Evermind's Third Roulette v. Final Round Results

[The Walrus]

Gloryhammer enrages me.

This was the Judas Priest round, so I guess the next one is Gloryhammer round?

No cause I saw Turdmallet live already 

[senecadawg2]

I'm curious to know why you hate Gloryhammer.

[The Walrus]

I'm curious to know why you hate Gloryhammer.

I just really dislike Christopher Bowes' style of taking the piss out of power metal by being completely silly and almost mocking the Rhapsody style of metal because Rhapsody and co. sound sincere. Bowes' bands don't yet they're super popular. Good music in Gloryhammer but it's so tongue in cheek I hate it.

[lonestar]

Oddly enough, that's why I love it, whereas most other power metal is pretty meh for me.

C'mon man....What other show has people dressed as gnomes crowd surfing?

[Evermind]

11 writeups are done, 7 more to do. Let's see if I can do them today.

A fair warning though: you shouldn't be surprised at quite a lot of low scores. There are at least four songs below 5/10.

[Crow]

The 3/10 Effekt 

[The Walrus]

Really hope Savage Circus doesn't get a savage review, I hope it's a favorable comparison to BG.

[Evermind]

Round 1 Results:

Tyrias: Sólstafir - Miðaftann

First impression: Things like that will never stop reminding me why the music is the form of art I adore the most.

You’ve made an observation that we’re the most compatible when it comes to ballads, and I have to say, apparently you’re not wrong, because I loved this. The video is also a perfect addition to the song.

I don’t know whether it’s Icelandic language or simply the way they create the music, but so far I’m two out of three on Icelandic groups, and both I’m into are your fault: Árstíðir, and now apparently Sólstafir (the one I’m not into is Sigur Rós, by the way). The language barrier doesn’t bother me here, and the music itself is beautiful, gorgeous. This takes me to another world. This is an absolute bliss of a song. I don’t even have a lot of words, and none are even needed here. This song was leading the pack since the beginning, and I’m not even a little bit tired of it. You’re off to a great start.

9.5/10 (+0.5 from Steven Wilson’s Wave of Depression for the saddest song of the round)

TAC: Anabasis – Human Supremacy Illusion

First impression: There always was a brilliant song or two in Round 1 in my first two roulettes that applied to my tastes so well it might’ve as well been the definition of them at the time. It’s too early to tell, but I feel like this one might just be that kind of song.

After a lot of mediocre songs in this round, it always felt refreshing to return to this song. This, to me, feels like progressive metal done right, and even though there are growls in this song, they’re placed well. The song always keeps moving organically from one section to another, following a chorus full of growls—not a plodding chorus, too, more like a melodic death metal one—with a beautiful quiet middle section which kind of reminds of me Fall into the Light—except the rest of the song is also great. I love the dramatic intro with the haunting keyboards and the subtle flute additions. I love how this song goes all out with growls in the ending. I like how the keyboards accentuate certain moments here and there. My only complaint about this song would be that the singer sounds a little bit thin and mixed too quiet on his clean sections.

This song was one of my favourites after my first listen and didn’t lose its charm throughout the week. This is definitely an album to check out.

9/10

Stadler: The Michael Schenker Group – Desert Song

First impression: This is exactly why I was so excited that you joined this roulette.

This first impression still stands. I always wanted to explore some of the older hard rock and heavy metal groups, but I lacked dedication, and when I saw you playing other roulettes and sending all these old gems I instantly thought “well, damn, when I run my roulette in 2019, I’ve got to have Stadler”. I don’t know what else you’ve got up your sleeve, but this song enough was a good reason for me to think that.

Graham Bonnet does an impressive entrance into the song, one that instantly gets me hooked on his delivery of the words “Arabian sun”. And the rest of the song just goes up from here, from excellent verses to a good enough chorus—although the lyrics here are questionable, but hey, it’s 80s, I can’t complain—to a fantastic instrumental break. Good melodies, great vocal performance, excellent guitar solo, this song has a lot of stuff to like—enough to make it to the Top 3 songs of the round. This is very good.

8.5/10

jingle.boy: Lords of Black – Ghost of You

First impression: Jornless Avantasia meets Magnus Karlsson-like songwriting, a curious combination.

This definitely reminds me of something Magnus would’ve written, like Primal Fear’s One Night in December, with some of the Tobias’ songwriting in it. This was a pretty safe choice, and I’m not going to lie, I like this.

That doesn’t mean the song doesn’t have a few problems that stood out to me during the subsequent listens. This was one of the early favourites, but it lost a bit of its novelty after a few days. First and foremost, this song could’ve easily been a few minutes shorter. In terms of structure, it has a slow building intro—no complaints there—then a verse-prechorus-chorus—again, almost no complaints there, although I would note that the chorus is not as striking as the aforementioned One Night in December. Then we go into the instrumental section and this is where this song goes a bit off the rails for me. Not only it’s pretty long for its lack of great ideas, as far as I’m concerned, but why it’s a full-on double bass onslaught during almost the entirety of it? It doesn’t fit at all.

But nitpicks aside, I really liked it. The singer sounded familiar, and indeed, it’s Ronnie Romero who toured with Rainbow recently, and I will say he’s one of the reasons this song scored this high—this man is a powerhouse. Perhaps I thought the instrumental section was too long simply because I wanted to hear more of his singing.

8/10

Luoto: Swallow the Sun - Firelights

First impression: A slower Katatonia-like vibe in the chorus, I like it.

I’ve heard the band’s name and was always curious about their music, but my aversion for growls stopped me. I can honestly say I was surprised how much I like this. This song has a somehow very pleasant calm and haunting vibe, slowly evolving from steady vocals to raging growls in the chorus. Every instrument can be easily heard, and the eerie atmosphere in the verses serves as a great counterpoint to the plodding doom-infused chorus.

It took me a few listens to watch the video and notice the strings behind the chorus, and that was what brought this song over the 8 points mark—this subtle detail made me appreciate the song even more. I would happily take your recommendations on this band after the roulette, as I think this is going straight to my list of the bands I should check out. Nice start.

8/10

Sacul: BADBADNOTGOOD - Confessions

First impression: The band’s name rivals Giraffes? Giraffes! and I can’t say anything about the music because I haven’t heard a single song by Giraffes? Giraffes!

I mean, screw Giraffes? Giraffes! as this is actually pretty good! I’m not big on the instrumentals this days, but something about this saxophone line sends shivers down my spine—I especially like the warm “verses” with the initial melody. Not as big on the breakdowns between them, I like when this song stays somewhat, for a lack of a better word, intimate. “Confessions” is a very fitting title, and the song’s strong points where saxophone is playing over that simple bass line that greets the listener in the very first seconds of this song.

I wouldn’t have minded a collaboration between something like this band and Leonard Cohen, or, well, someone alive with a deep voice. Are these guys fully instrumental or do some songs have vocals? I don’t think I can sit through a whole album of this, but this tune has some great moments and ideas which definitely put it near the “good” territory.

7/10

Puppies_On_Acid: Woods of Ypres – A Meeting Place and Time

First impression: Agalloch meets a singer who caught a cold and wants to be anywhere except this studio.

Look, I realize it’s probably a quirk of this particular genre, but this singer definitely sounds like he wants to be anywhere except recording this song. I can even picture him bored out of his mind recording the clean vocals. I don’t quite know what he looks like, but I can picture that. It especially shows in the very end, where they get to this, well, climax I suppose, where he goes “This is the end of this well rehearsed story of you and I”, and I almost have chills because of how good that was, except the singer sounds so bored I just sit there in disbelief. Again, I get it, this is probably the standard for the genre, but holy shit, was that a letdown.

Overall though, this song is pretty enjoyable. Sounds like a standard fare in a world of death/black metal (I still can’t tell them apart), solid mix, not that muddy, with enough acoustic arrangements to be interesting and diverse enough. It does feel a bit long, but at the same time I feel it’s somewhat justified—if only the climax was better, this would’ve been in the 8+ territory. I enjoyed this, and while I’m not sure if I will explore this band further, I will remember the name.

7/10

Indiscipline: Spandau Ballet – Through the Barricades

First impression: I think I have diabetes now, thanks.

Well, the good thing is that with a bunch of singers I didn’t like at all in this round, this one is definitely safe. He has a beautiful voice. The song itself is a huge overload of sugar, though. And I’m honestly alright with that.

I like the subtle additions of saxophone here and there in the song, before it finally enters full force in the ending. I like the quiet parts of the song, and I’m not too big on the louder parts, especially the very 80s sounding keyboards. But I guess that’s one of the song charms—and I guess, in a way, that’s what I expected from you.

Why the hell did it have to end with such a quick fadeout, though? I would’ve liked that sax solo go on for a bit longer.

7/10

LordCost: Thumpermonkey - Veldt

First impression: This is exactly the song I expected from Elite. Except his song is also exactly what I expected from him.

While this song wasn’t the quirkiest one in this round, the video definitely was! What’s up with that?

The song itself I found quite interesting. A chilling beginning with barest traces of instrumentation mostly leaning on keyboard effects, good vocal melodies too. This guy has a pleasant voice! It took a perfect amount of time to go into “I can’t believe I’ve become fascinated AGAAAAIN!” transition to a heavier, plodding part with a doom-like feel behind it, a first appearance of electric guitar on this song I think? The keyboards in this section are also more urgent, the drums are upfront, and the vocal melodies are again well thought out. And then again, it takes just a right amount of time to transition back into a quiet ending. I could’ve done without the last minute, but there’s no denying this song is very well structured. It’s not quite the style of music I would seek out on my own—what is this style of music?—and it’s not exactly up my alley, but the songwriting is enough to put it very close to a “good” mark.

7/10

Kattelox: Savage Circus – Evil Eyes

First impression: Blind Guardian meets Blind Guardian. Hilarious album artwork too.

This is so like Blind Guardian it’s not even funny. Good news, you did better than Voyager. Bad news, I definitely like Blind Guardian more. There are some good ideas here, but it feels like I’ve heard it all before—and while it’s not quite an issue when the ideas are implemented in some original way, this definitely sounds like I’ve heard it all. The chorus sounds quite uninspired—something that Blind Guardian usually avoided, save for a few albums—and to be honest, seven minutes of this is a bit too much. Five would’ve been enough.

Perhaps I’m too harsh on this one, because in theory I should like it, but I don’t feel the desire to explore more music from this band judging by this song. This is better than a good chunk of songs in this round, but it’s not even close to the top. I’d put it somewhere between average and good.

6.5/10

romdrums: 22 – You Are Creating

First impression: This is probably what would’ve happened if Artificial Language decided to create a softer and happier album.

I’m not going to lie, this is quite fun. This is probably what I expected Jolly to sound like, except they didn’t. The singer, once again, reminds me of the Artificial Language singer, except he doesn’t go all out here. Curious thing about this song, there are no instrumental sections, not really—it’s really a three and a half minutes of singing. But as the singer is tolerable, this makes it almost fine; except the song feels too busy to me as the result. I feel like this tune actually can use some improvement in adding a short instrumental section.

This song isn’t among my favourites, but it’s a fun little tune that I can get behind.

6.5/10

[Evermind]

wolfking: Machine Men – No Talk Without the Giant

First impression: Probably the most straightforward song of the round. The vocal effects remind me of latest Dream Theater songs.

I sometimes love some generic heavy metal—hell, often—but this sounded about as average as it gets. The instrumental parts were nice enough, I liked the building guitar melody, and the singer was pretty good—but I don’t really like the slight mechanical effect on his voice. Reminds me of James' vocals on Untethered Angel.

This honestly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good either. Very generic and even a bit boring, so good thing it was short enough. You might hit the nail on the head with some of the submissions like this (like Nocturnal Rites in my previous roulette), but this is just too average to make a good impression. Maybe try something that’s a bit out there? Melodic death metal may work.

5.5/10

senecadawg2: Foals – Spanish Sahara

First impression: You definitely would’ve been better off with the rejected song.

Well, good news here is that this song has grown on me a bit since the first listen. However, it’s still nowhere near Stone of Remembrance in terms of how much I like it. I’ve found that this kind of ballads can either resonate with me pretty well or fall a bit flat, and I’m afraid the latter happened here. I don’t exactly like the singer’s voice—sounds a bit thin or even whiny—and I dislike the chirping keyboard (I assume) sounds that begin around 2:20 and continue to evolve and change to even more annoying shapes throughout the whole song, I dislike it a lot. It’s not enough to ruin the song completely, but it’s part of why the ambient atmosphere of this particular track doesn’t appeal to me as much as it should’ve.

Let’s talk about nice things, though. The rest of instrumentation is very good, engaging and works well in the song. The instrumental break is well done, except those stupid chirping sounds everywhere—but I like the guitars. I like how prominent the bass is. The vocal melodies are catchy to the point of also being a bit annoying. I didn’t play Life is Strange, so perhaps I would’ve appreciated this one a bit more if I did. As things stand, this has grown for me from “well, I want to skip this” to “I guess it’s alright” to “okay, this is just a bit better than alright”.

5.5/10

Kwyjibo: Steve Lukather – Party in Simon’s Pants

First impression: Surprisingly engaging, even with my recent lack of enthusiasm for this particular kind of music.

This is probably the first impression that changed the most after a few listens. At first, I found this instrumental piece quite appealing, but its novelty has quickly worn off after a week of extensive listening.

It’s still not that bad, you know—I didn’t want to skip it (mostly), and I remember parts of it, unlike, say, Enigma Machine or Haken’s Nil by Mouth—but it didn’t have enough staying power for me. It’s a fun little piece, but most of the musical nuances are lost on me, and while it has memorable riffs and I like the keyboard part around ~3:15, I’m not sure I want to sit through six minutes of this, and certainly not through a full album. By the way, what’s up with the song name?

I certainly hope I won’t dissuade you from playing roulettes with this writeup. It’s just, well, that’s how it sometimes is. Perhaps you’ll strike gold in Round 2!

5/10

Lethean: Voyager – Ghost Mile

First impression: Was this djent? I think it was.

Man, knowing how much you like Voyager, I was really looking forward to this. I even have one Voyager song saved on plug.dj for further checkout, but I don’t remember anything from it, so this was definitely allowed. And I’ll be honest, not only this feels like djent, it also sounds a bit like a heavier poor man version of Leprous.

I don’t even have much to say about this. The two things I remember the most are the pounding rhythm and the fact that the singer sings “djently” in the beginning of the chorus—which is fair, I guess. The vocal melodies on this song create a space-like feeling, except with the pounding guitars behind them this feeling is dissipated as soon as it’s conjured. In fact, the vocal melodies on this song are complex enough that I can’t quite get them. That’s why I mentioned Leprous before—these guys know how to write a chorus. This chorus feels like a placeholder.

I feel a bit bad about asking you to join and then trashing your song like this, but I can’t help it—this isn’t up my alley. It’s not bad per se, it’s more like “a little worse than average”, I guess. Nothing ear-raping, but nothing memorable.

4.5/10

Elite: Jolly – Where Everything’s Perfect

First impression: Reminds me of The Gift of Music somehow, and I don’t like The Gift of Music.

The problem with happy, upbeat music is that it often falls flat for me. The funny thing here is, it’s not even that happy! It still does remind me of The Gift of Music—I think it’s that guitar riff.

Well, my biggest complaint here is that I’m not quite into the singer’s voice. And excluding the instrumental section, the section with the child, and this heavy section in the end—which was unexpected as hell for me, although it kind of goes well with the song—there’s this one riff constantly going on. That one riff and the singer droning over it. This is what this song is like, in my head. Honestly, I can see how someone might like it, but I wouldn’t even say it reaches an average mark. Close, but not quite.

4/10

lonestar: Zero Hour – Towers of Avarice

First impression: Probably one of the most complex songs of the round, as I don’t remember anything from my first listen.

Honestly, Nelson’s first impression also applies to you, RJ. Perhaps even more. To hear this after knowing you tried to send Ibex Eye was almost painful—mostly to my ears, as this song is basically eight minutes long, non-stop onslaught of heavy riffs with vocal melodies slapped on it. Either almost no effort went into those vocal melodies, or perhaps too much thinking, as I listened to it five or six times and I don’t remember any particular melody from it.

And that’s not to say the band doesn’t have technical chops. The instrumentation behind is impressive—and I really like how the bass can be heard clearly in the mix. The singer also has an impressive voice. But their definition of a progressive metal song is seemingly miles apart from mine. This song made my head hurt. After three listens I was tempted to skip it whenever it came into my rotation. Whenever this came into my rotation paired with another song which is right after this one in this list—which, for some reason, happened twice even though I listened on shuffle—I wanted to weep. Is there a chorus on this song? I have no idea. I’m almost sorry that I didn’t accept Ibex Eye. This was a swing and a miss.

3/10

Parama: The Hirsch Effekt - Cotard

First impression: It’s as if the band had a bet with someone to write a song with vocal melodies no one will ever remember.

Honestly, if I didn’t know how much you like this band, I would’ve thought you sent this just out of spite. I’ll go ahead and say it: this is awful. This should’ve been a soundtrack on the day I saw a local stray cat get brained by a passing car, because I felt awful all day after that, similarly to this song.

And I’m not even kidding. You played a lot of songs in plug.dj while I was there, and there is usually something I enjoy about them. The Warm Glow was pretty great last time, you know. This song has one and a half redeeming qualities: the instrumental work when it gets calm—which is not that often—and the saxophone in the end. The very beginning hurts my ears, and then as if it wasn’t enough, hey, here’s this part again at ~4:30, thanks. The vocal melodies, you can as well read the first impression again. It’s also in German, which, while I thought I don’t have any aversion to songs in different languages, but it manages to make things worse here. Harsh consonants don’t go that well with calmer atmosphere this song tries to maintain in between the bloody murder parts.

The saxophone in the end (or whatever the instrument is) elevates the song to a higher score, and that’s where the vocal melodies also finally get good, but overall my reaction to this song is similar to its ending, which is to scream NICHTS at the top of my lungs. This is Absu/10.

2/10

Scoreboard:

Tyrias: 10 (9.5+0.5)
TAC: 9
Stadler: 8.5
jingle.boy: 8
Luoto: 8
Sacul: 7
Puppies_On_Acid: 7
Indiscipline: 7
LordCost: 7
Kattelox: 6.5
romdrums: 6.5
wolfking: 5.5
senecadawg: 5.5
Kwyjibo: 5
Lethean: 4.5
Elite: 4
lonestar: 3
Parama: 2

[Evermind]

Round 2: Open Round

This is an open round. The length limit is 10 minutes unless you have an ability to ignore it, in which case you're free to use it as you wish.

Please try and send for this round in 48 hours from now on.

[Sacul]

Damn that's an acceptable score  . The album it comes from is very varied, goes from jazz to some moody electronic stuff and some post-rock, and it's instrumental, but worth a shot, I love it.

[The Walrus]

I was playing it very safe. Next round you'll get something completely over the top, something I actually love. Hope it doesn't get me cut! Will send tonight.

[Crow]

 
I'm just gonna send something crap intentionally at this point cause we're still not remotely compatible

[Evermind]

I was playing it very safe. Next round you'll get something completely over the top, something I actually love. Hope it doesn't get me cut! Will send tonight.

I still liked your song. I'm just trying to actually use the scale where 2.5 is bad, 5.0 is average and 7.5 is good. Last time I ran a roulette almost all the songs received 7.5 or more. This time I'm trying to actually adhere to that scale, so 6.5 isn't too shabby, to be honest. Anything higher than 7.5 I loved and will definitely check out.

I'm just gonna send something crap intentionally at this point cause we're still not remotely compatible

No shit. That was just... not up my alley at all.

[The Walrus]

Dude I have the exact same scoring problem which is why I'm being "harsher" in the back half of mine  more incentive to send the BEST you can!

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I'm not at all surprised by that score and perhaps I should have sent something from one of their later albums, but this was the song that got me in to the band even though every album after is better. Better production, more originality, better vocals, better instrumentation. I'll find something to send in the next 12 hours for round 2.

[Elite]

Lol, well that was fun

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Lol, well that was fun

Some might even say it was Jolly...... I'll see myself out....

[Evermind]

Lol, well that was fun

You're 1.5 points away from the cut-off line, with my current method of scoring I'd say you still have a fair chance to make it through.

[The Walrus]

Hey, The Anabasis... what's KNH up to these days? That was his project right? MP Forum folks remember...

[Evermind]

Hey, The Anabasis... what's KNH up to these days? That was his project right? MP Forum folks remember...

I think TAC specified it wasn't Barry's band, but a different project not related to him.

[senecadawg2]

Hmm that's not good. I don't know Life is Strange. I'll send shortly.

[Evermind]

Hmm that's not good. I don't know Life is Strange. I'll send shortly.

Apparently that was one of the game soundtracks. I'm sure you can bounce back though!

[Kwyjibo]

Okay, glad that you didn't hate it, but sad that you didn't like it more.  I just send something I really like, Steve Lukather is one of my favorite guitar players and the album where this tune is from (Candyman) is such a great record, imo. There's some rockers on it, some more rock-fusion instrumentals (but this here is the best them) and some cool ballads.

I certainly hope I won’t dissuade you from playing roulettes with this writeup. It’s just, well, that’s how it sometimes is.

No worries there, this is surely not my last roulette, and I'm not out yet.

By the way, what’s up with the song name?

The drummer on this song is Simon Phillips and in the last minutes of the song he lets loose. And Steve Lukather seems to always make some tongue in cheek jokes with sexual innuendos. I think that's where the song title comes from.

[Crow]

It's a real good game my dudes
I know what I'm gonna send and I'll send it when I get home. Using my other power this round since I'm definitely out after this round anyways 

[jingle.boy]

Hey, The Anabasis... what's KNH up to these days? That was his project right? MP Forum folks remember...

I think TAC specified it wasn't Barry's band, but a different project not related to him.

Yeah, Barry's band is "The" Anabasis.  This song was from Anabasis.  I haven't seen him much on FB over the past couple of years either.  Not sure if anyone still keeps in touch with him from here.

that's a painful score for the chef.  Someone take his knives away from him.   

BTW... I'll gladly take 4th place this round. 

[Indiscipline]

I knew I could count on your mellow melodic side!

I will insist with eccentric out of fashion non-metal sugar ingots, in about a couple hours.

On a sidenote, Candyman is a beautiful beautiful album.

[lonestar]

 

[Kwyjibo]

Wanted to send some german "kirmes techno" but then decided to send something else. 

[Crow]

Other comments
I forget which Solstafir song that is I should relisten to it lol
I actually checked out that Anabasis album the other day and it's pretty good yeah
I have the swallow the sun triple album which I found meehhh but haven't checked the new one so
Spanish Sahara deserves better
Jolly also deserves better tho not as much better
Anyways I'm gonna send a prog death epic to yeet myself out of the roulette once I get home 

[romdrums]

Round Two sent.

[lonestar]

Sent round two, one of my bigger guns I was saving for later. Kick this one back to me and you'll pay dearly in my resend.

[jingle.boy]

Sent round two, one of my bigger guns I was saving for later. Kick this one back to me and you'll pay dearly in my resend.

BABYMETAL, amirite?

[Lethean]

I feel a bit bad about asking you to join and then trashing your song like this, but I can’t help it—this isn’t up my alley. It’s not bad per se, it’s more like “a little worse than average”, I guess. Nothing ear-raping, but nothing memorable.

Well you didn't really trash it.  Although it seems as though you think I should consider the term djent to be an insult, which I don't.   I'm not familiar with a lot of djent, but so far for me it varies.  Some I like, some I don't. 

[Crow]

Oh yeah that's the one really good solstafir track off otta that's a valid score