CyrilCapstan - We'll Always Have ParisTheme - poppy & accessible
This song is both great, and sort of annoying, but at the same time it gets stuck in my head, and then I get pissed off, because it's the parts that I don't particularly enjoy. What's happening to me? On the one hand, things like the vocals in parts are not good. Especially the auto-tune, which I've never been a fan of that. It also seems like they are trying to cater to pop radio too much at times. On the other hand, the song is just plain good. There's good power, great melodies, and outside of the auto-tuned stuff the vocals are actually pretty strong. So what do I score this?
??/10
just kidding
8/10________
WAIT - WonderTheme - "back to basics" as in only guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, but also, I sent you Exist as the first song of your first roulette and this group is 50% Exist band members & this is basically an Exist song, so it's a "throwback" in that senseThis one sort of has the same effect on me as the first song. Love it/sometimes annoying/some vocals aren't my cup of tea/oh is that Anup on drums?/yes it is!/he is good/weird melodies/perhaps too long/ooh that's neat/how the hell do I score this?/I'll just throw another 8 out there/the end.........
8.1/10
Train of NaughtWaste of Space Orchestra - Seeker's ReflectionTheme - [redacted]I expected nothing less than what I got here, coming from a collaboration of members of Oranssi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Rising. Psychedelic Blackened Doom Rock. It's a pretty fun listen. Nothing that I really dislike. Could it be better? Sure, but it's still pretty great.
8/10_________
Sibiir - LeechesTheme - Relating to the song Available Light, I believe the song Leeches is the peak of Sibiir's song-writing abilities in their so far pretty short lifespan.This is pretty great! Awesome Kvelertak worship here, only with their own little twists and turns. I feel the need to go on a little tangent here......I find it funny that Metal Archives (everyone's favorite, most hated source for metal band info) won't put this band on their website because they are Hardcore Punk influenced.......guess what? So is Kvelertak! And they are on your site, you pretentious metal douchebags........Sorry, rant /over. Anyway I love just about everything about this. Great bass tone, concise song structure that succeeds in what it needs to do, lovely melodies (especially considering their blackened hardcore sound), and great passionate screams!
9/10
KatteloxCat Stevens - Father and SonTheme - Relating to your story about you and your old man and Moving PicturesThis wasn't what I was expecting at all. I know you like your acoustic/singer-songwriter stuff. So do I. This is apparently Cat Stevens second most popular song and yet I've never heard it once. Weird. Anyway, I love the lyrics and simple arrangement here. The vocals go off the rails a couple times, but nothing egregious. Just a nice satisfying song.
8.5/10_______
Toto - OrphanTheme - getting back your roots, and focusing on more guitar-heavy stuffDidn't see this coming either. I've never heard any later era Toto, nothing past The Seventh One. This was very pleasant. The lyrics get a tiny bit hokey here and there, but eh, I can overlook that. The song as a whole is pretty strong in the creativity department. They go through quite a few different sounds pretty smoothly. The vocal style doesn't sound like anything on any early Toto stuff, is this a different vocalist? Anyway I enjoyed the song.
8/10
LetheanBruce Dickinson - CyclopsTheme - the camera eye is part of the chorus; the lyrics could also fit with Limelight a little bit and also War PaintIs this the song that Korn got their influence from? I'm only partially kidding. The bass tone is almost a dead ringer for the Korn bass tone and just the overall mood, especially in the beginning. On a more serious note, this song is better than anything Korn has ever done. Bruce is still as awesome as he ever is with Iron Maiden. The song itself, I wouldn't consider it a top tier song, so to speak. It's just decent, nothing special.
7/10_______
Sonata Arctica - Storm the ArmadaTheme - Red Tide touches on environmental issues and Storm the Armada definitely doesThis song, everytime I listened to it, just went in one ear and right out the other. This might be the least memorable song I've heard in quite some time. While it's playing, I don't dislike it, but there just aren't any moments that really catches my attention and works their way in to my brain. It's weird. It all seems very uninspired and lackluster.....Lukewarm is the word I would use for it.
5.5/10
RomdrumsAlex Skolnick Trio - Tom SawyerTheme - This is a pretty radical re-arrangement of Tom SawyerIt took a really long time for me to start appreciating what they were doing here. I generally don't like other bands trying to do Rush covers. They usually either try to copy the song exactly and completely suck or they rearrange it (like this one) and fail to get the the original spirit of the song across. This song sort of falls in to the latter category. I think they pull off converting the song to a jazzy style and keeping enough of the original melodies so as not to lose the song completely. However, I don't think they completely succeeded. I find myself just wanting to listen to the original instead. Outside of a couple of really cool parts, there isn't anything here that makes me want to come back to it. I appreciate the approach you took with this round, but I don't think it's going to pay off the way you had hoped.
6.5/10_______
Enchant - Nighttime SkyTheme - this is a song that could easily fit onto Presto, right down to the mix! The Rush influence is obvious, but they do a really good job capturing that same sort of ethereal, magic vibe of Presto, especially in terms of the overall mood of this tune.Why I haven't just given this album a full deep dive listen is baffling me more and more every day. I've now been sent 2 songs from this album in my roulettes and they are both awesome. The overall sound/mixing/instrumentation is almost perfect to my ears. I know a lot of people hated the bright guitar tone on albums like Presto, which the guitars here have a very similar tone, but I love it! And you are right, this could easily fit on Presto, assuming Geddy was singing instead. Plus the melodies here are amazing. Time to do a deep dive on this album. Fantastic tune!
9.5/10
Ariich
Children of Bodom - DownfallTheme - Children of Bodom were one of the first metal bands I got into, and certainly the first death metal of any kind. I'd enjoyed some power metal stuff beforehand I think, but never liked heavy stuff until I heard them and I appreciated that heavy music can also be melodic (it was also my introduction to Finnish metal) - this must have been about 20 years ago now I guess, or close enough. Hatebreeder was the first album I heard from them and it's a pretty classic album of theirs (it's their highest rated on RYM), so you're getting something from that to link to Moving Pictures.I was actually pretty into CoB's Follow the Reaper album way back in the day, like 15+ years ago. Haven't listened to it in years or ever got in to any of their other albums. I gave Blooddrunk 1 listen when it came out and yeeted that thing right out the window. It sucked, is what I'm trying to say. haha.....whatever the hell yeet means.....I'm old and don't understand the terms kids use these days. I digress. This song has a lot of the stuff that I remember loving about Follow the Reaper. Great Melodeath, with a Power Metal twist. Plus Alexi Laiho is a beast on guitar.
9/10_______
Children of Bodom - Soon DepartedTheme - A couple of albums after that, the band went off-track and kinda sucked for years, but their latest album Hexed was a return to form and return to their roots, so you're also getting something from that to link to Presto.This one doesn't quite have the same immediate pow-in-your-face style as the other CoB song. It's slower and a bit less original. This has much more of a Fiction era Dark Tranquillity vibe to it, which I like that style, but I would rather listen to Dark Tranquillity. I just expect that Power Metal injection from CoB and I don't get that here. I guess you could say my expectations weren't met.
7/10
TACSolander - Huckleberry FinnTheme - Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry FinnCompletely unexpected song style from you. Did you even listen to this? No matter, other than some strange lyrical choices and the obvious Mumford & Sons influence, I love this. The vocal style, both the male and female vocals, are enjoyable. The underlying music is well arranged and mixed and just plain great. Lovely melodies, both instrumentally and vocally. I think you threw knuckleball and just hoped it would hit somewhere in the vicinity of the strike zone. Well this was an almost perfectly placed strike. Well done.
9/10_______
Echoes of Eternity - The MagicianTheme - The Magician says "Presto" 2 fun, enjoyable songs from TAC in one round?? Keep this up and you may have to end up making an EP after all. Not as great as the Solander song, but still a pretty awesome song, with some great melodies in the guitars. I also like the reverb effect being used on the vocals. That thrashy turn at about the midway point of the song is a nice welcome addition too. Very enjoyable song.
8/10
NekovAgents of Mercy - A Quiet little TownTheme - Free Choice cardI'm not sure how favorable of a score I can give this. This is obviously a super group comprising a lot of musicians I know well. You have Roine Stolt, who has been in just about every modern Symphonic Prog band, Jonas Reingold whom I know from The Tangent and Karmakanic, and Lalle Larsson who is also in Karmakanic. Then you have this Nad Sylvan guy, who I have heard of but never listened to. Lets just say I don't like his vocal tone or choice of melodies. His voice just ruins the song for me, to the point that I don't want to listen to it again. The rest of the song is fairly enjoyable Symphonic/Neo-prog affair.
5.5/10_______
Agents of Mercy - Freak of LifeTheme - Free Choice cardI thought this was the Coheed and Cambria song The Willing Well II: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness at the very beginning. Anyway, this song is much more listenable than A Quiet Little Town. Maybe it's because it seems like Roine Stolt is performing more vocals here. Or maybe Nad Sylvan's vocal parts aren't as annoying. Maybe both. Same standard Symphonic/Neo-prog style, but with perhaps a bit more atmospheric flair.
6.5/10
TomislavEvanescence - My Heart is BrokenTheme - based on theme of fear (Witch Hunt)Hmm, I never was a big fan of Amy Lee's vocals. She is passable, but when it comes to Symphonic Metal (or rock, cause let's be honest, Evanescence was never metal) she is far surpassed by people like Tarja, Floor Jansen, Anekke, Lee Douglas.....hell even Anette Olzon or the vocalist from the next song you sent me... However this song is basically a focus on her voice and the piano. Yes the other instruments are there, but they aren't the focus. There are some questionable choices in melodies here. Her voice is good, but it almost sounds underutilized.... It's an enjoyable tune, but nothing special. I love the second half the most. The ending is very well done.
7/10________
Within Temptation - ForgivenTheme - theme of suicide as is The PassIf I'm not mistaken, this is Sharon den Adel on vocals? I love her contributions to Ayreon and Avantasia. This is someone that could sing the phone book to me and I'd be perfectly happy. This song is basically nothing but vocals and piano, with the exception of the strings that come in in the second half. This is really a tour de force for her voice. Great use of vocal melodies and mixing power with that light airy voice. I love it.
9/10
StadlerRobert Plant - In the MoodTheme - I look at Moving Pictures as the high point of Rush's career, at least as of that point. It was a pinnacle of sound, success and impact. There followed a period of experimentation and searching, and ultimately a return to that which got them to the dance to begin with. I think I see something similar with Robert Plant. Had a quick hit of success with his early solo career, very reminiscent of his work with Zeppelin, followed by a period of experimentation and searching. Later, he came out the other side with a reconnection to his roots.I just didn't connect with this song at all. Its very basic song structure does nothing for me. The vocals sound a little lack luster or uninterested. Perhaps the best part of this song is the groove that Phil Collins lays down here (which, by the way, I never knew he worked with Robert Plant). The best thing I can say here is it's inoffensive.
5/10_______
Robert Plant - Big LoveTheme - I look at Moving Pictures as the high point of Rush's career, at least as of that point. It was a pinnacle of sound, success and impact. There followed a period of experimentation and searching, and ultimately a return to that which got them to the dance to begin with. I think I see something similar with Robert Plant. Had a quick hit of success with his early solo career, very reminiscent of his work with Zeppelin, followed by a period of experimentation and searching. Later, he came out the other side with a reconnection to his roots.This sounds much more like what I would expect from Robert Plant. At least vocally. The song itself is stuck in a very 80's sound and not it a good way. It's hard to explain. It just seems to embody all the worst tropes of 80's pop music. At least Robert Plant is singing with some emotion. I'd just rather listen to Led Zeppelin.
5.5/10
EliteSchizoid Lloyd - Misanthrope PuppetTheme - Lyrically related to LimelightYou sent me a different Schizoid Lloyd song in my first roulette. Well I'm happy to report, I like this song better. It's much more focused, and yet it doesn't lose that experimental approach. The song writing is just much stronger overall here. I even went back and listened to Suicide Penguin again, just to make sure. I still think there are other bands that do this kind of thing better, but this is a fine attempt.
8/10_________
Darkwater - AgainTheme - Lyrically related to Witch Hunt, in the sense that it's about fear controlling emotions.Here's another album that I really need to get around to doing a deep dive on. I gave their most recent album a deep dive and thought it was pretty decent, if not very original. This is the second song I've received in my roulettes from this album and I've liked them both way more than anything on their newest release. This may not be very original either, but the song writing is way more inspired. I especially like the way the bands uses odd time signatures throughout the song. There's also some elements of Pain of Salvation sprinkled throughout. I'm not sure if that is intentional or if PoS was an inspiration for the band. Who knows....at any rate, I really like this song.
8.8/10
Scores
Romdrums - 17, 16.75, 18.7, 16.5, 16, 14, 16 = 114.95
Train - 18.5, 19, 16.7, 13, 13.6, 16.9, 17 = 114.7
Kattelox - 17.5, 14.7, 14.2, 18.9, 14, 16.5, 16.5 = 112.3
Cyril - 15.25, 18.25, 16.5, 17, 14, 13, 16.1 = 110.1
Ariich - 16.25, 17.25, 12.5, 12, 17.7, 18, 16 = 109.7
Tomislav - 16, 16, 16.5, 16, 12.5, 15, 16 = 108
Elite - 10.5, 16, 17, 18.6, 14.2, 14.5, 16.8 = 107.6
Nekov - 17, 16, 14.8, 14.3, 16.5, 15, 12 = 105.6
Lethean - 13.5, 16.5, 11, 18.2, 11.6, 14.5, 12.5 = 97.8
TAC - 11, 11, 17.2, 16, 14.5, 11, 17 = 97.7
Stadler - 14, 16.3, 14.2, 11, 13.5, 17, 10.5 = 96.5