Author Topic: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)  (Read 61852 times)

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Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (6th Place)
« Reply #1540 on: December 30, 2019, 12:57:30 PM »
Joke's on you all, Buddy is #1 and secretly evermind isn't even the worst scoring EP here

Anyways I just saw knives out which was good

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (6th Place)
« Reply #1541 on: December 30, 2019, 05:12:13 PM »
:jamaritard:





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Offline TAC

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (6th Place)
« Reply #1542 on: December 30, 2019, 05:17:16 PM »
Hopefully Bosk sends me my special DTF goggles so I can read the yellow tracks.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (6th Place)
« Reply #1543 on: December 30, 2019, 05:19:36 PM »
Hopefully Bosk sends me my special DTF goggles so I can read the yellow tracks.
Use a better theme? :biggrin:
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Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (6th Place)
« Reply #1544 on: December 30, 2019, 05:26:13 PM »
5th Place: ariich – Light to Dark

1. Oddarrang – Ohlop

First Impressions:
DARK TO LIGHT LIGHT TO DARK DARK TO LIGHT anyways. Apparently the trumpet is the element of the light. I’m suspecting this is one of those jazzy type things based on the start. This is nice though. I’m not super sure how into it I’d be by itself but in terms of setting the stage or functioning as an intro it’s pretty solid.

Final Thoughts:
Hmm, this one grew on me a little, I think. I don’t think I have a ton else to say about it besides what I’ve already said though? We’ll try. The one main thing is that this has a recurrent motif throughout most of it that all the instruments play off of and do variations of and that certainly helps the song’s memorability when there’s a hook that actually gets returned to and sounds pretty dang good on its own, too.

There’s also a constant sense of build throughout this as it goes on, the drums do a lot to drive the mood of this one especially towards the middle and I like how all the instruments coalesce to a pretty satisfying build. I do think the song kind of… peters out after that though, it goes into some kind of solo section that doesn’t really have many solos for a while and while there’s some build after that it doesn’t quite satisfy in the same way.

I dunno. I don’t think this is, like, an exceptionally strong track, but it’s a pretty nice one. I get at least a fair bit out of it, it’s very easy to listen to on its own and the diversity of the instrumentation keeps it interesting across its runtime but it’s also, like, the ultimate “middle-of-the-road” kind of song. Like, exactly what I think of when I think about a 3 in this roulette. Good, but not even flirting with greatness.

Reward:



2. Au4 – So Just Hang On, Beautiful One

First Impressions:
The start of this sounds like Christmas music or something lol. I’m glad this one has vocals. I uhh. I dunno, this style just flat doesn’t do anything for me, what do you call this? New age? “World music”? (god no). RYM says “dream pop” and… yeah I don’t hear that. It’s not unpleasant and it’s like, solidly atmospheric I guess but there’s something to this one’s sound that I just find offputting.

Final Thoughts:
God I so much wish this did not have the choir vocals. Something about this style of choir vocals just does not work for me, because, yeah, it just makes me think I’m listening to Christmas music or church music at the very least. And then the chorus really does have the “world music” feel to it, if the lyrics weren’t in English I’d mistake it for “generic background track to play at the African themed section of the amusement park” honestly.

As for the rest of this it’s uhh… fine. I think I’ve gotten past the “I dislike the style of this” phase of listening to this one, it’s mostly just vaguely pleasant with one or two good melodies to it but mostly it’s just not very interesting to me. It doesn’t ever really feel like it progresses anywhere either, despite having some semblance of a build and some dynamic shifts to it, aside from layering the vocals towards the end of the track (which is a cheap way to do a build but sure whatever works) there’s just not a lot of payoff to any of it.

I’m honestly surprised I’m not being more negative towards this one but I can’t justify saying it’s totally garbage or even mediocre, but it also doesn’t warrant much praise, either, I feel. I’m okay with listening to this but I don’t think I’d ever actively seek it out.

Reward:



3. Keor – Terence

First Impressions:
Alright I’m gonna be honest I zoned out during the last one and didn’t notice this one had started until three minutes into it ooOOPS. UUuhh. This one I at least like a bit more, the vocals aren’t as offputting and there’s a nice sound to it as well as a bit more motion than the last track felt like it had. Also the heavy bit of this is actually really cool too DAMN. It kinda… feels disconnected from the earlier moments but there was at least some transition into it. I don’t know why the song goes back to the happier sounding bits after either, that’s a weird decision.

Final Thoughts:
I’ve ended up a bit conflicted on this one because… well, parts of it work really well, and then other parts of this feel groan-worthy to me. The chorus in particular, is uncharacteristically cheery and neo-prog-y in sound, basically what my mental image of what Neal Morse’s stuff sounds like. The lyrics here and the way the title/name of the song is integrated into the lyrics just rubs me the wrong way.

But then everything else about this is good? The quieter bits have this sinister undertone to them, a dark piano line and some acoustic plucking alongside a drum-driven groove. Often a lot of extra texture to them as well, mellotron I think? And some twinkling bells or synths. And the verses are very sparse, mostly just guitar and vocals with some synth and percussive flourishes. They feel like breathers between the darker moments of the song.

And of course there’s the heavy bit, which just naturally builds off the quiet darker moments from early in the song, it’s a pretty phenomenal build with a great transition to the heaver riffing, and that heavier riffing slays too. Well, the first one at least, the one-note djenty riffing isn’t particularly impressive and the guitar solo that comes in on top of it is… well, it gives that djenty riffing bit a bit more of a purpose at least.

But then every time I’m really enjoying the song and getting into it the chorus comes back it and just gives the song a frustrating tonal whiplash. Aside from the acoustic guitar line being similar to the darker moments it really does sound completely disconnected from a lot of the rest of the song. I still also don’t really know why the song even decided to continue past the heavy bit, since the rest doesn’t really feel like it adds much.

But I dunno. I’m just frustrated because I want to like this one more but I can’t, really, due to its inconsistency, both in terms of song quality and just tone shifts. It’s good, absolutely, one of the better tracks on this EP, but it’s not great either.

Reward:



4. Fireproven – Alone in the Dark

First Impressions:
Okay and now we’re just straight up to the heavy stuff lol, okay. I sort of got interrupted in the middle of listening to this one and kinda missed doing a full spiel on it but it’s got that euro-prog metal vibe to it but with very Rudess-y synth work and some heavier melodeath parts, it’s not exactly a stunningly unique fusion but it was enjoyable even without like, being able to focus too hard on it? I dug it.

Final Thoughts:
This sure is a pretty solid prog/melodeath type track. Like that pretty much sums it up. I like this one, it’s my favorite on the EP just on the style alone, but it’s also not… particularly memorable? As in, I never remember how it goes until I listen to it again, which I can’t say about any of the songs before it on the EP, even the one I’m not particularly fond of. I think that’s one issue a lot of metal can tend to have, forsaking hooks for the sake of more technical or more aggressive songwriting.

This isn’t really leaning too hard into either, admittedly – there are heavier moments, to be sure, mostly on the verses with the intense blastbeats and growls, but even then the counterpoint to them is a very melodic guitar line and walls of lush synths to still keep things melodic, and the rest of the song is a mix of synth leads, thumping drum lines, and more melodic vocals. But none of any of those melodies are, like, a hook. The chorus doesn’t hit that hard. The synth leads are more solo-ish than any memorable melodic lines.

There’s a lot to like about this song, to be sure, but unlike the Witherfall song you sent previously none of it hits as hard, or with as much of a melodic core to it. And it’s not even really particularly dark in tone either, which, considering the “light to dark” motif of the EP feels especially weird. It’s heavy, it’s satisfyingly melodic, but it’s just… something I’ve heard before, and not done quite as well as I’ve heard it done either.

Reward:



5. A Swarm of the Sun – Lifeline
Interlude

First Impressions:
I see that technically both these A Swarm of the Sun tracks are really brief ones and probably instrumental from what I recall of ‘em. But also not, subsequent songs on the album so I’m wondering how you’ll make that work? I dunno, this is nice as an interlude but yeah probably wouldn’t do great on its own.

Final Thoughts:
I think this is the longest interlude across any of the EPs, about as long as some full-length songs, and technically I think the full length of the song does breach my 3 minute restriction but this edited version doesn’t, so, alright. There’s… not much I have to say about this one, since I haven’t really thought about it much. It’s better than the Au4 song. It’s an alright atmospheric interlude. It’s not the main attraction here though.


6. A Swarm of the Sun – The Worms Are Out

First Impressions:
Okay, that transition was a bit sudden but it doesn’t… not work? I like this a lot more than the last one, there’s some nice driving energy to this one and also vocals which I didn’t expect. I dunno if it ends decisively enough to make for a satisfying closer? With the long fade at the end kind of, actually. But it’s weird that this is a lot less heavy than the fireproven track before it which throws me for a loop with the whole light to dark theme, though I guess this is “darker”. I dunno.

Final Thoughts:
This is certainly more interesting, or at least, faster-paced than the other track from these guys on this EP. I dunno, I feel like it kind of fails in the melodic department for me. When I like my black metal it’s because it’s melodic alongside intense. This isn’t… lacking in melody, there’s a tremolo guitar line in the background of parts of this but the sludgier riff is given priority in the mix and kind of dominates the song. It’s a kind of sludgy riff I’ve heard in plenty of this kind of post-metal, too, and it’s not a bad riff but it’s not an interesting one, not enough to base a song around at least.

The song’s got at least a bit of a dynamic shift to it in that it gets slightly softer or slightly heavier at a few places but it’s also… over so quick, there’s just not much to grasp on to either. If you don’t like the riff, or the basic, bare-bones melodies, or the vocals, it’s not something that feels like it’s going to leave much of an impact. It certainly hasn’t for me. At its core the sound isn’t bad, I prefer this to downtuned, sludgy as hell post-metal with absolutely no melodies, and the pacing is fast enough that it doesn’t get boring, but it’s just… weirdly insubstantial.

Reward:



Overall EP Thoughts:

First Impressions:
This is a weird sequence of songs that I’m not quite sure all work together. I didn’t care for one of the tracks at all and while I’m not wild over the other four yet they all seemed pretty solid, and it’s a pretty breezy listen at only 33 minutes too so it doesn’t really feel like it drags on or overstays its welcome, but it also can’t really seem to commit to a song or at least escalate in a way that feels like the jumps between styles quite mesh? The flow of this works well for the first half, but the music leaves me a bit cold, and then for the second half I like the music more but the flow and coherence kind of fall apart to compensate.

Final Thoughts:
I guess I kind of get what you were going for with a light to dark theme but 1. It doesn’t really feel like this ever gets “dark”, at least not to me, even the Swarm of the Sun track at the end is more… upbeat and beige than actually “dark” and the Fireproven isn’t darker than your average DT song either. There’s some okay transitions between tracks here too and I think, weirdly, the only one that feels particularly off is the transition between the last two tracks, but none of the transitions are like… impressive either, they’re fine. They’re not the problem I have with the overall EP structure of this, which is that there just isn’t much consistency even across sounds on this EP, it’s all over the place, first from Jazz to World Music to Neo-Prog to Melodeath/Prog to Post-Metal. You can maybe vaguely tie these together but the connections would be loose at best. I also don’t feel A Swarm of the Sun makes for a particularly good closer either, though I don’t think anything else here would either, so I don’t know. I don’t think it totally falls on its face in terms of overall cohesion but it feels more like a playlist with some editing than a proper disc of music.

EP Score Reward:

Total: 15/30



Song Rankings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Wolverine – Communication Lost
12.
13.
14.
15. Fireproven – Alone in the Dark
16. Keor – Terence
17.
18. Oddarrang – Ohlop
19.
20. Dreaming Madmen – Your Possessor
21.
22. Mother of Millions – Artefact
23. A Swarm of the Sun – The Worms Are Out
24.
25. Voices From the Fuselage – Life on Titan
26. Au4 – So Just Hang On, Beautiful One
27.
28. Frequency Drift – Nine
29.
30.

Key: BolstersPuppiesEliteariichEvermindDacul

Offline TAC

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (6th Place)
« Reply #1545 on: December 30, 2019, 05:27:42 PM »
Hopefully Bosk sends me my special DTF goggles so I can read the yellow tracks.
Use a better theme? :biggrin:

How does that change it? I mean yellow yellow is yellow.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (5th Place)
« Reply #1546 on: December 30, 2019, 05:29:06 PM »
i'm using the DTFApollo theme so purple is the color that doesn't show up great for me but i can still read it fine enough. it's basically impossible to satisfy every theme anyways.

alternatively get glasses, old man

Offline TAC

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (5th Place)
« Reply #1547 on: December 30, 2019, 05:33:24 PM »
Ok, I'll just have to use my...












































wait for it...


































would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Bolsters

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (5th Place)
« Reply #1548 on: December 30, 2019, 07:39:00 PM »
I thought that Au4 track was pretty good when I listened to it the other day.

Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (5th Place)
« Reply #1549 on: December 30, 2019, 07:42:48 PM »
that's why your EP is the secret 7th place i mentioned earlier

Offline Buddyhunter1

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (5th Place)
« Reply #1550 on: December 30, 2019, 07:53:13 PM »
@TAC: You could also just highlight the text with your mouse ;D
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Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (5th Place)
« Reply #1551 on: December 31, 2019, 08:48:50 AM »
4th Place: Bolsters – Neon is the New Black

1. Perturbator – The New Black
Interlude

First Impressions:
My suspicion with this EP is that it’s going to be 1. very 80’s 2. either a complete miss or a pretty strong hit with nothing in between. The first one I already know I’m right on based on just this intro, but I mean, I recognize a few of these artists. This sets the stage decently enough but if it was any longer it’d probably annoy the hell out of me.

Final Thoughts:
This is the second time I’ve been sent this specific sample in a roulette, which is particularly amusing. The last time was We Made God – II in my second roulette, I believe. I don’t really like usages of samples like this. I’d rather it just be straight instrumental. Anyways. This serves as an intro pretty well. I’m not gonna have much to say about most interludes due to not needing to score them by themselves as well as most of them being pretty brief. I will say I don’t think the transition into the next track is handled that smoothly but it’s a minor gripe.



2. The Midnight – Vampires

First Impressions:
Sax, baby. Aww yeah. Between Dark All Day and Midnight City it’s an instrument that always seems to work well in this style. A bit less convinced on the vocals here though. Not really a fan of his voice. Not a dealbreaker though. I mean, like, more of this is sax soloing than vocal bits anyways. I dunno if I’m super convinced by the synthwave elements of this either, they’re serviceable but not much else.

Final Thoughts:
Well, I mean, I feel like this song gets elevated in my mind simply due to being leagues better than everything else on this EP, for one. Three of the main tracks are instrumental! This definitely feels like the most well-constructed song, at least. It has some kind of verse-chorus structure, though the chorus is a sax hook instead of a proper chorus.

The sax loop on this one can get maybe a bit repetitive with how much it plays but there’s also a fair bit of adhoc-ing and soloing and I mean, if a sax is going to be the most prominent element of a song I’m still already on board for sure, like I said. Aside from the vocal bits of the verses it’s pretty clear the rest of this one is entirely built to highlight the sax leads, too, so it doesn’t feel like it matters so much that the rest of the instrumentation is pretty trite.

And I mean, it does have a good, fun groove to it regardless. I dig the way the instrumentation fades out and then back in during the bridge/extended solo to allow the peak of that solo to serve as an effective climax for the entire song, too. I don’t know what else to say about this one though. It’s… good, for sure, it’s definitely a pretty memorable and catchy track, but I don’t feel like it hits hard enough to be one that’s going to stick with me in the same way as the aforementioned songs do. Still pretty solid though.

Reward:



3. Timecop1983 – Before Dawn (Intro)
Interlude

First Impressions:
Uhhh not so sure about this interlude honestly. It feels like it’s trying to be atmospheric but didn’t really actually build up that atmosphere. Like an empty-sounding stellardrone track basically.

Final Thoughts:
I don’t have much to add to this one. It serves its purpose as an interlude. It bridges the two tracks well enough. I don’t know if it needed to be here but I don’t, like, mind having it.



4. Scandroid – Atom & E.E.V.

First Impressions:
There’s something on this that seems like it’s trying to sound like a saxophone but it still sounds like a synth? Or maybe I’m imaging that and it’s just a synth trying to sound like a syn- no there it is again, alright. I’m guessing this is one of the fully instrumental ones though ehh? I don’t really mind it but like you correctly guessed this instrumental style on its own usually isn’t what does it for me. Either it needs some hooks, some atmosphere, or some saxophone apparently. I don’t find it unpleasant but I don’t really find it interesting.

Final Thoughts:
Alright. So, there’s exactly one thing about this song that works for me really well. And it’s just one melodic line. That really liquid synth tone that goes pretty high pitched during the louder moments of the track. The melody it plays there, I like quite a lot, it drives up some decent emotive resonance for me. The one that kicks in at like 10:57 on the overall EP, I mean. That’s good stuff.

The rest of this… it’s alright. I think it changes and shifts about more than I initially gave it credit for, for one thing. There’s all sorts of different passages around the core sound – some really empty, basic moments, some moments with a plucky synth line, the bits that have that kind of sax sound to them, it doesn’t really feel like it’s looping that often even if all the individual segments aren’t that distinct since they’re built around the same groove with not much dynamic variation, but it’s the little things that work here.

The quiet moments also let the louder moments with that really great melody hit pretty well – especially like the second time the song really kicks into full gear, that’s a good drop. I feel like this would make good background music for a video game, it’s got enough melodic hook to it to be somewhat memorable but it’s also not super noisy or aggressively interesting so you can also kind of zone out to it. Maybe that’s the appeal of it. It’s not, like… strongly resonating with me, to be clear, but I did end up liking it more than I expected to.

Reward:



5. Timecop1983 – Gone
Interlude

First Impressions:
I like this interlude a lot more. It’s pretty soothing and atmospheric, this time. Exactly what it needs to be. It’s not as good as the M83 interlude on your last EP you sent me a few roulettes back though.

Final Thoughts:
This one feels… out of place. This is a really happy-sounding track that prefaces a pretty dark-sounding stretch of the EP. Like, even in the context of the story you’ve laid out, the music doesn’t match what’s supposed to be happening here. I like it as a follow-up to the previous track well enough and barring the tonal dissonance it does serve as a pretty good transition but it feels like something else could’ve better fit that purpose.



6. Perturbator – Femme Fatale

First Impressions:
Huh, there’s a neat, laid-back, kinda jazzy vibe to this one. Was not expecting that at all. It’s neat. It’s a fusion I wasn’t really expecting or ever even really heard before, so I wouldn’t be shocked if once the initial freshness of it wears off I’m not feeling it as much, but I dunno, I do quite like the vibe of this. It’s smooth. And it has saxophone. This is secretly the saxophone EP.

Final Thoughts:
“I wouldn’t be shocked if once the initial freshness of it wears off I’m not feeling it as much” indeed because uhh yeah, once you get past “oh, this is a dark jazz synthwave track” it’s… kind of slow? Kind of empty? I honestly can never remember anything about this one or how it sounds, which I can’t say about any of the other tracks on this EP.

Like, the sound itself is… nice. The piano and thick bass tone fit in well with the dark jazz style, and of course the saxophone is nice to have, though it feels a bit downplayed. This really sticks more to that sound than the electronic side of their sound, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as at its core I prefer this sound more, but…

This just never goes anywhere. If the last track is background music that can still be melodically interesting at times, this is just straight up background music I can only ever enjoy if I’m reeeeally focusing on it, otherwise it mostly just… bores me. It’s, to be clear. Not bad at all, it’s honestly more interesting than some of the other slow jazz songs I’ve had in this roulette, but it’s still just not doing much for me.

Reward:



7. Scandroid – Into The Darkness
Interlude

First Impressions:
Scandroid is so far the artist I’ve been least impressed by here so let’s see if this interlude changes that? Aaand it’s already over. This is why I’m not scoring interludes, there’s almost nothing to this (which is fine as it serves its purpose to a bridge) but I have nothing to say about this.

Final Thoughts:
This interlude is so short I basically have nothing to say about it, besides that the transition into the song following it is maybe a touch abrupt? If it ends where I think it ends and the next track starts where I think it does. If not then it’s an interlude with an abrupt transition in it. Either way… it’s fine.



8. Perturbator – Vantablack

First Impressions:
Oh, another Perturbator, and another actually vocal track! This one seems really percussion-heavy moreso than most of the rest on here. I assume there’s gonna be saxophone at some point since that’s been the running theme of the main tracks. I like the moments where this has more layers to it than just the beat but the core of this one isn’t doing a ton for me. A heavier & darker turn towards the end of this one too, hmm. Not sure how I feel about this one yet but it’s at least more interesting than the full-length Scandroid track.

Final Thoughts:
Okay, so this one. The really dark, bassy sound of this is something that can be very hit or miss for me but I think this leans more towards being a hit than not, though it’s not as strong of one as, let’s say, Move Systems by Georgia, which is a song I should hate but don’t. This does have a nice, slow groove to it throughout though that doesn’t stay completely static and thus doesn’t get old over its runtime. So in theory it sounds cool, even if it’s not that emotionally potent.

But oh god… the lyrics… I think this song is going for “dark and sinister” but lines like “please allow me to play with my shiny stainless blade” and “shut up or I'll smash every tooth in your mouth” cross the line from “dark” to “needlessly edgy” and thus kind of laughable and I lose the ability to take this one seriously. Like seriously most of the song kind of accomplishes what it’s trying to do lyrically but you can’t take lines like that with a straight face.

Oh yeah, also, the climax at the end I usually forget about for some reason. It’s a fitting peak for the style of the song, it’s surprisingly heavy and intense too, it’s one of the most energetic moments on this entire EP for one. I guess I’d like this one more if 1. It didn’t come off so “edgy” to a cringe-inducing extent or 2. It was at least a bit more melodically rich so that there was any actual hook to it, I do like the sound and the flow of the song well enough but it loses me at times and was never strongly impressing me to begin with either. It’s at least more memorable than most of the other tracks on here though.

Reward:



9. FM-84 – Atlas (Interlude)
Interlude

First Impressions:
Another really short one and I’m honestly not even sure quite where it ended and the next track began, but it’s a nice palette cleanser after the last track’s darker and heavier sound.

Final Thoughts:
This one was already over by the time I finished the writeup for the last one but I think the synth sound on this sounds particularly cheap compared to the rest of the EP. It’s so short that I barely notice it or am bothered by it, though, so yeah whatevs. It’s severe tonal whiplash from the last track but it transitions well into the next track.



10. The Midnight – Tokyo Night Train

First Impressions:
Reading through your story as I’m listening along and apparently this whole arc is the “everything is good now” part of the story which explains why this one’s so bright in sound, haha. The sound of this is… nice but it really does feel kind of insubstantial, there’s no real movement throughout the song besides “it starts soft, gets a bit louder, and then gets softer again”. I’unno. It’s fine.

Final Thoughts:
Uuugggh okay this one’s fallen victim to the “well this one element really annoys me and ruins the entire song” issue. In particular, I got incredibly sick of the main plucky loop that forms the foundation of most of this song. Something about the tone, or the melody, or the way it’s like a weird wave of sound followed by this stiff five-note melody creates a contrast my brain doesn’t like, or, well, I don’t quite know how to rationalize it I guess but boy do I not like it, nor do I like how it’s omnipresent throughout the track, even if it’s drowned out at times.

But then also the song just… doesn’t have much to it. Moreso than any other track on this EP it feels insubstantial. It has as much going on in it as any of the sub-2 minute interludes, but it stretches that amount of content out across a 5-minute runtime for no good reason I can think of. It starts soft, gets a bit louder, and then gets soft again. It has exactly one melodic hook, and it’s the one I don’t like. There’s no real sense of movement throughout the entire track. It doesn’t work as an active listening piece because there’s not enough going on to justify my full attention, but it doesn’t work as background music because the one hook is so distracting and kind of obnoxious.

I don’t… hate this, I don’t think it’s worthy of a below-average score because it’s mostly a harmless piece of music that probably only annoys specifically me and nobody else, and I mean, I think I only started really feeling somewhat negative towards it during my fourth listen, but even at its best it never really rises beyond “inoffensive” and it’s a shocking contrast to how relatively good the other song from the same artist on this EP was, too.

Reward:



11. Timecop1983 – After Life (Outro)
Interlude

First Impressions:
It’s amusing to have two artists represented only by interludes here but kind of neat at the same time? I dunno. I like this one too, it’s got some solid atmosphere to it & it fits the brighter sound of the past few tracks well as well. It’s a neat little cooldown track.

Final Thoughts:
This works as an outro for the EP pretty well and it’s a very pleasant piece of music on its own too. It’s got more of a melodic hook than Femme Fatale and more atmosphere than most every other track here too, on its own I’d score it above two of the core tracks on this EP even despite how brief and insubstantial it is because it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do and doing it pretty well.



Overall EP Thoughts:

First Impressions:
I do sort of suspect this will play better as a whole than it does as any individual songs as it’s pretty smoothly all tied together for one and there’s a very consistent sound across all the tracks too, but I also can’t say any of the tracks really hit that hard either. It’s surprisingly atmospheric overall really. It’s very different from the EP you sent last time, for sure, despite picking from a lot of the same style. I like it but I don’t know if it’ll impress me enough to win this for you, even with the slight advantage you have. I bet Kattelox would really like this one a lot, though on first listen I’m not quite as enthused, though it’s still pretty interesting and enjoyable.

Final Thoughts:
So yeah, while the end-to-end product is mostly pretty cohesive despite a few weird tonal shifts and one or two transitions that don’t feel too smooth, the individual songs aren’t quite doing as much for me. I’d say I don’t think any of the core songs sound that much alike, there’s definitely a decent variety here in terms of sounds without any of them ever feeling too out of place either, but there is still at least an undercurrent of saminess across the entire EP. The EP sort of feels like it basically peters out the longer it goes on though, with most every track impressing me less than the one before it. If I was giving out this extra score for the EP overall it’d get just a 3/5 equivalent rating, but since these last 5 points are more focused on how well it functions as a whole, I feel it deserves a bit better than that, though it’s not perfect in that aspect either.

EP Score Reward:
Qualification Bonus:

Total: 17/30



Song Rankings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. The Midnight – Vampires
11. Wolverine – Communication Lost
12.
13.
14.
15. Fireproven – Alone in the Dark
16. Keor – Terence
17. Perturbator – Vantablack
18. Oddarrang – Ohlop
19.
20. Dreaming Madmen – Your Possessor
21. Scandroid – Atom & E.E.V.
22. Mother of Millions – Artefact
23. A Swarm of the Sun – The Worms Are Out
24. Perturbator – Femme Fatale
25. Voices From the Fuselage – Life on Titan
26. Au4 – So Just Hang On, Beautiful One
27.
28. Frequency Drift – Nine
29.
30. The Midnight – Tokyo Night Train

Key: BolstersPuppiesEliteariichEvermindDacul

Offline Elite

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (4th Place)
« Reply #1552 on: December 31, 2019, 09:48:16 AM »
:corn


I like how ridiculously detailed your rite-ups are. Well, I suppose they could be even more detailed, but, you know. Quite a lot of words still.
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (4th Place)
« Reply #1553 on: December 31, 2019, 10:49:03 AM »
mostly i am just trying to write as i listen & get as many thoughts out as i can

the writeups for the EP songs are a bit sloppier because i didn't have time after each song to finish a writeup like i normally do but it's fine

i'll post #3 before i leave for my flight this evening so if i die in a plane crash you'll never know who won but you'll know who didn't

Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (4th Place)
« Reply #1554 on: December 31, 2019, 03:33:22 PM »
3rd Place: Elite – Progdeathpop: Congrats [insert participant name]

1. Deathcrush – Ego

First Impressions:
Well I have a decent idea how this is going to sound just from the EP name, hah. Like yeah exactly what it says on the tin, this is a poppy little track but then there’s some roaring metal guitars in the background. I’m not sure what part of this is prog though, but maybe that’s other songs on the EP, shrug. I think the biggest problem this has is that the groove never seems to change at all and it wasn’t even that good a groove to begin with.

Final Thoughts:
I… don’t get it. Like, the more I listen to this one the more boring I find it. I don’t know what to say beyond that. It has exactly one groove to it and that groove never really changes through the course of the song. The guitar texture is solid but it’s so downplayed and not ever really the focus. It does make this more interesting than it’d be without it, sure, but not by a lot.

And the vocals… they’re okay. They’re a bit, I dunno how best to put this… snarky? For my tastes. I feel like the vocals could be some singer from 80’s synthpop, and not like, throwback 80’s styled synthpop, but like, what female singers sounded like back then. It’s not a tone I care for and honestly the chorus started getting on my nerves after a while.

It also never really feels like it goes anywhere, like it’s a lot of buildup to a payoff that never comes. The roaring guitars towards the end seem to want to make me think this is some kind of climax but it’s not satisfying. I dunno. It’s not unpleasant to listen to and it’s brief enough that I’m not really mad at it, but aside from the guitar texture there’s not really anything about this I find appealing. I honestly didn’t expect to rate this one quite so low but nah, it kinda deserves it.

Reward:



2. Agent Fresco – He Is Listening
Interlude

First Impressions:
Man I don’t remember Agent Fresco being this heavy. I mean, I honestly should probably go check them out again sometime, it’s been… a while. This one was only like a minute long apparently and I’m not exactly sure where it ended.

Final Thoughts:
I think this serves as a good lead-in to the next track, though it does feel a bit disconnected from the one that came before that. That’s about all I really have to say on it. It’s a tiny instrumental track that’s mostly just a jagged riff for 30 seconds and then it’s done.



3. 22 – Call Me Trimtab

First Impressions:
Okay, so I thought the start of this was part of the Agent Fresco track at first but apparently not, that’s a pretty solid & punchy riff kicking this one off though, yeah. This is a big improvement from the first track really, I always dig this kind of chordy guitar riff-driven groove and this one’s just pretty fun. Could honestly be a song off The Congregation if that album was happy instead of dark.

Final Thoughts:
This one’s real fun. Easily one of the two big highlights on this EP for me. This is what I imagine when I think of “progpop” though I definitely wouldn’t call it “death” to any capacity, but then, nothing on the EP is really “death” and I’m not sure where that aspect of the name even comes from but y’know whatever.

Anyways that guitar riff that forms the foundation of the song is really fun. It’s no wonder I mistook this for part of the Agent Fresco song the first time as it feels like it would fit in well with what I remember from them. It keeps the song groovy but also constantly shifting because the chords don’t line up the same way all the time, it really is the same reason I like Leprous’ metal stuff so much (and djent could take some pages from this sound and be actually, y’know, fun with its grooves in this way).

The vocals are also tons of fun too, I don’t think any melodies are particularly strong but there’s a lot of force to the delivery mixed in with the carefree & kinda smooth vibe throughout. Also shoutout to the bass, which pulls a lot of weight, especially during the bridge, though the verses as well. And really the rest of the song. Really all the instrumentation is cool here, the drums play off the rhythm of the guitars well while not just being doubling for the rhythm & keep the steady 4/4 going in contrast, it all just comes together well.

So yeah if the entire EP was like this one I think I’d like it a lot more than I do? Fun stuff. Gonna have to check out these guys, I’ve heard a bit about them already from DTF too but never actually checked ‘em out and I definitely need to correct that.

Reward:



4. Port Noir – 13

First Impressions:
Well, I think this one started since the sound & vocals changed. Gotta be honest from the start of this I’m getting some nu-metal vibes off this and I’m not sure how I feel about that, but mostly not, good. The groove is… alright, but I’m not so sure about these vocals lol. Yeah, this one’s not bad but it’s not really doing much for me either, at least not on first listen. Maybe it’ll grow on me.

Final Thoughts:
Uuugh so one thing I’ve been finding lately is I don’t like music that sounds “meat-headed” like this. Bro-y or kind of mindlessly, aggressively male. That’s how these kind of riffs and this song in general comes off to me honestly. The vocals aren’t quite there, the dude’s got a kind of weird accent that, without checking, I’d guess I’d say is Australian? Apparently they’re Swedish, after checking. Sure thing. Shouldn’t be surprised by that but I would’ve never guessed it.

Also the “wah-wah” effect that plays throughout the quieter moments got super annoying on this one too. That’s the specific thing that makes it sound uncomfortably nu-metal-y to me. Most of the moments without it are honestly fine even if I’m not super into them. The instrumental bridge has some nice heavy riffing and something resembling a solo even. And the chorus does have a good vocal line. I’m not all negative on this one, I promise. I thought I would be more negative towards it than I eventually ended up being, actually.

But I just. Don’t mesh with this style in general. There’s elements of this that work, but not enough to make me want to ever listen to this one again, either. Remove the wah-wah effect and it’d probably score slightly higher, but as is it’s just… meh.

Reward:



5. Blood Command - S01E02.Return.Of.The.Arsonist.720p.HDTV.x264

First Impressions:
Hmm that was a transition alright, a bit abrupt but Sure. The vocals of these are like, pop punk. Really high-pitched pop punk. That’s kinda the vibe I get from this entire one actually, it’s not metal as much as it is pop punk. That’s fine I suppose, pop punk is like diet post-hardcore and this one’s upbeat and fun enough. I dig it well enough.

Final Thoughts:
Okay, I’m gonna say it. This is straight up just a Coheed track from like, In Keeping Secrets or so. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, obviously. That’s the best Coheed album. This has a ton of fun, driving energy to it, and it’s also just coincidentally up the alley of pop punk/post-hardcore goodness I’ve been particularly into lately. It’s probably the simplest song on this entire EP… well, maybe not moreso than Deathcrush, but the rest for sure.

I like the vocals a lot, both the lead vocalist and the whoa-ohs going on in the background of the chorus too, that’s probably the element that makes it sound most like Coheed to me, which, good. The guitar riffing is strong and punchy, the energy is infectious, the song is already over goddammit. Yeah, this one’s short and that’s honestly my only real gripe with it, it’s over and done way too soon. But I mean. If your only real problem is that I want more that mostly just tells me that the song’s real good, okay.

Reward:



6. Major Parkinson – Isabel: A Report to an Academy

First Impressions:
Man it sucks I’m gonna have to give this apparently 9 or so minute song the same relative impact on the final score as the 3 minute songs here. Not much I can do about that with the scoring system I’m using here I guess! This had a neat vibe going on but what the actual heck are those gruff, deep vocals. They go away quickly but wow I hate it. On the flipside I like the strings and flutes(?) in the instrumentation here. This one kinda seems to be just all over the place really. I feel like it’s gonna be hard to form a strong opinion on until I get a better grasp of the  entire thing.

Final Thoughts:
Is this from a concept album or something? It feels like it’s supposed to be, but without the context I really have no clue. It’s… kind of cheesy if it isn’t, admittedly. Mostly I don’t like the male vocalist on this one very much. He’s like, halfway between like, straight up talking and doing growled vocals and it just sounds… not great. The lyrics that I can make out are part of what make this sound so cheesy, I think. “Darwin didn't love you very much” is a really sick burn despite its cheesiness though, I guess.

The way this one sounds is very… prog, for sure. I feel like it comes off really emotionally dry, but on the other hand the instrumentation is so diverse and layered and complex I also can’t help but enjoy it a lot? And it does coalesce together for a more straightforward and dense sound on the chorus without feeling like a huge style shift from the stiffer, more jagged sounds of the rest of the song.

The bridge is probably the weirdest part of this… I’m not too into the “call her call her” vocal bits (or the male vocals before this, but we’ve already covered that), but there’s also a lot of instrumental moments here I like. The solo right after that bit, and the synth-y marching rhythm of the section that immediately follows are both really cool.

I think that’s just a good microcosm of my opinions on this song as a whole. Clinically it’s got really good and interesting instrumentation and I’m definitely noticing new things about it every listen, but it’s often not really striving to be that emotionally captivating and the vocals are very hit-and-miss with more misses than hits. I don’t even mind that the music can be dry at points as it does make the song overall more dynamic, the chorus hits harder because the rest of the song isn’t so lush and the verses and bridge are more striking because they contrast with the pretty, anthemic chorus so much. And it’s still overall cohesive.

I do mind the vocals though. They do bring this down a notch for me, albeit they’re ignorable enough some of the time to not be a huge detriment to the song overall, they don’t sink it to the level of a 0 for sure. But I’m definitely at least interested in the sound here… even if, as I’m worrying, the vocals on the rest of the album are like this and are as unlistenable to me as they are here.

Oh and super cool ending as well btw. That’s just a great way to end a song, “everything goes absolutely insane and falls apart gloriously”.

Reward:



Overall EP Thoughts:

First Impressions:
On the whole it feels really like a mixed bag. Two songs I’m already pretty meh on, two more that are fun and upbeat and I like, the last is a big long one that I mostly like the sound of but it has some weird bits I’m not so sure about. The transitions are smooth mostly but there was the one that felt a bit abrupt too. It’s also fairly short so it’s not gonna be a pain to relisten to, either. This one seems really hit or miss on first listen, albeit the misses aren’t huge misses and they’re more than outweighed by the hits, and I suspect this will grow on me with relistens too.

Final Thoughts:
This is stylistically a mess, I do see some vague throughlines across the EP overall in terms of style but Major Parkinson is not at all connected to anything that came before and Deathcrush barely fits in too. The flow’s… mostly solid. I think Deathcrush into Agent Fresco doesn’t work too well, and the transition between Port Noir and Blood Command is a bit jerky, but all the other transitions work fine, and the track ordering makes sense overall, the quiet opener, a faster, peppier interlude & track to kick things into full gear, a slower track before the most upbeat moment, and the big long prog epic closing things off. It mostly functions as a unit, aside from the stylistic inconsistencies, but I don’t think it stumbles too hard in any one category to be deserving of a really low score here, though it’s among the least cohesive of any of the EPs overall regardless.

EP Score Reward:
Qualification Bonus:

Total: 18/30



Song Rankings:
1.
2.
3. Blood Command - S01E02.Return.Of.The.Arsonist.720p.HDTV.x264
4.
5.
6. 22 – Call Me Trimtab
7.
8.
9.
10. The Midnight – Vampires
11. Wolverine – Communication Lost
12. Major Parkinson – Isabel: A Report to an Academy
13.
14.
15. Fireproven – Alone in the Dark
16. Keor – Terence
17. Perturbator – Vantablack
18. Oddarrang – Ohlop
19.
20. Dreaming Madmen – Your Possessor
21. Scandroid – Atom & E.E.V.
22. Mother of Millions – Artefact
23. A Swarm of the Sun – The Worms Are Out
24. Perturbator – Femme Fatale
25. Voices From the Fuselage – Life on Titan
26. Au4 – So Just Hang On, Beautiful One
27. Port Noir – 13
28. Frequency Drift – Nine
29. Deathcrush – Ego
30. The Midnight – Tokyo Night Train

Key: BolstersPuppiesEliteariichEvermindDacul

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1555 on: December 31, 2019, 05:51:48 PM »
:2hammer:











 :corn
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Thes sng is are sounds rally nece an I lyke tha sungar

Offline Elite

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1556 on: December 31, 2019, 05:55:16 PM »
Hurray

Now what?

Happy new year’
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
Squ
scRa are the resultaten of sound nog bring propey

Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1557 on: December 31, 2019, 06:23:14 PM »
Either Puppies or Dacul wins next. Both have placed 2nd in my roulettes before, one of them is about to repeat that feat :corn

Offline Bolsters

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1558 on: December 31, 2019, 06:31:00 PM »
Well, thanks for having me again and not booting me out unceremoniously in Round 1 this time. :lol

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1559 on: December 31, 2019, 06:33:55 PM »
:itsatrap:
aka Puppies_On_Acid
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Quote from: Podaar
King's Photoshop powers are akin to a three year old cutting faces out of photographs with the edge of a dull spoon and pasting them in place with garden shovel full of Gorilla Glue.
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Thes sng is are sounds rally nece an I lyke tha sungar

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1560 on: December 31, 2019, 10:02:24 PM »
:caffeine:







:lemmeseeurwarface:







:panicattack:




Kill me!
aka Puppies_On_Acid
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King's Photoshop powers are akin to a three year old cutting faces out of photographs with the edge of a dull spoon and pasting them in place with garden shovel full of Gorilla Glue.
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Thes sng is are sounds rally nece an I lyke tha sungar

Offline Sacul

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1561 on: December 31, 2019, 10:31:24 PM »
Dang, didn't expect to do this well. Congrats puppies!

Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1562 on: December 31, 2019, 11:18:56 PM »
I'm not gonna post until it's 2020 in my time zone

Might wait until tomorrow morning tbh I am tired

Offline Elite

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1563 on: January 01, 2020, 05:48:29 AM »
Okay, so I just read through all of that write-up. Fair assessments on all tracks, I think. I personally believe the Port Noir track is the weakest of the bunch and the Deathcrush one is actually better than you make it out to be, though my intention was for it to serve as an 'opener', and apparently, it didn't really do a good job :lol

In hindisght I maybe should not have included those two tracks at all and perhaps the whole EP would have been better with an additional 22, Agent Fresco or Major Parkinson song. I was too hellbent on getting 5 different artists on there I guess, that I didn't even really consider this option. As for the EP title, it was kind of a joke. I originally had a different Deathcrush song on there which is a fair bit heavier, but it's also a lot shorter and didn't fit as well. I actually tried fitting a Godflesh song on there for fun, but it didn't work at all. So the 'death' in the title wasn't really on the EP in the end, apart from in the first track's band-name. I think 'Progpop' is quite fitting. The second half of the title 'Congrats [insert participant name]' even more so.

I was personally quite pleased with the flow of the final product. The Agent Fresco song was only really added as a better transition from 'Ego' to 'Call Me Trimtab' and the editing I did actually helped. (I cut off the last 15 or so seconds of the Agent Fresco track). I'm glad there was something for you to enjoy!

Thanks for having me. 3rd place isn't too bad :biggrin:

Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
Squ
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Offline ariich

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1564 on: January 01, 2020, 10:14:11 AM »

Ariich is a freak, or somehow has more hours in the day than everyone else.
I be am boner inducing.

Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1565 on: January 01, 2020, 11:14:09 AM »
2nd Place: Dacul –  what i love

1. Jeff Buckley – Grace

First Impressions:
Congrats on being the only one to send me a set of songs instead of one edited EP. And the only person to break the rules and send an EP over 45 minutes long. I don’t actually care either way since if it all flows well together enough or is sequenced naturally enough it’s not gonna bother me ANYWAYS. How isn’t this banned. I really don’t know how I’ve never heard this one. ‘Cause I mean I definitely haven’t, I don’t recognize it at all. And I mean yeah it’s good. I’m not gonna go against like, decades of critical consensus on that one lol. I dunno what else to say, it builds to a nice and kind of chaotic climax and I thought that was cool.

Final Thoughts:
Admittedly I don’t think this kind of song was initially what I was expecting from Jeff Buckley but now having gotten used to it, yes, it’s pretty good. For one Buckley is a very expressive and dynamic singer throughout, selling both the calmer bits and the louder bits well with different styles of delivery. I don’t think there’s any melodies that stick out besides the repeated “wait in the fire” line though.

The rest of the instrumentation works well too, I don’t ever feel like any of the instruments are going out of their way to stand out that strongly but there’s usually at least something small going on with one of them at any given time. The guitars dominate the most, alternating between a noodly guitar line and some chordy strumming, the drums drive a simple groove, the bass… is there. I dunno, the instrumentation really isn’t the focus here but it’s solid.

The buildup and climax of this one are the absolute highlights where the drums start going wild and Buckley goes even wilder with his performance, practically doing with his voice what you’d expect a guitar solo to do in any other song. It makes for a satisfying climax for sure. Overall I do like this one, it’s probably one of the most borderline tracks here for whether it deserves a 3 or a 4 since I don’t know if I feel it quite that strongly, but I’m gonna err towards the positive here, I think, just comparing it to every other song I’ve ranked thus far.

Reward:



2. Jeff Buckley – Corpus Christi Carol
Interlude

First Impressions:
This is a pretty big contrast to the last song if that’s what you were going for. I dunno if it does much for me on its own, but. It does segue into the next song pretty well.

Final Thoughts:
Yeah honestly this one doesn’t do anything for me at all. It’s an interlude for sure. I think the overall EP flow would’ve been improved by cutting it, it’s a bit long and a bit empty and I don’t even really like how the vocals sound here either. Just not for me. I’m not scoring it though, fortunately for you.



3. Florence + the Machine – Seven Devils

First Impressions:
Man right out the gate there’s a lot more fire to this one than I was expecting, though I’m not sure -what- I was expecting. It’s not like I’ve ever listened to that much Florence, to be fair. I… like the general sound of this, but I also feel like there’s not a lot of… movement, it starts out pretty heavy and then just stays there for pretty much its entire runtime, unless I forgot something. It’s a good sound but it can’t sustain my interest for 5 minutes.

Final Thoughts:
I don’t think my thoughts on this one have changed much since the first impression but, well, I’ll try to elaborate, I guess. There’s a good, booming sound to this overall, percussion and piano driving a broad and dark sonic landscape pretty consistently, with some touches of sinister strings serving as a bit of a backing track. That’s… pretty much the entire instrumentation, sometimes the piano goes away but that’s most of what changes across the entire track.

Which, for what’s supposed to be a vocally-focused track is fair enough. The vocals in the verses go pretty all-out in terms of delivery and I appreciate them a lot, there’s some repeated melodies but also lots of little variations in the delivery that make listening compelling. The chorus is a bit of a letdown in comparison; because she’s trying to harmonize, the delivery is a lot more… flat, it’s a good melody for sure but it doesn’t quite work for me on the delivery, even if the overall sound of the chorus is nice and expansive and solidly powerful.

The climax that occurs after the last chorus is a much better take on what I’d want the actual chorus to sound like, even – it still has the harmonizations of the chorus but the vocals are way more lively and powerful. It’s a lot more satisfying, to say the least. I don’t know if my original comment about it dragging on too long still holds up, I’d say there’s enough here to warrant its length, or at the very least, I wouldn’t want to cut the climax out, and the pacing overall really is fine. It’s just that the overall track can be a bit… monotone and not really with any strong dynamics to back it up either. It’s good, it’s grown on me a little since my first impression too, but it’s not making me interested to dive deeper into Florence’s back catalog.

Reward:



4. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man – Funny Time of Year

First Impressions:
The first two and a half minutes are giving me the impression this is one of those slow-burn songs that’s going to build up into something really intense or climactic by the end. But I’m also prepared to be disappointed. Update: I wasn’t disappointed. Thank you for fulfilling my expectations and being pretty enjoyable at the same time.

Final Thoughts:
Oh god, this one. One of the best songs in the entire round and I don’t think I was expecting that from this one at first. It’s sort of blowing my mind that this is an almost 7 minute song because it’s never felt like it.

The way Gibbons delivers her vocals, paired with the dark and simple, but effective instrumentation, kind of gives me chills, especially with the delivery of the song’s title. She’s really the reason this one works as well as it does. Both in the more subtle quiet moments and the roaring louder moments towards the end, her delivery escalates as the song does and even with how massive the production gets towards the end it never feels like the instrumentation overpowers her.

Speaking of the instrumentation itself… this is one of the best-executed slow builds I’ve heard in a while. It goes from basically nothing at the start to this huge wall of guitars and organ by the end, without any real interruption to the build across the entire track. The drums retain this kind of chill vibe throughout yet still build enough to hit hard enough during the climax as well.

I dunno, there really isn’t a ton to talk about with this one I feel, it’s just a good song that knows what the hell it’s doing and executes on its premise pretty excellently. I don’t think I like it or feel it quite enough to give it top marks here but it’s pretty dang good all the same.

Reward:



5. Set Fire to Flames – Fading Lights Are Fading... / Reign Rebuilder [Tail Out]
Interlude

First Impressions:
I’m pretty sure the last two tracks are gonna be instrumental too from what I know of the artists so I guess the vocals are done now. This is a nice interlude.

Final Thoughts:
Due to the similar styles I always think this one is the intro to City in the Lake at first if I’m not paying close enough attention. Which is to say that it does serve as a pretty good transition between these two songs, it picks up from the quiet outro of the previous track and develops a string-driven modern classical sound that City in the Lake then capitalizes on pretty well. On its own it’s… a solid piece of music, though it really does sound more like an intro that a full track on its own, even if I suspect from the title it’s actually an outro on the album it’s from? Nice track though all the same.



6. Kashiwa Daisuke – City in the Lake

First Impressions:
I checked out the first program music from Kashi Dashi in the past but it wasn’t quite my thing from what I recall. This seems to be… hmm. 5 minutes of gentle piano & strings stuff then it just decided “ok jazz time now”. I think my opinion on this one right now is the same as it was when I first listened to program music: this is very nice music that just doesn’t really evoke anything in me emotionally. I dunno. Maybe I’ll warm up to it but I also don’t get why it’s as long as it is and frankly I lost my ability to focus on it several times during the course of listening to it, dunno what to say.

Final Thoughts:
Aaand the longest song of the round, and one of the longest of the roulette (beaten only by Anna Von Hausswolff I believe!). And it’s one that I feel is a bit hard to talk about considering it’s 14 minutes and completely instrumental. Which is 1. a lot of time to write about one song 2. a lot of one song, but we’ll see.

I think one thing I appreciate about this first and foremost is how it develops its central motif across the track – there’s the quiet piano rendition of it at the very start, but it recurs throughout the rest of the track to give the long journey a pretty consistent throughline and feel overall cohesive even with the style shifts and tonal shifts. Basically the first 5 minutes of the song are dedicated to the quiet bits of this defining this motif and building a very pretty sound around it. I do like how this transitions into the next movement as well, with the bass being the most prominent instrument right before the tempo shift.

The jazzy bit is pretty fun and probably the most immediately striking part of the entire piece, since it does kind of come out of nowhere without feeling completely out of place either – the piano and strings are still here, and the strings when they come in are doing a reprise of the main motif for a bit before breaking out into a pretty groovy solo. I do like the first movement of the song well enough but it doesn’t feel like it has that much personality, but this movement absolutely has that personality in spades and it’s all the more fun for it. There’s a real nice build that happens on top of the quick build as the main motif takes over again too, it’s a satisfying early peak for the song.

The song pulls back to let a slower paced third movement transition the song back more to a sound similar to its first movement, with the piano taking over entirely playing a variation on the main motif with lots of little flourishes and a lower-pitched melodic counterpoint accompanying the motif. The strings really own most of the third movement though, fading in on top of the pianos slowly until there’s something like 5 or 6 layers of them all playing competing melodies and coalescing into a pretty satisfying build and climax. With that main motif eventually breaking through the wall of sound as a finishing touch, too. It’s a very satisfying climax.

I think if I have to say one thing it’s that I appreciate this more than I think I actually like it? It’s a very well-composed and structured piece and it stirs up a variety of emotions in me but nothing about this ever feels like it knocks it out of the park, or even does as much for me as the simpler, half-as-long track that precedes it. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do think it’s quite good and does work for me pretty well, and I definitely appreciate how intricate and competent the composition is, but it is also a bit slow paced and really takes its time with a lot of the builds in a way that I really need the patience for to appreciate, which I don’t always have. I guess what I’m trying to say is that uuuhhh. I don’t know. It’s very good.

Reward:



7. Nils Frahm – Says

First Impressions:
I don’t think I’ve ever been impressed with any Nils Frahm you’ve sent me but kudos for having the guts to, like, keep sending him. This is… alright, but I gotta be honest it sounds like the kind of music I put on at night to help me get to sleep, very repetitive and atmospheric but intentionally lacking emotional connection so it doesn’t keep me awake. It’s not… unpleasant at all, I like how it sounds but it’s impossible to actively write about and probably not possible to actively enjoy either, at least for me. Also what’s up with the random applause at the end.

Final Thoughts:
This is a weird and risky choice for a roulette song in general, much less a closer to an EP that’s already seen two tracks before it that would make effective closers on their own. If the last track requires a decent bit of patience to appreciate, this one requires five times as much as it is literally ambient music with one loooong, rather slow build. And in terms of satisfying the itch for a hypnotic, chill sort of vibe it does do that very well, don’t get me wrong, but also… if I want something more active, or I’m listening to it with the intent of writing about it alongside my listen, then it’s a bit more of a struggle.

Like, if I was half-asleep listening to this and needing something to help me relax it’d probably be amazing. I have music like that in my library that I use primarily for that purpose but it also just sounds fantastic in the right state of mind, which I absolutely am not in, especially after the more active and detailed tracks preceding it on the EP. It also takes its time to really start building up – the first half isn’t particularly dynamic, having a piano line accompanying the looping synth line but never escalating past that.

There’s a lot more movement in the second half, with lots of layers of synths coming in as well as modulations on the main synth line to give it a real good sense of escalation and even some melodic shifts as it goes on. I do think there’s a fair bit to the back half of this that I enjoy quite a lot but the fact that it takes half the song to start getting to the bits that do work for me quite well in an active listening mindset kind of just makes me wish the first half was cut in half. The absolute peak of the song with the highest-pitched synth lines and the piano coming in to join is very lush and surprisingly potent too. The song does eventually hit the mark but I’m frustrated at how empty the first half is, mostly, I guess. Also you could’ve probably edited out the applause for the sake of the EP, it makes for a real awkward ending.

Reward:



Overall EP Thoughts:

First Impressions:
Hmmm this really does kind of feel like a mishmash, there’s some overarching flow to this but the majority of it is instrumental and it feels like all the strongest stuff (or at least what interests me more) is in the first 20 minutes exclusively. I don’t really see a throughline to any of the tracks either, I mean they’re not stylistically incompatible but they’re basically all in a different style and only the first three feel that connected. Conflicted what to think of this as it starts pretty strong but then loses me in its back half with sounds that just don’t appeal to me, and feels like a bit of a mess as a whole.

Final Thoughts:
Well yeah this one still feels more like a playlist than anything, but there’s at least some cohesion? Or at least, pairs of songs that fit well together. Namely, Grace & Funny Time of Year, Corpus Christi Carol & Seven Devils, the Set Fire to Flames track & City in the Lake, though Says doesn’t have any appropriate twin but I think that’s fine, it kind of fits in with the general instrumental vibe of the entire back half of this EP well enough anyways. I think there’s at least some stylistic cohesion here in that aside from Seven Devils nothing feels too out of place? I do feel like there’s a very definite side A/side B type of deal going on here, at the very least and if I see it that way it starts feeling more cohesive, which is to say that it kind of feels like two different EPs played back to back. Mmm. There’s also enough diversity here in that no two songs feel particularly alike, even within the pairs I’ve pointed out each has one quieter track paired with one more active track, which makes each song stand out a lot more than other EPs in this round do. I think the organization of the songs on this EP is pretty good, though I don’t know if Says makes for a particularly compelling finale compared to Funny Time of Year or especially City in the Lake, but I don’t know if it’d work as a middle track either so. Ehh. I’m stuck between two scores again and I’m again inclined to lean towards the higher one here, so, yeah, let’s.

EP Score Reward:

Total: 22/30



Song Rankings:
1.
2. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man – Funny Time of Year
3. Blood Command - S01E02.Return.Of.The.Arsonist.720p.HDTV.x264
4.
5.
6. 22 – Call Me Trimtab
7. Kashiwa Daisuke – City in the Lake
8.
9. Jeff Buckley – Grace
10. The Midnight – Vampires
11. Wolverine – Communication Lost
12. Major Parkinson – Isabel: A Report to an Academy
13. Nils Frahm – Says
14.
15. Fireproven – Alone in the Dark
16. Keor – Terence
17. Perturbator – Vantablack
18. Oddarrang – Ohlop
19. Florence + the Machine – Seven Devils
20. Dreaming Madmen – Your Possessor
21. Scandroid – Atom & E.E.V.
22. Mother of Millions – Artefact
23. A Swarm of the Sun – The Worms Are Out
24. Perturbator – Femme Fatale
25. Voices From the Fuselage – Life on Titan
26. Au4 – So Just Hang On, Beautiful One
27. Port Noir – 13
28. Frequency Drift – Nine
29. Deathcrush – Ego
30. The Midnight – Tokyo Night Train

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1566 on: January 01, 2020, 11:15:06 AM »
1st Place: Puppies_On_Acid – Into the Unknown Realms of the Fermi Paradox

1. Cavernous Gate – Among the Decayed Grass

First Impressions:
The story seems to not exist yet so I’m just gonna ignore it for the time being. And since I know this is very much some kind of spacey, atmospheric black metal type of EP I’m gonna follow the Abigail Williams rule for now and mostly not comment except for brief thoughts towards the end of/after each track. I was thrown for a loop by the vocals at the start of this but they went into more expected territory as the song went on and got more intense. Which I’m more than fine with, preferable to me really. This is actually going through a lot more shifts than I was expecting, I kinda regret not typing along as I go now. It’s pretty cool. Might be overall a bit sluggish to really work for me in this vein but nah, I’m diggin’ it.

Final Thoughts:
Due to the nature of this EP, it’s kind of hard to say which songs are my favorites or least favorites, honestly, but I think this one has consistently held my interest the most out of all of these just due to its (relatively) more progressive nature than the others. Which, well, isn’t necessarily needed or even necessarily a positive for this style of music, but it does make it inherently more “interesting” to an extent, and it helps that the core sound here really is quite good too.

Like, it’s heavier on the doomier side of atmospheric black metal – mostly slow paced with these really sludgy riffs and the organ makes for an interesting touch as well, and it’s very much melodically driven, both in the vocals and the guitar riffs and, well, the general sound really. And it helps that it has a few recurrent hooks throughout, the first half has this nice verse/chorus structure going on where the main melody gets traded between the vocals and the guitar line.

And when the song kicks into full gear it does do a good job still staying melodic and avoiding falling into the trap of being really monochrome or muddy. The song also doesn’t hold on its faster-paced moments as long so it doesn’t get tiring, and the transition back to a slower pace through the triplet bassline is executed well on top of that, it’s a particularly cool moment in the track.

I think my only real gripe is that… I’unno, it does kind of peter out a little at the end, maybe it works better in the context of the album but the song doesn’t really have a satisfying end to it, it just kind of goes on after it hits its peak and pulls back. I also do wish the heavier parts had a more lush and melodically intense sound to them like some of the other tracks here do, but it’s all minor gripes really, I still enjoy this one quite a bit & it definitely kicks off the overall EP well to boot.

Reward:



2. The Crevices Below – Below the Crevices

First Impressions:
Yes I know this is the Midnight Odyssey guy like I said in PM. I haven’t actually checked out his other stuff though. He seemed to not care enough about this project to keep it going so that’s a bit worrisome. There’s a kind of industrial vibe to this one. It’s… different than what I was expecting, for sure. Okay, and there’s the metal. Yeah this is just straight up Midnight Odyssey now. I think it’s a bit rougher than most Midnight Odyssey and doesn’t have as much unique flavor to it beyond the quieter first half or so, but it’s solid black metal all the same.

Final Thoughts:
As far as Dis Pater black metal goes this isn’t as good as the Midnight Odyssey standard and I blame that on it being much more conventionally black metal, and produced as such. Like, even with the more straightforward Midnight Odyssey tracks, there’s usually this specific sound that still sounds very sharp and kind of otherworldly, and while the sound of this has, y’know, some of that, it’s not quite as… ethereal, let’s call it.

I also don’t think the transition from the intro to the main metal meat of the song is handled that well, there’s this sense of foreboding and tension that feels like it should naturally build up to that explosion of metal but it just kind of, happens after a while instead. I feel like it’s a minor gripe since each section is good on its own and it’s not necessarily a sloppy transition either, just not a very satisfying one.

I don’t really have much to say on the sound of this one because, well, it’s a Dis Pater project. It sure as hell sounds like it, same deep raspy vocals, same washed-out guitar riffing sticking to that delicious mid range, a fair bit of intensity balanced with a lot of atmosphere. It’s a good sound, but I also have to compare it to the best of Midnight Odyssey which, well, just nails the lush, atmospheric sound a lot better. This feels like the blueprint for the Midnight Odyssey sound more than anything, even though I think this album came out right around the same time as Funerals.

Anyways. I like it, but the point is that I know the artist in question can and has done better, and it’s also overall a bit too heavy on the bass production-wise, I feel? The higher end does come through but not nearly as strongly as I’d want it. Again, it’s mostly nitpicks here, I’m still definitely gonna check out this project because it’s Good Stuff but it’s not Great Stuff.

Reward:



3. Coldworld – Climax of Sorrow

First Impressions:
Coldworld, Darkspace, what’s next, Blackzone? Winterland? This seems to be black metal of the triplet groove variety. Again it’s got a good sound that I’m generally a fan of though. I’m glad we’ve learned that the spacey and bleak but melodic side of black metal is my favorite side, this is gonna be a good EP to just chill out to I feel. This is probably my favorite one so far honestly, I love how massive this sounds during its louder moments but it’s got some nice, ambient quieter moments to balance it out too.

Final Thoughts:
Technically speaking this also sounds like it could just straight up be a Midnight Odyssey song. The production isn’t quite the same but basically everything else about it aesthetically is. The washed-out production with mid-range riffing and some layers of synths, the deeper, raspy growls, the straight triplet groove, this could be a lost Funerals track and I wouldn’t really question it. I did confirm this, in fact, is not another Dis Pater project, too.

Weirdly I do think it does that sound a bit better, mostly due to the triplet groove here being a very natural fit for the style, mixed with the fact that the intense moments of this really rip, turning the kind of relaxed groove into this blisteringly fast storm with the same soothing wall of synths providing melodic contrast to the riffing. I do think the guitar riffing itself suffers during the faster moments, though the guitar leads come in to balance it out nicely and provide that melodic accompaniment, and the drum work gets a fair bit more complex and restrained once they do even though it never quite feels like the intensity is lowered either.

Anyways what I’m trying to say is that this is a very enjoyable albeit pretty straightforward atmospheric black metal track. Best listened to at night. This entire EP is best listened to at night really. I’m doing so right now, on my headphones actually since I’m at my parents’ house and they’re asleep and if I played this as loud as I need to on my speakers they’d yell at me lol. I don’t actually have anything else to say about the song though. It’s good. Is it better than Cavernous Gate? I don’t know, honestly, it’s all very close with this one. They’re actually pretty sonically different overall too. I’ll decide when I post the overall song rankings across every EP, I guess.

Reward:



4. Austere – This Dreadful Emptiness

First Impressions:
Oh yeah this definitely has those depressive black metal screams I just don’t… get. I’m getting the sense I’d definitely prefer this one as an instrumental, but the actual sound of it is pretty dang solid. I think there’s a bit too much hihat/cymbal in the mix once the song kicks into full gear also, I’d rather hear the guitars, it’s a little distracting but the atmosphere is still mostly there.

Final Thoughts:
Man the guitar tone on this one, and just the overall sound, is really good, I feel. The level of crunch and fuzz on the guitars is juuuust right so that I can pick apart every rhythmic hit of the guitars just fine but they blend together just right to make this wall of noise that’s exactly what I want out of this kind of sound.

Okay, no, need to break from what I was writing because god damn when the really intense part of this one kicks in it’s just. Stunning, honestly. Mix that guitar texture in with some damn intense but pretty clean drums and the desperate shrieks of the vocals and it’s just. The perfect combination of what I want atmospheric black metal to sound like, honestly? I was going to get to the point in that last paragraph that I think this one has the best “sound” out of every track here but honestly this bit just exemplifies that perfectly.

If I had to nitpick the way the song separates its different musical passages with these short breaks of synth is a bit distracting. It doesn’t completely kill the flow of the song but it is very noticeable when it happens and every time the song is content to immediately shift to a different sound than before right after and there just, had to be a better way to transition, right? Right?

The last section of this is very cool too, it feels like a middle ground between the slower, more measured first section and the monstrous, out-of-control middle section, with constant driving riffs and drumming but not quite at the same frenetic pace. The piano melodies that come in in the background of the riffing are also nice little accentuations, there’s a really rich sonic texture to this segment that I particularly like too. Honestly I really feel that despite being quite good the first section is still the weakest part of this overall, it’s just that consistent and, uhh, great.

Like, what the heck, I’ve liked this one on all the listens I’ve given this thus far but nah, this is definitely the best track here. I don’t think it hits me quite hard enough to be 5/5 worthy (but honestly it’s possible I’m being stricter with those than is really reasonable) but it does get pretty close to it, and I mean, it’s a damn good score all the same.

Reward:



5. Mesarthim – Fragmenting

First Impressions:
Like I said I’d already checked out their latest and it was… well, I wasn’t sold on the style, mostly, so I am a bit worried about this one if it’s gonna be more of that same style. And yeah not sure about the synth bit at the start of this but the metal that kicks in is pretty solid, a lot of texture and fire to that guitar tone, wow. The synths work pretty well with the heaviness too, there’s an overall great sound to this. I definitely am more into this than I expected. When it goes back to the synth stuff I am again not so sure though. Electronic stuff in black metal can work well but this is straight up not the kind of electronic stuff I like, it’s like, EDM or something? Ehh. It works fine enough when the metal is there to balance it out though, it’s just that I don’t care for it on its own. A bit frustrated with this one, I think.

Final Thoughts:
The transition between the Austere track and this one is pretty inspired honestly. The Austere track already has this stop-start thing going on throughout and the synthy atmospheric intro of this one mirrors that one perfectly, and then it just picks right up with the same 4/4 driving groove Austere ended with, only with – hear me out here – an even better sound, somehow. This guitar texture is divine and the drum production is friggin’ fantastic on top of that, the sparse bass kicks have a ton of oomph, the hihat is in just the right place, the snare is booming but not overpowering, leaving the guitars to still dominate the mix but not making the drums feel buried either.

And it has that synth line that serves the same purpose that the pianos were serving at the end of the Austere track, melodic accentuations on top of the rich sonic texture that just resonate really damn well. The vocals are again the raspy shrieks I most associate with DSBM, which, Austere also had, so yeah. I could complain about it sounding “samey” but it’s a sound I really, really like so like, I am not at all going to complain.

So if I have all these nice things to say about this song’s sound why did I place it so low on my rankings of this EP? Well.

Eeeehhhh I really just don’t think the more electronic stuff fits here at all. I called it EDM in my first impression but the tone is closer to Trance, I think? Either way. It pretty much dominates the entire third quarter of the song, even when the metal comes back in, and it’s not. Distracting when buried under the guitars but I’d rather it just straight up not be there. I don’t mind the electronic percussion even, so much as just the tone of that synth and the weirdly frantic energy the melody injects into a song that doesn’t quite feel like it needs it.

The last quarter of the song, with the doomier riff and the THUMPTHUMPTHUMP super intense bass is cool too, though. I do think the bass does end up being too loud here, it works better with the sparser hits because they have a lot of oomph but it is definitely overpowering here, though it gives this last stretch a more rhythmic feel to it than the first half had and that does make it at least stand out. I still don’t prefer it to the first half, but it’s cool, it’s cool.

So yeah my overall thoughts on this one: First half is probably a 5/5 on its own just due to the perfect sound and execution, the second half muddies that a little but it doesn’t ruin the song for me either, just brings it down a peg and makes it hard for me to enjoy the piece as a whole quite as much. It’s still better than The Crevices Below but considering I wouldn’t complain if it was trimmed to be like, an 8 minute song with the entire third quarter removed and maybe the last quarter shortened too, which I can’t really say about any song here, I can’t say it quite works for me as well as some of the others here. Still very good though.

Reward:



Overall EP Thoughts:

First Impressions:
I think by this point it’s clear I’ve made my point on what kind of black metal I like the most considering you’re doing your best to play right into the specific sound I prefer, and doing a pretty bang-up job with it, this one overall is a pretty strong EP and I’m already looking forward to revisiting it. It’s gonna be hard to write for since it’s, well, mostly atmospheric, though. I suspect literally nobody else left in the roulette will like this one, but for me it’s going to be hard to top, this is just playing right into a very specific sound I like a hell of a lot.

Final Thoughts:
This is just straight up a good black metal album. It’s longer than most of the other EP’s, it’s definitely at least album length, and it is by no small margin the most cohesive of them all, to the point where, aside from maybe Cavernous Gate, they all aesthetically mesh almost perfectly to the point where they could all be from the same exact artist and I wouldn’t be surprised, and there’s a very consistent aesthetic and sound overall that very much makes it feel like one functional unit. There isn’t necessarily a ton of “transition” work done here but it also doesn’t feel like it needs it because the songs all very naturally start and end and flow together without the need for fancy editing… mostly due to their similar aesthetic overall. I also feel the overall structure of this is laid out well, Cavernous Gate does a good job ramping the EP up and Mesarthim definitely feels like it has the most climactic ending, and there’s a natural progression from least lush to most lush sound across each track too. I uhh. This is definitely among the best EPs I’ve ever been sent in any of my roulettes, maybe the absolute best, I’d have to go back and check. There’s really only one other EP here that I even consider in the equation of being potential competition and I don’t think it’s going to measure up to this one, either. Good job, damn. And this wasn’t even your first choice? What the hell?

EP Score Reward:

Total: 24/30



Song Rankings:
1. Austere – This Dreadful Emptiness
2. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man – Funny Time of Year
3. Blood Command - S01E02.Return.Of.The.Arsonist.720p.HDTV.x264
4. Cavernous Gate – Among the Decayed Grass
5. Coldworld – Climax of Sorrow
6. 22 – Call Me Trimtab
7. Kashiwa Daisuke – City in the Lake
8. Mesarthim – Fragmenting
9. Jeff Buckley – Grace
10. The Midnight – Vampires
11. Wolverine – Communication Lost
12. Major Parkinson – Isabel: A Report to an Academy
13. Nils Frahm – Says
14. The Crevices Below – Below the Crevices
15. Fireproven – Alone in the Dark
16. Keor – Terence
17. Perturbator – Vantablack
18. Oddarrang – Ohlop
19. Florence + the Machine – Seven Devils
20. Dreaming Madmen – Your Possessor
21. Scandroid – Atom & E.E.V.
22. Mother of Millions – Artefact
23. A Swarm of the Sun – The Worms Are Out
24. Perturbator – Femme Fatale
25. Voices From the Fuselage – Life on Titan
26. Au4 – So Just Hang On, Beautiful One
27. Port Noir – 13
28. Frequency Drift – Nine
29. Deathcrush – Ego
30. The Midnight – Tokyo Night Train

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Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1567 on: January 01, 2020, 11:15:48 AM »
:metardica: Congrats, Puppies_On_Acid! :metardica:

alrignt now that it's 2020 i'm done listening to music forever or at least for a few days bye

Offline Sacul

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (3rd Place)
« Reply #1568 on: January 01, 2020, 11:47:52 AM »
Dang, didn't expect to do this well. Congrats puppies!

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)
« Reply #1569 on: January 01, 2020, 05:47:39 PM »


The few criticisms you had are all extremely fair, and for the most part I would agree with you. With the exception of the Trance elements in Fragmenting; I love that!

Anyways, so happy you liked the EP as much as you did. My first EP I sent that got rejected probably would have done much worse, so......you should definitely give it a listen. :metardica:



Edit - Also there is an outtake from the black metal EP. Originally the first track was supposed to be Desert of Absurdity by Mizmor (AKA מזמור). I couldn't really make it work, though, I'm curious if you enjoy it more than Cavernous Gate.
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Offline Crow

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)
« Reply #1570 on: January 01, 2020, 06:49:17 PM »
spoilers: it would've been banned, i listened to that album a few times  :lol
it's a bit too slow for me but i thought it was alright

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)
« Reply #1571 on: January 01, 2020, 07:40:04 PM »
Anyway, those are all fair criticisms. I personally really wanted to send that Nils Frahm song but couldn't think of any other place rather than as a closer, and I intended the first half to serve as a sort of interlude after the very intense previous tracks. And the applauses, well, it's a live track, the whole album is, but yeah should have cut it :lol. Hope you dig the Beth Gibbons album, it's so lovely and heartbreaking, and the Jeff Buckley is very varied, plenty of rocking tracks, some ballads, and a weird song (So Real).

Thanks for having me! Was lots of fun sending some of the best and the worst songs. It's also refreshing not getting cut early and even ending up almost winning your roulette.

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)
« Reply #1572 on: January 01, 2020, 10:43:29 PM »
Elite, I see the blood command song you sent is off a really short EP, is there a specific album i should check out?

Offline Elite

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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)
« Reply #1573 on: January 02, 2020, 04:30:15 AM »
Yeah, that EP isn't really worth listening to if you've heard the 'title track'. Definitely go with Ghostclocks first and if you like that, the rest of the albums are quite similar, but (in my opinion) a bit less 'honest'(?) I think. It's been a while since I listened to them though, but the first album is the best. They manage to cram a lot of stuff into a post-hardcore, punk-ish sound. The last track on that album in particular is quite the ride. Have fun!
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Re: Cyril's Roulette v6 (Final Results)
« Reply #1574 on: January 02, 2020, 03:57:55 PM »
started on some album listens from the last round...



oh, this is a reeeal good black metal sound, but the last track is like, a 20 minute drone metal piece instead, which

okay. mmeh. kind of a frustrating ending tbh! will probably check it out again regardless though



i dunno what to say, this didn't do much for me overall. maybe i wasn't in the right frame of mind, i dunno. maybe, maybe i'll check it out again, but i'm not so sure.



pretty fun and pretty snappy overall, not a lot of it stuck with me on first listen but due to how short it is & how generally up my alley the style is i'm sure i'm gonna spin it again