Round 5 ResultsRound 5 Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6NVBb3VEpMkwcYeXHyH4zZBuddyhunter: Celldweller – Down To EarthTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:I already kind of mentally have Celldweller locked away as “the kind of electronic I don’t like” and I’m not 100% sure where I got that impression from initially, but it has me worried about this one. Though this seems to be more industrial metal than pure electronic? It’s got that buzzing kind of synth sound to it that I’m never too wild about though. The riffs are almost borderline djenty, too, though not pointlessly jagged and grooveless, there is definitely a heavy groove that works fine enough here. From the quiet section onward the song improves a lot, too, with like a breakcore outro? Okay.
There’s some solid groove to this but it’s a sound I kind of struggle to really get into; the second half is better than the first half, though.Final Thoughts:I think this is one of the rare instances where a song actively got less pleasant to listen to the more listens I gave it. And I don’t think that’s really necessarily because of the sound… I still don’t really like the overall sound of the first half of this, though some of the second half is pretty alright. Not amazing, but I can get into it.
Especially since the majority of the lyrics come in the first half, and… yeah, not gonna beat around the bush, this kind of sentiment in a song really never works for me. It’s like a diss track without any context or details, so the singer just instead comes off as really edgy and angsty and mad at “someone” and that someone could be basically anyone, who really cares. And it’s ironically really self-important to go and make an entire song like this about how someone else has a huge ego.
And paired up with this kind of sound… that really only makes it worse to me. I can’t explain why the music in particular makes the lyrics worse for me, but the combination of the two just gives off this really gross vibe to it. It’s like nu-metal with dubstep synths thrown on for good measure. The most positive I can say about it is that it, indeed, does have a groove. I’m too turned off by how repulsive I find the overall sound & lyrics to really get into it.
The back half has some clean, atmospheric stuff that on its own is fine. It doesn’t really feel like it fits in with the tone or sound of the song but I don’t mind having it. The lyrics also basically stop the moment the music gets more interesting, or are just repeating variations of earlier phrases in the song, so basically all of the worst of the song is gone by like the 4 minute mark. There’s faster and more interesting grooves when the song does pick back up again and the electronic elements turn to the aforementioned breakcore-esque sounds, which complement the energy well.
But, man. Three minutes that I’d maybe give a 1-2 to on their own, paired up with four minutes I just flat don’t enjoy anything about… I don’t think the good, or really just the decent, in this song can outweigh the bad for me in this one. Maybe if the gross parts were shorter or the lyrics were different or if the synths were gone, maybe it’d make this tolerable for me, but I really, really grew to dislike this song on repeated listens.
Reward:
ariich: Euphoreon – Zero Below the SunTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:Hah, TAC gets two songs in this round, I remember him sending you this album and you digging it a lot. I listened to it as well but wasn’t that into the sound, though. Again, we’ll see if a song in isolation changes that. I uhh. Am kinda lacking for much to say about this one, honestly. It’s a solid melodic death metal sound, it goes a bit harder than a lot of stuff in the genre that I’ve heard but most of the melodies and riffs are still pretty standard for this sound. I hope relistens are kind to this one?
This is, probably, really good for its genre and simultaneously emphasizes why this genre almost never works that well for me.Final Thoughts:It feels kind of weird to have a song this “fine” this close to the bottom of the rankings, honestly. This is why I’m not doing a stack-ranked roulette! And probably never will! According to at least two people in this roulette, this is really good melodic death metal. Probably true. For me I’ve just failed to form any strong impression of this one.
Okay, the most immediately striking issue: The mixing isn’t great. The drums feel too loud most of the time, and the vocals are pretty much always cutting through the mix too, so the guitars end up a bit muddy and buried. There’s definitely melody here, to be fair, even with the weird mixing. The guitar riffs are all pretty standard fare though. I feel like a large majority of rhythms in the song are 3-3-2 rhythms, both in the riffs and guitar leads, which is a bit standard and kind of uninteresting. Not unpleasant to listen to but none of it really catches my ear.
As far as the vocals, they’re… okay. They seem to be pretty bog-standard growls. I don’t really get much of a sense of intensity or dynamic off of them. They’re always at the same volume and tone. They fit the overall sound but I don’t really feel like they add to it. There’s occasional quieter or cleaner moments too. Symphonic elements that get lost in the mix at any louder moment. Even in the quieter moments I can’t hear any bass in this song. Is there a bassist in this band?
I think what really makes this uninteresting for me is how generally lacking in dynamics it is. I’d estimate around 85% of the song is the same loud section with different riffs or melodies, different speeds of drumming, but it all kind of just blends in together to form this shapeless, hookless mush of metal. I also don’t really have much negative to say about it either. I can generally vibe this this sound. I don’t feel anything listening to it, but I’m not necessarily bored by it or find it in any way unpleasant.
I think mostly I just… don’t get it? I’ve never gotten this specific style of music though. Death metal, I mean, I always need some kind of progressive structure or dynamic sound to really get into it, or at least some pop sensibility to provide melodic hooks or epic climaxes. This just flat doesn’t have a single one of those things. It’s just… ehh.
Reward:
Evermind: Arch / Matheos – Pitch Black PrismTheme: 2019 post-metalFirst Impressions:The only Fates Warning I’ve ever heard was Ray Alder-era, who has more of an 80’s metal sound to his voice whereas this guy sounds pretty much just like any other power metal vocalist to me. I don’t know why you think I’d hate that sound, I’m mostly just indifferent to it & it can work well given decent melodies. Anyways this is solidly heavy yes. And naturally the guitar work is pretty solid, or at least the leads are. The riffs feel a bit more standard power-prog though they’re not bad or anything. Also yeah you aren’t getting the theme bonus but you know that.
I don’t have any particularly strong opinion about this first listen but I also see it as unlikely to do particularly bad.Final Thoughts:You said you sent this song because it was the heaviest on the album, but that it was one of the songs that took you the longest to get into as well, and I’m wondering if you’d have been better off sending a less heavy, more nuanced song? At the very least I can’t help but be curious what your favorite song or songs of this album are.
I think this song just comes off as… a bit standard to me, mostly. I get that this is basically “a new Fates Warning album, but under a different name” and yeah, it does kinda sound like that. Granted I’m not super familiar with Fates Warning, I haven’t even heard any of their albums this decade, but this is about what I’d imagine an 80’s prog metal act sounding like nowadays. And maybe that’s the issue – there’s just not much about this song I find particularly surprising?
If I were to comment on the vocals. They’re fine, generally speaking. I feel like this song doesn’t showcase any singing style other than “belting full throttle” and I’d be surprised if a singer like Arch didn’t have more dynamic delivery in his arsenal, but if he does it isn’t shining through here, and I again return to my earlier comment of wondering if a less heavy song would’ve done better, if only on that aspect alone. Like, he has a powerful voice but even during the quieter parts of this one he’s like, really giving it his all. It’s oversinging that makes the entire performance come off a little flat.
I feel like I have to focus on the vocals a lot here because they’re clearly a large part of this song (considering there are two main writers behind this entire band) and because the rest doesn’t give me a ton to talk about. The guitar leads are all pretty solid, the rest… it’s fine, it’s functional for the sound they’re going for, but the riffs aren’t particularly inspired, the drumming is pretty solid and carries some weight, the bass… sounds like it’s mostly doubling the guitars whenever I can hear it. There’s enough touches of progressive elements here that it’s not boring, and at seven minutes I don’t think it overstays its welcome either, so.
I think you’re probably going to be disappointed more that I just don’t have any strong reaction, positive or negative, to this one. It feels like a “safe” entry in most roulettes, just that it’s not quite in line with how I tend to like my prog metal. Maybe it’s the vocal focus over the instrumental focus in particular that doesn’t work for me. I do think the vocals are the biggest sticking point but not by a lot. I can’t say there isn’t at least some level of inherent appeal to the overall sound but I can’t say it’s a very strong appeal either.
Reward:
Elite: Nechochwen – The Serpent TraditionTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:This is gonna be some kind of folky metal isn’t it. Oh yeah, that’s black metal alright. The drum sound is a bit weirdly muted but when the guitar walls come in it’s not super noticeable. For folky black metal a lot of the time I feel it ends up going too far down the “sounding epic but losing the intensity” route but this seems to be doing a good job keeping the metal the focus and doing it pretty solidly. Probably needs more listens for me to really take it in though but I’m enjoying what I’m hearing.
It does this style more in the way that I generally prefer it, though I do think it struggles to find a unique sound all the same.Final Thoughts:Usually this happens with songs that get put into rotation a bit later, even if I did give this the same amount of spins as the rest, but while I’ve enjoyed this one so far I do kind of feel it doesn’t stand out that well all the same? I don’t know why since it does have a good sound and I do think it has at least enough flavor to it to not sound that generic in terms of black metal sounds.
I think a few of the melodies I do find at least pretty memorable… the bit that starts off the second acoustic passage is a bit of an earworm that feels weirdly playful compared to most of the rest of the song. And the first heavy guitar line kinda sticks out too. I dunno, it isn’t a super colorful song all the same, I think I’m struggling most with just not finding a ton of this that powerful or that memorable.
There’s a tempo shift in the middle and the song does bounce between soft and heavy a bit too. I think it maybe jumps around too much, actually? Like, I don’t really notice many recurring motifs at any point throughout this song, even when it goes to a “similar” sound it doesn’t seem like quite the same riff, or quite the same melody. Legit, I think the only thing that gets repeated is one pretty killer heavy riff that shows up in two different sections of the song.
I don’t even know if the lack of repeated moments is necessarily the issue since Look to Windward and Winterhorde both were basically the same… but in those songs I feel like the individual moments stood out more, whereas there’s no real showstopping moment in this song, just different variations on similar sounds.
It’s a bit frustrating for me because I do think this song has a good sound to it, but the songwriting seems to be what’s letting it down for me, making it so that I can never really get a grip on how the song sounds or how it wants me to feel. It’s kind of telling that basically everything I remember about this one occurs within the first two and a half minutes and the rest is kind of a blur, I suspect my attention span for this one wanes the longer it goes on despite starting off pretty strong. I still find it enjoyable to listen to, moreso than a number of songs this round, but it’s probably the song here I most wish I liked more than I do.
Reward:
Nekov: Mutemath – StratosphereTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:My initial impressions: Not wild about that synth tone but this has a damn good groove. The vocalist is solid too, he fits the vibe this song is going for pretty well. I think the synth tone bugs me because it feels a bit too… rigid? For how smooth and atmospheric a lot of the other elements are trying to be. It’s definitely up the alley of the kind of synthpop I’m more into overall though, a lush sound complimented by a solid groove, though it feels like it’s lacking in terms of melodic hook. Maybe that’ll change on relistens.
It’s a nice little song that slots into the kind of sound I like in this genre, even if I’m not too sure it’s going to be a favorite or have a ton of repeat value.Final Thoughts:Hmm, I’m confused why I have this one as high up on my list as I do (#4 after listen 4), actually, because considering this is a synthpop song I’ve found it surprisingly unmemorable and hookless. Let’s relisten and find out why I held it so highly.
Well, I guess one thing is that the chorus is pretty solid. There’s a lush layer of atmosphere to the production that I dig. It kind of doesn’t last very long though and the vocal melody itself doesn’t have much of a hook either. Hmm. The groove is pretty solid, too. There’s a different groove running throughout the chorus versus the… uh… verses, but both of them are pretty strong.
Oh, but I think I figured it out. That bridge and everything onward is actually pretty damn great. The production pretty much explodes and then holds that intensity for a good minute or so, and even after as it peels back there’s lots of layers of vocals all coming in after. So that makes for a pretty strong climax to a song that otherwise just starts off pretty okay. And coming away from that impression when ranking these songs might cause me to overrate it a little, yep.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that this song really needs a better hook and it’d be golden, it’s got groove and it’s got a strong ending but I think it’s a bit slow to get to a point where it really lights up and the first time it tries to get there it feels like it gets cut off early for no real reason. And there’s nothing particularly sticky about any of the vocal melodies, it’s more the synths that stand out in my mind over everything else.
Overall though I’d still say it’s… pretty good? I do like it and I do like the ending, but yeah, it’s a bit inconsistent the whole way through and I can’t see myself favoring it over the other synthpop song this round, either. They’re pretty close though, and I still enjoy this one, but I feel like I’m going to end up forgetting it pretty quickly, too.
Reward:
Topic: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results) (Read 62286 times)
