Alright, here's the first pool of results. I'll finish up the other two Wednesday. All three pools this round had some extremely close decisions. We'll start with Pool X, which might have been the strongest pool in this really strong round. I get a sense that I might be doing something heretical with my ranking of these submissions, so I'm interested to see how y'all react...
Pool X:
kingshmegland: King’s X - Dogman / Smudge / It’s Love
Impression: What they’re doing with the vocals on these really appeals to me.
I’m a fan of vocal harmonies, so at least on the level of vocals, this submission was likely to appeal to me. And it certainly does. When you look at something like the chorus to Smudge, there’s just a nice layering of voices that works really well for me.
The instrumentation is pretty good, even if it’s not straight up my alley. There’s somewhat of a blend of genres on these songs that works pretty well. The heavy riffing is kind of jagged at times, particularly on Dogman and Smudge, which can be hit-or-miss for me, but I think it generally works. There’s a groove to a lot of it.
I like all three of these songs, but my favorite of the three is It’s Love. I like the happier mood and the somewhat less heavy sound on that one. It feels like the music gets to breathe a little bit more and the vocal melodies really get to open up. There’s also a really good long guitar solo at the end of this one. I'm into all three songs, but this is one that does the best job of selling me on the band.
romdrums: Jolly - Ava / Dust Nation Bleak / Lucky
Impression: This is pretty catchy, though not in a conventional way.
I find the sort of blend of synthpop and prog metal here interesting. This band has managed to make music that has the catchiness of pop along with some of the off-beat and unusual feel of a lot of prog. This is particularly apparent in Ava, a song that has a catchy synthy chorus along with some sections that get surprisingly heavy.
There are downsides, though. I don’t find the singer particularly appealing. At his best, he’s serviceable. This is fine when the written vocal lines are strong, as they are in Ava. But some of the vocal melodies don’t do it as much for me. This is the case in most of Dust Nation Bleak, for example. That song has its moments, but it’s a noticeable step down from Ava. I think the repeated “dust nation” line and the riffing under it is quite good, but the other vocal parts and some of the heavy riffing don’t entirely work for me. I would place Lucky in between the other two songs. Definitely has some strengths, including a pretty catchy chorus, but it’s not as delightful as Ava.
soupytwist: Fellowship - Glint / The Saint Beyond the River / Oak and Ash
Impression: I don't know quite how to explain this, but these songs sound like how it would feel to fly. Really, really liking them.
Yes, this is it.
This sort of very, very, very bright power metal has missed the mark with me before (Twilight Force wasn’t quite for me)… but these songs are a bullseye. Although they’re very symphonic, there’s still some heft to the metal parts (they could do to turn the metal up a little bit in the mix IMO, but it’s not a dealbreaker). The singer just has a very personable tone and a lot of emotion, so I can really connect with him. And the melodies are just there.
Everything about these songs just feels like it’s soaring. Whether it’s the giant vocal melodies on the choruses, the swelling string parts, or the fast guitar solos, there’s this sense of rapid and weightless motion. It really, really appeals to me.
When I first listened to this submission, I was impressed by Glint alone. I was thinking that if the other songs were anywhere close to as good, this submission would be very strong. And then The Saint Beyond the River kicked in, and it was glorious. This song is shamelessly built around a superb main chorus, but the structure absolutely works to create a sense of variety. Oak and Ash is also an impressive song, which maybe has the heaviest section of the three in its intro, which is welcome. I also like that the verse has almost a chorus-like epic feel… and then the actual chorus has a different, but also epic, feeling.
I did notice that this band is very concerned with their worthiness. “Someone tell me, am I worthy?” he asks on Oak and Ash. Well, I’ll be someone and say, yes, you’re worthy.
wolfking: Nevermore - Born / This Godless Endeavor
Impression: I can tell there are layers to this one, but elements of the sound might be just a bit too far out there for me.
Immediately, this comes across to me as really well done prog metal. There’s a lot of superb guitar work on both songs, both in terms of riffs and solos. I’m really impressed with the transitions between the many different sections on these two songs. My impression is that this is really well-put-together music.
But do I like it? In a sense, yes. I enjoy the mastery of the instrumental performances and the songwriting. There’s something thrilling about listening to something that’s put together this well. There are some good melodies (especially the chorus of Born), some great riffs and some fantastic instrumental sections. I like it insofar as I enjoy those.
But there are some roadblocks to my connecting with it on a personal level. The first is that I’m not really a fan of the vocals. The harsh style that the vocalist uses at times doesn’t really work for me. Hard to put my finger on what exactly I don’t like about it; I think I just tend not to go for the thinner, raspier sounding harshes. And his clean voice is in the category of nothing too special to me. At times he sounds too disaffected and hollow for me.
There is also… (“oh no, he’s about to say it again”) …a dark mood to this music that I don’t really connect with. I think that is partly conveyed to me by the vocal style. Hard to explain it exactly, but the singer gives off a detached or almost nihilistic persona at times that I just don’t sympathize with. I think the rest of the music complements the singer’s style, giving off a similar mood. And, while I don’t judge albums by their artwork, I think the artwork, which I find off-putting, is in keeping with the mood of the music.
I’m kind of reluctant to put it this way because you really cannot judge music by the artwork, but as I’ve been desperate to find a way to put this feeling into words for y’all, I’ll say it this way: If a bleak artwork like this one, showing a disturbed-looking child standing in front of a scene of the aftermath of death and destruction, is fitting with the music on the album, I’m probably going to find the music on that album bleak enough that it’s harder for me to connect with it. In this case, I think the artwork and the music are both well-done and go very well together. . . and I don’t like the artwork and have this mixed feeling about the music.
Again, I have to stress how impressed I am with how well done this is. That's enough to get me to a certain level of liking. But that emotional resonance that makes it a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience just hasn't been there.
Decision:
I said this was a very strong round, and this pool is no exception. I like all four of these submissions; each one has at least something about it that I find pretty interesting or impressive. But how do they line up?
Well, if you looked at all four writeups, I think it’s pretty obvious what my favorite was: Fellowship just really connected with me. Not all happy power metal does, so it wasn’t a guaranteed win, but this band’s sound just worked for me. Absolutely earned the top spot.
The remaining three are all pretty close. They all had aspects I found appealing and aspects that didn’t connect with me as much. I think last place will have to go to Jolly, by a narrow margin. I liked Ava pretty well, but I thought Dust Nation Bleak had its issues in terms of songwriting. Combine that with me not really connecting with the singer and it’s going to lose out to both Nevermore, where I thought the songwriting was really strong, and King’s X, where I really liked the vocals.
After some consideration, I’m going to give second place to King’s X. I enjoy all three King’s X songs, really like It’s Love, and could easily see myself getting into the band. I liked both Nevermore songs and am really impressed with the band, but the personal connection isn’t there. And in the end that’s something that matters a lot to me.
soupytwist/Fellowship: 4 points
kingshmegland/King’s X: 3 points
wolfking/Nevermore: 2 points
romdrums/Jolly: 1 point
Topic: 425's Roulette v5: Short break (Read 41789 times)
