I was confused as hell for a moment. I saw the band “We are the Romans” on there and was surprised, as I had heard stuff from that band, and not only was it horrible (pop-hardcore, what the kids call screamo), but they were a signed band.

Did some research, and realized that the band I was thinking of is “We Came as Romans.”

“We Are the Romans” actually sound pretty cool, and they are heavy as shit. However, they have a name that is almost identical to a REALLY SHITTY BAND. But I guess as the character Michael Bolton says in Office Space (in reference to changing his name which is the same as an awful pop singer), “Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.”

So “We are the Romans” does not equal “We Came as Romans”….I may actually be voting for “We Are the Romans,”…sound a bit like The Red Chord, but definitely cool stuff.

Looking at the package though, much of it really isn’t that useful or practical. Photo shoot/new wardrobe? These aren’t American Idol artists, 90% of these bands don’t care about that. The “advice” from all the stars in the industry is cool, but advice can only do so much for you. It’s all about personal drive and smarts to get ahead. Getting your EP done by Machine is obviously the coolest perk. I think new equipment, new transportation (van or bus, etc.) would be far more useful than some of the other nonsense. I guess the marketing/promotion/site retooling is useful as well, but the whole thing seems sort of half-assed. Not that if I was in a band I wouldn’t want to win all of it, though.

So here goes my determining process. I’m basically just going to list thoughts on each song as they come to me.

8 Infinite Suns – Not terribly bad, but not really striking a chord with me either.

Bled for Glory – Also not bad, but still not blowing me away. Kind of rocking an All That Remains/Autumn Offering vibe, but I like it more than most of either of their material. I dig it, but there aren’t really any surprises here.

Brotherhood – It’s hard to stay focused listening to this. Far too generic for me.

Dark Vital Flames – I’m digging this more than the others so far. I like the guitar work. It’s not mind blowing, but it’s pretty cool. Sections of the song drag, but when it picks up I enjoy it.

Destroy the Opposition – I’m judging a book by its cover…hopefully I’m wrong. Oh look at that, I wasn’t. Thank you for having a track that is randomly twice as loud as the others. This isn’t even good for deathcore. Next.

Dethlehem – I like this. Except the clean vocals. I’m sure I could get used to them, but on first listen, they’re kinda irritating. Their placement and concept are good, I just don’t like the execution. Other than that, this is good stuff.

Discidium – Meh. Reminds me of Pantera. I don’t like Pantera.

Electric Horsemen – Sounds about how I would expect based on their name and look. It’s not bad. I like the vocalist quite a bit.

Falling to Pieces – Nice melodic riffing that occurs a couple of times. This song isn’t anything amazing, but I’d listen to it again. The breakdown type sections aren’t that great.

Giants Among Us – This is horribly recorded. Other than that, not too shabby. The random symphonic stuff(I’m not even sure if it can be called that) is kind of uneeded, but doesn’t really take away from it either. Kind of reminds me of The Esoteric. The breakdown at the end is atrocious, but I like the rest.

Hammerlord – This just gets a big meh from me. I don’t hate it, but I’d never listen to it again. The vocalist is annoying.

Hemoptysis – I like the beginning quite a bit. And the vocals are nice. This is some quality stuff. The melodic parts are pretty sick too. They keep things fairly varried throughout the song. There’s nothing terribly amazing about the gallop riffing, but it gets the job done and still sounds good.

Iris Divine – Metalsucks says they’ve written about these guys before. I guess I missed that article. I really like the way this starts. This is by far the most interesting a song has been so far. I’m not really like the song once the vocals start, which is sad. When it picks up, it gets much better though. This seems like a growing thing.

Iron Thrones – This is the only band I’d heard of prior to this little venture. There’s a reason for that. This song, as well as the rest of the album it appears on, is fantastic. They’ve got a lot of similarities to Opeth, but they manage to differentiate themselves enough that they don’t make me want to just go listen to Blackwater Park.

Lorus – Pretty awesome track. My only real gripe is that I’m not huge into strictly instrumental bands. This is definitely one of the standout tracks in this contest though.

Orwell – Whoever produced the drums for this should never be let near recording equipment again. Other than that, this isn’t too bad. It reminds me of something, but I can’t quite figure out what.

Proven – That HAS to be Jamey Jasta. Pretty by the books Melodic Metalcore. Not horrible, but not getting my vote either.

Reciprocal – There was a time I would have proclaimed these guys to be gods. I’ve kind of moved on from this kind of stuff in recent years. This is a definitely good listen though.

Scorched Earth Policy – Hmmm…this is interesting. Not really my thing, but I can see people digging these guys.

We Are the Romans – No wonder the Roman Empire collapsed. Fuck this. Hard.

So yea, as expected, my vote to Iron Thrones. I’m kind of disappointed(but not really surprised) that a contest with this much potential features a large number of bands that don’t really have much to offer.