Reviews for _-={The Metal Visage}=-_

[Zen-Zudokai]

A story...is clearly defined...

Very good Maestro. I read the review you told me to in your description and I was very impressed by it. You've made me, a weaver of stories, very proud. I feel it only natural and kind for me write a story in response. Mine is very similar to yours but with a different ending and a slight change in the storyline itself. A young man walk into a dimily lit arena. It is fogged and he can see very little as to who or what his opponent really is. Finally his opponent arrives, a floating figure masked with a metal mask that covers his face completely showing nothing. The figure laughs at the young challenger and sends spectral hammers to crush the young warrior. The warrior sits down Indian style and then hammers stop in midair as he closes his eyes. The hammers fly back at their director and he barely dodges in time. He speeds around at a high speed, as if to distort and confuse the young man. The young man remains silent, eyes closed, and strangely enough, is smiling. The figure is enraged by this and lifts the pillars and large boulders around him in his anger with his corrupt mind and hurls them at the man. The man frowns and says one word, "No..." and all the objects stop and drop with mere inches from the man. The figure cries out in a rage and shouts, "I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!" and flys at the young man. The young man replies to this with, "No...you will not..." and the figure stops cold in his tracks. "HOW!! HOW DO YOU STOP ME?!?!" the figure screams at his face. The young man opens his eyes for the first time and says, "Because you are rage,anger, and evil. I do not have such things in my heart as I have no use for them. All I have is virture, and since you are the antithesis of virture within itself. But since I don not have such a feeling in my heart, I rob you of your power. Therefore...you do not exist." The figure screams out that it is not possible and the young man pulls off his mask which reveals nothing. "I AM REAL! I AM PERFECT!!" The young man then frowns, slightly annoyed with his response and says, "I don't like to repeat myself." and the figure explodes due to the young man's compassion, calm, and good. The young man closes his eyes again and seems to realize that another evil individual, more evil then the last is near. "I know you are watching...your tricks are starting to bore me..." And with that is the ending of my story. By the way, is this the song that you said you would make in response to my last story? If not how is it coming along? Keep up the good work...

MaestroRage responds:

Interesting... a puppeteer sending a force of evil. Now there's a notion I did not think of, it makes me wonder what would happen if this greater evil came at this young man. Perhaps a similar fate, perhaps a more brutal ends.

One must consider, if this young man can use this logic to destroy evil, could evil do the same thing in a place of pure evil? I am quite interested about that question, i'll have to debate it over with some friends and see if they can think of anything significant.

(BTW this isn't the song I was talking about, that one is still sitting at the forge happily for now ;)

I appreciate the story and review, as well as your ongoing support Zen, means a good deal to me. I'm glad you enjoyed the track.

[Buoy]

Wow, another damn great masterpiece!

Seriously man, you have more talent in your nails that I will ever have through my whole life. If you begun with music only for the purpose of telling stories through it, this is some serious business. Have you ever considered getting out books or CD's? If you wrote the stories to be more friendly to the kind of literature books are, I'm sure it would be a great success. I mean rewriting into a story introducing the different characters by name and such as usual books do. An idea I thought of about that, possibly including a CD with these works.

Well that's not about the song, so I guess I'll start reviewing it.

It starts out... electronic... when I heard the start I was believing you made an electronic track again, but it continued as usual with strings and all that orchestral stuff >:D

I read your story, some parts are not really fitting, but the basic skeleton of the story does indeed fit the music. I could like to see a bit more detailed description of the story within the track, like hearing the guy asking "Who are you", before hearing the guy laughing. I believe just this little detail would give the piece a lot more sense.
So could you have done with the end words.

When this evil laugher comes it starts going seriously upbeat compared to what it did before, I can imagine a scene with him being followed by huge hammers, very dramatic, the part gives a good feeling about how it would be being followed by mental (Mental? I have no idea why they should be mental, if he was just folllowed by normal hammers it would give sense too, but I guess that's just a part following the fact that he is a psychic) hammers, still in this part a little touch of electronica would have been a really good addition, since the fact that the evil guy *sends out* the hammers, which is more of a machinical action.

Wow. Long paragraph.

The drums were good in this, could like to see an even more intense beat in it though, which would make some serious *dramaticalliness*

And I suppose you are truly a master composing melodies with strings and all similar instruments, which is probably why you mainly make classical music.

I loved everything about this track, but I have a suggestion of what might have been added to it if you decide making a remake of this song.

Since the last part is obviously made out of sorrow there could be a slow, sad, empty part with a piano, a few strings and some sounds hearing the happenings in this scene, added at the end. I belive this could perfectly have been added right after the end of this.

This is one great track you've made here, keep it up, these tracks are all masterpieces.

MaestroRage responds:

Thank you SBB, some pretty neat ideas, and truth be told I do write short stories to each one of these pieces, however the pieces did not try to entail the whole story before. I would write the story and try to either create the overall feel, or attempt to take a specific scene, or feeling and then work with that.

This piece was designated to be around 6 minutes in length at the least, however I did not want to cut up the song as I wanted listeners to know the story fully, and not risk some listening to one half and not really seeing the story, but only the song.

The percussional part could have been more intense, however I was unable to find a suitable beat that didn't take away attention from the piece itself. The problem with these fast stabbed strings is that because they are like a pulse going on and off, they can often distract the listener and make long sustained notes hard to follow with. However they DO add a great epic flavor if they are used in the right context, and this way was simply one of many possible. I just know how to do this one somewhat decently :).

The end would have had a harp/piano with lush chords, but again, it was a sacrifice I needed to make in order to make it fit.

Once again thank you for your overly long and enjoyable review, I appreciate that. I am glad you enjoyed the track ^^.

[TheWisestMagi]

Woah

I read your story first, It greatly fit into the music, which I listened to as I read the story. Everything definately fit in perfect with your story, as I must have read it at the same rate of the music's progression. However, I am going to attempt to write a completely different story...sheerly for the fun of it ;).
(hopefully to go along with the entire linked-stories theory I've been conjuring up).

A band of heros and horoienes aproach a labrynth, which is shrowded in a fog that even the swords and axes of our friends couldn't cut through. This fog..is a dark one, concealing only what the band fears, and nothing they would enjoy to say the least. The doors creak open as the group approaches, for someone, or something knows that they have arraived. The main room that they enter is a dark, sinisterly lit room.

Out of nowhere, the doors slam with a force only reckoned by evil. A sinister laughing takes course as the room fills with an aura that weakens the friends very spirit...something was there. As the heart sunken warriors scan for the hidden evil, their hearts sink, but for a reason undefined.

It appears, a man...shrouded in a black reaper-like cloak, or in hatred...our group cannot tell, for their senses have gone into sheer adreneline due to the unwelcomed visitor. The face of this villain is covered by a mask...one of sinister looks, as it is of metal...has eyeslits that are of the same kind as you would see the red eys of a demon through, but they were emmiting something dark and evil, a smoke if you will. The mouth had the same look as that of a wraith...undefined and hellish.

It lays out a first blow of an dark, psychic force that blows all of the heros onto their backs...but they recover with a roll, and counter attack simultaneously. The evil is taken back by the force, and seems to eraticate, but only for enough of a moment to be able to catch the heros off-gaurd.

Everything now seems to be racing as the two sides exchange blows, but the evil is unrelenting and seems to be unfazed by the attempts of our heros to stop it. It menacingly strikes having more power then the combined efforts of our friends...but it didn't have something that our group did...they were fighting for their lost companions, who seemed to be the only ones actually weakening the beast. A light shines through the stain glass windows at the menace, and it smokes with a bloodcurdling laugh...the last laugh it would have...or so we thought. With a glass breaking shreik our heros are knocked completely out of what they know as reality and enter a place of distortion, distortoin made for dreams, and nightmares. "A place of Nightmares" if you will...as it has no boundries, no reality...and..no hope.

And with that I end my story in hopes that another piece somewhere along the way will let me finish it. I hope it linked with the other stories that I believe are portrayed.

Also, this song is one of, if not the most epic pieces you have written to date, I LOVE IT.

5/5 and should stay at 5 for as long as the tales you can tell keep being told. Don't know what else can be said other then, I LOVE IT.

MaestroRage responds:

I'm glad you took the time and spent the energy to write such a long and detailed story Magi. I enjoyed reading it, and it was essentially of a core very different then mine, which was of course a great treat, to see what your mind brought forth.

It is strange that you have made your villain of such a dark and ruthless core. To give him eyes of demons and the soul of a murderer.

A very interesting part you wrote is as follows

"they were fighting for their lost companions, who seemed to be the only ones actually weakening the beast"

A favorite scene for me is to have fallen comrades reach beyond their grave and assist the main hero with their spiritual force, either giving the hero more strength, or rendering the enemy powerless, or even for the really brutal battles, both.

Even though that villain seemed to have perished, his last laugh was one that effectively rendered our heroes lost in what could possibly be their worst nightmare.

In any case i'm glad you liked the piece, it is thus far my biggest accomplishment, and I think may really begin opening some doors for me, as well as practice refining the epic style I seem to have clung onto for reasons beyond me. Thank you for the review and ongoing support, let's see if I can end your story with the next piece ;).

[Zajedx]

wow

first of all i like to write long reviews, but its hard for me because i cant write good english
so i make this one short

i read the story and i think i understood everything

theres nothing much to say
all i can say is

really good, you did a really good job with this one of your best work right know,
great melody, perfect to the story, every instrument playing good together, the emotions everything is there what it needs

keep it up

great job keep it up

MaestroRage responds:

I'm glad you liked it Zajedx. I think it's one of my best works as well, as well as my most complex story wise, and even perhaps production wise.

Thank you for the review, i'm glad you liked it ^^.

[Critical-Collision]

This is magnificent

Hello MaestroRage

Ahh the fine art of story telling, through the art of music.

I now wish I had read the first review, after having heard the piece through, to develop my own sense of the unfolding story.

Having played this on loop now for what now must be the 4th time through. the story is definitely there for my ears to hear and my mind to interpret.

The orchestration on this piece captures (me) the listener from the very beginning, the sounds at the very start manage to harness the overall feeling of some otherworldly happenings.

The deep set of strings that follow on from this, tell me, that something dark is occurring (at this point I've actually almost completely forgotten what I read in the first review, which will help to explain how I hear this in my mind)

A quieter moment follows on from those darker heavier strings (and psychic sounds) to a more calmer, violin lead part of this piece. My interpretation of this part is that. the journey thorough this labyrinth has now come to an end. and all seems to be well.

This piece is absolutely phenomenal, there is not a thing out of place with this piece. the laughter fits perfectly into the whole storytelling process with this fine art of story/music.

This is an exceptionally great piece of music making.

Just absolutely pure brilliance, good luck to you with your music making

Thanks for your vote, Critical-Collision! You voted 5 for _-={The Metal Visage}=-_, keeping its score at 5.00.

and no less.

We've recently submitted out first contribution to newgrounds, could you possibly spare some time for a review?

Thank You

-={CC}=-

MaestroRage responds:

Thank you CC, i'm glad the piece was able to tell you it's story. For sure I've personally never tried anything like this before (telling a whole story, not just a scene), and truth be told I was considering on making it a whole suite, 3 or 4 submissions to tell the whole story. But I didn't want to risk the chance somebody would miss out on an important part of the story, and so I refined the piece to it's shortest means possible while still managing to tell the story.

Perhaps this is a new start for me, to tell whole stories.

In any case your interpretation was very close to the source of the song, i'm glad you saw and thought what I was thinking for the most part.

I'll check by your page as soon as I am able to find the time, if I do forget though please don't hesitate to drop me a pm reminding me, I do tend to forget from time to time.

Thank you for the review, i'm glad you liked the piece ^^.