Poll

y'all excited for the next thank you scientist record?

yes
1 (25%)
yes
1 (25%)
yes
2 (50%)
i'm a contrarian
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 4

Author Topic: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Final Round Results)  (Read 41368 times)

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Offline senecadawg2

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #315 on: March 02, 2019, 05:40:01 PM »
Woohooo!  ;D

I suspected that Society wasn't going to blow you away, I just needed a third song of a similar style to stick in there to set the mood for the two I really wanted to share. Those two songs and artists have been weighing heavy on me for months.

The bad news is that I probably won't send a pair of songs I'm more excited about from here on out.
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Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #316 on: March 02, 2019, 05:42:00 PM »
hey, your odds go from 1 out of 2 to 5 out of 7 next round anyways, so just keep sending good stuff and you'll be fine  :corn
but it is a valid prelim strategy to send me your best song first because the whole point is to really impress me
...i wasn't too thrilled with a lot of EPs this round, to be fair  :lol a few i liked, a few i disliked, most tended towards the middle though

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #317 on: March 02, 2019, 05:49:38 PM »
hey, your odds go from 1 out of 2 to 5 out of 7 next round anyways, so just keep sending good stuff and you'll be fine  :corn
but it is a valid prelim strategy to send me your best song first because the whole point is to really impress me
...i wasn't too thrilled with a lot of EPs this round, to be fair  :lol a few i liked, a few i disliked, most tended towards the middle though
To be honest, in hindsight, I'm not 100% happy with the EP I sent and I actually wish I could go back and redo it.
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Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #318 on: March 02, 2019, 05:52:02 PM »
tell me more  :corn

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #319 on: March 02, 2019, 06:10:12 PM »
tell me more  :corn
Well, my Concept album is complete  :biggrin: Just put the finishing touches on this 90 minute monster that consists of just 7 songs by 6 artists.  :metal
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Offline The Walrus

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #320 on: March 02, 2019, 09:47:20 PM »
Send help I can't wait any longer
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #321 on: March 02, 2019, 10:07:49 PM »
Okay, one more pair of results for tonight & the next pair when i wake up in the morning  :metal

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #322 on: March 02, 2019, 10:19:48 PM »
Results, Part 2

2nd Place: TAC – Wings Of Passage

1. Cereus – Icarus

First Impressions:
I’m always interested to see what bands TAC has in store that I’ve literally never heard of. You’re like, the one true anomaly of DTF. A glitch in the prog matrix. This immediately starts off in a way that appeals personally to me, chill atmospheric bass-driven groove that I’m all but sure is going to explode into something huge at some point but I can’t really tell when that will be. Though at this point I’m kind of curious if I’m wrong about that “getting real loud” thing, this seems more content to build slowly and simmer. I don’t know if I’d say the vocals are super my thing, and dare I say it the bass might be just a touch loud in the mix (gasp!) but I’m content with the groove this is holding onto, I wouldn’t call it, supremely interesting but at the same time there’s enough movement within the song to prevent me from getting tired of it and the general sound is cool enough. Not as cool as the intro had me hoping for but I do like it a fair bit nonetheless. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
Yeah, I think the more I listened to this one the less it really worked for me. It’s absolutely not bad, to be clear. I just think it fails to really resonate emotionally. For as nice as it sounds it’s kind of dry in that way. I do think it is in part due to the bass kind of drowning out the other instruments, like I commented in my writeup – it’s a cool bassline but it just utterly dominates the mix. I also don’t know if it really necessarily needed to be 8 whole minutes long either. While it’s true the song doesn’t hold to one idea for too terribly long, there is still a decent bit of repetition and it’s a bit of a slow burn to get to the louder, more climactic moments towards the end, and then even when it gets there it can’t get truly heavy due to the bass. I know it’s fully capable to have bass loud in the mix without crushing the rest of the instrumentation – Intronaut and East of the Wall have basically mastered this – but it’s just not quite satisfying here. So yeah, I still stand by saying this is a good song, the general sound is something I can vibe with and there are moments here and there where everything clicks together but it’s not fully there either.

7/10



2. Existem – The Reclaimer

First Impressions:
Oh those are some post-metal growls right there. The mix on this is pretty pristine except the drums sound kinda muted, my first takeaway. Guitars are clear, bass is clear, I can hear the drums for the most part but the cymbals in particular eeehh. Not a huge dealbreaker though, for a sound I’m pretty on board with. Yeah, these guys have definitely listened to a fair bit of The Ocean, but they don’t sound exactly like them or anything either. Mmm, that clean bit in the middle. The way it builds back up. The grooves. The guitar leads. I am so on board with this, not madly in love with it but I already wanna check these guys out more now. (GREAT)

Final Thoughts:
Honestly I like this more than most of the stuff on the latest The Ocean album. Silurian it is not, sure, but this is exactly. EXACTLY. What I’m looking for in terms of heavy music – dense and expansive soundscapes but still driven by melody – goddamn melody, have y’all ever heard of it? There’s basically always some kind of melody going on at every moment here, whether it’s in the forefront or a muted line in the backdrop of the mid-range guitar chords. The way the whole band slowly fades out to just a lone guitar line in the middle of track, subtly enough that you kind of feel it happening but don’t notice everything is gone right away. I will say that if there’s one other element I’m not super crazy about, the growls don’t sound that good all the time, but on the flipside the cleans and growls harmonizing towards the end makes for a great and really effective moment. I also get the sense from this song that they probably have better songs in them than this one, and I say that while also saying that this song is pretty damn good to begin with. It’s also, surprisingly, not really prog at all, pretty sure the whole thing is in 3/4 time, but it’s adventurous enough that it feels progressive anyways. Good tune though, one of the better metal tracks this round.

8.25/10



3. Dark the Suns – All Ends in Silence

First Impressions:
Started out thinking this was gonna be a slower, chiller closer piece but nope this is going the route of big, bombastic melodeath, circa Barren Earth or Omnium Gatherum or something along those lines. Yeah I’m kind of a sucker for these kind of songs, more in isolation than in terms of entire albums full of ‘em, but it’s both a track I dig well enough on its own and that fits pretty well as a finale here. The only real gripe I have is that it doesn’t really have a ton of unique personality to it, but it’s emotionally-charged and powerful enough to overcome that, really. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
When I revisit this EP, every time I kind of forget this one is here too. I called it “boringly good” in my round three impressions thing. Because it really is. It’s the kind of song where you put it on and you have a good time the whole way through but it doesn’t have any element that really sticks with you either. When I think of Barren Earth, I think of the ending of On Lonely Towers which basically hits on this mood but with a really powerful refrain and an effective guitar solo. And this is basically the same sound as that but without either of those elements, so instead of really hitting home, it’s just “man this is pretty nice isn’t it”. It’s melodically driven, it’s heavy but fast enough to still be driving, the growls fit in well enough, there’s some nice melodic guitar work but nothing super memorable. I was gonna be like “I probably like this more than the first song of this EP” but thinking about it, at least that one has memorable grooves and melodies in it. This rounds out the EP nicely enough but as a standalone song I’m just not crazy for it. Still good though.

6.75/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
I had pretty high expectations for your submission and I can safely say I was not disappointed. I don’t want to speak to what others are thinking so I have no clue whether you put a ton of thought into this submission or not but the end result is three very different kinds of songs that still have a generally same sound to them and work well as a solid three piece of calmer intro, upbeat middle, slower, bombastic finale. And all three songs are good with at least one of them likely to end up among my favorites of the round.  So uhh, yeah, this is the first submission that I could pretty much already call as making the cut. But I’ll give it the full listens anyways, since I like it quite a bit. How horrible, listening to music I enjoy.

Final Thoughts:
I’m actually less sure these all fit together that well after giving this a fair few listens. They’re all pretty strongly melodically-oriented but stylistically they don’t have much similarity besides that. One is an overly-bass-driven rock song more than metal, one of them is a really great slice of melodic post-metal, one of them is incredibly fine but pretty one-note in the end. They’re still effective as a start-middle-end suite, though, and they’re certainly more cohesive than at least a few other EPs this round. The baseline of quality for this EP is still pretty high compared to most other EPs – I haven’t done all the scores yet but I suspect this will have about the highest “worst” score out of any EP here, even the EPs that place above it overall, and at least two of the three artists I’m likely to check out a bit further after this, so I’d still say you did a pretty good job overall, there was never really any risk this EP wouldn’t make the cut at the end of the day.




11th Place: Elite – Frenetic Anxiety Primer

1. Archspire – Involuntary Doppelgänger

First Impressions:
Honestly your EP is probably the one I am most worried about because Archspire is a band I can’t really take serious and the title implies the entire thing is gonna be like them. They absolutely have serious chops, there’s no denying that, every band of the member plays… uhh… fast? But I think that’s the issue I take, they sound more like a parody of tech death than a legit tech death band. Admittedly this is not as insane as I remember them being, but I could be remembering a different song. The clean bit in the middle is cool, at least. Oh and then it ended. EHH. This was better than I expected, I didn’t love it but y’know it’s alright, even if my earlier comments still stand. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
So yeah, this is decently melodic as far as tech death goes, but at the same time… the melodies are all too frantic and fast paced to have any real chance at being memorable. And the super-fast delivery of the harsh vocals sounds kind of silly, honestly. Really the whole thing feels like a joke – the only part of this that makes me question that is the clean bit in the middle. The riffs exist but they neither have power nor groove. I have absolutely no clue what any of the lyrics here are. Thrash metal and speed metal and all those genres that tend to be particularly fast are genres of metal I’m not too into either, and while obvious I do like some “fast” metal I at least need there to be, like, melodies that work, riffs that have power, literally anything to connect with. There’s like, moments here where this is kind of cool, and yeah they cover a lot of ground in under 4 minutes. I’m just not really into most of the ground they cover. Ehh. It’s okay in the end but I have a hard time taking it seriously.

4.75/10



2. Inferum – Beyond Reach

First Impressions:
This one seems to be more riff-based than the last track for sure. That transition in the middle is kind weird but the groove they shift to is something I dig more than what came before ‘cause uuhh yeah the first half or so of this was fine but not really something I’m too crazy about really. I think this one is really lacking in melody for the most part which is a big thing I look for even in heavier styles of music because a lack of melody tends to mean a lack of much memorable. Like, the riffing here does seem pretty solid but it’s riffing I’ve heard before and it’s mostly a mix of chugging with dissonant chords or weird harmonics and bends interrupting it. Ehh. I liked the quiet middle of this but most of the rest was just kind of… there. (AVERAGE)

Final Thoughts:
Yeah this song on the other hand is just pretty allergic to melody. I just remember this entire song as “chugging for five minutes”. I really don’t like Meshuggah, for what it’s worth. They are on my banned list bolded in red for a reason. I’ve really tried to understand their appeal but I just don’t. Djent is basically a dead genre to me though, it’s super rare anything good comes out of it. The middle section here I do like but I suspect it’s only by comparison – it’s got an okay groove going on and something close to a melody but it’s mostly just “atmospheric” and still rather lacking in melody at the end of the day. And it doesn’t really build to anything either, just a jagged riff. Which to be fair this riff is one of the more interesting ones in the song to me, but, again, that’s mostly by comparison. The main riff this song seems to return to is one of the most boring and basic ones too. DUDUDUH DUH DUH forevermore. Yeah, this one never really grew on me, it’s mostly boring except for like 45 seconds in the middle. Not awful to listen to but not interesting either.

4/10



3. Vanaheim – Daughter Of The Dawn

First Impressions:
This last tune is a decently long one from the looks of it. Okay, so from the intro I was expecting something that took a bit more time to build up but nope, boom, just loud all of the sudden. This one seems to be going for a bit of a folk metal thing but it’s doing so tastefully enough that the folk elements don’t completely dominate the song, it’s still metal at its core first and foremost. One thing I got from just letting this one play for a bit is that transitions between different ideas continues to not be handled too well, the song does abruptly shift into a completely different riff or feel a bit abruptly. I feel this is probably the most interesting of the three songs here for me, although on first listen the riffs don’t feel particularly compelling and there isn’t a strong emotional connection here. Basically, it’s no Wilderun. But it’s at least satisfactory. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
I’m being told I should like this one far, far more than I do. But okay, first and foremost. The production doesn’t flatter this song. I feel it’s another case of some really muddy production that, during the heavy moments of the song, just flattens out and buries the melodic work that’s going on here. The accordion(/bagpipe? can’t tell) bit in the second quiet moment makes me think of a song from Rayman Legends for some reason. This one riff has a melody really similar to Tragic Kingdom’s chorus somehow. The way transitions between musical ideas work always feels really awkward, either a harsh cut or pausing for a measure to readjust the meter while nobody’s looking. I’m being really down on this one aren’t I? That’s a bit unfair because I like it quite a bit more than the other two songs here, but to be fair that’s not difficult considering I don’t care for the other two much. At the same time this doesn’t really stick the landing either because there’s just not a lot that stands out in a positive way. No really memorable melodies, no hard-hitting riffs, nothing that really resonates emotionally. I’d blame the production for that to at least some extent but I doubt I’d be super into this song even without that problem. The thing is, I already have a Wilderun and they’re frickin’ amazing at this kind of sound, meanwhile this is just. Fine. Far from unpleasant, but just nothing particularly special either.

6.5/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
This is kind of a weird impression because I neither really loved nor hated anything on this one, and I was expecting at least some of this to fall into one end or the other of that spectrum, but no, it’s all just pretty okay. I’m not super sure these songs are united by much of anything other than all being pretty heavy tunes, but I mean that does make them fit together decently enough by default more than anything. And I’m not really bored listening to anything here either, though the middle track can come kind of close with its flat riffing style. But overall I’m somehow just, disappointed I neither hated this nor loved it.

Final Thoughts:
I’m honestly surprised at how little I ended up caring for this EP. At first I thought it was right on the threshold between safe and cut, but with each listen it’s fallen further and further. The weight of that is mostly on the first two songs for not being songs I’m particularly fond of listening to, but the third song here is also a bit of a disappointment in its lack of notably strong qualities. I should like it so much more than I do. I also guess you could vaguely say these go together, they’re all like “pretty heavy” I guess but that really seems to be the only throughline. Two of them are melodic, one isn’t. Two of them have solid production, the third is hurt by it. Two of them seems like pretty serious tunes, the third is borderline parody. I guess the first two you could both vaguely group into “tech death” though they are going for very different styles of it, but the third track is melodic death/black/folk metal whatever. Flows well enough I guess. Not that it matters much when I’m just not crazy about any of these tunes, though.



Current Standings:
1. senecadawg2
2. TAC
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
------------
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. ???
11. Elite
12. Dacul



Song Rankings:
1. Phoebe Bridgers – Funeral
2.
3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
4. Existem – The Reclaimer
5.
6.
7. Arms & Sleepers – Twentynine Palms
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. Cereus – Icarus
13.
14. Dark the Suns – All Ends in Silence
15.
16.
17.
18. Vanaheim – Daughter Of The Dawn
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Eddie Vedder – Society
26.
27.
28.
29.
30. Archspire – Involuntary Doppelgänger
31.
32.
33.
34. Inferum – Beyond Reach
35. Linda Perhacs – Winds of the Sky
36. Owen Pallett – The Great Elsewhere

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #323 on: March 02, 2019, 10:46:15 PM »
You're gonna make me regret sending that first EP huh? :corn
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Thes sng is are sounds rally nece an I lyke tha sungar

Offline Lethean

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #324 on: March 02, 2019, 11:42:07 PM »
Shouldn't 7 be above the line? I thought there was going to be 7 players after the elimination round. Also, I'll look forward to seeing my results in the morning... right? :P

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #325 on: March 02, 2019, 11:53:04 PM »
there are 7 players, and one of them is ariich  :P

Offline Elite

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #326 on: March 03, 2019, 01:14:47 AM »
Oh well, I tried :)
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #327 on: March 03, 2019, 01:25:32 AM »


honestly this feels like a repeat of when you sent textures in the prelims of another of my roulettes, and i didn't really like that one much either

Offline Elite

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #328 on: March 03, 2019, 02:30:05 AM »
Which is a shame, because I did reasonably well in the album roulette you held last year. I was sure I had some stuff to send this time as well. I was hoping by taking the technical death/black whatever approach it would be different from the other participants and stand out in a good way. Alas, it stood out in a decent / average bad way.
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline TAC

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 1)
« Reply #329 on: March 03, 2019, 06:27:06 AM »

I’m always interested to see what bands TAC has in store that I’ve literally never heard of. You’re like, the one true anomaly of DTF.


I’d still say you did a pretty good job overall, there was never really any risk this EP wouldn’t make the cut at the end of the day.



 :metal :metal :metal





I did spend some time on it. I wouldn't have entered if I wasn't happy with it.

I  thought you'd love the Dark The Suns song, and it was the first song I had and built the EP around it. I thought the Existem was a gamble.

I agree about the Cereus. It's pretty chill, but not much else. But it solidified  my theme.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2019, 07:08:25 AM by TAC »
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline TAC

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #330 on: March 03, 2019, 06:30:15 AM »
there are 7 players, and one of them is ariich  :P

Dammit ariich!
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline ariich

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #331 on: March 03, 2019, 07:17:49 AM »
*waves*

Ariich is a freak, or somehow has more hours in the day than everyone else.
I be am boner inducing.

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #332 on: March 03, 2019, 09:39:00 AM »
existem is literally paramacore
like, "progressive post-metal" is literally the kind of stuff that coined the term, bands like intronaut, east of the wall, the ocean etc.
i like the dark the suns song but i'm not blown away by it. anyways time for more results brb

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #333 on: March 03, 2019, 09:45:54 AM »
Results, Part 3

3rd Place: Puppies_On_Acid – Starfall Ascension, Book 1: War of Eternity

1. Arcane – Selfsame

First Impressions:
So I did listen to this album before, like I said, in 2015 around when it came out. And this was right around when standard prog metal was losing its appeal for me and I was getting more into heavier bands like East of the Wall and The Ocean, as well as getting into black metal and the like. So I was just at the perfect place to find this album overly long and uninteresting, though I also vaguely recall liking the softer second disc more than the first one? I like this for the first few minutes, decent clean section that gives way to some more effective, emotive metal stuff. But this instrumental break, man… first you have some very dream theater-y guitar riffing, and the drums here just sound like crap, flat out. The mixing here is kind of bad in general, really. Aside from that break though I do like this one a fair bit. Kind of reminds me of Headspace, actually. Good emotive rock/metal sung moments with bland instrumental breaks. It definitely brings the song down a notch, though I still for the most part enjoy it a fair bit. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
Yeah, the entire first half or so of this song is genuinely great, it’s basically a sufficient enough instrumental accompaniment that has a nice slow build to it, and Jim Grey reminding me why I like him so much in Caligula’s Horse (even if the most recent album I wasn’t crazy about). When the electric guitars kick in at about a minute and a half, what a great moment. It’s not even really “prog” for this section of the song but there’s enough little rhythmic switchups, especially that bit with the string stings that’s really great. And I’m really feeling the song. And then… here’s a random (passable enough) proggy instrumental break. I’m gonna be honest, the quality of the instrumental break doesn’t even matter. What matters is that it’s just not the right time or place for it. It’s forced. Most of it actually sounds pretty cool, except the blastbeats on the drums sound flat terrible. Everything after that part is pretty good too, though not as good as the first four minutes or so. It doesn’t have the simple elegance that the first half has, and the tempo change is a bit abrupt but it’s a cool enough riff that I can’t be too upset. Headspace is a great comparison because I feel basically the same towards this as I felt towards Daddy Loves You when I got it in my first roulette – everything is good but the instrumental breaks are just out of place and honestly don’t add anything to the song, they only detract. The good parts are strong enough to bolster the score of this a fair bit though as I enjoy like 80% of it and I don’t hate the other 20%.

7.75/10



2. Atoma – Skylight

First Impressions:
Immediate first impression on this one is that wow the production is super muddy. And then the growls come in. Okay, I guess the production kind of aligns more with a prog death sound, but there’s kind of just an overwhelming amount of things going on at once here. I guess it sounds better once the immediate transition from the generally cleaner-sounding last track is out of memory. RYM wants to label this as post-metal which I don’t really hear at all, it’s way more in line with melodic/symphonic death metal. I think my other main complain here is a lack of any real melodies. Like, there’s a lot going on pretty much all the time but nothing really can break through the dense wall of sound. It’s not bad or even boring but it’s not the kind of song I see leaving much of an impact on me. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
Yeah, the crushed, claustrophobic sound of the production on this just doesn’t work for me. It’s hard to even pick out distinct melodies when the song is just a constant wall of noise, and any melodies on the guitar and strings gets completely lost in the mix unless you’re really paying attention well. There’s occasionally some powerful vocal lines. I feel like some of this riffing really should be hitting harder for me, or the overwhelming atmosphere should be working, but what can I say, I’ve listened to this as much as everything else here and I just can’t find much to really get into. I want to like this more than I actually do, and it’s not unpleasant to listen to, but it just has no real “strengths” whatsoever.

6.5/10



3. Breaking Orbit – Conscious Self

First Impressions:
Immediately this seems like the song here I’m going to like most. Jagged, bass-driven grooves and solid clean vocals, decent atmosphere. It again doesn’t strike me as having super strong melodies or hooks but the groove is there and it’s more than dynamic enough to not feel flat or boring. Admittedly I don’t know if it really adds many new elements in the back half and that could impact replayability some, but on first listen this is probably my favorite of the three here, yeah, I don’t think its strongest moments are as good as the Arcane song’s strongest moments but it doesn’t have a garbage instrumental section bringing the whole song down. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
This is another one of those that hasn’t really been on my mind much in the listens of these EPs, but is pretty dang cool when I have it on. The one thing I tend to remember about this one is the guitar riff that closes off the chorus, that’s a pretty cool riff that I can really -feel-. I also neglected to mention the drumwork which is pretty good across the song, very active and dynamic during the quiet verses to build some nice tension, more standard during the louder moments that are really driving the energy of the song. I do think the vocals can feel a bit weak throughout the song – not subtle enough to deliver an interesting performance during the verses, but not powerful enough to really drive the heavier chorus. My initial comment of the song not really having any surprises in the back half still rings true, though, after the first occurrence of The Riff there aren’t really any major new elements to the song, it’s got that verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure going on except the bridge just feels like an extension of the chorus. At the end of the day I’m always kind of biased to like a song that’s entirely (or at least mostly) in 7/8 and has good instrumental work across the board, but the weak vocals and general lack of movement throughout the song does bring it down a bit for me. Still pretty cool though, if not especially memorable.

7.5/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
Pretty sonically consistent, being just straight up prog metal that all has a tiny bit of an atmospheric angle to it. I will say the production isn’t super consistent – Arcane sounds mostly fine, Atoma sounds eeehhhh, Breaking Orbit sounds decent though maybe a tiny bit muddy as well. I do think this all flows pretty well and the transitions especially were well-executed, and as a whole I enjoyed listening to it even with the weaker middle track. I don’t know if any of these songs are likely to leave an especially huge impact but it’s absolutely the kind of music I’m all for hearing more of. Better than Absu.

Final Thoughts:
I honestly don’t know why you in particular were worrying so much about not making the cut, this isn’t super fantastic paramacore or anything but it’s up my alley enough to keep me interested the whole way through. Each song is a bit different in tone – the first song is mostly emotionally-driven and simple, the second is massive and intense, the third is frantic and jagged, almost to the point where it can feel more intense than the (admittedly hampered by its production) second track. I would say the Atoma track does feel a bit out of place stylistically though, and it’s not a particularly compelling song to boot, but I don’t mind it. It’s weird how every track here has a fatal flaw that holds me back from liking it more though. Also I did read into the story but admittedly haven’t looked carefully into the lyrics on any of these so I’ll take your word for it on this epic space battle ascension thing-y going on. Metal metal. But yeah this one was pretty safe from the word Go, too.



10th Place: Indiscipline – The Fine Line

1. John Lennon – How Do You Sleep?

First Impressions:
As someone who has a really hard time putting a voice to each Beatle I’m glad to know pretty decisively that the one who always sounded like this on their later albums was John. Neat. This one had to have come out, like, right after The Beatles broke up, right? It really basically just sounds like a later-era Beatles slow jam. I’d definitely describe that main riff as “classy” though, I dig it. I don’t really know if I have a ton to say other than that? It’s a pretty solid tune. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
I’ll always say that the first step to making a great song is to have some good hooks in there.
Really, something sticky and memorable should be the first thing you write in any song and the rest can come after, sure. And I’ll say that, for sure, the chorus guitar lick and really the chorus in general of this are pretty straightforward but really catchy. I also get that the tone of this is meant to be really pissy – apparently it’s directly at McCartney specifically? I don’t know why but the strings in the chorus are what make that tone obvious to me. The melody they hit sounds mocking and bitter. I realize I’m mostly talking about the chorus here but it’s probably because the chorus is the one part of this song I think works really well – the rest is far from bad, to be sure, but I don’t find it as memorable or as effective, it doesn’t really feel like it has a “mood” like the chorus does. It’s also definitely a bit too long for how static most of it is – a lot of Beatles tunes are effective in part because of their simplicity but also their brevity. Still, on the whole I like this one, though it could be better too with a bit more substance or a bit shorter runtime.

6.25/10



2. Marlene Kuntz – Nuotando nell'Aria

First Impressions:
I have literally no clue what to expect from this one. Right off the bat I’m digging the percussion though. The answer is like, some kind of indie rock or something, apparently. The guitar leads make me think of the 90’s for some reason. Okay, this album was apparently released in 1994 so yeah that makes sense. And now the drummer is just going wild. I do like the drums on this one a lot but the dated and muddy production kind of harms the emotional power the louder parts of this seem to be going for. I don’t know. I feel like I should like this more than I do. (AVERAGE)

Final Thoughts:   
Hmm. I don’t really have any strong opinion on this one. The drum work is nice, for sure, and there’s like. An attempt at emotional resonance, but there isn’t any strong hook, there isn’t enough of a connection made, and not really a ton of direction in the song period. It just meanders at a base level for three minutes, gets loud, and simmers there instead. And ends as abruptly as it began. The singer doesn’t work for me especially, I just don’t hear any passion in his voice, even during the louder moments. There’s kind of a vibe I can get into here if I really try, and louder moments do at least drive up some sort of feeling, but on the whole I just don’t find much appeal to this.

5.5/10



3. Starsailor – Way to Fall

First Impressions:
My immediate reaction hearing the very start of this was that it was going to be something Wilson-y. Like, vaguely if you squint on it but not really, it’s not as lush as he’d make it for sure. Is it just me or is there like, some vague doubling effect on the piano (and maybe the vocals)? It sounds suuuuper weird to me. I’m always kind of a sucker for 6/8 time signature vibes so at a base level I’m kind of obligated to feel positively towards this one, and the chorus itself kind of works, but that weird doubling effect, is that intentional? It’s reeeally bugging me and taking me out of this one. (AVERAGE)

Final Thoughts:
So I actually went and checked to see if there was a version on youtube that didn’t suffer from the doubling effect but as far as I can tell it’s there on every single version of this that I was able to find. And once I noticed it, it was basically impossible to stop noticing it. God, it’s so annoying. Like, straight up, this would be my favorite song on this EP for sure if not for that effect but it takes the organic, lush sound of the song and makes it sound so synthetic and fake just by what I have to assume is an editing error. And it seems to affect practically every element in the song too, though the piano and vocals are most obviously impacted. The melodies here are pretty good, the chorus is pretty memorable, it comes to a nice climax near the end, I could totally be feeling something from this. But I am not. And the production is to blame, flat out. Sorry, I guess, but this song’s score and honestly the entire EP are let down by that one element that I just can’t get past.

4/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
The general fidelity of all three of these tracks is pretty different but they’re all pretty much straightforward softer rock tunes at the end of the day and they flow together well enough as well. I don’t… really feel too strongly about anything this EP has to offer, I don’t think. Maybe it’s just the general exhaustion of having to take in 36 different songs and this EP being the last one I listened to, but I just don’t have a ton to say here. This feels like the most straight-up average EP of the entire bunch and I’m struggling to have anything else to say about it.

Final Thoughts:
Yeah, five listens in and my thoughts on all of these songs didn’t really change much from my initial impressions, really. If anything they got worse. I have no clue what the heck happened with that Starsailor song’s production, but even then I’m not wild about the other two here either. I will say I do feel like they fit together pretty well – Marlene Kuntz is maybe a bit more modern-sounding than the other two (despite Starsailor being the newest of the three) but they’re all pretty mellow rock songs and the structure of the EP works well enough for all three of them. But when the best song on display here is a very middling song at best, it’s hard for me to get excited about this set of songs, unfortunately.



Current Standings:
1. senecadawg2
2. TAC
3. Puppies_On_Acid
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
------------
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. Indiscipline
11. Elite
12. Dacul



Song Rankings:
1. Phoebe Bridgers – Funeral
2.
3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
4. Existem – The Reclaimer
5.
6.
7. Arms & Sleepers – Twentynine Palms
8. Arcane – Selfsame
9.
10. Breaking Orbit – Conscious Self
11.
12. Cereus – Icarus
13.
14. Dark the Suns – All Ends in Silence
15.
16.
17. Atoma – Skylight 
18. Vanaheim – Daughter Of The Dawn
19. John Lennon – How Do You Sleep?
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Eddie Vedder – Society
26. Marlene Kuntz – Nuotando nell'Aria
27.
28.
29.
30. Archspire – Involuntary Doppelgänger
31.
32.
33. Starsailor – Way to Fall
34. Inferum – Beyond Reach
35. Linda Perhacs – Winds of the Sky
36. Owen Pallett – The Great Elsewhere
« Last Edit: March 03, 2019, 10:08:01 AM by Parama »

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 3)
« Reply #334 on: March 03, 2019, 10:07:29 AM »
aka Puppies_On_Acid
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King's Photoshop powers are akin to a three year old cutting faces out of photographs with the edge of a dull spoon and pasting them in place with garden shovel full of Gorilla Glue.
Quote from: TAC, definitely not King
Thes sng is are sounds rally nece an I lyke tha sungar

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 3)
« Reply #335 on: March 03, 2019, 01:14:23 PM »
Results, Part 4

4th Place: Ghost Malone - Achilles' Tragic Last Stand On a Mountain Kingdom

1. Led Zeppelin – Achilles' Last Stand

First Impressions:
Oh boy this sure is an obscure band literally nobody has ever heard of. I mean, I know like, the real popular zeppelin songs, Stairway to Heaven is good, Kashmir is good, uuhh there are other ones too probably. I’ve never been a huge fan of Plant’s voice but he can emote well enough and there’s a solid enough groove to this as well. The zeppelin tunes I tend to like are the more downbeat ones though, as mentioned, this is more of a straightforward rocker and while it goes through a decent number of musical ideas it’s not really, like, “progressive”, just long. And I can see how it’d appeal more to people who dig jams, but for me personally I can’t really find much to say about it other than “yeah, it’s pretty nice”. Honestly by the end I’ve been ready for it to end for the past minute or two, at least. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
I’m pretty  sure the way you’re meant to listen to this song is to turn off your brain and just jam along to it and have a good, fun time. That isn’t really the way I listen to music, unfortunately. Or at the very least, if I’m going to have my fun music, I generally like it in much smaller bites than this track. I will definitely say this about this song. It’s long enough and repeats enough that I definitely find it memorable. And I’m not really sick of the repeating guitar lick that pops up throughout the song either. The vocal lines are also kind of weird melodically but I dig them, they don’t progress melodically like you’d expect them to, or at least what my brain wants to expect. But the thing is just. Okay, so I’m halfway into the song right now and I’m already pretty ready for it to end. I really don’t understand what this song serves to gain by being both this long and this repetitive. Yes, there are different elements coming in and out but the core of the song doesn’t change that much. There’s basically two main grooves it alternates between, with the triplet rhythm coming in every now and then between the two. And I don’t get much emotionally from this either. And saying all that… I’m still kind of into it, regardless? If I was at a live show watching them play this I’m sure I’d love it, at the very least. Sitting here at my computer desk listening to it in a relaxed environment and it’s just… fine. Way too long, but. Fine.

6.25/10



2. Alithia – On a Mountain

First Impressions:
I’ve actually listened to a handful of songs from all the artists on this EP, though I haven’t delved particularly deep into any of their discographies either. This sure is quite the androgynous vocal tone, isn’t it. I can see that everyone who sings in this band is a dude but you could convince me either way. What I got from listening to their album last  year is that they are pretty good at writing music that sounds good and has enough emotive presence behind it, but doesn’t really stand out of the crowd in any way, not too many memorable hooks and the vocals aren’t -that- strong either. The production also feels really… foggy, sounds like the word here. The song picks up some energy for the last third and I dig that, nice and propulsive, but the production kind of hampers the power and the singer doesn’t really nail those belting moments either. I can’t say I didn’t like it but it has too many problems for me to say it’s properly “good”. Still nice though. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
Yeah, it does feel like it takes a little bit too long for this one to properly get going, at about the 2:30 mark is when the vocals hit their peak and then the more intense sections of the song come in after. And before that it’s got this nice, long build to it… but I don’t know. For this song to work, it would half to resonate with me emotionally. And it just… doesn’t. The production doesn’t help but I’m also not crazy about these vocals either. I don’t really have a ton to say about this, my first impression basically covered everything. It ain’t bad, it ain’t great either.

6/10



3. No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom

First Impressions:
Gwen Stefani has made some truly atrocious music in her career but from what I hear the general consensus was always that “yeah, No Doubt was pretty alright”. This starts out with kind of a showtune-y vibe and I dig this guitar line as well, kind of makes me think of cabaret music for some reason? Honestly the way this song always seems to be moving forward and progressing is actually pretty impressive considering I wouldn’t really expect that from this band from what I’ve previously heard from them. This -is- the same album pretty much all of their big songs came off of too. The only thing I’m not fully sold on here is Stefani herself, she’s not a bad singer but at the same time something about her tone of voice has always kind of irked me. She can’t -not- sound super catty and snide whenever she sings. Also dang, that ending, yeah. This one I liked, unquestionably. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
Honestly it’s so absurd that this song is both such a wild curveball as well as a genuinely cool song in its own right. That guitar riff during the verses is so damn classy and the drums play off it well. Then you get the back half of the verse where Stefani starts sounding pretty great too. She fits in pretty well with the other bit of the verse too though. And those horn stings, I dig ‘em. The chorus of this is genuinely heavier and more intense than a lot of the metal songs in this round, everything comes together well. The post-chorus has literally every single last element doing something cool all at once. And then whatever section you call this after where Stefani just sounds fantastic and the instruments are all doing cool stuff. There’s a goddamn synth solo in there too just because why the hell not. At this point the song would’ve absolutely earned its right to ride off all the musical ideas it’s established and still be dynamic and compelling. But NOPE. Here’s this calmer, vaguely jazzy break for you. And here’s an alternate version of the chorus that’s also kind of reprising the post-chorus bit. And you know what else? Let’s just speed the goddamn awesome post-chorus bit up until the entire song implodes in on itself.

I’m genuinely floored that a song this good and right up my alley came out of this band of all bands. I think the most disappointing part is that just looking at this track list I’m already familiar with four other tracks on this album and they are not nearly as interesting as this one, and I suspect most of the rest of the album isn’t either. Shame, but I’ll definitely take this one awesome tune.

9/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
I’d say the variety is on point and the flow is fine enough but what I can’t really see is how these songs really fit together. You’ve got the long, rocking jam session, a more compact power ballad, and then this weird and wild showtune-y rock closer, and while they’re all fine enough on their own I just don’t know if a record where Plant and Stefani are singing together is something I’m really on board with. On the strength of the songs alone though it’s still a pretty decent listen regardless, even if they don’t form a cohesive whole.

Final Thoughts:
There’s actually a lot wrong with this EP, in that it’s primarily dominated by the longest song of the entire round and one that doesn’t need to be as long as it is, full stop. And then you’ve got another song I’m kind of meh on. And if you’d kept part for the course this probably would’ve been a miss, but you just had to up and put one of the best songs of the entire round on the tail end of this thing and make it incredibly difficult to dismiss this submission. It’s a stylistic mess, too, none of these tracks go well together at all, though the structure & flow of this is on point enough that it’s not a complete failure as an EP. I still expect this one to sort out safe enough in the top half of the list that I won’t be cutting you, though, and it’s pretty much all thanks to that one song, but hey, one big hit is going to fare better than none.



9th Place: Kattelox – Missing Forever, Forever Missed

1. Tycho – Dye

First Impressions:
So just from the artists involved I know to expect electronic stuff of some variety. The inclusion of the guitar here makes me think more of David Maxim Micic’s chill stuff, though, especially on ECO. Considering ECO is my favorite project of his, that’s not a bad thing. This isn’t as interesting as 500 Seconds Before Sunset or anything but nah, I dig this, it’s chill and pleasant. Maybe a tiny bit too long though. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
I can sit here and listen to this and this sure is nice “music” but it’s hard to really find much about this I care about as a “song”. It does ebb and flow and change up a little bit, but there aren’t really any melodic landmarks to this song – the guitar lines are nice but they sound less like a motif and more like variations on the same general type of melody. If I had this on as background music and wasn’t really actively listening to it, it might work somewhat for me. But the lack of a core motif and the lack of any real sense of direction means that at best I can find it a bit tedious to actually sit down and actively listen to. Again, the song I brought up before has a same general “sound” but it has a really strong core motif behind it and a fair bit more variation as well, even despite being longer. I dunno. I can’t be too harsh on this one as I don’t dislike it but I haven’t really gotten anything out of this on any of the relistens I’ve given it. And if I want chill music, I tend to prefer stuff that’s even more ambient, or infused with stronger emotions, hammock, sigur ros, eluvium, the like. This is just. Okay.

5.5/10



2. Slushii – Sapient Dream

First Impressions:
Kind of the same vibe off this one as the last one, yeah, but this one seems to be more focused on the electronic elements. Bright synths, percussion has a lot more presence, there’s these breathy vocal effects that I actually don’t really like that much either oops. There isn’t really a ton of groove to this percussion either. Yeah, not really feeling this one. (MEDIOCRE)

Final Thoughts:
Okay, so this one does have a main motif to it, so at the very least I have to give it that much. But it’s also more electronic and a lot of the electronic elements present here are the kind I’m not super keen on. The bright chiptune-y synth tone isn’t my thing, the super loud bass is a constant gripe I have in electronic music, the breathy voice thing just sounds off. It also doesn’t really feel like it has a ton of substance to it either. It’s just a short little tune that’s vaguely atmospheric and simmers at a medium-low level of interest, then it ends. I dunno what to say, this just isn’t my thing. Not super unpleasant or anything, I’m just bored by it.

4.5/10



3. Pendulum ft. Steven Wilson – The Fountain

First Impressions:
Okay, and immediately I get the impression this last one is not at all like the last two. For one, it’s a lot more upbeat and noisy. For two, it has vocals, from good ol’ Stevie boy. There’s definitely a lot going on with the production on this one but I dig it for the most part. It’s kind of bizarre to hear Wilson in something like this, too, but he doesn’t really feel out of place. There’s even vaguely an underlying rock vibe to this one, too. The bridge basically sounds like a Steven Wilson solo song. Yeah, I don’t have a ton of complaints about this one, it’s certainly the song here that most grabs my interest on first listen. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
Starting to think it was cheating to let you send Stevie Boy even if the primary artist I wasn’t familiar with because honestly he’s the main focus of quite a lot of this song. There are definitely other elements here that stand out – the main synth line and that plucky guitar bit that both recur, and the intense, driving percussion keeps up a sense of momentum and intensity throughout. None of the electronic elements here are the aforementioned ones I take issue with, either. It’s actually pretty melodically driven throughout. And then there’s the abrupt soft rock bit that somehow doesn’t feel out of place and builds back into the final chorus pretty well. This hasn’t really been, like, a huge standout song for me at any point in this round but it is well-constructed and compelling the whole way through and I certainly do enjoy it. I don’t know how much I’d enjoy other Pendulum stuff, to be fair, but that’s not that relevant here.

7.5/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
Pretty much got what I expected out of this one overall in terms of the electronic theming, and I suppose there’s a decent enough variety here, though the Slushii song just feels to me like a less interesting version of the Tycho track. The Tycho track also doesn’t really feel like a proper opener but the Pendulum track makes for a solid closer. I don’t expect this to end up one of my favorite EPs but I also don’t expect something like this to be unpleasant to listen to repeatedly, either.

Final Thoughts:
Mmm yeah the first two tracks haven’t really done much for me on any listens here, they aren’t really actively unpleasant but they are both kind of boring. The Pendulum song doesn’t really fit in with the other two much stylistically, being way more upbeat and noisy, but it does work as a closer in its own right and I certainly enjoy it a lot more than the other two. It’s not a song that can really carry the weight of the entire EP on its own though, unfortunately. I don’t really have too much else to say about this one. It’s all not really that up my alley so only one in three of the songs working isn’t too surprising.



Current Standings:
1. senecadawg2
2. TAC
3. Puppies_On_Acid
4. Ghost Malone
5. ???
6. ???
------------
7. ???
8. ???
9. Kattelox
10. Indiscipline
11. Elite
12. Dacul



Song Rankings:
1. Phoebe Bridgers – Funeral
2. No Doubt – Tragic Kingdon
3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
4. Existem – The Reclaimer
5.
6.
7. Arms & Sleepers – Twentynine Palms
8. Arcane – Selfsame
9. Pendulum ft. Steven Wilson - The Fountain
10. Breaking Orbit – Conscious Self
11.
12. Cereus – Icarus
13.
14. Dark the Suns – All Ends in Silence
15.
16.
17. Atoma – Skylight 
18. Vanaheim – Daughter Of The Dawn
19. John Lennon – How Do You Sleep?
20. Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand
21.
22. Alithia – On a Mountain
23.
24.
25. Eddie Vedder – Society
26. Marlene Kuntz – Nuotando nell'Aria
27. Tycho - Dye
28.
29.
30. Archspire – Involuntary Doppelgänger
31.
32. Slushii - Sapient Dream
33. Starsailor – Way to Fall
34. Inferum – Beyond Reach
35. Linda Perhacs – Winds of the Sky
36. Owen Pallett – The Great Elsewhere

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #336 on: March 03, 2019, 01:15:56 PM »
fun fact: 5th and 6th place had the 5th and 6th best songs of the round respectively. i swear that's not how i'm picking the top 6 here, just that it shouldn't be too surprising the best songs ended up making some of my favorite EPs overall when each EP is only 3 songs long  :P

Offline Lethean

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #337 on: March 03, 2019, 01:20:27 PM »
Looks like the last few results will pretty close in scores, since Ghost had 21 and Kattelox 17.5.

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #338 on: March 03, 2019, 01:28:37 PM »
just a casual reminder that the aggregate score doesn't actually matter (which is why i haven't been posting it)

i also think an 8/10 is twice as good as a 7/10 which is why most of my scores are really tending towards the middle here, you have to really start impressing me to get high scores here (or really disappoint me to get really low ones)
also, i didn't fuss over the scores that much anyways  :P

the aggregate scores of the remaining four are 21, 19.5, 18.5, and 18, for what it's worth, but also be reminded that scores for individual songs don't matter as much since you could have a 9/10 song that's like 3 minutes long on a 20 minute EP and thus it wouldn't color my impression of an EP strongly, but a 10 minute 4/10 on a 20 minute EP alongside 8/10's is gonna feel a lot worse than a 20/30 score. i actually did take song lengths into account when assigning direct scores to EPs in the past but doing so + scoring flow points arbitrarily lead to results that didn't really match what my personal opinion was, which is why i'm not doing it here

basically: you can maybe vaguely call that a pattern but i wouldn't put much stock in it  :P

Offline The Walrus

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #339 on: March 03, 2019, 01:39:56 PM »
That's pretty fair. That's about what I expected, honestly, because I sent something totally out of left field and didn't try to overthink it.

So does that mean I don't make it past this round?  :biggrin:
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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 2)
« Reply #340 on: March 03, 2019, 02:46:27 PM »
Also I did read into the story but admittedly haven’t looked carefully into the lyrics on any of these so I’ll take your word for it on this epic space battle ascension thing-y going on.
I'd say, don't read too much in to the story of this first EP. I'm actually going to be steering the story in a bit of a different direction going forward (although still using the first EP as a baseline). I wasn't particularly happy with the direction I was leading it, so a change was needed (at least in my mind). Also I think this first EP suffered a bit because I was really trying to use songs with lyrics that 100% fit the story I had made up (which is why Atoma ended up on there). Going forward, the lyrics of the songs I'm using are going to be a little more vague, but can still be interpreted as part of the story.
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Offline Indiscipline

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #341 on: March 03, 2019, 03:11:19 PM »
First off, I would read your write-ups all day. You're focking thorough and I wouldn't be surprised to find out you're a professional music critic outside this DTF life.

Secondly - and coincidentally - These are all pretty fair assessments. I'm glad you liked the first diss track in music history (that was the tune I was afraid being rule 6ed), I have more or less the same opinion about MK (honestly, I thought you could like it more than I actually do), and - about Starsailor - I totally agree that a single production issue can completely fock a song's enjoyment over. You were in my roulette, you have witnessed that almost every round.

I may send a special EP I was concocting in my mind for this roulette sooner or later, but only if it doesn't bother your already ponderous listening duty.

Good luck everybody and thanks for having me!

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #342 on: March 03, 2019, 03:23:03 PM »
you can send it but i probably won't listen to it until after the roulette, tbh
also i am like the polar opposite of a music critic irl, i'm a software developer lol

Offline Indiscipline

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #343 on: March 03, 2019, 03:30:35 PM »
After the roulette then  :tup

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #344 on: March 03, 2019, 04:31:39 PM »
Give resluts

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #345 on: March 03, 2019, 04:50:09 PM »
resluts
:hat

i'm gonna post the next pair of results right before dinnertime and the last pair probably like 9 PMish PST just to piss you all off

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #346 on: March 03, 2019, 06:16:10 PM »
Results, Part 5

5th Place: Lethean – Untitled

1. Threshold – Light and Space

First Impressions:
This is another case where I’ve heard at least a handful of songs from all the artists here, though I’m not super familiar with any of them either. Man, when was this recorded, this production sounds absurdly spacious like it was recorded in a freakin’ warehouse or something. I can’t say I like how the production on this sounds though, yeah. Other than that I don’t really have a ton to say about this. The riffs are fine. The vocals are okay enough but kinda generic. There’s a nice clean bit in the middle. It’s really the guitar tone (and the occasional synth tone) that puts me off this one a little, it’s so reverb-drenched and yet, like, super deep fried crispy. I know I’ve complained about this before but low-tuned melodies plus guitar tones like this just don’t mix, the end result is a muddy mess. I can’t really say anything else about it is bad but nothing about it is too strong except some of the lead guitar work. It’s fine enough. (AVERAGE)

Final Thoughts:
Alright, look, I get that this is from 2001 and metal production has always been fickle as heck, but there are plenty of bands making better-sounding metal from this same period. Surprisingly it doesn’t totally kill the melody most of the time and the vocal production sounds fine, a lot better than recent dream theater albums to be sure. Anyways besides that this is…. serviceable. It’s got some solid melodies. They’re smart enough to not have too jagged or ugly of a groove, keeping the song rooted in 4/4 more often than not. You can kinda headbob to it. As far as prog metal goes it does all flow together pretty well, no rough transitions and it’s got some cleaner, more dynamic moments to break things up. As a song it’s more than well constructed enough, it’s just that I really, honestly don’t have any use for this. I have a lot of prog metal like this. There’s no especially strong melodies, no really excellent grooves, no particularly memorable hook. It’s super, duper “fine”. A bit above average, but I doubt I’ll remember it.

6/10



2. Katatonia – A Premonition

First Impressions:
Katatonia is a band I’ve gone on record that I’m just not a fan of them but you all are really aggressive about trying to get me to like them, huh. It’s not a great sign when your first choice was a song that I’d already previously listened to and felt rather meh towards, haha. There’s, like, a lot of stuff going on in the background of the track here that I don’t know if I’m too hot on, because none of it really works well together, it’s just noises happening behind a fairly standard tune. The guitar tone here is kind of in line with the first song as well but it works fine in this style of song so I’m not as bothered by it here. I just… got basically nothing at all out of this song despite my best efforts. (AVERAGE)

Final Thoughts:
Look. I get it. You basically screwed yourself here, between the other two songs you only had about 4 minutes left and I rejected the first song you sent because I’d heard it before. And let me say straight up that I went back to that song and found it a lot stronger than this one. Not great, but maybe on the scale of that roulette I should’ve rated it ever so slightly higher than I did? I dunno. This just doesn’t do much at all for me. The entire first half of this is all sorts of different, not very memorable and honestly pretty clunky melodies all fighting for attention without ever coming together. The heavy riff that comes in reminds me of, for some reason, Alkaloid’s Funeral For a Continent. It’s a similar chord progression. I’ll say that, if nothing else, I do vaguely feel something during that heavy bit. An attempt was made. The vocals actually have a bit of passion there. The repetitive plucky synth line doesn’t fit in there regardless but if I ignore it it’s mostly fine. I just don’t see why anyone would choose to listen to this particular Katatonia song over any other song they have, I’m not sure what about it could possibly resonate strongly. I like about a minute of it and the rest either bores me or kind of low-key annoys me. It’s probably the most average song I’ve received this entire round, in all honesty.

5.25/10



3. Kingcrow – Phlegethon

First Impressions:
Well, immediately I get the sense the production on this one is better than the first two so that’s a step in the right direction. I do dig the riffing style of this one well enough and it’s certainly keeping itself varied enough to boot. The bit with the choir vocals and the really steady riffing was pretty neato. The bass is kind of downplayed throughout a lot of this tune, it’s a bit low in the mix and the tone isn’t great either, but it gets its moment to shine in the quieter sections of the song. This entire thing is just… low key good, honestly, pretty constantly moving and doing stuff I like but there’s not really a lot I love either, I do think I like it enough for the higher of the two ratings I’m bouncing between but that could change. Or it could grow on me too. Who knows. (GOOD)

Final Thoughts:
Goddammit not you too. Congrats, here’s an EP with two songs I’m kind of meh on and then you end with a song I really like, a lot. Start out with this jagged and melodic riff. Okay, djent bands. I get you like having fun with rhythm. But without any melody all your riffs sound the same. Just add! Melodic accentuations! Exactly like this! And it works! Jesus! Anyways then you get the verses. There’s a great sinister air to them, driven by bass and atmospheric synths, slowly building up with more guitar lines coming in until the second verse switches from being sinister to outright tense. And the chorus of this, I love the chorus of this. It’s so simple, too. Guitar hits on the off beat, chanting crowd vocals, incredibly straightforward percussion. This right here is something you can reeeeally headbob to, probably headbang to if you’re seeing it live. It’s maybe a little cheesy but they sell it really well and it serves as an effective payoff to the buildup of the song before it. The song pulls back for a moment for a quieter bit and then you get this really intense, energetic buildup. It’s pretty much just a power metal moment with the drums. And it resolves again to the chorus, which I’m totally on board for. The song pulls back again for a nice clean moment after that, building a fixed guitar groove up on top to keep the momentum going a little bit. I think if I had one complaint about the song, it’s that it feels like it might go on a touch long, though. The song basically just… fades out from there, and resolves on a kind of unrelated clean passage. I think it’d work just fine in the context of an album and it actually brings the EP itself full circle pretty well, mirroring the intro of the Threshold song, but it hurts the overall flow of the song just ever so slightly. It would’ve been really cool if over that last groove the song added in the chorus choir chants again, really just bringing the whole thing together and giving the song a familiar yet slightly different idea to end on. Just a thought. I’m really not super bothered by it when the rest of this song is as good as this is. It ebbs and flows well and keeps itself dynamic, having a three-part structure tied together by its chorus, both instrumentally and vocally compelling. It’s just good, man.

8.25/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
In terms of whether or not these three songs go together or work as an EP, they absolutely do. First song is solid as an opener, last song is solid as a closer, they all have a kind of sludgier but also straightforward metal sound to them, but each of them is a different kind of track as well. In regards as to this working as an EP you pretty much hit the nail on the head, it’s just a shame none of the songs really stand out. Even the one I do like a fair bit, it’s not the kind of song I see being a “favorite” of mine, just one that I find pretty pleasant to listen to. And the other two didn’t leave much of an impact at all on me. I could see every song here being a grower but the big concern is how overall flavorless this one feels.

Final Thoughts:
So while yeah it’s clear I’m not crazy about this entire EP, it ends on a pretty strong note, and I don’t  really dislike the other two songs either, I just don’t get a ton out of them. I was at least right that one of the songs here ended up being a grower, and fortunately it was the one that mattered the most overall. And like I already said this works satisfyingly enough as an EP – the Threshold and Kingcow songs go together really well, both being pretty straightforward prog metal with a power metal flair, and even having atmospheric intros/outros to mirror each other. Katatonia maybe not so much, it feels really simple and out of place compared to the other two, but it’s not a huge curveball like some other EPs here end up having. Overall I do like at least half of this EP a good bit and I don’t mind the rest, it’s easy enough to listen to even if I’m not too convinced I’ll be checking out Threshold or Katatonia again.



8th Place: romdrums – Parama EP 2.17.19

1. IceFish – It Begins

First Impressions:
Mmm. My very first impression here is that this opening groove is one of those “prog for the sake of prog” moments, it doesn’t really flow well and just feels like bits of guitar lines were chopped off a smooth groove arbitrarily. And that synth sound ain’t it. Or at least, not for metal, reminds me of the tones Ronald Jenkees uses on his upbeat, bright electronic tunes. Like yeah I’m sorry but that synth just kills this entire thing for me. There’s good stuff here, some of the grooves are alright and the vocalist sounds fine. It’s got the “modern prog” problem of lacking strong melodies, to be sure, but I can get past that if there’s enough groove to make up for it. And basically any part of this song lacking the synths is fine. I think it just ends up balancing out to being… fine. (AVERAGE)

Final Thoughts:
Well, uhh, the chorus here is memorable, if nothing else. Like, not super powerful or anything but it’s catchy enough and I kind of feel it. This just has a lot of problems, doesn’t it. I’ve already called out the synth tone, let’s set that aside for a bit. I’ve already called out the grooves being weird but let me flesh out why that bothers me. Grooves are something you -feel- and generally they’re regular enough that once you pick up on a groove you can keep feeling it and riding it and enjoying it. Chopping off part of the groove arbitrarily just kills it outright. An unpredictable groove is honestly kind of useless to me. They don’t do it all the time but they do it often enough, especially in the verses, that I end up not really getting anything from them. And as far as melodies go this song has issues, really the only two elements driving melody for most of this song are the synths (which, eww) and the vocals, which I’m also not a huge fan of but they’re, fine enough. That groove after the guitar solo driven by the synths, I could imagine that being much better if it was a better-sounding instrument driving it, it’s kind of cool but again, that synth tone, what the heck were they thinking. It just ruins everything it touches. Ehh.At the end of the day this is just. Not my thing and surprisingly frustrating for how basic it is.

4.75/10



2. DGM – Portrait

First Impressions:
This one basically just seems pretty similar to the last one but with a generally better production (sounds a bit more full, guitar tones and synth tones especially are better). Like yeah it’s kind of standard power-prog and I again feel like it kind of falls victim to trying to have riffs & melodies with lots of notes before riffs & melodies with memorable moments. But it’s more than serviceable enough prog metal. The prog-wank midsection isn’t really my cup of tea though. It mostly just came and went without leaving a huge impact but I didn’t dislike it. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
Right off the bat this fixes a lot of the issues I had with the previous song, actually. For one there’s no awful synths. The grooves are more stable, the guitar work is a lot more melodic, even the vocals are a bit of a step up. Granted, not one part of anything this song has to offer is particularly memorable for me – this is my fifth listen now and I can barely recall anything about it. The chorus is pretty good though, I like the chorus. Both the vocal lines and the instrumentation backing them fit together well and drive some decent power. Also I commented on the instrumental section before, I actually like it up until the point where the solos kick in but they’re the most basic “let’s play fast instead of playing with style” prog wank stuff. The melodic interplay bits before then though, they get a pass. I dunno, this song is. Pretty fine. I think its biggest crime is being a bit unmemorable but stylistically it works well enough and it has its moments.

6.75/10



3. Voyager – Seasons of Age

First Impressions:
Voyager are like, the quintessential “romdjent” band to me for some reason so I’m not in the least surprised to hear them here. And uuhh. I have absolutely no clue what to say about this one either. I think it’s less that I dislike Voyager and more that their songs just… don’t have much personality to them. A little bit of djent, a little bit of prog metal, throw in some kind of hook and a decent emotive presence and you’ve got just the quintessential “yeah, this is nice I guess, but it doesn’t really grab me in any way” sound. I dig the heavy groove this one closes off with, at least. And I dunno, I’m always inclined to be nice and I can’t say I’d rather hear generic indie rock or generic pop or generic whatever else over generic djent-prog, and I don’t have anything really negative to say about this one, I just didn’t get a whole lot from it I haven’t heard before. (DECENT)

Final Thoughts:
There’s actually something kind of off about the vocalist here that I don’t quite like. On the verses at least, it feels like he’s kind of missing notes? Or maybe it’s just his tone of voice. On the chorus he’s actually pretty fine, it’s a pretty solid chorus that drives some decent power. Honestly this one I didn’t really remember much about either and again, fifth listen. It’s got those djent-y grooves to it but they’re melodically grounded and with other stuff going on over/under them so they’re not the main focus either and in that context I’m usually on board with that style of riffing. I just suppose neither the melodic work nor the riffing really strikes a chord with me. The slower riff that kicks in towards the end is a pretty good riff though, yep. I dunno. This one’s again, fine. It has a few elements I like, a few elements that bug me. I’m not crazy about it or particularly convinced I need to check out more Voyager after this but it’s again, pretty fine.

6.5/10



Overall:

First Impressions:
Yeah I would pretty easily say that everything here fits together well enough, mostly on the basis that it’s modern prog metal all the way down, boys. One song that kind of irritated me, two songs that were solid enough but didn’t really do much to stand out for me. I can see the potential for those latter two to grow on me with relistens but I’m worried the first one is gonna get even worse to balance it out. It strikes me as the “safest” EP out of the whole bunch, which could be for better or worse in the end, but I don’t think this has potential to be a favorite in the round either.

Final Thoughts:
Man, this EP is just the most unmemorable one of the entire bunch, I’m sorry to say it. I don’t particularly like nor particularly dislike anything here, either, it’s just that either way I don’t really get much out of these tunes. At worst they’re a little obnoxious but far from offensive. At best they’re pleasant with the occasional ear-catching moment but do little to stand out. In that regard this is one of the most perfectly-constructed EPs of the round, since all three sound just different enough yet still fit in pretty easily, there’s a solid sense of start/middle/end, everything in that regard is done well, it’s just that without any notable songs to stand out from the crowd everything here gets lost in the shuffle and doesn’t strike me as being particularly ambitious. You’re going to miss the cut not for any colossal misstep as much as just not having anything that particularly impresses, unfortunately.



Current Standings:
1. senecadawg2
2. TAC
3. Puppies_On_Acid
4. Ghost Malone
5. Lethean
6. ???
------------
7. ???
8. romdrums
9. Kattelox
10. Indiscipline
11. Elite
12. Dacul



Song Rankings:
1. Phoebe Bridgers – Funeral
2. No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom
3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
4. Existem – The Reclaimer
5. Kingcrow – Phlegethon
6.
7. Arms & Sleepers – Twentynine Palms
8. Arcane – Selfsame
9. Pendulum ft. Steven Wilson - The Fountain
10. Breaking Orbit – Conscious Self
11.
12. Cereus – Icarus
13. DGM – Portrait
14. Dark the Suns – All Ends in Silence
15.
16. Voyager – Seasons of Age
17. Atoma – Skylight 
18. Vanaheim – Daughter Of The Dawn
19. John Lennon – How Do You Sleep?
20. Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand
21.
22. Alithia – On a Mountain
23. Threshold – Light and Space
24.
25. Eddie Vedder – Society
26. Marlene Kuntz – Nuotando nell'Aria
27. Tycho - Dye
28. Katatonia – A Premonition
29.
30. Archspire – Involuntary Doppelgänger
31. IceFish – It Begins
32. Slushii - Sapient Dream
33. Starsailor – Way to Fall
34. Inferum – Beyond Reach
35. Linda Perhacs – Winds of the Sky
36. Owen Pallett – The Great Elsewhere

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 4)
« Reply #347 on: March 03, 2019, 06:17:17 PM »
i hope y'all are appreciating the rainbow vomit song rankings board

trainy, homeboy, i request that you two fight to the death and the winner gets the last slot in the roulette

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 5)
« Reply #348 on: March 03, 2019, 07:17:58 PM »
aka Puppies_On_Acid
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Offline TAC

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Re: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Round 0 Results Part 5)
« Reply #349 on: March 03, 2019, 07:19:47 PM »
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol