And I think I'll go with just two more songs tonight, to end at a total of five. I was going to do more, but a lot of songs that were scheduled to be cut have been given increased scores (including one going to exactly 60.00 points, which is not remotely helpful when everything is becoming clumped together at that spot) & I really want to look at Hades 2 to be quite honest. So I'm just going to say that two and a half hours of work listening to music is enough for today and treat myself to a new game; back tomorrow.
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#332: Caligula's Horse | Golem (5:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVC4nKZD8Wk
Nominator:
@MaxGalactica [13 songs remaining]
Initial Score: 57.23
Final Score: 58.38
(First Reaction: [Before Listening]
I recall being really into Graves back at the first topic, so cautious optimism?
[After]
For all the peace you'll never find
For all your little suicides
You turn and face the bayonets
I honestly don't get much of this song, but that seems like a good passage.
Ultimately, I don't think this song quite works for me. It's... not bad and I kinda like it, but I'm not grokking the story they're trying to tell and most of the lyrics aren't quite hitting... I do like the part I highlighted, but that's about it. Likewise, the music itself, I kinda like it but I'm also not really vibing with it either? We'll see how it goes when it's time for a Revised Score; I could just be down on the song because it's not immediately appealing like some of their other work and I can make more of an effort to try to figure out what the story here is.)
Golem is about how we all struggled with the weight of expectation through the pandemic
At no point did I get pandemic from any of the lyrics, but that could just be on me. I do kinda like this song and I don't want to eliminate it, but I feel like this song is partially carried by the fact that I want to hear more from the band than an actual attachment to this song. Like I said, they have at least one song that was a big hit (though partially held back due to how emotionally overwhelming it could be) and I like their style of prog metal, but this song is... not really a favorite. I'm going to move it into the Nebula because I like the band's sound enough that it's easy to justify, but I don't know that I can go much farther than that.
[Later: Well, it's not fair to say that this is getting points due to a pro-Graves bias. I'm sure that I do kinda like it on its own merits. Sadly, I just haven't been able to form a connection with it to carry it beyond this level.]
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#331: Alpha Wolf | Akudama (2:36)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ENMe1rlA0M
Nominator:
@BlackDra90n [14 songs remaining]
Initial Score: 50.10
Final Score: 53.616 [Moved Aside] [Score set to 58.50]
(First Reaction: I think I usually need some clean vocals somewhere in my metalcore for me to be able to appreciate it, but this is alright. There's some slight villainy to the lyrics which is a little appealing and, for being all metal vocals, his voice is easy enough to understand. It's a rather approachable entry into harder metalcore music... I just don't particularly want to enter harder metalcore music, so this is a bit of a miss.)
A somewhat fun level of anger and aggression. I don't know if this is at the 55 point level, but it's definitely closer to it than I originally gave it credit for.
[Later: Whoops, I accidentally lost this song sometime after moving it into the ill-defined "at least 58 points" category, so I'm missing any notes I may have originally written here. ...So, song: I kinda like this now! Enough to move it into the Nebula, though it may be a bit too metal for me on most days; fun song though. I enjoy all the references to decapitation more than I thought I would, so that's fun in a slightly worrying way.]
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