Round 2 ResultsRound 2 Playlistariich: Mutoid Man – BridgerburnerFirst Impression:This sounds exactly like Amendfoil, except with slightly weaker vocals. Which is to say, I dig it, though it’s a bit lacking in substance.
Final Thoughts:I’m okay with the best song of the round continuing to be bloody obvious from the getgo because it makes my job easier. This song rocks, plain and simple. Killer heavy riffing, tasty melodic leads, a banger of a chorus, and a chaotic breakdown at the end. All in like three minutes. Some of the songs this round are 7-8 minutes and they don’t have as many good ideas as this one!
And when I compare a band to Amendfoil that’s only a positive thing, considering the two albums of theirs I have I’ve rated both as 4.5’s. Good band. Rock as hard of them, have as good of hooks as them, you’re winning in my book. So yeah. More Amendfoil, cool! There really isn’t a huge difference between the two as far as I’m concerned, though maybe a difference will be more obvious in checking out the album.
Also, lacking in substance? I dunno why I said that, that’s not even really true. I dunno. This is really the only song of the round I found particularly exciting and while it’s not quite at the level good enough to guarantee immunity (it’s not as good as that Gospel song, which was already borderline) it’s still pretty dang killer.
Score:
Mr. Crabs: Blaze Of Sorrow – NotturnaFirst Impression:It took me over half the song’s runtime to figure out what genre this was trying to be. It’s solid in a very non-descript, hard-to-say-anything-about kind of way.
Final Thoughts:I still pretty much agree with my initial impressions, though this has consistently been one of the better-ranking songs in this set at the very least. Because, I mean. It’s black metal. Mildly progressive black metal, even. It takes its time to really show that it is since most of the harder, more aggressive black metal is in the back half, and I do definitely prefer the back half even if the front half is good too, but like. This is METAL, man.
That being said as far as being prog, or being black metal, or being metal in general, it doesn’t really strike me as having a ton of flavor. I can enjoy the guitar work in the first half and the intensity of the back half while I’m listening to them but man does this not stick in my mind much. It mostly sounds good – I’d say the bass drum is mixed way too low but that’s my only real gripe there – but I struggle to find something here I couldn’t get from other bands either.
I’m still inclined to be nice to this one since it’s definitely one of the more exciting songs in this round, maybe I’ll follow up on the album to see if there’s better songs on it, maybe not, but regardless. This is cool stuff albeit I really don’t have a ton else to say about it beyond that.
Score: Elite: Anima Tempo – ConfessionsFirst Impression:You’ll be pleased to know I don’t think this is djent. I comment on this only because I don’t have any other interesting thoughts on this at this time.
Final Thoughts:Okay I mean, to be fair. It’s very 2010’s prog metal, which is an amalgamation of “prog” (time signature/tempo changes) with djent riffs and symphonic/power metal theatricality and, to an extent, cheese. So it’s kinda djent, but it’s not -just- djent.
It’s also kind of a mess. The song seems to have a “let’s just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” mentality with its ideas that leads to pretty much no overarching motifs besides a chorus. Nothing really tying all these parts together. There are moments I dig, but they’re ultimately just moments – one idea hopping to the next without regards for flow or cohesion. And it’s not like anything here is super out of left-field, it’s all very standard sounds, so trying to cram as many of them in as possible means the memorability of all of them suffers for it.
There are moments I particularly like – the heavy bridge into the instrumental after it is probably the best part of the entire song, and the chorus is pretty solid – not super sticky, but there’s some power there, the vocalist is decent. There’s not really a lot here I dislike either. It’s all very fine. But they really need to figure out how to make their ideas converge into an actual proper song because what we do get here feels really sloppy and doesn’t strike me as particularly unique either. I like it for sure but I… don’t think I’m gonna remember it a week from now.
Score: Dacul: Deftones – Change (In The House of Flies)First Impression:I get the intent of this submission and it’s, fine, but I sure hope this one is a grower because otherwise I’m going to get bored of it real quick.
Final Thoughts:The production comment could’ve also been about this one yeah because, well, it’s not great here. Reeeally crunchy and muddy guitars (and sound in general really) and while I think this has marginally better production than G/Z/R it’s still not… good. Some of the riffing can actually hit kinda hard but it’d sound way better with competent production.
I place this above the lower-ranked songs mostly because… well, I do think there’s some decent hooks here even if I’m not completely sold on the melodies. I do remember this song to at least some degree when it’s over. It doesn’t stir up a strong emotional reaction in me but it’s at least… something? It’s another one that did grow on me at least a little bit while I was relistening. Uuhhh also. The drums have their moments.
I dunno, another one where I’m like, it’s perfectly fine and I don’t really have a ton to say about it. I’ve tried listening to this album before and remember it not doing much for me (nor did their 2016 album when it came out) so I’m about ready to file these guys away as “not for me” at this point. Solid but unremarkable.
Score: Nekov: Leech – The Man with the HammerFirst Impression:Nothing about this is bad or unpleasant, but I spent the entire time waiting for them to find a good riff yet they never did.
Final Thoughts:This has grown on me a little but it’s also very, very easy to notice how… basic, it is. It’s built mostly on that one looped guitar line and it’s a fine guitar line but it’s sort of a dry melody. And there’s plenty of layers of texture to it that lead up to a fine enough climax – I’d probably put this as mostly post-rock with some post-metal moments, I guess, but it ebbs and flows and swells all the same.
And I guess there’s one good riff actually, albeit calling a riff that’s “play the same chord every other measure” the best riff in the song is a bit of a backhanded compliment? That hits hard though. Like a hammer. Swung by a man. The only other “riff” of note is just straight chord hits on the 8th notes and they sound bit I guess but that’s…more texture than riff.
I dunno, I think if this song was like 5 minutes long and ended at that first climax it would’ve worked better, because it’s not like the song really feels like it has much to add after that and it doesn’t even re-peak as high as its first peak either. It doesn’t really feel like anything special within its genre either but I do at least to an extent enjoy it, even if I don’t think it’s going to make me want to check out this band further.
Score: Indiscipline: Quintorigo – Bentivoglio AngelinaFirst Impression:Definitely unique and intriguing but I’m gonna have a really hard time getting into those vocals.
Final Thoughts:Honestly just makes me think of “what if Diablo Swing Orchestra just didn’t use any rock instruments, and also was Italian”. That’s basically what this is. The singer(s) are very talented for sure, I don’t know quite how many there are but there’s some real intensity and range on display here, although the raspier/lower pitched voice I’m not a huge fan of. Naturally I don’t know a word of what they’re saying besides “Angelina” a lot of times but ehh, hardly matters.
As for the instrumentation, there’s parts of this where I can hear at least some kind of metal swell although it’s definitely more driven by the brass here than anything else (and there’s definitely no guitar to be found, which, fine). It does have a few small movements to it too, it feels like – that main brass motif does get a little tired but I don’t think it gets overused, and I do quite dig the softer moments and the huge swell at the end too.
I dunno, I do kind of dig this but I don’t really… feel much listening to it, either. It has some power, but not much, it’s isolated more to specific moments. I’d have a hard time saying much of it is particularly pretty either. I do find it interesting and being interesting is pretty much guaranteed to get some level of credit from me unless it’s interesting in a bad way, but… mostly this just isn’t for me, I guess.
Score: Tomislav95: Kryn – RissetFirst Impression:This, on the other hand, is definitely djent. It’s the kind of djent I can at least tolerate and occasionally enjoy though since there’s at least, grooves and hooks though.
Final Thoughts:Actually I probably should slightly apologize to VOLA since uuhh they know how to write a hook a lot better than this band. Like, there -is- a hook to this one and it’s fine, but it’s not like, particularly memorable. I don’t really find any of this memorable, actually. It’s a djent song with some hooks, that’s basically it.
Like, the riffs, the grooves, they’re perfectly fine! I think the guitar tone isn’t particularly great or special but at the very least the riffs have a bit of punch to them even if they’re not particularly unique or diverse. The bridge too has this neat atmospheric feel to it that’s, it’s kinda cool but the vocals going on at the same time are… not doing it for me.
I think my problem more than anything is that this is perfectly fine but just seems to lack much in the way of personality, it’s probably the least memorable song of the entire round or even the entire roulette so far (which, two rounds, alright, fair enough) but. Ehh, I dunno. For what it’s worth based on my history with Wolverine and my one listen to that song before I realized they were banned I don’t think it would’ve done much better, if it did better at all.
Score: Stadler: G/Z/R – Detective 27First Impression:The requisite “I could see this being solid but the production doesn’t work for me” song of the round.
Final Thoughts:Ehh, the production is one of the things that holds this back, but really in general… yeah this isn’t for me. The production is way too muddy, for one, and I think it holds back the riffs from really hitting hard. But also, the vocals… I think there are multiple performers here and I don’t really like any of them, not the spoken word-ish bits, not the raspier vocals on the chorus, the cleaner hard rock voice is the closest to being enjoyable but I don’t… feel much for it either.
I will say, I do think the rhythm section pulls a decent amount of weight here, mostly the drums which drive a good sense of energy pretty consistently. But uuhhh. Eehh. It’s not enough to really save this one when for the most part I just don’t find it interesting. It’s very straightforward and very short and in that regards I can’t fault it for deciding not to overstay its welcome, but I can’t imagine returning to this either. Not the worst, not unlistenable, but not very interesting.
Score: Eliminations coming tomorrow! Sleep well, everyone.
Topic: Cyril's Lead-Filled Roulette! (Post-Roulette) (Read 41199 times)
