Nur Ein X Round Seven "Dogs of War"

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JonPorobil
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Nur Ein X Round Seven "Dogs of War"

Post by JonPorobil »

Welcome to Round Seven!

Title: Dogs of War
Non Optional Challenge: Bring Your A Game
Songs are Due on: Monday, June 8th @ 12:01 AM EDT
Send your MP3 to nurein.sidefight@gmail.com

NUR EIN!!!!!!!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by j$ »

BTW I just noticed the date for submissions in the 'No Comments' thread is wrong - says 1st June. Would have commented there but, well, you know ...

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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by frankie big face »

Fixed. (testing 1 2 3 4 - need 10 characters to post)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by j$ »

frankie big face wrote:Fixed. (testing 1 2 3 4 - need 10 characters to post)
Wasn't that the lyric to Erik's song from last round? :)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by frankie big face »

You're on fire this morning!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by j$ »

And you're fired this evening!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by ken »

The title for this round should have been "Get a Room."
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by j$ »

Who's 'Ken' again? Oh yeah, that guy who got evicted an AGE ago!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by glennny »

The title for this round should have been "Get a Room."
I thought the same thing.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by j$ »

Waah waah waah. Get a (practice) room, boys ...
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by glennny »

Nick,

That is a beautiful song! Good job! Best of Luck!

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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by JonPorobil »

Challenge met, both of you. I'm going to have a difficult time making up my mind.

TO EVERYONE:
Round 7 is not decided solely by the five judges. If you competed in any round of Nur Ein X, you may PM me with your vote for who should be this year's NUR EIN. If you band has more than one person, come to a collective decision, because you only get one vote for the whole band.

There are 21 other competitors, and 5 judges, for a total of 26 votes. I'll leave the voting open until one minute prior to midnight Tuesday (roughly 47 hours from now) or until one of the two remaining competitors gets a majority (14 votes), whichever comes first.

May the best man or band win!

NUR EIN!!!!!!!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by noma »

Wow! Cavedwellers' song is great. Your melody got stuck in my head immediately. I really dig the guitar solo (and that little lick in the chorus, too) and the quieter part right after it, too. Guess I should be a bit, like, more derisive or something about your entry, since this is still a fight, but even if I wanted to, I'd have a hard time trying to find something to criticize about it. ;) If you don't feel the same way about my song, go ahead and tell me so; I'm prepared. 8-)

Now, some of you may be surprised at how laid-back my song sounds. So let me explain.
At first, I did not like this title at all. By no means is it a bad title, it just didn't seem like a good title for a Nick Soma song, as opposed to, say, a Carlo Bruno song. Pink Floyd's "The Dogs of War", which Cavedwellers mentioned in their lyric, kept echoing in my head, enforcing the idea that a song with such an epic title has to sound majestic, grandiose, heavy on the prog side, perhaps with a menacing atmosphere given the title. But that didn't seem like a thing I'd do, certainly not if I was meant to give my A game. :D
So eventually, I decided on an antithesis to the violent title, the result of which is my song. I hope you enjoy it. :)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by Caravan Ray »

noma wrote:enforcing the idea that a song with such an epic title has to sound majestic, grandiose, heavy on the prog side, perhaps with a menacing atmosphere given the title.
The title came from a suggestion I made for the first round, but reappeared here in a shorter form than I originally suggested - which was the more Shakesperian "Let Slip the Dogs of War" (Julius Caesar - Act 3, Scene 1)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by frankie big face »

I voted! (Where's my button?)

I'm not reviewing the songs. Good job, you guys.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by ken »

My paypal account is available to accept bribes...
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by iVeg »

Voted :D
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by Pigfarmer Jr »

Nick Soma: I'm rather fond of the vocal as it reminds me of Jay Farrar... well, really the whole song reminds me of his style at least a bit. You take a grand view of the title, continent size, really, which works better (for me) when listening than when reading. I liked the BGV and how it resolves the song. That intro drew me in immediately. I liked the sound of the mix. When the full band hits it just feels right. I'm not sure the chorus works as well as the verses for me. I want more or bigger or... maybe less. I want something to make it stand out for me. I like the arrangement (that intro works even better for me on subsequent listens), the phrasing and the pace. This passes the "do I want to hear it again" test easily.

Cavedwellers: I liked the arrangement of the brief intro but it was either too brief or the change into the first verse was just a tad too abrupt. Not awful, just noticeable. I think that transition at approximately 1:15 works wonderfully. The verse is fine, does it's job well enough, but it's your chorus that got stuck in my head. I like the guitars, the sound, the energy. The lead worked for me. The scaled back break at just before 3:00 is a very tasty touch as well as the transition out of it back into the prechorus and final chorus. The structure works very well, but your implementation of the arrangement really brings it out. If I were to nitpick, a couple of the oooh bgv sounded just a hair off for me. Not every spot and I liked the ahhs. And something about those toms in the prechorus just make me notice them more in a distracting way than a good way. (Okay listening back the first time through wasn't as noticeable as in the second time through. And again, this is a nit that I'm picking.) This song also passes the "do I want to hear it again" test easily. Your chorus is stuck in my head after repeated listens to both songs both this morning and this evening.

I liked both songs this week. I liked both endings which (for me) could easily have gone the other way in both cases. It's always my fear that the final round won't live up to some of the previous rounds (which several I thought were very strong) but I'm pretty happy with this one. Good luck to ya's both.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by ken »

Cavedwellers: Your song is too long and the ending is ridiculous.

Nick Soma: Don't bore us, get to the chorus.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by furrypedro »

Nick: Out of the two songs this feels the most natural and accomplished in terms of structure and vocal melody, the fundamental bones of the song. I quite like the imagery in your lyrics, they add to the feel of the song rather than detract. There was a part of me that kinda hoped (to begin with) that you'd keep the arrangement bare with just the mandolin just for the pure boldness of doing a stripped down song in a Nur Ein final but I do like your arrangement and with hindsight I'm glad you did this. I also initially felt that I wanted the song to be more bombastic and epic but it does it's job well enough and I also like the backing vox and way they fade to the outro. I don't think this is your best song of the competition but it feels like a "final" song which is an invaluable quality at this stage.

CD: For your sake I am tempted to judge this on the things it does well. Firstly, the recording shines and right from the opening notes there is a comforting sense of aural treats to come. Secondly, and I am 50/50 about whether this is actually a good thing or not, I do like any reference to either Kate Bush or Carl Sagan, however there almost feels something incredibly needy about wanting to make references so transparently. From the things that Glen has said on the boards throughout I get a sense of pandering to the listener and I find something inherently unattractive about that as a listener, it just goes against the rock n roll ethic in my mind. Thirdly, I think the awkward changes are pretty cool because I like when things are played in a goofy way in songs. The ending is ridiculous, and that's exactly what I like about it. So yeah, that's me judging your song on the good points. Overall though it feels a little too workmanlike. The words and melodies don't feel effortless though they are sung very well, and it's the kind of thing I would expect to hear from a songfight artist, albeit a good one, but not the kind of thing I would expect to hear on the radio. Finally, it feels like track 6 or 9 on an album - that is definitely not a cue for you to list albums with an awesome track 6 or 9, what I mean is I wouldn't expect it to either open or close a record. I wanted The Song Remains The Same and I got The Crunge (sorry, harsh comparison, it was the first that sprung to mind!). It's a good song dudes, but A-game it ain't.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by Lunkhead »

Er, isn't it announcement time, or past it...?
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Seven

Post by noma »

furrypedro wrote:There was a part of me that kinda hoped (to begin with) that you'd keep the arrangement bare with just the mandolin just for the pure boldness of doing a stripped down song in a Nur Ein final but I do like your arrangement and with hindsight I'm glad you did this.
I wanted to do that at first, but then I decided on playing it safe because I'm a pussy. :P
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