This is an NGADM Round 1 Review
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You know, I think it's an incredible shame that you ended up in a group with one of the highest-scoring participants this round. This is super high quality stuff. The ever-present, dark, ominous feeling melds so well with the thrilling drum and bass and triplet time, creating an incredible memorable style and captivating experience. You fill that up with a suitable amount of variety, but still always remain true to your compositional style, so despite the relatively long nature of this track, it feels like one cohesive experience throughout. There are some really cool things in here like the glock or piano solos. Very good stuff.
I'm afraid I absolutely agree with TaintedLogic that I was hoping for more tension releases in this track. I always feel like your track is accumulating huge amounts of tension during parts like 1:30, but that tension is kept lingering, due to the unfortunately anticlimactic buildups and transitions you employ throughout the track. You'd have created a much more satisfying experience with more effective control of tension, in my opinion. From a mixing standpoint, this is crystal clear and well-produced, but I was hoping for a bit more low end from the drums. I also feel like some synths stick out in the mix rather unnaturally, namely 0:22's synth and its reappearance at 2:58. I get that you use it to play one of the track's underlying motifs, but the way it stands out so much compared to everything else throws the listener off a tad too much.
I consider this one of the best tracks this round. It's not a track without its flaws, but most every aspect of this track is executed so well. Brilliant job, and it's a shame we're not seeing you in Round 2.
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SCORE: 9.0/10