Sacul's controversial roulette v3. Less frustration™️, A REAL WINNER AT LAST!!!!

[Crow]

  2/5

[Tomislav95]

It's 1:29 AM here, don't make me stay awake for too long

[The Walrus]

Oh boy oh boy I hope I'm lucky enough to get a 2.5! 

[King Postwhore]

That's a two point fiiiiiiiiiiiiivvveeeeeeee!!!!!

[Tomislav95]

...out of 10...

[The Walrus]

The only one that's a mystery on hangman is mine too 

[Sacul]

It's 1:29 AM here, don't make me stay awake for too long

I'm afraid I need more breaks than anticipated so go to sleep 

[Crow]

the torture round 
betting good money bolsters wins the round

[Sacul]

 

[Crow]

grabbing my bag of :sooncorn

[King Postwhore]

grabbing my bag of :sooncorn

I did that earlier today.

[Sacul]

Kattoelox: Aquaria - Expedition
Gosh I hate those synths at the beginning, a lot - they seem out of a cheap early 2000s game. Riffing is ok, drumming is very predictable and boring, I'm not really a fan of whatever those background vocals are at 1:40, and UGH that break at 2:50 or so. I normally don't give a crap about power metal, but this actually made me have some negative feelings towards it . I ended up skipping it while finishing this, sorry fam. +2/5


Evermind: Seventh Wonder - Alley Cat
I remember the other song you sent me in the previous roulette - it was so goddamn cheesy so this made me scared . To begin with, there's a noticeable lower ranking in the Cheese O' Mater so that's nice. On the other hand, I realized I had actually listened to this album many years ago but couldn't even finish it, and this track reminds me why - it's just run-of-the-mill prog metal, reminding me of Threshold, Shadow Gallery, Redemption, and of DT's less stellar moments, mostly during the instrumental break. I'm really tired of this sound and I was never fully into it, and this doesn't change my opinion. 2.5/5


kingshmegland: Pagan's Mind - Though Osiris' Eyes
I think the most creative thing of this song is the spare use of vocal effects. The rest is just boring progressive power metal with bland shredding and lame synths. Guitar work is just ok. Overall I wouldn't say it's completely derivative, but it's just part of an aesthetic and sound I've never enjoyed and this round confirms I never will . 2.5/5


Luoto: Insomnium - Revelation
Well, after much cheese overload, time for growl overload, predictable riffing, bland and monotonous drumming, pointless synths, typical reverb and layering, and forgettable melodies. Yet in a way this is the lesser of two devils, somehow . +2.5/5


ariich: Amorphis - Dark Path
I've heard some Amorphis tunes in plug, and wasn't really impressed, nor I am now. It's... just nothing really special, just a straightforward song that switches between boring death metal and ok prog metal. It's... kind of there, you know. Sure it's got a decent guitar work and the vocalist is good, but things is, death and prog metal always detract for me, so unless it's a very creative twist on the genre, with a strong personality, it will likely just never get extra points from me. So this was just ok. +2.5/5


Nekov: Angra - Wishing Well
Ugh I have tried some random songs form this album, and gave Holy Land a listen, and weren't my thing at all. The acoustic guitar motif of this song must be an Ayreon ripoff or something, I swear it reminds me of a song from THE. The chorus is ok, kinda trying to be emotional but it's just cheesy. Rest of the song just forgettable. +2.5/5


Train of Naught: Trivium - The Sin and the Sentence
A friend once gifted me a Trivium CD (Ascendancy) thinking I'd dig it, and it was quite meh. But I heard good things of their last album so was curious about this entry.

And uuhhh it was ok I guess? It's Melodic Metalcore according to RYM and that seems fitting, but there's also quite some Heavy and Thrash Metal influence here. It's got a pretty normal song structure except for the last bit of the song, with some intense but rather dull drumming, clean / harsh vocals duo, and ok riffing. I really don't like this kind of drumming really, it's so unimaginative, lacks dynamics, it's just a guy playing fast and gets tiresome. And despite being fairly melodic, I found the melodies bland and forgettable. It's not really bad, just kind of boring tbh. +2.5/5


Tomislav95: Iced Earth - A Question of Heaven
I used to jam Something Wicked This Way Comes quite a bit some years ago - was a good tune, but didn't get me interested in checking the band further. So, curious me was interested in this track. And yeah, I'll say it's a fairly standard metal fair . It's solid I guess, but I just can't stand the lame use of 80s guitar sounds a lot of metal tries to pass for adequate for calm sections - it doesn't calm anybody down when you're playing at the same tempo and volume as before. After that it slowly starts building up, sorta. I feel the vocalist gets to an emotional climax the rest of the instruments haven't noticed, for they play exactly the same for the most part towards the end. So yeah, just another metal track. 3/5


Elite: Caligula's Horse - A Gift to Afterthought
I've listened to Moments From Ephemeral City back when I got a song from it on my first roulette and it was an ok effort I think. I've then proceeded to encounter many songs from their catalogue in diverse plug sessions, and they didn't make a strong impression on me.

And neither does this song. Yeah these guys got a nice sound, and there are some cool ideas, like the massive backing vocals near the end of the song, and the elaborate songwriting. But beyond that, it feels pretty much like standard modern progressive metal, with a little djent influence on the riffs.

While I'd have loved this track had I been a huge fan of the style here, truth is that I've never been too big on it, and these days it mostly detracts from the experience to me. The last interesting prog metal I heard was Indukti's Idmen, and even that didn't blow my mind despite having a unique sound - I'm just done with this kind of music I guess. 3/5


home: Blind Guardian -  The Bard's Song - In the Forest
Well this was actually somehow decent - expected way more cheese, but this is just a normal ballad like one a Bard would sing I guess. The vocal harmonies were a nice touch. And that's pretty much what I have to say, it's a short track, doesn't do much, but doesn't annoy at all. You could even say there was a degree of enjoyment here. +3/5


Bolsters, the Traitor: Amy Shark - Deleted
Well, something refreshing at least! Relatively I guess. On the one hand I like the production, electronic, with lots of room to breathe, and synths are nice. On the other, the melodies feel much like typical indie pop these days, so it really takes away from her, but I hope she can develop a more unique and personal style one day. +3/5


Parama: The Hirsch Effekt - Irrath
This was a pretty weird tune, being mostly just bass, drums, and vocals for the beginning of the song, slowly starting to build up around the middle, with the guitar playing with more intensity. Here things get interesting, I like the interplay of the instruments until the bitreak, which was unexpected but cool. I like the distant vocals on it. Then the songs picks up where it left and it's pretty cool, I like the harmonies towards the end of the song. And it ends. Rather abruptly wtf.

Well, this didn't blow my mind, but it was far more enjoyable than the rest of songs on this round, probably because of the band's unique but weird style. 3.5/5

Positions
ariich +19
Elite 19
Parama +18.5
kingshmegland 18.5
tomislav95 18.5
Bolsters +18
Evermind +18.5
Nekov +18.5
Train of Naught 17.5
home17
Luoto +16.5
Katteolox +16

Well, that sucked . Time to get back to our normal routine schedule, you've got 48 hours to send.

[Sacul]

Click here for full size

I forgot to post it, but I made a list with my favorite discoveries of last year in case you're curious about where my current tastes are at. Here are the top 10 albums, with a song for each:

   
• Gustavo Cerati - Bocanada
• Fishmans - Uchu Nippon Setagaya
• Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
• VA - Hotline Miami OST
• Air - Moon Safari
• Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
• The Cardigans - Gran Turismo
• Brand New - Science Fiction
• Converge - Axe to Fall
• Fishmans - Long Season

[Crow]

sure, i'll take it 

[Elite]

haven't lost my position, got a fairly decent score, great!

[Nekov]

Got a higher score than I expected, nice

[Bolsters]

Sent my next failure.

[home]

That's not too bad!

[King Postwhore]

Well, didn't move much.  That's not bad.

[The Walrus]

Well, damn. 

[Train of Naught]

Sent some djenty space-deathmetal

[Nekov]

Sent non power metal this time 

[ariich]

Probably not surprising that the two highest scores were the two people who forgot the round theme.

Ah well, I'd hoped you'd enjoy their rich melodic stylings, but it was always going to be a risk (which was the whole idea of the round).

Anyway, back to normal, so... sent!

[Evermind]

Sent something yesterday (thanks Train) and sent the same song today just in case.

[The Walrus]

Sent mine a couple days ago.

[Elite]

Sending right now.

[Nekov]

Sending right now.

We surely have everyone by now then 

[King Postwhore]

Sending right now.

We surely have everyone by now then 

No.  I'm sending one soon.

[The Walrus]

It's been over 2 days!   

[King Postwhore]

Eh a few hours late. 

[Elite]

Sending right now.

We surely have everyone by now then 

I had to resend

[Nekov]

  Hopefully that means we're ready to go. It would be nice if the roulette runner posted something about how we're doing...

[Sacul]

The host went to a trip yesterday and only just returned, I've got some good and bad news for you all, I'll update later 

[Crow]

Everyone loses the roulette?

[Nekov]

Everyone loses the roulette?

At this point that's good news for me