Woah! When I saw the the title I expected something simpler! Great Job!
Reviews for "Criminal Insanity"
Great work, reminds me of the soundtrack to How to Train your Dragon a little. Certainly could be a tad faster, as Descara said... I think the slowdown is unnecessary honestly.
About the thematic ideas of the piece, it seems a little more like a heroic battle than confronting a villanous clown... perhaps you could devise a countermelody symbolic of this character and use it- some creepy melody on glock or perhaps even a woodwind instrument that is devious sounding.
Regarding the general form of the music, it's a lot of unison, which promotes an idea of a united purpose. Some nice off-beat stuff could throw it off a bit better; off-beat non-chordal hits and such can add a lot of darkness to a piece and turn it from a march to war into a chilling monstrosity. Consider playing around with ideas closer to counterpoint and so on, trying melodies that don't fit together and dissonant chords on french horns to herald transitions (Wagner does this in The Ring Cycle... you kinda did this at ~10 with horns). I really like the ending part, with the trumpets and the vocals. That's the feeling of "where the heck did the beat go?" that lends the feeling of loss to any music.
With all honesty, I will say you could use more dissonance, but I love dissonance almost more than I love music that makes sense, so it's coming from a slight bias here. Dissonance is one of the best ways to build tension, and you use it effectively a lot, but when you combine it with an off-beat counter melody, it's more potent than any other method I know. At louder and more powerful points in the song (such as ~27), if you had a Fortissimo horn counter that went something like "eight-rest, dotted-quarter" (repeated), with a diminished seventh chord or something fun like that, you can obtain a more chaotic feel.
Regarding additional instrumentation ideas, violin harmonics (and "screechy rips" as I call them, or "thriller rips") can lend great terror to a piece. Waterphones can offer both transition and an ominous feeling that few other instruments can replicate aside from perhaps a Franklin Armonica or Bass Flute (~0:36 would be a neat place for waterphone sounds or such... if you have EWQL Symphonic Orchestra, there's one in the Percussion -> Metal that has some great prerecorded patterns). You did a great job with brass and the "crashy-bangy" end of the orchestra; the strings are also flawless, but even dark orchestral should have a quieter more ominous end, which is hard to capture. Not sure what that instrument underlying it is (you can hear it at the end before it loops), but I think it offsets the orchestral style of the piece.
I think this song could benefit from more Timpani, especially rolls in the beginning (hit, hit, hit, roll... following the rhythm of the motif you use there). I really like the depth of the percussion you use here... I hear anvil, bass drum, cymbal, snare, what may be taiko drums or timpani, and never be afraid to try different drums and such.
I really like what you're doing with the trombones and cymbals, but you could work on adding more instruments in... quick four-note flute runs and so on are great for this. Also, at that transition at 17, perhaps a gong or loud cymbal crash could herald that change better than a tempo change or such.
Consider analyzing the score for How to Train Your Dragon... it exemplifies that kind of dynamic range from heroic and bold to calm and quiet to calm and ominous without the listener even detecting the change.
A really excellent piece, as always! I am pleased to see you are moving into this area of orchestral composition... dark orchestral is really a great style to develop and work with, especially when you want to let off steam or anger over something, as it can be both expressive and yet rigid and warlike.
Keep up the great work, after your brief hiatus of course. ;)
-Samulis
what he said
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So epic that it's almost criminal. Nice heavy brasses also it emits a very exciting mood. But still very dark themed. Sorry can't describe it better. Excuse my poor English.
why does 00:35 make me think of boarding a legendary ship in assassins creed 4? maybe cause its AWESOME
Bosa responds:
Never played it myself.