Evermind: Dark Empire – From Refuge to RuinTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:I vaguely recognize this album cover and I think they’ve been sent in roulettes before but I don’t believe I’ve ever listened to them myself? If I have I don’t remember it, anyways. My immediate impression from this is that it’s in the power/prog metal vein. Maybe just the power vein but I assume it’s going to get proggy at some point. I do think the melodies & riffs & really the general sound of this are a bit more interesting though, a nice dark sound. Ooh the bit with the vocalist on his own makes him sound kinda bad, not gonna lie. It does have some prog in it, I guess, there was a switch between 3/4 and 4/4 at some point and there’s a flute so I am immediately thinking Jethro Tull (a band I’ve barely listened to, mind you), but yeah. It goes on a bit long but it’s changing enough I’m not really bored by it either.
A surprising amount of this seems to be decently compelling instrumental moments and I’m all for that.Final Thoughts:The other pretty straightforward prog metal track of the round and I guess I don’t really have a strong preference one way or another between the two? They’re both pretty good prog metal tunes delivered by vocals I’m not 100% sold on but are given good melodies to work with and are usually backed up by enough instrumental swell for me to not notice the weaknesses of their voices, barring one quiet section in the middle.
The song is a bit more prog than I initially had commented on too, the verses are done through a measure of 3/4 then a measure of 4/4 that follows a bit of a nonstandard rhythm, I’m not sure it entirely works to be honest, but it’s at least more interesting than a straight 3/4.
In general the vocal parts of this aren’t my favorites, anyways. Usually the instrumentation has to make way for the vocals, so there isn’t as much interesting riffing or instrumental work in general during those parts. The bit between the vocals and the quiet bit towards the middle is kind of simple instrumentally but works surprisingly well, and then there’s the whole long instrumental segment that starts with the flute solo of all things and I like that entire stretch of the song quite a bit too. It’s a long buildup and the instrumentation manages to remain pretty tense and straightforward until it reaches that guitar solo that’s a pretty solid one, nothing amazing but it works as a payoff to the build.
I’m ending up writing these back to back with this one second but deciding in the process that while I do like this one quite a bit I think the fact that it takes twice as long to do pretty much the same structure and style of content as the Witherscape song, without having quite as strong a core sound to it, does make me slightly prefer that one. Slightly. I think the vocals let this one down more than they do that one, in particular, and it’s not as striking a sound, but I do like the whole progression of the song front-to-back regardless.
So yeah. Maybe one of the most standard prog metal songs I’ve gotten all roulette, honestly, but I’m fine with that if it’s gonna be done well enough to still keep me engaged, prog metal is after all still the kind of music I enjoy the most even if my preferences towards such have gotten a bit niche over the years. You can be the “token interesting but not stupendously memorable prog metal song” this round.
Since this is, yes, gonna be the last normal round, for fun let’s rank all those again real quick!
Winterhorde > Look to Windward > Son of Aurelius > Aenimus > Dark Empire > Psychonaut = Karas > Ørkenkjøtt, I think sounds about right? It’s hard to compare since I don’t, well, remember all of these immediately right now, haha. Round 7 doesn’t really have a song I can put in this category either. Anyways you get the point. This score’s kiiiinda borderline right now for me, high 3/low 4 range, but since it literally doesn’t matter for you and Aenimus was already a very low 4 to begin with, we’re gonna go low for now. Sorry, I guess. You still qualified either way.
Reward:
ariich: Witherscape – Wake of InfinityTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:Oh man I’ve tried listening to Witherscape before (I think this album actually) and I remember just not at all liking the vocals. And yeah I guess I can kind of see that? At least the clean vocals, I’m not particularly into, the harsh vocals seem fine. The music in general seems fine too, there’s a bit of flavor that I think is just going over my head right now due to the combined Headache Of Notable Impact and it just being pretty late at night, almost midnight now, but it’s dark and it’s melodic and it’s satisfyingly heavy too.
Another one where I don’t feel like I’m quite in the right mood for it and there’s something about it that I’m not that keen on but still seems overall pretty solid.Final Thoughts:This one’s in a weird place because, on one hand, I feel like it got overshadowed by another similar song this round, but on the other hand, I’ve enjoyed the heck out of it on every listen I’ve given it, which always surprises me for some reason. In fact, I ended up liking it more than the song that was initially overshadowing it. I dunno. I guess I just had this band catalogued as “not for me” but it turns out they probably actually are? I’m definitely interested in going back to check ‘em out again after this, anyways.
This is prog metal and kind of with a melodic death metal edge to it, too, but it sticks pretty firmly in darker territory than the standard for either of those genres, and does so with a lot of weirdly fitting synth work all the while. Like, this feels like a pretty typical prog-metal synth tone so I’m surprised that it works as well as it does here, it doesn’t feel like it should.
The chorus is one moment of the song that sticks out as not as dark, a bit uplifting even, but it’s actually a pretty good move to give some sense of resolution and reprieve from the rest of the song’s tone, and it’s a pretty good chorus on its own anyways. And the vocals… I think in the quiet bits of the song I’m not super into them, but otherwise they work surprisingly well for me when I generally don’t tend to like this sound.
There’s also an interesting choice to have a weirdly groovy solo in the thick of it all, and on one hand it kiiiind of feels out of place but on the other hand, it’s a solid solo and solo section in general and doesn’t really mess with the flow of the song either, it actually builds up nicely into the last chorus. I think my favorite moments of this are the parts where the guitars and synths are playing similar melodies in unison, with the hard-hitting, jagged chords under them. Something about that sound really works for me.
But like, overall, yeah, this is cool stuff. No clue why I dismissed it before. It’s prog but it’s not overly prog, it’s got a nice dark sound to it and pretty good hooks & melodies to back it up, a fairly diverse song overall given its sub-5 minute runtime, especially compared to the Dark Empire song, and I just like listening to it.
Reward:
Train of Naught: Blueneck – EpiphanyTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:No clue what this is but you seemed particularly excited about it so lay it on me. So far it’s… quiet, dark, tense. I’m, at the very least, interested in what it’s building to. Or if it isn’t building to anything I dunno that might be fine but it could also get stale. It doesn’t quite… build to its climax as much as just explode into it but that’s fine too. The Comforting Sounds song structure. Dunno, I think I’m pretty well in the mood for this late at night. I like the general sound of this and the one thing I was worried it would do didn’t happen so my thoughts are generally pretty positive.
Some nice atmospheric stuff and it’s overall pretty satisfying even if it doesn’t strike me as particularly special.Final Thoughts:I’m gonna invoke the Abigail Williams rule on this one too. I’m gonna make that a thing. The normal way I do write-ups just doesn’t feel right for a song like this.
To be fair there just straight up isn’t a lot to say about this one anyways. The first half. The overall sound is really good. The instruments and vocals have a lot of reverb on them but that only adds to the atmospheric, very cold sound that half of the song is trying to convey. There’s a lot of tension without build, but it keeps you on edge knowing full well that at some point the song’s going to explode into a wall of sound, but never knowing quite when. Knowing it’s coming doesn’t really change that, in fact knowing it’s coming only really makes that effect stronger. But it all sounds great and for as simple as it is it keeps me invested.
And the loud half, honestly this is heavier and darker than anything on the Abigail Williams song in question. Honestly it kind of makes me think of The Angelic Process, just with a bit less of a blown out mix and the piano still there to provide the basic melody. It’s the emotion of Loud refined. The fact that it does kind of lack in melody does mean it doesn’t hit as hard as other instances of this kind of climax that I can think of, but it’s still damn effective for what it is even in its simplicity.
And really at its core this song is very simple. It’s quiet for a while, then it gets loud, and ends quietly. The end. But man, it’s just the good kind of atmospheric sound, the kind where I can very easily just turn off my brain and let it wash over me. Pretty much exactly what I’m looking for here, and with a solid, though not especially strong (in comparison to, uhh, the round winner) emotional core to it to keep me invested. Probably your best entry to date and it would be a round winner in several other rounds, but, well, you gotta bit unlucky here.
Reward:
Dacul: Glen Hansard – Don't SettleTheme: NoneFirst Impressions:Oh hey, it’s mah boi Glen. I’m strapping in for the feels train. He sounds… way older on this one than he did on Bird of Sorrow, and I don’t know if I’m as into that (I just generally don’t seem to be into older sounding singers, oops). The instrumentation on this one has as much swell as I was expecting though, absolutely. DAMN that climax is haunting as hell. Jeez. Okay.
Round winner. Calling it now. I got distracted while listening to this one and I still loved it by the end. What a climax.Final Thoughts:Is this even fair? Can this be called cheating? Well, no, because I specifically put Hansard on the partially banned list, since that’s all I ever listened to from him. But I mean. This is friggin’ Bird of Sorrow again, basically. Same structure – piano driven quiet first half, huge rock climax with shouty, loud vocals. Lotta emotional power. A hell of a lotta.
The key differences are that, yeah, Hansard sounds a lot louder here than he did on that track. They’re only 7 years apart but it sure sounds like his voice has changed a lot in that time. I do prefer his smoother voice on Bird of Sorrow, to be sure, but I don’t dislike his voice here. It’s not on the same level of instantaneous repulsion I feel towards Nick Cave’s voice.
What this song does better is… well, a lot. I don’t know if necessarily everything? The piano lines are more interesting and nuanced here, and I like that about them, but at the same time, the simplicity and atmosphere of Bird of Sorrow worked wonders for that first half.
But this song… it’s not really as smoothly divided. This song starts quiet and ends loud, sure, but… the song’s just building and building the entire time. The piano bit itself gets heavier first, then the drums come in as the song goes on, with the rest of the rock instrumentation filling out the backdrop, strings and horns and possibly a full orchestra, I dunno, coming in as it builds.
There’s also this little tease where the song sounds like it’s reached its peak and then backs off, only to slam you back in the face with the REAL climax, which is just. Uhh. Chill-inducing? LEST YOU FORGET, BABY. Like jesus christ. Best single moment of any song in the roulette. One of the best single passages of music I’ve heard ever, maybe. Every single element is just straight-up perfect. The buildup of the core instruments, the huge, overwhelming swells of the orchestra, Hansard’s honestly other-worldly delivery. Yeah no surprises about the score on this one, y’all.
So the better question to ask, then. How does this compare to Bird of Sorrow? Is it better or worse? I dunno, it’s hard to tell. I went back to listen to Bird of Sorrow again right before doing this writeup, and… they’re both very, very good but in different ways. On the surface they do seem similar but Bird of Sorrow is, well, a very sorrowful song on the whole, and quieter at that. Whereas this is a very angry and tense song. There’s no real air of comfort to it, just darkness and power and intensity. They’re trying to evoke different moods. I guess… I like the quieter parts of Bird of Sorrow more than the quiet/middling parts of this, but this has the better climax by a small margin. I think I’d need time to really answer that question, but it’s irrelevant here anyways, obviously.
Not better than glass beach, btw. Or maybe it’ll also grow on me like that one did. Dude, you sent the two best songs of the roulette by no small margin, be proud of that regardless of what happens in the finals.
Reward:
Round Winner Bonus:
Current Standings:Bolsters: 32; +2 in the final round
Elite: 31; +2 in the final round
Dacul: 32Evermind: 30Puppies_On_Acid: 30ariich: 30------------------------------
Nekov: 27
TAC: 26
Buddyhunter1: 26
Train of Naught: 25
Topic: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results) (Read 62287 times)
