Nur Ein VIII Round Four "Down to Under"

[frankie big face]

Frankie Big Face:Slightly too many syllables per line in the verse, that's probably my only criticism.

I know. If I had had a bit more time, I think I could have sorted it out. But every time I recorded the vocals, I edged closer and closer to losing my voice. (And of course, I didn't even start until Sunday so recuperation wasn't an option!) So I finally just had to give up and send it in. But luckily, I recorded the stop time stuff and vocal ad libs first so they sound pretty good I think. Thanks for the review.

[frankie big face]

The title AND challenge for this particular round left a lot of room for interpretation.

I figured everyone was going to expect me to go the "non-obvious" route so I figured I'd just do what no-one was expecting and actually deliver a metal song. (although, I haven't read the entire thread so I'm not sure whether it fits the finely honed definition established here ) Apologies to j$!

[BoffoYux]

Tonight I'll be hosting the Nur Ein 8 Round 4 Listening Party on UStream
Show starts at 8 pm EDT. Preshow is starting around 7:30ish.

Drop on in if you have some time. 12 new songs created just for this contest, and 2 'Nein' entries, and we'll whittle them down to 'Only One'.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nur-ein

The chat room is on Chatzy here
http://www.chatzy.com/85010334701393

or irc here at SongFight
http://jan-krueger.net/sf-irc

[glennny]

@ BLT & Ross- KNAC

that is all

[Billy's Little Trip]

@ BLT & Ross- KNAC

that is all

[j$]

Apologies to j$!

Yes, you can imagine my undiluted joy to find *these* on my doorstep

Seriously, gentlemen (and I choose that word carefully) - leave the camp to us gays. We're so much better at it than you.

Still, ranking these is proving a nightmare, which I suppose could be interpreted as a compliment to the assembly. Could be.

So there are only two acceptable metal songs in my book -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMqxNPsfN50

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuoFiIFkdAA

Proximity to either of these will help you with this judge ... oh ... yeah, right ...

[Geoff WreckdoM]

Also, I like Kiss, except for Beth. That song awaits you in the deepest level of hell

This is not metal true. I submit the advertising campaign for the Judas Priest "Ram it Down" tour, in which they stated "If there was a jukebox in Hell Judas Priest would be playing on it".
(Best advertising campaign ever: the metal heads thought Hell Satan cool, the non metal heads thought Hell was an undesirable place didn't like the Priest) Hell is cool to a metal head.

The great paradox of metal appreciation. If I went to hell, and all they played was Judas Priest, I might be a tad annoyed (hello, motorhead?) but it would by no means be unbearable torture. Beth by Kiss however, or that Alanis Morrisette album, or the macarana, on the other hand...

[Ross]

@ BLT & Ross- KNAC

that is all

I'll take it!

[Paco Del Stinko]

I've read the arguments here and am going to pipe in about KISS. I wouldn't call them Metal, but, rather hard rock. That's my perspective and I'm stickin' to it. That said, I love KISS up to, and including a few songs from, Dynasty. 70s KISS, not the LIck It Up stuff. Dumb? Sure. Fun? You bet. And some of their stuff rocks real hard. Strange Ways off of Hotter than Hell is super heavy. Black Diamond a rock classic. Detroit Rock City is the nuts, c'mon! Love Gun? Genius, I say! Beth...yeah, well...it reminds me of AM radio when I was 10. (1976) So I guess that's good. Sorta.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Oh yeah. Some great tunes this round, too. Frankie showing off the pipes! In many ways, the hardest thing to do in metal, I think. Think Dio, Rob Halford or one of my faves, Klaus Meine from Scorpions. Even try doing Ozzie' vocals without hurting yourself. Good job, people!

[glennny]

c'mon C-Ray and Paco, you only get one letter on each finger, not the thumb: O Z Z Y

[Paco Del Stinko]

c'mon C-Ray and Paco, you only get one letter on each finger, not the thumb: O Z Z Y

Ha! Duh on me! That's true, except for the first Sabbath album where it's spelled Ossie.

[WreckdoMelle]

Reviews from me and King Colon. Pretty impressive dudes. I appreciated the sheer metalness of this challenge, having the musical proclivities I do. Twas a blast doing the song this week!

Balance Lost – Sounds math metal. The intro sounds like a nod to Rush (who are not metal yet awesome). While it’s great to convey feelings, playing or singing, sounding good should come first. I don’t like the changeup. What is metal in this song? Vox sound a bit Fugazi at times, but alternative rock for the most part.

Carlo Bruno Jr. - Not sounding metal! says Colon… at first. That is some serious guitar rippage. I like this one a lot. Colon not so much. Great scream, sick breakdown, sez I, Colon says prog. Metal sounds eviler than this, he sez. The roaring at the end is his favorite part. But still sounds like rock.

Cavedwellers – Love the dual guitar harmonies. A good sign of metal. High harmonic screams – yes. I like parts of it a lot, sorta like Queensryche, but with less scream. Technically correct and awesome, but perhaps not enough transgressive for these ears.

Chokehold Princess - You need to read the words to this one, as the title was interpreted as other than metal the genre. This led to an outbreak of genre-bias in our home. We didn’t like it for that reason only so to be fair, it could’ve gone over better in another context. But when one is all primed for metal, this type of thing is pretty much the opposite of what one wants to hear.

Frankie Big Face – NWOBHM revisited? Yes, please. Full marks from Colon. Respect for that work on that scream too. Hope you drank some tea with lemon after that.
Governing Dynamics – Nice stoner rock. I like this a lot more than your previous entries. It’s very Alice in Chains. There’s a darkness that earns the metal nod.

Manhatton Glutton – Sabbath-y, therefore excellent. But your own turn on it. I would listen to this again. This takes me all the way back to 1994.

Merisan – Very rockin’! A tad thin in the mix but very NWOBHM. Erin’s vox sound great as always. Some sick chord changes, and nice bridge.

*** Here we came to a good point. As we listened and inevitably compared and contrasted the songs with other bands, I had a feeling for a lot of the styles that while today wouldn’t strictly be metal, for their time they were. King Colon’s opinion is that the contest is happening currently so metal should be defined according to current fashion. ***

Paco del Stinko – Yessir. This is heavy, filled with darkness, perfect dissonance – those notes are not quite right, they’re evil and they’re metal. This has it all. The lyrics are totally metal.

Ross Durand – I love the play on words here. The tune is super catchy as well. Really the only trouble with it was the mix. The guitar sounds like it’s really cool but the tone is tinny. The vox are hot in the mix.

Tydon Docks - King Colon likes y’all's stuff and this has some metal to it. He imagines the people singing this wearing studded leather overalls or jumpsuits or looking like Axl Rose before the hairplugs. I appreciate the nods to the 80’s.

WreckdoM – Metal.

[BenKrieger]

If you go "Rock and Roll All Nite", fine.
If you go "Detroit Rock City", hell yeah.
If you go "I Was Made For Lovin' You", consider your song DQ'd.
If you go "Beth", you should be ashamed of yourself.

Well, now I feel like a chump that I read the challenge and wrote/recorded/submitted before reading the fine print.

[Ross]

So Tom's talk about the endurance test at the listening party got me looking at the list and thinking about what we've done. The current group of twelve is quite a list of veterans. lunkhead correct me if I'm wrong.

Furry P. - been in four times. Been to the semis once and finals twice, including winning as part of WSA

Glenny - been in 5 times, been to semis once and finals three times, including winning as part of WSA

Ben Krieger - won as boop boop in NE V

Frankie - been in 5 times. Won twice, , been to finals one other time and round 5 the other two times.

Manhattan Glutton - been in twice, made round 5 and 6

Merisan/ tiny Robots - been in 5 times, been to the finals once, semis 3 times

Paco - been in 4 times. Been to finals twice, including winning #6

Ross - been in 6 times. Been to finals twice, once to semis and once to round 5

C Ray - been in 6 times, been to round five twice

Wreckdom - been in 5 times, been to round 5 three times

Governing dynamics is a newcomer, but has been a regular at Spintunes, where he was once champion.

Carlo Bruno - no previous nur Ein Record

Of the 43 combined previous Nur Ein attempts by the veterans above, the participants have only failed to move to round five 13 times. The other 30 times they made it to round 5 or farther.

Pretty intense Ein crowd!!!!

[Manhattan Glutton]

It's my understanding that Paco's immune, despite his awesome effort. Am I reading that right? Are we all aware of that?

[Ross]

It's my understanding that Paco's immune, despite his awesome effort. Am I reading that right? Are we all aware of that?

That's my understanding.

[Geoff WreckdoM]

Nice list Ross, I had been wondering who has submitted the most nur ein entries without winning a nur ein, looks like that's you. Congratulations?

[frankie big face]

Is this the round when immunity ends? Just curious.

[Niveous]

Is this the round when immunity ends? Just curious.

Immunity will not be granted this round.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I've read the arguments here and am going to pipe in about KISS. I wouldn't call them Metal, but, rather hard rock. That's my perspective and I'm stickin' to it. That said, I love KISS up to, and including a few songs from, Dynasty. 70s KISS, not the LIck It Up stuff. Dumb? Sure. Fun? You bet. And some of their stuff rocks real hard. Strange Ways off of Hotter than Hell is super heavy. Black Diamond a rock classic. Detroit Rock City is the nuts, c'mon! Love Gun? Genius, I say! Beth...yeah, well...it reminds me of AM radio when I was 10. (1976) So I guess that's good. Sorta.

I agree on all fronts. But Beth will always hold a good memory in my heart. It was a bicentennial year and I was in love with the girl down the street named Betsy, short for Elisabeth. We were only at the point of guessing what word we were spelling by drawing words with our finger on each others back at this point. She'd never guess my words, because I was a bad speller. I never guessed her words because I was an idiot. It didn't matter, it was all about the journey.
Then my big break came! Kiss put out Beth and it was sung by Peter Criss and my name is Chris. The planets were aligning just for me to make my move to stage 4 romance. We were big Kiss fans, so naturally I ran down to tower records as soon as the Destroyer album was in. I made a mix tape for my crush that started and ended with Beth and a number of other romantic sappy rock love songs by KISS up to that date, like, Do You Love Me, Love Her All I Can, Comin' Home, Anything for My Baby and I think a couple more, but I can't remember. Then to plan the perfect time to spring my love gun into action.

We always went to her house after school because she had a awesome game room and her mom always had cookies and chips and stuff for us and her and her friends did their homework there and me and my friends just goofed around mostly and played pool. My friends knew of my plan and kept saying do it, do it, but I wanted to wait until it was just Betsy and I. Then my friend grabbed the mix tape out of my backpack and put it in and said, Betsy, Chris made this for you and turned it on. I was looking at him saying NO with my eyes and him grinning like a dick. Beth started playing and I was so embarrassed. Then to make things worse, her friends started laughing, then MY friends kicked in with typical stupid gagging sounds. I must have been red in the face at that point, but I glanced at Betsy and I saw something new in her face. Her eyes were glassed over and she was staring at me with the stupidest grin on her face. Then not sure what to do next, she walked over, right in front of everyone and kissed me squarrrr on the mouth and said she loves it! Suddenly her laughing friends stopped laughing and my idiot friend didn't say another word. It was the best kiss EVER! The next song was Lover Her All I can, and now her stifled friends just looked at me with that same weird grin as Betsy, like I just saved all of their puppies from a well or something.
Then when we left, my friend Kenny said, dude, I am SO making Tammy a mix tape when I get home!
True story. We had a great few months and I got to 3rd base......numerous times.
Shortly after that her parents put her in private school and we drifted apart. I'm sure they just wanted her to be around boys that knew how to spell big important words with their finger on her back, correctly.

So when anyone disses Beth, you're dissing my first truly romantic memory. But I don't care, because Beth was the perfect song for the perfect girl at the perfect time.

[glennny]

Quick iPhone reviews 
Down to Under

No particular order....

Paco del Stinko- enjoying immunity has the freedom of a long slog. The center piece is very satisfying after wading through the mud to get there. High metal points. Pure metal.

Cavedwellers- We give you pure metal, from the heyday of metal.  The challenge was one pure word, so we tried to write a great song in the pure context of the genre. I sincerely love metal and for the 1st time in a long time I felt I had license to unleash the metal beast within.

Merisan- excellent song! Pure metal. Reminds me of said Ace of Spades, but also Live Wire by the Crüe. Perhaps Erin's vocals could be a little dirtier, bug even metal heads wish they could sing like that. Awesome!

Frankie- talented bastard. Best metal vocal performance at moments but also crosses into show tune territory at moments. Lyrics need syllabic refining to increase the power of attack. Has many metal ideas, but I'm not sure about the composition. It feels like you're making fun of the genre. Tenaciuis D bombastic choices, that checks all the boxes, but doesn't feel sincere to me.

Gov dyn- we should talk about using a peak limiter on your quiet recordings. This did not feel like it was your comfort zone to my years. It's short in duration, but really drags the whole time. The drums need to be much louder. This needs some bonham thunder for these dinosaur feet. The chorus doesn't differentiate much musically from the verse. 

Tyson docks- I wish you fully committed to this song. You're clearly make fun of metal with the lyrics. You're a great vocalist and frontman so the loud bits really work. The slow bits sound like you're throwing in the towel and just too cool for metal. 

Ross- great LCD metal riff. Distorted horn was inspired. Mad props to Steve for a great solo. Your vocals are too pretty at moments.  Lots of mix issues, you're well aware of. Cool song, I can't wait for the remix. 

Chokehold Princess- I expected you not to take the challenge straight. You make great music. It's no secret I'm a big fan. This is a great song. In the Ben K catalog this is alright, it doesn't move me like some of your masterpieces, but I like it.

Balance lost- there are moments of brilliance in this. Your vocals are almost Johnny Rotten at 1st. You may be lost in the metal genre, but you can rock better than anyone in the competition. When this song rocks it really rocks. The last minute is my favorite, but it's more ghosts and vodka than metal. 

Carlo jr- I don't get the lyrics at all. This sounds no more or less metal than your other songs. This feels very Strong Bad. This certainly rocks. Love the drums as usual. Cool song.

Man Glut-I love the rhythm guitars. Your vocals sound fantastic. This is decidedly not metal, this is the hard rock that replaced metal in the early 90s. Could this be more grunge? Still a cool song, though I hate the drums. The grunge southern drawl is funny. The AIC harmonies don't sound like AIC because they are too harmonically correct. They get that lost sound with 4ths not 3rds. Very cool song, certainly metal enough for the challenge, but it's definitely an alloy, not pure metal.

Wreckdom-nice and heavy. Though I thought you loved metal, this feels like you're making fun of metal heads.  I think the chorus is weak and not too different from the verse. Nice guitar playing , very cool drums! The composition lacks drama to me. I don't feel there's an arc to it. If you commuted to a metal concept you guys would have ruled this round. I thought you might do something like Idiot Flesh- Teen Devil Worshiper. Still a cool song, sorry to nitpick.