This another great entry and also the one that has seen me sent from the room
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4th place (9 points): Петля Пристрастия - Норма (Petlya Pristrastiya - Norm)
User comment: Going with my country of origin Belarus. Listened to about 10 Belorussian artists, I liked this one the most, but this is a shot in the dark.
And it’s a shot that just barely missed the podium! That isn’t to say it’s a bad song. It’s actually really good. Honestly, the quality of songs is quite high in the top half of the list. I’ve listened to this on repeat pretty frequently.
Petlya Pristrastiya (Eng trans: Noose of Predilection) is a Belarusian post-punk band based in Moscow. It is quite popular in its home country, winning 4 awards in 2017 at the experty.by awards (a show that celebrates Belarusian music). This song is an anti-Lukashenko song as it sings about the oppressive country and its attempt to impose further authoritarianism as a new normal. The band actually performed this song this past November during the “March Against Fascism” protest which led to the lead singer serving 15 days in prison.
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Thing is that the quality of songs in the top half is really high IMO. It was honestly really difficult to determine what order to put them in.
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Like this one a lot.
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It always is. So far you have correctly put me in on the podium. Objective evidence for your sophisticated taste.
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Это был мой выбор (Petlya Pristrastiya was mine)
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Sorry I’m taking so long. The podium is super-difficult to separate. Some fantastic choices.
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Dang
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Didn’t know you were from Belarus
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Translation: He is still waiting for my check to clear.
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Soviet Union era, parents moved to US when I was an infant in the early 80s
This I can accept. I didn’t know where you stood on longer tracks, and I’ve had this one “in the pipe” for submission for quite some time, so just jumped on it given the category. Glad you liked parts of it 
This pleases me and upsets me at the same time. I look forward to the nodium I will probably receive instead.
This shits me to tears as I clearly still haven’t the foggiest what to submit to Swanky. Would not have imagined this to be something you would enjoy.
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A round of applause to those who made the podium in this round of walrus
3rd place (10 points): ГРАЙ - В объятиях Мары (Eng trans: In The Arms Of Mary)
GRAI is a folk metal band from Russia. This song crushes it. I’m a sucker for metal that mixes in unconventional instruments (at least unconventional for metal that is). So this hits the right spot for me. In the top three, it really comes down to splitting hairs to separate the podium. As great as it is, it is a bit long. That said, it introduced me to a new band that IMO has songs better than this.
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My check did not clear.
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2nd place (11 points): СЛОТ - 2 войны (Eng trans: “Two Wars”)
When I saw the vocalist and heard her voice, I just knew I heard it in the past. And then it hit me.
She absolutely crushed “Zombie” on the Russian version of The Voice. I’m also a sucker for female metal vocalists. Kinda get sick of hearing the same growling again and again.
СЛОТ (Eng trans: The Slot) has a bit of a Linkin Park sound going in this song minus the rapping. Minus the rapping is the important part because I felt that it kinda ruined some of LP’s music. Without that element, The Slot kicks ass here. They also have a terrific catalog outside of this to go along with it.
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And the number 1 song with 12 points
Marakesh - Jdat (Eng trans: “Wait”)
User comment: I was always going to pick something from Vladivostok FM
This song might have been released in 2007 but it sounds like it came from the 90s to me. Video gamers might be familiar with this if they played Grand Theft Auto IV since it was featured on the in-game radio station Vladivostok FM which featured Russian and Ukrainian musicians. I never listened to radio stations beyond the talk show material. So, I never actually listened to this station despite completing the game. Just played this repeatedly and was hooked from the beginning.
Congratulations to everybody who participated! I had fun doing this.
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Woe, I may have gotten more points in one category than I did in the entire last Walrus.
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Thanks, another fine reveal. Haven’t been able to listen as this occurred mostly during an extended child’s bedtime, but it looks an interesting bunch of songs. I’ll do the scores in a bit.
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Really dig this. Congrats on the win NBZ!
Well done on the reveal too SUB!
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Yeah. UP has good taste in music. Felt bad that I had to give some of these songs a fairly low place.
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