Ready…#1: home: The Pineapple Thief – Remember UsFirst Impressions:Very gorgeous and soothing music at the start of this, I’m liking it. I actually am kind of wishing there weren’t vocals now but I’ll probably be used to them by the time I’ve heard this a few times so whatever. Just the way this track flows, it’s so… natural. I’m probably biased while listening to this right now because chill music is absolutely what I’m in the mood for, but.
I think this song is a little confused about what it wants to be but most of the time what it wants to be is something I really like and I don’t dislike the rest either, so. I have… very little to say about this on first listen, other than that I like it. The ending felt a little abrupt, though.
Final Thoughts:The intro of this is so gorgeous. That simple guitar lead and the layers of strings. I just adore the whole vibe of it, very warm and pleasant in the best way. And it keeps itself from dragging on for too long, as well. There’s small shifts and additions until the vocals come in at about 2:30. I’ve grown to like how the song really kicks in here, the drums provide a nice driving feel and the vocals are really pleasant while fitting into the sound of the song naturally.
The whole vibe of this song that I get while listening to it is that it’s “nice”. And I definitely don’t mean that in a bad way because I definitely get a lot of enjoyment out of it because of its general vibe. It’s the kind of music that I’m basically always in the mood for.
And it’s just executed well, too. After the vocal bit there’s this nice build on one theme that’s great, the drums pick up a bit, the guitars pick up a bit, the background strings swell, it hits a peak briefly but doesn’t draw it out, then backs off a little as the ambient middle section kicks in.
The ambient middle section itself is… fine enough. It’s not as lusciously textured as the denser ambient stuff I like, and not as subtle as the more tender ambient I like, but it hits a solid middle point. I think the quietly roaring guitar in the back is what really pulls it together for me. It’s a subtle harshness that gives the sound of the section a bit more weight. I don’t think it transitions back into the meat of the song very smoothly though, not as smooth as the transition into the ambient section at least.
It continues to be much easier to talk about this song by sections since they are all pretty cleanly divided up, heh. The next section is a more straightforward section that mostly exists to build tension, driven by a repeating piano and guitar motif with some synths and vocals coming in and out while the drums keep a steady, straightforward groove going. It’s a solid section but probably the weakest of the entire song, really, and they hold on to it for maybe a bit long. Near the end it fades out to just the main motif before a brief build into the final section of the song.
Which happens to be a nice reprise of the earlier chorus with a bit more life and energy put into it, making for a pretty effective climax, albeit one that feels maybe a bit too brief. The song repeats a similar kind of build after to close out the track, with a decent guitar solo going on as it builds. It does feel like it drops off a bit unceremoniously after it hits its peak though.
This writeup feels like a bit of a wreck honestly, it’s not how I’d like to talk about music but it’s easier to express my thoughts about this song this way, I suppose. It’s a song that has its ups and downs and documenting them in such a way probably effectively conveys my feelings towards this track. Some of its highs are pretty dang high, but there’s also some moments where the song meanders a bit and a few places that feel like outright misfires or poor songwriting choices that do detract from the overall piece. I like this song, but I definitely can’t say that I love it.
8.25/10 Set…#2: Evermind: Flaming Row - Mirage - A Portrayal of Figures - Part 1First Impressions:I’ve heard of fake endings before but this has like two fake openings, haha. The guitar work going on here reminds me of, funnily enough, Native Construct. Like honest to god that’s what I thought.
There’s kind of a brightness to the vibe of the song even with these jagged guitar lines going on and the vocals sound decisively less bright, like the music is just putting up a façade. Okay. That piano bit, it’s kind of funny but also kind of works pretty well. I like the instrumental work of this track, a lot, apparently, the sax is great too. And apparently there’s like a hundred vocalists or something on this too. There’s one or two I’m not a huge fan of but they’re generally alright, though not great either. The song maybe jumps around a bit much but it flows well enough that I don’t feel like it detracts.
Final Thoughts:Out of the three songs in this round, this is definitely the one that had the strongest “scope” to it, the one that most decisively felt like an “epic” and not just a long song. After a whole minute of noises, the song comes in right away with its main motif, one that appears enough so that you recognize it but not one that feels like it ever gets too hammered in or worn out.
This song definitely has its fair share of cheese going on, that much is certain. I have no clue what the story here is but having one of the main characters be named “John” (presumably the everyday average guy who gets caught up in something fantastic) is a bit silly. I cannot take John seriously. I dunno who the sleeper is, or whether or not he’s the good guy or the bad guy because I’m getting mixed signals. And there’s a lot of over-the-top-ness to this song. I’m not really bothered by most of it though? It fits in with the “epic” theme they’re going for here well enough.
What this song has going for it is that it’s constantly in motion and really feels like it, but it doesn’t ever feel spastic or incohesive. There’s a lot of distinct moments to this song – that piano break immediately comes to mind before anything else but I can pretty decisively tell apart all the moments of this song – but all the moments are woven together well that it still feels like one song, just one that goes through its movements without ever needing to dig in its feet and rest on one idea for too long.
And while there are definitely a number of really wacky moments here, there are just as many grand and powerful ones – the chorus right in the middle of the song for example, playing off that main motif with a huge choir of voices and a massive wall of sound behind it, it works quite well.
Most of the vocalists I do like a fair bit, but I’m gonna pick on John again, because he’s a loser and his vocal bits sound pretty bad to my ears. It’s this goofy rough-edged sound that thinks it sounds way cooler than it actually does, which may be in line with his character, I have no clue, but it just sounds bad. Pretty much all the other vocalists nail it though, even if they’re maybe not all so distinguishable (I went and looked up the lyrics and was surprised at how many figures were meant to be portrayed here, probably twice as many as I thought).
There’s some mildly eclectic instrumentation throughout a lot of this but never anything too off-the-wall; the piano and saxophone break, the flute solo, some solo violin at the climax of the song. All small little things that aren’t exactly recurring but all add a lot when they show up. And that’s on top of the diverse and pretty interesting base musicianship throughout; the guitar work has a lot of different moods to it, the drums provide some solid bombast, the bass may or may not be present though, I have no clue. I wouldn’t say there’s anything that unique or unexpected for a prog metal song but it’s all solidly executed and doesn’t sound recycled or tired, at the very least.
I definitely don’t feel like, after only 5 listens, that I’ve gotten everything out of this that I could be getting, it’s definitely the most complex track of the songs in this round, and probably the one that feels like it most merits more listens, which it probably will get. The gripes I have about the song are relatively minor compared to how much I do like, and while I wouldn’t really say I love any moments of this song, nor are there many moments that hit me particularly hard, it’s interesting and enjoyable throughout.
8.25/10Gone.#3: Tomislav95: Redemption – SapphireFirst Impressions:To be fair I know exactly who Redemption is but I’ve never been able to get into them whenever I’ve tried checking them out. My first thought: I don’t really like the vocals, at least not at the start of this. There’s something about the tone of his voice. It’s really breathy in an irksome way. Musically thus far, it has been… solid but not really noteworthy prog metal.
I’m finding my mind wandering as this goes on, honestly. It’s competent enough for the genre, but it’s just failing to grab me in any real way. Maybe it’ll open up to me on relistens but I am just rather underwhelmed by this one, and I honestly didn’t have very high expectations to begin with. The vocals are really the big problem with this one for me though. I just… I don’t like them. It’s that simple. I dislike this vocalist.
Final Thoughts:Man, I just… cannot get past the vocals. I figured out why. The way he sings, this vocal style… he tries to belt almost every word, even during the quieter moments. It’s a lack of dynamics that just makes it fairly exhausting and homogenous to listen to. Even throwing aside that I don’t like the tone of his voice to begin with, as I said in my first impression, the vocals just are not very pleasant to listen to here, with basically no exceptions.
I didn’t put these guys on the banned list because in all fairness I’d barely checked out any songs by them; maybe two or three ever, and all shorter ones. And I got the same impression from them as I get from this: They’re fine. They don’t really do anything unique or interesting that makes them stand out as a band though, and they really just aren’t for me. The other two tracks in this round are pretty striking and immediately memorable. This, after four listens… I could not remember a single moment of it.
The guitar lines are… serviceable. There’s no really memorable melodies from them. The cleaner guitar work creates an alright atmosphere. The riffs are bog-standard, a lot of chugging and some more chordy stuff. The drums are pretty okay really, plenty of interesting rhythms and satisfyingly technical playing that still has impact. The bass is… vaguely present but mostly just seems to be doubling the guitar. The fast noodly synth lines drive a solid mood whenever they show up, and the synth strings add some texture to the atmosphere.
There’s just nothing for me to grasp onto here though. The chorus would be passable if I liked the vocals more but they really do irk me. The song generally feels like it’s lacking dynamics, aside from a few scattered quieter moments it feels like it’s trying to drive this big-but-not-quite-grand sound a lot of the time; again, distributing its weight too thin and lacking any real hard-hitting moments as a result.
And yeah. The song does have a pretty solid focus on its vocals. They’re not the only aspect, of course, but they’re a big one, they’re driving most of the emotional crux this song is trying to have, and… well, if that fails for me, it’s gonna be hard for the rest of the song to compensate. Yeah, there are some moments to this that have a decent amount of power to them, and perhaps I’m overexaggerating my distaste for the vocals since there are times when they sound fine enough, but the moments are far and few between.
And for a 16 minute song, this really feels stretched thin, too. I feel like I’m hearing a lot of the same riffs and themes over and over. Who knows if I actually am; but if I’m not, that almost makes it worse, it just means all the diversity the song is trying to have gets buried in how plain and uneventful it is. Uhh. I guess some of the solos here are solid, a bit noodly at times but there’s one of the guitar solos in the last third that I like and there’s a solid piano moment in there too?
At the end of the day, this is simply just a song that doesn’t have a lot to offer me. If I was just getting into prog metal and had gotten into these guys early on, I’d probably have loved this, but this is just not where I am musically right now, and I’m not sure it’s somewhere I’ll ever be again. It’s a shame to see you cut after a really consistent run the rest of this roulette, but that’s the way things are. I haven’t even done the other two write-ups yet, as of time of writing, I just already know without a doubt this is the weakest of the three.
6.5/10I think the worst part about this cut is not only that it's the player with (still) the highest average score in the roulette, but that it was so damn decisive of a cut that I can't even argue against it. Oh well. Such is roulette life
home and Evermind, I'm steeling yourself for the carnage that is your EPs