As was foretold, I have returned, bearing stats and music updates. I meant to get to this sooner, but I've been surprisingly busy lately, and I tend to check out new music pretty slowly when I'm not in roulette mode anyway, so expect updates to drag on for years until my next roulette starts.
OK, let's start with the good stuff. I went through and tagged every entry as either metal or nonmetal and then compared the amount that scored more than a 7 versus those that didn't, to see if there were any trends. Here's the results:
And then here's the two together in a bar chart to make it easier to contrast:
This appears to suggest there was an advantage to sending nonmetal entries, but the margin is so small I think it's probably statistical noise, especially considering how many judgment calls went into classifying something as metal versus anything else. For example, I put Moron Police as metal because I feel like they share a huge amount of their DNA with progressive metal, even though they're also quite different and not particularly heavy, whereas UFO I considered nonmetal, since they're not, but at the same time they're not really 'lighter' than Moron Police are. Which leads to the conclusion that's no discernible difference in scoring whether you stick exclusively to the metal portion of the periodic table or not.
Also, so people will actually read this post, I ordered a bunch of CDs from the artists you sent me (because that's how I listen to music), based in part on how much I liked the artist, but also took into account price, availability, and whether I happened to think of it when I was clicking buttons online. So here's some brief thoughts on some of the albums I've listened to so far.
Fellowship - The Saberlight ChroniclesThis is really right up my alley, it's super fun, catchy power metal that's very silly but also endearingly sincere. It's not super varied, but I guess I find I tend to like that in power metal; just stick to the big melodies and fast guitars, and they really nail that. I think you made a good choice in your song selection; Glint and The Saint Beyond the River are pretty clearly the best songs on the album, but there's no real weak points either, and I enjoy this all the way through. I think this is their only album so far, but I definitely grab the next one whenever it's out.
The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy Another debut album, and I'm really enjoying this one too. When Rich tried to send this to me he described it as part baroque pop, which wasn't a term I was familiar with but exactly captures the impression from the music that I would have described as refined or stately, but I wasn't sure if that was a genre thing or just because they're British. I really enjoy the sense of dramatics that all the songs have, either the bombast of songs like Caesar on a TV Screen or the quieter, atmospheric stuff like On Your Side. The only real downside for me is I think sometimes they get a bit
too bombastic, or at least they're not quite able to balance the bombast properly and it ends up sounding a bit messy. But it's still really strong, especially for a first album.
Electric Callboy - TekknoThis is exactly what it seems to be, and I love it. This is really just the perfect combination of styles for me, I really can't fault any of it and it's something I can put on almost any time and enjoy. Their songs are just so damn fun, and the balance between the pop and the metalcore is perfect. I also highly recommend everyone go watch some of their music videos, they're clearly just having the time of their lives making them and playing their music and it makes an already stellar group even more enjoyable.
Dirt Poor Robins - FirebirdI downloaded all the Dirt Poor Robins albums from Bandcamp (well, almost all, it seems like some of them were released in pieces and then in full, so I just got the full ones, but I'm not sure if I've missed some extra tracks in there somewhere) since I wasn't able to find any CDs, although if any ever pop up let me know, I will definitely grab them. Firebird's the only one I've listened to so far, though, and I'm really digging it. I never really pay attention to the stories of these sorts of narrative albums, and this is no different, but as I mentioned I really love that vaudevillian sound that this sort of storytelling lends itself to. The album is also surprisingly varied, and I don't feel like every track has fully sunk in yet, but their sound is really unique and absorbing and I expect to listen to this one a lot more.
Emily Jane WhiteThis was a post-roulette submission Litho sent me that I've also been listening to off and on. I really love this dark indie/folk sound; it almost feels like music crafted specifically for me. I'm not in love with every song (Heresy hasn't quite clicked with me), but the advantage of being out of the roulette is I don't feel obligated to give equal attention to all the tracks and can just listen to what I like the most. Battle Call and Drowned I really like, but Show Me the War in particular is just amazing; something about the atmosphere and her voice and the main melody I find completely entrancing. It's hard to say exactly how I'd score this since I'm out of the roulette mindset now, but I'd think it would have been an 8 or so.
If anyone else has submissions they considered sending but decided against for whatever reason, feel free to shoot them my way as well, and I'll check them out too, in my normal slow way. I've got a number of other albums, but I'll end this here for now because I'm tired of typing, and also so I'll still have material for post #105 of silly stats I've put together.