ROUND 6 RESULTS--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomi
Paradise Lost – Draconian Times (1995)First impression: Probably the strongest of the round on first listen, but I’m also not sure it has much scope to grow on me like some of the others do.
Final opinion: Yeah so this has managed to hold out as the strongest of the round, and actually it did grow on me a little too. You're a bit lucky here because in a stronger round this might have ranked fairly low, as despite being a LOT more interesting than what I've heard from Paradise Lost before, it still doesn't grab me enough to warrant an 8/10. But it's very solid and the round winner so let's focus on the positives. A lot of goth rock I've heard doesn't really do it for me, as I often find it hard to feel the vibe it's going for, but this does a good job. There's a real 90s moodiness to it that feels convincing to me and I enjoyed right from my first listen. What I've appreciated more on subsequent listens is the crunchiness of it too - it's not especially heavy but there are some very cool moments that remind me of what Metallica were doing in the late 80s and early 90s. This is definitely helped by the vocals which are strong and hold everything together. All in all, not your best submission but enough to score you 10 points!
Rating: 7.5/10
Score: 10 points--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyril
Warforged – I: Voice (2019)First impression: This might be a bit too much, but then there’s something intriguing about it. Didn’t love my first listen at all but can potentially see it being a grower.
Final opinion: Congrats on finally breaking out of the 7.5-8.5 range, but it was very very close and you still came second in the round.
This album is definitely a grower, in that it takes a number of listens to bring out some of the nuances and highlights. But it's still a pretty relentless album, which isn't helped by its length. The reason I've ranked it higher than the other 7s, and that it really did come close to yet another 7.5, is simply how high quality everything is. The production and performance is so impressive for a death metal debut, very tight and clear other than the craziest moments (which is fair enough). And I was right to say that it's intriguing. It feels very coherent as an album, and there are just enough respites from the heaviness to keep it listenable, helped particularly by the last few songs being more balanced and also some of the strongest material, along with Cellar. The heaviness I can cope with - as you noted, I liked Slice the Cake a lot - the thing I find too overbearing is the tonal (or perhaps better to say atonal) relentlessness. There are so few melodic moments and even those are quite discordant. So I don't love this album, but I find it really interesting and am glad to have expanded my musical horizons with it.
Rating: 7/10
Score: 8.5 points--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luoto
Kingston Wall – III: Tri-Logy (1994)First impression: Not bad, and there’s some really good stuff, but also some not so interesting stuff, and it maybe drags a bit.
Final opinion: Even if you'd not mentioned Kie doing the artwork for this, I'd have noticed that these guys were an influence on Von Hertzen Brothers (who, as you know, I love). I think the aspects I like most about this are those same influences. Punchy prog that isn't particularly indulgent and has no particular sense of virtuoso, but is quite quirky and fun and dynamic and melodic. The biggest missing ingredient is VHB's wonderful and heart-breaking vocal melodies and harmonies. But beyond that, I also don't find the music as consistently interesting, and indeed some of it I find actively irritating (Stuldt Håjt, just, urgh… and why is it 9 minutes!). It's a shame because if this album was just trimmed down to the strongest, say, 50 minutes, I could have really liked it a lot. As it is, it's just too inconsistent and ends up dragging quite a bit, despite the epic closer having so much great material.
Rating: 7/10
Score: 7 points--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Puppies
Laster – Het Wassen Oog (2019)First impression: Interesting mix of different ideas, but not sure it does any of them all that well.
Final opinion: I've had a very weird and inconsistent experience with this album. First listen I thought it was OK but not great. Second listen I thought, hey maybe this is pretty cool. Listen three was wait no, this sucks. Fourth listen was back to my original view. I like the mix of styles, and there are some very good moments, but I feel like it doesn't excel at anything. You said it's rooted in atmospheric black metal, and I can hear that, except that hardly any of it is atmospheric at all really. There's definitely jazzy avant-garde influences, but the jazz harmonies don't quite gel with the metal for the most part, and it's not really that quirky or weird. I'm glad I gave the albums in this round an extra listen to help me make decisions - this could have been ranked and rated lower at one stage - but I've come around to the opener and especially the last few minutes of the closer, as well as some of the other grander moments that make the listen fairly enjoyable.
Rating: 7/10
Score: 5.5 points--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clortho
Warrior Soul – Last Decade Dead Century (1990)First impression: Feels like it could be one of those quintessential 7/10 albums. All sounded solid enough, but nothing excited me at all.
Final opinion: You seem determined to retain your title as most inconsistent. Clearly we share very similar tastes in some areas but not others. Not that I dislike this or anything, it's quite enjoyable in a rock n roll kind of way, it's just not really my thing. To be honest, I'm not sure I have much to say because, unlike some albums where I have a mix of strong positive and negative reactions that are in tension with each other and fighting for dominance, here I have very little reaction of any kind. I just feel like, although it's fairly enjoyable, it's not fun enough to make up for what feels like me like a lack of substance. Entirely possible that's not a fair assessment, it's just what I get from it. As a result, this was the only album of the round that, if anything, ungrew on me with further listens.
Rating: 6.5/10
Score: 4 points--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scores after Round 6:1. (=) Luoto = 7.0 + 7.0 + 11.0 + 10.5 + 10.0 + 7.0 = 52.5
2. (
^) Tomi = 7.5 + 5.5 + 8.0 + 11.0 + 6.5 + 10.0 = 48.5
3. (
^) Cyril = 9.0 + 6.5 + 6.0 + 8.5 + 7.5 + 8.5 = 46.0
4=(
v) Clortho = 12.0 + 10.5 + 4.0 + 4.5 + 9.5 + 4.0 = 44.5
4=(
v) Puppies = 4.0 + 11.0 + 9.5 + 6.0 + 8.5 + 5.5 = 44.5
Topic: ariich’s roulette 5.0 – The End (again (the actual end this time (really))) (Read 58286 times)