So after many delays, this round is officially over. Apologies to everyone for how long this round took. Hopefully no one has lost complete interest in this roulette. I know I haven't, but sometimes life just gets in the way of having fun. Anyway, without further ado....
Greatest Hits Part 3TACNothgard - Ass Kicking Tunes By The Dozen
Melodic Folk/Death Metal
Germany
First Impression - This might be the most vanilla thing you've sent so farSo my first impression may seem fairly negative. It's not really. It's more like I've heard this style of metal performed many many times before by many other bands much better. This includes other Melodic Death Metal you have sent in this very roulette. Not a whole lot stuck out to me as being truly original or gave me that wow factor I'm looking for. Now this isn't to say there isn't anything good here. After repeated listens, more stuff stood out to me. More of the folk metal stuff started to come out. The guitar solos became more enjoyable.
Starting off with Malady X. This was a fairly pedestrian song, but there is a really cool guitar solo near the end and the second half is all pretty enjoyable. The guitarists know what they are doing on all of these songs. There are great solos in just about every song. This holds true on the next song, Blackened Seed. It's here that one of my major issues with the album rears it's head. The vocals. They just aren't that good to me. They seem relentless in a lot of these songs, not allowing the songs to breathe. Also the cadence bugs me a lot. This is also where I start to take more notice of the mixing of Folk metal and Melodic death metal. This typically doesn't work for me. I prefer those two sub genres to be separate. Almost every time a band attempts to mix them, I typically don't enjoy the outcome. This isn't much different. If I want Folk Metal, I tend to gravitate towards Moonsorrow or Agalloch or Primordial. When it comes to Melodic Death Metal I prefer stuff like Dark Tranquility, Edge of Sanity, Insomnium, and Scar Symmetry. There are two exceptions to this that come to mind, Equilibrium and Wintersun. In Blood Remains is a song that almost comes close to being an exception. There are still issues that I have with it. Again, mostly the vocals. Let the music breathe, for crying out loud!!! Fall of an Empire does have some sweet riffs, but falls in to the same vocal traps, except when it comes time for another good guitar solo. And I understand why that is now. The vocalist is also the lead guitarist. I guess he cant sing and play guitar at the same time (I'm only joking, I'm fairly certain he can...). He's also the lead guitarist on the latest Equilibrium album, but thankfully not the vocalist. Obey the King is a pretty kick ass song. Killer riffs, blazing solos, endless screaming over the awesome music....oh wait, that's the bad part. OK I think you get the point. Yes good, even great, music can be ruined by a bad vocalist, or one that doesn't know when to stop. I do like the use of tubular bells in Draining Veins. Always loved that sound. Black Horizon is a pretty good instrumental.
So here's the deal. This is all pretty OK. It's one of the better mixtures I've heard of Folk and Melodic Death Metal, but it still isn't nearly as good as the other Melodeath albums you sent in this roulette. It's also probably not a band I will return to, with the exception of maybe the Age of Pandora album. Those songs were some of the better ones and what kept your score from plummeting in to oblivion.
14/20
RomdrumsImogen Heap - A Whole Heap of Imogen’s Hits
Art Pop? and a whole bunch of other stuff
United KingdomFirst Impression - Unique vocals, varied and dynamic musicImogen Heap is one of those artists I've always planned on diving in to, but it would always find a way to fall through the cracks and I would forget all about it. I have a good friend of mine that absolutely love Imogen Heap and she actually looks a little bit like her as well, although she isn't British. Anyway, she has always been pushing for me to listen to Imogen Heap and her Frou Frou side project. Now since you sent it in my roulette I have no excuse to not listen to her anymore. No more procrastinating. First off, I have heard a few tracks here and there, but never enough to make an impression and they were always in a setting where I couldn't really focus on the songs. My wife is in to her too, so occasionally I'll here a song when I'm in her car with her.
So after several listens through, what do I think. Well, if it weren't for The Cat Empire being in this round, this would probably the most eclectic music of the round. From the more Electronica focused Frou Frou songs, to the alternative indie pop similar to Alanis Morissette on songs like Getting Scared and Useless (mostly in the vocals here), to the more ambient stuff from the Ellipse album (I really dig this stuff), to the much more artsy stuff from Speak for Yourself, it's clear Imogen Heap is not a one trick pony. It also helps that the majority of it I really really like. Her vocal style (that breathy/airy/light tone), is quite captivating and lovely. Stuff like Have You Got it In You is just beautiful and inspiring and really just puts you in a good mood (even though lyrically I don't think it's supposed to be a happy song). The stuff from the Sparks album seems to be a culmination of everything that Imogen Heap has done up to this point, both solo and in Frou Frou. Cycle Song is a good example of this. It also works well as a segue track diving deeper in to the album as a whole. Unfortunately for me the Sparks songs feel like the weakest to me. They seem to have less of an identity to me. Perhaps I need to hear the album in full to really appreciate them, which I fully intend to do. If I had to rank the albums based on what I've heard here it would probably be Speak For Yourself=Ellipse>I Megaphone>Frou Frou>Sparks, but there's only 2 songs from I Megaphone and 2 from Frou Frou, so this could easily change once I hear all the albums in full. Another big influence that seems apparent is Bjork. I hear a lot of Bjork, especially in some of the vocal melodies. Mostly in the Ellipse album, but I hear bits in other songs too. Telemiscommunications is probably my favorite from Sparks at this point. It's super chill, with lovely vocals. A lot of the music here is really chill, but at the same time it is engaging. This has to do with the commanding nature of her vocals. They may have a lighter tone, but her vocals just command your attention. The song 2-1 is a standout track, with great lyrics and incredible vocals to go with them. The Dark Ambient sound here is also super atmospheric. This song is almost perfect to me. Then you have stuff like Daylight Robbery that is a fairly rockin tune. Run-Time sounds like it could be straight off of an 80's Synth Pop album. And that chorus on Closing In is just gorgeous. Then there is the quirky Xizi She Knows. I can easily understand why you ended it with The Moment I Said It. It's at the same time haunting and beautiful and epic and chilling. I see you saved the best for last.
Really there is something to enjoy in every song here. There was nothing I outright disliked, with the exception of Minds Without Fear. It starts out just fine, but I really don't like the guest vocals. I don't think they fit. If it weren't for that it would be a great song. Other than that one song, this was an amazing greatest hits album. Every Imogen Heap album is on my To Listen list now. I may also have to add her to my top 5 list of female vocalists. I think I'm in love with her voice. I hope she's working on a proper follow up album to Sparks. One final thing I have to mention is the lyrics. They may be pretentious at times, a little cryptic here and there, but who cares. They are well written and I enjoy them.
17/20
Scores
Ariich - 9.5, 7, 7.8, 8, 20.2, 9.7, 9.8, 7.9, 18.5 = 98.4
Romdrums - 7.7, 8.5, 8.7, 9.5, 20.1, 8.7, 7, 7, 17 = 94.2
Elite - 7.8, 7.4, 8.3, 9, 16.2, 9.5, 8.8, 8, 18.4 = 93.4
TAC - 7.6, 8, 9.1, 8.8, 19.5, 9, 7.1, 9.9, 14 = 93
Parama - 9.1, 8.7, 6.7, 8.9, 17.7, 8.5, 9, 4.8, 17.6 = 91
Lethean - 6.8, 7.8, 6.6, 6.8, 21.7, 8.5, 8.5, 7, 17.2 = 90.9
Kattelox - 9, 9, 9, 6.8, 15.5, 5.5, 9.6, 9.5, 16.7 = 90.6
Jingle - 8.3, 6, 8, 7.7, 19.9, 7.2, 7, 9.3, 15.9 = 89.3
Evermind - 8.2, 7.5, 8.5, 6, 21.5, 9.4 = 61.1
Sacul - 8.5, 8.5, 5.9, 8.4, 15.4 = 46.7
Indiscipline - 7.5, 8, 5.8, 7, 18.1 = 46.4
Stadler - 6.4, 7, 6, 6.5, 18.1 = 44
Shadow Ninja - 5.5
Lordcost - 4.5
Thanks to Kattelox and Jingle for playing in another roulette of mine. I enjoyed a ton of the stuff you guys sent (and some not so much). You both just had a couple of albums that killed your chances of getting in to the finals. Feel free to still send me your concept albums if you have them made up. I will give them a listen and do a write up on them after I finish the final round.
Topic: Puppies Crazy Album Roulette (Jingle & Kat Bonus Round...spoiler...Jingle wins) (Read 114719 times)