I like the emotional appeal of the strings at the beginning and the militaristic percussion. The top line at :35 is when the samples start to sound noticeably fake, given the textbook uniform vibrato and slight pauses simulating bow direction changes. That said, I really like the contrapuntal nature of the melodic content and the tasteful, smooth transition at 2:02. There’s a lot of cohesion in the harmonic content, and you did a good job with incorporating subtle elements of phrasing and dynamic contrast. I wasn’t sure how much the top melody line was supposed to blend into the rest of the texture, but sometimes I thought you would do a better job of channeling the emotion here if you had only made it stick out so much towards the very end, instead of its vacillating prominence throughout the piece. Production-wise, I thought the percussion should’ve been a lot stronger to keep the mix balanced and the energy of the piece alive. The drums really faded into the background after a while, which changed the character of the piece hugely, as during the first 20 seconds or so of the piece, it sounded like the prelude to a great battle scene. Despite these details, overall you have really strong work here. You found a way to make a very niche instrumental palette simultaneously accessible and inspiring. Still, there’s some room for you to do more with a piece like this, and (if the other judges cooperate) I’ll look forward to hearing it in the next round. Keep up the good work, AriothXerril! ^_^
Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.75/10
AriothXerril 
