Results 2/3!
HOF
Journey
First impression: It seems similar to most 80's pop/rock I've heard. It's good but nothing special.
Final review: To be honest, my thoughts haven’t really changed from my first impression, although I have grown to like one of the songs a little more. This is the kind of music my mom will sometimes listen to, although I’m not sure if she does listen to Journey specifically. When it comes to the “80’s pop/rock” aesthetic, she leans more towards the pop side, like the whole new wave stuff. And I bring that up because how I feel about that perfectly applies here. It’s good, there’s even some very good stuff once in a while, but it’s not quite the stuff I’d really return to. The highlights for me are “Mother, Father”, which has a really good chorus, and I also like “Trial by Fire”, which has this nice rainy atmosphere. While these aren’t songs I love, I do appreciate them and there are even a couple songs I can say I really liked.
Mother, Father - 8/10
One More - 7.75/10
Rubicon - 7/10
Trial by Fire - 8/10
Roulette score: 7.7
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Anguyen92
Alter Bridge
First impression: Nothing all that remarkable, but still pretty good, I'd say.
Final review: While Alter Bridge isn’t one of my favorites of this round, it has grown on me. I would still say that there’s nothing particularly remarkable about these songs, but despite that, there’s some pretty good material here. My favorite of the songs would be “Blackbird”, a song that’s mellow but energetic, and has some very heartfelt lyrics. I fortunately can’t say I relate to these lyrics, but I imagine this is a very emotional and powerful song to anyone who can relate to this. Aside from that, there’s some other great material, like “Forever Falling”, which has a really satisfying chorus. I think as a whole, this is an example of a band that’s quite good, but it’s outclassed by a lot of other stuff. But hey, I’d say they were certainly worth a shot!
Blackbird - 8.25/10
Cry of Achilles - 7.75/10
Forever Falling - 8/10
Walking the Sky - 7.75/10
Roulette score: 7.9
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TAC
UFO
First impression: I like the music, though I'm entirely sure how I feel about the vocals.
Final review: I was rather interested to listen to these guys, since I do know how much TAC loves this band. While I can’t say I love them, I think they’re pretty good if these songs are anything to go by. The music is often interesting and fun to listen to, and the vocals have grown on me a lot. One thing I’ve noticed is that they seem to be better with the slower songs, like “Love to Love”, which has some really nice instrumentals, especially in the intro. They do good when they’re more upbeat as well. “Black Cold Coffee” is an exciting song that’s just a lot of fun to listen to, and sometimes that’s all you need to make a good song. The other two songs help to showcase their upbeat and slower sides, though I found these to be a little less interesting, but still pretty good. As a whole, I’m not sure if I’ll check out the band any further, but I’ll probably return to my two favorites here from time to time.
Black Cold Coffee - 8/10
Love to Love - 8.25/10
One More for the Rodeo - 7.5/10
Profession of Violence - 7.75/10
Roulette score: 7.9
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Stadler
KISS
First impression: I expected this to be very mediocre, but these guys actually aren't all that bad!
Final review: I get the feeling at least a few people were anticipating my writeup on KISS. After all, it’s a very famous yet also rather infamous band as well. And going in, the more skeptical side of me was fully expecting it to be bland and mediocre, and just a product of its time. So what are my thoughts on it? Well, it’s nothing particularly interesting, but I honestly can’t say it’s bad. It’s decent enough. At the very least, I can see why KISS was so popular back then. If I may be cynical and pompous about my tastes for just a moment, I think there’s a few bands out there that did not exactly deserve their popularity… but all things considered, I don’t think KISS fits into that category. Although I am coming across as positive, I will most likely never listen to KISS again, just because anything I like about them is done way better by other classic rock bands.
Like I said, they’re just decent. Not bad at all, but not necessarily good; it’s passable. It was a worthwhile time giving this band a shot.
(Slightly unrelated to the results, but I should mention that I generally only accept four songs at most for a roulette. If they’re shorter songs that flow into each other really well, then that’s fine. I bring this up, as Stadler sent five songs. I’m alright with that, though, considering all the songs were really short (the longest one was barely longer than 4 minutes). But yeah, just as a heads-up, stick to four songs or less unless you have good reason to include more.)
Deuce - 6.75/10
Flaming Youth - 6.5/10
Plaster Caster - 6/10
Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em - 6.25/10
She - 6.5/10
Roulette score: 6.4
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425
Nightwish
First impression: This is great! I wish I'd listened to this sooner.
Final review: I wonder if anyone guessed that me saying that I wish I’d listened sooner was a hint for said band being Nightwish… Anyway, this band was probably the biggest surprise for me in this whole round. I’m not sure what I was expecting in the first place, but what I heard basically blew those expectations away. I love symphonic elements in metal, and this is exactly the kind of stuff I love! This submission contains perhaps my favorite song in this whole round, “The Poet and the Pendulum”. (It’s either this or Hyperventilate, ’ll decide which is better at some point.) So much grandeur! It has a very cinematic feel to it, almost like I’m listening to a recording of a play. The other songs are really great, too. “Ghost Love Score” is really good, despite there being a minute or so of aimless ambience. There’s also a moment at about 5:40 that I know I’ve heard somewhere before… Also, I see a lot of people comparing the different singers that have been in the band, but honestly, if I never saw any comments about that, I don’t know if I ever would’ve noticed there were different singers. They just sound kind of similar to me. But that’s a good thing, because I love the singing, no matter who’s doing it! For the most part, I’m not used to female vocals, so this is also pretty refreshing for me. This is so good… Honestly, it’s hard to say what makes Devin Townsend better than Nightwish for me. I guess Devin Townsend just had a bigger impression on me? Either way, this is without a doubt one of the best bands in this round.
Stargazers - 8.5/10
Bless The Child - 8.75/10
The Poet and the Pendulum - 9.5/10
Ghost Love Score - 8.75/10
Roulette score: 8.9
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Twosuitsluke
Coheed and Cambria
First impression: Given time, I may be converted.
Final review: “425, send a sweet, sweet Coheed song that will convert young Revenge forever!” Well, it wasn’t 425 who sent it, but the end goal has more or less been accomplished anyway. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I did know a couple songs by Coheed and Cambria prior to this roulette. Similarly to my thoughts on Rush, after giving these songs some time, I think I’m really into them now. The highlight for me here is “Here We Are Juggernaut”. At first I was confused as to why the audio quality was so bad… then I realized that that’s how the song is actually supposed to sound, and I started to enjoy it a lot more after that. There’s a lot of emotion in the singing, especially right before the first chorus. “This is not your playground, it’s my heart!” Another song I really enjoyed was Old Flames. At first, it seemed kind of underwhelming, but now I really like it. The ending with the “na-na na na na”’s is SO GOOD. One thing I like about this band is that no matter what the lyrics are, the singing makes them feel so important and/or emotional. In “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3”, there’s this line in the chorus that says, “Man your own jackhammer”. If this were most other bands, that line would sound really stupid, but here, it actually sounds kind of cool. This is a very good band, to be sure.
The Willing Well III: Apollo II: The Telling Truth - 8.25/10
Here We Are Juggernaut - 9.25/10
Old Flames - 9/10
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 - 8/10
Roulette score: 8.6