Here it is, the first third of the Round 2 results!
Lethean
Leprous
First impression: A much better experience than the last time I tried to listen to these guys.
Final review: A pattern you’ll notice this round is that a few artists I’ve been sent are ones I have listened to before. One of these artists is Leprous. I’d heard of them quite a bit before, so one day I decided to give their album Coal a shot. And overall, I thought it was… mediocre. There were a couple songs I did enjoy, but the rest wasn’t very interesting, and the final song “Contaminate Me” was dreadful. So upon getting this as a submission, I was interested to see if their other stuff was better, and I’m happy to say that this is an improvement! “Forced Entry” and “The Price” are very enjoyable, with my favorite parts usually revolving around the keyboards. “Below” isn’t quite as interesting, but it’s still a good song, and it has a really good vocal performance. I’m glad to know that Coal was seemingly a one-time thing with Leprous, because that’s an album that I don’t know if I’ll ever grow to enjoy. I’m interested in checking out Bilateral and The Congregation, at the very least.
Forced Entry - 8.5/10
The Price - 8.5/10
Below - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 8.2
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Buddyhunter1
David Maxim Micic
First impression: I like 'em, even if there's occasionally some questionable decisions made with these songs.
Final review: Considering my previous submission from Buddyhunter1 was Devin Townsend, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was sent because it has some vague similarities to Devin Townsend. The main difference is that with David Maxim Micic here, the style of music is less easily describable. In “Where Is Now?”, for instance, it kinda has this mix of a pop/electronic and rock aesthetic, but then a little over halfway through, it’s more metal with some occasional horn instruments in the background (which is easily the best part of the song), followed by this guitar solo that goes through one or two stylistic changes. I thought this was really well-done, and I’m guessing this is generally what goes on with this artist, but… I can’t say it works as well as it did in the other two songs I was sent. “Daydreamers” is good, but I feel like it goes on longer than it needs to. That’s mainly because of this section where it gets quiet and the female singer makes what I can only describe as “baby noises”. It might’ve been fine if it was just a short little thing, but this section goes on for about a third of the song. “Devise” is a pretty good song, too, but there’s this part towards the end where they just turn up the bass for no reason and the song eventually becomes this almost intangible mess. But overall, despite some odd issues here and there, there’s a lot of good and interesting ideas from this artist!
Where Is Now? - 8.75/10
Daydreamers - 7.75/10
Devise - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 8.0
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Nekov
Alcest
First impression: Sounds nice, although I don't know what to think of it beyond that.
Final review: I have to be honest, my thoughts haven’t really changed with this one. I think this might be a case similar to how I felt with The Ocean, where I know I enjoy it on some level, but I don’t know how I feel more specifically than that. And also similarly to The Ocean, I think I need to devote a lot more time to this to really “get” it. What can I say, then? It sounds very pleasant to listen to. It’s kind of atmospheric, and there’s a sort of uplifting feeling to the music. But it all just seems so “vague” if that makes any sense. It’s hard to remember anything about the songs after I’m done listening to them. For now, though, I was able to at least give them a score I’m satisfied with, even if they may end up inaccurate one day.
Les Voyages De L' me - 7/10
Summer’s Glory - 8/10
Percées De Lumière - 7/10
Opale - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 7.4
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Evermind
Avantasia
First impression: Some rather good, somewhat grandiose music.
Final review: Going in, I was kind of expecting music similar to Nightwish, though maybe that was just from looking at their name. “Avantasia” sounds like the name of a band who does symphonic grandiose metal. They do have grandiose moments occasionally, but they’re certainly different from Nightwish. Anyway, onto my thoughts on the music… Okay, if any of you seem disappointed in my reviews of your submissions, as though I hadn’t given them enough time to really understand them… I pin the blame not on myself, but on the song known as “Twisted Mind”. This song right here… Remember how I was teasing that there was one specific song that was slowing down my Round 2 progress and was one of the best songs in the entire roulette so far? Yeah, that’s Twisted Mind. It is so good that for a few days, every time I made an attempt to get through the rest of my Round 2 playlist that I hadn’t listened to more than once, I saw this song and I felt so strongly compelled to listen to it again and again and again. I’m still unsure if it’s better than The Poet and the Pendulum, but at this point I think it’d be more accurate to phrase that as “I’m unsure if The Poet and the Pendulum is better than Twisted Mind”. Epic opening, ominous vocals (that vaguely remind me of Neal Morse’s singing for some reason), AMAZING CHORUS, amazing everything, really.
...Oh, right, there’s some other songs here, too. They’re really good as well, actually, though not on the same level as Twisted Mind. “The Scarecrow” is a rather grand epic, and “The Story Ain’t Over” is a simpler song but quite pleasant to listen to. As a whole, Avantasia is very good, but Twisted Mind is particularly amazing. Basically guaranteed to be the best Round 2 song, unless there ends up being a song that I end up realizing is actually even better than Twisted Mind. I guess we shall see…
Twisted Mind - 9.5/10
The Scarecrow - 8.75/10
Lucifer - 8/10
The Story Ain’t Over - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 8.6
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twosuitsluke
The Dear Hunter
First impression: Overall, this is pretty enjoyable stuff!
Final review: This is another one of those bands that I started hearing about a lot when I started using DTF, and as such I was expecting them to be sent in this roulette. And I’ll just say, this is perhaps the best band sent in this round (the other contender, I’ll get to shortly). I really like the style this band goes for. To be honest, the best way I can describe this (at least as far as these four songs go) is if Haken combined their sounds from Visions and The Mountain and used that to create music in the style of Dream Theater’s The Astonishing. There’s a lot of symphonic elements and it works so, so well. “The March” and “A Night on the Town” are the best examples of their symphonic side, but they also have some more dramatic moments, and in that way it reminds me of The Astonishing to some extent. “Home” has this very uplifting mood, and it reminds me of something like “A Life Left Behind” or “Begin Again” despite the styles being very different from one another. I also think 2:33 sounds quite similar to the “As their bodies lie still…” section from “Finally Free”. The only somewhat weak song here is “Red Hands”. It’s actually a pretty good song, I’d say, there’s just this one annoying part in the second half of the song; I would’ve enjoyed this a lot more without that “Now my darling, put your clothes back on” part. I know what the story is about and all, but it’s still kind of annoying. But aside from that, I’d say The Dear Hunter is a great band just based on these four songs alone!
The March - 8.75
A Night on the Town - 9
Home - 9
Red Hands - 7.75
Roulette score: 8.6
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It’s time for the moment you’ve been waiting for. ...Well, surely at least someone here has been anticipating my thoughts on this one, right?
Cyril
East of the Wall
First Impression: 4/10? More like 9/10.
Final review: I like to think that (even though I don’t interact with people here much outside of this roulette) I’ve browsed many threads on here to the point where I know a lot about what goes on around DTF. And one thing I discovered was that Cyril’s favorite album was East of the Wall’s The Apologist. The moment I saw Cyril join my roulette, I knew I was going to be sent The Apologist at some point or another. And I waited with great anticipation for Round 2, to uncover the truth. Would it be mediocre and strange like some comments had led me to believe? Or would it turn out that it’s really good?
My answer? Cyril, at this rate, you need to change your personal text to “Holy Guide of the 9/10”, because you have impressed me with The Hirsch Effekt, and you have impressed me greater with East of the Wall. The more I listen to the songs on The Apologist, the better they get. I did think the harsh vocals were a bit odd at first, but they’ve really grown on me; it often feels like there’s a lot of emotion in these vocals. The soft vocals are very good, as well. The music is heavy and aggressive, but there’s about an equal amount of instances where it’s melodic and mellow. Since there’s technically seven songs here, it makes it a bit tricky to decide on my favorite of the seven, but I think at the moment I’m enjoying “Linear Failure” and “False Build” the most, but the other songs are also very good. After this round, I plan on listening to this album in full, and then after that I will probably make it a plan to purchase the CD for this album at some point. Like I said, these songs are just getting better and better with every listen. If The Dear Hunter isn’t the best Round 2 submission, it’s East of the Wall. I don’t think I would’ve guessed that I would enjoy this as much as I do, but I’m certainly glad I do enjoy it.
Naif/Linear Failure/My Favorite Society Guy - 9/10
False Build - 9/10
The Apologist/Running Tab of Sweetness/Horseback Riding in a Bicycle World - 9/10
Roulette score: 9.0
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The next two parts will probably take longer to come out, but hopefully I won’t keep you guys waiting for too long!