I like the rich strings at the beginning and the church bells. It’s a little hard to follow the rhythm at times here, until the beat comes in at least. The crisp drums pair well with the choirs, although the choir’s melodies seemed a tad jumpy. The breakdown at 1:40 was a welcome switch-up to the texture, and you keep the percussion interesting throughout. The synth melody at 2:25 was a pleasant surprise, and overall the composition comes together well at the end. I think it’s still missing a final climax or “point of arrival” to hit it home, though. It can be hard to make a piece sound engaging and climactic when the main “emotional height” is in the first third or so of it. That said, you nailed the mixing and mastering, sound design, harmonic content, and mood of this one. Keep at it, TheTrester! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
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?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.75/10

Already liking your chords and arrangement up to 12 seconds in. Would place less reverb on virtually everything by a factor of 1/4 to 1/2 the current values.

Your drums are cutting through wonderfully at 45 seconds. There actually could be more reverb on toms and snare. Some points the velocities sound the exact same. Watch for that. Can add humanization to the note heads.

Your guitars are suffering the same way. They also should be double tracked, if you are aware of what that means, and brought up in the mix much louder, by probably about 2 to 3 dB at least -- except for 2:06. The level there doesn't sound bad.

At 2:15, guitars should be IN MY FACE.

You have a great synth line at 2:30 that would be wonderfully supported by those guitars.

I also forgot to add nice use of choirs and transitions throughout. My only complaints are related to metal mixing, and when it comes to your current ability, I think you should have no problem mastering that. Wonderful and touching work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Ominous yet awesome.

Good job !!!