Here's the rest of the round 3 results. I know a couple of you will be disappointed.
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 BurstsSacul
Post Hardcore
SwedenFirst Impression - This is not what I was expecting from this band based on the genre.I had a tough time with this album. It's both incredibly ambitious and boring at the same time. I love me some Post Hardcore, which is what this is labeled as, but this sounds more like oldschool Hardcore Punk with more avant-garde ambitions. The comes in when trying to mix in ambient and electronica interludes with what they are calling Post Hardcore. The problem is they don't mix well. There's no real flow, it's actually really disjointed for the most part. The songs have weird random breaks in to some bad techno beats. There's no preamble to it, just hardcore riffing then all of a sudden BOOM TECHNO IN YOUR FACE. The biggest problem is the music is mostly pretty bland. They don't do anything revolutionary. They kind of sound like they are trying to mix Rage Against the Machine with Fugazi. The good thing is there is plenty of variety here, even if most of it doesn't work too well. There are some good head bangable parts. The vocals are for the most part pretty good, with a few really cringeworthy exceptions.
I read some other reviews on this album because it seems to have pretty high scores from other people. I see people saying that it was revolutionary for its time and how it paved the way for bigger and better things and influenced a lot of the bands we have now in the post hardcore scene. Which all may be true, but I would rather be listening to those bands that are doing things better.
5.9/10
Deconstruction - DeconstructionStadler
Alternative Rock
United States
First Impression - This is more unique and better played than I thought it would be.This album is definitely a product of it's time. It has a lot of similarities with other albums within this genre and among their contemporaries. I am familiar with who Dave Navarro is, but I never did get in to Jane's Addiction outside of a few of their songs.
This album is quite polarizing. Basically the first 8 songs all go from pretty good to really great. They do some neat and unique things. Dave Navarro is a better guitarist than I thought. I especially love stuff like those twinkly arpeggios in Iris. The run from LA Song through Fire in the Hole is a pretty great run of music. Son and Big Sur sees a little drop in quality, but I just chalk that up to a mid album lull. But the rest of the songs are.....well, they aren't very good. Songs like One, America, and Wait for History are all overlong and repetitive. The lyrics don't speak to me in any meaningful way and the vocals sound like he's bored, I mean the vocals are all fairly similar throughout, but they were less noticeable in the first half because they were backed by interesting music. The drop off in quality from the first to the second half is pretty jarring. Through the first 8 songs this would probably rate at about an 8 to 8.5. With the second half dragging it down I cant rate it nearly that high. I appreciate you taking a different approach from everyone else when sending albums, but this one just didn't work in your favor.
6/10
Amendfoil - Empyrean & OphidianAriich
Alternative Progressive Metal
FinlandFirst Impression - What if Alice in Chains, Mastodon, Alter Bridge, and Mudvayne decided to collaborate on an album, but not sound like any of their bands.So I received a song from this album in my last roulette, Silver Linings, and it is definitely my favorite song on this album. It doesn't really sound like anything else on the album. The rest of the album fits my description in my first impression pretty well I think. There are times where the vocals sound like Miles Kennedy from Alter Bridge, there's vocal and guitar harmonies and grungy bits that sound like Alice in Chains, there's bits that sound like Chad Gray's harsher vocals and Greg Tribbett's incessant guitar riffing. There's some more proggy sludgy riffage that reminds me of Mastodon (like in Pale Horse, which is like a combo of Mastodon rhythms and Mudvayne/Alter Bridge vocals). It's all a very weird combination for me and at the same time this album doesn't exactly sound like any of the aforementioned bands. I don't know if I have had enough listens to fully wrap my head around it. Although you would think 4 listens through would be enough...There's even some Pop Punk riffing at times. There's djenty stuff. Then there's some really technical drumming in sporadic places which is then followed up with some rhythms and beats you would find on an early Paramore album. What?!?! These guys are just channeling tons of different artistic influences and yet paving their own path. I have a feeling they will pull it all together and put out an amazing album to follow this up.
7.8/10
Foscor - Les irreals visionsElite
Progressive Black Metal
SpainFirst Impression - This album hits me in a very peculiar way. It's a good way, just....peculiar. It's like a standard prog metal band being directed by Deafheaven or something.This is one of those albums that seems to draw on a lot of different styles of music and have many influences. Sometimes this can lead to a jumbled mess of an album and sometimes it can lead a revelation of music that pushes the boundaries forward and is the true essence of what progressive music is all about. This really neither of those things. It doesn't really push any genre of music forward and it's not an indecipherable disaster. It's really just an album that seems to stand on the backs of it's predecessors and peers. I mentioned the Deafheaven comparison in my first impression, which is there, but there's also some of the avant-garde leanings of In the Woods or Arcturus. There's lots of atmosphere, similar to a lot of post black metal bands. There's varying and sometimes strange vocals that reminds me of the aforementioned avant-garde leaning metal bands. There's even some psychedelic rock moments (like in Ciutat tràgica) and some Agalloch-like folky bits (displayed in Altars). There's also some great guitar work throughout this album. The solo in Altars is really emotional and not overly technical (that would just ruin the atmosphere). I like the dirty bass tone, it provides a nice counterbalance to the clean sounds of the other instruments. Overall this isn't as heavy or as metally as I was expecting. It's like a more avant-garde late era Katatonia. I was actually somewhat surprised how short this album is, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It was just over before I knew it. Even though I cant understand any of the vocals, it doesn't detract from the album. The vocal melodies and harmonies are all actually done very well. Sometimes the singer goes a bit off the rails, but not often.
I kind of want to dig in to this bands back catalog now. I've read that they started out as a more Black Metal band and slowly transitioned to this style. I'd be interested in seeing where they started. Overall this is an album I could see myself coming back to again in the future. So power, many atmospheric WOW!
8.3/10
I don't think I forgot anyone, if I did speak up
Scores So Far
Kattelox - 9, 9, 9 = 27
Romdrums - 7.7, 8.5, 8.7 = 24.9
TAC - 7.6, 8, 9.1 = 24.7
Parama - 9.1, 8.7, 6.7 = 24.5
Ariich - 9.5, 7, 7.8 = 24.3
Evermind - 8.2, 7.5, 8.5 = 24.2
Elite - 7.8, 7.4, 8.3 = 23.5
Sacul - 8.5, 8.5, 5.9 = 22.9
Jingle - 8.3, 6, 8 = 22.3
Indiscipline - 7.5, 8, 5.8 = 21.3
Lethean - 6.8, 7.8, 6.6 = 21.2
Stadler - 6.4, 7, 6 = 19.4
Hopefully my math is correct.
Looks like Kat is running away with this.
Topic: Puppies Crazy Album Roulette (Jingle & Kat Bonus Round...spoiler...Jingle wins) (Read 86973 times)