I like the murky atmosphere at the beginning, although there’s a bit of harmonic dissonance in the texture. The crisp drums add a nice sense of drive to the piece, although the fade-out and pause at :55 threw me off a bit. I like the riffs at :59 too, but ideally you would’ve found a way to smooth over the transition in between instead of fading out the one line and then fading in another. The distorted texture at 1:30 is cool, but by this point it seems like most of the guitar riffs mostly serve to just outline the chord progression, as opposed to having a more dynamic pattern or melody. I’m enjoying the mix, though, which is crisp, clear, and well-balanced. There’s another awkward fade-out transition at 2:45. It seems like you know how to structure a piece pretty well. It’s just the transitions that need a little help. The mellow piano at 3:50 was a nice way of switching up the texture. It would’ve been nice if you had switched up the last gritty-sounding chorus at 4:40, just to give the piece more of a sense of overarching direction. Otherwise, I like the atmosphere, harmonies, and mood here. The choppy arrangement and lack of structural variety are my main concerns with the piece. Still, you’ve certainly made up some ground with the production quality and sound design here. Keep at it, TentotheC! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7/10

seems like it's made with room to put vocals in but feels empty without them. nonetheless, the verse and bridge sections are a good use of a limited selection of software instruments with quite serviceable production and mixing, and other than the intro being too long the structure is solid. the guitar tone in the choruses is absolutely dreadful though, there's neither clarity nor depth to that sound and it's way louder than it should be. you should use doubletracking and stereo width to get a bigger sound with rock guitars rather than just cranking the volume. the lowpass filter transitions feel kinda weird but they're definitely unique. would be good to get the finished song with vocals!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

This is cool! Parts like 2:08 are definite high points. Great stuff!