Your piano in the beginning makes this piece start off almost weary, like it’s traveled a long distance to reach our ears. And well it should, as your mixing says you devoted a lot of time to the piece; as usual, your instrument quality is wonderful.
I don’t find anything particularly memorable about the piece as a whole, unfortunately. Even though it’s beautiful, passionate, and well-mixed, there’s nothing about it that stands out to me or that I find myself humming later. I thought for a bit that the French horns might be taking care of that, but the horns just kind of serve as a way to hurry the song up to the piano again.
I also find that it ends abruptly and I wasn’t sure why. I listened to it without seeing the time marker and found myself waiting for the next part of the song. The piano sits down on a final note and that’s that. A fade-out possibly, with strings, might have contributed to the overall excitement of the piece, instead of the punctuation of one instrument. I almost expected a huge brass noise, a la Inception, immediately following that final note. (In that regard, your composition style definitely reminds me of Zimmer’s work!)
However - even though there’s not too much of a melody, this would work excellently as a background piece, for a war that’s just started to steadily build, or a child that has trained long hours to seek revenge for her family; your talent shines in accenting a character like this and it’s truly a cinematic piece, in every definition.
You have wonderful staccato working tirelessly in the background that really gives the piece an air of tension, which is occasionally marked by the muted piano that tells us another chapter is in the making for our adventure. I also adore the percussion + French horns (even though I just said the horns needed a theme), because they truly sound like real horns and war drums, and fit right into the song nicely.
Save for the sudden ending and lack of theme, this is a wonderfully executed piece!

NGADM Round One Score: 8.4

Talos guid me!

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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If there's one thing that I'm certain of about your music, it's that you have a REAL knack for making these absolutely beautiful intros. This has to have one of the best intros of any Round 1 track, seriously. The way you start things off with that somewhat muted, reverbed piano, and then edged in the string chords so subtly and beautifully 40 seconds in... it honestly blew me away. You set the mood brilliantly and progressed wonderfully from there. What follows is an interestingly atmospheric and well-executed piece of music. I expected the track to open up into something greater while reading the tags you put for this track, but it didn't, instead choosing to portray these moods through subtlety and atmosphere, which is a pretty intriguing approach.

What can I say? It sounds professional, has commendable production value and is overall executed well. My issue with it is that unfortunately, it's pretty forgettable. It retains an almost static dynamic, without really going anywhere. Don't get me wrong, it flows well, but it feels more like a score intended to sit in the background during a film/game scene, rather than to serve as a standalone track to listen to. This is a real shame because I feel like there is enormous amounts of potential in what you've presented here. There are some very nice redeeming factors like your transitions/flow, simple yet appealing motifs, high-quality sounds and good production value, but it ultimately falls short of what it could've been.

I can't not give you credit for making such a well-produced track though! Great work, and thanks for the listen!

SCORE: 7.6/10

Gorgeous track! Lovely sense of restraint.

Just those few opening notes really set the mood for the piece. The piece is quite peaceful almost to listen to, and yet it feels like its hinged on an element of tension - I must say I like that! Really good music! I wish you good luck in the competition :D