Pool B:ReaperKK: Ola Englund - Balegmah / Sun and the MoonImpression:
Music of this particular type can often struggle to interest me, but these songs caught my interest right off the bat.The “specific type of song” was instrumentals. They can be hit-or-miss with me, depending on whether I’m able to really grab onto something in the music and get into the rest of the song. These two songs achieved that, and as a result, I really enjoyed them both.
That’s particularly true of Sun and the Moon, which has a strong main motif that hooks well into the other sections of the song. This one has good dynamics, with a really nice quiet section in the middle interspersed with some heavier riffing. The riffs at about the 5 and a half minute mark are my favorite part, and I love how they stay in place as other parts of the song begin to shift.
Part of what I like about these songs is that they don’t feel like instrumental prog metal with a gimmick or like an attempt to spotlight a particular player’s shredding ability. These feel like taking the prog metal sound, and rendering it into an instrumental context. There’s a lot of emphasis on melody and riffing, solos that add to the song rather than overpowering it, and a focus on good composition. Really enjoyable stuff.
twosuitsluke: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Robot Stop / Magenta Mountain / Slow Jam 1Impression:
I have no idea what to make of this at this point. Something strange yet interesting about it.I’m surprised no one guessed this impression, because this is some weird stuff! Definitely not up my usual alley, but there’s something fascinating about it all. I don’t even know how to categorize something like Robot Stop. It’s not a style I would normally listen to, I think the vocals are almost comically rough, but there is undeniably something really, really catchy about it.
Then Magenta Mountain is very different but similar in that it is hard to categorize, far outside the style of music I listen to, and undeniably fascinating. There’s something to the pattern of the vocal melodies here that is unusual but really interesting.
Slow Jam 1 is the least interesting to me of the three. It’s a solid little jam, and there’s nothing off-putting about it, but it doesn’t quite have the attention-grabbing quality of the others.
I should have expected this just based on what I’ve heard out int he world about this artist, but I was still sort of surprised by how strange this music is, and yet how interesting I find it. Not sure that this translates to me being in love with everything I hear, but they certainly have my attention.
wolfking: Angel Dust - Bleed / Cross of Hatred / Freedom AwaitsImpression:
This is a comfortable sound for me, and the songs make a strong impression right off the bat.So, I’m definitely a big fan of this overall sound: melodic, epic power metal. And these are good songs in that style. I like a lot of the vocal melodies on all three songs, especially Cross of Hatred. And I tend to enjoy mid-tempo power metal even more than the super-fast variety. There’s a sense of swagger in their rhythms.
I think the main downside is that I’m not in love with the singer. These power metal singers who use a lot of grit (Russell Allen, Ripper Owens) are somewhat hit-or-miss for me. I think often they end up making the music sound too consistently aggressive and not dynamic enough. And I think that is somewhat of an issue on the first two songs. Freedom Awaits strikes a better balance in the vocal style.
This isn’t a dealbreaker for me with this band, which I’m definitely interested in, but it is a downside. On the whole, though, this was a strong batch of songs that I certainly enjoy.
Pool B Decision:This is the toughest decision of the round. I had multiple pools where it was difficult to choose between the top two or between the bottom two, but here I like all three submissions almost equally and have a hard time even choosing first or last place. I think I’ve given serious consideration to every possible first-second-third order. This is one of the stronger pools this round, with all the submissions having a substantial draw for me.
After an additional listen through to all three submissions, one finally emerged as the winner, by a very narrow margin: the Ola Englund submission. These songs were just such finely composed instrumental prog metal that I had to give them the edge.
Looking at the other two, we have Angel Dust, which is right up my alley musically, very well done power metal with great melodies, and King Gizzard, which is far outside my comfort zone but also quite captivating to me in some strange way. I wish I didn’t have to put either of these in third, but in the end I have to give second to Angel Dust and third to King Gizzard.
As with Toto before, that’s not a placement that reflects a negative assessment of the King Gizzard music. I think it’s mainly the result of a few small quibbles that add up to place it slightly behind Angel Dust. First, the weak link of both these artists for me is the vocals, but the Angel Dust vocalist is singing some of the time in a way I do enjoy on all three songs, while the KG&tLW vocal performances fit the music but only elevate it on Magenta Mountain. Second, I connected pretty well with all three Angel Dust songs, while Slow Jam 1 did not connect with me as much as the other KG&tLW songs and was my least favorite out of all 8 songs in this pool. Finally, while I like the song, I don’t like the production on Robot Stop, and I don’t like the noisy and abrasive ending. None of these quibbles ruin my experience with KG&tLW, but when I’m really trying to split hairs, those are things that stand out to me.
No worries dude. I'll look forward to waking up to results then 
I'm feeling quietly confident. Fuck knows why!?
After this post, I feel like I’m crushing a dream a little bit here. All I can say is, if you were confident I was going to like the music, you were right. If you were confident about winning the round, well, sorry.
ReaperKK/Ola Englund: 3 points
wolfking/Angel Dust: 2 points
twosuitsluke/King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: 1 point
Pool C:Buddyhunter1: VOLA - Applause of a Distant Crowd / Smartfriend / Inside Your FurImpression:
Much more sedate and melody-focused than I remembered this artist being, which is tentatively a good thing.I’ve heard VOLA here and there before, and I know they’re very celebrated among the prog bands to debut in the last few years, but I’ve never had a clear overall impression of them.
I’m definitely coming away from this with a stronger sense of what people like about them. They have a strong sense of melody that comes out at times on all three of these songs, and that’s when I like them best. Applause of a Distant Crowd is just full of melody, both in the vocals and in instrumentals. Smartfriend starts out in a way that isn’t especially interesting to me, but when it opens up into the big melodic vocal section and subsequent instrumental, that’s quite good.
Inside Your Fur is my favorite of the three songs. It has some fairly compelling melodies and a strong chord progression that carries us through the whole thing. It’s the one I connect with most on an emotional level out of the three. There’s a beauty and a tenderness to these melodies that works for me.
Elite: King Crimson - Fallen Angel / Epitaph (both live in Mexico, 2017)Impression:
This is definitely the best foot forward of a band that I’ve had mixed feelings about. Not sure it'll be enough.Of the biggest names in classic prog, King Crimson is the one I’ve never much gotten into. I’ve heard some of the big songs, and enjoyed some of them. But I’ve never gotten engrossed in anything, and found that was a little off-putting to reduce my motivation to spend more time with them.
Fallen Angel is probably my favorite song I’ve heard from them. Some strong vocal melodies here, and I like the saxophone. Some sense of scale and scope near the ending, too, which is nice. However, there’s nothing here that connects with me on a deeper, emotional level, unfortunately.
Epitaph is a very well-done piece of music. I’m nowhere near being able to fully break it down, but it’s clear to me that the whole thing is very deliberately and artfully composed. This live performance brings home some of that with how precisely some parts seem to be timed, even onstage (for example, in the chorus: “Confusion… will be my epitaph”).
But yeah, Epitaph is also quite bleak. Even if I couldn’t make out the lyrics, this would come across clearly in the music. It’s that mood that’s somewhat alienating to me and that’s probably going to keep me from wanting to listen to this a whole lot. Fallen Angel, I think, is in the same direction, but not as bleak as Epitaph.
HOF: Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Kalypso / We Are the Bright CarversImpression:
I don’t quite know what to make of this one. Some good melodies, but some of the sonic elements are off-putting.Honestly, my initial impression of these songs was a little rough. They do a fair amount of inserting weird electronic sounds into the music, which is really something I do not like and almost never think is justified.
That said, the music itself has opened up to me a fair amount. There’s a strong sense of melody here and some real beauty in these songs, especially Kalypso. We Are the Bright Carvers is more focused on catchiness, and definitely delivers that.
On the other hand, I have a hard time nailing down the structure of these songs, particularly We Are the Bright Carvers and my tentative sense is that at least that one overstays its welcome a bit. A little too much repetition without quite enough variety.
It’s hard to assess this mix of positives and negatives, but I guess where I am at this point is that I find some aspects of their music quite compelling, but there are also obstacles to me getting into it earnestly.
Pool C Decision:VOLA will come away as the winner of this pool. It’s not my favorite of the pool winners, but it has two of my three favorite songs of this pool in Inside Your Fur and Applause of a Distant Crowd, plus a third song that has aspects I like a lot in Smartfriend. That’s going to be enough to beat out the other two.
Sweet Billy Pilgrim comes in second. I really want to be able to like these songs, Kalypso especially, more than I actually end up liking them. Kalypso is a beautiful song, and We Are the Bright Carvers has some strong elements, but the structures and especially the glitchy sounds detract from the experience. Still, that emotional connection is good enough for second place.
The King Crimson songs are obviously very well-done, and to elaborate on why they ended up in last place here I’m going to take the opportunity to explain a little more about my approach to ranking songs in this roulette. I think in past roulettes, my scores have incorporated too heavy of a dose of how impressive or well-done I think a particular song is. I think I was tempted to do that in order to seem more objective in my grading and to avoid giving a low score to music that I think is actually really well-done. This time, I’m pushing myself to be more selfish in ranking submissions, and focusing more on rewarding submissions that I personally enjoy than on rewarding those that I think are the most brilliantly written or performed. By the latter standard, I couldn’t put King Crimson last in this pool; I might have to put it first. But by the former standard, it does go in last because one of the songs, Epitaph, doesn’t resonate with me in a pleasing way from an emotional perspective. And that’s the standard I’m trying to use here. It isn't a total disconnect: I do enjoy Fallen Angel a fair bit! But it's the band of these three that I connect with the least and remain the least interested in.
Buddyhunter1/VOLA: 3 points
HOF/Sweet Billy Pilgrim: 2 points
Elite/King Crimson: 1 point
Topic: 425's Roulette v5: Short break (Read 30445 times)
