This is a NGADM Round 1 Review.

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Good:
- Solid guitar work.
- Nice mixing.
- Super energetic!
- Just plain fun to listen to!

This was great fun to listen to, and I feel energized when the track is playing (especially around the 1:00 mark)! The production quality is great and your guitar work (as always) is awe-inspiring. I like how you incorporate different moods into the track without ever losing any of the intensity that the song begins with.

What to consider:
- The conclusion falls flat!
- No discernible melody; guitar shredding and solos through and through.

I was looking forward to a blast-off ending based on the energy of the song, but it just kind of ends. It's not a bad ending, or even a bad way to wrap up the track, but it somewhat broke the final moments of musical immersion! The melody thing isn't really a big deal, because the piece is fun to sit back and listen to as it is. However, it would have been nice to hear something that would make this track memorable.

Great track, PirateCrab! Keep it up.

Score: 9.2/10

I love all the filters and the tension at the beginning. Nice job with high-passing the snare at :13 and then really having it loosen up at :21. I like the chord progression and the frantic melodies at :40. You play a lot with the moods here. For example, :40 has a very intense and edgy vibe, whereas :59 has a more flowy and smooth feel in addition to the energy of the previous section. You connect all of these moods very well. I understand that you’re trying to create some structural relief at 2:19, but I think you could’ve done more to create some dynamic contrast in this piece. When your track sounds nearly uniformly intense, it sort of trivializes the intensity IMO, and I think you could’ve done more to polarize the levels of energy here. I don’t have many complaints at all about the mixing and mastering. The production quality is very high. I will say that I thought the snare could’ve come through a bit more at times, but otherwise you did an amazing job on that front. I loved the idea you had at 2:48 of dialing back the volume, and then opening that awesome, full texture back up at 2:53, but I’m not sure the suddenness of it quite worked for me, especially since you seemed to have done so in the middle of a mini-phrase. Even a simple crash probably would’ve eased the abruptness a bit there. I also take issue with the ending. Clearly, that echo effect at the end is awesome, but in and of itself the conclusion of this track could’ve been…well…more conclusive. In fact, shortly before the final note, you seem to be taking the piece in a new direction entirely (following the solo around 3:12), instead of winding it down. Overall, however, this is pretty damn cool. There’s a ton of content to keep me engaged. Quality effort, PirateCrab! ;D

9/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

Dude. LOVE. I've been so impressed with your work since I first heard about you in the NGADM last year (which you probably would've placed even higher than you already did had you not had tech problems!), and this is just amazing! :D

Everyone's already commented on your killer shredding and chugging, but I'm really surprised that no one's commented on that melody at 1:00! I'm gonna disagree slightly with stunkel here (sorry!) and say that that was one of the more memorable melodies of Round 1, in my opinion! One of the things about your tracks last year was that they were a little hard to tell apart - similar instrumentation means that to make a big difference, you gotta make them all memorable in their own way! However, this song is one I'm DEFINITELY going to remember because of that awesome melody! Damn... when it plays filtered at 2:50, it just puts a smile on my face! :D

Great job, dude. Good luck in the rest of NGADM! Not that you need it! ;)

Hey man! So basically I want to start this off by saying the track is REALLY good. The production and mixing is outstanding. And your playing is undoubtedly incredible. In that regard, I really have nothing bad to say. So I'll just go through what I didn't like since I think that's what's important for self-improvement and such.

So my main problem with this track is just one thing really. And it's that it doesn't really grab my attention. It didn't really have me wanting to come back for more, and I didn't quite feel an emotional connection to the music being played. The production and mixing like I said certainly grabs my attention. But I just feel that a lot of the things in this track from a compositional standpoint generally doesn't work properly for this track. I really don't know if it's the melodies or the compositional structure of the song that isn't working for me or what. I can tell that you had some awesome ideas, the beginning had me bobbing my head getting ready for what was in store, but most of the track was not the case in this sense. I just felt that a lot of the track was random playing and improvisation, which isn't a problem at all, but a lot of it didn't feel super memorable to me. There's a lot of fast playing and quick melodies being played, which is certainly impressive, but it just didn't stick with me like for example lunacyechos track (you mentioned you heard it so I thought it'd be a solid example). Miles Davis said that the notes that he plays doesn't mean nearly as much as the space between notes. To be more specific, the timing from one note to the next is what matters more, letting the listener anticipate what is coming next.

I feel this review was sort of all of the place, and it's honestly because I'm not sure what the solution to what I am feeling is, which is why I just said a bunch of random stuff including quoting Miles Davis. It could be completely subjective from my end that I feel this way, but I figured I'd just share my thoughts on it. Looking forward to your next track! This was still definitely the best in your group from round 1. Good luck in NGADM!

p.s. if you'd like me to try to go more indepth on the track to be more specific since I didn't give a clear solution, send me a PM and I'll give the track a little more time.

Rated 5/5

-Ryan

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review!!!
Score: 9.5, Composition: 9, Mix: 9, Bonus: 0.5 for an exceptional guitar performance (seriously, holy shit dude).
I found this piece very intense and the energy came through excellently, the rhythm guitar never outstayed its welcome and was varied throughout, from heavy chugging to melodic sections and power chords during the chorus. The lead guitars were blistering and your phrasing is incredible, the way you can put so much detail into each note blows the mind.

As always, the mix is also top-notch, my only complaint really being that your snare is kinda bad - swamped in reverb and in a weird space of its own. I mean it sounds "ok" in the mix but you wouldn't hear a snare like that in a pro-level piece and I expect nothing but the best from you. You have a great guitar sounds, the lead guitar sits on top beautifully while not masking or overpowering the rest.

METAL! \m/