ariich’s inclusive roulette (v6) – EPic final results!

[Indiscipline]

Couldn't be happier with your assessment of the EP, as it was structured to elicit those exact reactions.

If you want to give Dire Straits a deeper try, I suggest you go the Alchemy Live and On the Night route. I've turned many friends from "they're OK" to "Holy shit the energy, extended jams and arrangements!" with those fantastic live albums.

I have already said my piece about this roulette's brilliance, so all I'm left to do is thank you for letting me play and being a great host. 



P.S. Mrs'cipline is drowning in laughter at the Most Consistent award.

[King Postwhore]

If I'm going DLR solo to Rich I would send "Hot Dog & A Shake."  Plus the story of the guitar solo adds to the song.

(Stadler runs off to research the story of the guitar solo on "Hot Dog & A Shake".....)

Let me know if you find it.

[ariich]

With this many ties already I'm wondering if that's going to happen for the top two or three

I haven't got that far yet so I'm wondering that myself.

I'm not sure I'd want to do a tiebreaker.

[The Walrus]

Oh man now I'm hoping for a tiebreaker so that I can actually squeeze Incognito in at the last minute after all

[Evermind]

I really hope there will be no tiebreakers. I usually suck at those, only outpopped Sacul once and that's it

That being said, if I'm like at #3 and there is a tie between the first two places and I'm not in it, let there be a tiebreaker

[Buddyhunter1]

There can only be one winner! If there does need to be a tiebreaker I'd just have it be single songs in order to get it done quickly.

[The Walrus]

DOUBLE DISC CONCEPT ALBUM TIEBREAKER

[ariich]

There can only be one winner!

Untrue, roulettes have had joint winners before, albeit very rarely.

[TAC]

I'm happy to share first place.

[Buddyhunter1]

There can only be one winner!

Untrue, roulettes have had joint winners before, albeit very rarely.

Well those roulettes are lame

[ariich]

-0.2 points to Buddyhunter1

[TAC]

-0.2 points to Buddyhunter1
+0.2 points to TAC

Gee thanks!

[lonestar]

You win the award for: Most Targeted By Ruslan's ESP

That's Rich, it's been a blast.

[ariich]

How about another update?

[The Walrus]

real corn hours

[Evermind]

How about another update?

We could sure use a couple of those.

[The Walrus]

[jingle.boy]

Fixed

[ariich]

How about another update?

We could sure use a couple of those.

I've been working so not able to do too much on write-ups, but I'm hoping to get them either finished or nearly finished this evening, which means either being able to bash through all the rest tonight, or at worst finishing off tomorrow morning.

Anyway, next one coming right up!

[ariich]

FINAL ROUND RESULTS, ranks 10-11

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11th place
wolfking – Pirates, Battles, War, Vikings and shit
1. 3 Inches of Blood – Fear on the Bridge
2. Amon Amarth – Deceiver of the Gods
3. Swashbuckle – Cruise Ship Terror
4. Amon Amarth – War of the Gods
5. Sabaton – Resist and Bite
6. Amon Amarth – Guardians of Asgaard
7. Swashbuckle – Crime Always Pays

First impression: I'm enjoying the fun, energetic metal here. Half of it sounds pretty awesome, although the other half is a lot less interesting.

Final opinion: As I said in my first impression, I really enjoy the energetic and entertaining metal on this EP, but it really is a mixed bag and I have very different opinions of each artist. The one that's easily most up my alley is Amon Amarth – I've actually considered checking them out a few times before but never got round to it, but this is high quality melodic death metal so I'll definitely be catching up now. Second is the Sabaton track, which is also great – it's hard to get a sense of how representative this is of their stuff, but it's got a really catchy, epic hook. The 3 Inches of Blood song I wasn't very keen on at first because I'm not too hot on the vocals, but I'm enjoying it well enough now. The big weak point though is the Swashbuckle who unfortunately strike me as an Alestorm knock-off without the charm.

The flow is pretty good, it's another example of a pretty straightforward selection of songs, but the songs all have a similar sort of style and sound to them. Perhaps slightly too much so, actually, as there isn't really any respite. The track ordering works well though, in terms of spreading out the styles and not having all the best songs together at one end or the other.

Music quality score: 8.1
Flow score: 3.8
EP total: 11.9

Roulette total: 69.7

Kade, it's been so great having you in this roulette – I'm not sure we really crossed paths that much before Tim's recent roulette, but between that one and this one I'm really glad to have explored some great music with you. You were arguably the most genre-focused player out of everyone, but it never got boring or repetitive because the quality always stayed high, such that you were in with a real shot at winning in those middle few rounds. The Mors Principium Est was of course the big highlight for me, and I can't wait to dive into their stuff. But every single one of your submissions was excellent – you never dipped below 8/10 which only a few others can boast. Solution.45, Pyramaze, Norther, Lord and Amon Amarth are the bands I'm most excited to explore, but I'll be checking out all the others too (expect Swashbuckle, and maybe 3 Inches of Blood).

You win the award for: Most Metal

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10th place
Puppies – The Call of Cygnus
1. Vektor – Tetrastructural Minds
2. Absu – Amy
3. Vektor – Recharging the Void
4. Warbringer – Outer Reaches
5. Revocation – A Starless Darkness

First impression: The coherence and storytelling is rather great. This is some ferocious stuff – I dig the intensity but I'm not sure all the music is grabbing me so far.

Final opinion: This EP seems to all be based around what I think of as modern thrash metal, and I have to say it's not really a genre I've kept up with. I know some of the old thrash bands and still check out their new stuff, but clearly the genre has moved on in terms of what new bands are doing. Vektor especially sounds very different to anything I've heard and I wasn't sure how to describe them on first listen, so had to look them up. Anyway this has definitely got me interested. The two Vektor tracks are absolutely fantastic, and in particular the more I listen to Recharging the Void the more I love it. I mean ok there's a complete rip-off of Pink Floyd's On the Turning Away in the middle, but it's a great atmospheric break, and the second half of the song is epic. The other stuff is all solid too – particularly the ferocious and exciting riffing that I'd hope for from the genre. The Warbringer is my least favourite as I'm not too keen on the vocals and it's a pretty one-track song really, but it's still pretty good.

Flow-wise, the story-telling is fantastic, which comes as no surprise after your concept album in my last roulette. Particularly in the second half of the EP, the lyrics fit so well, it's quite impressive really. So this is definitely an example where the narrative has helped how the flow works. But musically it all flows very well as well – the transitions between each song are done nicely and tightly, the style is coherent throughout but there are also slight breaks to keep it all well balanced.

Music quality score: 8.3
Flow score: 4.2
EP total: 12.5

Roulette total: 69.9

You never start my roulettes that strongly for some reason (having only scraped through prelims in my previous two, and starting even lower this time) but as ever you picked it up again magnificently, and it was brilliant having you send me so much great music again. Weirdly, your scores are really cyclical – your second half is almost identical to your first half. The Estradasphere did knock your momentum a bit, and you never managed to catch back up, but as far as I'm concerned you still had a great roulette. You were more focused on heavy stuff this time than in my previous roulettes, but it didn't stop you branching out into other styles that were just as successful (indeed your highest score and the one I'm most excited about is Matthew Good). I'm already looking forward to what you'll throw my way next time!

You win the award for: Most Cyclical Scoring

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Final rankings:
10. Puppies  = 7.8 + 8.2 + 8.5 + 8.4 + 7.8 + 8.3 + 8.4 + (8.3 + 4.2) = 69.9
11. wolfking = 8.2 + 8.2 + 8.0 + 8.9 + 8.2 + 8.2 + 8.1 + (8.1 + 3.8) = 69.7
12= lonestar = 8.4 + 7.9 + 8.0 + 7.8 + 8.2 + 8.5 + 8.5 + (8.0 + 4.1) = 69.4
12= Elite    = 8.1 + 8.5 + 7.6 + 8.1 + 8.1 + 8.3 + 7.9 + (8.7 + 4.1) = 69.4
12= Indi     = 7.9 + 8.2 + 8.3 + 7.9 + 8.1 + 8.0 + 8.2 + (8.3 + 4.5) = 69.4
15= Nekov    = 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.5 + 8.3 + 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.2 + (8.2 + 4.1) = 69.3
15= romdrums = 8.0 + 8.7 + 8.0 + 8.1 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 8.1 + (8.1 + 3.7) = 69.3
17. Sacul    = 8.1 + 7.1 + 8.2 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 8.1 + 8.4 + (8.3 + 4.0) = 68.8
18. king     = 8.2 + 7.8 + 8.2 + 7.7 + 8.0 + 8.2 + 8.4 + (8.0 + 3.9) = 68.4
19. Tomi     = 7.3 + 8.1 + 7.9 + 8.5 + 8.1 + 7.5 + 8.5 + (8.1 + 3.9) = 67.9
20. LordCost = 7.2 + 8.8 + 7.3 + 8.2 + 7.5 + 8.4 + 8.0 + (7.9 + 3.7) = 67.0
21. Lethean  = 7.6 + 8.0 + 8.5 + 8.4 + 7.4 + 7.6 + 8.2 + (7.6 + 3.4) = 66.7
22. Stadler  = 7.4 + 7.8 + 7.9 + 8.1 + 8.4 + 7.8 + 8.0 + (7.3 + 3.7) = 66.4

[Crow]

I got at least a 12.4! Anyways.

Congrats Evermind!

[Sacul]

Thanks for having me, I loved the chance of sending stuff I don't usually go for in roulettes, in particular the electronic things. I quite regret having sent that particular Fishmans track instead of a selection from their 1997 album which I think you'd have loved as it's very chill and lovely downtempo / trip-hop - I might send a few tracks as a tiny post-roulette bonus if you don't mind.

I certainly don't mind at all! If you think I'd like the whole album then I'd be happy to check that out - there are no rules or limits with any post-roulette suggestions. But I'm also very happy for you to choose a selection of tracks if you prefer.

Sure, I'll just pick some songs and perhaps a live one cuz why not.

[Evermind]

Wow, Kade really plummeted in the rankings with his EP.

[Buddyhunter1]

Wow, Kade really plummeted in the rankings with his EP.

Yeah and it didn't even score that poorly...
I don't know if I should be terrified or excited

[Crow]

Wow, Kade really plummeted in the rankings with his EP.

with an 11.9 out of  15, which is almost 80% 

[ariich]

Wow, Kade really plummeted in the rankings with his EP.

Yeah and it didn't even score that poorly...

Yeah just a feature of some groups of people being clustered very close together in score, plus a number of people really upping their game in the last round or two. Once you see the "points below leader" chart at the end, it's not as significant a plummet as it looks in the rankings chart.

[Buddyhunter1]

I'm also confused as to how all of the rankings so far are set in stone but you haven't finished scoring everyone yet... or maybe I'm misremembering what you said

[ariich]

I'm also confused as to how all of the rankings so far are set in stone but you haven't finished scoring everyone yet... or maybe I'm misremembering what you said

I have tentative scores for everyone. Based on my experience from this and previous roulettes, I know how much scores can change as I go through final listens in a normal round. But given the nature of this EP round, I'm essentially doubling that as a safety net, and then making sure I've finalised everything at least that many points ahead of what I'm posting in case anyone above drops down.

I can comfortably do one more update without finalising all the scores, but after that I think I'll want to have finalised all ratings (though not necessarily written all the write-ups) before I continue to post results. As I say, I'm confident that finalising the scores will be tonight, but perhaps not all the write-ups.

[Buddyhunter1]

Makes sense.

[Crow]

i just want you to end me so i can stop worrying about my inevitable non-victory

[Train of Naught]

i just want you to end me

[Crow]

train your avatar just always makes me think of this album cover

[Train of Naught]

nice, can't say I've ever heard of Destroyer but will see if I like it so I can spam it in what album are you listening to next to my face

[Train of Naught]

[Indiscipline]

Is that you in your avatar, Train?

You have an incredible resemblance with a dear friend / colleague of mine, who incidentally is the Italian dub voice for Floki in Vikings.