SoundscapeMN - The Dear Hunter - "Mandala", "A Night On the Town", "Waves"
Early Impression - "I didn't get the hype about them when they came out, and I still don't really get it now, but this does improve my opinion of them a decent amount."
Final Summary:
This band and style remain a bit of an enigma for me, but the vocals don't bother me as much as I was concerned they could, there is an appealing variety of instrumentation, and "Waves" is an especially notable song.
Details:
When you sent them, I was initially quite worried. My experiences with them have been limited to the first couple albums, which I heard when there was a lot of buzz about their release in the first few years. I'm pretty sure I heard but didn't even rate Act II, but Act I has my default RYM "I don't outright dislike this but I'm quite underwhelmed with it" score. I think I mentioned earlier this year that I like the vocal arrangement of "Battesimo del fuoco" in spite of myself and listen to it occasionally.
But Casey's vocal timbre there and on what I recalled of the rest of the album and possibly the next was too much in the tradition of post-hardcore-derived singing that often rubs me the wrong way, which makes sense given he came from The Receiving End of Sirens. And Prog Archives says "falling somewhere between The Mars Volta and Coheed and Cambria, The Dear Hunter may appeal to some fans of either band". Given my lukewarm scores for those two in earlier rounds, this could have been a disaster.
Well, I'm relieved to report that Casey's vocals have gotten more palatable over the years. I still don't particularly love them, but they're much less off-putting on these tracks than I somewhat dreaded they could be. "Mandala" from '11 still has a bit of a nasal edge to it, but the '15 tracks soften it a tad more.
I've been having a bit of a more complicated relationship with rock opera-related music this year. I touched on this in my writeup for Alice Cooper that TAC sent a few rounds ago since one his songs there has those elements, but historically I haven't really considered myself a fan of rock operas despite loving Ayreon and a few other adjacent artists. I can't entirely put my finger on what it is, since I do tend to like the idea of drama in music as a musical tool. Dirt Poor Robins has been challenging my feelings about the approach, but I'm still not totally onboard with it, and they remain one of a number of outliers in my taste.
So "A Night On the Town" definitely leans into that a bit more. I do appreciate the variety of songwriting and instrumentation (particularly the oboe towards the end), which gives a lot of layers to it. It's just that much of it doesn't fully connect with me, and I'm not entirely sure why. 6:02 is probably the most unusual part of it, the augmented piano arpeggio and slight detuning with the strings gives it this hazy feel - it seems suited for a sci-fi reveal scene in an A24 film.
"Mandala" has more dream-like ambient and electronic flourishes, which I enjoy texturally, but the songwriting doesn't have quite the impact I wish it had. "Waves" on the other hand, actually clicks. That is easily the strongest song here. The melodies feel more compelling, as do the string arrangements and various other instrumental orchestrations. Idiosyncratic pseudo-intangibles like the key help a bit as well.
Score: 7.75/10
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HOF - Stefano Panunzi - "You and I", "I'm Feeling So Blue", "Those Words (Words Are All We Have)", "The Sea Woman"
Early Impression - "What if the weather channel music was way cooler?"
Final Summary:
There are a lot of rich instrumental textures here, and while a couple of the songs are a bit plain melodically, "I'm Feeling So Blue" is quite a vibrant highlight.
Details:
One of the things I'm liking about the 20-minute length for these rounds is that the sheer volume of music relative to the average single-song roulette gives a greater chance that at least one particular song will resonate with me. There are a number of these, including two in a row now, that would have scored somewhat less were it not for one exceptional song. But it's probably quite difficult to predict which one they will be ahead of time.
In this case, it's "I'm Feeling So Blue". That cut is just outstanding. It has some of the most piquant and enthralling synthetic textures of the whole roulette. That layered patch at 0:19 with the ethereal synth lead and percussive bell timbre is such a dazzling sound. There are also some splendid bass lines, and the flugelhorn and piano flourishes are scintillating additions. The mellower timbre of the flugelhorn makes it a much better solo instrument than the trumpet in my experience. But it is kind of a kitchen sink song, since I didn't realize I needed some rock guitar chording towards the end, but hey, why not? Throw that in too!
The other selections are pleasant enough, but aren't nearly as notable. "The Sea Woman" literally does feel like weather channel music, just more enjoyable with some less obvious chords and more radiant synth patches, particularly the percussive one at 2:42. Panunzi's synthesizer programming is certainly one of the strongest elements in general, even more so on the other two songs as well. "You and I" is a bit sleepier though. The crooning vocal style is kind of refreshing, and not too dissimilar from The Blue Nile that you sent last round, actually. With a song with a more compelling melody it would probably be more effective.
"These Words (Words Are All We Have)" has a more generic vocal style, but the melodies are a bit more memorable, and it has probably the most engrossing drum and percussion arrangements (I love the little triplet tom fills such as at 3:11). I was surprised to learn that the bass on that track is an acoustic double bass, since some of the fills sounded more like a fretless electric bass at first, but after researching it and listening back it makes more sense now. The guitar chording at 1:50 is a delightful subtle use of whammy bar shimmer. The synth lead and chromatic percussion section is nice too. Certainly the second best song of this bunch.
It looks like Panunzi has other work with Gavin Harrison, Pat Mastelotto, Richard Barbieri, and other prog figures to explore as well.
Score: 7.75/10
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TAC - Moonshade - "The Antagonist", "Everlasting Horizons", "A Dreamless Slumber"
Early Impression - "My preferences in this style probably seem arbitrary from the outside, and though this doesn't quite hit the bullseye, it's still pretty good."
Final Summary:
While this isn't quite my preferred variation of melodeath, it has a variety of elements that work very well.
Details:
Despite being from Portugal (kind of like Be'Lakor being Australian), this feels very much in the Finnish style of more straightforward melodeath, a la Mors Principium Est (particularly the guitar tones and keyboard orchestrations) or Insomnium (the instrumental and melodic stylings), with maybe a hint of melodic metalcore in spots. And as such, it's a variety of it that I enjoy, though it doesn't quite reach the heights of my top favorites, who often come from or congregate a bit more around the Swedish flavor of this sound.
But otherwise, all the components are here. There is a solid variety of vocals, though the cleans are a bit more sparse and generally a bit more in the background when they're present. I may have to look into guest Sofia Beco's band, in which she also apparently is the violinist. The guitars here are quite good, particularly the solo in "Everlasting Horizons", with some more unusual Marty Friedman-style bends. The acoustic guitar fingerpicking with piano and the more melodic lead at the end of "A Dreamless Slumber" is a nice touch as well. Although the drumming doesn't particularly stand out otherwise, I love the usage of higher-pitched toms in the fills.
This is a challenging entry to pick the best song in. "The Antagonist" has the best vocals, "Everlasting Horizons" has the most charming guitar melodies and soloing, while "A Dreamless Slumber" has that acoustic outro.
Score: 8/10
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soupytwist - Ghost - "Square Hammer", "Year Zero", "Twenties", "Witch Image", "Life Eternal"
Early Impression - "Good thing I'm judging this entry, not the participants or various slices of music fandom."
Final Summary:
Sometimes I avoid overly popular and/or gimmicky-seeming artists for arbitrary reasons, but this one turns out to be a lot of fun - one of my kinds of fun anyway.
Details:
It may just be that I've been a bit more plugged into the metal community, but I'm surprised that you didn't appear to be aware that Ghost seems to be a magnet for divergent opinions. Obviously they have an enormous fanbase for a metal-adjacent band, but that popularity has generated an outsized number of people who seem to go out of their way to trash them (heck, we seem to have a couple in this roulette, but I've heard many others elsewhere). It might be more of a US issue, because they appeared to encounter a lot more resistance here, particularly in the first half-decade of their existence. But the occult themes seem to repel a lot of mainstream music fans, while the increasingly poppier elements over time tend to rile up the more hardcore metal fans and some music aficionados. And I'm sure a solid chunk find them to be image over substance.
But for me? I've listened to a few albums here and there and never really got the big deal either way. But after digging into them a decent amount this round, they seem pretty cool and fun, so they're definitely a few notches on the positive side of the ledger. They're often dismissed as "Scooby Doo chase music", but honestly that type of spooky merriment is more my style than many others. I enjoy a lot of horror films and Type O Negative is one of my favorite bands, so I don't mind a bit of campiness of this stripe.
I feel obligated to point out they aren't even the first Swedish hard rock band called "Ghost". One of Dan Swanö's first bands he started as a child had that name, though obviously they didn't really take off like this one did. But there does seem to be something about Sweden, because I could see a lot of people saying they're just modern KISS, but I find the more modern production a smoother listen, and the melodies more appealing. All of the little production details add up as well, with organ, bell, and other ornamentations, the Latin-esque chants like in "Year Zero", the flanged vocals at 2:32 in "Square Hammer", the orchestral horns opening "Twenties", the subtle possible nod to Psycho with the dissonant stab on the left in the opening of "Witch Image", etc.
It's really kind of hilarious how inoffensive Tobias' voice is given their image and lyrics and his background in death metal bands like Repugnant, but I guess that's just part of the juxtaposition that makes them more riveting. Apparently he originally asked some other famous Swedish vocalists to front the band instead of himself, including Messiah Marcolin. That would have made for quite a different experience. But Tobias makes the most of his fairly plain voice with a lot of clever vocal arrangements and harmonizations, and the live versions of some of these songs with the ghoulettes definitely adds a lot of flair as well. I don't know if TAC will agree, but Tobias sounds a bit like Alice Cooper in the verses of "Twenties". This might ruin their commercial appeal, but it would be interesting to see a version of the band with a more powerful lead vocalist and a bit beefier guitar tone.
"Twenties" is probably the most potent song here. It has a head-scratchingly low rating of 2.15 at Rate Your Music, but I just don't agree at all. People point to the silliness of the lyrics, but as far as I can tell most of their lyrics are fairly tongue-in-cheek, so I don't get the commotion. But musically it has a soca beat, which is so uncommon to find in metal (Omega Lithium's "Stigmata"'s chorus is probably my favorite example) and gives it quite a unique rhythmic verve. And that main riff that goes with it is unusually heavy at least for what I've heard of them so far, with the double bass flourish, the propulsiveness of it and that muted descending chromatic triplet slowdown at 0:37. And there's also a killer solo from Fredrik Åkesson, who now that I know plays most if not all of the guitar parts on their latest album, is going to make me want to revisit it for sure. You could even consider that a subtle bit of cheating (of the kind I absolutely encourage), though I don't even know whether you were aware of his presence there or not.
My favorite song of this batch though might be "Witch Image", which has the most memorable chorus. The wet guitar and harpsichord in the verse, the sustained guitar melodies and synth countermelodies, a nice harmonized melodic guitar solo (there are a number of others of those elsewhere as well), the drum fill at 2:28, etc. There are some savory chord changes and melodies in "Life Eternal" too.
It's amusing that Imperial Triumphant is an active band in lonestar's current round, who also have a mask gimmick, but sound much more like the average person would think Ghost would sound just looking at them.
Score: 8.25/10
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Vmadera00 - The Mask of the Phantasm - "Red/Blue/Black/White", "Exit Wounds", "Like a Wraith..."
Early Impression - "Not only does this have more memorable vocals, it also has cool trippy guitars and crazy drumming."
Final Summary:
I don't know if this qualifies as either a supergroup or a side project, but I'm glad I've had a chance to hear them, as they have some rather entrancing musical qualities.
Details:
It's curious that people thought this would be too post-hardcore for me. Obviously I can see the connection, having two former Mars Volta members, but this avoids the pitfalls of that style. It has more of an alt-prog feel to me. The vocals are much better, stronger without being whiny, or having the harsher shouting style which is riskier. They sometimes veer a smidge excessively into cursive singing in the softer portions at times, but it's not a huge deal.
The guitar riffs feel much more defined and textural, without the excessive jitteriness that TMV and The Fall of Troy had. It's a bit more restrained style that's more atmospheric, particularly with the more sparkling astral sounds of "Exit Wounds". That's probably my favorite song of this set.
When TMV originally showed up earlier in the roulette I wondered if one of the selections might turn out to be from the era that Thomas Pridgeon was in the band, since I've always kind of been spellbound with his playing from the various clips I've watched over the years. They turned out not to be, but he's all over these tracks, which is a joy. There is some excellent bass work throughout as well. In addition, the keyboards add to the vibe, with some cool organ playing and various moodier patches, and a serendipitous solo at the end of "Red/Blue/Black/White".
The main missed opportunity is having a woodwind player, but not incorporating them quite enough. You get a bit towards the end of "Exit Wounds" with some saxophone, but otherwise they're mostly either absent or more in the background, possibly doing some doubling in various spots, most noticeably the thickening in the back portion of "Like a Wraith...".
Score: 8.25/10
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Tomislav95 - Seventh Wonder - "Unbreakable" "Alley Cat", "The Red River"
Early Impression - "This is definitely a comfortable sound, but will it stand out?"
Final Summary:
The answer is yes, "The Red River" is a fantastic song especially, and Karevik's vocals have really been starting to stand out.
Details:
For awhile I didn't get the buzz about Tommy Karevik. I listened to a few Seventh Wonder songs, gave cursory listens to a bit of later Kamelot, and he was a prominent part of the last few Ayreon albums, which I considered some of the weaker ones. Well, I am glad that I am in need of revising my opinion about him.
Instrumentally, they are a fairly standard-sounding prog metal band. They have solid guitar playing, synthesizer solos, some unison runs between various instruments, and even some excellent bass solos. But Karevik's vocals are really starting to grow on me.
The first two tunes are competent if unremarkable for the style, but I've really been taking to "The Red River", which has a quite infectious chorus in particular. I love how it modulates up a step for the final chorus, but then modulates back down to the original key for the ending. That's an arrangement trick I don't hear often enough. And then the final riff repeats twice, starting with the original broken up kick pattern, and then brings in the steady double bass for the finale. It initially brings in the snare on every beat, but then drops back to the normal 2 & 4 pattern. Personally I might have flipped that last bit in the arrangement, but the rest is cool enough to overcome it.
But what really elevates it is not only that song, but Karevik's voice, which I'm really starting to see the appeal of now. I'm probably going to need to revisit the later Ayreon and Kamelot albums now, since my fandom of both (more so Ayreon) is based much more on the earlier ones with different vocalists.
Score: 8.25/10
Topic: LithoJazzoSphere Roulette V1: Variety & Reciprocity (Post-Roulette Playlist) (Read 119679 times)