The second half of the results.
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jingle.boy
Queensrÿche
First impression: Pretty good stuff! This might grow on me a lot.
Final review: So despite what my first impression implied, I’m not sure if Queensrÿche has grown on me all that much. But it’s strange, this feels like a band I should have grown to really enjoy. Some of the music here vaguely reminds me of When Dream and Day Unite, which is an album I’ve grown to really enjoy. I think perhaps the reason that it hasn’t all clicked with me could do with the fact that all the songs I was sent are live recordings. Now, I have absolutely no problem with being sent live recordings, but I think sometimes they can be too echoey, and as such I feel like there might be details I’m missing out on as a result of all the live noise, whether it’s the echo or the audience (or both). I think this might be the case with Operation: LIVEcrime (plus the live version of Queen of the Reich). But with what I’ve been given, I can at least say that I enjoyed this band. The opening tracks of Operation: Mindcrime plus “Revolution Calling” is a great combo of songs. Revolution Calling has this anthemic vibe and almost has a sense of grandeur to it. “Operation: Mindcrime” follows with a similar style, though I find it a bit less memorable. “Suite Sister Mary” is an interesting and climactic-sounding track. It’s very dramatic, especially with the ominous female chanting towards the end. But while those songs are all pretty good, to be honest… I think my favorite song here is “Queen of the Reich”. I can definitely hear its influence on When Dream and Day Unite, and in general it’s enjoyable to listen to from start to finish. While I might not have seemed so excited about the Operation: LIVEcrime, I definitely want to listen to the original studio version. If nothing else, the story seems very interesting (even though I don’t have much of an idea as to what’s going on, aside from a guy (presumably the main character) needing to kill someone named Mary), and I think the music does a great job of making the story feel exciting and dramatic. So while Queensrÿche hasn’t exactly clicked with me yet, I’ve got a good feeling that they will for me, given time.
As a side note, I watched the live videos that you sent, jingle.boy. They’re alright, but nothing special to me. I do find it cool, though, that they made an animation for I Remember Now.
I Remember Now/Anarchy-X/Revolution Calling - 8/10
Operation: Mindcrime - 7.75/10
Suite Sister Mary - 8.25/10
Queen of the Reich - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 8.1
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romdrums
Karnivool
First impression: They're good, but I wasn't expecting them to sound so... normal.
Final review: Surely I’m not the only one who was expecting demented heavy metal circus music when I saw the name of this band for the first time, right? What I got was something a lot more normal than that. But let’s toss expectations aside; even if my original vision of a band called “Karnivool” proved to be a more exciting prospect than some regular ol’ rock, what do I think of the music itself? Well… a bit underwhelming, honestly. They’re not bad by any means, but they generally don’t do too much for me. I feel like they’re the kind of band that puts a lot of emotion into their music, but I just don’t feel it. So what I’m left with is some music that’s good enough at best, but still at least decent. “C.O.T.E.” is the best of the four songs. It’s nothing special or anything, but it’s an enjoyable listen overall and has some rather pleasant parts to it. “We Are” has a great vocal section towards the end, but the rest of the song is a bit bland and even though I like the part towards the end, I think it overstays its welcome just a bit. “New Day” feels like it’s trying to be very emotional with the vocals, but they just don’t do anything for me and occasionally don’t sound that great. I also think the song is maybe a bit too long… I think there’s potential for me to enjoy a band like this, but Karnivool in particular just isn’t my thing, even if I think it’s still kinda good.
C.O.T.E. - 7.5/10
Goliath - 7/10
We Are - 6.75/10
New Day - 6.75/10
Roulette score: 7.0
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Puppies_On_Acid
Oceansize
First impression: I was expecting something rather strange, but instead I got some very pretty, atmospheric music.
Final review: Very pleasant and beautiful music. That’s basically all I need to say about Oceansize, but I should go into a little more detail here. I really wasn’t expecting the music to be what it is, what with some of the strange song titles they have. There’s “Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs”, which was sent in this round, but other odd titles I’ve heard of include “Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt” and “It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To”. But speaking of that one song that I did listen to, WWLMWLD (nice abbreviation, eh?) is a great showcase of what this band is about. Atmospheric, ambient yet a little energetic, really good vocals… Now, this isn’t the greatest singer I’ve ever heard, but his voice fits the music so well, especially in WWLMWLD. “Trail of Fire” is a bit different from the other Oceansize songs; it’s got that signature aesthetic that makes Oceansize great, but there’s a lot more energy and it leans towards more “normal” songwriting than the soundscape-ish structure of the other songs. There’s two 10+ minute songs here, which are my two favorites. “The Frame” has a nice but very slow start, but there’s some really great moments, especially towards the end, that more than make up for it. “Voorhees” has some great vocals and has this calm yet intense atmosphere to it. I’m guessing mostly all of Oceansize’s music is like these songs, and if so, I am very interested in checking out more of this stuff. So pretty…
Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs - 8.5/10
Trail of Fire - 8.5/10
The Frame - 8.75/10
Voorhees - 8.75/10
Roulette score: 8.6
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Evermind / Elite
Pain of Salvation
First impression: Makes me think of a modern-day Marillion, only I can feel more emotions with this one.
Final review: Ah, Pain of Salvation... Yet another one of those bands that I’ve heard a lot about ever since I joined DTF. I’ve heard quite a few opinions on them, on here and elsewhere. Some say they’re great, some say they’re the greatest thing ever, some say they’re incredibly pretentious… So yeah, this was a band I was interested in checking out when they were submitted in this roulette. Based on these eight songs, though… I think my thoughts about the band are more on a song-by-song basis. They have their own sound, and they do different styles, but when comparing songs they’ve made that follow a specific style, there can be differing results. For instance, I would say “WAIT” and “Iter Impius” are, in some ways, similar to each other (aside from Iter Impius having more energy to it). Of these two songs, I like WAIT significantly more than Iter Impius (though Iter Impius is still pretty good). Though when I compare those two ballad-esque songs to another one like “Second Love”, those two are both inferior; I didn’t think much of Second Love at first, but one night it just really clicked with me and I think it’s probably my favorite song out of all eight Pain of Salvation songs I listened to. Maybe this whole “song-by-song basis” thing doesn’t make sense, but I’ve already written this much… To say my thoughts on the band as a whole, they are definitely good. I guess what I’m saying is that I need to listen to some of these albums to determine what qualities I enjoy the most. Going over some of Elite’s submissions (as I’ve only mentioned Evermind’s so far), there’s more variety here, though I think I enjoyed this batch of songs a little less. “King of Loss” is very good, though; if it’s not Second Love, then this song is my favorite Pain of Salvation song I was sent. It has a long buildup, but both the buildup and payoff are quite satisfying. “RESTLESS BOY” is rather different from the other songs, going for a more electronic sound, but I think it works pretty well. There’s even a vocoder before the proper vocals, I think, and that sounds good as well. Now, I think this is going to be a controversial opinion, but while I like the song, “In the Passing Light of Day” is easily my least favorite of these eight songs. It sounds nice, but it feels too long and at times I feel like there’s not enough going on. Looking at these eight songs as a whole, though, Pain of Salvation has some very interesting stuff; enough to make me interested in checking out a few albums, at least!
WAIT - 8.25/10
Iter Impius - 7.75/10
Second Love - 8.75/10
Beyond the Pale - 8.5/10
Rope Ends - 8.25/10
King of Loss - 8.75/10
RESTLESS BOY - 8.25/10
In the Passing Light of Day - 7.75/10
Evermind’s roulette score: 8.3
Elite’s roulette score: 8.3
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HOF
Big Big Train
First impression: Certainly good, but I don't have much else to say about it.
Final review: The first couple times I listened to Big Big Train, I was worried that it was going to be another one of those bands where I couldn’t find anything to say about it, other than “I like it”. Fortunately, though, that did not turn out to be the case! Well, the “I like it” part still stands. If I had to compare this band to something else, it’s a bit like Riverside with some Transatlantic elements here and there; they’ve still got their own unique sound, of course. “A Boy in Darkness” is a quite interesting song. It starts off mellow and rather ominous, and it gets a bit more energized in the chorus, but then about a little less than halfway into the song, it switches to this really cool section where it’s fast-paced and there’s some symphonic instruments like a violin playing along. Another great song is “Snowfalls”, which does a very good job at feeling like a winter/Christmas song while still feeling unique in how it’s presented. I think there’s a lot to enjoy about this band, though I don’t know if the songs sent represent how their music generally sounds, or if they do a lot more different styles than what I’ve heard here. If it’s the latter, then checking out some albums from Big Big Train sounds like an exciting prospect to me. That said, even if this is the extent of what they tend to do, I think I’d still want more of this.
A Boy in Darkness - 8.5/10
Last Train - 8/10
Snowfalls - 8.5/10
Roulette score: 8.3
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Stadler
Deep Purple
First impression: This was a lot more interesting than I expected!
Final review: So I mentioned that I found this very interesting… but looking back, I think it’s really just one song that I found particularly good; while I do like these guys better than I thought I would, any novelty two of these songs had has more or less gone away. Deep Purple has that classic rock aesthetic that sometimes works for me, but sometimes it doesn’t. On that scale, they’re in the middle. At their best, I do enjoy it, but it seems that’s more of the exception than the rule, if these three songs are anything to go by. But even when they’re not at their best, it’s still some worthwhile stuff to listen to. To make this straightforward, the best song here is “Burn”. It’s a fun song with a very memorable riff throughout the song, and there’s some pretty talented vocals on display. The other songs are actually good as well, though not as good. In the case of “No No No”, it’s pretty catchy, but some of the lyrics are kind of jarring to listen to (“Do we love each other? No no no”). “Not Responsible” has a really cool, slightly atmospheric riff at the beginning, and it does recur throughout the song, but the rest of the song isn’t particularly as interesting. So overall, Deep Purple is good, though not necessarily a band I’d get into. They were worth a shot for Burn alone, though!
No No No - 7.75/10
Not Responsible - 7.75/10
Burn - 8/10
Roulette score: 7.8
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425
Seventh Wonder
First impression: An impressive piece of music, this is.
Final review: This was an unexpected submission. Not in what the music is, but rather that there’s only one song to discuss here. So it is a bit tricky to decide how I feel about the band based on just one song… even if said song is a 30-minute epic. So, this 30-minute epic is called “The Great Escape”, and much like most songs of this kind, there’s all sorts of twists and turns. Now, I don’t think I would call this song a masterpiece (or at least, I’m not at that point yet), but there is one important aspect that it more or less gets right; throughout its lengthy runtime, it is consistently interesting. I don’t love every single moment of the song, but there’s almost always something to keep me interested, like the instrumental that properly begins the song after the soft acoustic intro. Seeing as this band’s vocalist, Tommy Karevik, also appeared in Kamelot, I should mention that I think he’s a very good singer. It’s been a while since I heard the one Kamelot song I was sent in Round 2 that he sings on, but I think here his voice fits in quite well with the music, whether it’s a gentler voice like in the aforementioned acoustic intro, or his normal, rather powerful voice throughout most of the song. Now, a song that’s 30 minutes long will naturally take me many more listens to fully digest and memorize, but there are some highlights I can bring up. The instrumental stuff during “VII. Death of the Goddesses” is really great, I really like how the piano and heavy guitars go together. There’s also a couple sections in “XI. The Aftermath” with a female singer, and with the quieter atmosphere they make during those sections, it works very well. The only thing I’d say I don’t like about the song is when the song briefly stops about halfway through, before “VIII. The Age of Confusion: Despair”. The song is very seamless in how it goes from movement to movement otherwise, so I wish there was a better transition to the next movement than just a few seconds of silence. But that’s really about the only complaint I have with the song. And to judge the band as a whole… Again, it’s kind of hard to judge based on one song, but I think if the rest of the album this comes from has the same amount of quality that this song has, I think I’m in for something great. Well, either way, with an epic like this, how could I not be intrigued?
The Great Escape - 9/10
Roulette score: 9.0
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TAC
Burden of Life
First impression: Unsure how I feel about the harsh vocals, but there's some pretty interesting stuff here otherwise.
Final review: So here’s a somewhat interesting one. Burden of Life, simply put, makes some pretty good music, at least based on the two songs I’ve heard. Musically, it’s high-energy metal, and while that’s about the only way I can describe what this band is about, that’s not a bad thing; as I mentioned, this band makes some good stuff. Of the two songs sent, I like “Goddess of the River” better. It’s just that high-energy goodness and it never lets up, even in the softer section in the middle of the song. The chorus is so catchy, too. The harsh vocals were a bit odd to me at first, but now I think they fit in very well with the music. (Small tangent: Since my first impression for this band was similar to my impressions on Exist, I’ll mention that I prefer the vocals in this band, both soft and harsh.) Anyway, “The Makeshift Conqueror, Pt. 2” is very good as well. I think the highlight is the intro, actually. The drumming and the somewhat dramatic band entrance is such a great way to start the song. After that intro, the band does what they do best. There’s a cool part around 3:40 where it slows down and there’s a choir in the background. I wish that part lasted longer. If the rest of the album these songs come from has music of this quality or higher, I’d be very interested in checking out the whole thing.
Goddess of the River - 8.5/10
The Makeshift Conqueror, Pt. 2 - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 8.4
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STANDINGS:
425: 8.9 + 8.4 + 9.0 = 26.3
Cyril: 8.8 + 9.0 + 8.4 = 26.2
twosuitsluke: 8.6 + 8.6 + 8.9 = 26.1
Buddyhunter1: 8.9 + 8.0 + 8.8 = 25.7
Evermind: 8.6 + 8.6 + 8.3 = 25.5
Sacul: 8.2 + 8.6 + 8.3 = 25.1
Lethean: 7.7 + 8.2 + 8.7 = 24.6
TAC: 7.8 + 8.4 + 8.4 = 24.6
kingshmegland: 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.5 = 24.5
MoraWintersoul: 8.3 + 8.1 + 7.9 = 24.3
Nekov: 8.2 + 7.4 + 8.5 = 24.1
Elite: 8.1 + 7.7 + 8.3 = 24.1
jingle.boy: 7.9 + 8.1 + 8.1 = 24.1
Luoto: 8.3 + 7.6 + 7.8 = 23.7
romdrums: 8.4 + 8.1 + 7.0 = 23.5
HOF: 7.6 + 7.6 + 8.3 = 23.5
Puppies_On_Acid: 7.8 + 6.6 + 8.6 = 23.0
Stadler: 6.4 + 8.6 + 7.8 = 22.8
Anguyen92: 7.9 + 7.3 + 7.1 = 22.3
I can’t apologize enough for how long I’ve made you all wait. I’m gonna have to really try my best to go through Round 4 more quickly than I did with this round… Well, anyway, it is now Round 4 time, so send your submissions if you haven’t done so already!
Topic: Revenge319's relatively normal roulette: Love list complete! (FINAL RESULTS) (Read 61800 times)