This is bladdy awesome! I'm such a sucker for non 4/4 time sigs :D
If you ever want me to record some guitar for one of your tracks in the future, I'd be more than happy to!
Reviews for "Vanquish the Night"
bassfiddlejones responds:
Crab battle! Hey man, your track rocked. It was an honor to be up against you in this. It would be sick to collab sometime, I will have to hit you up man! I think we could make some pretty awesome stuff happen :O
Awesome stuff here. I really like when musicians make signature changes. I love it.
bassfiddlejones responds:
Thanks man, glad you liked it!
This is brillant 5/5! I love it <3
bassfiddlejones responds:
Thanks!
This is an NGADM Round 3 Review
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Is it just me or is there a tendency for NGADM submissions to sound like boss music? On top of that, it's as the contest gets closer to the final round, the music becomes more serious and epic-sounding. Maybe the tension/excitement of getting closer to determining a winner is starting to affect the music too, haha.
Rambling aside, this is wonderfully exciting, dramatic, and epic-sounding stuff. It has so much vibrance and energy, and explores so many different facets of the cinematic/symphonic metal genre of music that it's impossible to get bored of it. There's so much replay value and likeability to be found here, whether it's in the addicting melodies, huge amount of variety, intense mood, phenomenal guitar playing, or any of the million and one other things this track has to offer.
I also believe that my praise in my last review for your Round 2 track also applies here. I absolutely love how you seem to have the ability to throw in all those crazy time signature changes and modulations without any detriment to the song's casual listening appeal. This sounds like something I could dissect to figure out all the cool stuff you did with the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, and then, an hour later, leave running in the background while playing some RPG. This is such a valuable virtue to have in the music industry, because it really increases your music's target audience and overall likeability.
I have two gripes. First is, as you would imagine, the mixing/production. I'm not finding it hard to believe you rushed the mix, because it shows. The orchestra feels detached from the guitar, especially in parts like 0:49, where the guitar is all upfront and thick, and the orchestra is somewhere in the distant background. There's a lot of clutter and muddiness in certain sections like 1:25. Also, while I'm usually a fan of how you execute your orchestra (speaking to bassfiddlejones here), I'm not too impressed this time round I'm afraid! The piano sounds a bit too bright, and the brass/strings feel very flat and lacking in dynamics, mostly prominent in the section at 1:52. Speaking of that section, do you have any samples that support legato transitions between notes? Because that 1:52 part sounds unrealistic, and some proper legato on those strings/brass would really help.
Another issue I have with this is how you haphazardly switch from one section to another. I was really hoping for some more clever transitions, and while some of them are excellent, EVEN when switching between two totally different moods (looking at you, 0:13), others, like 4:10, are almost nonsensical. Honestly, you guys kind of make it harder for yourselves to achieve a smooth flow by adding all these crazy mood/time signature changes, though! Not that it isn't worth it :p.
All in all, this is beautifully written. Both you and your competitor had stellar submissions, but I gave you guys an advantage of 0.2 because, while both you and your opponent had issues transitioning between different sections, your track has a more unified direction. It was certainly a close matchup, and I would've been happy seeing either of you win. Good luck in the semifinals!
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SCORE: 9.2/10
bassfiddlejones responds:
This super sounds like boss music to me too, haha. Yes, transitions - noted it in a response below. Some definitely got more time than others, which is what we had to do with the time crunch. Also, as this is mostly guitar driven we took a little bit of a different approach to the orchestra this time. Sometimes it's tough to balance the two. Step thank you for your feedback, we truly use it to try and get better. I agree with your criticisms, and we look forward to hearing what you have to say about the next piece!
This is an NGADM 2015 Review.
This is a fantastically varied epic. I love how rich and diverse it is, and how well it all flows. Most of the transitions worked seamlessly, and the few that didn’t weren’t noticeably off. Production is also fairly good, though it isn’t perfect, but I don’t honestly think it hurts the song too much.
So, starting off - lovely intro, really like how you jump into the epic theme of things so suddenly. I like the time changes that you weave in and around the 4/4… it creates this tense pace that I really like, but I don’t think each sections is carried very well by its solo. The first two seem a little melodically messy. The third one is SICK though good lord.
One of the first overwhelmingly positive thoughts I remember having about this song involved the first piano section around 01:30. I love the sound and I love the melody. It’s nothing new but by god does it work. The breakdown that follows this section is lovely as well, providing a nice change in pace. I like the brass in this section a lot, and the transition to the flamenco guitar works fairly well.
The flamenco section itself really stands out from the rest of the song. I feel that you should have let it sit on its own a little more before bringing the electric guitar back in. Without standing on its own for a while it feels a little pointless and sticks out a lot thematically - that said, it definitely re-engaged me from a listening perspective on my first playthrough and I enjoyed it.
Production-wise you’re pretty solid; I can hear everything quite comfortably. Everything feels a little mid-oriented, though - it could be the lack of high end that makes me feel this way. The lows are mostly fine. I think you might be over-using your reverb a bit, because some parts of the song did sound quite muddy to me, especially the second piano section. Despite any of this, your mastering is pretty great - the song is pretty loud and reaches around -10RMS. I think the only major issue is too much reverb and not enough high end, as the song is a little dull (spectrally!)
Seriously impressive track. My review would probably sound more praising if I was better at talking about composition, because that was definitely the strongest part of this song. Fantastic work.
bassfiddlejones responds:
Geoplex, thank you for the review! I wish we could have done more flamenco actually, but the idea is that the acoustic and electric guitars were battling each other, thus the breaks in between (which I liked, but I understand your point). As noted below, mixing had to be rushed a little bit (a lot). Thank you for the kind words Geoplex, and we definitely use your feedback. Glad you liked the piece!