Really nice, every element was played super well! With some mix improvements on the drums in particular, you'd be well on your way to making more cool shit!
Author Comments
YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD
Snake memery out of the way, this one comes from the same sessions as Road Warrior did. Not much to say here, I dig the "progressive" vibe of the whole song, in the loosest possible sense of the word. Of course this one's based on Snake's first mission, which was to rescue Don Pleasance from Mr. T, who apparently, passes for Duke Nukem since why else would he be nicknamed the Duke in the movie? Also we get to see Mermaid Man fight the EEEEEVILs of bipedal transportation with a cab and Harry Dean Stanton blows up, but he got better cause then he did more movies. What you thought Outer Heaven was Snake's first mission? Foolish MGS fan, you know NOTHING.
Here's the words for it;
In the times to come, of a bleak tomorrow
Humanity fell to crime
400 percent, the prisons are full
Everyone is doing time
A solution is given to convert New York
Into a giant penitentiary
No rules inside, nowhere to hide
A makeshift purgatory
A Hijacked plane, liberation fronts
The president must die
In the heart of the city, there lies the wreckage
As the goons, they hear it's cry
Through the outskirts, due to procession
Snake Plissken's still alive
Sent into the den, a suicide mission
To bring the president's archive
Escape from New York!
Into the void of death
Into the killing fields
Into the fires of depravity, a city ruled by fear
Going down the World Trade
Into the dirty streets
Safe in the shadows so long the crazies don't hear
The imperialist's throat
Held tight by the Duke's grip
They sent the war hero to fight the Slag in the pit
Out of the prison fortress
The president in tow
Details of a new war to wage switched by a dancing skit
MercyfulDeath responds:
Thanks man, I wish I could improve the drums but I used a plugin on the left guitar for the cabinet sound that doesn't fucking work anymore because it was a "demo" and the fuckers are charging me 30$ so I can get it back and fuck that, I'm a goddamn pirate. Still though, I'm glad you took the time to listen and write the review, I really appreciate it!
I absolutely love Death Metal, so when I saw that I could review this in R4R I was excited. And you know what? You delivered on that excitement. The progressive riffs and melodies are very reminiscent of a Death Metal song, so you definitely got me going there. There are some gripes I have with it though that really put this song off for me.
First off: Where's the crunch? The guitars seem so filtered and their highs have been so cut that it's like they're being recorded through blankets. My one tip for guitars is that they provide most of the high-end for your song when doing metal. Only if you already have high-end guitars should you worry about getting these mid-style guitars in the mix. As a matter of fact I think if you kept these guitars and simply added in the high-end guitars, you'd have a better sound immediately, and that's a good thing.
Secondly: Reverb. I love reverb for making things sound alive and ambient in a mix, but there's no reason for these guitars to have as much reverb as they do. It muffles and muds them too much. I'm not saying no reverb, just dial it back a tiny bit. Make it sound like the guitars belong in the mix, not mud the entire thing down.
Finally: The drums. Don't worry, they're the bane of my existence too. The drums here don't pop out at all. There's no bass, the snare is barely audible and the cymbals don't really make the mix flow because they're too quiet. I suggest a compressor on each individual track: one for your bass, your snare, your cymbal, etc. If you can't do that, simply compress the drums as a whole and tune it to your liking. You want this mix to pop out and punch you in the face, don't you?
All in all, I'm really loving what you got here, and there's so much potential that I would love to hear more from you. You're getting a follow from me, definitely. You just need to tweak some things, and then I promise you'll be loving what you're making. Take my advice or don't, it all doesn't really matter, but I'd love to hear what this would sound like if what I stated were fixed.
R4R,
from Perma.
MercyfulDeath responds:
Oh shit a response.
Well for starters I'm very glad you enjoyed the composition at least musically speaking, that's usually what I aim for with most of the shit I do. Now onto the points you mentioned, a couple of them are based off stylistic choices, mostly the guitar and reverb. I am huge on 80's underground metal and constantly strive to try and emulate the feel it had, even sound productionwise, which might be detrimental to dudes more accustomed to more modern production styles. Part of why the guitars kinda sound muffled I believe is because I don't really own an interface so I just basically found out you can plug the damn thing straight to the computer and basically went "fuck it" and decided to work with that. I usually aim for warmer midrange heavy sorta fuzzy tones because it's my preferred kind of tone, since I feel it punches you harder than serrated AxeFX style modern distortion, plus it gives it a mustier, crustier lo-fi feel which I adore, and also because yeah it's 80's as fuck. As for the reverb, I think I used a different plugin back then that was quite wetter than what I use nowadays, but I seem to recall something similar when Slayer was producing Reign in Blood, they said that once they took the reverb off everything cleared up. Reason for that was because before RiB in Hell Awaits and Show No Mercy they were basically trying to be like their heroes Mercyful Fate and Venom and they used reverb. However I like Hell Awaits and Show No Mercy better because of that lol, the reverb gives it an atmosphere. Still though, I understand whatcha mean, and rest assured most of the stuff I've recorded recently use another plugin which has a subtler kind of verb.
As for the drums, well yeah, I really have problems with drums because I'm pretty much a guitar player and for me drums are OK if I can just hear every individual percussive element, which is standard fare for maybe demo style productions but I guess not good for a mastered mix n shit. TBH I've been ruined by years of underground digging and having to put up with subpar production so much that I've developed an ear and a preference to it, and sometimes I forget that other dudes don't really dig the whole lo-fi, recorded in a catacomb kinda sound. I will definitely take your advice concerning drums though, I have the most trouble with them and it's usually the most sloppily mixed shit in my stuff. As for the guitars, I'll keep it in mind, for the most part the tones I get are preference and stylistically speaking I feel they work. But if I were to do something that isn't meant to sound like the amp cabinet was caked with mud and worms after recently rising from the dead then I would definitely take your advice concerning it.
Thank you very much for your review, I'm extremely grateful for it, as I guess it helps keep my head grounded onto what other people may or may not dig, especially considering since I'm so obsessed with the particular sound an era had I forget other things that make it sound ACTUALLY good, instead of kvlt good.
Cool tune.
Credits & Info
- Listens
- 722
- Faves:
- 6
- Downloads
- 15
- Votes
- 10
- Score
-
4.20 / 5.00
- Uploaded
- May 24, 2019
- 1:58 AM EDT
- Genre
- Heavy Metal
- File Info
- Song
- 11.5 MB
- 5 min 3 sec
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MercyfulDeath 
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