hmm
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I think where this differs from your last submission is that... this sounds a lot more "polished". The melodies are a lot more straightforward, the vocals aren't as rough, the entire atmosphere is more inviting and warm than the Chiodos record.
That's... not what I want from a post-hardcore record, unfortunately, the rougher edge of that album & similar albums is what makes the style work for me, this is pretty much what I've experienced from dabbling in the genre a lot, I need good hooks and strong emotions and while I guess the latter is possible with a very "clean" sound the latter is not as easy to pull off. Most of the guitar melodies, while they sound nice, do nothing for me. Meanwhile I've had various bits of that Chiodos record bouncing around in my head for the last week & it's pretty decisively made its way onto my purchase list. I think this is almost a self-destroying entry from you because it's not doing anything that any of your previous albums did; it's not as technical as a lot of your submissions have been, it's not as fun or as weird, and it doesn't evoke as strong of emotions. That's basically the risk you take when you send a lot of similar stuff throughout the roulette, I guess, and a big part of why I try to mix things up when I play in roulettes
That being said. While the first five tracks do basically nothing for me, most everything past that point I think is pretty good. A Tale of Outer Suburbia is probably the first track that makes me feel anything, Oceandust is a strong quiet track, No Parallels is easily the best cut of the record for me, and the closer A Fire on the Hill is a pretty strong finish too. The other two on the back half of the record are fine, probably better than any of the first 5 but they don't stand out as much. The end result is that I have a hard time getting into this album until almost halfway through, which is not a great way for an album to flow, at all. Thankfully it's fairly short though. Like I said, don't really dislike this album but as a whole it's only 'okay" and mostly for a strong second half.
That's ariich with
Hands Like Houses - Unimagine.
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This album also has the unfortunate issue of just not living up to similar albums I've received in this roulette. Or at least, the one that's especially similar to it. What I've basically come to find I like most about black metal sounds in general are: 1. It absolutely has to be intense, I'm not here for grooves, I'm not here for sludgy riffing, I'm here for sounds that beat me over the head and overwhelm me and 2. There needs to be a strong melodic focus that is inherently tied into the intensity itself. Basically... lots of tremolo-picked melodies & appropriately intense drums, guitar chords, vocals etc. accompanying it. DWeF has obviously done a lot to shape my black metal tastes but it's kind of a characteristic shared by the other black metal albums that have really clicked for me, like Alrakis and Spectral Lore, though neither are quite as intense either.
Anyways, that makes it pretty clear where this fails for me - this is more Alcest-y in terms of blackgaze which means there's more of a focus on dreamy atmosphere and lush instrumentation than the intensity. Which isn't necessarily bad, I find it all very pleasant, but then there's two things... for one, I haven't been too into that sound much lately, and two, it's way too long for that kind of sound to continuously interest me. This is like, 65ish minutes and by the last 20 I'm just checked out because of the middle of this record being easily the weakest stretch. The first few tracks have a bit more of a prog lean, I especially like that bass break in Inhale, and then the last few tracks dial up the intensity a little, Fading With the Grey is my favorite here even if it does still kind of miss point #2 as outlined above, it's still satisfying enough. But it's really not enough to make me interested. Like the other album this round, this one is too... clean and edgeless for my preferences, and while I don't think there's anything I dislike here it doesn't keep me invested the whole way through and even the best stuff here doesn't impress me that much.
Those are some rambles on TAC with
Heretoir - The Circle.
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With the above in mind, who am I gonna call the winner then? It's honestly not as straightforward as it's been in my other roulettes since I haven't been scoring.
But here's the thing. When there's an album that's not consistent all the way through but has some pretty strong highs, vs. an album that's pretty consistently okay but its peaks are pretty low, 10 times out of 10 I'm going to pick the one that has the higher highs, because I at least get -something- out of that. And it's especially easy when the one with the higher highs is 20 minutes shorter than its competitor and yet has just as much stuff I really dig in terms of its runtime. So yeah, with that in mind, the winner is...
ariich!!!Congrats, enjoy the crown of thorns until next year or something.
I'm gonna do a follow-up post of my favorite albums from the roulette as well as my favorite songs from albums I wasn't as huge on, since I think that has value as well. Stay tuned for that, probably later tonight, I don't feel like writing anymore right now.
Topic: Parama's Disastrous Roulette v3 (The End (not the band)) (Read 38197 times)
