Reviews for The Power To End Us All

[JustShawn]

Non-NGAUC Review ~

Quite the interesting piece.
I like what I hear, and as far as your official critic's have pointed out everything that I would have said myself...however...they forgot to throw in the simple fact that this piece instates a wonderful feeling of nostalgia! You can't exactly go wrong with a nostalgic piece like this...as it takes me back to my early 90s metal head banger days for some odd reason!

The ups and downs of this piece are what gives it the identity of Non-Amature based work!
Keep, IT, COMING!

Downloaded, fav'd, 5/5!

[SkyeWint]

PirateCrab - The Power To End Us All:

The Good:
-Classic PirateCrab, using great melodic and rhythmic guitar riffs. Of course. Main theme found at 1:04, I believe.
-Excellent development of the themes. The main theme comes back multiple times, and I hear the theme from the start coming immediately after it.
-Overall good mixing, aside from a couple caveats.
-Great breakdown at 2:30, even if it realistically only lasts for about 10-15 seconds.

The Not-So-Good:
-Audible right at the start: Your cymbals are pushed REALLY far back compared to everything else. The snare is also pushed back. Try toning back the guitars to mesh better with other instruments. In a similar boat is the bass guitar, though that's a bit more of a typical metal thing. The drum issue is clearly shown around 3:09 when the drums can more clearly shine and the cymbals are *still* way in the back.
-So, I kinda hinted at this earlier in the review, but this piece really just pummels you the ENTIRE WAY THROUGH. It is desperate for a bit more of a breakdown where things calm down. Some good examples that I can think of for really good breakdowns in harder guitar stuff are Anti-Citizen's "Automated Wasteland" with a fantastic more electronic breakdown and InYourDreams' "Bajo el sol, sobre las rocas" with some excellent flamenco guitar. Neither are perfectly your style, but they get the point across - and something like InYourDreams' flamenco guitar breaks in that are absolutely awesome. I would go absolutely crazy for a heavy metal/flamenco guitar artist.

The Result: 9.2/10.
Yeah. This is your typical awesome PirateCrab stuff. Not too much to say else for flaws in the piece - you have a great style, this piece mainly just really really needed some kind of break other than the tiny one towards the end. Good job as always, man!

[samulis]

This is an official NGAUC Review

My personal rating for your piece is as follows:
Production: 27/30 (Great)
Composition: 27/30 (Great)
Instrumentation: 13/15 (Great)
Originality: 9/10 (Great)
Interest: 13/15 (Great)

Giving a total of 89/100, or 4.5 stars. (Great)

Please view your rubric for comments-
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[TaintedLogic]

I like edgy guitar riffs at the beginning. As usual, you’ve seamlessly interwoven engrossing melodic elements into a riff-based, dense heavy metal texture. I wish the drums were a bit more up-front in the mix, especially the snare and crashes, which could’ve added an enhanced sense of drive and passion to the track if they cut through more. I suppose my main complaint is that, for large swathes of this piece, the track has a uniform energy to it so as to detract from a sense of structural variety. And when I finally get this structural variety, it comes 2.5 minutes into the piece - that’s a long time to wait without much dynamic contrast or shaping. I loved that 20-second stretch starting at 3:09 when the bass completely dominates the melody, though. If that’s what you do to switch up the texture in a piece that sees very few instruments added or taken away as it progresses, I’ll embrace it. That doesn’t invalidate my grievances regarding the lack of phrasing, however. While this lack of phrasing makes it hard to follow the structure, I actually think this piece is very well-structured and smooth-flowing. It’s just hard to keep the listener grounded when your piece has a continuous intensity. I also think you could’ve maximized the emotion of the piece by thinking more about structural variety, but perhaps I’ve already beaten, stabbed, and decapitated a dead horse at this point. Despite my structural complaints, this is enjoyable work! Keep it up, PirateCrab! ;)

8.5/10

[TSRBand]

Fantastic! Absolutely worth the wait, awesome stuff :) Reminds me of Polyphia but way heavier, love it!