the problem with a roulette like this is that i always stress too much about rankings but i think after a fourth listen to the remaining three there really isn't much more i can do despite it being pretty close, so let's just finish this.
----------
First up, the shortest album of the round, one folky black metal record. Folkier black metal is, honestly, a style I've had a lot of trouble finding anything that really clicks with me. Saor are solid but I've never been blown away by their stuff, even with as over-the-top it gets. The one Moonsorrow album I checked out was fine too but only occasionally gripped me. This one is... not even really on the same level as those, it's the kind of frustrating album where I absolutely don't mind listening to it at all but it rarely does anything to stand out or grab my attention. It's not boring, and it's brief enough to not overstay its welcome, I find it really pleasant to listen to and it doesn't really have any notable flaws at all. But it just operates at this baseline of "okay" the whole way through without ever really wavering from it, and none of the songs do anything to stand out anyways, which, considering this is designed to flow as one long piece, again isn't necessarily a problem, but it means it just feels like the same song four times, or one long song that never goes anywhere.
I'm talking about Tomislav95 with
October Falls – The Womb of Primordial Nature here.
----------
Next up, the indie/alternative rock low key album from a band I know mostly for their more weird and experimental stuff, which is kind of what I was expecting here, and expecting to hate it. But no, this is pretty deep in normalcy for the most part, with only weird quirky moments throughout most tracks and one track that is absolutely awful, that being Yoshimi Pt. 2. One of the worst songs of the round, for sure, but it's the only one I have any negative feelings towards here and it's balanced out by a fair number of these tracks clicking fairly easily for me. Fight Test and Are You A Hypnotist?? in particular, but Yoshimi Pt. 1, Do You Realize??, and All We Have Is Now are all pretty nice tracks too. Yoshimi Pt. 1 I actually knew from rock band of all things, where it's boring as hell to play but fine enough to listen to. The rest, they're okay. They occasionally annoy me with some synth choices or weird effects, but for the most part it's an easy and somewhat emotive listen.
Obviously I'm talking about Dacul with
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
----------
And lastly, we have the album I've been hearing a lot of buzz on DTF about. This one is... kind of like TDH to some extent, but more focused on the orchestrations and less on the oompa loompa showtunes. And in that regards, I don't think the best songs here pack the same emotional punch as the best TDH songs, but it also leads to a bit more consistent of an album overall - though I will admit that it can also be exhausting, with some of these songs kind of blurring together in their desire to evoke strong emotions with so many layers of strings and orchestration. The back half of the album tends to lose my interest at times, though there's still some strong tunes there, but the better stuff is all found in the first half, with the opener and title track taking the crown of the album and being one of the best songs of the round period. Yeah, it has a fun moment or two with songs like Howl, and a lot of moments with those singalong whoa-ohs Coheed also does a lot, but it still sounds like its own thing, not exactly like any other band I've heard before. Honestly this one grew on me the more I listened to it and I'm not sure why I had so much trouble wanting to save it until now, it's pretty solid stuff.
That would be home with
The Family Crest – Beneath the Brine, and you're through to the next round.
----------
So I've had to think a lot about this as a result, either Tomi's consistent but lukewarm album or Dacul's wavering album with a decent number of highlights. And really this decision almost comes down to arbitration, but personally... I would prefer an album that at least has something that makes me want to come back to it over an album that never annoys me in any way but doesn't have anything really memorable or evocative on it. So I'm going to have to give the last spot to Dacul here, which unfortunately means Tomislav95 is out. Better luck next time, I guess.
1. Closure in Moscow - First Temple
2. Goddess of Fate - The Spiral Orchard, Pt. 1
3. Sleepers Awake – Transcension
4. Thoughts Factory - Lost
5. The Family Crest - Beneath the Brine
6. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
----------
7. October Falls - The Womb of Primordial Nature
8. Afro Celt Sound System - Anatomic
9. Dødheimsgard – 666 International
Everyone who's through to the next round can send along with the two who had a free ride to the first round, I actually already have two of the eight albums at the moment, but won't be listening to anything until probably the weekend starts, I need at least a day to take a break from all these
also the ranking above isn't quite final but w/e i'm not spending another 2.5 hours comparing the top saved albums to #4 and #5 just to make sure they stack up, they're all saved regardless, the rankings don't matter so whatevs
Topic: Parama's Disastrous Roulette v3 (The End (not the band)) (Read 38390 times)
