Well it's Saturday, so I guess it's time for ROUND 3 RESULTS
TAC
Aeolias
Odysseus
Ergosphere
3 points
So this is something. I honestly have no idea what the vocals are doing at any point in this. There don’t seem to be any melodies really, just sort of aimless, occasionally melismatic wandering, sometimes she does a kind of half-spoken thing that doesn’t work either, and the harmonies are pretty brutal. Musically it’s not terrible, but the songs feel incoherent, like there’s no real direction or reason for anything that’s happening and nothing builds on what came before it. There are some cool bass runs I guess? But they feel like they’re totally disconnected from everything else that’s going on around them. Sorry man, this really doesn’t do anything for me.
HOF
Steve Hackett
The Steppes
Clocks - The Angel of Mons
Hammer in the Sand
Icarus Ascending
5 points
So you figured this probably wouldn’t be up my alley, and I guess you were more or less right about that, with caveats. It’s definitely well-performed, as I said in my first impression, and to its credit, where I’d expect a guitar player’s solo work to be mostly just guitaring with the other stuff as a background, these do feel like pretty complete compositions. The guitar is definitely the lead in most of it, but it’s not just aimless soloing with an instrumental backdrop, which is pretty neat. The songs don’t really do much for me personally, but I can certainly appreciate the performance.
Stadler
Rainbow
Weiss Heim
Vielleicht Das Nachster Mal
Anybody There
Snowman
6 points
So this is indisputably some great guitar playing. I don’t listen to a whole lot of instrumental music as I find most of the compositions aren’t quite strong enough to stand on their own, and this probably isn’t going to change my mind, it’s definitely a nice listen. In addition, Vielleicht das Nachster Mal is just a beautifully melancholy guitar solo. I feel like I’m hearing some Petrucci here? (By which I guess I mean I hear Blackmore in Petrucci) Or maybe it’s just because I don’t listen to a ton of classic rock guitarists. Either way, it’s fantastic playing and a great piece and is the clear standout here.
As a side note, I’ve been trying to learn German lately, and I’m pretty sure it ought to be Vielleicht das Nachste Mal grammatically. Maybe we can get some Germans in here to correct me if I’m wrong.
Puppies_On_Acid
Darkest Hour
A Paradox With Flies - The Light
The Misery We Make
Your Every Day Disaster
Fire in the Skies
Tranquil
6 points
I was pretty into this on my first listen, as is reflected in my first impression, but I’ve actually cooled down on it in subsequent listens. A Paradox with Flies and The Misery We Make have a really cool mix of almost punk-y energy with the anthemic vocals with the heavier death metal influences, and I really enjoy those two. The ‘gargly’ (sorry, don’t know a better way to describe it) of harsh vocals aren’t exactly my kind of thing, but they work pretty well in this context. Your Every Day Disaster is a pretty standard death metally instrumental and is nice enough but doesn’t leave much an impression on me, and the last two songs seem to drop the clean elements in favor of being straight-forwardly heavy, which is less interesting to me in isolation.
Also, Your Every Day Disaster is super quiet for some reason, which causes Fire in the Skies to deafen me every time it comes on. That didn’t affect the score though.
Romdrums
VOLA
The Same War
Stray the Skies
Ruby Pool
Still
6 points
Look, man, I was there in the 2010s when the djentpocalypse happened and suddenly everyone started tuning their guitars down to absolute zero and chugging so hard it shook the universe. And while this isn’t pure djent, it leans pretty heavily into it, and my reaction is about the same as to most djent, which is: It’s…OK. There are some heavy, off-kilter riffs and nonoffensive rhythmic vocal melodies, but it all feels pretty sterile to me. The Same War and Stray the Skies are fine listens but nothing really grabs me. Still is a bit less djenty and I like the melodies although overall the song doesn’t move me much either.
That said, Ruby Pool is an absolutely lovely song. Fantastic vocal melodies and harmonies, nice sparse instrumentation, beautiful restrained guitar solo, just great all around. I’d listen to an album of this. I’d listen to an album that was just Ruby Pool repeated 10-15 times.
wolfking
The Tea Party
Fire in the Head
Bazaar
Psychopomp
Cathartik
6 points
So like I said in my first impression, I really dig the vocalist’s style and his voice. Reminds me pretty strongly of Jorn, actually. He’s got a really cool dark, dramatic delivery in Bazaar and the slow buildup of Psychopomp, and a sort of vague looming menace in Cathartik. Musically nothing blows me away, but it’s varied enough to stay interesting and creates a pretty compelling atmosphere. Fire in the Head is kind of a miss for me; both the angular riffs and the vocal melodies are kind of grating to me and pulls the score down a bit, but the other three songs I like quite a bit.
The Walrus
Broken Bells
After the Disco
Holding on for Life
The Changing Lights
Lazy Wonderland
6 points
I like the pseudo-80s sound and style of this pretty well, but it’s not really resonating with me much beyond that. It’s a nice listen and I enjoy it while I’m listening to it, but the vocal melodies aren’t very compelling to me (I do really like the verses of Lazy Wonderland though), and the music, while cool and stylish, doesn’t really stand up on its own if the vocals aren’t working. Honestly this seems like it should really be my jam but for whatever reason it’s not totally clicking.
ariich
Black Peaks
Glass Built Castles
Say You Will
Hang ‘Em High
6 points
This is another submission that ought to be exactly my kind of thing, but that I’m only kind of lukewarm on overall. The harsh vocals are great and there’s some pretty good variety there from the low yells to the fry screams, but as has been a trend in this roulette with post-hardcore stuff, I find the clean vocal sections to be kind of underwritten in Say You Will and Hang ‘Em High, although I think they’re stronger in Glass Built Castles, which is my favorite song of the three (and pretty strong overall). Instrumentally it feels pretty standard, which isn’t bad, but isn’t particularly compelling either.
Cyril
Planetarium (James McAlister, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner)
Jupiter
Pluto
Mars
6 points
I still have mixed feelings about this. The vocal oriented sections I love (excepting the vocoder ones, which I don’t really get it) and I think they’re incredibly beautiful. The symphonic-ish sections are pretty nice, although I don’t think they mesh super well with the vocal parts and they’re not particularly compelling. The electronic sections parts (like most of Mars), I feel similarly about. Not actively bad, but just kind of there. At the very least, though, this has convinced me I ought to listen to Sufjan Stevens.
Also, just as a point of interest, I didn't move this submission up because Sacul had sent one of the Planetarium songs, this was where my randomizer had assigned this submission from the beginning.
Evermind
Ensiferum
Lai Lai Hei
Twilight Tavern
Iron
7 points
This is some really fun folk-y metal. Jari (this is Jari, right?) has definitely grown a lot as a singer since then in terms of clean singing, some of the sections in Lai Lai Hei are kind of iffy (although I dig the presumably-Finnish sections a lot), but his harshes are great and they seem dominant over throughout the other songs. It’s strange, but these sorts of medieval-sounding melodies combined with heavy riffing just really works. Plus there’s just something funny about a brutal metal song dedicated to drinking beer. The wonky bits of Lai Lai Hei pull the score down a bit, but I had a lot of fun with this. In retrospect, the ‘this might be your redemption’ impression should have been yours, probably.
Luoto
Maraton
Blood Music
Prime
Spectral Friends
7 points
HOLY SHIT BLOOD MUSIC IS SUCH A GOOD SONG. Seriously, strong and emotive vocals, huge chorus, and cool electronically-influenced-metal sound. It’s just great all around. It’s so good that it’s kind of surprising that the other two songs are just all right. Prime has a really cool main riff and the verses are nice, but the chorus is a bit off and doesn’t work too well, and Spectral Friends is pretty nice on all fronts but nothing really stands out.
brb going to listen to Blood Music again.
Tomislav95
The Cure
In Between Days
Pictures of You
Lovesong
A Night like This
8 points
I don’t even know what this style is. British new wave, I guess? Whatever it is, I really like it and I don’t listen to it enough. There’s a really great emotional quality to all of the music and vocals here, and even though no instrument really takes the spotlight here they’re all supporting the songs perfectly. Nothing here is quite good enough to bump this up to a 9 or a 10, but there’s nothing weak here either. (and, I mean, you’re doing pretty well score-wise anyway)
Elite
Agent Fresco
Dark Water
Destrier
Silhouette Palette
Howls
Yellow Nights
See Hell
8 points
So yeah, the vocals are amazing here. He’s got a high register that slides beautifully into floaty falsetto and he seems just as comfortable in big choruses as in the more pensive moments. Musically I’m enjoying this a lot too; it’s like someone took a hatchet to all the excess of progressive metal and only left three-minute runtimes and inventive song structures. There’s the odd bit I’m not crazy about, like the subsonic riffing in Destrier or the staccato bits in See Hell, and Yellow Nights as a whole doesn’t do much for me, but overall I’m really enjoying this.
Buddyhunter1
Pendulum
Crush
The Fountain (Feat. Steven Wilson)
The Island Pt. I (Dawn)
The Island Pt. II (Dusk)
8 points
This reminds me a lot of Celldweller; catchy, poppy, electronic-leaning music with a lot of high energy rock influence. The result is something that is just a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. The melodies are catchy. The beats are hard. Steven Wilson is here. That’s a party if I ever heard one. There’s enough variation, with piano and acoustic bits cropping up throughout to keep it from feeling one-dimensional. The score is only this low because the dubstep in Dusk isn’t really my thing. It’s not terrible, but I’d probably never listen to it of my own accord.
Sacul
Sufjan Stevens
Chicago
John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
Fourth of July - Live
Moon (from Planetarium)
9 points
You know, I’m not sure why, but I didn’t expect Sufjan’s music to be this beautiful. And that’s really the best word here, beautiful. There are really no harsh sounds here at all; gentle, smooth instrumentation, his fragile-sounding voice that suits the songs, and the melodies are always lovely (even when the lyrics get pretty dark). Fourth of July is the first live track someone’s sent in this roulette so far, and honestly if it weren’t for the applause at the end, I wouldn’t have guessed; it sounds flawless, although I think the ‘we’re all gonna die’ section at the end is a bit much. The Planetarium song is a bit stranger and while I’m still not sold on the project as a whole, Moon works pretty well here as a quiet coda to the other songs.
STANDINGS
Tomislav95 26
Sacul 24
Luoto 23
Buddyhunter1 22
The Walrus 22
Cyril 21
Elite 21
ariich 21
romdrums 21
wolfking 18
Puppies_On_Acid 18
Evermind 17
HOF 16
Stadler 16
TAC 15
This is also known as the 'everybody gets a 6' round. Rich and Cyril are already locked and loaded, everybody else, send for round 4!
Topic: SN's Homestuck roulette: jpeg hero (final results) (Read 57355 times)
