Round 8 resultsMan I love having to only review 5 songs right now. I had a very easy time getting a grasp on them in just a few days as it's not even half an hour worth of music. Not a lot of differing scores here but that was to be expected.
Bolsters: Jorn Lande & Trond Holter – Swing of DeathI have heard a few “Jorn“ tracks, I guess that’s his solo project or something. But there has always been something about that heavily raspy tone in his voice that didn’t quite do it for me. I didn't really expect to like this artist, but - to my surprise - everything sounds up my alley and this could be one of the better growers of the round. For a 4 and a half minute song of pure fun and joy there’s just not much to hate on.
To kind of echo my first impression, I’m glad you went with a fun track here, because the more serious side of these artists (if they even have that side) would probably be more of a turnoff. Most of the time, the fun music I listen to is the crazy kind, but something about that ballroom intro and the grand chorus just works.
Normally a bit impartial on fade-outs but like here, and the other songs where I don’t mind fade-outs too much, it doesn’t change much since the part they’re fading out has already been repeated plenty and there’s no new material involved.
So all in all a really catchy song with a cool intro, great hooks and fun vocals.
4/5Tomislav95: Modest Mouse – The Cold PartGetting a somber feeling from the song right off the bat and it feels serious immediately. And once the vocals kick in I realized that this is apparently a more dated band, but you know what, those kind of vocals always work for me in this moody atmosphere. I just love the mood and atmosphere of it, it's one of the best first impressions a song in this roulette has had on me.
I’m getting a Californication vibe from the intro, only 10 times more depressing. It’s like the guys fmo RHCP took too many pills. I don’t know exactly why I like it as much as I do, it’s quite a repetitive tune and one you would think people would fully understand and move past after 1 or 2 listens, and that’s why I have an even harder time putting it on paper right now (yes I’m writing this
).
The simplicity is what makes this work most of all, maybe for that same reason I didn’t enjoy Okkervil River as much because of those slim heavy sections. But here I got nothing to complain, it’s just exactly what the band want it to be, a very sad little song with nothing much to it, and it works so who am I to judge.
This was a very cool contrast between all the (mostly) upbeat stuff I received this round, and I can safely say that it’s my favorite of the round, not by much though.
4.25/5 Parama: Exotic Animal Petting Zoo – SeedsFirst thing I noticed is that for this band – and I know what this band supposedly sounds like – it’s a damn long song. But you know what, I dig The Dillinger Escape Plan, I dig a few other mathcore bands including Mary Fields and The Chariot so I should be fine with this.
This sounds like nothing new to me, heard it all, but it still manages to be fairly interesting.I mean obviously this is not my everyday heavy music but I’m used to this style. The core vocals are great but there’s a severe lack of those pounding instrumentals complementing it I feel. That’s what I love about The Chariot and TDEP, it’s pure chaos, 100%, I feel like this band is trying too hard to set themselves apart from the crowd by adding fancy alternative vocals and lead guitars that don’t really fit into this type of music to my ears.
I’ll be honest, I really liked this song after one listen, after Modest Mouse it was probably my favorite. That’s where I got the “still manages to be fairly interesting“ from, because I was genuinely interested to listen to it atleast 5 times to find out every detail about it but as I got more and more listens in I started to discover stuff that made me like it not as much. IMO they would excel at being a post-hardcore band exclusively more than anything, the vocals are just made for it.
3.25/10Scorpion: Witherscape – MarionetteSo there’s definitely a very haunting vibe going on from the beginning on, and I felt like the intro would’ve gone on for a bit longer, but then suddenly WHEN THE FEELING DIES!
I mean, you’re right, those are some of the best growls I’ve heard. I’m normally not much into growls that low but sometimes they work, like Be’Lakor’s new album, and this song. For that same reason I feel this is a bit unbalanced,
the only problem I have with this song is that the growls section completely outweighs all the others, making the rest of the song less interesting.I don’t know what I was thinking there to be honest, it’s a great thing to build a song upon. I just don’t hear songs with the chorus being the absolute climax that often, especially since that makes all the climaxes equally big since they’re the exact same here. Well I guess the guitar solo adds to that but it’s nothing special really. But the clean vocals I’m still not 100% sold on, they’re the type of metal powerballad vocals that I’m normally not into that much. Good thing the chorus and the orchestration behind it are killer because it still makes the whole a pretty good song and despite not being the biggest fan of the cleans it gives me something to look forward to for the entire duration.
3.75/5Elite: Rendezvous Point – WastelandA djenty prog metal tune, alright I’ll take it. And if I’m not mistaken, this was the third support act for the europe Affinitour, the one that did not play at the show we attended?
The vocalist has a very intense dramatic tone to his voice, something I really dig, and along with the perfectly fitting synths it turns into a pretty neat modern progmetal tune.
I wish this had just a tad bit more to it to set it apart from the crowd though, I like the song, but it could've been so much more. I probably felt this way because most songs have their own cool climax near the end of the song, while this song sounds like the entire thing is one big climax. It’s not taking away from my enjoyment whatsoever though it just caught my attention. I feel like the whole is very balanced, it’s the only song this round where my full dedicated attention was towards everything that was going on, not just tunnelvisioning on one aspect, maybe it’s just the production quality, sounds very fresh.
I do feel like it should've been a little longer so that it could build up to this song or something, maybe the first song on the album + this would have been a great round 9 entry?
3.75/5
Standings1. Tomislav95: 60.75 + 4.25 = 65.0
2. Parama: 60 + 3.25 = 63.25
3. Bolsters: 58.5 + 4.0 = 62.5
4. Scorpion: 58.25 + 3.75 = 62.0
4. Elite: 58.25 + 3.75 = 62.0
The gap between 2nd and below has closed in a bit but Tomislav continues to gain a bit of lead, the next round could see some interesting shifts in the standings.
Schedule for next roundThis one is going to go almost as quick as last round, this may turn out a little longer because it's basically 10 songs. Just to make clear everyone understands, time to repost the round 9 rules:
For round 9 you have two options:1: You can send me two songs entirely separate from eachother, this could be two songs from the same band or two songs from different bands entirely, whatever, but in this case I would rate both songs out of 5 points and add up the scores for your total.
2: Send me two songs that follow up eachother, let me know if this is the case because if you do, I will rate the whole on a scale of 10 points, BUT this will include flow, so they have to be a smooth combination of songs, so either two songs that are on the same album played after eachother or two songs from the same band that you feel connect with eachother properly. No short intro/outro tracks,
I want 2 full songsIf the songs are on the same album and are played after eachother on that album I will automatically count it towards option 2, but if you have 2 songs from the same band they don't necessarily have to count towards option 2 if you don't want them to, and I will rate them separately.
And maybe you should look at the options you have left for the EP because it's starting to get close, EP rules can be found
here.