About time I reviewed one of your tracks after all those reviews and feedback you left for me!
So, yeah. As usual, this is extremely impressive work. Probably one of my favourite in the whole album, and whether you're into remixing or not, you're pretty darn good at it. You've managed to interpret the original theme extremely well and have created a fantastic track out of it. And it stands out as one of the few ambient tracks in the album too!
To start off, let me commend you on the brilliant atmosphere and feeling you've got throughout the track. I'm honestly amazed by how COLD this track feels. The synths/pads are very bright, with plenty of high-end reverb and sweeps, that make this feel like I'm exploring Phendrana all over again. And even with all those high, crisp-sounding sounds and effects, you throw in an inarguably addictive bassline behind it all and it STILL sounds brilliant.
Composition-wise, I love how you've thrown in some of your own composition and integrated it so smoothly with what there already was. That bassline's melody in particular, like pretty much all your others, is fantastic. It was the same one-bar bassline throughout, and despite the fact that it's beyond me that it harmonises so well for the whole song, I think that some changes to the bassline would've been interesting. It's fine as it is though, and doesn't feel repetitive at all. Oh and as usual, spectacular guitars. Love the guitar doodling at the end.
Mixing is incredible; I think you've really outdone yourself mixing-wise. As I said above, all of the hissing and fluffy high-end stuff gives off a freezing feeling, but at the same time you don't overload that section of the mix, and everything still sounds well-rounded (except maybe the mids that could've been a very slight bit fuller). I love the bassy tones, the thump from the kick, and the clarity of everything. I also must point out how enormous you make the strings I made sound. Especially the little buildup thing I did at 2:42. It was pretty wimpy when I sent it to you but you certainly made it sound massive and encapsulating. SO MUCH TALENT.
The intro is one of my favourite intros from the whole album, if not my favourite. It probably ties with the intros of Altar of Aether, Unauthorised Access, Beyond the Glass and/or The Calm before the Fire. The ending's pretty great too. Not sure why you ended it on that weird guitar note when you had such a great ending going, but frankly it doesn't annoy me too much.
The transitions are GREAT man. Everything is so smooth. You don't really have any revolutionary transitions like the ones you had in Drifting, Endless Day of Grass Fields, etc... but they're as smooth as ice and glue each of the sections together firmly. I especially like the transition to the 'climax' halfway through and how you approached that transition. The transition at 0:39 is pretty sweet too; great introduction of the drums and solid progression from then on.
Nothing to complain about with the drums. They fit ridiculously well. I like the contrast between the abrupt and thumpy kick and the soft and light claps/snares/hats. Everything is well-balanced and clear, and the rhythms are all fitting. It's pretty darn hard to fault your drums.
Well, I haven't reached the character limit so I guess that this review is short for my standards. Oh well, I'm sure you don't mind! Incredible work all-round, I absolutely love this track and I wish you made more remixes for Harmony of a Hunter. Keep up the great work :3.
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd.