Shadow Ninja 2.0: Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Far Zuhr HölleFirst impression: Hello Sacul! This is a little bit minimalistic for me so didn't leave a strong impression but I do enjoy this kind of thing as you very well know.As I said, I only knew Midnight Radio from them (and whatever tracks Sacul played in plug.dj, I don’t remember the titles). This fits with what I’ve heard from them—minimalistic, relaxing, serene and contemplative. Scarce piano chords, bass and pensive saxophone, never quite resolving the phrase—as I said in one of my previous roulettes, this is a good whiskey-and-cat music. Perfect for an evening lounge on your lawn in a rocking chair, perfect to enjoy the setting sun and the twilight that comes after.
While I do maintain that to get higher scores, you’ll need either something spectacular in this genre that will connect me in some unpredictable way, or something with a bit more meat on the bones, I can’t deny that I enjoyed this quite a bit. Definitely an album to check out in the future.
Score: 6.75/10
ariich: Wolfheart – Everlasting FallFirst impression: This should be a strong contender for "to plummet" theme. Quite relentless, maybe a bit too much.This had all the components to be a hit with me, however after more than ten listens I can only say that it’s not a miss.
This is probably going to be frustrating for you, Rich, as I’m not exactly sure what it is that makes the growls sound fresh and exciting for me, what makes them benefit the song, and how should they jive and clash with the instrumental parts for me to like it. From 3:20 and onward, this song felt like a constant assault of growls, which sometimes ebbed away when the drummer eased up on blastbeats, and sometimes returned back in full force when the drummer hammered it down. It doesn’t help that the song is 10 minutes. The first three minutes is pure build-up and they fly by; it’s also the only three minutes where the song is relatively quiet, and I think they could’ve added a few more sections like that throughout the song. The next seven minutes, however, are a bit of a drag. But I do like it quite a bit still.
As I’m writing this, I’m only now realizing that “fall” probably means “autumn” here, because the very next line speaks about the winter. Too bad, this is still too perfect of a song for “to plummet” theme, because as I listen to this, I can only imagine the boulder slowly losing its balance in the first three minutes and then plummeting down along the mountain slope until eventually crashing to the ground.
Score: 6.75/10 + 1.01 = 7.76
wolfking: Trivium – Down From the Sky
First impression: This is a bit rough to my tastes at moments but given what the song is about, it makes sense.At this point, I’m fairly sure this band works better with extreme vocals than without them.
This song has a good balance between extreme/raspy vocals with grit and the clean ones, and in comparison with Litho’s song, the chorus is short, right to the point and very ear-worm-like. The rough parts, or I probably used the wrong word, they’re more like “raw” parts, are really rough though: the “The vampires feed on the wars of mankind” lines and the bridge especially are a bit difficult to get through. Given the song subject, I can allow for the necessity of it, but that doesn’t make them pleasant to endure, and with the strong choruses, adequate verses and the unhinged screams during those raw parts, I think the song landed somewhere in the “good” range, but not much further than that.
Oh, and I really liked the creative interpretation of the “to flush” theme so much that I’m awarding you a point for this one. I’m not debating if it was necessary or not, not in the slightest, but I can’t imagine a better representation of “flushing life down the drain” than a nuclear strike.
Score: 7/10 + 1.01 = 8.01
King: Almo – VilsenFirst impression: Love and pain, engage your senses, and let them carve the way... wait, wrong band/song.While I know this is one of your treasures discoveries, sending this was very bold, because this song is not accessible at all. Either that, or it may be just my attention span, because after more than ten listens, I can’t fully tell you how it goes in terms of structure. I only remember the certain moments, and the rest comes to me when I’m listening.
This has a lot of Haken vibes, from Affinity and Vector for sure; it also has a lot of diversity between clean and harsh vocals, and I was never once bored with this song. When I thought the vocals will continue being steady, the singer instantly switched to rattling off some lines at impressive speed; when I thought he would go clean, he’d switch to harsh and so on. All that, and the production also sounds professional—this could’ve been a song from an established band in the genre.
I quite like this, and I feel that after ten more listens I’ll like it even more. However that’s the drawback of roulettes—I’ve only got limited time to get acquainted with the song. But don’t get me wrong, this is pretty good, and honestly makes me want to get back from my dreary musical landscape to listen to progressive metal more.
Score: 7.25/10
LithoJazzoSphere: Counting Hours – A Mercy Fall
First impression: Is this a singer from Serenity? Oh, there are growls. Maybe not then! I wonder what Serenity would sound like with growls.What’s “a mercy fall” anyway? Asking as a non-native English speaker.
This song probably took me a longest time to place except the Almo one; I knew I did like the overall sound from the get-go, but my attention kept drifting away during the song, and after a few listens I was able to pinpoint the problem—the clean chorus just kind of wanders around its’ notes in circles and essentially gets nowhere. I kept mentally blanking out during these parts, and while it’s nowhere near as dragging and jarring as Borrowed Time chorus, I still think some kind of stronger resolution to this clean vocal melody going round and round, as if going on a slow carousel dance (this description makes sense in my head) would’ve benefitted the song.
That being said, the harsh vocals make a good contrast with the warm clean ones, and overall the song paints a beautiful, if a bit tinged with sadness and wistfulness, picture. As I accumulated the listens, it kept climbing the rankings, and while it didn’t end up being exceptional, it landed somewhere around “fairly good”.
Score: 7.5/10
Puppies: Paatos – TéaFirst impression: Oh hey that's kinda lovely.That’s absolutely lovely. It’s gorgeous but not in your face, very slow-going, soft and tranquil in the beginning, with a subtle build-up to a higher intensity throughout the song. The band (or the songwriter) clearly knows where to step back and where to gently push, and the song is so gradual and smooth in its development, I didn’t truly appreciate its beauty for the first couple of times.
I loved the “all out” ending, which wasn’t really all out, but most of the instruments were there in their not quite full force, and the singer’s crooning chanting lines were the cherry on top. I wish the song was in English, and I wish the singer had a bit more time to shine—I’m curious to hear how she sounds on the rest of the album. I also think the main guitar riff could’ve used a little bit more variation, but that’s me nitpicking. That’s simply a beautiful song.
Score: 8.25/10
TAC: Fires in the Distance – HarbingersFirst impression: THE CHEMICAL GAS! Where did the gas come from though, I bet it's not what he's singing at all. 
Cracking tune.With ariich’s Wolfheart entry showing us how to do a 10-minutes growly metal song not exactly wrong, but not that exciting, we have this to show us how to do it exactly right.
I see this is the opener of the album, and you know how they say (I don’t know how they say it in English but they surely say it) the first impression trumps everything. The first two minutes of this song leave
the hell of a first impression, with the short, quiet and then explosive intro, and then going straight into the blistering growls with well-thought and well-timed guitar riff beneath them. I love how they go with a shorter lyric for the “question” part of the phrase (“Wings ablaze / Earth is razed / The crash is imminent / Still I’m not there”), and then go full-blown blastbeats and a longer lyric for the “answer” part that ends at the beginning of the next bar (“I descend through the blizzards and blistering snow” is the best example of this). And the lyrics are also incredibly well-suited for this part; “ablaze” and “razed” sounds positively whipping when he belts that.
The song loses a bit of steam with the second verse but only compared to the first—I’m less fond of the lyrical and rhythmic choices on that one, but again, only because the first one was near perfect. Then we have the piano sections that serve as breaks between the intense moments of the song, a deft and very tasteful touch. And it’s not just a couple of seconds break, they’re fully developed sections on their own. And then we have the third, different verse with “I’ll never see daylight” which is also awesome, if a bit too short (and what’s up with “I’ve singed the last whisPAAAAAAH”?
), followed by another piano section.
Ironically, the only section I’m not too fond of (and otherwise the song would’ve been in 9.25-9.5 range easily), is the they’re-gaining-on-us aka “the chemical gas” section; I think I don’t quite like the choice of guitar chords in that one—they opt to go for the higher notes that I don’t think quite work for me.
Fun-fact: for about 25 years, I thought it was “harbringers”, not “harbingers”. I wonder about the etymology of this word, because apparently they’re not bringing har. Anyone?
Good on you Tim, cracking song, on par with Draconian from the last round. This album will be among the first I’ll check out after the roulette.
Score: 8.75/10
Scoreboard:ariich - 17.27 (congrats ariich)
LithoJazzoSphere - 16.25
TAC - 15.5
Puppies - 14.25
wolfking - 14.01
King - 13.5
Sacul - 13.5
jingle.boy - 12
lonestar - 11.5
twosuitsluke - 11.5
Lonk - 11.25
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 11.01
Stadler - 11
Elite - 9.77
Topic: Evermind's artsy/deranged v4 Roulette - Round 4 Comparisons (Read 11605 times)