Okay, got home from Testament, it was sick. Not music I'd dig as much at home but man they've got quite some energy. Time to do this shit:
First one I let off is probably the most consistently heavy song of the round. This remains more interesting than a lot of bands I hear in the genre. They shake up the riffs and melodies quite a lot and it makes the song remaing interesting throughout its (pretty long) runtime. The chorus has amazingly epic guitar melodies going on, I simply love those. And the clean ending was a bit of a surprise and it takes me out of the song a bit but I've grown to love it. Can safely say this was my third favourite round.
Sorry for letting you wait this long, but no more need to worry my dude. Puppies_On_Acid, Ashen Crown was fucking sick, you're through to the next.
Next up, time to let off someone who I feel I've deservedly kept waiting in stress for this long.
Pretty rad progressive metal song, this one. It almost felt a bit too cookie-cutter progmetal for me and the vocals were not satisfying me entirely, but in the end it was things like that one cool vocal melody in the chorus and that Meshuggah-like riff with some super low basslines in the second half of the song that pushed me over the edge. Definitely on the lower end of submissions that made it through, but good enough to pass.
Lonestar, you eliminated me in the first fucking round, but I sadly can't do the same with you since you lined up a pretty cool song. Jack the Joker - Volte Face gets the green light.
Finally let's reveal the round winner. This probably started as a 'safe entry' since the band is currently touring with my favourite band and have a pretty similar sound. The strings are beautiful, give off this epic haunting feeling. What carries me over for the same reason as The Dear Hunter though, is they manage to build up so much tension, and the last chorus is just so overwhelmingly huge. Easy pass to the next round, and definite winner of round 0.
Home, join the cool kids for round 1. Beneath the Brine is a banger. Unfortunately there are no prizes for round winner in this roulette.
This means there are 7 people left, 4 get eliminated and 3 still go through. Here's the ranking of all songs so far:
1. The Family Crest - Beneath the Brine
2. Kaddisfly - campfire
3. In Mourning - Ashen Crown
4. Fjokra - Slyrex
5. Crippled Black Phoenix - Scared and Alone
6. Rainbow - Stargazer
7. Constantine - Collective Harmony
8. This Day & Age - More of a Climb, Less of a Walk
9. Jack the Joker - Volte Face
Let me just reiterate that this is a really strong round, I like all 9 songs listed here.