The below is reveled in order of the Quality score. Full standings at the bottom of the post. Claim moral victories where you can.
Lonestar:
Joseph Magazine / Night of the Red Sky
The Dream Theater influence is strong here - like slap me in the face strong. There were about 4-5 times throughout this song I'm thinking "boy, this is almost a rip off of <insert DT song here>". There was some Shattered Fortress, Illumination Theory, YtseJam, and In the Name of God. I'm sure Indi would find a few more if he gave a play-by-play on this one. But I digress. This was the fucking tits. It's musical wankery at it's finest. I mean, the guitar and keyboard noodling, the rich tones, marvellous musicianship, and so many different soundscapes stitched together magnificently. *chef's kiss*
ScoresQuality: 9
Unpredictability: 3.5
Anonymity: 2
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Indiscipline:
Michael Schenker Group / Lost HorizonsSo, I tried to follow the MSG discog discussion back in 2020, but fell behind, and then found it to be too daunting of a task to keep up - especially when so many albums were not on Spotify and I had to go hunting to have a listen of the albums (usually on YT which is a pain in the ass to do off my phone). I did listen to the s/t album, but must've not really been giving it my full attention, because
. Naturally, this sounds like an album made in 1980 (I know - BECAUSE IT WAS!), but even as a "2000 Remaster", it sounded dated as hell. Regardless I'm a fogey, so that doesn't bother me much at all, and there is some un-fucking-real axe-work - man can he pull some serious fucking emotion out of those six little strings. The lyrics and vocals take a back seat to the shreddery of Schenker - though I did enjoy Barden much more than I remembered when I was running thru some of these albums 3 years ago. I doubt Tim/Kade/Bill are going to be bothered their submissions fell behind this tune.
ScoresQuality: 8.5
Unpredictability: 1
Anonymity: 2.5
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Puppies:
Days Before Tomorrow / Wasted Years Part II: SleepwalkingYou've definitely been paying attention. This couldn't be any further from triple face plant you pulled with The Mars Volta/Novembre/Alkaloid. This song was somewhat formulaic, but it's a good formula. Strong vocals, nice mix of acoustic/electric guitar, smooth and comforting atmosphere provided by the keys, nice melodic chorus with sweet vocal harmonies, a nice mix of instrumentation … and it all flowed together seamlessly. My only gripe - the drums sound rather anorexic. I think I would've liked it even more if there was a beefier sound there, and the outro went on a liiiiittle bit longer than necessary.
ScoresQuality: 8.5
Unpredictability: 0.5
Anonymity: 3
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Litho:
Dave Bainbridge / Love RemainsUpon investigation, it is indeed Damian Wilson - that's some jingle.boy quality cheating there
. Unfortunately, he's sparsely used throughout the 13 minutes here - longest track of the round (by far), and the most "progressive" (also, by far). There's a lot to digest here, and it gets a little choppy at times with the transitions between the vocal passages and the instrumental wanking passages - and man was there a lot of instrumental wankery. Luckily, it was in a mostly good (think Transatlantic or Spock's Beard) way; not an "enough already" (think, Haken or Porcupine Tree) kinda way.
ScoresQuality: 8
Unpredictability: 4
Anonymity: 3.5
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Wolfking:
Hollow Hour / The CanyonMan, with the description you gave me, I was expecting some serious soft-cock shit. You don't dig this anymore? I mean, it's pretty heavy (what is this, post-core something or other - cuz it throws off vibes much like The Dear Hunter, but if the Dear Hunter was channelling some Accept or classic 80s/90s metal), and it was a really fun listen (ala Dynazty). Quick to the point, doesn't waste any time or stay past its welcome.
ScoresQuality: 8
Unpredictability: 5
Anonymity: 5
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Stadler:
Sweet / Fox on the RunI've very much heard this song many many times - it still gets fairly regular classic rock radio airtime. But honestly, I didn't know this was Sweet - gun to my head, I'd have said it was ELO. I could've swore Sweet was a one-hit wonder … but I guess they're a two-hit wonder
. Quality score… good stuff. I think you did get stiffed on the Unpredictability points - Litho was on a tear solving some of the first few entries - but I mean, it was a no brainer to match you to this one. You gotta up your game. Not quite an A, but a very strong B+, and I'll round up.
ScoresQuality: 8
Unpredictability: 1.5
Anonymity: 0.5
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King:
Advent Horizon / How Did it Get So Good
I was only so-so on the album after quite a few DTF'rs pimped this hard when it first dropped. This was one of the songs that I kept in my 'best-of' 2023 playlist. But with only a couple of listens of it under my belt, it was something I could allow. Production is A, musicianship is fantastic, vocals are great - just a beautiful track. But beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. The repetitiveness of the title through the middle started to get more and more annoying with each listen. Otherwise, this had a real Presto Ballet, Dec Burke, It Bites vibe to it, but with a bit more edge than any of those acts deliver. The more I played it, the more that the main riff/melody/vocal line of the song title started wearing thin, and was just a little bit too repetitive.
ScoresQuality: 7.5
Unpredictability: 2
Anonymity: 1
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Evermind:
Angtoria / Confide in MeThis starts out fucking hot… and then the vocals. First, I just was totally not expecting a female lead. As you know, this in-and-of-itself isn't an issue - I love a good female lead. But second - and here's the issue - she just didn't do much for me. There was no edge to her voice (like Maggy Luyten or Ida Haukland, or what LJS gave in the qualifier); she's not operatic or bold (like Floor or Diane VG); she isn't a vocal goddess (like AVG or Daisa Munhoz). She's just kinda there. Not bad, but not entirely memorable. Musically, it was quite excellent. This was trying to be a B+, but I felt I had to round down.
ScoresQuality: 7.5
Unpredictability: 2.5
Anonymity: 1.5
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Dr. DTVT:
Figure of Speechless / Tunnel at the End of the LightDefinitely Bruce vibes here for sure - but not in a Hallowed/Rime kinda way. More in the way that I was lamenting in the Top 50 bands thread a few days back. I mean, until I looked it up, didn't even recognize this as Ray Alder - and it sure ain't
Theories of Flight Ray Alder. I never would've guessed this was him on the mic until I "did my research"
. The involvement of Sherinian and Bumblefoot should've made this one more enjoyable than it was. As I said in my impression, the music was really good (and the production was excellent as well). It was just missing a certain oomph. This kind of mid-tempo, low energy metal (ie, "plodder" in my ears) is hit and miss with me, and after the first few listens, this was more of a miss - let's call it a foul tip. This improved with multiple listens, and may have might have worked itself up to a bunt-single with another 1/2 or full point if I was to run this round for a few more days - it already gained a full point from my first impression of it.
ScoresQuality: 7
Unpredictability: 3
Anonymity: 4
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TAC:
Ekphrasis / A Maze In Oneiroi IIIf I was to describe this song in one sentence, it would be "For fans of Haken". And that sums up its score and placement here. This is a third track that has a shit ton of technical wankery … but my ears are hearing it in a Haken way. It just didn't flow together terribly well. The intro had way too many time changes making it sound VERY choppy, and the keys/piano were almost antagonistic to the main melody. It wasn't until the 2 minute mark that things settled down. When I went searching for some details on the band, I got the literal definition of the word "Ekphrasis":
Greek for the written description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical or literary exercise … vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. Seems about right - I gather you imagined this would do well, when in reality, it didn't. Progarchives describes them as "Eclectic Prog". Boy, ain't that the truth - as if Prog wasn't already eclectic enough at times, these guys had to amp it up that much more. Which shouldn't be surprising, since they cite Frank Zappa as an influence.
I suspect that - like Nospun - my enjoyment of this will improve with age… if given the chance. But for the moment, I'm just not feelin it.
ScoresQuality: 6.5
Unpredictability: 4.5
Anonymity: 4.5
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Standings:
Wolfking - 18
Litho - 15.5
TAC - 15.5
Lonestar - 14.5
Dr. DTVT - 14
Puppies - 12
Indiscipline - 12
Evermind - 11.5
King - 10.5
Stadler - 10.5