Elite - The Marriage of Fate's Dying Echoes 1. Symphony X - Communion and the Oracle
2. Ulver - Plates 21-22
3. Strawbs - The Hangman and the Papist
4. Ulver – Ord
5. UneXpect – Words
6. Schizoid Lloyd - Suicide Penguin
7. Charlie Griffiths - Crawl Walk Run
8. Ulver - Echo Chamber (Room of Tears)
9. Ulver - A Capella (Sielens Sang)
First Impression - This probably contains the most unexpected song I've received so far this roulette
Alrighty, starting off with Symphony X. This is the 2nd Symphony X song I've received so far in the roulette, not that I'm complaining. I love Symphony X. Communion and the Oracle is classic Symphony X. I can always tell it's Symphony X just by Michael Romeo's guitar tone and playstyle and Jason Rullo's drumming. I wonder how many times I can say Symphony X in this write up
Anyway this song has a great mellow buildup with always great keyboards that aren't too in your face. They take on this very twinkly and ethereal piano tone, which I really like. And of course this was back when Russell Allen still liked to actually sing....Anyway, not my favorite Symphony X (I said the name again!) song, but still a great one. Next we have Plates 21-22 from Ulver. I love Ulver and their William Blake album is one of my favorites. It's such a different album with many sides and little things to unravel. This song is one of the more "rockin" songs on the album and is one of my favorites from the album. Next we come to a band I never expected someone to send me, Strawbs. I was unaware anyone on this forum even listened to them
So The Hangman and the Papist is an interesting pick. It's basically just straight up '70s style folk music. There are touches of psychedelic prog music influence, especially with the organ and mellotron usage. And fun fact, it's Rick Wakeman on the organ and mellotron. Interesting song, if not completely captivating for me. We are going to skip right over Ord, since it's being used as a segue here. Therefore we lead right into Words. This is from one of my favorite albums of 2011 and I have not listened to it in a while. I think I will need to remedy that. Anyway, like the rest of this album this song is complex, technical, and intense with just a hint of crazy (ok, who are we kidding, a lot of crazy!). I also love the plethora of vocals styles used here. It's songs like this that make me wish the band never broke up. So, I almost thought about rejecting this submission based on you sending me Suicide Penguin again. You sent this to me in my first roulette. However, I couldn't remember it at all, so I let it slide. Funny thing is, I wrote down some thoughts on the song each time I listened to it in this EP and then compared it with my notes from my first roulette and they were nearly identical
So, the song maintains the quirkiness from the Unexpect song, but not the intensity and it's by far not as interesting or fun. Same with the various vocal styles, they are there, just not as well executed. Plus the way this song changes is.....kind of abrupt and not smooth at all. Anyway, there are aspects I like and some I don't. Moving on, I had no idea that Charlie Griffiths had a solo project. I like this song Crawl Walk Run, even though it's fairly well planted in the typical Progressive Djenty metal. Plus Darby Todd shows up here on drums! I've been wanting to find more stuff with him on drums as I was impressed with his live drums with Devin Townsend. Charlie's vocals sound a bit like something you would here in a Mastodon song at times. Interesting. Also his guitar playing is obviously good. Lastly we cap this EP off with a couple of Ulver tracks, one song proper and then ending with an outro track. Echo Chamber is a track from an EP I have not heard before, but it sounds like it could be a B-side from The Assassination of Julius Caesar sessions. I like it a lot. Just another song that proves Ulver could write any kind of music they want to. Anyway ending this with the A Capella chanting song actually really works for me.
Song Score - 8.1/10
I like the grand premise of the story here, if not the actual execution of said story. The idea of Fate being a person of sorts and made the universe and then essentially spawning good and evil. And then we have the classic good vs evil story, although with a bit of a twist. I think if you had a bit more time (probably a lot more time, knowing how long it takes to develop a convincing story world) you could have come up with a bit more detail on the logistics of how the world operates. I do like the ambition of the story though and it could be turned into a captivating story, given time. All the songs work well with the story, as told, but I think the only other complaint I have is similar to the issue I had with Cyril's story this round. I think this one lacks that emotional quality that your previous EPs had.
Story Score - 7.8/10 +1 for bonus theme
I think the flow here suffered a bit more than your previous EPs as well. I think this may have been due to time constraints. I know you were out of town and didn't have much time to put this together. The first transition between the Symphony X song and Plates was a bit abrupt, as was the following transition into the Strawbs song. Then the crossface between Crawl Walk Run into Echo Chamber was a little....eehhh... Then there's the probably with stylistic whiplash. Even more so than your last EP. That one I understood the purpose, this one is just a little too far on the style change scale.
Flow Score - 7/10
Overall Score - 23.9/30
StandingsCyril - 27.7, 29.8, 26.4
(83.9)Ariich - 27.5, 27.1, 28.6
(83.2)TAC - 24, 25.75, 26.7
(76.45)Elite - 25.4, 27, 23.9
(76.3)Jingle - 21.9, 25.5, 27.9
(75.3)Wolfking - 25.3, 24.8, 23.3
(73.4)Deadeye - 21.7, 23.1, 21.4
(66.2)Vmadera - 21.4, 19.9, 24.7
(66)Kingshmegland - 23.6, 16.9, 25.5
(66)Stadler - 19.8, Ragequit
Topic: Puppies (Re)Discovery EP Roulette V.4 (The Final Art!) (Read 30911 times)
