Round 2 ResultsRound 2 PlaylistLonestar: Deadly Circus Fire – Bury You AliveThis is a weird one for me. It’s like… functionally fine, I guess, but the more I listened to it the less I liked it? The riffs aren’t that impressive or original, the vocals are pretty weak, and compared to all the other metal in this round, the production quality here is just… crap. Sounds like there’s a layer of mud over everything. It definitely
feels like a debut EP, yeah.
Moreso than that, the thing that really soured this one me… there’s like, mild vibes of… I can’t think of a better way to put it than “incel-core”. Like, I can’t find a lyrics sheet, but it seems like this dude is so mad that his woman doesn’t bow to every one of his whims and demands that he’s daydreaming about literally burying her alive? It’s got a very… uncomfortable attitude, to put it kindly.
I don’t… hate it, it’s not offensively bad or anything, there’s even some kinda cool drumwork from time to time, I guess, but out of every song in this round this is definitely the one I like the least. Mostly I’m just confused why… something this unpolished, when apparently this band has been active and presumably pretty solid in the decade and a half since this? Dunno, man.
5.5/10Faizoff: Russian Circles – Harper LewisI don’t inherently dislike post-rock or post-metal as genres. There’s albums in both I quite like. And I don’t particularly dislike Russian Circles, either… I have their first album, though apparently I haven’t rated it on RYM, probably because I haven’t… thought, about it, in over a decade. It’s very fine. This song is very… fine. There’s nothing about it I
dislike.
But I’m kinda just… stumped. I cannot fathom what this song is trying to, like… evoke. What am I supposed to
get out of it? It’s too busy to be effective as like, mildly pleasant background music, it’s too dry to be emotional, it’s too light to properly
crush, it’s too basic to be technically impressive… even if it had vocals, I don’t think it’d really ad much?
It’s like… they know what rock and metal
are, what they’re supposed to sound like, and they have ideas for melodies, ideas for riffs, ideas for grooves, but everything is understood only on a technical level rather than an emotional level. So the end result is a perfectly inoffensive song that just completely lacks in ambition or purpose. I dunno what to do with it.
6/10Luke: Cave In – AmaranthineOh, you were so smug about this, bragging about stealing this song from Buddy. Hope the completely lukewarm (hah) result was worth it?
Like, as far as butt-kicking rockers go, I like this more than the weaker ones from round 1, but like… it’s still kinda one-note and mindless in the same ways. Like, yep, that sure is a riff alright. A solid riff. Singular.
The funny thing is, I’m actually not sure there ever
was a point this would’ve done much for me, actually? I’ve been into metal for half my life, but not, like… this kind. The straightforward, riff-driven “ooga booga we are cavemen watch us ROCK” type of rock and metal. It’s never been my thing!
Judging this as a no thoughts head empty rocker… it’s fine, it’s got energy, it’s not
actually just the one riff (even if it really does feel like it), but it’s just not something I’m ever inclined to particularly, like… notice? Care about? Not really much else to say about it!
6/10Litho: Abstract Void – Beyond the HorizonSee, this kind of band is why I’m always wary of those gimmicky “X genre crossed with metal” bands. Sometimes it really works – particularly loved Primeval Well’s blend of gothic country and black metal back in 2021 – and sometimes you get bands like Abstract Void, where the idea started and stopped at the phrase “what if synthwave and black metal, lmao”.
For one… I gotta be honest, I think this specific kind of synth tone is one I never find meshes well with metal? It always overpowers it – which it’s definitely doing here, yeah. The chemistry just isn’t there. And it also just feels very… cookie cutter. The most basic synthwave ideas mixed with the most basic, bland blackgaze. Where none of it sounds… bad, just, uninspiring.
Functionally, this really isn’t that different from the Russian Circles song – it knows
what it’s trying to be but only understands it on a technical level – I just, like these sounds a bit more. Like, this at least has energy, texture, atmosphere, there’s
something to it, but I’m just not very impressed by it either.
6.5/10HOF: Dim Gray – MeridianI feel like this is the Anhedonia of this round, where it sounds friggin’ beautiful, super lush pianos and pretty soundscapes, but it kinda… lacks for any hook or momentum? It’s at least got a bit more of a pulse to it, there
is a slow build throughout, but then there’s no, real… payoff? It runs on, never hits a climax, refuses to elaborate, and then leaves.
It definitely sounds too lovely to be anything less than good, I
enjoy listening to it more than all the songs below it, but the fact that I completely forget what it sounds like the moment it ends means this is also as high up as it was ever gonna go. Like… at least I
kind of remember what Anhedonia sounds like? This doesn’t even really give me that and I don’t even know what else to say about it beyond that… it’s nice!
7/10Reaper: Lucy Rose – Question It AllActually I lied,
this is the Anhedonia of this round. Really pretty tune that sounds really good, lovely vocals, lush soundscapes, but MAN I wish it went somewhere. The groove never really changes, there’s not really an element of dynamics to it. But in this case, I do at least kind of remember what it sounds like even when I’m not listening to it – it’s got an actual hook, thank god!
It’s not something I can quite draw a parallel to, either… the low-key but kinda frantic drum groove, the warm bass tone, it’s not “indie singer songwriter girl”-core, that’s for sure. It’s maybe not as lush as Anhedonia, or Meridian, but having an actual sense of melody to it gives it the edge over those songs for me.
I’m also not quite sure what… exactly the song is about, even when reading the lyrics? Feels a bit abstract and vague, but, ehh, whatever. It’s just… a nice little moment. Not one that sticks with me but it makes me smile when I listen to it, and that’s good enough for me.
7/10Ariich: Hundred Reasons – Broken HandsBoth my immediate and continued impressions of this are that it’s targeting my post-hardcore bias, which… well, yeah, that’s a good play here, but it may be the victim of poor timing. ‘Cause I’ve been listening to a LOT of the genre recently, and
especially a lot of my all-time favorites, and that makes it incredibly obvious that this isn’t
quite what I look for in the genre, or even really… part of the genre at all, honestly?
Like, the riffs and guitar tone don’t quite have that edge to ‘em, the vocal timbre isn’t quite what I’m looking for, it’s a bit too “mainstream rock”, basically. It’s a brand of “sheer competence that doesn’t really go beyond” that keeps it from really exciting me. It doesn’t compare to the Alexisonfire song from last round, anyways.
Which, not to be too down on what is a pretty fun little banger. The groove is solid, the hook’s pretty catchy, it’s fun to jam along to, and it’s a nice little straightforward palette cleanser in between the weirder and screwier submissions here, it’s firmly good, just… in a way that doesn’t really stand out, keeps it towards the middle of the pack for me. Still cool though, so, eh!
7/10Stadler: Blues Traveler – EscapingOh hey, yeah, these are the guys who did Run-Around! I know that one! Shockingly, it seems like they have other songs. And I’m getting the impression that your submissions this roulette are all gonna amount to “songs that are not quite my style that I still enjoy a fair bit”, ‘cause, yeah, this is nice!
The vocals are maybe a bit rough, but at the same time… man’s really putting his all into his performance, especially towards the end, and it does land for me, yeah. The bassline’s also a touch loud, stands out a bit too much in the mix, but then on the other hand, you’ve got some cool sitar and harmonica solos, that’s a cool and unique combo! This has personality, and that goes a long way!
I dunno, I just kinda like the vibe of this one, y’know? It’s not really doing much to elevate itself above a pretty normal state of goodness, but it’s the first song in this round I could see myself actively wanting to revisit and the first that genuinely makes me
feel something. Maybe I appreciate it just that little bit extra for it.
7.5/10Tomi: Killing Joke – Love Like BloodMy immediate reaction upon hearing this was “oh, so this is the alternate universe fascination street?” Which is obviously not quite accurate, but it’s close enough to get the idea of what I mean – kind of upbeat, groovy tune from a gothy post-punk band with a really lush atmosphere backing it up.
This one was a mild grower for me – ended up not feeling
that special at first and maybe a bit locked into its one and only groove, but there’s enough going on and it’s plenty memorable enough that I ended up liking it more than I expected to by the end. It’s catchy as sin, that goes a long way.
It’s still not blowing me away – I wouldn’t pick this over most Disintegration songs, my preference in this lane
is still for the moodier, downtempo tunes like those after all, and the way it kinda just… stops, instead of properly ending, has always kinda irked me, but that’s like, minor gripes for what’s remained a pretty cool and enjoyable little tune.
7.5/10TAC: Reliqa – I Don't Know What I AmIt’s impossible for me to ignore it. This song is so… lame. So, so LAME. There’s no way around the fact that it’s edgy teenager music for edgy teenagers, and I’d know, because I was an edgy teenager once. Picking just the right djent and alt-metal aspects with a bit of wacky energy to be laser targeted at a very specific demographic.
Anyways, now that we’ve acknowledged that… it do kinda slap tho? It’s unhinged and kinda delightful, it’s stupid but it’s kinda having too much fun with itself for me to care
that much? The vocals are expressive, the weird electronic detours are neat, the riffs go pretty hard, I dunno, it’s dumb fun for sure but sometimes dumb fun is okay.
I’m not sure it’s something I’d check out an entire album of – I think the one song is more than enough for me here – and it did still kinda shrink on me the more I listened to it – didn’t hold up to replays nearly as well as I expected, basically – but I’m still glad I heard it. Even if I’m
definitely no longer part of the target audience for it, lol.
7.5/10Vmadera: Silversun Pickups – Empty NestI’ve known this band for basically as long as I’ve been aware of the rock and metal scene, thanks to guitar hero – Lazy Eye being a particular favorite, but There’s No Secrets This Year is pretty cool too. Looks like I was sent Panic Switch in an earlier roulette as well, though I don’t remember that one quite as well (or what score I gave it). Point is, there’s a history for me here!
This is a lot more recent than any of that, though, and you can kinda tell… it doesn’t come quite as naturally as it used to. The vocals in particular sound a bit weirdly forced and twee (maybe digitally pitched up?) compared to what I’m used to, but I did get used to it over time, and like, the tune itself is cool enough to pick up the pace.
There’s like, three different grooves here that are pretty cool, too. That postchorus bit is probably my favorite of the bunch, but it’s just… pleasant and fun, front to back. It’s kinda incredible how far the simple act of “having a groove” can go for you! Like, there’s an upper limit to how far this kind of standard… indie rock? Groove? Goes, but, I dig it regardless.
7.5/10Dacul: The Microphones – The Glow, Pt. 2It was pretty funny watching people in the thread react to this pick as if it was the worst possible thing to send, only for it to end up as one of the higher ranking songs in the round and a notable improvement over your round one submission at that. Y’all don’t know me very well, it turns out! That’s what makes this fun!
And I gotta ask. Did you mean to save this for the weird round? ‘Cause like… “what if that Fleet Foxes song from round 1 was clinically insane?” was a question nobody asked, but I quite like the answer, it turns out. The weird noise rock intro, the folksy acoustic bits, and especially the ambient middle bit… they all have their own charm, even if I’m not quite sure they all… belong? Together? It’s a bit of a mess, but a compelling mess.
Like, I think the song is more “neat” and “fascinating” than it is good, but boy howdy is it ever fascinating. Not sure the lyrics actually mean much to me or that they sell the emotional tug the song’s trying to have, and its weirdness makes it not as repeatedly engaging as a more cohesive song would be, but I still ended up enjoying it more than a lot of the other songs this round, so!
7.5/10Buddy: Greet Death – You're Gonna Hate What You've DoneSo when I say this is “shaped like a song I’d like”… comforting sounds. I meant Comforting Sounds. It is shaped like Comforting Sounds. Mellow, vocal-driven front half that explodes into a big, post-rock-y instrumental back half to release all the built up tension and really pay off the slow build.
But this is no Comforting Sounds. I mean, for one… what’s up with the weird pitched-up vocals? I don’t get it. I don’t get the point of them and they don’t sound very good, which is weird because the normal vocals sound pretty good? Why did they do that? The back half is also… good, in a not particularly spectacular or noteworthy way. Like, I enjoy listening to it, but it’s…pretty easy for it to fade into the background.
For the longest song in the round, one that admittedly does feel a liiiittle drawn out… it’s kinda hard for me to say much more about this? I could see it still growing on me, but right now, I don’t love it, just like it. It’s nice but it’s unspecial in its lane, I think is my ultimate conclusion. Just. Pretty good.
7.5/10King: This Day & Age – More of a Climb, Less of a WalkOkay, I’ve gotten another song off this album in a previous roulette and I remember liking it, but… it probably wasn’t as good as this one? This is kind of the Bend Sinister of this round – very cool indie/emo-leaning pop rock with a lot of different parts to it in a way that I can definitely see appealing to the progheads, and it’s… really good! Neat little breakup song I somewhat feel and just… cooler music than most other songs in the round.
It’s kind of in a weird place where I don’t really
love love any parts of this – the hook is good but maybe not particularly memorable, the riffs and melodies have punch and color but I’ve heard better, it’s maybe a bit more cohesive than the Bend Sinister song but lacking in the highs that one had. But it’s just at such a baseline quality that its lack of any outstanding moments doesn’t really harm it?
I think I’m rating it up this high simply because, of every song in the round, even the ones I like more than it, it’s the one I wanted to listen to the most out of the entire bunch, the one I can see myself coming back to more than any other song here, and
that’s really something I value highly. Replayability. Lasting impact. Something a roulette often can struggle to deliver upon, but no, this song definitely has it and I definitely need to check out this album sometime, yeah.
8/10Seneca: Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue RaincoatNot to self-advertise but
I covered another song from this same album in a recent video and, even giving it more real estate than most every other song in that video, I still felt like I was barely scratching the surface of Cohen’s writing, and… yeah, that’s how I feel writing a short little three paragraph blurb about the song here, too. There’s no way to make it thorough or satisfying.
I uhh. The big part of the appeal here is the interesting twist on what is, essentially, a “cheating/love-triangle” type song where it starts off fairly standard, but with a weirdly polite tone, and as it goes on, there’s a sense of… insecurity, of Cohen having realized that his wife is happier with her new lover than she ever was with him, that maybe he was the one holding her back, and the best thing to do is… to let her go, for her sake, and maybe for his, too. It’s… heavy, in a mellow way.
Musically, it’s as bare-bones as I’d expect, but Cohen is such an expressive singer that he can pretty much carry a song on his own, and
there’s a melody in the chorus that
The Paper Chase might’ve accidentally ripped off and I really like that melody, so it gets a buff on that aspect, too. Which, yeah it’s a lot more tuneful than Dress Rehearsal Rag, albeit maybe not quite as emotionally evocative, but like… still pretty damn good either way, y’know?
8/10Puppies: Janelle Monáe – Come Alive (War of the Roses)Ready to get a ton of weird looks from the oldhead crowd for thinking this is plainly and obviously the best song of the roulette so far, because this is left-field amongst..
*gestures at every other song in this round*, but like… Janelle is our nonbinary monarch, now and forever, where else was I gonna put them?
Like, yeah, I already knew this one, in that I had listened to it before, like… twice, which is not exactly enough to really get into how FRICKIN’ BONKERS this song is, JESUS CHRIST. It’s definitely fitting that a song about feeling crazy goes so crazy, innit? There’s SO much packed into this three and a half minute song that it’s practically unreal.
..and then they just start SCREAMING! YEEEAAAAHHH!!!
Like, this is the kind of upbeat tune that I do have to be in a groovy mood to jam along to, but I’m in that mood more often than not these days and even when I’m not… well, this goes so damn hard that it’s capable of putting me in that mood anyways. Just a goddamn great song, man, I dunno what else to say!
8.5/10Standings:Buddy – 15.5
King – 15.5
TAC – 15.5
ariich – 15
Seneca – 15
HOF – 14.5
Puppies – 14.5
Stadler – 14.5
Tomislav – 14.5
Vmadera – 14.5
Dacul – 13.5
Litho – 13.5
Luke – 13.5
Reaper – 13.5
Lonestar – 12.5
Faizoff – 12
let’s get round 3 in before the weekend! non rock/metal round, y’all! guitars are legal in other genres I’m not gonna be that much of a stickler but we all know what a rock song sounds like right? expecting this to be a shorter round so hopefully it won’t take quite as long to get through?
Topic: Crow's Overdue Roulette v8 - FINAL RESULTS!!! (Read 46987 times)
