Reviews for Child of the Trough NGADM

[SkyeWint]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-Nice intro, and really nice chord progression in there.
-Mixing's fine. I really have no problems with it at all.
-Great humanised drums, like in the previous song.
-The arpeggios at 1:28-2:01 and 2:01-2:12 (yes, I separated them for a reason) are sweeeeet.
-I like the wahs you have on the guitars.
-Jazz/rock fusion is something I REALLY like.

The Not-So-Good:
-Ouch. The lack of good transitions at 2:01 and then later at 2:39, 4:19, around 4:50, around 5:15, and the outro hurt a lot. Of course, I'm a transition lover and think that they're the most important parts of a song, but still.
-I feel like this song is a technical display rather than a song since it doesn't have the vocals. There doesn't seem to be a cohesive idea through the whole song, so it kinda drags on and on without feeling like it has a point.

Overall: I really like this, I don't think it quite lives up to your round 1 song, but holy crap it's about 7 and a half minutes long? No wonder you didn't have time for the vocals. Might want to cut back on the length of your song for the next round so you can finish it! I'm giving this a 9/10. You can definitely do better.

P.S. I made this review before you added the vocals and extra guitars. So sorry for the comments about their absence. It's a bit more consistent with the vocals, and the extra guitar parts. However, I will comment a bit on them here - the overall quality of the vocals could have been improved, particularly at around the third set of lyrics. I'm also definitely not a fan of the growling. The outro is definitely better now, though it's still fairly boring.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thanks for the review!

Yeah, I agree about the boring outro, that's my least favorite part. I was so frustrated, I ended up giving up. I growl when I can't think of melodies LOL. I also agree that it was too long to finish within two weeks, too much is going on and the vocals were hard to squeeze time in for, since they take the longest. Therefore, they became rushed :C

Yes, this song is a technical display, you're right. I tried to compensate for lack of repeating ideas with the lyrics, but it still doesn't work. oh well I got the crowd pleaser arpeggios

Thank you for the review and constructive criticism! I know it's not the best I can come up with, so I'll try harder next round!

[Step]

This is an NGADM Round 2 Review. When I wrote this review it was before you added vocals so I'm judging this on the old version.

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Before I start I'll say that mixing and melody-wise I think you managed to trump your Round 1 submission. You're a fantastic composer man, you write great melodies like it's nothing haha. Sounds great.

You've got a tonne of wacky composition here man and it all sounds incredible. I'm hearing many different influences, such as jazz throughout various parts of the track, funk at 2:01, lounge music at 2:39, blues at 3:29, metal at 4:33, etc... This makes for an incredibly diverse experience that never ever becomes in the slightest bit monotonous or uninteresting. Every time I hear this track I hear a new song section I wasn't paying attention to as much in previous listens. It's long but keeps the interest maintained the whole time. Fantastic work.

On top of that, this track has plenty of amazing production value and feels extremely sophisticated both production and composition-wise. First off, your guitar playing is amazing and everything is perfectly on time and pitch. On top of that, you've got loads of amazing harmonies and everything fits wonderfully with each other. Everything is crystal clear in the mix and you make good use of the entire frequency spectrum. I absolutely adore some of the melodies like the melodies at 2:18 and 3:29.

Unfortunately, I find this track a disappointment from your Round 1 track for one primary reason; this lacks a direction. As much as I enjoyed the diversity, there are no recurring motifs or themes. The song just switches from one song section to another without any distinguishable form of approach. I mean one second it's playing one style, the next it turns into a totally different and seemingly unrelated section. And none of the sections really have anything to do with each other.

The transitions are on the whole good, don't get me wrong. A lot of your transitions are extremely commendable since you switch from one genre to another in an almost entirely natural way. That's not my problem though. The track just doesn't feel united. Chemicals had similar changes in style but it felt more united because it wasn't to the extent that this is, and that track also had vocals that really helped bring the whole track together, while this is lacking vocals. I'm not saying the fact that it's lacking vocals is a problem, I'm saying that maybe vocals will help tie everything together. That, and some recurring motifs.

Anyway, that's about it. Fantastic work, you're a seriously incredibly musician. If this track had more of a direction and felt more unified then I would've probably given this full marks!

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SCORE:
9/10

Kor-Rune responds:

Thank you for your review! I DEFINITELY agree with how scatter-brained and random this track was! I was frustrated writing it because I know multiple genres can share a similar theme. A band like Haken is one I take a lot of influence from, and they can dance around metal, jazz, rock, and polka like nothing, all while keeping similar themes. They also like to go off the wall, but they keep their integrity about the heart of the song. As Skye said, it's more of a technical display.

The vocals on it right now suck, so I'll probably do more later. But for now, it's about the next track for NGADM, fuck. XD

[Back-From-Purgatory]

NGADM 2 and stuff.

Work of art. That's what this is... A true work of art. Unfortunately, the vocals were not present when I issued my score for this, so I will not be taking them into account (Although they are awesome, as always).
I really don't wanna just gush over this, cause that'd be lame... but honestly, there's not much else I can say, it's prog, it's awesome, it's very well done, and in your time in the NGADM, you have become one of my favorite NG artists. You simply do prog right...
I was especially fond of the section at 4:18... Seriously, sounded a lot like something Dream Theater would do, progressive, heavy, mind numbingly technical.
On top of all this, I noticed you addressed the kick issue I had with your round 1 submission.

Honestly, the biggest reason I docked you points was because you didn't manage to get the vocals in the song before the deadline, there's really not a whole lot more I can complain about on this track. The rest is relatively minor, such as maybe smoothing out a transition here and there to help listeners associate the different sections more easily.

Still, you are ridiculously talented, and I'm very glad to see you submitting to the portal, and I hope you keep submitting for a long time. 9/10.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thank you BFP <: It warms my heart to see kind words from you!

I'm so happy for NGADM, I suck at getting motivation and these great reviews and constructive words help make me a better musician. It's all because of you guys <: imagine what the kick drum would've sounded like without everyone's help!

So I thank you <: The next track will be fully complete I promise

[BrokenDeck]

I also wrote this review and judged your piece before you added vocals.

This sounds largely like an improv of some sort, mainly because the song style and direction keeps on changing throughout the song.
I really didn't understand were you were going with this. At one point it thought it was going to be some sort of a chill track.
But then you introduce parts of the song that sound too frenetic for that (around 4:20).
I am also dissappointed that you chose not to use vocals in this entry, which I think is strong point that you should have taken advantage of.
overall this song appears to be directionless, although your production values are great as usual.