I very much haven't forgotten about this thread, I just haven't had the time and headspace to get my thoughts down on paper. However, I have continued to focus most of my music listening on working through all the artists I want to check out, and so as a result it means I've now gone through all such artists from round 5, so you're getting a
super-bumper update this time.
Dir En Grey (Buddy - round 5)Not that it mattered in the end for my glorious champion, but I think different song choices would have avoided your only sub-8 score of the roulette. That said, I've given both Uroboros and Arche a few good listens and my overall feeling towards them is pretty much the same as it was towards the songs you sent - on the cusp of being great but just not quite working for me (3.5 stars x 2). Uroboros is definitely the more dynamic and exciting of the two and it contains a few genuinely excellent songs in the second half where the melodies and emotional vocal delivery just work, such that I now understand why you sent them to me - I'm thinking in particular Ware, Yami Tote..., Bugaboo and Gaika. But I also find parts of the album quite meh and the rest merely good, and therefore difficult to really immerse myself in it as a whole.
Daniel Olsén, Jonathan Eng & Linnea Olsson (Cyril - round 5)During round 5 you said that rather than get me to buy an album, you wanted to get me to buy a game. Well congrats, you did both! I really really dig the full Sayonara Wild Hearts album, the instrumental stuff that comes after the songs you sent is still really great electronica/electropop, and there some vocal moments that still help pace the album a little, plus the medley at the end acts as a nice closer. Not every track is killer but overall it's a gorgeous album (4 stars). So I decided to buy the game + soundtrack option, and the game is pretty great too. It's fairly short and simple, but it's fun, the music I already knew was excellent and the various levels added further character to most of them, plus there's a nice emotional element to the narrative even though there isn't a proper story as such. All in all a very nice game (also 4 stars).
Messa (Elite - round 5)Ok so not that you scored badly with these guys, but I think both in terms of production and music, you would have been better focusing entirely on Feast for Water. Belfry is a solid enough album but I do find it slightly bland and lacking in punch (3.5 stars). But fair enough, it was their debut, and Feast for Water is such a big step up - it's more musically dynamic, and it's also richer in sound and I now agree entirely that the production style works great on this album (4 stars). Tulsi is still a standout but honestly the whole album is great.
Voices from the Fuselage (Evermind - round 5)Apparently I didn't twig at all at the time that this is Ashe O'Hara's band. I do like his voice and the way he writes vocal lines - it's one of the things that made Tesseract's Altered State so special. These two albums aren't as exciting as that one was to me, but are still really good and probably comparable in quality with what Tesseract have done since but with a slightly different approach and different strengths - not as punchy or groovy, but lighter, airier and more melodically engaging (4 stars x 2).
Gino Vannelli (Indi - round 5)I've ended up with pretty mixed feelings about Gino's music. As you'll remember I found the selection you sent me both very enjoyable in a cheesy 70s/80s kind of way and surprisingly quirky and intricate as well. So I decided to check out all three albums you sent me songs from. And yeah that description definitely still fits, and each album has some really cool and/or entertaining moments. But I don't know, after a while the general style wore a bit thin for me. Most of his songs don't have much in the way of strong hooks (to me anyway), instead focusing more on a jazzy approach, but the jazzy approach is a little tame as well, and as a result it doesn't quite grab me as much as I'd like. That all sounds a bit negative so I should be clear that I still enjoy all three albums plenty, just less that I'd hoped for (3.5 stars x 3).
M.I.GOD (jingle - round 5)For Specters on Parade, I don't have much to say beyond what I said for selection you sent me from it. It's very strong prog metal with a futuristic vibe, plus alt-metal influences I hadn't really picked up from your submission, that give it enough of a unique flavour (4 stars). I also checked out the album before which is a bit older now (Floor 29, from 2012) and... yeah it was pretty good and had some solid tunes, but definitely leans more on the generic side and is a lot less interesting as a result (3.5 stars).
Frédéric Chopin (Katt - round 5)I obviously already knew some Chopin, but your focus on his piano works prompted me to properly dive into those (rather than trying to listen to everything he ever wrote!). So I stuck with Barenboim who I really like as a pianist and went for both his complete Preludes and his complete Nocturnes, and both are fantastic. Not every piece is great, in fact some are fairly boring or in the case of a handful of the Preludes just really short and pointless. But in both cases most are really good and some are just really beautiful that they work great as overall collections (4 stars x 2).
Freaky Jelly (king - round 5)Your submission was a little touch and go on whether it would get above the 8.0 line and ended just scraping over because ultimately the songs you'd sent were a fun attempt at capturing 90s DT (complete with over-the-top high-vibrato singing that isn't really my favourite). On the whole I'd say the same about the album they came from, but while I enjoyed it quite a bit when it was just a couple of songs, a full 70 minute album of it is just a lot less interesting I'm afraid (3.5 stars).
Deadly Circus Fire (lonestar - round 5)I liked your submission a lot, but I did note at the time that I wondered if I might find a full album a bit one-track, and yeah I think there's where I come down on it really. The King and the Bishop is still a very solid album and has a few (head-bangers), but it's a bit lacking in both variety and originality. And I'm not sure it really has the hooks, either in the riff or vocal melody department, to compensate (3.5 stars).
Bend Sinister (Nekov - round 5)I guess one of the downsides of the format I used is that it's not always easy to get across the variety of sounds that some bands have in small submissions like that. These guys are just really cool, I guess the core underlying style is 00s indie rock, but there's so many other things thrown into the mix (pop, soul, Queen, Muse) in a way that's entertaining and yet seamless. You sent me songs from their latest three albums, and in slightly different ways and for different reasons I think they're all really great (4 stars x 3). I also figured I'd check out their first two full albums as well but they're not as good - it seems clear to me that they were still finding their style (3 stars for the debut and 3.5 stars for Stories of Brothers).
The Intersphere (romdrums - round 5)My overall feelings about these guys are much as they were in my review of the songs you sent. What I maybe hadn't appreciated at that point was the slightly poppier, more accessible alt-rock side of their music as your selection was more focused on the energetic post-hardcore influenced stuff I think. But either way, their latest two albums are great for exactly the reasons I liked your submission (4 stars x 2). Hold on Liberty and interspheres><atmospheres both have some great stuff in them as well, but they're both a lot less consistent than the newer albums (3.5 stars).
Saltillo (Sacul - round 5)Damn, this guy is talented. Ganglion is a fantastic album, I love how the downtempo style is mixed with the string instruments (all played by him) to create an interesting blend of electronic with hints of classical - it's a great sound that he pulls off really well and I find the whole album just a really immersive listen (4 stars). For Monocyte he clearly went for something darker and more experimental, and I appreciate the variety there although ultimately I don't find it speaks to me in the same way (3.5 stars).
Cloud Cult (Shadow - round 5)You were absolutely spot on sending my that selection from the live acoustic show. Those acoustic shows they did around 2013 were really something special. I figured I'd start with the full video that you sent me a selection from, and it's just amazing - just has so much warmth and energy and heart, and you can really feel just how into it they all are. The live album they recorded later in the year, Unplug, is similarly amazing overall (4.5 stars, which is also what the Arts in Nature show would score) - it benefits from being slightly more polished and the backing vocals being more audible, but perhaps doesn't have quite the same raw emotion of the other show (it also doesn't have that incredible arrangement/performance of Good Friend). As for the studio albums, they're good but yeah none of them quite compare. The latest four I find all strong in different ways (4 stars x 4), and I appreciate the varied sounds and styles they use, often being a bit darker than in those acoustic shows. I checked out some of the earlier material and it's less my cup of tea, they feel slightly more generic indie really (3.5 stars for Meaning of 8, 3 stars for Happy Hippopotamus).
The Panic Channel (Stadler - round 5)Just the one album for these guys, and yeah basically my opinion is exactly the same as it was for the songs you sent me. It seems these guys weren't really very popular but I don't really understand why, I really do find the music much more punchy and interesting than Jane's Addiction, and the vocals (both in performance and composition more engaging). Maybe it was JA/Farrell diehard fans unhappy with a different approach, but whatever, this is a really cool alt-rock album with lots of great hooks (4 stars).
Netherbird (TAC - round 5)You sent me songs from their latest album, Into the Vast Uncharted, so that was my obvious starting point. And yep, it's as excellent overall as the selection of songs you sent me, for all the same reasons - dark, heavy, eerie and very melodic (4 stars). The previous album, The Grander Voyage, is maybe not quite as great as it hasn't have such high points as the latest album, but it's still very strong thanks to it also having a very melodic approach (also 4 stars). I continued to go back a bit more through their discography, but both the previous albums (Ferocious Tides of Fate and Monument Black Colossal) are just not as melodically interesting and don't really make up for it in other ways (3.5 stars x 2).
Stoned Jesus (Tomi - round 5)Ok so first thing's first, I'm The Mountain is still a fantastic song and if anything I think I like it even more now in the context of the album. It's moody, hypnotic and kind of groovy in a way. Unfortunately the rest of Seven Thunders Roar just isn't grabbing me in the same way. Not that it's bad, I just find it slightly dull, and so despite the highlight of the big epic, it's hard to really get into the album as a whole (3.5 stars).
A.A. Williams (Train - round 5)So yeah this music is amazing. Everything I said about your submission remains the case for the rest of her music, although actually she also pushes into some heavier moments at times which keep things dynamic and varied. But the melancholy intensity is always there whether the instrumentation is heavy or not, and it's gorgeous. Her self-titled EP is lovely, pretty much exactly what I expected from the songs you sent (4 stars). The mini EP she did with Mono was actually slightly disappointing - Exit in Darkness is a really nice song, but Winter Light just really drags and is pretty much aligned with my previous experience with Mono really. So overall the EP is good but not great (3.5 stars). But then her first full-length takes what made her EP great and expands on it and it's just amazing (4.5 stars).
Norther (wolfking - round 5)Now that I've explored their discography, I can see even more just how much they were influenced by Bodom (almost in ripoff territory at the start). The two albums you sent songs from are among their strongest, especially Death Unlimited which I think is their best overall, but Till Death Unites Us is also really strong (4 stars x 2). I like the fact that by this point they had incorporated some clean vocals into their sound as I think it works well. Their first two albums are good still, but not quite as interesting and do sound just slightly like knock-off Bodom (3.5 stars x 2). And then their last two albums seem to be pretty unpopular on the whole, and I can sort of understand that with N which feels like a less good version of the two albums before it (3.5 stars). But I was surprised at how much I like Circle Regenerated - going more full-on with melodic, anthemic choruses just works well for my tastes (thankfully the hooks are good), and the infusion of power metal and proggy elements similarly expands on the sound in a way that I find very enjoyable (4 stars). Shame they called it quits after that.
Poll
Topic: ariich’s inclusive roulette (v6) – EPic final results! (Read 186857 times)