Round 2 Results (RC March Metal Madness)

[General Zod]

Bracket 1
Warning - Watching From a Distance (10) vs. Drudkh - Blood in our Wells (23)
Neurosis - A Sun That Never Sets (11) vs. Novembers Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure (16)
Wolves in the Throne Room - Diadem of 12 Stars (27) vs. Vreid - Pitch Black Brigade (1)
Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness (12) vs. Immortal - Sons of Northern Darkness (18)

Bracket 2
Destroyer 666 - Phoenix Rising (17) vs. Isis – Panopticon (16)
Orphaned Land - Mabool (10) vs. Woods of Ypres - Against the Seasons (18)
Amon Amarth - Versus the World (15) vs. Reverend Bizarre - In The Rectory Of The Bizarre Reverend (17)
Maudlin of The Well - Leaving Your Body Map (6) vs. Hammers of Misfortune - The August Engine (22)

Bracket 3
Negura Bunget - N' Crugu Bradului (29) vs. Vital Remains – Dechristianize (4)
Empyrium - Weiland (20) vs. Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines (12)
Disillusion - Back to Times of Splendor (8) vs. Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite (9)
Enslaved - Below the Lights (17) vs. Nokturnal Mortum - Weltanschauung (16)

Bracket 4
Colour Haze - Colour Haze (10) vs. Spiritual Beggars - Ad Astra (4)
Tool - Lateralus vs. (10) Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness (24)
Summoning - Oath Bound (17) vs. Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (11)
Agalloch - The Mantle (29) vs. Manegarm - Vredins Tid (3)

Round 3 will begin Monday morning...

Zod

 

[General Zod]

Outcomes that surprised me...

Amon Amarth losing to Reverend Bizarre... didn't see that coming.

Wolves absolutely pounding Vreid. I assumed Wolves would win, but yikes.

Destroyer 666 edging out Isis' "Panopticon"? Didn't realize there was that much D666 love.

Nokturnal Mortum standing toe to toe with the mighty Enslaved and nearly pulling it out.

Zod

 

[Dark One]

My surprises:

The Immortal over Green Carnation. I enjoy SoND, but I've never seen anyone give it extremely high props, whereas I've seen plenty put LoD, DoD up on a pedastol (including myself). This was a clear case of name brand and nothing more. The Bathory Syndrome if you will.

Orphaned Land's Mabool getting beaten soundly by Woods of Ypres. Looks like it's time for me to give Woods of Ypres a serious effort, because Mabool is probably up there in my top 25 albums of all time right now.

Symphony X once again squeaking by with 1 vote to spare and making it to the third round, amazing. Unfortunately, no way does it make it past Enslaved, Empyrium or Negura Bunget.

Side Observation - Agalloch looks poised to run the tourney here. I really, really enjoy The Mantle, but I'm still pulling for an upset.

Jason

 

[General Zod]

Symphony X once again squeaking by with 1 vote to spare and making it to the third round, amazing. Unfortunately, no way does it make it past Enslaved, Empyrium or Negura Bunget.

Although I might argue that "V: The New Mythology Suite" is the best disc in contest, that they're still alive in this little contest is completely attributable to a lack of competition.

Zod

 

[Krilons Resa]

bleh.

 

[swizzlenuts]

I'm surprised so many people like November's Doom. I though Neurosis was an easy win.

 

[Thanatopsis123]

The Immortal over Green Carnation. I enjoy SoND, but I've never seen anyone give it extremely high props, whereas I've seen plenty put LoD, DoD up on a pedastol (including myself). This was a clear case of name brand and nothing more. The Bathory Syndrome if you will.

I don't think that's true at all. I can only speak for myself here but I very much enjoy SoND and have never liked LoD, DoD. I've never much understood the love that Green Carnation album gets. Is it the novelty of the long track? What is it people love so much about it? I find it to be long winded and incohesive. Neither it's parts nor the sum of its parts are worthy of the praise it receives.

I'm surprised so many people like November's Doom. I though Neurosis was an easy win.

Other than the amount by which some bands won, this is the only thing that surprised me this round. I'm not surprised that so many here like November's Doom (their popularity around here skyrocketed after the first HC), I just wouldn't have expected it to win against Neurosis.

 

[Dark One]

I don't think that's true at all. I can only speak for myself here but I very much enjoy SoND and have never liked LoD, DoD. I've never much understood the love that Green Carnation album gets. Is it the novelty of the long track? What is it people love so much about it? I find it to be long winded and incohesive. Neither it's parts nor the sum of its parts are worthy of the praise it receives.

Sure, that's your opinion and you're more than entitled to it, but I stand by what I said. I know many enjoy SoND, but I've never heard it given the true high end praise that I've heard LoD, DoD get. It doesn't bother me all that much as I basically freakin' love Immortal, it just surprised me a bit is all.

Jason

 

[Krilons Resa]

You haven't heard any Neurosis? :zombie:

 

[Reign in Acai]

I voted for Neurosis for the reason that they are an innovator that inspired countless of bands in which I noodle dance to with glee. "The Pale Haunt Departure" on the other hand is nowhere near being ND's best album, that honor would go to "The Knowing". Yes I know that these matchups are meant to be based onhead to head quality, but in certain cases outside variables are needed.

 

[unknown]

Symphony X beat out Disillusion by ONE POINT. Goddammit!

 

[General Zod]

I think the popularity of The Pale Haunt Departure comes almost exclusively from HC. It was their latest album at the time, so I'm not surprised that most of the folks who saw their awesome performance at Heathen have heard the album.

I don't think that's true. I don't think Novembers Doom made any new fans at HC (from Royal Carnage). I think we were all fans heading into that show. If you recall, there was a very long review thread, on "Pale Haunt", previous to HC, in which Paul and Larry (of ND) participated.

Zod

 

[JayKeeley]

Drudkh would of course win. Great album and made my top 10 list last year. That said, Warning's only been out a couple of months but give it a few years.... have the mainstream media missed this release entirely? I haven't seen any reviews. I wonder whether Miskatonic even sent out promos?

Neurosis / Isis will always struggle simply because they're an acquired taste, and the masses will always generally maintain some bias towards 'real' metal artists -- or rather, bands that emerged from the blueprints of Sabbath, Maiden, etc. and not avante garde, post punk, -core origins.

Immortal got my vote simply because I listen to it more than GC. And that's about all the logic I used in this case. Same applies to Symphony X. The truth is, Disillusion possibly is the better album where V is just waaay too long, but damn, that was the toughest vote.

Let's face it, Nokturnal Mortum RE-released an EP with bonus tracks. If you don't own the ToV EP then "Weltenshwarz" is worth owning for sure, but I had to go for the Enslaved album only because all the songs were both new and excellent. The song, "As Fire Clean Swept the Earth" is at least as good as the "Weltenschlong" title track (and that was already released on the fucking EP).

No surprises in Bracket 4.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Drudkh would of course win. Great album and made my top 10 list last year. That said, Warning's only been out a couple of months but give it a few years.... have the mainstream media missed this release entirely? I haven't seen any reviews. I wonder whether Miskatonic even sent out promos?

lol Im sure thats not his goal.

and def no promos.

 

[JayKeeley]

Is there any promotion of Miskatonic releases? What about touring? (Unless that's self funded).

Here's something interesting:

Neurosis
Immortal*
Green Carnation
Isis
Amon Amarth
Nile
Tool

All these artists are somewhat 'famous' in the mainstream today, meaning they get a TON of promotion in mainstream magazines like Brave Words or Terrorizer, and go on big tours (except maybe GC). *Of all these bands, only Immortal won its match up, and even then, it was up against GC.

 

[skeptik]

I still can't believe Immortal was chosen over The Chasm.

 

[JayKeeley]

How would you feel if it lost to Green Carnation?

 

[skeptik]

I don't really know, because while I prefer the Immortal album in question, it's also generally considered their weakest, while the GC is considered their best by most, and seems to get a fair amount of love here. I would disagree with either, but I'm not sure which would surprise me more...I suppose the Immortal album.

 

[JayKeeley]

lol Im sure thats not his goal.

and def no promos.

By the way, you do realize that by "mainstream media", I mean stuff like Terrorizer magazine etc. Not Rolling Stone.

 

[skeptik]

I don't see any Miskatonic releases making it to Terrorizer any time soon.