**Note: This is the second part of results. The first part is on the previous page. Too many characters for one post, and unfortunately my two posts got split between the two pages.**
TAC: Winter’s NightThe Fractured Dimension - Nights of Somber Frost
Illyria - Autumn Fades Away
Defecto - When Daylight Dies
Communic - Moondance
The Arbitrary - Glacial Tranquility
Lost In Thought - New Times Awaken
This concept may not be anything too fancy, but I think it worked out really well as an organizing principle for this EP, creating a sense of thematic flow. I actually made an EP based on a similar concept of going from evening to morning in Train of Naught’s roulette, which is the only roulette I ever won, so that’s a pretty cool coincidence.
Structuring the EP around two instrumentals was perhaps a bit of an unknowing risk. Instrumentals can very much be a hit-or-miss thing with me. Often I find them uninteresting, or only interesting in album context. Here it certainly helps that we have something like an album context, but I think I would like both of these instrumentals on their own. There’s enough varied material to make them pretty interesting all the way through. Neither would rank among my favorites on the EP, but both hold their own, and, I think, enhance the cohesion of the theme by providing an introduction in one case and a transition in the other.
Seeing as I commented on the harsh vocals in the impression, and you immediately identified that impression as not yours because of that, I suppose I should give something of an explanation. First of all, I went that route in part because I was having a hard time thinking of something to say that wouldn’t completely give it away. The dominant thing that made an impression on me was the theme, but I couldn’t think of a way to say much about that without it being clear that it was about either yours or Evermind’s, since you’re the only ones who had strong themes.
Secondly, I really did sort of make a categorization in my mind early on between the growl ones and non-growl ones, in which yours, Leth’s and Cyril’s went together in the “growl” category, and I did like the use of growls best on yours. Maybe BECAUSE there were so few of them, in part, but nonetheless, I did. I was thinking, of course, of the end of the Illyria song, which I think is a fantastic use of growls. It’s quite unexpected, and it’s a bit of a sharp left turn after the calm acoustic sound of the rest of the song, but I think it’s very well-executed. I find both sides of this song pretty enjoyable, and I think they did a really good job of uniting them in a single composition. And I think it works fantastically in the overall concept.
My favorite song on here, though, both from the standpoint of concept and of overall quality, was the centerpiece, Moondance, which I actually considered under the heading of harsh vocals, for the backing vocals in the verses. I thought their subtle use here was really smart. Maybe it wasn’t harsh enough to fall under the heading of growls, but that’s how it struck me on my first several listens. Either way, I really like this song. It’s got a strong sense of atmosphere that accords well with the theme and is strong on its own, a strong main theme and a really killer chorus. And that part transitioning between the verse and the chorus, with the double bass and eerie backing vocals, is fantastic.
The Defecto and Lost in Thought songs are both strong as well. I very much like the intensity of When Daylight Dies. It provides the kind of desperate feeling that the EP concept needs at that point. Meanwhile, the Lost in Thought song provides a strong finale with a nice buildup. The last minute and a half of the song in particular is excellent, with the building vocal part and subsequent guitar solo. I like how uplifting the finale ultimately is. After all the nighttime and wintry stuff of the early EP, it’s a nice contrast. I’d call it the second strongest song on the EP for sure.
On the whole, this EP is steadily strong all the way through. It also sets out with a concept and definitely succeeds at bringing that concept to life, which is a nice bonus. I enjoy all six songs, which is not nothing in these sorts of rounds, and there’s one that I liked quite a bit (Moondance). The limiting factor is ultimately that most of the songs (Moondance and New Times Awaken being the exceptions) are in the enjoyable-but-not-next-level-enjoyable range. There’s nothing I can really say against them, because I like them. But there are a couple of EPs this round where I just like the songs more.
1. Communic - Moondance (8.5/10)
2. Lost in Thought - New Times Awaken (8.5/10)
3. Illyria - Autumn Fades Away (8.0/10)
4. Defecto - When Daylight Dies (8.0/10)
5. The Arbitrary - Glacial Tranquility (7.5/10)
6. The Fractured Dimension - Nights of Somber Frost (7.5/10)
Score: 16.5 out of 20.
jingle.boyMagnus Karlsson's FreeFall - Not My Saviour
Tesla - Modern Day Cowboy
Pretty Maids - Pandemonium
The Eagles - Desperado
Star One - Master of Darkness
Slade - My Oh My
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill
Triosphere - The Heart's Dominion
Impression:
This EP contains several songs from a style that is definitely hit-or-miss with me, but in this case it turned out to be a hit on every occasion.Interesting that you correctly guessed the impression, but didn’t ask for any of the songs I was referring to in the description, which were the songs that had more of that 70s/80s rock sound. I was most especially referring to the Tesla and Slade songs, both of which made a very positive impression on me. Modern Day Cowboy is the type of song that one might expect me to not like: Its sound definitely belongs to a particular era, and the lyrics are rather on the cheesy side. But it somehow works for me on this track. The songwriting is just so strong on this one, and somehow the lyrics are actually appealing to me. I love the unapologetic swagger, and I think there’s just such a nice progressive buildup on each verse-prechorus-chorus cycle. I am continually surprised by how much I like this song.
With My Oh My, it’s stylistically the type of song that I could end up seeing as sort of a generic power ballad, except that, again, the songwriting is just so, so, so, so strong that it demands respect. Especially when it turns from a quieter love song into a huge anthemic piece calling more broadly for human unity. I’m again continually surprised by how much I enjoy this track. What a good song.
Solsbury Hill is one of my least favorite tracks here, and yet I would still classify it as very strong. Gabriel’s vocal performance is really strong, and the melodies just flow so nicely. I do think the muppet noises at the end are a little strange, but not really something that detracts in a major way.
The four more modern metal songs are no exception to the strength in songwriting I find all over this EP. The first two Not My Saviour and Pandemonium, are both rather straightforward prog-power-ish songs, but both are operating at a really high level in terms of songwriting quality, such that even though neither is really doing anything I haven’t heard before stylistically, I enjoy them quite a bit just because they are that good in terms of riffs, melodies, and overall construction. Not really a fan of the samples on Pandemonium, but I can get past it.
The Star One track is wonderful, and I think I actually like it more than I like most songs from Ayreon. This really confirms me in my preference, which I’ve sort of held ever since I first heard the two Universal Migrator albums, for Arjen’s metal side over his calm/folk side. The songwriting here is more focused than on a lot of the Ayreon stuff, and it’s really pretty cool how much story and how many different singers are fit into a pretty compact song with a more traditional structure. Russell Allen as Darth Vader is also a pretty ingenious casting choice. I also think Arjen benefits here from being able to crib large portions of the lyrics from The Empire Strikes Back. All this tells me that I am way overdue for checking out Star One. Evermind will probably be mad that I hadn’t before and then praised this to the heavens on your EP, but before he gets too mad, he should scroll down.
The Triosphere song was a really nice surprise, and it’s probably my second favorite song of this very, very strong EP. I’m very hesitant to name the gender of vocalists now, but I’m pretty… sure the singer here is a woman, right? She sounds like if Floor Jansen leaned a little further in the rock direction and used more grit in her voice, which is awesome. This is another very well-written metal song, with a nice combination of good heavy riffs and symphonic touches. The chorus here is just fantastic, the way the lines are absolutely belted out. This is just a very good song, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from this band and especially this singer.
The other highlight of the EP is Desperado. Which, maybe the chagrin of the other participants, I was passingly familiar with prior to the roulette, just from it being a very well-known song. But I hadn’t given it a devoted listen, so I chose to allow. And the more focus I’ve given it, the more I’ve been rewarded. This is a really wonderful song, with a ton of emotion and a great sense of melody. The type of song where every piece feels like it’s in the right place, down the way the strings sit right in with the drum hits and Henley’s vocals on that last chorus. This one really strikes an emotional chord with me in addition to being a very well-written song.
I feel like a broken record in this writeup talking about the quality of songwriting, but that’s what stands out to me most on this EP. As you said in the thread, this is not an EP about a theme or concept, and there’s not an emphasis at all on having the perfect flow. It doesn’t matter. The flow makes good enough sense to make the thing into a cohesive listening experience, so that, while my attention is not drawn to that aspect of the EP, I’m not distracted by anything that’s at all jarring.
What’s here is good songs, and that’s where I think your approach of sending songs only off your top 111 lists may have paid off particularly well. If I had listened to the EP first and learned about that approach after, I would not have been surprised at all to hear that this was how you had selected the songs, because every one of them is just operating at a very high level in terms of the sheer quality of songwriting. Across a number of different styles, I find myself thrilling every time to how well each song is constructed.
1. The Eagles - Desperado (9.5/10)
2. Triosphere - The Heart’s Dominion (9.0)
3. Slade - My Oh My (9.0/10)
4. Star One - Master of Darkness (9.0/10)
5. Pretty Maids - Pandemonium (8.5/10)
6. Tesla - Modern Day Cowboy (8.5/10)
7. Magnus Karlsson's FreeFall - Not My Saviour (8.5/10)
8. Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill (8.5/10)
Score: 18.5 out of 20.
Evermind: Wrath or DestinyDelain - Masters of Destiny
Within Temptation - See Who I Am
Tori Amos - Winter
Phantasma - Enter Dreamscape
Delain - Control the Storm
The Wishing Tree - Soldier
Demons & Wizards - Fiddler on the Green
Impression:
This is a hit all the way through. The right EP at the right time. Excellent songs and a pretty strong sense of cohesion.Yep. This is it.
You always send such good EPs. Every one of them is clearly the product of careful thought. Last time you sent a wonderful EP that probably would have scored more wonderfully with someone else—it just didn’t hit me quite right on the emotional level.
This time, no such problem. Going the symphonic metal route was really smart. It’s a genre that I should listen to a ton on paper. Nightwish is a top 5 band for me. But for whatever reason, I’ve never really gotten into many of the genre’s other bands. Some of them have reputations for being generic that have scared me off, but it’s really no excuse. And now I do have no excuse at all, because of this wonderful EP.
Delain, as you said, would be the key here, especially their vocalist, who sings on three of the songs. She’s excellent, you had nothing to worry about. She covers all the bases on the very first song, showing that she’s capable of the soft stuff in the intro, and then bringing this amazing feeling of barely controlled wildness on the song’s spectacularly massive chorus (with a huge assist from the symphonic elements). Control the Storm also has a fantastic and massive chorus propelled by… well, if you want to object to Chad sending Arjen, I’ll say that sending me a Marco Hietala guest spot is almost as much of a cheat. Both Masters of Destiny and Control the Storm are absolutely highlights on an EP full of highlights.
Within Temptation and Phantasma may be a little bit behind Delain, but if so it’s just one step. See Who I Am is an excellent song, with a substantive symphonic element and strong vocal performance. And Enter Dreamscape has a very good chorus with a beautifully fragile-sounding vocal performance
All three quieter songs towering highlights. Winter is absolutely captivating. A beautiful, emotional vocal performance with tons of character. This is one of those songs that just grabbed me from the first listen and never stopped impressing me. This simple, beautiful song is a brilliant centerpiece for an EP where a lot of the tracks are complex and bombastic. I love this song.
Fiddler on the Green, as you already know, was a big hit with me. One of those fantastic songs that transitions seamlesly from a soft acoustic piece into a bombastic epic metal finale, powered by a tremendous, massive, emotional, dominant vocal performance from Hansi Kürsch. Also cheating, if you want to go down that road.
Soldier is the surprise hit on this EP. You suggested that if there was one song that I’d call a miss, it would be this one. Nope. This rates very, very highly with me. I love the lyrics on this one. They make up for the Karmakanic lyrics of round 2. And the singer’s straightforward, honest performance is excellent. This is just a beautiful little piece that I love everything about. And it fits perfectly into this part of your concept. It feels just right coming after the bombast of Control the Storm and going into the acoustic beginning of the epic finale.
Speaking of the concept, I think it was very well executed, as usual. As interesting as your highly detailed story was last time, I think it works well here that the story writeup didn’t detail the connections to each song in minute detail, but instead gave an overview that I could sort of imaginatively connect to each song as I listened. The way you used the different male/female vocal dynamics to tie in with the twins of the story was a smart idea. And story aside, the cohesion and flow on this EP are really strong. The opener and closer are so strong that I don’t blame you for thinking that your impression was the one about the strong opener and closer buoying up the rest. But no, the rest is deserving of that opener and closer. A great group of songs, a great concept, a great EP.
1. Tori Amos - Winter (9.5/10)
2. Demons & Wizards - Fiddler on the Green (9.0/10)
3. The Wishing Tree - Soldier (9.0/10)
4. Delain - Masters of Destiny (9.0/10)
5. Delain - Control the Storm (8.5/10)
6. Within Temptation - See Who I Am (8.5/10)
7. Phantasma - Enter Dreamscape (8.0/10)
Score: 18.5 out of 20.
Final Standings:Evermind - 46.0jingle.boy - 44.0Cyril - 42.0
TAC - 42.0Tomislav95 - 41.0
Lethean - 40.5
At long last, congratulations to Evermind, winner of a 425 roulette! Your submissions were all on a very high level of quality, maybe even higher than what you have delivered in the past, making this a very well-earned win, especially in the face of some really tough competition. Thank you to all 13 contestants! This roulette was probably the most enjoyable one I've run, and it's in no small part thanks to y'all. I'm also looking forward to digging into the new artists you've sent me. Congrats again to Evermind and thanks again to all!
Topic: 425's Third Roulette v. Fell and rose and tried... (Read 32603 times)
