Here's eight results.
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Nekov
Spock’s Beard
First impression: Pretty good! The vocals remind me of Neal Morse for some reason…
Final review: Just to clarify, I already knew Neal Morse did vocals for Spock’s Beard before moving on to his solo stuff and Transatlantic; I just wanted to see how quickly people would put two and two together when this band was revealed in the Hangman. Anyway, I can now see why people compare Transatlantic to Neal Morse’s stuff in general; this reminds me a lot of Transatlantic, and it’s not just because of the vocalist. The intro to “Day For Night”, when the whole band comes in, feels just like the kind of intro a Transatlantic epic would have. Speaking of Day For Night, this is a very enjoyable song! Aside from the intro, the standouts are the really fun chorus, the instrumental section in the middle of the song, and the layered vocals after the instrumental section that start the last chorus. “Crack the Big Sky” is another enjoyable song, with the standout moment clearly being the part halfway through the song where the saxophone comes in. It’s so unexpected and strange, but I absolutely love it. I was bound to like this since I like Transatlantic so much, but this band does have its own sort of aesthetic to it. I want to check out more of this band for sure.
Day For Night - 8.75/10
Crack the Big Sky - 8.75/10
The Doorway - 8/10
Roulette score: 8.5
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Anguyen92
Black Stone Cherry
First impression: It's similar to Switchfoot, but a little less interesting.
Final review: Much like Switchfoot, I would describe Black Stone Cherry as a “casual” band. They’re also comparable to KISS for me, in that I can understand why some might really enjoy the band, but they’re just not for me. In the case of this band, though, there’s generally something interesting enough in each song for me to think, “yeah, it’s worth a 7”. That being said, it’s nothing all that exciting; Switchfoot wasn’t particularly exciting for me either, but I found the music from them to be stronger than this band. If I had to talk about a song, it’d be “Ghost Of Floyd Collins”. It’s probably my favorite of these four, mainly because I find it slightly amusing for whatever reason. It starts with some spoken words (which is unusual to me; usually spoken-word sections happen near or at the end of a song), where a guy talks about a guy named Floyd Collins who got trapped in a cave and died. Then when the music starts proper, the lyrics talk about the guy’s death and it seems to be implied that his name and story eventually started being used for entertainment. Lyrics aside, the music is a little stronger than the other songs I heard. Black Stone Cherry is about what I expect from this particular style of rock, and while I’m not particularly impressed by them, I wouldn’t mind giving more bands like this a shot. I just hope there’s a more exciting and interesting band in the vein of something like this band.
Drive - 7/10
Peace Is Free - 7/10
Ghost Of Floyd Collins - 7.25/10
Family Tree - 7/10
Roulette score: 7.1
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Luoto
Iced Earth
First impression: It's alright. Reminds me a lot of Iron Maiden.
Final review: Yeah, just about everything here yells “Iron Maiden”. The music, the vocals, even the album art is very similar to Iron Maiden. So, if I were to compare Iced Earth to Iron Maiden, I’d say Iron Maiden is better. However, Iced Earth is good as well, and despite the massive Iron Maiden influence on display here, I think they have their own identity. “Birth of the Wicked” is definitely a song in the style of Iron Maiden, and it’s the clearest example I have of how similar it is. I will say, though, I do prefer this song and “Prophecy” a little over their more unique-sounding songs. “Dracula” is good once it really gets going, but the intro feels a bit awkward and out-of-place. “A Question of Heaven” is good too, but while it has less of the Iron Maiden influence overall, it’s a bit underwhelming. It’s good that this band does have their own unique identity, but I think the more the Iron Maiden influence is there in a song, the more I enjoy it.
Prophecy - 7.75/10
Birth of the Wicked - 8/10
Dracula - 7.75/10
A Question of Heaven - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 7.8
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Cyril
Exist
First impression: The vocals can be kind of... ugly... at times, but instrumentally it's really interesting.
Final review: The Holy Guide of the 9/10 does it again! Well, I guess there aren’t any songs I’d rate a 9/10 or higher, but this is nonetheless some very good music. Exist does remind me a bit of East of the Wall, in that there’s a lot of harsh vocals, but the instrumental stuff is melodic. However, during vocal sections, the music is more aggressive than in The Apologist. So, in a way, it’s kind of a fusion of BTBAM and East of the Wall… and that sounds like a good fusion to me. The vocals aren’t particularly strong, but they’ve grown on me and even the harsh vocals have some really satisfying moments. There’s a couple slightly questionable decisions made, but they don’t really detract from my enjoyment of the songs; for example, in the first few seconds of “Writhe” the sound keeps cutting off, like a CD skipping. I thought it was the video lagging slightly the first time I heard it. Also, in “To Sever the Strings”, the song transitions into a quieter section about a minute in by making it sound like the song’s fading out and ending. I feel like there could’ve been a better way to transition to that quieter part, but like I said, it doesn’t make me like the song any less. It’s kind of hard to describe what it is that I like about each song specifically, all I can say is that I really like the style of aggressive vocals and melodic instrumentals. I guess that’d be melodic death metal? Or maybe I’ll just call it “Cyril music” or something to define it more easily. Either way, this is some good stuff right here.
Writhe - 8.5/10
If or When - 8.5/10
To Sever the Strings - 8.25/10
Roulette score: 8.4
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MoraWintersoul
Queen
First impression: I expected the vocals to be the strong point, but I think I like the instrumental stuff more.
Final review: Queen is a band I’ve heard some songs from before, and as Mora mentioned earlier in the thread, I think Bohemian Rhapsody is very good, but the other songs I’ve heard from them were just… okay. The songs I was sent in this roulette are definitely an improvement, though I wouldn’t say they’re as good as Bohemian Rhapsody. In my first impression, I said I ended up liking the instrumentation more than the vocals, but now I think it’s more accurate to say that Queen is at their best when the vocals and music fit together perfectly. In “The March of the Black Queen”, the vocals are very good from a technical standpoint, but at times, how it sounds is… a little less than pleasant. The music, however, is consistently good, so it does make up for the slightly awkward vocals. This is also an issue with “Somebody to Love”, which part of me thinks has a little too much singing, in addition to the singing not sounding the greatest. Although the “too much singing” complaint could just be a result of listening to a live version, and not the studio recording. Now, an example of a Queen song where it all comes together well is “White Queen”. It’s a very nice ballad, and the vocals are much more pleasing to listen to compared to the other two songs. Combined with the pretty instrumentation, it makes a very good atmosphere. I’m not sure how much I’d be interested in checking out more songs from Queen, but this was absolutely worth giving a shot.
White Queen - 8.25/10
The March of the Black Queen - 8/10
Somebody to Love - 7.5/10
Roulette score: 7.9
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kingshmegland
Mile Marker Zero
First impression: Better than I was expecting, although I don't think I like the sampling much.
Final review: This is one of the biggest surprises for me of this whole roulette so far. I wasn’t expecting it to be mediocre or anything, but this is definitely one of the better bands I’ve been sent in Round 3. The songs have a sort of futuristic aesthetic, which kinda makes sense as the songs that were sent come from an album about artificial intelligence. Despite the futuristic aesthetic, though, this band sounds very timeless. I thought this was released in the early-mid 2000s, so I was surprised to find out it came out in 2018! Moving on to the songs individually, the two highlights are the vocals and the keyboards. The singing is very good and fits very well with the style of music they go for, and the keyboards basically always contribute something cool to the song. My favorite is “The Architect”, which while not nearly as good as Haken’s “song of the same name, it’s still a really great song. I love the energy, and that “sa-a-ane” chorus is so GOOD. There’s one small drawback, and that’s the sampling at the end. It fits in with the subject matter and all, but I do think I’d like it just a little more without it. “Building a Machine” is another one of my favorites. Most of the song is great; I love the contrast between the calmer electronic verses and the guitar-driven chorus. That being said, the middle section has more of that sampling that I don’t think needs to be there, but I think it also kind of kills the energy of the song. But whatever, the rest of the song is great. As I said, this band was a big surprise for me. I want to listen to the rest of this album and see how else it can impress me (hopefully without even more sampling, but either way, I’m interested).
2001 - 8.25/10
Digital Warrior - 8.5/10
The Architect - 8.75/10
Building a Machine - 8.5/10
Roulette score: 8.5
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Lethean / Buddyhunter1 / Sacul
Riverside
First impression: Some interesting stuff here, I think I can see what the hype is about.
Final review: This is another one of those bands that I’ve heard about quite a bit on here and was expecting to be sent at some point in the roulette. And, well, I was certainly sent some Riverside songs. This band reminds me a little bit of Porcupine Tree for some reason, though I’m not exactly sure why. I guess it’s because some of their songs are a bit mellow? Anyway, through all 11 songs I listened to, I can say that Riverside is very good. Aside from one song, there isn’t anything that’s absolutely fantastic, but there’s a lot of great material here. To avoid having this writeup take a long time to do, I’ll keep things simple and talk about my favorite song from each submission. Starting with Lethean’s submission, the best song (as well as the best one overall) is “Second Life Syndrome”. It’s very atmospheric, and I guess it does have that kind of magic that Porcupine Tree has in songs like Arriving Somewhere But Not Here. The first third of it is the most upbeat section of the song, though it has this uneasy feeling to it. The second third is a lot more mellow, and contains a really good vocal performance. There’s also some lyrics that I keep mishearing as... something else... but that doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the song. Then the last section of the song contains some really beautiful guitar work, among other things. I think this song will grow on me even more, the more I listen to it, it’s so good… Moving on to the best song Buddyhunter1 sent, that would be “Driven to Destruction”. In contrast to Second Life Syndrome, this song is fiery and upbeat, focusing more on the guitar and bass. Of course, though, there’s some great input from the keyboards, especially with the somewhat subtle usage of the piano.Just a greatly satisfying song all around. And lastly, the best song Sacul sent was “Volte-Face”. Compared to Second Life Syndrome, it’s a lot more upbeat, though it does go through a couple twists and turns, sometimes getting a little more slow-paced (though it still has a lot more energy than Second Life Syndrome). The vocals are also more diverse, with the singing sometimes getting a little aggressive. Taking all 11 songs into consideration, I am quite impressed with Riverside and I will be checking out more of their music.
Second Life Syndrome - 9.25/10
Egoist Hedonist - 8.75/10
Feel Like Falling - 8.5/10
The Night Before - 8.25/10
Left Out - 8.75/10
Hybrid Times - 8.5/10
Driven to Destruction - 9/10
Time Travelers - 8.25/10
Deprived (Irretrievably Lost Imagination) - 8/10
Conceiving You - 8.5/10
Volte-Face - 8.5/10
Lethean’s roulette score: 8.7
Buddyhunter1’s roulette score: 8.8
Sacul’s roulette score: 8.3
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twosuitsluke
The Black Mages
First impression: Some may be confused to find out that this is one of my favorite submissions so far.
Final review: In hindsight, maybe “surprised” would’ve been a better word… Well, anyway, some context before I get into this one: I play a lot of video games, and I’ve grown to love a lot of video game soundtracks. So, a band that does prog-metal covers of video game music sounds appealing to me. Here’s the interesting thing, though… Aside from a couple games, I don’t really play any of the Final Fantasy games, so I’m actually not familiar with three of the four tracks I was sent. But even without knowing the source material, I think all of these songs are great! “Those Who Fight Further” is the one track I recognize, and compared to the original song, it doesn’t do anything drastically different (aside from a cowbell that works surprisingly well). Very well done, and it’s better than the original, I’d say. “Matoyas Cave” is a more relaxing track, with some nice acoustic guitar. There’s a keyboard solo that almost comes out of nowhere, but it’s easily the best part. And then there’s “Dancing Mad”... Wow. So much grandeur, it’s amazing music all around. This is on par with some of the greater tracks from the Xenoblade series. And regarding this roulette, it’s up there with Second Life Syndrome and Twisted Mind. Fantastic. Simply fantastic. I have to see what else these guys have done, I can only imagine they’ve done more brilliant covers.
Those Who Fight Further - 8.75/10
Matoyas Cave - 9/10
Force Your Way - 8.5/10
Dancing Mad - 9.5/10
Roulette score: 8.9
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Well, there we go. The next half of the results should be out very soon. Wait another day, wait another night...
...but hopefully not another week.
Topic: Revenge319's relatively normal roulette: Love list complete! (FINAL RESULTS) (Read 63577 times)