If there is one thing I think I've learnt from this roulette, and maybe this round specifically, is that I think I need to run an album roulette! Here are the scores guys, I'll explain my thinking on an album roulette at the end...
Cyril: The Paper Chase - You're One of Them Aren't You?
This band is a new one on me. Yea, as I said, this is kinda unnerving and has a weird disjointed feeling. Is it classic Cyril? Possibly. I find the most difficult element to be the vocals. At some points I like them, others I don't, but even when I don't I like that fact they feel really unique. Lyrically this also fits the unnerving theme. Musically it feels kind of chaotic and a bit incomplete but I love a risk, I really do. The other thing is, it could probably have gone on a little longer and explored the sound a little more. I don't love it, but it has piqued my interest enough to at least check out the album.
6/10
Wolfking: Angel Dust - Bleed
Dude, not off to the best start I'm afraid. The piano intro was not what I was expecting from a Wolfy song, but then it kicks into more familiar territory. That first riff is probably the best thing about the song. I think this just suffers from being a solid song, in round full of songs that were a bit more than solid. Bleed feels really familiar, and in line with a lot of bands I like, but the song itself doesn't feel strong enough. Classic metal style vocals, yep. Good guitar solo, yep. Good riffing, sure. Then why doesn't this connect with me? No idea, but there you have it.
6.5/10
Revenge319: Daisuke Ishiwatari - Play the Hero
I appreciate you sending more video game music as I dig it. Obviously if I'd played the game, I would have been more invested in the music but this is a solid rocker, and I can only imagine it is battle music. As I said in the first impressions, I'm not sold on the vocals or lyrics, but musically this is solid. Great guitars, cool bass lines, just straight in your face. Luckily my ear is always drawn to the guitar and drums more, so this gets a pretty solid score, nothing more, nothing less. Better vocals and less cheesy lyrics could've increased the score some but it doesn't affect the overall outcome too much.
6.5/10
Nick_z: Sonja - Wanting Me Dead
Nick, I feel I know your tastes well enough now to say this feels like a Nick pick. It is all about those guitars, which your submissions generally are. The vocals let this down some, but it's still good enough. The instrumental section in the middle does go on a bit and the song probably could've been shortened. It also feels like it's building to a solo that never comes. It left me wanting more and is far from a bad song. On my final spin this actually got an extra half a point as it has some parts I really like.
6.5/10
TAC: Stortregn - Through the Dark Gates
I said you were dedicated to the cause, and I stand by that. I don't think you've sent me a submission that hasn't been full on metal yet, and possibly all have been some variation of death metal? This one may be the best yet, I'm not sure. I'm not aware of Stortregn, but I'm pretty sure that album cover tells me all I need to know. I have been on a big death metal kick recently, but can be really picky with what I like. I generally like stuff that is more progressive, like Death, Atheist, Cynic and Pestilence. However, I do like classic old school death metal. I don't think there is anything that particularly sets this apart from many other death metal bands out there, but these guys are no slouches.
6.5/10
Romdrums: Maraton - A Body of Your Own
Another song that relies heavily on the vocal performance, and has a vocalist that reminds me of... someone? The last few minutes of this are very reminiscent of Leprous, even down to the cello (I think it's a cello). I liked this but didn't have too much to say, other than it is really beautiful. It's also quite similar to at least one other entry this round, which I guess means you're all either pinning down my tastes or we are becoming a hive mind.
7/10
Puppies: Negură Bunget - Inarborat
Negură Bunget are a Romanian band and incorporate Romanian folk music into their sound, and I love that.
I love how this starts, there are a load of different instruments all coming together to bring this lush instrumental opening. According to Wikipedia the instruments used on the album are as follows: flute, Nai (Romanian diatonic pan flute), Tulnic (a type of bugle or curved horn), xylophone and Toacă (percussion instrument used in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox monasteries).
Not sure how many of those are played on this specific intro, but I like it a lot. My main complaint is that they don't ease off the black metal and come back to that sound during the song. You can hear a lot of these instruments are still being played, but get drowned out by the metal onslaught. I think that more contrast may have improved the overall score for me. I've always said I loved bands like Opeth for the contrast of heavy to light, often multiple times in a song, and at a moments notice.
Inarborat isn't all out assault, and there are breaks in the intensity, like the little bass moment around 4:30. I have listened to this band and album before and it's definitely the sort of extreme metal I like. Kinda like Chthonic using Taiwanese folk instruments in their music. I had trouble rating this song as I love a lot about it but also, the whole round was really strong.
7/10
Ariich: Unreqvited - Beautiful Ghosts
A long, atmospheric, orchestral black metal song? You understood the assignment! This ticks many boxes in regards to bands I've gotten into over the last 5 years or so. The down side is, that this sort of music I generally prefer in the context of a full album, and it can also take a while to click. There is really nothing wrong with this at all, but it lacks something to that truly makes it special. This probably should have scored a bit higher than it did but I still got a lot of enjoyment from it.
7/10
Evermind: Mother of Millions - Artefact
I've never heard of this Greek band before. This starts off quite slow and does take a while to really get going. It reminds me of the start of Frances the Mute to be honest. Is the build worth it though, I suppose that is the question? It does take 7 of the 10 minutes to get there, but I guess it's about the journey, not the destination. Interestingly this is song both in English and Greek (I'm assuming), at different parts of the song. The last 3 minutes don't quite reach the high I was hoping for, but this is still solid enough. There is enough here to catch my interest, and I'll be checking out the album, but the song didn't knock my socks off.
7/10
HOF: Dim Gray - Avalon | The Tide
I think maybe you've sent this in other roulettes, as the name looks familiar. I know I've never listened to them before though and it's nice to have submissions I have no preconceived notions about. The vocals are a big selling point for this song, and the part that had me scratching my head on first listen. This sounds like a mash up of two vocalists I like, but I couldn't place it. Actually, one was pretty obvious, this sounds partly like Mariusz Duda from Riverside and (the second took a while longer to get) part Dallas Green (Alexisonfire/City and Colour). I think musically it feels similar to Riverside and has that kind of melancholy vibe to it. My enjoyment of this did grow with each listen, I will say. I usually listen to this sort of music, when I am in a certain mood or setting, and generally gravitate towards more upbeat music.
7.5/10
Kingshmegland: Kyros - Two Frames of Panic
Well this one kinda came out of nowhere. This has some serious Haken plays video game prog metal vibes, which is absolutely fine by me. This was the first impression that referenced being a good singalong. It didn't quite materialise into the singalong I was hoping but vocally it is still really interesting. I suppose it reminds me of Haken because I could see it fitting on an album like Affinity or something. Bolstered by a really good guitar solo and this is tasty stuff.
7.5/10
LithoJazzoSphere: All Ends - Wasting Life
Litho, you quite rightly corrected me when I said this was melodeath, as there isn't actually any 'death' in here. A better comparison would've been female fronted In Flames worship. Here is a song that is nothing new to me at all, and I've heard this done many times, yet I still find it infectious and enjoyable. By all rights this shouldn't really have scored so well, and Angel Dust or Stortregn could or should have scored just as well. I think this just has the right mix of nostalgia and energy, to get a great score. I'll be checking these guys out further, just to see if the whole album sounds like an In Flames record.
7.5/10
Elite: MEER - Picking Up the Pieces
This came in second when it comes to songs that grew on me the most. There was a bit of a buzz around DTF when this came out and it was accompanied by comparisons to The Dear Hunter. The Dear Hunter are now one of my all time favourites, so any band that is compared has a lot to live up to. I have spun this albums a few times prior to the roulette and clearly nothing left too much of an impression as I've not returned to it.
I really dig this though, and it started to click by the 4th listen. To the song, I love the strings that accompany that opening, and I know I've been vocal about liking orchestral flourishes in my music (which is one of the reasons I particularly like The Dear Hunter's Acts IV & V). Vocally this has way more in common with Agent Fresco than The Dear Hunter, and I also hear a bit of Leprous. Maybe I was too harsh on this record the first few times around, I'll have to give it another spin.
8/10
Buddyhunter1: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Cubensis Lenses
The best crumpet I ever had was hungover at Shambala festival back in 2017. There was a stall serving these deluxe ones with expensive jam and cheese. It was godly.
I could reminisce on that crumpet for a long time, however, the award for 'the song that grew on me the most' goes to these guys.
I've been aware of PPC, almost as long as I've been aware of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (apparently there is a big crossover with their fans). When I first listened to this, I was struck my how indie the vocals seemed. "Huh, I don't remember them sounding so indie, I'm not too into this". I like some of the bands songs, but if we're comparing them to KGatLW, they are not on the same planet.
But anyway, this song grew on my a lot and I now really like it. Musically they are some kind of psychedelic/indie/garage rock. I'm not sure if they have a distinctly Australian sound, or it's just because I know they are Australian but I also draw similarities with fellow Aussies Wolfmother. So that's their sound, but with vocals that splice uk indie and Britpop. They fill me with a sort of feeling of nostalgia whilst also feeling fresh. I clearly need to revist this album because this is some good stuff. Musically it has some rocking riffs and psychedelic leads (who would've gussed) but is lacking in porn and/or crumpets. I bloody love crumpets.
8.5/10
Sacul: Justice - Planisphere
The best way I can describe this is Daft Punk doing their own take on Tubular Bells. That description may be way off but I'm sticking to it. This was definitely a risk, but I love a risk taker. In this case it definitely paid off as this is unlike anything else in this round (or roulette, I can't remember). This is also nearly double the length of the next longest song, and filled with a lot of music I wouldn't normally find myself listening to. Like any good song of this length, I feel it needs to have a good pay off at the end. Thankfully this has a glorious pay off in the way of that extended guitar solo (the last 3 minutes ❤️ ). I would have been fine with it being a bit shorter as it does take a while to get the guitars, and I found myself waiting for that bit to hurry up and get there, which does affect my overall score a bit. Still, I find myself enjoying this immensely.
8.5/10
Standings:
Buddyhunter1 - 38.5
TAC - 36
Evermind - 36
Nick - 35.5
Ariich - 35.5
King - 35.5
Elite - 35
HOF - 34
Cyril - 33.5
Puppies - 33.5
Romdrums - 33.5
Sacul - 33
Revenge - 29.5
LithoJazzoSphere - 7.5
Wolfking - 6.5
I think the only real movement here was Cyril dropping a few places and Buddy strengthening his lead.
So yea, an album roulette. I feel like many of you really do get my tastes and are sending great songs, but with some styles of music I prefer to listen to full albums, rather than songs (post-rock, anything that is generally atmospheric or on the black metal end of the spectrum, even death metal). When I think or my favourite individual songs they are often not from those genres. I am predominantly an album listener, and most of the stuff I post on the 'What album' thread are bands where I only listen to their full albums.
If you look at my Last.fm account (which is linked on my sig at the bottom) you can see my top listened to songs, and you'll see that my most listened to songs are generally upbeat songs I can singalong to (hardly surprising that Coheed and Cambria/The Dear Hunter are two of my favourite bands). Again, not always a hard and fast rule, but it might help some of you get better scores, if you have been left feeling somewhat frustrated. If you are happy sending me stuff that you will just hope I will love moving forward, keep going as I'm sure there are loads of albums I'll end up loving after this.
I've said it before but Elite, you have a great track record of sending me songs that don't score so well, but the albums they are off, have become some of my favourites.
Just kinda my stream of consciousness as I was finishing up these write ups.
I think next year I'll run an album roulette, but keep the contestants limited to 8 or 10. I think it'd be a great experience. Watch this space.
As Litho and Wolfy have joined now and have a bit of catch up to do, I am in no rush for the next submissions. I'm going to try to listen and score their round 1-4 submissions so we're all ready to go for round 6. My aim is to have scored all 4 of their rounds by the end of the weekend.
Topic: Twosuitsluke's Second Roulette v. Final Results Part 2 (Read 66241 times)
