ROUND 3 RESULTS
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Luoto
Barren Earth – Curse Of The Red River (2010)
First impression: Immediately interesting and intense.
Final opinion: This album taps right in to my love for Amorphis. It has quite a similar blend of top quality melodic death metal with folk stylings and proggy synths. Not as strong as Amorphis in the vocal department, but then Tomi Joutsen is pretty special, but both harsh and clean vocals are still solid. And musically the album is fantastic, quite intense at times but very melodic as well. Also very impressive for a debut album, so I’m very interested to hear what they’ve done since. Bit of a short review as I don’t really have anything else to say, it’s just a great album.
Rating: 8.5/10
Score: 10 + 1 bonus = 11 points
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Evermind ft. Lucases
Portishead – Dummy (1994)
First impression: Trippy and a tiny bit tantalising.
Final opinion: This might well end up becoming my favourite trip hop album (unless Submotion Orchestra counts). It’s really gorgeous, warm, moody, and very cool. It’s also got a nice variety to it as well, despite the consistent vibe throughout. Honestly no idea why I’ve never really checked Portishead out properly before. To be honest it would have been the round winner if not for one very specific thing I need to talk about, which is that hideous twangy tremolo guitar that keeps playing the same note throughout the whole of Sour Times. It’s genuinely irritating and ruins what would otherwise be a really good song. Apart from that, the rest of the album is really great, and I’d especially like to note Roads as one of the highlights of the roulette so far. What an absolutely stunning song. You’re going from strength to strength with each round!
Rating: 8.5/10
Score: 9 + 1 bonus = 10 points
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Puppies
Dance Gavin Dance – Artificial Selection (2018)
First impression: Enjoyable, energetic and extremely catchy.
Final opinion: To be honest I could just keep my first impression as the full review because it’s exactly how I still feel. It’s not often I hear this sort of overtly poppy post-hardcore (Tides of Man did it before they went all instrumental post-rock instead), but these guys do it really well. This album has so much energy, a great sense of fun and so many brilliant hooks and enjoyable riffs. But it’s also not afraid to go all out heavy at times (e.g. in The Rattler). Those aren’t my favourite parts, on the whole, but they’re crunchy and exciting, and their inclusion gives the album quite a unique overall feel, to me at least. Great stuff.
Rating: 8.5/10
Score: 8.5 + 1 bonus = 9.5 points
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Train ft. Elite
Dvne – Asheran (2017)
First impression: Punchy and pretty powerful at points.
Final opinion: In your submission you compared these guys to Anciients. I’ve only heard one Anciients album, and to be honest I don’t remember it very well, but I definitely didn’t like it nearly as much as this. Not sure how to describe it really - proggy sludge metal? Or sludgy prog metal perhaps. Either way, the album has an excellent mix of chunky riffs, nice guitar work, big choruses and punchy production. The vocalist is really great too which I think is important in making this sort of music work. There are also some nice quieter moments - although a lot of it is fairly intense, it’s balanced and well-paced. I’m rating it based on how I feel about it now (which is all I can do really) but I can potentially see it growing even more on me over time.
Rating: 8.5/10
Score: 8 + 1 bonus = 9 points
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Seneca
Copeland – Blushing (2019)
First impression: Maybe magical, maybe middling.
Final opinion: Ok, so definitely more magical than middling. This album has such a rich, warm and interesting sound, which is not really that common for and indie rock band. But then I guess the album also isn’t stuck in a particular indie style - there’s really great use of strings, synths and electronics to create that richness of sound. A particular highlight for me is the use of gorgeous vocal harmonies in a number of songs - on my first listen they really stood out to me in Lay Here and it made me quite attentive to them throughout the rest of the album (another standout being Strange Flower). Some of the songs I still find less interesting, but overall it’s a really strong, interesting album.
Rating: 8/10
Score: 7.5 + 1 bonus = 8.5 points
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Tomi
The Hotelier – Goodness (2016)
First impression: Friends of the Foo Fighters?
Final opinion: The singer is obviously quite different to Dave Grohl, and there’s more of an indie vibe throughout (like the spoken word bits, and the weird snare hits), but tonally and harmonically a lot of this really reminds so much of the Foo Fighters. But whereas the Foos mix amazing songs in with mediocre ones, this album is never quite so exciting but is more consistent. I actually found it hard to rate - much like Glass Animals in the last round - because the lack of real standouts makes me wonder if it deserves that 8/10 bonus point. But then each time I listen to it, it’s consistently enjoyable and I think actually yes it does. And so 8/10 it is.
Rating: 8/10
Score: 7 + 1 bonus = 8 points
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Nekov ft. King
Mad Fellaz – III (2019)
First impression: Cool and quirky but not quite catching yet.
Final opinion: This album has definitely grown on me since the first listen, but my overall feeling towards it is roughly the same. It’s very cool prog with a range of influences, and moments that remind me of various artists but never sound too derivative. However, I don’t feel it really manages to carve out an identity of its own. They definitely strike me as a band with a ton of great ideas who would really benefit from refining them a bit. There are loads of parts of the album that individually I enjoy on an intellectual level, but none of it really makes me feel anything and I find it hard to form a sense of what the overall album is like despite listening to it a number of times. So all in all a very good album but with something missing.
Rating: 7.5/10
Score: 6.5 points
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Cyril
Midnight Odyssey – Funerals From The Astral Sphere (2011)
First impression: Slow and somewhat samey but a stronger second half.
Final opinion: You told me I’d either love or hate this so I’m almost disappointed that it’s neither. Actually I’d say there’s a lot about this I love. While I definitely think it’s too long, the sense of atmosphere and the way most songs build very delicately is gorgeous. And while it’s a little samey, actually once you get used to the pace there’s a decent amount of different ideas and tones. But what stops me loving the album is the production. It’s fine in the atmospheric sections, but I find it far too thin and muddy in the heavier sections. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be, but it makes it really hard for me to get into some sections, particularly the more black metal bits. The second disc is a little better in that regard and feels stronger overall. As I said in PMs, I really appreciate you taking some risks. What this has done is made me want to discover atmospheric black metal with similarly gorgeous music but a better sound.
Rating: 7.5/10
Score: 6 points
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Katt
Randy Newman – Bad Love (1999)
First impression: Likeable, if a little lacking.
Final opinion: If I enjoyed the whole album as much as I do the first three songs, this would have ranked a lot higher. Yes, even the one you dislike for some reason (which I’d genuinely be interested to chat about - it has a nice groove and some fun guitar flourishes). I think these opening songs cover the different aspects of the album really well - the sentimentality, the jazziness, the (surprising, to me) quiet anger, and the quirkiness. The rest of the album moves around all these aspects too, but never quite as well in my opinion. A few of the songs I simply find uninteresting. A couple are good but I don’t feel work with his unique and distinctive voice. This hasn’t made me a Randy Newman convert but it’s certainly given me a better sense of his musical and lyrical depth and I did like it quite a bit overall.
Rating: 7.5/10
Score: 5.5 points
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Clortho
Zakk Wylde – Book Of Shadows (1996)
First impression: Decent but decidedly disappointing.
Final opinion: I guess the honeymoon couldn’t last forever! I really appreciate you sending me different stuff each round and it worked great in the first two rounds, but this isn’t doing it for me unfortunately. It’s not bad at all - it’s very competent and pleasant rock music, and I do like Wylde’s voice which has a warm and emotional quality to it. I just find the album a bit bland and middle-of-the-road. Nothing really stands out as interesting or unique at any point. Not even the guitar work - for someone who is famous for being a guitarist, his playing really doesn’t strike me as even vaguely interesting (there are a couple of pretty good solos, like in Road Back home, but that’s about it).
Rating: 6.5/10
Score: 4 points
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Scores after Round 3:
1. (^) Train ft. Elite = 9.5 + 8.5 + 9.0 = 27.0
2. (v) Clortho = 12.0 + 10.5 + 4.0 = 26.5
3. (^) Luoto = 7.0 + 7.0 + 11.0 = 25.0
4=(=) Puppies = 4.0 + 11.0 + 9.5 = 24.5
4=(^) Evermind ft. Lucases = 5.0 + 9.5 + 10.0 = 24.5
6=(v) Cyril = 9.0 + 6.5 + 6.0 = 21.5
6=(^) Seneca = 8.5 + 4.5 + 8.5 = 21.5
8. (=) Tomi = 7.5 + 5.5 + 8.0 = 21.0
9. (v) Nekov ft. King = 10.0 + 4.0 + 6.5 = 20.5
10.(=) Katt = 6.5 + 6.0 + 5.5 = 18.0
Topic: ariich’s roulette 5.0 – The End (again (the actual end this time (really))) (Read 58980 times)