Bolsters: Burnclear / Rattle the Cage
No complaints here. I wouldn't call it "solid"… it was much better than that, although there nothing that jumped out to REALLY
me. Almost every other song of the round - whether it was just for 30 seconds or a minute, or almost the whole damn song - had something that at some level turned me off (even in the tiniest way). Not here. Strong, hard and rockin song…. start to finish. Vocally, I hear some similarities to Mike Anderssen, and that’s (almost) always gonna be a good thing. Here's hoping this is another Finnish find like Anthriel
Ranking: 1Puppies_On_Acid: Anubis Gate / The End of Millennium Road
The mellow instrumental section in the middle drags the song down, taking away all the momentum it had going. Otherwise, it’s fantastic song… nice rich tones, soaring vocals, catchy hooks. Great prog-metal. Probably would've taken the top spot if the part from 4:30-6:30 was whacked. See, you do have something in your library that hits the mark. A near bullseye here.
Ranking: 2Indiscipline: Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus / Inquisition
Jorn vs JLT is virtually guaranteed success. Overall, the tune had a HUGE Brazen Abbott feel (enlighten me on the connection, because his website and YT vids make some kind of reference to BA). Smooth, melodic, almost heavy, well constructed, well performed... the symphonic elements were way too cheesy and fluffy, but otherwise, it was an excellent track. And in calling out the other vocalists in this project (you had me at Sass Jordan), this is a guaranteed "purchase" - because the fucking thing isn't on Spotify, nor on iTunes.
Ranking: 3.1Stadler: The Allman Brothers / Nobody Knows
Instrumentally, this was absolutely captivating. I always found Jessica to be a pleasant but uneventful instrumental track. I didn't dive into much blues-rock (Zeppelin and Thorogood notwithstanding), and now I'm thinking I should've. Sign of a great 10+ minute song... it didn't feel like a 10 minute song. You get the jj treatment here though ... wish I'd checked more of the Allman Bros out back then, because I have a feeling that it'll be hit-and-miss with me, and I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to sort thru all the misses to find the hits. Convince me otherwise!
Ranking: 3.2Lowdz: Heir Apparent / Crossing the Border
Methinks they were a little aggressive on their belief they were the "heir apparent" to Queensryche. Holy shit, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then what is being a copycat? Loved this as much as I love QR's EP and The Warning. But, I prefer the more 'polished' sound of QR, not the raw and uncut version that this is clearly mimicking. I know it's from 1989, and the production quality doesn't hurt this much, I just prefer a more polished sound. To that end, they released something earlier this year?? Any good?
Ranking: 4.1jjrocks: Sword / F.T.W.
See pretty much every other writeup for jj's submission. Raw and uncut, just like Paul's submission … but much more meat-and-potatoes, just pure brute metal. Slight edge to the more refined writing and performance that Heir Apparent give.
Ranking: 4.2wolfking: Megadeth / Dialectic Chaos/This Day We Fight
Musically, this kicked all kinds of ass. Mustaine was ok, but certainly not the highlight of the song. You're finding that groove in your submissions where the songs are just cracking the top-tier, but falling just short of truly wow'g me. Your tunes are out-performing most of the competition, but just not quite able to get over the hump to really tickle my pickle. Megadeth was indeed a 'how did I miss them?' submission, but you've already cashed in that chip. Methinks they'll fall into the same category as Savatage for me - awesome musically, but the vocals don't quite make the whole packages awesome.
Ranking: 4.3Evermind: Above Symmetry / Ripples
You had cause to be worried I guess. I can't really say why, but this didn't float my boat. Not sure I can articulate why, because I really don't know myself. It had all the right elements, and it should've been more enjoyable than it was, but something was amiss... at first. Then, right around the 4th or 5th listen, when I REALLY had a chance to listen, it clicked ... at least a little bit. Jumped up quite a few spots even from earlier this morning, as this was at first slotted for the bottom 1/3rd. It still feels a little choppy and disconnected, but there was more here that worked as opposed to what didn't work
Ranking: 5Train Of Naught: Muse / New Born
Another fun-as-shit submission that is just outside my wheelhouse, but a rather enjoyable listen none-the-less. Not a style I'd go to - It's like RHCP (who I hated) meets No Doubt (who I love - for at least one album). Naturally, I hear the similarities with a couple of traditional metal / prog songs that I love, Prophets of War and Mask Machine. This one wasn't nearly as good as those two (yes, I actually REALLY like PoW), but it's certainly easy to hear the influence Muse has had - at least in those two cases. I might check out a few other songs or an album if anyone wants to give me a recc'n. And, enjoy the 2 point improvement for submitting a 'how did I miss them?' artist.
Ranking: 6 (+2)Kattleox: maybeshewill / Red Paper Lanterns
Well, if Train hadn't out'd the band as a "post" genre, I probably wouldn't have known. Pretty decent, middle-of-the-road instrumental (just like Jessica since I made that reference already). Liked it plenty, and it had great atmosphere, but nothing really stood out and grabbed my attention to impress me too much. You're spot on, it's got the 'right amount of melody' in that I enjoyed it, but that's about all. I also enjoy grilled cheese, but that doesn't mean it's gonna be a favorite I consistently return to. It deserves a higher ranking, but I just can't do it. This is about a 7.5 on a 10 point scale, but just falls a bit short compared to the other songs this round. It's a keeper, but just barely - and that's meant as a compliment, not a slight.
Ranking: 7Kingshmegland: Flor De Loto / Regression
You can hear the Italian in Fabio's voice right from the very first note, and it never goes away. Certainly not his best vocal performance, and I'm not sure I could get used to him singing a non-Power Metal style of song. After repeated listens, it (his obvious accent and phrasings) got pretty stale. Musically it was very VERY good (except for the mildly 'plodding' aspect of the verses). While Evermind's got better with every listen, this sadly was the opposite, and just lost most of the original appeal it had on the first couple of listens.
Ranking: 8.1Lethean: Mindflow / Destructive Device
Well, you proved my theory wrong that any band with "mind" in it's name is excellent music. This should've appealed more than it did, and it's hard to say why it didn't. Maybe with a few more spins it will/would click (like Evermind's did), but so far, not so much.
Ranking: 8.2TAC: Circadian Pulse / Elements of Existence
Wasn't bad at all, just sounded amateurish - like this was the band's first time ever writing music together in their parents' basement. Sure, they're talented, but it sounded all over the place with very little cohesion or consistency. The repetitiveness of the musical melody in the verses was grating; solo was good, though uninteresting; vocally it wasn't anything special. There's potential there, but (to steal a line from a good friend of mine) potential in one hand and shit in the other - see which fills up faster. Sorry pal... seems you're pulling the reverse of what you did in Rich's roulette - starting out gangbusters here, but fizzling out with a whimper - just like jingle.sexytime.
Ranking: 9lonestar: BABYMETAL / Tales of the Destinies
What the fuq did I just listen to?? You suggested they out-DT Dream Theater themselves? While that might be the case, it's not to good DT. It's like they're trying to out do A Nightmare to Remember. This fired on no cylinders for me. It was catchy, and got its hooks into me at times, but kind of like the way you get a sliver in your foot, and just can't get that fucker out; every step hurts, and then your skin grows over it and you just gotta bear thru it until your body absorbs it and the pain goes away. This was a hard 10 my good friend.
Ranking: 10Evermind*: 4+3+1+3+7+2+5=25
Bolsters: 5+4+5+1+4+6+1=26
wolfking*: 2+4+6+5+3+3+4=27
jjrocks88**: 4+2+4+6+6+4+4=30
Lowdz: 6+1+8+6+4+4+4=33
Kattoelox: 1+7+4+4+6+6+7=35
lonestar*: 2+5+5+2+7+5+10=36
Indiscipline**: 6+7+6+8+7+1+3=38
Lethean*: 4+8+4+4+8+2+8=38
TAC: 2+5+5+3+5+9+9=38
kingshmegland: 4+9+1+8+1+9+8=40
Stadler: 7+6+7+9+2+8+3=42
Train of Naught**: 9+10+7+7+4+7+4=48
Puppies_On_Acid: 8+8+3+10+10+10+2=51
* - 1 point improvement
** - 2 point improvement
It would seem that victory is between the top 3 by the looks of things, with jj holding an outside chance for an upset come-back. RJ pulled a TAC; TAC also pulled a TAC
. Lowdz's ascent up the leaderboard may be too little/too late to recover from the Day Six debacle. Puppies pulls off a massive combo breaker, and King finally shows some consistency - surely not the kind he wanted though.
To jj and Train who already submitted, feel free to revise if you so desire.
Topic: jingle.boy's 4th roulette: That's all she wrote folks - another happy ending (Read 98105 times)