ROUND 6 RESULTSjingle.boy
Arlo Guthrie
Alice’s Restaurant Massacree
2 pointsOK, I realize I brought this on myself by telling you to stick with the Constanza strategy, but I don’t really like anything about this. It’s not really a song, it’s just a guy telling a story while a guitar plays the same thing over and over in the background. I don’t find the story to be that interesting or funny, and the delivery isn’t anything remarkable that would make it special. There’s one or two moments that will get a bit of laugh out of me, but then I look at the runtime and realize I have another 12 minutes of this thing to listen to. It just seems to go on forever. Listening through this four times in full nearly broke me psychologically.
TAC
Bloody Tyrant
The Deluge
Two Burning Suns
Pace Into the Void
5 pointsI like the folky influence on this, although I think the mix is a little weird, where bagpipe or whatever it is mostly just seems to blare on top of the other stuff instead of being integrated in. The harsh vocals are pretty good, although I think they get a bit monotonous after all while. That’s really the main detractor for me; apart from a few interlude-y bits, there’s just not enough variation in the music. It stays in the same mode for most of each song’s runtime, and even though it’s a fun sound, I don’t think it’s enough to make the songs memorable on its own.
King Puppies and the Acid Guppies
At the Drive-In
Arcarsenal
Sleepwalk Capsules
Enfilade
Quarantined
4 pointsThis isn’t really very typical post-hardcore; the guitar work in particular still has that Mars Volta-esque constant motion and improvisation feeling, but it’s still ultimately emblematic of my main issues with post-hardcore in general: vocals, and clean vocals more specifically. Cedric is just never approaching anything resembling a melody in these songs. The music is interesting, but I don’t think it really stands on its own without the vocals, and these songs are pretty vocal-heavy as it is anyway. There’s a lot that I like here, particularly in the less frenetic instrumental breaks, but it’s not enough to make the songs work for me as a whole.
Crow
Dreamwell
Lord Have MRSA On My Soul
Modern Grotesque
Blighttown Type Beat
Rue de Noms (Could Have Been Better, Should Have Been More)
5 pointsThe sound of this is pretty interesting, in terms of how black metal influenced it seems to be, in the harsh vocal approach and the relentless drumming in the heavier bits, but unfortunately it pulls other influences from black metal, namely the shit production. A lot of the guitars and drums are just too thin to have the punch the heavy sections need. I still enjoy those sections a decent bit, but I think they’re really held back by it, and then the cleaner vocal sections, like I seem to say for so much post-hardcore, just don’t seem to be that interesting or memorable. They’re there, and they’re not bad, but I don’t remember anything about them when the songs are over.
LithoJazzoSphere
First Signs of Frost
The Saviour
Expert in Trickery
Wire Forms
Siberia
Day of the Collapse
6 pointsThis is nice stuff, that for me seems a bit more towards emo than strict metalcore (which isn’t a negative, I like plenty of emo stuff). The instrumental work is nice, the guitar work is varied, the clean vocals and the screams are done really well. It’s all quite enjoyable to listen to, but none of it is totally clicking or striking me beyond being pretty good music. That results in sort of a middling score, even though I feel like I’m going to go back to this in the future, because it might just be a not listening to it at the right time kind of thing and I feel it could really grow on me.
King Postwhore
Michael Penn
Big House
Seen the Doctor
On Automatic
No Myth
Whole Truth
6 pointsYeah, my first impression of this was that it’s pretty pleasant stuff, and that’s still where I am now. Michael’s got a nice voice (timbre-wise he reminds me a lot of Roine Stolt, interestingly (which is a positive as far as I’m concerned)), there’s some nice melodies (particularly On Automatic), the instrumentation is nicely varied but never showy, sitting somewhere between rock and indie. The only drawback for me is that most of the songs have slightly less ideas than runtime, and most seem to end up repeating themselves a bit before the end. It’s still a nice listen overall though.
wolfking
Children of Bodom
Follow the Reaper
Silent Night, Bodom Night
Hatebreeder
Sixpounder
Kissing the Shadows
7 pointsHonestly,
pretty much sums it up. This is nice, tight melodic death metal. It’s heavy, it’s riffy, it’s shreddy but not overbearingly so (the guitar/keyboard tradeoff in Kissing the Shadows I particularly enjoy). The harsh vocals are good, the cleans in Hatebreeder and Sixpounder are pretty nice; not amazing, but not bad and nice for contrast. I don’t think the band has either the raw intensity of early In Flames or the great melodic sense of later Dark Tranquillity to elevate them for me, but it’s still nice headbanging metal that sits pretty much right in my comfort zone.
Buddyhunter1
OK Goodnight
Think Again
The Fox and the Bird
The Bear
7 pointsI really enjoy the richness of the musical palette here; there’s a lot of different styles, from proggy to folky to metal, and they all sound really full. They also have a strong focus on melody, which is often what kills a lot of the Dream Theater worship bands out there for me. The Fox and the Bird is especially good, with really great vocals and melodies. It also has the least of the proggy metal sections, which are the main thing I’m not totally sold on. They’re definitely not bad, but they don’t quite stand out much for me either, which again I think is just due to how much of this style of music I’ve listened to over the years.
Dr. DTVT
ANGUS McSIX
Laser-Shooting Dinosaur
Sixcalibur
Starlord of the Sextus Stellar System
Master of the Universe
7 pointsTo be clear, I mean ‘dumb’ as a positive here. One of the great things about metal to me is how inherently ridiculous it is, while being awesome at the same time, and power metal really takes that idea to heart. This is pretty stupid even among power metal bands, which is what I love about it. The lyrics are as moronic as they are amazing, the vocals are great and perfectly over the top. Honestly, the drawback for me is it doesn’t actually feel metal enough most of the time. A lot of the time the guitars either get hidden behind the vocals and keyboards, or they’re just sort of in midtempo plodding chug mode. The songs are a ton of fun as is, but if there was a bit more speed and riff to them they could knock Pathfinder off the throne.
ariich
While She Sleeps
You Are We
Wide Awake
Revolt
Hurricane
8 pointsI know I’ve classified a whole bunch of things as ‘Shadow Ninja music’ so far, but this kind of metalcore is really just exactly my style. It’s heavy and the guitar work is varied enough to stay interesting but doesn’t go into overly techy or djent territory, the screams are great, and particularly importantly the clean vocals are strong and the melodies really work for me, especially on You Are We, although they’re good throughout the four songs. Nothing
quite stands out enough to push this up to a 9, but it’s pretty close.
Also worth mentioning just sort of as a side note that listening to this inspired: heaviness in music for me almost always requires a full, clean (as in distinct), huge guitar and drums sound. If it’s thin or trebly or turns into mush with the other instruments, it stops being heavy and just becomes noisy. It’s probably kind of late in the roulette for me to be giving you all this kind of information
but I hadn’t even thought too much about how this might not be the same way everyone else processes music.
Sacul
Chelsea Wolfe
Carrion Flowers
Whispers in the Echo Chamber
Crazy Love
To the Forest, Towards the Sea
The Mother Road
8 pointsI think the atmosphere is the best part of this; it’s all so dark and eerie. It’s got edges of industrial, a sort of dark indie sound on Crazy Love, and the structures are really unpredictable. Like always I’m a vocals guy, and Chelsea (if she’s the singer and that’s not just the name of the band) sounds great across these tracks, carrying that unsettling atmosphere along with her melodies and delivery. I actually really like the ambient whale sounds on To the Forest, Towards the Sea as well. I can see how a lot of this stuff might come across as kind of disjointed, but it’s totally working for me.
twosuitsluke
King Prawn
Intro
Someone To Hate
Crackhead
Bitter Taste
The Dominant View
8 pointsOK first of all there’s a story here. The first three songs were blocked on Spotify for me for some reason. The first one just a 30 second or so intro, no big deal, and I was able to find Someone to Hate on youtube, but Crackhead remains unattainable for some reason, so I’m just scoring the ones I was able to listen to.
But all that aside, this is a really interesting sound. While I was trying to find a way to hear Crackhead (which is locked down impossibly tight), I saw that apparently this is a ska band? I guess I don’t really know what ska sounds like, but maybe this is it. It’s sort of half-rapping, half punky yelling with unconventional instrumentation (violin and trumpet appear on different songs) and a ton of energy, and the overall result is something I’m actually really into. The vocals are kind of thin a lot of the time, but it seems to work for this style (with the exception of the often repeated ‘the dominant view,’ which is pretty annoying). Now I just have to listen to Crackhead.
lonestar
Hanabie
Hyperdimension Galaxy
Tales of Villain
Be the Gal - Early Summer Version
Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now
8 pointsSchizophrenic is definitely a good thing in this case. A lot of metalcore bands have that sort of dichotomy just built into them, but I think this goes a bit further, with the surprisingly brutal heavy sections going straight into the really cutesy/poppy bits. I think they’ve got the balance right by leaning more towards the heavy stuff which I generally find to be the more interesting part of this style, but the clean sections are strong as well, except the few times they go into the super high-pitched chipmunk anime sound, which I have always hated and will always hate, forever. But luckily that’s fairly minimal.
Stadler
Cheap Trick
All We Need is a Dream
Can’t Stop It But I’m Gonna Try
Way of the World
I’ll Be With You Tonight
Voices
8 pointsStadler tried to game the system by saying his submission was one of hef’s favorite bands, and it seems to have paid off.
Honestly nothing about this really stood out to me initially, and I’m not often into this sort of straight forward softer rock, but a few listens in I just realized how damn catchy every song is. The vocals are super smooth and effortless, except where they’re rockier but still effortless. I’m especially into the Moody Blues-y Voices (or least the Long Distance Voyager-y Voices, since that’s the only MB album I’m really familiar with). The instrumental work is nice, but it never gets in the way of the songs. It’s just fun all around.
soupytwist
Fellowship
Glint
The Saint Beyond the River
The Hours of Wintertime
Oak and Ash
9 pointsThis is pretty much perfect power metal. It’s got the speed that I love, the huge melodic choruses and soaring vocals, the epic keyboard backdrop. I want to mention the vocalist in particular, since I’m such a vocals-first kind of guy, and this might honestly be my favorite vocalist from the roulette so far, or at the very least among the top few. He’s sort of unconventional for power metal in how smooth and restrained he is in the lower register, but it just works incredibly well here, and he can definitely shoot up into the stratosphere when he needs to, and that contrast gives the songs a lot of depth. Glint is probably the best track since it just seems to do everything, but I really like the uber-melodic The Saint Beyond the River or the Dragonforce-esque speed metal of Oak and Ash. Hours of Wintertime is weaker than the other three, but still quite nice.
Can’t wait till next round when I receive only metalcore and power metal.
hefdaddy42
Fantastic Negrito
How Long?
Your Sex Is Overrated
These Are My Friends
Plastic Hamburgers
9 pointsAt last. Shadow Ninja music.
OK yeah I’ve never heard of this guy before I don’t think, or probably even this entire style.
It’s pretty funky, but it’s also surprisingly varied, from bluesy guitar solos to the southern rock-y Plastic Hamburgers to R&B style crooning or the absolute foot-stomper of These Are My Friends (might be my favorite song of the round). Music aside, even though it’s great, the real hero is the vocalist who is just a total blast to listen to. He puts so much character into everything, and he moves through so many different sounds and pulls them all off fantastically. Even though you strategically said he wasn’t one of your favorites, he probably should be.
STANDINGSsoupytwist 45
ariich 43
King Puppies and the Acid Guppies 42
lonestar 42
Dr. DTVT 40
LithoJazzoSphere 40
hefdaddy42 40
Stadler 38
Sacul 38
wolfking 37
Buddyhunter1 36
TAC 36
twosuitsluke 34
King Postwhore 33
Crow 32
jingle.boy 32
Round 6 done! Round 7 submissions due 72 hours from now, as always.
Round playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/52U5jNzVIk1WO539XFiuqz
Topic: Shadow Ninja's Homestuck roulette: obama's rap solo (Read 35497 times)
