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20 Audio Reviews

13 w/ Responses

I'll be another critic

Despite the great quality of the recording, there is just not a whole lot interesting here.

Lots of chugs that try to maintain interesting polyrhythms, but ultimately sound like weak breakdowns that are far too overused. The riffs themselves are alright, but reek of metalcore and moments of tasteless wankery.

The electronic elements are interesting, but I think bands like Violent Work of Art and Blood Stain Child do a much better job of blending them into the song structure and the mix. It's as though you'd like to be progressive, but rather than coming up with song structures and riffs to keep us interested, you just throw in bizarre influences. I can handle bizarre influences when done tastefully like Opeth, but here it just seems forced and arbitrary.

The vocals bother me. I really don't like when screamo folks try to crossover into -core, and this is no exception. There is an inflection to the vocals that just doesn't fit in the metal genre. Hardcore or punk maybe, but for me it just doesn't work. The whole package is made very typical, breakdowns and screamo vocals.

As for constructive feedback - I'd suggest looking at your balance of genres and try to pick something to excel at. Picking from everything at once disables you to shine at any one thing. Maybe listen to some Devin Townsend to hear how he incorporates bizarre things across his music but makes it work with his overall sound. There's a coherence to his music that this song lacks to me. I'd suggest easing off on the chug riffs - djent has become the hip new thing for screamo crossover kids to try out, but bands like Meshuggah will always trump your ripped off efforts. Try to make the riffs a little more interesting. And for lack of better suggestion, while your vocalist fits your -core style, it's a style I abhor and I'd suggest trying to get away from it and picking a new singer entirely. I'd like to see your ending passage come back into something heavier and interesting, because it has a nice feel to it with a smooth lead guitar.

Well, maybe you'll just write me off as an elitist. It just sucks because I can hear there's potential in the instrumentation but there seems to be too much influence on what's "hip" or "in" right now - e.g., dubstep, -core, screamo vocals in metal.

Great stuff

The blend of strings and riffs is great. I felt pieces that could fit well with bands like Blood Stain Child, Skyfire, and to a lesser extent, sort of the arrangement stylings of Septic Flesh or Dimmu Borgir. Just the way things fit together between the riffs and orchestrated pieces. The variations in riffs are all great, very melodic and moving, and the song has a flow to it that works really well.

It's refreshing to hear someone actually making something melodic, and not just lame bass drop effects-laden crap, or the same old thrashy deathy stuff that everyone seems to put on here.

lhceist41 responds:

Thanks for your Review.
Gonna check out those bands, never heard about them before, maybe they'll drop some inspirations to me :D

Yeah i try to get Symphonic Metal back to NG again.
Earlier here were some good Artists in this genre, now it has sadly only a handfull of them.

Amazing!

A perfect blend of brutality, ambience, and dark atmosphere. Yet another song of yours I am favoriting! The guitar tone is great, and the rhythm section may stay stagnant but the tasteful leads and other instruments that come in and out keep it interesting. I usually find guitar driven instrumental music to be plain but this is just awesome. From creepy to brutal to beautiful, it's all here. I wish I could get my guitar and drum tone to sound this good! 5/5

Throughdarkness responds:

Thats exactly the type of atmosphere I was going for! Thanks for the kind words dude. \m/ \m/

Whoa!

This song has been on here since March and I've yet to hear it? How I didn't find this sweet near-4 minutes of riffing, dark atmosphere, and insanity is beyond me. The lack of vocals is fine when it sounds so evil and terrific. The mix is awesome, I don't care what anyone else says. Favorited, 5/5, awesome!

Throughdarkness responds:

Thanks dude, means a lot. I dont have any studio monitors so through my computer speakers it sounds fine. Not sure if its too intense on some peoples or what but Im glad you got to enjoy it \m/ \m/

Awesome tone, great riffs

From death metal to groove metal, breakdowns and metalcore - there's a little bit of it all. The mix is terrific, I can only hope to get my stuff sounding this good now that I'm starting to record guitar-driven music in addition to the piano stuff. Just heavy and brooding the whole time.

Particularly liked the riff starting at 0:25, gave me a strong At The Gates vibe. Awesome stuff, favorited, 5/5, etc.

deathkllr84 responds:

Thanks dude. The mix sounds decent on most speakers, but I still have a lot of work to do cleaning up my mixes. Just keep practicing and writing songs, and you will improve. At the gates? Never liked them, but I will check some of their new stuff, \m/

Great until the clean vocals

Then it just sounds generic. Here I was getting ready to hit 'favorite' but the clean chorus kicked in and just took the song into 'bleh' territory very quickly. Some people love it, I think it's a scapegoat for bands that want to keep a pop appeal or don't know how to flesh out a chorus... redo it replacing the clean vocals with screamed vocals and maybe make the chorus riff a little more interesting and I'd likely give it a 10!

mentalissues responds:

Im sorry, but you must take us for a band that wants to become a sellout.
We will not replace this song with screams in the refrain just because you dont like it. We have already made this song, this is final. Too bad you dont like it, but really, do you tell other bands that "maybe you should have done like this"?
Try sending a mail to slipknot and explain you didnt like their intro riff and wants them to change it.
OMFGZORCOPTER

I get a Chimaira vibe

I think it's the vocal tone and inflection, along with the thrashy riffs. Heavy, original, vocals included, good production - how can someone not give a 5?

Not quite my style

The ties with the typical metal core style, especially the semi-low screams and breakdown at around 1:55 are a huge turn off to me.

However, in a free audio portal, with these production values, an original song (so tired of lame covers!), and some good riffs throughout the verses, this song deserves no less than a 5 of 5.

TheRealSam responds:

Thanks a lot man! Glad to see you took the time to listen to the whole song even if it ain't your style! We're actually trying to get away from metalcore stuff and get more into some melodic progressive shit, I'll post some new songs very soon, you'll see what I mean ^^

Once you get used to the electronic guitars

It's a solid tune once you get used to the guitar sound, albeit really needs some vocals as the rhythm riff gets a little dull after a while.

Great but one thing

I'm down with raw black metal production and thought the riffs and song structure were great. However, I think the vocals could do with a lot less reverb. They sound detached from the rest of the music, despite having a good black metal tone and pitch.

himenow responds:

Yeah, I ruined most of my older stuff with too much reverb on vocals >.<
But I'm starting to get better :)

I rate almost all covers "0" immediately, because it does not take much work or effort to cover a song. Unless it's an interesting song choice done in an interesting way, it does not merit a favorable rating. Also, fuck -core.

Royce Hix @Hend

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