Besides, I had to make it look like we weren't in collusion to win each other's roulettes.
Nah, I score your and Crow's attempt to cover up your collusion a 4/10.
Congrats ariich!
Litho: Scardust – Concrete Cages
Okay, I gotta know… is Patty Gurdy the singer or, like, the uhh, hurdy gurdy player? And if the latter is that actually her name? I could easily google the answer to both these questions but it's funnier to ask here as if I don't already know the answer. I do know the answer. Don’t @ me.
Anyways, uhh, yeah, this is a pretty solid little folk metal tune! Maybe lightly proggy, maybe lightly Nightwish-y, hell, I suspect the latter is the lane this band usually stays in and the folk elements are only here for this song, but they’re. Fine enough elements! It’s kinda cheesy, but, I kinda expect that out of this kind of sound.
The biggest gripe I have here is that this is, like, a pretty good 5-ish minute song that’s just a bit too long for what it is. Pushes a bit too far in the direction of its hook, mostly, it feels kinda repetitive by the end. Though I don’t know that it being a minute or two shorter would vastly improve my opinion on it or anything, ‘cause the style’s also just, not quite my thing, but… I like this fine enough? It’s solid.
So I'm guessing you did figure it out, but for anyone else who might be curious about them, Patty is both the guest co-lead vocalist on the song and also plays the hurdy gurdy on it, just on that track and the opening overture for the album, which features a variation of the main theme of it. I would actually say their style overall is much more prog metal than anything else. Some other songs have some harsh vocals, others have somewhat more jazzy elements, but there's no one other song that captures as many different facets as "Concrete Cages". But check out "Over" and "Under" for more of the harsh and jazzy elements, respectively.
They're probably closer to Epica than to Nightwish, though neither is a very good comparison, their symphonic elements are much more subtle than them. I'm kinda perplexed about the length given some of the other music you seem to like and have sent. I don't think you could really chop more than 20-30 seconds off the ending without it feeling really abrupt and rushed, or take out the section with the vocal oramentations, but I think those are part of what makes the song unique.
Anyway, I was glad to be part of this. I genuinely thought I might end near the bottom of the rankings rather than on the border of the top third, so I'm glad that at least a few things somewhat connected. I think much of our core listening tastes are rather different, though we seem to have a few pockets of loose overlap, and based on RYM ratings certainly a decent amount of prog canon in common.
I'll send my original EP draft and something else as well as post-roulette music you can check out later on.