Round 2 ResultsHere they are! This was a very strong round, actually. I didn’t really know what would be my favourite(s) throughout most of the week. It was only near the end that the rankings took shape.
5 PointsLordCost
Shaolin Death Squad - Centipede
Weird Metal – from ‘Five Deadly Venoms’ (2010) Sorry, but this didn’t do it for me either. Stylistically I guess this should appeal to me, but the silly lyrics about a centipede crawling around on the floor, supposedly being dangerously venomous felt stupidly silly and unbelievable. I had a feeling this band tries too hard to be funny or witty and failing while doing it. While there’s some okay stuff in stuff in here; there’s also a lot to cringe at. I’m kind-of being unnecessarily harsh here, but at first I didn’t think too badly of this. The more I listened to the different tracks, the more annoying this one became.
4 PointsStadler
Zebra – Who’s Behind The Door
Hard Rock with Progressive Elements – from ‘Zebra’ (1983)Oh, man. I know Zebra through Dream Theater’s cover of ‘Take Your Fingers From My Hair’ and I know their original and actually really like that one, but this one, however much this might have been a signature song of theirs, was substantially worse. Part of why I didn’t really like this is the singer’s voice. In this song he sounds like he’s straining his vocal chords beyond a Barry Gibb impersonation, which doesn’t really does the final section of the song justice. On ‘Take Your Fingers From My Hair’ his voice sounds less strained and in the particular section where he goes to the higher register it actually makes sense. This song here doesn’t really work structurally either. I must admit, the finger-style passage at the start is really intricate and sets up the song pretty well, the ending section feels tacked-on and comes out of nowhere. I’m sure, I wanted to like this more than I did, but the jarring song structure and the vocals at the end made me not enjoy it as much.
TAC
The Silent Wedding – Shadows & Dust
Power Prog – from ‘Enigma Eternal’ (2017)It actually surprised me that this track was released just last year, because stylistically and production-wise it sounds 20 years older. Which is pretty much why I had a hard time getting into this. To me, this is just your ‘typical’ power/prog song, without much else going on. There’s nothing wrong with this really, but nothing grabs me either. It’s just too much of the same thing and I’ve heard all of this before. The guitar solo is pretty good though, but that’s not enough for me to save the song.
3 PointsNekov
Eric Gillette – Look Inside
Progressive Rock/Metal – from ‘Afterthought’ (2013)I wonder if Eric Gillette actually plays all of the instruments here by himself, and if he does, that’s an astonishing achievement. I know he’s a great guitarist, but I believe he’s a drummer and keyboardist (all-round multi-instrumentalist) as well. This is some very solid progressive rock/metal with mostly great guitar-work in every part of the song. The song’s chorus is catchy enough for me to remember it, but the verses don’t really have much to stand on on their own. Of special note is the very intricately composed bridge section, which actually reminds me of the middle part in DT’s ‘The Dark Eternal Night’, but then a more melodic version of this. Although it’s all technically very good and solid progressive metal, it all feels a little ‘safe’ and standard and that’s what stops it from getting a higher score.
Tomislav95
Sculptured – Almond Beauty
Death / Doom Metal with … a trumpet? – from ‘The Spear of the Lily is Aureoled’ (1998)This song gets the nomination for ‘most ridiculous growled lyrics’, because seriously.. “She looked up at me…. WITH HER EYES!!” is frankly stupid. The rest of the song is actually surprisingly good. It sounds out-dated; but the production is still pretty clean and everything is very audible. There’s a nice mixture between clean and harsh vocals and melodic and heavy guitar playing The break with the trumpet was a nice touch and really surprised me at first listen. The bridge with the samples I found a little bit weird, but it kind-of fit in the song as well. Lots of good guitar stuff throughout; solid track.
2 Pointsariich
Closure in Moscow - Vanguard
Progressive Metal – from ‘First Temple’ (2009)Another ridiculously solid progressive metal tune from my namesake. This one actually had me thinking I was listening to Protest the Hero, because stylistically it’s very similar to some of the stuff they do. Very catchy and even funky in some places, the chorus is slightly silly, but extremely memorable. I have heard this band’s album ‘Pink Lemonade’ once before, but I can’t recall any of it. This song makes me want to check out their stuff again though. This band shows prowess on all instruments, and that they can take the genre of progressive metal and craft it into something stylistically different from the norm. A highly enjoyable listen this was!
Parama
Algiers – The Cycle / The Spiral: Time to Go Down Slowly
Industrial / Post-Punk / Gospel – from ‘The Underside of Power’ (2017)Excuse the genre descriptors here, but this was something truly bizarre and unique. It has all the traits of being labelled as ‘black music’; lots of gospel and soul influences, but then fuelled by post-punk, industrial noise. It’s angry, but not in the same way that metal can be ‘angry’, it’s intense in every single instrument and builds-up throughout the song towards the ending, which is quite majestic indeed. It’s hard to describe the music without listening to it, because I have never really heard anything like it. Great song, I’ll check out more by this band!
1 PointSacul
Obscure Sphinx – Lunar Caustic
Post-Metal – from ‘Void Mother’ (2013)This is clearly the heaviest song submitted so far and it took me multiple listens to get into this one, but what a sludgy post-metal fest this is. Lots of really heavy guitars and deep growls throughout, surely to put everyone of that doesn’t like growls. And frankly, my first listen into this I didn’t think this would end as high as it did, because the first three/four minutes are an onslaught of thick-layered guitars and growled vocals. The bridge at the halfway point was a nice break with clean vocals for the first time – and the realisation that all the vocals are done by a woman was pretty sick. The ending with the stretched out melodies and clean vocals initially felt slightly underwhelming, but I turned around on that. Cool stuff indeed.
Train of Naught
Rivers of Nihil – The Silent Life
Progressive Death Metal – from ‘Where Owls Know My Name’ (2018)Despite this being a song with growled vocals only, there’s so much melodic stuff going on in here that I can hear new stuff with every new listen. I must admt, I had heard this track one time before, but that wasn’t enough to really grab my attention in either way (to like, or dislike it) and having been forced to listen to this track all week has proven this to be a stellar track. It’s heavy in the right places, but takes time for the more melodic moments as well. The saxophone is a nice addition, although I’m not entirely sure of what it’s doing on this song (or album). I hope it’s not simply a gimmick of ‘hey, we’re a death metal band – but we add saxophone!’, but judging by the fact that the saxophonist is not a permanent band member, I fear that’s indeed the case.. In any way, this track does lots of things right and was one of my favourites on repeated listens.
0 PointsPuppies_on_Acid
Fjokra – The Old Time Nook
Avant-Garde-ish Funk/Jazz Metal – from ‘Thoughtsteps’ (2014)Some parts of this song sound eerily close to what Mr. Bungle did on their debut album (‘Mr. Bungle’, 1989) and some of the other stuff sounds like parts of latter songs they wrote (I mostly hear a part from 1999’s ‘Vanity Fair’ near the end). What a crazy ride this is, damn! I love the instrumentation on this track; the main melody in the brass section; the verses and choruses taking turns in being different and weird, yet catchy all the while, maintaining structure and flow throughout. All the different styles intertwined work surprisingly well here, even the wacky metal part, followed by the smooth jazzy passage. It’s weird, but I love this kind of stuff. I don’t know if their other stuff is similar, but if it is I’m definitely interested in checking out more by them.
I can’t really believe you’ve never heard Mr. Bungle, because you sending me this track must mean you would at least like their debut album. That said; you still have that Bungle track I sent in your roulette to review
Current Standings
Puppies_on_Acid: 1, 2, 0 (3)
Parama: 2, 0, 2 (4)
Train of Naught: 1, 3, 1 (5)
ariich: 2, 1, 2 (5)
Nekov: 3, 3, 3 (9)
TAC: 4, 1, 4 (9)
LordCost: 0, 4, 5 (9)
Sacul: 4, 5, 1 (10)
Tomislav95: 3, 4, 3 (10)
Stadler: 5, 2, 4 (11)
Some dangerous standings there for a couple of people.. Next round is very likely to have an elimination. I’m also beginning to see a flaw in this rating system; if everybody would score more or less consistently, it would be a little more exciting, but the top 4 are running away a little more each round. We’ll see how it goes!
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You are free to start sending Round 4 from now on. I’ll try to have next round be more entertaining and to have results quicker than this time around.
Topic: Elite's Ridiculous Reverse Scoring Roulette - v4.0: EP Results (The End..) (Read 66027 times)