Round 1 ResultsSorry if I can not do every song complete justice with these write-ups. Here we go.
5 PointsStadler
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – A Simple Game of Genius
Alternative Rock – Non Album B-Side from s/t (2011)There’s no denying that this guy is a great song-writer and at the right moments, I could definitely appreciate this kind of music. But like with Oasis, for example (and tons of other artists that I wouldn’t mind hearing), this is not something I would put on myself. I like the build-up, though the intro is a little long, the vocal hooks are interesting and the chorus is pretty much stadium sing-along quality. How this turned out to be a B-Side remains elusive to a large number of people commenting on Youtube. I can hear the appeal, there’s a lot to this song. In all honesty, I didn’t want to give
anyone the lowest score in the first round, and this round was quite strong overall, so it’s not a case of me actually disliking this song but it just doesn’t fully do it for me.
4 Points Sacul
The Flaming Lips – In the Morning of the Magicians
Dream Pop – from ‘Yashimi Battles the Pink Robots’ (2002)I’m really at a loss of how to properly rate this song, because there’s so much wasted potential here, if you ask me. The instrumental parts of this song are good, like really, really good. They’re groovy, funky & happy-mood inducing, and then the whining vocals come in and kind-of ruin the song for me. I mean, I’m still intrigued and will probably check out the album after this roulette is finished, because I got used to Radiohead’s vocals as well, but they were really a turn-off for me on this track. Instrumentally, like I said, it’s great. Some unique sounds going on in this song, especially the bass lines, though what’s up with the random clapping at the start and the end?
TAC
Tribulation – Lacrimosa
Gothic / Heavy Metal – from ‘Down Below’ (2018)This is another case of vocals almost ruining a song for me, yet here they’re a little more ‘restrained’ and more fit to the music than on the Flaming Lips (even though they’re guttural vocals). If this would have been a whole song full of these vocals, this would get the lowest spot for sure. Sorry, but these monotonous growls don’t interest me whatsoever. You’re in luck though, because instrumentally, there’s quite a lot going in with the guitar parts. The large instrumental break in the middle was very welcome as well, since these guys need to get their melodies from the backing band and certainly not from the vocalist. I’ll probably check out the whole album here as well, and hopefully I’ll find a little variety. I can see that this band has a very defined style, which I can appreciate, though I can imagine that if it’d be more of the same for a full album, I would not make it to the end.
3 PointsNekov
Lonely Robot – Construct/Obstruct
Progressive Rock – from ‘Please Come Home’ (2015)I got Lonely Robot in a previous roulette, a song called ‘Are We Copies?’ from the same album. I remember liking it, but I never went back to hear the rest of their stuff. I know this man from Frost* and really enjoy him as a guitar player in that band. On this song as well, the guitar playing is of special note; there’s some very tasty guitar work throughout that I really liked, especially in the build-up towards the solo. The hook of this song, featuring the song’s title, isn’t at all interesting though. It almost sounds as if John Mitchell composed the instrumental parts of the song first and added the vocals on top as an afterthought. That doesn’t really stop me from enjoying this though. Solid submission, let’s see if I can make my way back through this band’s work this time around.
Tomislav95
Kaddisfly – Campfire (Junio)
Progressive Rock – from ‘Set Sail the Prairie’ (2007)In this song’s chorus, where he sings ‘Albeit obvious’ (I had to look up the lyrics, because I couldn’t figure out what he sang), the singer is out of tune on the first note most of the time. Caught me from the first listen and I can’t unhear it. The first couple of listens, this song didn’t really do a lot for me, it was just kind-of
there, but the more often I listened to this, the more different things you hear in this track. There’s quite a lot going on and the chorus is actually very catchy, with more layers being added throughout the song. I’m very intrigued, since I believe this band has more up their sleeves. I ordered the album this track comes from.
2 Pointsariich
Novallo – I Am
Progressive Metal – from ‘Novallo II’ (2015)The grooviest song out of the entire round and a welcome change between all the guitar-based music. That is, until I found out that these guys actually use guitars. What the hell? It doesn’t sound like that at all. While I can sort-of see the similarity between this band and Thank You Scientist, that’s more in the way they blend a certain style of music with progressive metal than in overall sound. This band’s take on electronic music with ‘real’ instruments is very enjoyable and unique – at least to me. The song’s chorus is one of the most memorable song parts in the whole first round and the djenty breakdown in the middle is more groovy than most of the dubstep stuff I have ever heard. Great stuff, will definitely check out the rest of this band’s work!
Parama
White Ward – Deviant Shapes
Atmospheric / Jazz / Black Metal – from ‘Futility Report’ (2017)Easily the heaviest song in the first round, but also the jazziest and most atmospheric. That’s weird, because this band makes changes work that aren’t supposed to be there, seamlessly going from a black metal blast-beat heavy-as-fuck part into a jazz saxophone solo. This song actually starts of really dark, with distant guitars trying to pound through the eerie atmospheric sounds of digital drums, barely audible vocals and twangy clean guitars. When the guitars get unleashed, we get full-on black metal, followed by the aforementioned saxophone interlude. The song gradually builds up during the solo, then it’s back to black metal with an instrumental ending. Pretty unique stuff that had me interested throughout. I’ll check out the rest of this band’s album, I have a felling there’s some great stuff to be found here!
1 PointPuppies_on_Acid
Maximum the Hormone – Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Pirin Pirin Boron Nururu Rerorero
Japanese Metal – from ‘Bu-ikikaesu’ (2007)In high-school, a buddy of mine and me could watch
this sort of absolute crap for hours. This song is kind-of the same thing, but in music form. I feel kind of bad for rating this song so high in this round, especially considering the competition, because as fun as this song was – in all its ridiculousness – I can imagine getting bored of this band’s style quite soon, but in the context of this round, this song worked really well as a fun break and by being catchy as well. Without knowing what everything even means, over the past week I’ve found various parts of this song’s lyrics being stuck in my head. My initial listen was filled with laughter; I had no idea what was going on and found it hilarious all around; the smile on my face returned with every subsequent listen. Although the song-title is ridiculous, the song itself is very weird, this was fun and that’s what gave it a high spot. The song is quite fast-paced and moves through different sections pretty quickly. The variety is what makes this song work. If I hadn’t looked it up, I’d say this band had 4-5 vocalists, but they’re apparently capable of quite a lot. Let’s not speak of the hideous album cover though.
Train of Naught
Orphaned Land – The Cave
Oriental Progressive Metal – from ‘Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs’ (2018)I actually listened to ‘The Neverending Way of Orwarrior’ way back, but never really kept my eyes on this band. I remember liking it, but never really loving that album. Instead, my go-to album from Oriental Metal would be (and still is) Myrath’s ‘Desert Call’ (which I should probably put on the banned artists list after this round, just to be sure). I’ve seen great reviews for the album this song came from and actually have it on a list of stuff I still need to get around to listening, but this song you submitted cemented that decision. This is some amazingly solid and original progressive metal with that nice oriental flair. The variety in vocals is excellent and there’s some great instrumentalism going on throughout the song.
0 PointsLordCost
Cardiacs – The Duck and Roger the Horse
Art/rock / Post-punk / Avant-Garde – from ‘On Land and in the Sea’ (1989)Okay, this might be where I lose some credibility to some contestants, but this song and some of the other songs by this same band I have listened to in the past week, is absolutely brilliant. I love this kind of stuff and while I had heard of Cardiacs before, I never went out of my way to listen to them, so I had no way what to expect. I was not disappointed at all. Where Mr. Bungle sometimes goes out of their way to force different style of music into one song (especially on 1995’s ‘Disco Volante’ which is at times disjointed and down-right messy, despite being an album I really enjoy listening to), Cardiacs makes ridiculous sounds, guitar riffs, random noises and vocals all fit together without any difficulty. The song actually starts with what sounds like a window shattering, followed by freakish vocal effects, guitars, vocals joined with tubular bells, HAHAHAHA, more riffs, vocals with brass (a chorus?), children’s vocals, guitars, a sudden stop, the chorus again. Then madness in the middle. My god, this song is fantastically glorious. At first listen it had me scratching my head just a little, but by a couple of listens, I was hooked. I bought two of their albums, since bandcamp won’t let me play them anymore. Thanks!
Current Standings
LordCost: 0
Train of Naught: 1
Puppies_on_Acid: 1
Parama: 2
ariich: 2
Tomislav95: 3
Nekov: 3
TAC: 4
Sacul: 4
Stadler: 5
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You are free to start sending Round 2 from now on. It would be nice to have all submissions before the weekend starts, so I can get some listens in over the weekend.