Twosuitsluke's Second Roulette v. Final Results Part 2

[Buddyhunter1]

A loss over a year in the making.

Congrats TAC! I do like a come-from-behind victory at the end... just wish it wasn't at my expense!

Thanks for running this, Luke!

[LithoJazzoSphere]

LithoJazzoSphere: Jeff Loomis - Escape Velocity / Tragedy and Harmony / The Ultimatum / Surrender

I really feel I should know more about Jeff Loomis, but I honestly don't. I've been aware of the name for years but Nevermore have been another one of those bands that have fallen in my blindspot. A band destined for me to say "why the fuck haven't I been all over these guys for years?". These songs pretty much stole the show from the off. I wasn't too sold on the female vocals on Tragedy, however the video game vibes of Escape Velocity and the cheeky guest vocals from Ihsahn (one of my faves) on Surrender more than made up for it. All up this is just great metal which shreds, has plenty of melody and makes me reach for my air guitar. The guitar is at the forefront and that is just fine with me. Add in a certain video game soundtrack vibe and it's gonna score well.

Escape Velocity - Pummelling drums and lots of shredding solos? It's pretty great.

8/10

Tragedy and Harmony - This was the weakest of the four for me, pretty much purely based on those vocals. Following on from an instrumental, that I liked more, they kinda left me feeling like this music is better suited as instrumental.

7/10

The Ultimatum - Similar shred fest to Escape Velocity, but not quite as good.

7.5/10

Surrender - I take it all back about the vocalist, as this features Ihsahn, and it pisses all over Tragedy. I feel his vocals just fit way better, of course I also just prefer them.

Yeah, so I thought about actually sending Nevemore since they were surprisingly not banned, but Warrel Dane's voice tends to be love it or hate for many people, so that felt risky, and I also tend to try and go slightly less obvious in these roulettes anyway, and Nevermore is a somewhat bigger name.  So I went with a diversification strategy with two instrumentals and two different vocalists. 

Jeff's solo material is really overlooked, and has many of the same instrumental qualities I love about Nevermore's musicianship.  His first solo album received some attention when it came out, but the second one, that the tracks I sent were drawn from, I think is even better, particularly with Dirk Verbeuren's drumming, and the guest list.  Somehow that one is hardly ever brought up, maybe because at that point Nevemore had dissolved and they were fading from public consciousness before Jeff joined Arch Enemy. 

The tracks on the album with Christine are actually some of my favorites, but I figured they might be iffier for you, so I picked the most energetic one.  Definitely check the rest of the album, it's loaded with more great playing.  Tony MacAlpine was the guest on "The Ultimatum", but there are other appearances from Marty Friedman, Chris Poland, and Atilla Vörös, which are pretty great, as well as several other instrumentals with just Jeff. 

[Evermind]

Luke: I'll be scoring each song individually so think carefully which songs you should send

Also Luke:

Ages - 7/10
Cannon - 7/10
Lover - 7/10
Fruðþægingin - 7/10
Shades - 7/10

Round score: 7/10



Thanks for running this and inviting me back after the hiatus!

[twosuitsluke]

Luke: I'll be scoring each song individually so think carefully which songs you should send

Also Luke:

Ages - 7/10
Cannon - 7/10
Lover - 7/10
Fruðþægingin - 7/10
Shades - 7/10

Round score: 7/10



Thanks for running this and inviting me back after the hiatus!

Yours was possibly the hardest to score (not that it looks that way) as the songs were all nice enough but kinda similar. If wasn't paying attention I easily forgot which song I was listening to.

Was glad to have you back, as I know everyone else was as well.

[TAC]

Lots of 7s in this round.