Bolsters™ The Roulette, v2 ★ THE CONCLUSION ★

[bl5150]

10: Mr. Big - Addicted to That Shit

  I think you're right - Addicted To That Rush.

[Evermind]

Árstíðir

Yeah, guess so. I've listened to three albums of theirs, but I don't remember their names. Doesn't help some of them are not in English.

[Train of Naught]

Is the fifth one St. Lucia - Elevate? Freaking awesome. I think I saw this over at Noisey a year back or something. This has to be the aquamarine star of the round too.

[splent]

Is the fifth one St. Lucia - Elevate? Freaking awesome. I think I saw this over at Noisey a year back or something. This has to be the aquamarine star of the round too.

Yes, that's mine; but can't be aquamarine because I already used it last round. I'm a little miffed that I didn't use it for this song though.

[Bolsters]

Well you got most of them. This one should make getting the remainder much easier.

[bl5150]

Phideaux - Micro Softdeathstar

[Evermind]

This one should make getting the remainder much easier.

Yeah right, especially that Arstidir song. 

Phideaux - Micro Softdeathstar

[Tyrias]

Right, only about 10 songs that would fit the song length for the Arstidir one .
No idea about any of the others.

[Bolsters]

Right, only about 10 songs that would fit the song length for the Arstidir one .

What does it matter to you? You sent it, you know what it is.

But fine. It starts with S, and ends with hine.

[Tyrias]

Right, only about 10 songs that would fit the song length for the Arstidir one .

What does it matter to you? You sent it, you know what it is.

But fine. It starts with S, and ends with hine.

It's just funny to see the others guessing and failing

[splent]

Trinidad - Staring at the Sun
Phoenix - Shorter Underwear
Deadly Marcus Bachmann - Wheat Rustles

Kanye West Project - I poop out my butt

[Tomislav95]

Someone already guessed Staring at the Sun and it's correct but both of you are wrong about band. And I thought most of you would know that band and song

[Crow]

it's thrice

[bl5150]

Someone already guessed Staring at the Sun and it's correct but both of you are wrong about band. And I thought most of you would know that band and song

Threshold

and the Kanye one is I TALK out my butt.

[Evermind]

Someone already guessed Staring at the Sun and it's correct but both of you are wrong about band. And I thought most of you would know that band and song

Threshold

I was sure they are banned.

[bl5150]

Deadly Circus Fire - Where It Lies

[bl5150]

Someone already guessed Staring at the Sun and it's correct but both of you are wrong about band. And I thought most of you would know that band and song

Threshold

I was sure they are banned.

The trouble in this situation is that you never know whether (seeing they're pretty well known) they are missing for a reason.  I see holes all over the place in terms of hard rock/hair metal but I am cautious as I expect many have been heard and written off without purchase etc...

[Bolsters]

You (or anyone else for that matter) is/are free to ask me about any such holes. If I've heard anything from those artists I'll let you know.

[Tomislav95]

I saw Headspace on banned list but I thought maybe you didn't hear Threshold with Damian.

[jingle.boy]

Someone already guessed Staring at the Sun and it's correct but both of you are wrong about band. And I thought most of you would know that band and song

Mother fucker!  I was just listening to that album today, and even considering that song.    But I probably would've gone with The Hours.  Staring at the Sun is such a great video - officially fan made too.

Oh well, another band bites the dust.

[Bolsters]

Just about everything has been revealed, so I might aswell just post the image like this.

[Bolsters]

Who wants results? Who do you think will be getting the coal star this round?

[Train of Naught]

Could be me to be honest. Definitely not as confident with this song, I do really like it though, but I could've given it some more thought after the first song was rejected.

I already know what I want to send for r3 too.

[bl5150]

If I am getting the coal star then you can hold back the results 

[jingle.boy]

If I am getting the coal star then you can hold back with the results 

But yeah... ditto for me.

Otherwise, bring it on, big boy.

[Evermind]

Could be me with a coal star if you failed to digest my song.

[Crow]

it's me. i got the coal star.

[bl5150]

Could be me with a coal star if you failed to digest my song.

So if Bolsters doesn't like your song it is just because he has indigestion. 

[Bolsters]

Could be me with a coal star if you failed to digest my song.

It was one of the more difficult ones to digest, I will say that.

[Evermind]

You're getting something really simple in the next round then.

[Tyrias]

Hyped for my first star .

[Bolsters]

Some kind of problem here.

[Bolsters]

Round Two Results

Tyrias - Árstíðir - Shine

• Loving the ominous atmosphere of this track, the double bass and piano are great but the star of this song is the violin. The way the song builds to its climax is great, a very slow build and it works, assisted by a strong vocal performance. The dynamics are great and the production overall is pretty good. This is a very strong submission, therefore you get diamond this time.

Shadow Ninja 2.0 - Lidsey Stirling - Shatter Me (feat. Lzzy Hale)

• You often send me artists that I've never heard of (and I think you've said I do the same thing to you ) and this is no different, although I have heard of Lzzy Hale. Anyway, I don't mind this sort of dubsteppy electronica when there's more going on than just moving lowpass filters and bass drops, and this song is a perfect example of what I like. Firstly, the inclusion of the violin really works - it's clearly the lead instrument despite everything else being electronic, and I love the interplay between it and the synthy distorted bassline in the instrumental part of the chorus. As mentioned I've heard of Lzzy and Halestorm but I'm not sure if I ever bothered listening to them - I'm going to rectify that though because I'm really liking her performance in this song. Also I should mention that you probably would have ascended to the top of the aquamarine rankings had you asked for that star with this song.

bl5150 - Almanac - Darkness / Hands are Tied

• Starting with darkness: Sometimes when I get these two-for-one submissions where the intro is only a minute or so, I find myself skipping the intro for the last couple of listens, as they generally don't take long to get a grasp on, and I can focus more on the more complete song. This one however I listened to every single time I listened to the playlist - in part because the song itself has a very abrupt beginning, but also because this intro track just really works. To be honest, it should just be part of the track, I can't see any reason I would not listen to these tracks together. Anyway, the guitar solo is nice here and I love when the guitar and strings come in and build up to Hands Are Tied. As for this second track...yeah, this is some good stuff. I think I mentioned somewhere in the thread that I like symphonic stuff that has a harder edge or more balls to it, and this certainly does. The chorus is epic and I love the ascending runs the strings make leading up to the next repeat, and then it goes balls-to-the-wall again to start off the next verse. Vocally it took me a couple of listens to determine whether or not this was a peridot star song - the two vocalists sound very similar and they often sing simultaneously, but on second listen I was able to pick out their differences.

Evermind - Phideaux - Micro Softdeathstar

• As mentioned, this one took a while to get into, but I definitely warmed up to it enough that you managed to nab one of the silver stars of the round. I think one of the more difficult things to get acustomed to for me was the vocalist; he really dragged the song down for me the first few listens, and I'm still not a big fan, but I warmed up to him a bit as I listened to the song more. He sometimes has a singing style that sounds like half-singing half-spoken-word, which doesn't really appeal to me. But anyway, this song is still really quite good, that part around 4:40 and the build up to it is top notch symphonic prog, and the symphonic elements in general were all fantastic. I like that the song has a lot of variety in dynamics, it has some great slow building parts and then these more active sections where the symphony especially really comes to life. Vocally, I liked things a lot more in the latter half where the lead singer duets with some female vox; somehow, singing with her made me dislike him less, maybe it's just that she covers up some of the things I didn't like about his style or maybe he just does better when snging in tandem, but he was much improved in those parts of the song.

splent - St. Lucia - Elevate

• More 80's-inspired synthpop? Don't mind if you do. This is another strong track but I'm afraid you just barely missed out on silver this time, so you're going to have to be content with pink. Anyway, strong vocal performance, lots of reverb for the dreamy effect, nice basslines...everything's here, it's catchy, I love it. Can't really say much more than that.

Tomislav95 - Threshold - Staring At The Sun

• So I've obviously heard of these guys and I think I have listened to them before, but I couldn't tell you what. I actually did expect Threshold would turn up, but I thought Chad would be the sender, so good job cock-blocking him here. So, this song is pretty good. Damian is a vocalist I do like but I've never gone out of my way to listen to everything he's been on - I'm familiar with his work with Arjen in particular, and I don't mind Headspace, so he's obviously a highlight in this track. There's some good riffage going on here that I like, the heavy breaks in the middle of the verses and the bits where the synth line is more prominent being highlights. I guess that while I like this song a bit it just doesn't have that something extra to take it to the top of the rankings. Still, a pink star is still worth something and is definitely deserved.

jingle.boy - Mr. Big - Addicted To That Rush

• I'm not sure if you will be surprised to see yourself ranked this far down or not. Anyway, this is a very enjoyable high-energy track, very bluesy, and it reminds me a bit of Van Halen in a lot of places (in a good way). I really like the subdued post-chorus section, and the instrumental section is pretty good if overlong. So yeah, I'm definitely liking this, but it's not silver-or-better material - at least not in this round.

senecadawg2 - Anneke Van Giersbergen - Drive

• Like most DTFers I'm an Anneke fan but while I was aware that she had some solo stuff out, I don't think I have ever bothered to give it a listen. This is pretty much what I thought it would be (not in a bad way); simple but effective pop rock. Anneke gives a good performance although not one of her best, but from what I can tell she's never given a bad performance so she's still good here. I like the little scats, like in the prechorus. I guess my biggest gripe really is that this song is just a bit generic, a bit run-of-the-mill for the genre. I struggled with the decision on whether to award you a pink star or not this round, but I once again told myself that I wanted to be more generous with them, and I couldn't really say that I liked the Gallowbraid a whole lot more than this...so a pink star you are.

Elite - Euzen - The Stage

• Like your last submission this one took a bit longer to get a read on, but unlike that one this track grew on me enough that you managed to crawl out of the way of the coal star this time. I want to preface this by saying that I didn't mind this song at all, but I don't want to be handing out pink stars to everyone every round, so you're missing out this time. On to the song: I didn't like the big droning synth on the first few listens, but I warmed up to it. I like the borderline-frantic drumming, very busy but not too busy. Vocally, I have no complaints. I guess where this track falls flat a bit is that it sometimes takes too long getting to the point (for example leading into the last chorus) so the pace seems a bit sluggish. The lead synth that appears in the latter half of the song is a but off-putting aswell; it sounds like the note bend is either too slow or starts too late, so it sounds like it's "behind" the rest of the instrumentation. Still, this wasn't bad and at least you're moving in the right direction.

Train of Naught - Deadly Circus Fire - Where It Lies

• It seems like you might have seen this coming, but a coal star is you this round. This song wasn't bad but there were quite a few things that nagged at me about it, that made it impossible to grow and move up the rankings. I don't mind some modern alternative stuff, but this is a bit on the generic side - the drumming and guitar work especially. Because of this it's also an incredibly predictable song - I pretty much knew what the chorus was going to sound like the first time I listened to the song, before it even started. I don't mind some screamy-style vocals but I can be fairly picky about what I like and what I don't, and this song contains both stuff that I thought was okay (the chorus), and stuff I didn't like as much (lead up to the chorus). But I did like some stuff here aswell...that calmer middle section is actually quite good and I like the way it builds back up for the climax at the end. I definitely like the screaming stuff in moderation and that's definitely the case here, it isn't overused. So, yeah. I'm afraid you are the coal star this time.

Scoreboard

Bonus Star Rankings

Okay, so that's the end of round 2. The rankings were a bit mixed around this time compared to last, so no one is really taking off too far ahead yet. The first pearl star is awarded, in the aquamarine category, and is currently being held by Train.

Start sending me your round 3 submissions yesterday.

[Evermind]

Cool, I can live with silver star. Shame I lost To Tyrias though, if anyone else sends symphonic song I won't be getting the pearl star.

[Tyrias]

Nice, glad you liked it so much!