Puppies_On_Acid - Enslaved - "Roots of the Mountain", "The Watcher"
Early Impression - "Here's the Other band that is even more frequently compared to one of my absolute favorites, and while they're alright, I wish I could splice the two of them together into one band, but I guess that would actually just create a different version of the band they're compared to."
Final Summary:
I'm happy when bands blossom over the course of a round for me, and this turns out to be another example, as "Roots of the Mountain" really delivers the goods with a plethora of engaging components and makes me think this is yet another band I've been overlooking.
Details:
So Enslaved is sometimes called "the black metal Opeth", and I don't entirely see that comparison either, but they are probably slightly closer at least than Agalloch is, due to the proggier nature of some of their material, and having a full-time keyboard player these days. I've heard a number of their albums (probably including a few others that I didn't get around to rating on RYM), and I've liked them, but haven't found anything I've really loved yet. I'm still not entirely there, but I think I'm definitely inching towards it. And even nearing the end of the round, I feel like it's grown on me even more and moved up slightly again, it's certainly a bit of a grower.
I find "The Watcher" a bit bland, though decent enough, but "Roots of the Mountain" is quite an intriguing tune. It has all the right ingredients, with a fairly full production, a better guitar tone, a good contrast of vocal styles (including the choral-esque bit at 4:27), and all kinds of spices here and there. The chorus especially is quite an earworm, and is a perfect melodic juxtaposition with the more traditionally black metal-sounding intro riff that is repeated in various spots. The solo at 2:49 is killer, and the tremolo-picked passage over acoustic guitar at 6:49 is just gorgeous. There's also the delicious bass break at 4:13.
The keyboards could probably even be a bit more prominent than they are (and perhaps other tracks highlight them more), as I like the Mellotron flute break at 1:42, but the Mellotron strings at the very end are briefer than I'd like.
I'm actually no longer sure exactly what I had in mind with the early impression in terms of how you would combine them with Agalloch to achieve something more similar to Opeth. It might be that from my memory Agalloch tends to have more overt folky acoustic passages on other songs than the one sent in this round, and while there's a bit of acoustic here, it's mostly just a bit of background strumming. Enslaved has more of the other elements though, and I could certainly see more material of theirs appealing to me if it's at all like this.
I used to consider bands like these "Banger-core", because Sam Dunn's Banger TV Youtube channel tended to prominently feature bands like Enslaved, Mastodon, and a few others, and I historically haven't quite gotten them, but one by one I'm having to walk back my opinions on some of them. I'll be thrilled if at some point I run out of bands I've considered to be overrated, because that just means more music I like.
Score: 8/10
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TAC - Alice Cooper - "Halo of Flies", "Pass the Gun Around"
Early Impression - "I have the feeling this might translate better in a more theatrical live environment than it does on album, but it is certainly a fascinating historical exercise."
Final Summary:
Numerous plays brought unexpected depth out of these tracks, revealing additional layers to Alice that I was previously unaware of, piquing my interest in further exploration.
Details:
This is the funny thing about first impressions, and for me the importance of numerous plays and immersion. KISS had a more immediate somewhat positive impression and I was more skeptical of how well Alice might do, with these cuts seeming perhaps too experimental, but the immediacy of KISS slipped a bit over time and I've gotten into these songs a bit more. There's a lot more depth, nuance, and replayability to this set.
As I've mentioned a number of times, I think there's generally a lower ceiling for most artists in this era for me, but greater familiarity with it is pushing him up closer towards the top of that ceiling. And I've mentioned, I believe via PMs, that I know a few of Alice's hits, but I don't think I've ever made time for any full-length releases, so this is definitely a side of him that I didn't realize he was capable of. I think I also forgot to mention that I'm quite familiar with "Dead Babies", but from the Iced Earth cover of it. Actually, I guess that's another connection between artists, as I noted in the KISS writeup that they've covered them as well.
I think the image of Alice as a shock rocker who was more about image than substance was already long shattered by his Wayne's World guest appearance, but even then, I definitely didn't realize he was capable of a proto-prog metal tune (really still hard rock, but you can see where it was heading given the period, and a live version I watched with more juice on the guitars definitely amps it up some), and a sort of art rock opera. I'm definitely intrigued to check more of his catalog out at some point, I could see some of it growing on me even more with additional context for it.
That lengthy solo in "Pass the Gun Around" is easily the highlight here, it's such a fantastic use of slathering delay and reverb over it, which gives it a spaciousness you don't hear often enough with relatively harder acts. The whole song actually isn't too far off from a bit of an Elton John or Queen feel to it, though I don't have the advantage of decades of familiarity with it like I do some of their material with that vibe, but it has still grown to have more appeal than I initially worried it might. It's curious, I don't think of myself as liking rock operas, but I do like Ayreon, some of Savatage's works of that kind, Dirt Poor Robins from earlier in the roulette has that element at times, so maybe I need to reconsider that notion.
Additionally, "Halo of Flies" even has that sort of proto-Iron Maiden galloped rhythm at 2:36, and a lot of interesting active bass work. He also unexpectedly sneaks in a snippet of the Sound of Music "My Favorite Things" melody at 2:10.
Score: 8/10
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Lethean - Angra - "The Shaman", "Upper Levels"
Early Impression - "I wish the first song had the production quality of the second, but I may have been sleeping on this band too."
Final Summary:
It seems this could be a band that I might enjoy their later releases more due to a sleeker production, but even the earlier track has noteworthy properties, making this another artist that look forward to hearing more from.
Details:
Angra is another of those bands I've known about seemingly forever, but just never spent a lot of time with. I'd heard Temple of Shadows, which was considered a classic, and enjoyed it, but was just never compelled to revisit it. Even when their name kept popping back up with Aquilles Priester auditioning for DT and Kiko Loureiro taking the Megadeth co-guitar slot, I just never made the effort to investigate them further. I'm kind of regretting that a bit, but hey, that's exactly why I'm having this round, because later is better than never.
It's curious that aggregation sites seem to consider Holy Land, the album "The Shaman" is from, to be much better than Secret Garden, the originating album for "Upper Levels". Perhaps it's an issue of consistency, but at least these particular songs go in the opposite order for me. "The Shaman" is a nice enough song, I enjoy some of the hand percussion and auxiliary instrumentation in particular (the didgeridoo in the ending especially, I own one myself, but am awful at trying to play it), but the overall production feels really time-locked to the mid-90s, with some dated keyboard patches and a fairly weak guitar tone.
"Upper Levels" on the other hand, just has a much richer feel to me, a higher-budget sound, meatier guitars, and still with some hand percussion and other intriguing components here and there. I was kind of hoping one of these tracks would have Aquilles, as I've seen him live when he toured with Tony MacAlpine, plus the DT audition, and a few Youtube playthroughs here and there, but he seems to have been inbetween these eras. No matter though, I can check out that material later, and his replacement is more than capable, with some quite piquant arrangements and great drum mixing, especially on the toms.
Kiko's soloing is another highlight, as I hoped it would be based on everything I've heard from him before (and you sending him in an earlier round). He really is a complete soloist, seamlessly going between some jazzy phrasing, blues licks, the shredding you expect in prog/power metal, and he's again especially adept with whammy dips, which I find quite addicting. There is some fantastic bass work throughout as well, most notably in the intro of "Upper Levels" and at 4:06 inbetween the solos. And I assume Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee were given writing credit for that whole section at 4:36, the resemblance is kind of uncanny.
Vocally they're nothing particularly notable, with a fairly conventional prog/power sort of vocal style. I was surprised to learn that Fabio Lione of Rhapsody has been their vocalist for awhile now. Rhapsody was actually one of the very first power metal bands I listened to, though they were never one of my favorites, and it's been so long and I've listened to so very little of them since then, which likely explains why I didn't make the connection at first. That harmony section at 3:10 in "Upper Levels" is quite stunning though, I kind of hope they do that more often on other songs.
Score: 8/10
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Sacul - Kate Bush - "Snowflake"
Early Impression - "This is on the minimalistic and repetitive side of what I like, but it's so haunting and beautiful that it might overcome it."
Final Summary:
This settles on just the right notes to be more entrancing than I worried it might be.
Details:
It's interesting that if you look at who are often considered to be the most revered female singer-songwriters, you seem to get a generational split, with older generations mentioning perhaps Joni Mitchell, and with younger generations suggesting Björk, and sometimes Fiona Apple. But the constant artist that both generations seem to adore is Kate, with her Stranger Things inclusion fairly recently giving her even more of a spotlight, but she was quite renowned even before then.
She even has much cross-genre influence, with Angra from this round covering "Wuthering Heights", but what has most piqued my interest in investigating her material more is that Kingfisher Sky, one of my mystery song artists from round one, covered "The Man With the Child In His Eyes" awhile back, and just earlier this year did a whole tour filled with Kate Bush songs. They released a professional teaser for the tour, which will hopefully turn into a DVD or at least a pro-shot Youtube video of it, since cellphone footage of the live shows doesn't really do the arrangements justice. So I own and have heard a few of Kate's albums and am familiar with some of the hits, but I've never seemed to be able to quite get her work to click for me yet.
Anyway, well, this one really had the potential to go off the rails. I worry more about shorter submissions with room left for decent-sized songs. This selection is quite sparse, with just a handful of motifs that are drawn out and alternated between. If I didn't like these particular ones as much as I do, I could easily see this having done more poorly. And also, it seems that the bulk of the vocals on this track are not delivered by Kate, but by her young son, so her contribution is primarily in the writing, the piano playing, and the refrain vocal. But it does have such a hypnotic and magical feel to it that I can't help but feel pulled in. Some of the piano voicings are quite elegant. I wondered whether it was going to build up to a crescendo by the end, which never came, but I suppose not every song needs one.
I'm certainly going to have to do more exploring of her discography outside of the roulette, but it suppose it does make the submission a success by threading the needle.
Score: 8/10
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Nachtmerrie - Mastodon - "Black Tongue", "Toe To Toes","More Than I Could Chew"
Early Impression - "I don't know if this drastically moves the needle on my overall preexisting opinion of them, but the drumming is still just as stellar as I expected it would be."
Final Summary:
The likely unplanned coordination in two people sending me a different selection of songs from the same band seems to wind up helping both submissions, with me starting to feel I could get into this band more, with this particular set having a bit broader range of types of songs from them.
Details:
So Mastodon is another of those bands that's been so ubiquitous in the metal landscape that it's kind of hard to avoid them even if you want to, to the point that I've long known the names and faces of all of the members even without really putting any effort into attempting to do so. I've heard a number of their albums, but I've always been pretty lukewarm on them. I remember Brann's fills really standing out on their early albums when I first heard them, but the sludgy sound just didn't appeal to me much at the time. They also lean into the stoner metal angle, which is a genre I'm especially picky about, since much of it doesn't feel like it goes anywhere and you probably need to live up to the name of the genre to get full enjoyment out of it. Fortunately this doesn't apply so much to Mastodon.
They had gradually grown on me a bit over time, with "The Motherload" being the first song of theirs I actually have given a fair number of plays to, and then Hushed and Grim a couple years ago was the first full-length album of theirs that I liked more or less in full. But even then, having given it a couple plays that year, I still haven't revisited it since then. Well, so with you and Vmad giving me a double dose of Mastodon this round, I think it's been effective in getting me more into them than I was, and I'm starting to see more of what I think other people see in them. Still easily their strongest attribute is Brann's playing. I'm glad that he has playthrough videos of some of these songs and others, which helps to shade in some of the nuance of what he does. The fluidity with which he changes subdivisions of rhythms in his fills is quite remarkable.
I think one of the obstacles of getting into them earlier on was their vocal styles. I knew that they had multiple lead vocalists, but didn't follow them closely enough to know who sang what. Brann's voice has been my favorite of the three, as it's the most distinct to me. I can tell now that it's Troy's vocals that I find the most unusual. I'm still not completely sold on them, but they do have a lot of character, and I think are probably most useful in contrasting the others as part of a multi-lead vocal attack. He seems to be the predominant vocalist in this set of songs though, which might hold them back slightly. I don't think there's quite enough of a sample size of Brent's in the six total songs to always distinguish him from Troy.
This group of songs seems to give a somewhat more comprehensive view of their sound, though the songs aren't quite as catchy. "Toe To Toes" has the acoustic playing, particularly in the intro, which is a side of them I'm not sure I was aware they had. "More Than I Could Chew" adds to that with the Mellotron intro. I knew they had a prog rock/metal bent to them, but I assumed it was more to do with the complexity of their songs and sometimes exploring conceptual material, but the auxiliary instrumentation certainly adds additional interest. This batch of songs also represents three different tunings they've employed. Additionally, Brent has a somewhat unusual but intriguing soloing style, which seems to be derived from his more banjo-style playing technique.
1:28 in "Black Tongue" is probably my favorite passage of these songs, with quite a mystical-sounding riff. "More Than I Could Chew" has perhaps the most interesting backing vocal work, with a number of sections of quite ghostly vocals, such as at 2:09, or at 4:15 when they add the upper octave for a bit more forward example.
Score: 8/10
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Vmadera00 - Mastodon - "Ember City", "Ghost of Karelia", "Dry Bone Valley"
Early Impression - "Unlike an earlier round, this could turn out to be a photo finish."
Final Summary:
The forced immersion into the land of Mastodon seems to have worked, with this set of songs from them being a tad more monolithic, but catchier and riffier.
Details:
I suppose you'll have to read the entry for Nachtmerrie for some brief personal history with Mastodon and my general feeling about them now.
And so of course with the impression I'm referring to you and Luke both sending Coheed and Cambria a few rounds ago. It seems maybe your secret to success is finding someone else to tag-team a band with and just sending the better set of songs. :-) Although in this case it's a virtual deadlock. The differences between them are relatively minute, but this grouping of songs sticks with me slightly more ("Ember City" was the first one to get stuck in my head), due to a bit more incorporation of Brann's vocals, and a tad more interesting collection of riffs, though with a slightly narrower scope of their sound. The submissions work very well in tandem though. I especially like how the "Ember City" opening riff starts in unison, but after a few cycles it turns into a harmonized riff.
Score: 8/10
Topic: LithoJazzoSphere Roulette V1: Variety & Reciprocity (Post-Roulette Playlist) (Read 119597 times)