In twelfth place with one point Moonspell - The future is dark
My attitude to heavy metal has always been the heavier the better. Sadly Moonspell seem to have taken the exact opposite lesson, and given I know this sort of thing is part of metal I feel like I ended up entrapping someone. That said Walrus is Walrus and some song was always coming last, even if I got sent 12 ‘BANGERS!!’. I’d suggest that whoever submitted this just imagines that’s what happened.
Sadly it didn’t happen, but there are some bits of Moonspell I don’t mind. The riff and the chorus are pretty catchy and I kinda like his voice. “The future is vile” is an enjoyable line and overall it seems a solid bit of mainstream rock. Sadly it’s a kind of music that has never connected with me and this track didn’t threaten to make the breakthrough. Sorry.
In eleventh place with two points Virgin Snatch - G.A.W.R.O.N.Y.
This is certainly a step up in terms of heaviness. The guitars are crunching, the drummer is pounding away and the singer has a nicely melodic growl. I started to have fun listening to this one. Well, at least a little bit.
No idea what this is supposed to be but I assumed that it’s metal associated with a particular place. This song about the rise of authoritarianism from Polish metal band Virgin Snatch captures the mood of the opposition to Duda’s regime. It’s one of the rare songs from slavic metal bands that isn’t in English.
And now I feel bad. I intended “jazz, metal, folk” to be connected by “or”, not “and”, but I’m impressed you managed to make it work for you. I think you’re unlucky to be this low, this is the first of quite a lot of tracks I’d describe as ‘decent’ and splitting them was a fairly close run thing. I tend to score ones with elements I particularly notice or enjoy higher, rather than attempt to go by overall quality, so this suffered because I didn’t find anything memorable. It tended to leave my head as soon as it stopped, but while it was playing I was perfectly happy.
This isn’t typical Moonspell. They are usually a bit less mainstream rock. I considered them for cassette’s category but I would have gone with something from their Wolfheart or Irreligious albums which are their best work in my opinion.
Yeah I thought that there had to be some connection to a place.
Anyway that’s two nodiums. One would think this would be me sucking at this but the songs on my nodium list are pretty damn good. Probably not the one at fault here.
In tenth place with three points Al Jarreau - Compared To What
More sad sack tales of unluckiness. I was unaware that ‘Compared to What’ (a late 60s protest song) has been recorded by lots of people, but I was aware it’s on Roberta Flack’s first album because I love it. Sadly for Al (and the submitter) I never got past that and always wished I was listening to the ‘original’.
Al’s version is fine, it might even be pretty good. The main hook is really great and is probably why lots of people recorded it, and it seems largely a solid bit of soul. That said, there is a really mediocre sax solo and someone putting on a stupid voice for the last few minutes, and they annoyed me if I’m honest. Finally I do mildly question its category fit as it’s not really jazz, though is related I guess. (I don’t think that affected the score but I felt compelled to mention it.)
In ninth place with four points The Comet Is Coming - Summon The Fire
I almost stated that I’d give jazz submissions a bump while judging, but in the end that seemed doubly redundant. Any good jazz would float to the top regardless, but none of you would submit any good jazz. And to prove that here are The Comet Is Coming with something that’s not really jazz and (I can’t resist) not really ‘good’.
This features a sax player who is sometimes really giving it some, and I enjoyed that. But sadly it sounds like they’re filtered off and playing in the room next door, which is a shame. Then the rest of the track is pretty standard rock rhythm with the keyboard locked on ‘space noise 101’. It’s fine and that, I don’t dislike it and I might even give an album of theirs a listen on the off chance, but ‘decent’ is about all I can really muster.
