RESULTS!
and the killing off of the ones left behind by the group...
Evermind
(Germany) Avantasia - The ScarecrowMaybe you should have saved this for the Epic Round.... This is EPIC! Yes that's an all caps epic... The violins with the guitars sounds awesome. The more laid back, simpler verses make the louder, more bombastic parts stand out even more and drives the epicness to 11! The gang/choir vocals are very well done (more on the vocals in a moment). Then the middle part is a nice symphonic/ambient build up to the second half which drives that fact that this song is epic home! The guitar solo is very tasty, not overly technical. Then the last 4 minutes or so are just, wow! Makes me want to bang my head. Now back to the vocals...99% of the vocals are great, but there is this vibrato that is used in the upper register in a few parts that just doesn't sound good. I'm not sure who the culprit is, since apparently Michael Kiske, Jorn Lande, and Tobias all sing on this song. So because of that little niggle this song just barely misses the highest score....
9.5/10
Elite
(Netherlands) Vanaheim - Daughter of the DawnI get a lot of Moonsorrow similarities from this. It seems like this is a newish band. If that's the case then they could be on the verge of being a new favorite band in the Folk/viking/pagan/black metal arena. If they can expound on the sound they have here and flesh it out to a full album, it could be incredible. Anyways, back to this song. The intro is very reminiscent of Moonsorrow. Then there's tons of acoustic guitar, traditional folk/viking/pagan instruments (not sure if they are just keyboards or if they are actually playing the instruments like Moonsorrow, either way they sound pretty good), and soaring riffs, choir vocals, all the stuff you need to sound like Moonsorrow. Where is diverges is this has more Melodic Death Metal elements thrown in. This helps provide some uniqueness, so they aren't just a carbon copy. It's really good stuff and I look forward to exploring more of their music.
9.5/10
KTLX
(USA) Slushii - Sapient DreamHappy, airy, light, jingly?, chill. These words describe this song. It doesn't quite have the same impact as your last song, but it has a similar vibe. And whatever that vibe is, I like it. The processed vocal-like lead sounds (whatever it is) might be a little over done, but still enjoyable for the most part. The whole song flows nicely and it just puts me in a good mood listening to it. I'm not really sure what genre of electronic music this would fall under, but I would like to find more like this.
9/10
Jingle
(Belgium) Epysode - ObsessionsI enjoyed the hell out of this. No pussyfooting around, it jumps right in a grabs you by the balls for some rockin Prog metal. It manages to be heavy without falling in to the djent trap. The male/female vocal dynamic works really well and I like both of their voices. I did a little digging in to the band members because I noticed slight similarities to Pain of Salvation, which I came to find out makes sense because Kristoffer Gildenlow and Leo Margarit play bass and drums respectively on this album. I've never heard of Christophe Godin before, but that solo he jumps in with is awesome. I also checked out the video for this song like you suggested and I quite enjoyed that too. Another solid song and I'm definitely going to give the rest of the album a listen.
9/10
Parama
(USA) Black Crown Initiate - Belie the MachineIf you had sent this song to me without giving me a band name I probably would have guessed it was Gojira, until it got to the clean vocals. The clean vocals weren't that great, but I warmed up to them a little the more I listened to this. The rest of the song though was really great! The jazzy/fusion intro sounds awesome. Then the tremolo picking in to the riffs that come in after that are some of the best I've heard all roulette. The drummer is enjoyable to listen to as well. He keeps that jazz/fusion style to his playing throughout the song and the whole band goes in and out of jazz/fusion mode a couple times throughout. It's a really cool song, made slightly less cool by the clean vocals.
8.5/10
Home
(France) Igorrr - Opus BrainSo the little snippet I made about this song is actually what a coworker of mine said when he was listening to this song with me the other day. I thought his reaction was hilarious so I thought I would share it. Believe is or not, this is not the strangest song I have ever heard. Having said that, it still makes hard lefts at random junctions constantly. It's a throw everything in, including the kitchen sink, type of song and then try to blend it all together. I like this kind of stuff. It works, to a degree. Still, I feel like they could be trying to hard to make the statement of, "we don't have a genre," even though there is a ton of cool stuff going on.
7.5/10
Luke
(Hungary) Thy Catafalque - Siraly & 10^(-20) AngstromInitially I thought this was going to compete with the Vanaheim song for best folk/viking/pagan metal song of the round. The song never got going in that direction though. No big deal. It's still quite enjoyable and has that folkyness that I like. I like the female vocals and harmonies. And the song does pick up a bit and get heavier in the middle to give it some good dynamics. The problem I have with it is the second half just kind of repeats the first half. So it falls a little flat in that regard. The end is really good though.
7.5/10
Tomislav
(Iceland) Agent Fresco - Dark WaterI hear a bit of Haken in this, only in shorter form and less heavy. The vocalist really reminds me of Ross Jennings at times. This is a pretty cool song. It's short and to the point with all the fat trimmed off. The one thing that really bothers me is that repeating piano melody throughout almost the entire song. To me it's really annoying. Then the little piano solo bit just doesn't work for me either. It kind of ruins the song a bit. Get rid of the piano and I think we have a great song.
7/10
TAC
(Mexico) Glass Mind - Your Name in SilenceThis one started off so good. Then the vocals came in. At first they were just a little off putting. The more I listened to the song, though, the more they annoyed the hell out of me. They seem super compressed and hollow sounding, like he's singing in a bathroom or something. Then his melodies just aren't very good. He sounds kind of like a very poor mans Ray Alder crossed with Jeff Scott Soto (whom I don't really like). The parts of the song when he stops singing are sublime. The guitars, bass, and drums come together to make some great progressive music. The keyboards are tastefully done and work to fill out the sound. The problem is the singer never seems to shut up. This would have scored higher had it been instrumental.
6.5/10
Train
(France) Hacride - Lazarus
As I had mentioned in the snippet on this song, I had heard a few songs by this band before and all of those songs were better....This one is marred a bit by the production being a little muddy. Then the song is way overlong for what it does. The acoustic intro isn't very engaging and then when the song does get heavier it doesn't do anything that is really that interesting to me. I also don't really care for the vocals on this either. Sorry Train, but you missed the mark on this one.
5.5/10
Sacul
(UK) Burial - LonerThis song is very samey from beginning to end. Same tempo, same mood, the beat never seems to change, and for a 7 minute song that's not good in my book, especially if the music isn't very pleasing to my ears. This has a very chill vibe to it, but has more of a darkwave sound to it. Then it has these random bursts of noise that I don't like. I just couldn't get in to this song.
5/10
Soupy
(USA) Phosphorescent - Song for ZulaOh Soupy, you were doing so well. You have sent me some of the best melodies in this whole roulette, but then you sent this song, oh this song... This song suffers from the same problem as the Burial song, same beat, same tempo throughout, only this is worse by far. This song never once changes and that's not good because the music that is there is not interesting. I kept waiting for it to pick up or break down or do something. It never did. The string arrangements that come in are pretty good and the lyrics seem deep and meaningful, but the music drags this down so much. And this goes on for 6 minutes...
4/10
Standings (and eliminations)
Tomislav - 7, 9.5, 8.5, 9, 7 (41)
Train of Naught - 9.5, 7.5, 9, 9, 5.5 (40.5)
Evermind - 7.5, 7, 8, 7.5, 9.5 (39.5)
Kattoelox - 5.5, 6.5, 8, 10, 9 (39)
Parama - 6, 9, 7.5, 8, 8.5 (39)
Jingle.boy - 9, 4, 8, 8, 9 (38)
Soupytwist - 8, 10, 7, 8.5, 4 (37.5)
TAC - 8, 8, 8.5, 6.5, 6.5 (37.5)
Home - 7.5, 7, 7, 7, 7.5 (36)
TwoSuitsLuke - 6, 9, 5.5, 7.5, 7.5 (35.5)
Sacul - 7, 8, 7, 7, 5 (34)
Elite - 6, 7, 6, 5, 9.5 (33.5)
Thanks for playing Luke, Sacul, and Elite. You each sent some good songs, but it wasn't enough to keep you in. I'm afraid this is where you get off the ride.