Been a long time since I've been on Newgrounds, so glad I popped on to check up on old favorites.
I didn't read your description until after I listened the first time. It's really sweet. I particularly like the ending quarter.
Reviews for "In Remembrance"
BlazingDragon responds:
Thank you for checking up on my work. I'm glad you liked this one. :)
The part at 2:24 really captured the slow motion moment of you witnessing the actual heart attack during the game. Then the death, you coming to grips with it, and despair. You then start to heal from these deep wounds. to realize that life is worth living, in honor of them. That's what I felt through this. This was a great piece, here, indeed.
BlazingDragon responds:
"To realize that life is worth living, in honor of them. That's what I felt through this."
I'm glad you wrote that. It's tough losing someone, but I do indeed believe that life is worth living, in part to honor them. Thank you for your review. :)
I'm only 15. My father died when i was 12.
Oddly, this song made me remember of this.
BlazingDragon responds:
I'm sorry to hear that. Losing a loved one is really indescribable, isn't it?
This is a wonderful and well rounded piece, but it required quite a bit of effort from me before I could really 'get' it. I have to be in a certain mood to really get immersed in this and not have it feel like a bland orchestral backdrop. And even then, it gets somewhat boring after 4 minutes or so, since each part evokes a different nuance of mostly the same mood. It was also less harmonically interesting than, say, Children's overture (though 1:46 through 1:51 was nice), and the instrumentation felt a lot blander than in Alpine. Despite your description, I did not find the dissonance to be anything out of the ordinary.
Mixing-wise - some of the notes from the strings and the cymbals were unpleasant and piercing, and the mix in general is quite top-heavy.
8.5/10
BlazingDragon responds:
Thank you for the helpful review. I'll make mixing more of a priority in pieces to come. :)
NGADM 4 and stuff.
The themes running through this piece are fantastic. It's soothing, touching... moving. This is one of those songs that you can really watch a movie to while listening to it... in your head. With minimal effort, this song painted a picture in my mind as I listened it through. While I think what it painted a picture of, or what the story it told was, is irrelevant, the fact that it does so-so effortlessly is impressive.
Better yet was the way you subtly changed the mood from beginning to end without it ever sounding abrupt or out of place, it flowed smooth as butter. And this is one of the few songs on NG that have truly given me chills, the good kind, while listening to.
Complaints... not many, mostly that I think overall this felt a little on the quiet side, while I enjoy some good dynamic in a song, this spent a lot of time on the quieter, more mellow side of things, and I think you could have pumped up the quiet sections just a tad to make the entire song a little more consistent, given that it wasn't very often that a lift in the music came along.
I also was a little unsatisfied with the ending, while I understand what you were going for, I do think you could have done a little more to establish the feeling you were going after. As it is, I felt it just kind of disappeared, leaving no real conclusion. I think the issue I take is mostly with the note you ended on... Unfortunately, I can't really find words to describe how I'd improve it.
Overall, chills, stories, and emotions. This was done very well, and I'm quite impressed. 8.5/10.
BlazingDragon responds:
Your reviews always seem contrary to those of everybody else, and I appreciate that. Several other people have mentioned how this sounds stitched together, but you wrote that it flows smooth as butter. XD
I understand what you're saying about the ending. If I recall correctly, this piece was composed in a 15 hour marathon from start to finish and was turned in right before I left for college classes in the morning. To be honest, the ending was partly out of convenience and time-restraints, although I did have a thematic purpose in mind as well.
Thank you for the thoughtful review. :)