.  Good luck to RJ and Dave.

Sented 

I thought we have to wait for more details?

[lonestar]

8.5 is about as good as I thought I would get, so I can't be disappointed that my expectations were met.

I might actually put some small amount of thought into what I send for the tiebreaker, but I will definitely be sending today, so that you don't have to wait too long to start listening to our songs.

Lol I already forgot what I sent.

[Bolsters]

And I ended up putting very little thought in and sent already.

[lonestar]

And I ended up putting very little thought in and sent already.

Gotta love knee jerk reactions. Shall we let the masses know what we sent?

[Evermind]

And I ended up putting very little thought in and sent already.

Gotta love knee jerk reactions. Shall we let the masses know what we sent?

You should let me know what you sent because the link says your video isn't available.

Kade, if you already know what you'll be sending, you don't have to wait for the details to send the songs.

[Bolsters]

Gotta love knee jerk reactions. Shall we let the masses know what we sent?

You first.

[wolfking]

And I ended up putting very little thought in and sent already.

Gotta love knee jerk reactions. Shall we let the masses know what we sent?

You should let me know what you sent because the link says your video isn't available.

Kade, if you already know what you'll be sending, you don't have to wait for the details to send the songs.

Oh no, don't mind me, I have no clue. 

[Evermind]

And I am gonna kick your ass in Dave's.  And RJ's.  And Kade's. 

I think you have a fair chance of kicking my ass in RJ's and Kade's since I suppose their banned list will be so huge I'll end up sending something outside their comfort zones, but I'm going to give you a hell of a fight in Dave's.

Anyway, since you guys decided not to reveal your songs, I thought I'll post this blurred picture while I'm at it.

[Train of Naught]

Lonestar writes his own stuff?

First one is Lonestar - Love or Lie

[Big Hath]

Deathstar - Love For Less
Hey Slim - The Sign (Ace of Base cover)

[Evermind]

Lonestar writes his own stuff?

First one is Lonestar - Love or Lie

Sorry, you haven't got a single word right.

Deathstar - Love For Less
Hey Slim - The Sign (Ace of Base cover)

Now you did much better, you got two words right.

I sent out the Round 7 and Round 8 descriptions in the PM to the finalists and the tiebreaker participants. You can start planning accordingly, and if you know what you're sending in Round 7, you can also go ahead and send it.

Tiebreaker results tomorrow. I'm two listens in and I think I already know the winner, but I don't want to rush it since the other song might grow on me yet.

[Luoto]

This reply is a little late, but I indeed got one guess right for the female fronted round, and that was Avatarium!

[wolfking]

Cool.  Had a read through the next 2 rounds, seems good.  Will look for something tonight.