Round 6 ResultsSo, I have officially moved to another place. I lived in a house crammed full of boxes for about three days, while slowly building up furniture to store stuff in. I’ve regained access to my computer (and internet) last Thursday, but I was away and/or busy this past weekend. That said; I’ve had more than plenty of time to listen to your guy’s songs and I must say.. this was a difficult round to score. There wasn’t
really a highlight, though the songs you guys sent were, mostly, good. It was a bit of a gamble until my last listen this afternoon when the ranking order settled. I’\m a little surprised at the outcome, but this does reflect my view on these songs as opposed to each other in the playlist I’ve heard about 12-15 times the past two weeks. Definitely not a punishment, to listen to these songs, so thanks at least for sending them! Now.. results:
5 PointsLordCost
Gentle Giant - Proclamation
Progressive Rock – from ‘The Power and the Glory’ (1974; remastered by Steven Wilson in 2014) Starting off with the one song I just couldn’t get in to. The first listen I really disliked this, for being an all-round mess without any clear direction. The second time was a little better and by the fourth listen I could sort-of get what these guys were trying to do, and while it all sounds rather contrived, I can’t help but feel that they’re just messing around for the sake of messing around. You know, the musicianship is actually pretty good and interesting, but when it sounds bad, it doesn’t matter however good you play. Add to that the song structure that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, and you have what I think is a pretty bad song. The most annoying part of it though, is that I occasionally get little bits of vocal line stuck in my head.. maybe in a few years’ time I might come to appreciate this more, but two weeks was not enough, especially not when lined-up against the rest of this round’s songs.
4 PointsSacul
Kamasi Washington – The Rhythm Changes
Jazz – from ‘The Epic’ (2015) side-note: damn, this album is almost 3 hours long!I actually feel bad about giving this song such a low score this round, because it’s far from bad. It’s actually quite pleasant and meandering, especially the solo sections in the middle. I don’t have a lot to say about this one, and that might perhaps be its biggest flaw. It’s relaxing and soothing, with some nice melodies in both the verses and choruses, but it doesn’t do anything apart from that. Instrumentation is good, but nothing extraordinary. Its slightly up-tempo pace and forward driven motion in the drums helps keep the momentum, but in the end, not that much happens. By all means, this was a nice submission and I actually enjoyed this song. I might even check out the almost 3 hour album this song came from.
3 PointsTrain of Naught
Kindo – Human Convention
Jazz-Influenced Indie Rock – from ‘Happy However After’ (2018)Easily the funkiest song of the bunch. Lots of cool stuff in here. I have seen the name ‘(The Reign of) Kindo’ many times before, but never bothered to listen to the music. There’s a lot of great stuff happening in this song, in the instrumentation. I really like the changes in rhythm between verses and chorus and the funny modulation in the “off the grid” section. It’s this up-tempo jazz/funk-ish stuff that I really enjoy. Nice stuff indeed!
ariich
Artificial Language – Dirty Hands
Progressive Metal – from ‘The Observer’ (2017)Quick progressive metal track that only takes a little under 4 minutes. While this was surely an enjoyable song with some nice guitar work throughout, it feels a little rushed without any proper hooks and memorable parts. It’s not bad at all, but this song could have benefited from some sort of catchy chorus. Props to the guitar solo in this song, that one’s pretty cool. The part afterwards with the guitarist playing those melodic lines over the final vocals is also nice. By no means is this a bad song, and it might prompt me to check out the rest of this band’s album.
2 PointsNekov
Papir – IIII.II
Post-Rock – from ‘IIII’ (2014)So, here’s a post-rock song that doesn’t only do a huge build-up and then stop at the top, but it also brings everything back to where it starts. Lovely guitar tone throughout and actually a very hypnotic, almost mesmerising track. I rarely listen to any post-rock because I find the genre to be a little bland in that all the songs sound the same or similar (namely building up from nothing into a huge wall of sound), but I’m very fond of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and this song at times reminds me a little of some of their material. Despite the great guitar tone, the drums are probably the best driving force behind all of this. It surely doesn’t feel like a 9-minute track and that in itself is a huge feat for a song that’s build on rather little material.
Parama
Progenie Terrestre Pura – Sinapsi Divelte
Avant-Garde / Ambient / Black Metal – from ‘U.M.A.’ (2013)This is not the first time I’m having a hard time describing a track you’ve sent me, but this is, yet again, on the weird side of things and that’s exactly what intrigues me. The song has a ton of build-up through ambient sounds and drones, before launching into this speed-metal like part with weird spatial vocals on top. This builds further into this extreme black metal part that sounds as if it comes straight out of a void. I honestly don’t know how to describe what’s going on here, which is stupid because I should be able to, but I really like the unusual soundscapes this band throws at the listener. The combination of ‘space-sounds’ and ambient noise drone and black metal works so ridiculously well that I can’t help but think that it’s great. Sorry for the lousy review.
1 PointTAC
Kaelling - Circle
Progressive Metal – from ‘Lacuna’ (2017)Since I've been sending awesome stuff so far, and I'm losing, I figured this time I would send a song that blows.
I’m stumped why you’d think this song sucks, since for a progressive metal track this song is more interesting than most of the other progressive metal tracks I’ve received this roulette. It manages to create that nice tension between the calmer verses and having interesting rhythms in the chorus riffs. I’d say the vocalist lacks a little in intensity, especially in the last chorus of the song, but other than that this is a really solid track that has remained fresh with every new listen. Plenty of stuff to enjoy in this one and that chorus hook is awesomely catchy as well. One thing that this song does really well (is something that I can’t really explain) is that it leaves you wanting more as a listener. Kind of like how a fade-out in a song keeps you bobbing your head for longer that the song actually takes, when this song finishes it compels you to listen to it again. Perhaps the rest of this band’s material is crap, I don’t know, but I’ll try it out, because I definitely enjoyed this one.
0 PointsPuppies_on_Acid
Enslaved - Neogenesis
Progressive Black Metal - from ‘Isa’ (2004)And this is a track that I didn’t know what to do with initially. I have never bothered to listen to Enslaved, and that partly has to do with me thinking the band name is rather stupid (which is also why I never bothered to listen to Morbid Angel, Overkill, Annihilator or Kreator, to name but a few random metal bands – by the way, don’t send those, I saw three of them at a metal festival this weekend and got very bored). This song is strange, in that it starts out quite calm, before taking off in some fast staccato guitar riffs with vocals on top that made me laugh a little the first time. I still think they sound a little ridiculous, but they work to accent the sharp riffing underneath. There’s a long section with a drawn-out guitar solo after the fast riffing that doesn’t feel out of place, even though it takes a little too long (and the solo has some admittedly strange lines in there). Even though the song meanders a bit back and forth between the staccato riffing and some more openly-played riffs, the final climax in the blast-beats with the low grunts (instead of the higher pitched vocals in the rest of the song) feels completely natural. The song then ends with 3 minutes of slow open chord riffing and another guitar solo (one that’s far better than the one in the middle). This song took way too long to grow on me, but despite being almost 12 minutes long turned out to be a very enjoyable ride. Even though it has its flaws, I like the diversity in this track between the slower and the faster. It’s a heavy song that doesn’t dial down on the heaviness anywhere, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t flow. At the first listen, I wouldn’t have guessed this one to end on top, but here it is.
Current Standings
Parama: 2, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2 (8)
Puppies_on_Acid: 1, 2, 0, 3, 3, 0 (9)
ariich: 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3 (11)
Train of Naught: 1, 3, 1, 3, 2, 3 (13)
Nekov: 3, 3, 3, 4, 1, 2 (16)
Sacul: 4, 5, 1, 0, 3, 4 (17)
TAC: 4, 1, 4, 4, 4, 1 (18)
LordCost: 0, 4, 5, 1, 4, 5 (19)
Tomislav95: 3, 4, 3, 2, 5 (17)
Stadler: 5, 2, 4, 5 (16)
Next round has got to be interesting, considering these scores. It highly likely one of the bottom four is going to send his last song now. Make it count!
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If you guys send Round 7 soon, I’ll have hangmanen up soon as well.