Round 4 Results:
Luoto: Eastern High - AfterglowFirst impression: I adore the deep vibe this song projects, this is so rich and marvelous.This is very different from everything I’ve received in this round, and this is incredible.
When Tobias Sammet used that deep humming sound in The Raven Child—the single from the recent Avantasia album—I really liked it, and wished the song explored more of that deep celtic folky atmosphere. This song is my dreams coming true. This has this deep, earthy vibe; not the type of folk music people usually tend to associate with the chirping lutes and mandolins and dancing, but the type of folk that’s closer to spirits of nature. The buildup and the climax are tremendously well-executed, and while this song stretches the definition of a ballad a bit, staying on a heavier side for a long time, I’m alright with that—I allowed Dead Lord – Bold Move in my previous roulette, and this is definitely closer to being a ballad than that one. I love this. Congratulations on your bonus point.
9/10 + 1 for winning the themed roundIndiscipline: Starsailor – Way to FallFirst impression: This is quite a simple song, but why the hell is it so depressing? I didn’t expect that from you. There’s something in it that just tugs on my heartstrings.Songs like this are the reason I always wanted to play guitar. Not the ridiculous, technical solos and not the heart-wrenching solos like David Gilmour does—although of course that would’ve been fabulous to be able to do—I didn’t have any illusions about my potential skill, but just these kinds of songs where you don’t do anything ridiculous and yet still manage to bring the tears to your audience’s eyes.
This is really simple. The singer isn’t even all that impressive. There are no flashing instrumental parts or anything, it’s all low-key here, and this shows that sometimes it’s all you need. This song doesn’t need to be difficult, and the singer doesn’t need to hit the ridiculous high notes in order for this to work. There’s something about the timbre of his voice that speaks to my soul, and he is
perfect for this song. I don’t know a lot of singers who can deliver this
”I need to be alone while I suffer” line with such emotion and conviction beneath it. Needless to say, I like this a lot.
8.5/10senecadawg2: Phoebe Bridgers - FuneralFirst impression: This is quite a simple song, yet it manages to be quite heartbreaking at the same time. And the lyrics too, ow.Phoebe is a funny name for me, because, as a non-native English speaker, I had no idea how it’s pronounced, and the first time I encountered it was in
The Catcher in the Rye—hence the reference in the bizarro hangman—and the second time I encountered it was on Reddit, where they seem to be fond of a quote from
Friends where a character named Phoebe spells out her name letter by letter—which is hilarious, really.
This song is not hilarious. And, seriously, I should’ve expected this from a song named Funeral, of all things, but I’ll be honest, this song caught me off-guard. In fact, it’s such a kick in the feels that you should go fuck yourself, but at the same time, thank you for this. The very opening line,
”I’m singing at a funeral tomorrow for a kid a year older than me”, is incredibly powerful and makes it clear what one should expect from this song. And the atmosphere here, subtly enhanced by those quiet strings in the background sometimes appearing in the forefront, it fits perfectly—I love the short instrumental part after the first chorus, for example.
This is not absolutely outstanding—I have a few gripes with vocal melodies—but it is a good song, and the lyrics also elevate it a notch above being simply “good”. Fantastic choice.
8/10LordCost: Celesty – Legacy of Hate Part 3First impression: Good thought to go with a non-ballad as a contrast to the optional theme, this is something I certainly did not expect.The way I listen to all the songs is that I add them to a playlist on that streaming platform I use, and then I just hit shuffle before heading out to my morning and evening commute, and given the optional theme for this round, I mostly expected to hear ballads. So you can imagine my disbelief when this song, first, went into that fast epic part after the quiet introduction and second, just kept going and going and going. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
This is that cheesy power metal at its finest, and as I said, while I’m not that big on the genre overall—and Katt already tested it with Aquaria—for some reason, this song resonates with me. Perhaps it’s the structure, or perhaps it’s the inclusion of sections that aren’t often seen in power metal, like the screaming/growling section in the second half of this song, of perhaps this song is just simply well-written, but I like this. It’s not perfect, and the ending surely could’ve used more oomph, but this is good. It’s in the “guilty pleasure” territory, but I like it a lot. Great thinking with using the power metal epic for the contrast with the ballads, too.
8/10Kattelox: Sons of Seasons - YesteryearsFirst impression: Apparently it’s difficult to not overplay when you’re doing a piano ballad, because there’s just too many instances of that as far as I’m concerned.Misdirection: I’m a fan of it, sometimes. This song is actually quite good. Despite the fact that there’s absolutely a ton of overplaying during the instrumental section, the actual parts where the singer is present are done beautifully. It’s difficult to come up with relatable, strong and powerful vocal melodies that don’t sound forced, drawn-out or boring; this song does it mostly well except one moment in the chorus during the “live here for eternity” moment where it feels a bit forced. However, they compensate it by fantastic verses and the chorus’ climax with “here I rest in peace”.
If we’re talking Kamelot, because why not, this doesn’t quite reach the levels of Abandoned or Song for Jolee or Sailorman’s Hymn, but it’s better than Under Grey Skies or Wander. If only the instrumental section was better.
Also, I’m not doing a writeup for it, but The Face was in 4.5 or 5/10 territory, and the first impression for it was:
this one kind of feels as unmemorable as Nantucket Sleighride, or perhaps just a bit worse, so your ability possibly netted you those additional three points.
7.5/10TAC: Dreyelands – Room 6 – Blossoms of DecayFirst impression: Too short, definitely could use a few more minutes of this.The good news for you are that I will definitely check out this album further, and the bad news are that it’s not quite because of how awesome and strong this song was. This sounds promising, this sounds like there’s a lot of potential, and yet it doesn’t sound like a complete song, more like an interlude, a brief glance at the big picture. The singer sounds fantastic, and the vocal melodies are very well done, but this song just ends without any real payoff. On one hand, as I said, it makes me want to check this album out. On the other hand, it doesn’t have any time to breathe and evolve, and instead of being a masterpiece, this is a good piece of music that doesn’t quite feel like a full-fledged song.
7/10wolfking: Solution .45 – Lethean TearsFirst impression: There’s something about the vocal mix that strikes a wrong chord with me.The problem with a lot of ballads I know is while they all manage to nail the slow pace and mood pretty well, a lot of them don’t have exciting vocal melodies. Good vocal melodies, as well as the lyrics, can be a dealbreaker for me when it comes to ballads, and this one, well, aside from the hilarious title for the DTF folks, it just doesn’t have neither of these. The melodies are passable, the chorus is predictable and sleep-inducing, the lyrics are abstract. The chorus is also repeated a bit too much for my taste, or perhaps just the plodding inevitability of the melodies chosen for it is grating on me too much.
And there’s that first impression too, which I still find to be true, somehow the vocals sound a bit off. Not off key or anything, just off, maybe overproduced a bit. I’m not sure what exactly about them I dislike, so that’s not going to be helpful, but it’s there. But overall, this isn’t bad or annoying, it’s just pretty average. The guitar solo and the upped intensity in the ending are the highlights here.
6/10Stadler: Glen Campbell – There’s No Me… Without YouFirst impression: This one kind of feels as unmemorable as Nantucket Sleighride, or maybe just a bit better.This was in line with your recent submissions: decent, pleasant, but yet mostly unmemorable. I don’t know what this is about, and it’s probably my tastes as a young person, but your last three entries have been such a stark contrast to that fantastic MSG song, so that I can’t help but wonder what’s going on.
But back to the song, it’s actually a bit better than Driving Rain and Nantucket Sleighride in my book, because there are moments that stand out, especially the instrumental part, which is very well-constructed. I can envision couples dancing to this song, as it’s quite a romantic number, and I like how the song completely abandons the vocal parts from 2:30 and onwards. So yes, while it doesn’t reach the heights of this round, it’s a bit better than your average song, which probably means you’re on a right track.
6/10jingle.boy: Now or Never – Save MeFirst impression: Why this song had to be over five minutes is an absolute mystery to me. So let me preface this writeup with this: there are some decent moments and ideas on this song, especially in the instrumental department. But I absolutely don’t see the appeal of the whole song here. The good ideas are drowned in the sea of mediocrity. The chorus that’s repeated a lot of times is the epitome of boredom. In fact, it feels like the singer is just belting out the same note over and over. Well, except for the ending, where he changes things up, but at that point it’s been six minutes, it’s too late to try and save this song. The verses aren’t much better here, too.
I just can’t help but wonder why this song is over seven minutes. Seriously, I like the instrumental breaks, and I think if you reduced the amount of vocals here to one verse, one chorus, a longer instrumental break and then the final section with a higher-intensity chorus (think W.A.S.P. – The Idol structure), this might’ve warranted a 6 or even 6.5/10. As of now, it’s not even good enough to be average, sorry Chad.
4.5/10Puppies_On_Acid: Negura Bunget – Cunoasterea TacutaFirst impression: Good thought to go with a non-ballad as a contrast to the optional theme, probably not the best song for the job though.This is a nice example of a song that might’ve as well been recorded in someone’s uncle’s garage, because the quality here isn’t exactly top notch. I don’t know why you picked this track from the band’s output, because if that’s the strongest offering they’ve got in their discography, they definitely aren’t for me. This just sounds like a very generic black (death? no idea) metal song. The only truly memorable part is the whistle—or whatever it is—used in the last minute. Otherwise, I don’t remember anything from this song, and I listened to it five times—and it was supposed to stand out from all the ballads I’ve got. And it did stand out, only in “it has heavy riffs and growls” sort of way. And also in the “when will this end already?” sort of way. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed with this.
4.5/10Sacul: Linda Perhacs – Winds of the SkyFirst impression: This is as exciting as my every day morning commute. Uh… I’ll take “Come come come come come along now, run away from the humdrum” over this any day of the week. At least that shit was memorable and fun!
This sounds like elevator music, except the elevator is slower than a snail and you have to get to the fourty-seventh floor and it takes
hours. There’s nothing wrong with this song, but it’s just absolutely boring. I struggle to find anything interesting about it. It just… exists. Which is good enough, I suppose. It also makes it a huge pain in the ass to do a writeup for it, though, because I don’t even have anything to say about it. Seventh Wonder songs are infinitely more interesting than this. How about that?
And if that’s not enough, it’s also six minutes long. Ow.
4.5/10Tyrias: Guro Von Germeten – Here We Have It AllFirst impression: There are a few aspects about this song that make it annoying as hell. Well, that’s one way to screw up your good streak in this roulette.I’ll be absolutely honest with you here: I don’t remember a single song from any of my roulettes that annoyed me as much as this one. I can’t even say it’s bad, you know? It’s just annoying
as hell. So if you love it a lot, you probably should stop reading here, otherwise you’ll probably feel a deep hatred for me down the road.
Where do I start here? Do I start with the laziest vocal melodies that feel like they came from a person who was absent-mindedly humming a non-descript melody while doing the dishes? Do I start with the lyrics that feel like a continuation of The Best of Times, as in carrying further the issue for which PetFish was called PetDick by MP? Because seriously, it’s even worse here as almost every line ends with ay-word, be that “day”, “away”, “today”, “say” or “anyway”. Or perhaps do I start with the Disney-like piano arrangements? Or with her accent which inspired the bizarro hangman? Because I’m fairly sure she sings “heavy toll” in the chorus.
The thing I’m surprised the most by is the accordion. I usually hate the accordion in most of the music—it’s often used in the traditional Russian music and it’s mostly atrocious—but here she does it in quite a tasteful manner, so that’s why this song didn’t absolutely blow. But still, I hope I will never have to listen to this again. I just did it as I was writing this, and the score dropped by half a point because I remembered how annoying this song is.
3/10
Topic: Evermind's Third Roulette v. Final Round Results (Read 70015 times)
