---ROUND 4 RESULTS---
1st Place: Parama
Brand New - Limousine
This song ended up being my favorite of the round, despite being of a genre I don’t usually listen to. It’s very catchy, it’s got both quiet and loud parts, and it does a very good job at transitioning between the two. The main focus of the song is the long buildup towards the end, which despite being very repetitive, is done really well. It does a great job at gradually ramping up in intensity, especially in the vocal department, and I love how little background elements and melodies are slowly introduced until the song explodes into the guitar solo outro, which is a great payoff to the long buildup. With poor execution, the buildup could have easily ruined the song, but that’s thankfully not the case, and the result is a song that I really enjoyed.
2nd Place: Scorpion
Nevermore - The River Dragon Has Come
This is the third Nevermore song I’ve gotten in my roulettes, and I got pretty much what I expected from it: a solid metal track with some really awesome guitar work. If there’s one thing this band does well it’s really great down-tuned guitar riffs, and this song has plenty of that. The vocal melodies and delivery are pretty good as well. If I had one complaint, it’s that the song doesn’t really progress all that much; sections are re-used multiple times without any changes in delivery or execution, and the track feels a bit repetitive as a result. That didn’t hamper my enjoyment of it all that much though; this was still a really good song.
3rd Place: Tomislav95
Redemption - Black And White World
This one was definitely a grower for me. The first couple of listens didn’t register as much for me besides generic DT-esque prog metal, but I eventually came to really enjoy it. My one main issue with the track is that the first few minutes aren’t that interesting. The song takes a while to get going, but when it finally does, it’s really fantastic. The solo section towards the end is awesome, the fretless bass break that follows it is cool, and the outro is satisfying enough. The song also has a really good flow and sense of momentum throughout, which gives it a lot of energy. Overall, this was a pretty standard but well-executed piece of prog metal.
4th Place: splent
Rush - Losing It
I’ve yet to hear a Rush song that I absolutely loved (except for maaaaybe Marathon), but this song was nice, and a nice change of pace from the band’s usual sound. It’s very somber and emotional, quite beautiful, even. I usually don’t comment on the lyrics of songs, but I thought the ones here were very well-written. The vocal melodies are also very memorable and enjoyable. That said, there were some parts of the song that I didn’t like, notably the electric violin solo and the ending. The solo is very noisy and doesn’t fit in with the tone of the song at all, in my opinion. I also thought that the song fades out way too early. Those complaints aside, this was still a really nice listen.
5th Place: Train of Naught
Black Peaks - Set In Stone
My one sentence opinion of this song is that half of it is great and half of it is subpar. The choruses get pretty annoying after a while, and the verses aren’t that special either. Thankfully, the rest of the song is much better. The middle section has a really cool vibe to it, the guitar solo towards the end is awesome, and the song ends with a really badass-sounding post-metal riff. This track’s short and energetic enough to be decently enjoyable despite a lot of parts not being that good, at least in my opinion.
6th Place: Elite
Karnivool - Deadman
There’s parts of this song that I really like, but overall I think it’s way too long and drawn-out. It’s got some really groovy rhythms and the heavier parts of the song are really cool, but it really drags towards the end. The ambient section that starts around the middle of the track goes on for way too long; there’s a point where it sounds like it’s going to explode back into a heavy part, only for it to retreat back into a quiet break that begins the buildup over again, and I don’t think it works well at all. The finale of the song is also pretty underwhelming. This was an okay track, but I think it could have been executed a lot better.
7th Place: LordCost
Rishloo - Dark Charade
My opinions of this song are pretty damn similar to the above submission. It’s a long track with lots of cool moments scattered here and there, but it’s all spread pretty thin. For every memorable section, there’s also a lot of filler that doesn’t register as much. The track does have a pretty cool atmosphere, and each section flows to the next really well, but overall it’s just too unmemorable.
8th Place: Evermind
ReVamp - The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown: Neurasthenia
This song was okay, but I didn’t really like its sound. I don’t know, the mix of power, symphonic and industrial metal just wasn’t that appealing to me. There also weren’t too many sections that stuck out to me as being that good, though the chorus was decently catchy. I also can’t complain about the vocals; Floor and Devin are both great at what they do, though their performances for this song weren’t amazing or anything. But yeah, I didn’t really dig this one too much.
Songs banned this round: Nevermore, Rush
I'm also going to ban a couple that I've gotten a bunch in my roulettes and I don't really want any more songs from:
Protest The Hero, Chimp Spanner
THE SCORE SO FAR:
Parama: 35
Scorpion: 30
Elite: 29
Evermind: 27
splent: 27
Train of Naught: 24
Tomislav95: 19
LordCost: 17
Halfway there! Send your Round 5 submission whenever.