Just to make clear, Sacul merely sent this to me for fun, it doesn't have anything to do with the finals but I enjoyed including it and he already sent it to me pretty early so why not.
#6: Sacul: not zantera / sacul music – abridged versionFirst impression/thoughts:I was afraid to encounter an EP full of spooky scary saculcore that I wouldn't be able to digest in a million years, but to my surprise there's some really cool accessible catchy stuff on this. I notice some trademark Sacul bands, namely NIN, and think way higher of them now than I did before this first listen. There's an obvious dip in quality starting from the Faith No More track up until The National Anthem IMO, but the start and end up the EP more than make up for it, it's a really good one and will probably even score higher than one or maybe more finalists. Anyway, onto the songs..
Rammstein – Feuer FreiKicking it off with what are probably considered the pioneers of industrial metal. I still have a dream of seeing these guys live once in my life, I don’t know many songs in particular but I’ve always liked their sound.
And I guess I feel that way about this aswell, it’s such a bombastic rocker, and German is a great language for this type of metal IMO, I’ve always felt like theirs a certain agressiveness to their accent. I can’t for the life of me sit still during this opener, all hell breaks loose, BANG-BANG, awesome tight drumming, great alternative riffage. I love germany.
18/20 #3 out of 38Nine Inch Nails – Starfuckers, Inc.Kiiinda linking this to the industrial metal, it’s an alright transition though not the best. I like the You’re So Vain (Carly Simon) reference
it was an unexpected turn but it makes the song go from this angry rocker to a pretty insane mindfuck of a song, like you can really sense that this guy puts a lot of emotion into his music.
The “harsh“ vocals, to put it bluntly, share some similarities with Greg Puciato from The Dillinger Escape Plan and it makes for a really cool blend between alternative rock vox and straight-up core vocals. Overall pleasantly surprised with my first real taste of non-instrumental NIN (I did try them a couple times but never really clicked) as I dreaded the thought of having to sit through a 40 minute EP of which almost half of the songs are by a band I would dislike.
16/20 #16 out of 38Chelsea Wolfe – Carrion FlowersHere we have the song I could’ve (maybe should’ve) rejected, but I didn’t remember it at all to be honest, I just recognized the name.
This is what I’d call the “hauntingly beautiful“ type of song that many people claim songs like The Raven That Refused To Sing to be. The bass (pretty sure that’s programmed) almost sounds like it’s taken straight from a horror movie, or some very suspenseful scene. Like the moment right before the jumpscare where everything goes silent, that’s what this song feels like. And the vocals have their moments, I mostly love the atmospheric background vocals and am a bit impartial to the actual vocals, but they have their moments. Overall a solid tune and I can’t help but feel like I underrated this one in my first roulette, sorry Tyrias!
16.5/20 #14 out of 38Faith No More – CaffeineAnd from here I felt the EP took a bit of a dip. I believe this is the other Mike Patton band, and I thought I couldn’t really fault his vocals because I liked him on Mr. Bungle, but this band seems to take a much more serious approach and it doesn’t work nearly as well.
That said, the song had some redeemable qualities, the chorus is great for instance. Riffing sounds a bit too generic even though it's intentional, I feel like the lack of variety might be what puts me off by this. Not a terrible song but it just strikes me as something that's not for me,
might try the album some day but I'm a bit doubtful.
13/20 #34 out of 38Nine Inch Nails - Various Methods of EscapeI gotta admit that I'm really coming around to these NIN tunes, I was a bit impartial to them at first, but they all have a catchiness factor that I can't deny, and the sheer chillness of it all makes it a great choice for the EP aswell so I can see why you saved Trent Reznor for this. Comparing to the other 'full' songs this doesn't do as much for me on a standalone level, but it's still a good fit for the EP and I don't mind it much. The chorus is definitely the highlight, the falsetto is one of my favorite things about the entire EP, but maybe a bit unbalanced? I don't know, it's still a fine track.
14/20 #31 out of 38Radiohead - The National AnthemOh god, I was expecting the worst as I haven't had a single good experience with this band and well, I was right about this song. One complaint both this song and the one seneca sent me in the first roulette final (believe it was called The Reckoning?) share is the way the cymbals are intentionally high in the mix, it's really grating, but I could live with it I suppose.
But then we get to the vocals and I'm honestly hating them, and I hope I don't come across as a jerk but the vocal melodies become really annoying after a while (the way he says "nyeeeear"). And then the inclusion of brass instruments unfolds and it's pretty cool actually, for a little while. But it really overstays its welcome as a big chunk of the song is filled up with a frantic sax solo á la Mars Volta/Ihsahn combination or something, but I really got tired of it after a while. Sorry, big miss here.
10/20 #38 out of 38Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That FeedsYou really got me, you really got me
I guess Trent likes The Kinks a lot, but that's a pretty cool distorted rendition of You Really Got Me, I can dig it. I think this song is a good combination of both previously heard NIN tracks, it's not quite as agressive as Starfuckers, but does have some pounding riffs to keep you pumped up, and it does have some really catchy lines aswell in the chorus. Not as good as Starfuckers but yet again a solid NIN song here, I'm starting to like this band.
15.5/20 #26 out of 38Radiohead - Exit Music (For a Film)At this point the dip in quality I was talking about earlier has already long gone and it just keeps going upward. After hearing that first Radiohead song I thought I was in for something god awful, and then I get this beautiful Radiohead song that sounds an awful lot like Muse, maybe even better. I didn't know this dude (Yorke) was able to sing this good, wow. I mean, the distortion effect at the highpoint makes for a great dramatic climax not just for the song, but for the entire EP. And oh well, I wouldn't be able to mention too much else, all the spotlights are on the vocals and he absolutely nails it, so I ain't complaining.
18.5/20 #2 out of 38Nine Inch Nails - 13 Ghosts IINot much to say about this one, I'm glad you included it as kind of an aftermath, after the dramatic conclusion of the EP we have this calm instrumental to close things off and it does its job, but it's by no means a standout song and I wouldn't be able to fairly rate it on its own. So I won't. It's a freebee for picking the right closer.
Consisting of 9 songs, this was easily the EP with the most songs on it, but it surely wasn't the most diverse one. Then again, logically a proper EP shouldn't be
too varying either. Looking at the flow and the structure specifically, there's some odd transitions, I feel that way mostly about Starfuckers into Carrion Flowers and to a slightly lesser extent Carrion Flowers into Caffeine. BUT I really liked how by far the best songs, even some of the best of the entire round, were both the EP opener, and the absolute climax of the EP, that's exactly the way it should be because you hooked me from the first second and kept me interested till the very end.
I'm glad you trimmed it down the way you did too, originally you closed off with Bowie's Blackstar but honestly after my first listen I couldn't stand it
not my thing.
Score:For the flow I'll give you 8 out of 10 points, only a few minor gripes on that department, and mostly a well executed song order/flow. the individual song score comes in at an average of 15.1875
so that makes:
15.1875 + 8 = 23.2/30 (rounding up/down scores up to decimals for my own eaze)