Round 1 listening update;
So I decided to just pick albums from each round and listen and go through round by round as opposed to randomly picking albums from across the whole roulette. I have listened to a fair few albums from where the round 1 songs came from. I'm not going to do every album, but I'll do as many as I feel fit depending if I enjoyed the song or found it interesting enough to explore. This is what I've checked from round 1. Not sure if I'll check any more of round 1 yet or move on, we'll see;
Crow - Astolat - The Winning Tragedy
Sisyphus was the first song of the roulette I listened to and it definitely hooked me right away so I was looking forward to checking this album out. The only album from this duo and a couple of EP's so hopefully they have a follow up at some stage. Anyway, this album is brilliant and such a journey. It's very long but something that you can simply fall into and just enjoy it from beginning to end. Lots of variety and plenty of wonderful sounds and atmosphere's throughout the entire album. I would have liked and expected a little more harsh vocals but the variation in everything is fine and does enough to really keep me interested. So despite me also expecting a little more heaviness based on Sisyphus, once I got into it, it really didn't matter. I've listened to this about 3 or 4 times now and really enjoy the trip each time. You can tell just by the sound and structure of the whole album it's a concept album too and I really should try and track down the lyrics as I'm intrigued about the story. Wonderful album, wonderful submission. Can see it being in rotation for a while.
Sacul - Obsidian Kingdom - Mantiis
Another song that caught my ear right away. The structure of Last of the Light was so interesting to me I knew I'd be all over this one, and it doesn't disappoint. Another concept album and again, this is one to put on and the single track structure allows you to just get lost in the journey. I don't buy the single song broken into fourteen parts thing, but I do find a lot of the transitions seamless and again, it's hard to know where you're up to, which is a good thing. This definitely fits the bill of wanting to find something different and unique. There was enough heaviness throughout too that really complemented the quieter sections and the harsh vocals I love, along with the heavy elements. Again, another I'll have to follow the lyrics along with as it's a unique piece that I'm really enjoying sinking my teeth into. The variation of styles and the way it's all structured is just so interesting, and makes the whole thing fly by. Just a wonderful atmosphere and a unique piece of art. Love it and again will be in rotation quite a bit.
Stadler - U.K. - Self titled
This was another I was keen to check because of Holdsworth. A refreshing sound and actually while sounding dated at times sounds ahead of its time at the same time. Love the way it all breathes and the production and atmosphere really really allows that. This was all round an interesting and entertaining piece of prog fusion and I loved all of it. It was great hearing Holdsworth in more of this more mainstream light as opposed to his out there solo work. I loved that In the Dead of the Night Reprise on track 3, that was cool. Shoutout to that incredible solo section in Nevermore, holy shit what a brilliant piece. I need to listen to this more but definitely something different I'm interested in. As I mentioned, I think a lot of what I look for these days in the genres I know leaves me a little flat but this is definitely something different I'm looking to check out more of. Very creative and wonderfully technical music with a great soundscape.
Evermind - Hamfred - Evst
Another very cool tune that was up there in round 1. The heavier doom thing is definitely something I've gravitated towards a little more too. Just love the darker tones and feel. This was very bleak in tone and pretty samey throughout but I liked most of this here. The vocals were pretty rough and I'm actually surprised you dig these guys with these harsh vocals, but I guess the cleans really quite outweight the growls really. I need more spins of it and will go back to it but this was quite warm and comforting even if it was hard to get around at times. I think the track you sent me was the standout but again, I'll need to go back and dive into it again, but it has my attention as does the band and their rest of their work.
TAC - Allegaeon - Fragments of Form and Function
After a somewhat lukewarm response to the song you sent, I wanted to have a crack at this one and I surprisingly enjoyed the hell out of it. Very cool sounding technical death metal with stunning guitar work. Even though everything here is pretty standard for the genre and I've heard it all before, I really liked this whole album. The vocals too I found were excellent and didn't really get boring which surprised me. Sounded a little fresh too so, I only had the one listen but a good place to start working through this band and their albums I think.
Litho - The Offering - Home
After really liking Ultraviolence I dived into this album but to be honest, I struggled to get through it. It was all too samey and I think you certainly picked the best song out of this batch. There's nothing bad about it, I just didn't really find much else here very interesting at all, which surprised me given how much I enjoyed Ultraviolence. The band seems a bit one dimensional to me, on this album anyway. Probably something I'll have to cross off the list unfortunately.
ariich - Euphoreon - Self titled
You know, for a debut, this is pretty damn impressive. There is NOTHING new here at all but this is probably as classy as the follow up. Maybe not as melodically interesting but 45 minutes of no bullshit metal with great performances and really nice harsh vocals. Can't pinpoint a song here, you may have sent the best I'm not sure but like the Allegeon, I was surprised how much I dug listening to this. I knew what I was getting, and really, it's done well enough that that was completely fine with me. Very nice and will make me revisit the second album too which got plenty of spins when Tim pimped it years ago. Hopefully the band is still active and we get something else from them in the future, I'd be all over that.
Lonk - Black Anvil - Time Insults the Mind
Now, this is 35 minutes again of no bullshit straight up metal with a nice mix of styles. Black metal with some stoner High on Fire vibes which was very nice. What I received in your track was what I got throughout and it was dependable the whole way through. For a debut, pretty damn good. The production is a little muddy but that's nothing. Cool vocals and lots of groovy shit going on here. Not much else to say, enjoy this whole 35 minutes and pretty keen to see where else this band go from here. Again, I gotta say, there's some thunderous riffing here.
Puppies - Farsot - IIII
First thing I noticed here was the clear production. It seemed quite different to your normal sounding black metal but it was refreshing to me to hear the style in this more crystal modern sound. Not much to say here, this is pretty pure straight up black metal. There was nothing here I really disliked and I think the 42 minute length of the album complimented if perfectly. Plus only really being 4 tracks made it easier to swallow too. The vocals are pretty rough and again pretty full on at times but I can handle them. I did find it interesting that while it's pure black metal, it still had touches of other metal and still had quite a bit of groove with some nice jazzy Opeth like sections in there too. The 20 minute closer was an excellent journey. Cool, interesting band.
Topic: Wolfking's Wonderful Winger roulette v.3 - Round 2 album listening commenced (Read 39870 times)