hey you finally got approved into geometry dash, good song btw

The contest is over. Can you tick the box?

I like the crisp beats at the beginning and the eerie atmosphere. The heavy bass and twittering synths work well, although the mix sounds a bit strained once the heavy guitars and added harmonies come in at :41. Easing back the reverb might help, but you also might need to get stricter with the equalizers and give the drums a boost in the mid-range frequencies. Otherwise, I like the mood and sound design, but I also think the piece could use a bit more ebb-and-flow in the structure at times. The piece has a near-constant energy level, with the exception of 4 bars or so at 2:30, and it was a missed opportunity to really sell the drama with a big build-up from a minimal breakdown or atmospheric bridge to a final refrain. Instead, you’ve got this call-and-response action among a number of different leads, and no one melody line in particular stands out. The result is that it doesn’t really feel like your piece is leading anywhere, despite some cool individual riffs and catchy rhythmic content. Overall, you did a good job with the instrumentation, atmosphere, and intensity, but the mix could’ve been a lot sharper and the composition lacks an overarching sense of narrative. Still, I admire this piece’s cinematic flair and the variety in the harmonic content. Keep at it, EldritchAutopsy! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
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

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

the mood here is excellent and super fitting - boss fight was a great direction to take this one, because the focus on the character in the artwork you chose is so prominent and they look so powerful and ready to fight... the red/black/white color scheme too evokes that combative, destructive feeling. there's a lot of texture going on in the track, between the breakbeats, all the quick stuttery notes, and the many kinds of synths, and i feel like that's analogous to the more abstract parts of the art, where there's lots of little designs and splotches and lines all over the place. i dig it!

i sort of see this as a multi-phase boss fight, yeah? there's a bunch of distinct sections that jump into one another fairly abruptly, and it borders on being too abrupt at times but overall i do think it's held together pretty well by the breakbeat & otherwise busy, active drums as well as the heady mix. (the highs in the mix also threaten to be too sharp and resonant but honestly you're kinda making it work, lol, i really stopped noticing it as i got into the tune.) there's some melodic parts that i think could benefit from shaping a little more thoughtfully, like the arpeggio patterns especially, but even just some of the lead synths - thinking on more of a macro level, giving them overall direction, might help level them up a bit. but what's here already is really delightful, you have so many cool ideas and they come together for an ultimately quite convincing tune and take on the artwork.

AIM 2023 Judge Review

This is the track I wish played during the final boss battle of the Flash game Serious Dave instead of the menu music they went with. The structure in this entry manages to capture the boss battle theme it's going for really well - including the intro, which feels like that calm before the fight actually begins. I love the drum beat that starts this track; it packs a punch while the other instruments make their way into the texture. The first 30 seconds are a huge stand-out to me with the way everything builds.

Most of the melodies also work well and I think composing upon some keywords based off the art was a great choice to focus on the emotion and the atmosphere. The track has a dark sort of droning undertone with hints of grit here and there that help to bring the image of the character in the art breaking the ground to life. My only challenge with this piece is that it feels like a lot of the melodies feel secondary when put up against one another. I like a lot of the melodic ideas being explored, but I didn't feel like they flowed that well into one another. If I were to rearrange various parts of this track around, I feel like I wouldn't have noticed the difference and I think that takes away from this boss battle concept having an arc and conveying these 5 keywords. It just didn't seem like there was a sense of why the melodies were arranged in this sequence. It makes the piece come across as losing focus which clashes against the very focused intro.

Overall, I love the atmosphere and the intro is super solid and I like what the track is going for as a whole. Generally, the sense of a boss battle is prevalent throughout and the production and sound design reflect the colours in the art strongly for me.