So, just remember my scoring system.
8.5+...I love!
8.0-8.4...I really like
7.5-7.9...I like
Below 7.5...Ugh
There were 5 songs over 8.0 and 4 songs below 7.5. That means everything was bunched up in the 7.5-8.0 range, not unlike most rounds.
I really found something to like in pretty much every song, with a handful that really stood out.
I have a few thoughts on Mastodon...
One of the vocalists..the Cobain Guy, is AWFUL. I mean, he's almost unlistenable for me. There's no personality. I make a couple comparisons to Nirvana in my reviews, but this guy is not in Cobain's league vocally.
The other vocalist..the Ozzy Guy, is so much better. He's memorable because he really reminds me of early Ozzy Era Sabbath. Those particular songs benefitted.
It's not that the drummer overplays...it's more that the band simply doesn't keep up with him. He's the only musician in the band I cared to listen too. Other than the bass player. I found the guitars pretty boring on the whole. They imitated Schenker and Iommi in spots but other than that, they did nothing for me.
I found a lot of the songwriting pretty terrible. Either they didn't know how to end a song, or they'd have a 1 minute + intro for a 4 minute song. In a few tracks, the song would be halfway through before it actually mattered.
I ain't gonna lie. This was my least favorite round. The scores will resemble the other rounds on the whole, but in reality, the whole playlist could be downgraded by 2-3 points total. That said, everyone is graded relative to each other so it doesn't really matter anyway. I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Finally, I wanted to thank everyone for playing. I was ready to run a roulette, but I like to have some sort of concept behind it, as most of you know. I realize that this was an odd one, but I really enjoyed it, and these playlists are roadmaps to these artists that I can travel on. I know in a number of rounds, some of you were winging it, but that's OK. I think Evermind was winging it in every round.
*Spoiler Alert* Evermind came in last, so there's that.
As long as we had some yuks along the way, it's all good. I appreciate the wide range of tastes here. I got something excellent from everyone here along the way.