Puppies (Re)Discovery EP Roulette V.4 (The Final Art!)

[wolfking]

However you probably could have subbed in KYPCK's Stalingrad, Sabaton's Stalingrad, and Caducity's Destination: Stalingrad and just made the EP about Stalingrad....

is my name Chad?  Seriously, I thought the point was to create a story and have it represented in the best possible way to tell the story?  Most of these songs I wouldn't send in a roulette but they fit well so thought I would go with that tactic.

[wolfking]

Jeez, pretty underwhelming score.  Perhaps I need to worry more about the songs then trying to create a story through a selection of songs.

I don't know, it wasn't far off from your first round EP. Besides I did really enjoy it. 

On a 100 point scale that works out to an 83/100 

Fair.  As I said, the story and the connection with the songs is what I'm focussing on, not so much the music.  I'll need to listen to Ariich's I guess, he's nailing this.

[Deadeye21]

I am  ed. Like I seriously cannot make the whole fantasy thing work. I’ve got a few songs I want to use and then that’s kinda it. I actually can’t form a story in that realm with the stuff I like. This is hell.

[wolfking]

Chad getting a higher score is slightly annoying.  Maybe I should take that approach to take one song and split it up and call it my own creation. 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

However you probably could have subbed in KYPCK's Stalingrad, Sabaton's Stalingrad, and Caducity's Destination: Stalingrad and just made the EP about Stalingrad....

is my name Chad?  Seriously, I thought the point was to create a story and have it represented in the best possible way to tell the story?  Most of these songs I wouldn't send in a roulette but they fit well so thought I would go with that tactic.

In all seriousness, I really like the story you sent and that was a big part of why I did this roulette in the first place.

I am  ed. Like I seriously cannot make the whole fantasy thing work. I’ve got a few songs I want to use and then that’s kinda it. I actually can’t form a story in that realm with the stuff I like. This is hell.

Themes are optional. I will accept any story you want to tell.

[wolfking]

Ah, okay, that one did go over my head lol.  yeah, I'm enjoying this roulette more than I thought I would.  Happy with the round 3 one but I doubt after this round you'll really dig some of the tunes but no regrets, it fits the mould of the story.

Not sure what tactic I take for round 4 just yet.  Not sure what I'm thinking I'd be able to find stuff that would do it justice.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Vmadera - Native Manifest

Testament – Trail of Tears
Testament – Native Blood
Anthrax – Indians
Testament – Allegiance
Iron Mask – When All Braves Fall
In Vain – Wayakin (The Guardian Spirit of Nez Perce)

First Impression - The songs are good, the story is good, the way this flows needs a lot of help....

OK, starting off with Trail of Tears, we have a pretty mellow song from heavy thrashers Testament. I actually really like Testament, but this is from an album I haven't listened to yet. So this is a pretty interesting intro to the album in question. This isn't the Testament I'm used to. I do think Testament was just one of many metal bands that lost their way in the '90s. They all seemed to sell out in one way or another. Granted there are some really cool guitar solos here and it gets a little heavier towards the end. Overall it's actually a pretty decent song. Native Blood on the other hand IS the Testament I'm used to. This is a good thrashy song with none other than Gene Hoglan showing why he is the definitive drummer in the Thrash scene. There are some cool riffs and guitar harmonies throughout the song also. Next is another Thrash metal titan, Anthrax, with their song Indians. This starts out with some nice fast riffage. I've never really gotten into Anthrax and a lot of it has to do with Joe Belladonnas vocals, never was a fan. On the other hand I've always appreciated Scott Ian's rhythm guitar work. But of the "big 4" I've always thought Anthrax was the least worthy of that moniker. Next we get another Testament song, this time Allegiance and this one with Gene Hoglan beneficiary Dave Lombardo This is probably the least interesting Testament song here. It isn't bad, but this is possibly my least favorite album I have of Testament. Next we get When All Braves Fall, by a band I've never listened to before, Iron Mask. This is big departure from all the previous tracks, getting some Power Metal instead of Thrash. It's a fairly decent Power metal song, but I kind of wish the band would let loose a little more. It almost feels like they are holding back more than they could and should. The last song here is easily the best on the EP, Wayakin. It's basically its own mini story within the greater story of the EP. Starting off with some spoken word and native sounding instruments which explodes into some great Proggy Death Metal. I do like how they got an actual Native American to do the spoken word at the beginning and the Native chants throughout the song. The songs whole second half is quite powerful. I know I said in my first impression that the songs were all good, well it kind of ended up being a mixed bag, sort of...Fortunately for you Wayakin took up a good chunk of the running time.
Song Score - 7.9/10

I know you said this wasn't really a specific story, but to me it sort of read that way with the songs and the lyrics, mostly. Especially ending it with Wayakin was pretty special. I definitely see what you were going for and I think it worked out for the most part. Perhaps it could have been fleshed out a bit more, but again as I've said in the past, an EP length doesn't give you a ton of room to tell a fleshed out story.
Story Score - 7/10 +1 for bonus theme

Here is where the EP falls apart. I know you said you edited the ends of some of the songs and I kind of wish you hadn't. The first 4 songs do not flow well at all, and where you cut them off is....well...let's just say very odd. I think if you had done some sort of meshing or overlap of the songs it could have worked better, but not the way they were left. The last two songs work fine, because they were left to play out, but man, I wish I could give you a better score here, but I just can't...
Flow Score - 4/10

Overall Score - 19.9/30

[wolfking]

okay....... after Vmadera and Joe's scores, I'll stop bitching about mine. 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

OK, I had an oversight on Deadeye's result, he should have gotten a bonus point for my favorite EP title. I'll go back and fix that on his result post. 

[Deadeye21]

OK, I had an oversight on Deadeye's result, he should have gotten a bonus point for my favorite EP title. I'll go back and fix that on his result post. 

TWICE!? I managed to have best title TWICE!?

Ok, now I gotta keep having good EP titles.

[ariich]

This story is a strange one. On the one hand, I love stories set in space and I love astronomy. I like stories about AI and the idea of AI. On the other hand, there's something about this that falls just a little flat, not in the storytelling aspect or the songs used (as I think that was all done superbly), but in the general premise. I'm not sure I can really put my finger on what is bothering me about this. It could be the open ended, almost cliffhanger, ending to the story.....I think you just Stargate: Universed me. Just when the story started getting really good all of a sudden it was over. I want to know what happens next dammit!

I dunno, I think the ending works great for several reasons (and the story score is still good of course so I'm definitely not complaining, just explaining). This was the historical round - I played with history by imaginining Pioneer as a sentient AI, but I still wanted the whole thing tied into the real events otherwise it would have been more of a sci-fi story than a historical one. Besides which, obviously its a "TASTES" thing, but I love the ending - the events might be open ended, but the emotional journey is complete. Pioneer starts out excited about its mission but blinkered by its own obsession, then it feels hurt when it realises things are not as it thought, but with time to reflect it comes to appreciate that its real mission and experience are still beautiful and exciting.

In terms of what happens next, I think it's something like a few hundred thousand years of drifting until it reaches the next star cluster.

Anyway, that's enough explaining, really happy that you liked the EP and especially delighted with your comments (and the score) on flow which were exactly what I was going for. And yeah I thought that about breaking up the TDH songs too. But it worked better for both narrative and flow that way, so I just went for it.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

OK, I had an oversight on Deadeye's result, he should have gotten a bonus point for my favorite EP title. I'll go back and fix that on his result post. 

TWICE!? I managed to have best title TWICE!?

Ok, now I gotta keep having good EP titles.

You seem to have a knack for that. 

[ariich]

you're definitely putting mine off because it did bad this time 

I doubt it. Also unless there's been an oversight from Pup, you'll presumably be getting the best song bonus point.

[Crow]

c'mon man  i'm dying over here

[ariich]

I guess he's gone to bed?

[jingle.boy]

Chad getting a higher score is slightly annoying.  Maybe I should take that approach to take one song and split it up and call it my own creation. 

I'm not sure if I should be offended or flattered?   First, the rules are minimum 3 songs from 2 bands.  I met the rules.  Second, I'm following the most important part of the OP - "Final rule, and this one is the most important. Have fun! If you are playing only to win, you are doing it wrong." 

I wasn't even gonna play until you (Kade and Tim) shamed me into it, now you're both butt-hurt my submissions are scoring as good/better than yours?   

Pull up your big boy underoos, and suck it up, buttercups.   

[wolfking]

I'm certainly not playing to win, you don't actually win anything when playing roulettes, its just a bit of banter mate, hence the emoji at the end.

[King Postwhore]

I'd mock you Kade but I'm still cuncussed from my last score.

[wolfking]

 

Just blame Chad, its legit.

[Lonk]

  Well deserved low score, I promise to do better next round (though you already suggested against my initial idea, so we will see  )

[Deadeye21]

Been sitting in it all day, but I begin to fear I have absolutely nothing for round 3, even if I do stray from the theme. Hate it!

[wolfking]

Been sitting in it all day, but I begin to fear I have absolutely nothing for round 3, even if I do stray from the theme. Hate it!

Just steal something from a Rhapsody album or something.

[jingle.boy]

I'm certainly not playing to win, you don't actually win anything when playing roulettes, its just a bit of banter mate, hence the emoji at the end.

Same... and back atchya.  You poke; I poke back.  All good 

But you and Tim are crabby-pants - especially Tim

 

[Lonk]

I'll be watching these Flow scores very closely.

Hope you saw my score 

[TAC]

I will not be out metaling Wolfking this round. 

[Crow]

give me my 4/30 already dammit

[King Postwhore]

okay....... after Vmadera and Joe's scores, I'll stop bitching about mine. 

Yeah you pantywaste. 

[wolfking]

I will not be out metaling Wolfking this round. 

 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

OK, final result for the round. As a reminder, send for Round 3 by Saturday, please. Now I need to finish my Queensryche top 40 list and send that off to Kev.



Cyril - The Southern Rebellion and Massacre of 1832-1835

SikTh – Tupelo
Primeval Well – Tales Carved in Stone on a Forbidden Road
Trophy Scars – Brother
Wiegedood – FN Scar 16
Kevin Devine – Brother's Blood
Izthmi – The Arrows of Our Ways

First Impression - This hits hard in a lot of ways!

So starting off with Tupelo is kind of an insane way to start an EP......and I love it! I just love this Sikth album. It's so unique and this song showcases how imaginative this band was back in the early/mid 2000s. It really sets the tone of this whole EP, almost like a preview of every other style that was coming later. Sikth really was ahead of their time...Anyway I can talk about how awesome Sikth is at great length. Let's move on. Next is Tales Carved in Stone on a Forbidden Road, which is by a band I haven't listened to before. I know, a Black Metal band I don't know, surprising! Anyway, this has a cool almost old school Black Metal feel to it with some great atmosphere and some....Gothic Country Stylings??....thrown in for good measure. And when this song goes, it GOES! I mean there's some Bluegrass style drumming in parts of this that wouldn't be out of place in a typical Bluegrass song, there's just tremolo picked guitars over the top and the tempo is faster. Not to mention the prominent banjo throughout. I guess this proves that Black Metal is just sped up Bluegrass with harsh vocals I guess I'm gonna have to check out this band. Add it to the never ending, ever growing list. After this is Brother by Trophy Scars, another band I know quite well, although not this album so much. For a band that is known for mostly mixing Post-Hardcore and Blues, this seems like a bit of a departure. This has more of that Gothic Country style mixed in with more of an Indie Rock/Blues Rock vibe. While not as interesting as the previous two songs, this still feels essential and I like it more than not. I'm kind of mixed on the vocals here too, I both like them and dislike them We have FN Scar 16 next. Wiegedood (or as I like to call them, The Band With the Same Album Cover On All Their Albums....) is another band I'm familiar. This is another song that just goes! I actually prefer Wiegedood's first 3 albums to the one this song is taken from, but eh, this album still I definitely like the way they do this style of ferocity. Next is the song that I basically did a double take on several times, Brother by Kevin Devine. Certain parts of the song I kept swearing I had heard this song before. I even played it for my wife and she said the same thing, but had never heard of Kevin Devine and neither had I. So what gives? I thought, OK, maybe this guy is in a band I know....Nope....Anyways, this song is amazing....that is all....take your gold star....Oh, you want me to say more? Dude, the way this song builds and climaxes is just, I don't know, otherworldly? Cosmic? There's a certain sense of grandeur and divinity here. I mean, that guitar solo, the way it builds almost sounds like something Rush would have done in the early days. Maybe that's why I connected to this song so much. There was a certain sense of familiarity to it. Plus the vocals have just the right amount of loss of control mixed with passion and grit to be completely compelling. What a song (sorry TAC, but you will probably hate this ). OK, finishing this off we have The Arrows of Our Ways. I don't know how you could possibly top that last song. Oh, more AtmoBlack, how original OK, but seriously, I like this song a lot. It has a lot of the intensity of a band like DWeF, but builds the atmosphere a bit more and not relying as heavily on speed and aggression. Plus this delves into some Death/Doomy parts, not unlike a band like Swallow the Sun. Plus there's this cool little guitar melody that repeats a few times that I find really intriguing. Also that little changeup of pace at about the midpoint is fantastic. I do kind of wish there were a few more peaks and valleys here, but I feel like that is nitpicking. (TAC you might like this one) Overall a great mix of songs, this was even better than the great songs you had on the first EP.
Song Score - 9.1/10 +1 for Favorite song of the round, Brother's Blood

Now, the story....is great! I love it. Tupelo works exactly how it should, a scene setter, a way to set the stage for what's coming later. Musically and lyrically this is exactly what the song does. Then we jump forward in time a bit to tell the story of our protagonist and antagonist over the next 4 songs, ending in complete tragedy with no resolution.....yet. The the final song works as an epilogue, while also setting up the potential for a continued story. This is just a great way to tell a long-ish story with a limited amount of time. Exactly what I was looking for story-wise here. Great setup, the meat of the story is told well, but simply, then a potential for sequels.
Story Score - 10/10 +1 for bonus theme

This EP flows quite well too. The transitions between all songs were actually all really good. The first two seemingly flowed together perfectly. Then Primeval Well to Trophy scars seemed like a natural progression between two songs. Then the next few all flowed well by stopping/starting the songs on the beat, felt very natural. I'm actually quite impressed how you managed to make the disparate genres flow into each other so well. Nothing stood out as awkward in this EP, unlike the last one. At the same time I don't think I can quite award a perfect score for flow, but it's really close.
Flow Score - 9.7/10

Overall Score - 30.8/30

Standings
Cyril - 27.7, 30.8 (58.5)
Ariich - 27.5, 27.1 (54.6)
Elite - 25.4, 27 (52.4)
Wolfking - 25.3, 24.8 (50.1)
TAC - 24, 25.75 (49.75)
Jingle - 21.9, 25.5 (47.4)
Deadeye - 21.7, 23.1 (44.8)
Vmadera - 21.4, 19.9 (41.3)
Kingshmegland - 23.6, 16.9 (40.5)
Stadler - 19.8, Ragequit

[wolfking]

Wow, well done Cyril.  Can we have a link to it?

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Wow, well done Cyril.  Can we have a link to it?

I think his link still works
https://mega.nz/file/aNVABQhZ#w14Iila9wmNEHyoH90aLGUDbupomdK0StKnPVIiJ_ik

[Crow]

let's GOOOOOOO

yeah brother's blood is def my favorite here too, jesus christ what a song. i know absolutely nothing else from the dude but he has The One Song and that's all he needed
also i felt very smart for having both a nick cave cover (tupelo) and a band very obviously inspired by nick cave (trophy scars) on the same EP, despite that i barely know/listen to nick cave 

anyways time to figure out what to do for my next EP  i know what general sound it's gonna have but i have picked out all of one (1) song for it so far so who knows

[Deadeye21]

Standings
Cyril - 27.7, 29.8 (57.5)
Ariich - 27.5, 27.1 (54.6)
Elite - 25.4, 27 (52.4)
Wolfking - 25.3, 24.8 (50.1)
TAC - 24, 25.75 (49.75)
Jingle - 21.9, 25.5 (47.4)
Deadeye - 21.7, 23.1 (44.8)
Vmadera - 21.4, 19.9 (41.3)
Kingshmegland - 23.6, 16.9 (40.5)
Stadler - 19.8, Ragequit

I’m still bottom 3 but I’m doing better because I didn’t ragequit. Although I am slamming my head against the wall repeatedly because I have no  ing idea what to do for a third EP!

[wolfking]

Wait, Stadler ragequit?  I certainly missed that lol.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Wait, Stadler ragequit?  I certainly missed that lol.

Nah, it was more like he politely bowed out. It's just a reference to Evermind infamously rage quitting my 2nd roulette. Good times.