FINAL ROUND RESULTS, ranks 10-11--------------------------------------------------------------------------
11th place
wolfking – Pirates, Battles, War, Vikings and shit1. 3 Inches of Blood – Fear on the Bridge
2. Amon Amarth – Deceiver of the Gods
3. Swashbuckle – Cruise Ship Terror
4. Amon Amarth – War of the Gods
5. Sabaton – Resist and Bite
6. Amon Amarth – Guardians of Asgaard
7. Swashbuckle – Crime Always Pays
First impression: I’m enjoying the fun, energetic metal here. Half of it sounds pretty awesome, although the other half is a lot less interesting.
Final opinion: As I said in my first impression, I really enjoy the energetic and entertaining metal on this EP, but it really is a mixed bag and I have very different opinions of each artist. The one that’s easily most up my alley is Amon Amarth – I’ve actually considered checking them out a few times before but never got round to it, but this is high quality melodic death metal so I’ll definitely be catching up now. Second is the Sabaton track, which is also great – it’s hard to get a sense of how representative this is of their stuff, but it’s got a really catchy, epic hook. The 3 Inches of Blood song I wasn’t very keen on at first because I’m not too hot on the vocals, but I’m enjoying it well enough now. The big weak point though is the Swashbuckle who unfortunately strike me as an Alestorm knock-off without the charm.
The flow is pretty good, it’s another example of a pretty straightforward selection of songs, but the songs all have a similar sort of style and sound to them. Perhaps slightly too much so, actually, as there isn’t really any respite. The track ordering works well though, in terms of spreading out the styles and not having all the best songs together at one end or the other.
Music quality score: 8.1
Flow score: 3.8
EP total: 11.9
Roulette total: 69.7Kade, it’s been so great having you in this roulette – I’m not sure we really crossed paths that much before Tim’s recent roulette, but between that one and this one I’m really glad to have explored some great music with you. You were arguably the most genre-focused player out of everyone, but it never got boring or repetitive because the quality always stayed high, such that you were in with a real shot at winning in those middle few rounds. The Mors Principium Est was of course the big highlight for me, and I can’t wait to dive into their stuff. But every single one of your submissions was excellent – you never dipped below 8/10 which only a few others can boast. Solution.45, Pyramaze, Norther, Lord and Amon Amarth are the bands I’m most excited to explore, but I’ll be checking out all the others too (expect Swashbuckle, and maybe 3 Inches of Blood).
You win the award for: Most Metal
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10th place
Puppies – The Call of Cygnus1. Vektor – Tetrastructural Minds
2. Absu – Amy
3. Vektor – Recharging the Void
4. Warbringer – Outer Reaches
5. Revocation – A Starless Darkness
First impression: The coherence and storytelling is rather great. This is some ferocious stuff – I dig the intensity but I’m not sure all the music is grabbing me so far.
Final opinion: This EP seems to all be based around what I think of as modern thrash metal, and I have to say it’s not really a genre I’ve kept up with. I know some of the old thrash bands and still check out their new stuff, but clearly the genre has moved on in terms of what new bands are doing. Vektor especially sounds very different to anything I’ve heard and I wasn’t sure how to describe them on first listen, so had to look them up.
Anyway this has definitely got me interested. The two Vektor tracks are absolutely fantastic, and in particular the more I listen to Recharging the Void the more I love it. I mean ok there’s a complete rip-off of Pink Floyd’s On the Turning Away in the middle, but it’s a great atmospheric break, and the second half of the song is epic. The other stuff is all solid too – particularly the ferocious and exciting riffing that I’d hope for from the genre. The Warbringer is my least favourite as I’m not too keen on the vocals and it’s a pretty one-track song really, but it’s still pretty good.
Flow-wise, the story-telling is fantastic, which comes as no surprise after your concept album in my last roulette. Particularly in the second half of the EP, the lyrics fit so well, it’s quite impressive really. So this is definitely an example where the narrative has helped how the flow works. But musically it all flows very well as well – the transitions between each song are done nicely and tightly, the style is coherent throughout but there are also slight breaks to keep it all well balanced.
Music quality score: 8.3
Flow score: 4.2
EP total: 12.5
Roulette total: 69.9You never start my roulettes that strongly for some reason (having only scraped through prelims in my previous two, and starting even lower this time) but as ever you picked it up again magnificently, and it was brilliant having you send me so much great music again. Weirdly, your scores are really cyclical – your second half is almost identical to your first half.
The Estradasphere did knock your momentum a bit, and you never managed to catch back up, but as far as I’m concerned you still had a great roulette. You were more focused on heavy stuff this time than in my previous roulettes, but it didn’t stop you branching out into other styles that were just as successful (indeed your highest score and the one I’m most excited about is Matthew Good). I’m already looking forward to what you’ll throw my way next time!
You win the award for: Most Cyclical Scoring
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Final rankings:10. Puppies = 7.8 + 8.2 + 8.5 + 8.4 + 7.8 + 8.3 + 8.4 + (8.3 + 4.2) = 69.9
11. wolfking = 8.2 + 8.2 + 8.0 + 8.9 + 8.2 + 8.2 + 8.1 + (8.1 + 3.8) = 69.7
12= lonestar = 8.4 + 7.9 + 8.0 + 7.8 + 8.2 + 8.5 + 8.5 + (8.0 + 4.1) = 69.4
12= Elite = 8.1 + 8.5 + 7.6 + 8.1 + 8.1 + 8.3 + 7.9 + (8.7 + 4.1) = 69.4
12= Indi = 7.9 + 8.2 + 8.3 + 7.9 + 8.1 + 8.0 + 8.2 + (8.3 + 4.5) = 69.4
15= Nekov = 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.5 + 8.3 + 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.2 + (8.2 + 4.1) = 69.3
15= romdrums = 8.0 + 8.7 + 8.0 + 8.1 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 8.1 + (8.1 + 3.7) = 69.3
17. Sacul = 8.1 + 7.1 + 8.2 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 8.1 + 8.4 + (8.3 + 4.0) = 68.8
18. king = 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.2 + 7.7 + 8.0 + 8.2 + 8.4 + (8.0 + 3.9) = 68.4
19. Tomi = 7.3 + 8.1 + 7.9 + 8.5 + 8.1 + 7.5 + 8.5 + (8.1 + 3.9) = 67.9
20. LordCost = 7.2 + 8.8 + 7.3 + 8.2 + 7.5 + 8.4 + 8.0 + (7.9 + 3.7) = 67.0
21. Lethean = 7.6 + 8.0 + 8.5 + 8.4 + 7.4 + 7.6 + 8.2 + (7.6 + 3.4) = 66.7
22. Stadler = 7.4 + 7.8 + 7.9 + 8.1 + 8.4 + 7.8 + 8.0 + (7.3 + 3.7) = 66.4