And finally, it's time for...
Round 6 first impressions
[jingle – Sass Jordan] 1.Not sure why you didn’t just send this in the lighter rounds - it’s pretty straightforward but very nice.
[lonestar – TRiDENT] 2.Sometimes, great energy and hooks are all you really need.
[HOF – Sweet Billy Pilgrim] 3. This isn’t very easy to define, in a really positive way - love the sound and the vibes.
[faizoff – Run The Jewels] 4. Not entirely aligned to my tastes when it comes to this genre, but there’s a cool mix of groove and tension to it.
[Litho – Autumn] 5. This sounded up my alley - punchy, emotive and slick, with great vocals especially in the choruses.
[Evermind – Birdy] 6. I could just repeat the first half of your first impression from last round. This is lovely.
[King – A.C.T] 7. I thought at first this might not hit my proggy interests, but it has a charming theatricality that’s really rather enjoyable.
[Vmadera – Volbeat] 8. Verses were pretty much what I expected from this band, but the choruses were better - great hooks and surprising richness.
[TAC – Hwaino] 9. The heavy side was sometimes a little rough around the edges, but the atmospheric side was gorgeous and definitely compensates, although by how much remains to be seen.
[Sacul – The Microphones] 10. I don’t often go for a production style this “indie”, but some of this reminded me of another artist I like that bucks that trend.
[nick_z – Saviour Machine] 11. This isn't blowing me away so far - a little “of its time” perhaps - but it’s moody and melodic and pretty engaging.
[wolfking – Kreator] 12. Sounds solid and chunky but I’m not sure it's entirely what I'm looking for in this style - then again I’ve thought that before and made myself look silly, so who knows.
[Puppies – Mandroid Echostar] 13. You may be on a bit of a roll - this sits somewhere between two other bands and seems to have nice qualities from both.
[Elite – Wheel] 14. This does Tool better than Tool does Tool - seems like a sweet spot in where our tastes align.
[Stadler – Aerosmith] 15. Not sure this is a huge departure from my expectations, but the songs are enjoyable enough and there’s some nice variety.
[romdrums – Stabbing Westward] 16. The sound was cool for all of this, but I was definitely more attracted to the strong melodies and passionate delivery of the more recent material.
[soupy – dEUS] 17. This had a cool indie-ish sound to it, wasn’t sure all of the music quite matched up but the last track sounded great.
[Reaper – Black Map] 18. Doesn't quite capture the magic of the obvious comparator, but it’s still some really nice, proggy alternative rock.
[Glasser – Bastian Per] 19. Sounded solid enough but not much stood out really other than the fact that these guys seem to like hammond organ.
[Crow – Victory Over the Sun] 20. There’s one very uncomfortable aspect that I don’t THINK will be too overbearing but at this point I genuinely have no idea where this might fall in the 6.5-8.5 range.
[Buddy – Cave In] 21. This seemed more interesting that I might have expected - nice balance of groove and melody.
[luke – The Dirty Nil] 22. This sounded fun - somewhat similar to your last round, if not as memorable.
[Luoto – Foscor] 23. The gloomy sound is enticing, but a lot of the music is melodically quite unusual and I’m not yet sure what to make of it.
[seneca – Gregory Alan Isakov] 24. This hits all the right notes as far as this genre is concerned - delicate, emotional and gorgeous.