Ryan-of-the-Metal's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sad But True (Coverwank)]

This is cute.

I like Metallica, specifically this song. When I saw that this was on my feed I was all like 'OMFG THIS NOW.' And here I am currently.

Firstly, I want to look at the duration of this song, which is just under two minutes. Sir, wut? Just kidding, this was just, as you put it, wankery so then this is more like demo or a fun thing that you just did, but besides from that, I like this.

When I put this next to the actual Sad But True, the composition and main riffs are still there, but then there are some things that you put into consideration to alter. Some minor things, like the way that you held on certain sustains, minor change-ups in particular lines that had a rearrangement of riffs.

Although, you kept more the same. Such as the entire intro, that iconic drum fill, the main riff itself (albeit, it's muted instead, an interesting differentiation). You retained the same lyrics, and pretty much, you retained the same vocal style.

I can only say so much, because of a song THAT IS ONLY A MINUTE AND FIFTY-EIGHT SECONDS LONG. -ahem- Well, I'll be leaving here after giving you 4.5 starts, the .5 is only missing because of the shortness of your submission. Otherwise, everything is right where it should be. At least, in my opinion.

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

Thank you, sir. The length is an experiment. Mostly as a cover song for our band. Slide it in our set, when the crowd is overloaded with "new" stuff. Only adds two minutes for our set, yet brings the listeners back in.

The variations are my personal touch. Instead of sliding to the notes, I chunked them. I am not the guitarist in my band, so, it will be even different still. (if we decide to do it) We already use Holy diver as a cover. It's super rad. So another cover near the end of the set, this could do.

Also, I am not copying the song, just trying to make it my own. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the review, dude!

[Feeding The Rage]

Frick. So much anger and rage. Dang brother let me review this.

So first off, groovy. I've never seen much of this grooving from you, seems like you're cleaning house and innovating, this is cool! It's interesting seeing you supplement your style to do something different but still vaguely the same. It's like a fresh twist of rage, I like it. It's only a touch of groove to your metal though, which is like a taste of lemon to some fine iced tea.

This broken jam of boomy stuff is really your forte. Your tone seems pretty dang good, did you get your tone issues resolved? It seems like the tone that you're using is pretty good by your standards. I can't help but notice that it's a bit more treble-y and has a bit more 'hiss' than your own tone, but despite a minor inconvenience it's still rocking like slow death. I recall that there was that tone pedal you mentioned once, but this doesn't exactly sound like it.

I notice that you've got some bass guitar in here. It adds some more bass to the bassey tone that you already have. Now if I had speakers, they'd get demolished by the sheer amount of bass that your songs put out. I like that, that's what I expect from Bad-Man styled metal.

I used a filter like that on my solos. I think it's a 4th or 5th octave higher. It's simple. Maybe you could steal Jonas again and you two could do a duo or something hahaha.

Your drums have some fills to them this time! Ahaha! I recall in The Rot I was making comments about that, and it seems like you changed that up, I like it. Cleaning house, man. It's moderate paced, like that jam sort of speed. Although here it's reworked to a slow death thing.

As I mentioned before, I'm jealous of your vocal style. It's just perfect, there's nothing that I need to really say about it. I notice that you use a bit of a different filter, I like it. It has that sort of submarine-announcer tone to it. Maybe one day, I'll abscond you from your stuff and I'll have you do some vocals on my stuff.

Anyways, it's good to see you back on the scene. Message me sometime if you want some more reviews.

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

Thanks for the uber review! Appreciate it! You don't always have to work so hard, I dig it, if you dig it. haha.

Yes, this is my old pedal, (or new version of my old pedal) I have all my old tones back.. I'm not using them here. I'm using some new sculpted ones, out of the old, and something else too. My taste for what my music is and was are two different things now. Joining a live band, has made me strive for a sound that is more ALIVE, than recorded. My old stuff, to me, sounds good, but it doesn't have that ...life, to it.

As for bass...our bands bass player has opened my eyes to the importance. Not just a deep drone in the background, but something dynamic to add to the song, rather than just supplement it. I'm no where near the bass player he is, but strive for a far better bass.

Drums. I have the best drummer on earth. Without question. Of everything I've learned over the last year, its that drums don't just carry a beat. As above, I strive for a more alive feel now. Our drummer would love to help me out and actually do the drums for these songs, but it is hard enough for us all to hook up for our own jams, let a lone a side project.

And as for vocals, I have really had to step up and improve them for my band. To equal their musicianship.. That helps me with my music a lot too...even if they are quite different genres. haha.

I'm relieved to hear that everything I've worked on is getting noticed. By the time I work on that movie soundtrack, I should have everything dialed, just the way i want it. :)

Cheers brother. Look for something new and heavier in the next week. Would appreciate your thoughts on that too.

[New Sound In Progress]

Well, now this is a bit different. Since I know that this is more of a test than an actual song, I'll review this based on content rather than composition. In any case, this is pretty cool that you've got here for a test.

This ominous abysmal sounding choral opening is something really different compared to what I'm used to; being the ethereal, swirly and airy stuff that you used to do. It's rich yet a bit frightening, I wasn't expecting it at all. Also, I see that you're using a formula that you've had a grasp of before, a usage of two layers that almost form a hybrid of a single layer.

It's like utilizing a tired technique but for a new application. I like that.

Also, you have these twitches of disgusting sounding synths and guitar tones. It reminds me vaguely of the Dark Heavy Riffing Project of xSoundstreamx. It seems to be a largely untapped area of composition that I haven't seen alot of in general. Here I am reviewing composition, and I said I wasn't going to, how silly of me ah oh well.

The disjunct chords and occasional squealing and achromatic sequences that are brought out are cool and interesting, I like them.

I like the clarity of your synths also. One of my major things that I look for specifically is signal clarity in the songs, and it sounds really strong. Of course, for a guitar, no clarity will be enough for me. But so far, you're doing great on the clarity of your tone. If I could hear more of just of that, I could assess it better. Also if I knew if you were using a program or not lol.

What I'd like to see is some more active, speedy and pulsing rhythms, but that's just my opinion for the synths because I like that. But that's just me. Anyway, this project is rather interesting and I want to see what you'll do with it.

I'd also like to learn what else you could do with this style. I might of left something out, but I can't think of it. Anyway, Those are my opinions so far, let's see a full project!

WinglessStudios responds:

Man I love your reviews lol I'm little bit confused on the paragraph that says "Also, you have these... to ...ah oh well." I can't tell if you like the disgusting synths or not lol And EVERYTHING is electronic. I compose in FL 10. I think I'll do a second segment that's all fast rhythm and hyper paced beats for you so you can see what I can do :)
Thankyou for such a wonderful review!

[TSOL - The Reflection]

Well hey, check this out. Before I review anything, I'm going to get my prejudices out of the way. I didn't think that this submission was going to be anything serious since you have 'lime' in your name lol, but after I took a listen, I do like what I heard.

I stayed with this song since I like spacey modern-sounding metal and I find it interesting to review.

So, to start off with, you establish a cool motive with your keyboard. I like it, it's very simple but catchy. At the same time, it may be catchy but it also seems to me like it takes itself seriously, unlike a jovial modern pop motive.

It hits at around my favorite range of frequency, the 4~8kHz mark, which is usually what determines the main focus of a song it seems.

Then you have some reasonably meaty drums. They rotate a variety of frequencies that I'm having an issue detecting completely. Instead, I'll go with the components that strikes me the most, the kick and the low tom. I like how your kick has some reasonable 'thick' to it's tone. It has that added high register so that it's more audibly detectable.

The low tom just sticks out to me because it sounds roomy and has a dwelling presence that I like.

By the way, that bass is really nice too. I like the richness and roundness of the bass. It may seem a bit sterile though, since it doesn't have much character. Such as, if you compared it to bass being played with sliding, slapping, ect. then it seems to have less character that way. But when that's sacrificed in order to turn out the tone you have for the bass, a sort of soft rumble, then it's worth it.

I think it hit around the 60Hz range... Maybe lower? That's great for that sort of bass.

I should mention that I've been trying to obtain a tone like that myself haha.

Anyway, when all the instruments are being played most intensely, the guitar is lost in the mix. I don't think it's just me that misses it. I think the drums might be overpowering it a little due to the range of frequencies, then contending with all the low-end bass. If you could do something to change where the guitar is located perhaps that would help?

But of course, you might have deliberately made this song not to be a 'guitar song' so I'll step down now off my reviewing pedestal.

Regardless, I enjoyed the overall lack of EQing clutter in this submission. It was easy to understand and there was overall not that much that interfered with it. Regarding my point on guitar, this song doesn't seem like a guitar song, so maybe try a song centered around guitar? ;D

Thanks, and stay metal \m/

[Sand's Lament - The Sandr]

Eff it. That was pretty awesome. Just, how you had that lush introduction, and the lead up was really stellar. I mean, you had those crystalline arpeggios running up and down all over the place, they made this submission really glossy sounding and were completely appropriate. The way you incorporated the delay into that was quite graceful if I do say so myself. I also like the moody, booming slushing around through the mids at around the 500s.

Then, you just smash that, and spiral into that sick bridge after the break with the progressive sounding leads ringing out, then bashing on the kicks was completely necessary, I love that. I also like how you pinched up the EQ on them at around 4KHz, that gave them a nice smack to them as well as the snare.

I didn't hear much in the way of guitars there, but then the section after that had me covered. you had some meaty stuff there, I like. It resembles what you've been doing already, but you took it into another direction, it sounds really frustrated and snarly.

And the horns and strings in the background are a great atmospheric touch, quite what I'd expect to hear from you, I really enjoyed this, keep stuff up like this!

I guess you might've taken a little bit of a cue from me? Haha, kidding.

WinglessStudios responds:

hey haha never thought I'd see another beautiful in depth review on my stuff again lol I'm very glad you liked it :) And actually from your last review I was inspired to try and keep the same general atmosphere in my album throughout the songs. I'm very grateful of your review, thankyou :D

[Manipulation]

Alright, I'm going to start off by saying I really like this submission already. It's like a sort of cross between a groovy sort of metalcore and djent that I've got into lately, if only darker.

What I like about this is pretty much everything, but I'll start with the guitars. I love the tone, it's brutal, yet controlled. Not in the sense that it's restrained, but it does just what you want it to. I like the sharpness of it, but I think that it could be more prominent if you played with the frequencies around the 8KHz mark to really bring it out, that's what I did on my sound system.

I can't tell if there is anything involving bass in here, because if there was, the kicks would have probably disguised it, especially if you're playing at the same signature as them. Although, if you also did some experimenting around the 60KHz mark, you might find some satisfying results if you want a boomy quality reminiscent to that of Shadrock. Otherwise, this submission is great where it is.

I don't entirely grasp how you managed to EQ the drums, which is why I want some advice on that myself, lol.

Anyway, one concern I have is with that other guitar that peeks about occasionally. I am concerned about it's EQing because it's a bit difficult to understand. I went through a variety of frequencies and I couldn't managed to hear it very clearly without sacrificing something in the EQ that was well done elsewhere in this submission. The playing on it isn't bad at all in my opinion, I want to hear more of it, do you thing you could perhaps make it cleaner or EQ it differently?

Either way, I digged this, hope to see more stuff like this, rock on.

[Severed Earth]

Well 'Scuse Me.

I sense some mother effin' awesome somewhere around here, and my radar isn't that inaccurate. I had a feeling that you'd still be lingering around here. xD

I see you're using a drum kit first off that is way different compared to what you were originally using. It uses different time signatures for the cymbals and a simple 4/4 jam on the everything else, being bass and snare. The layout is really simple but I like it.

The distortion here, your GNX 3000, isn't horrible. Although, if I might say, it lacks a certain clarity to it. Now, if clarity isn't your major concern, then this makes a fantastic fuzz. It's dingy, grimy, yet still in your face.

Then, you have another track that's shrill. That I like too.

Oh, your bass was boomy, it had some mid-highs that I personally detected. If I EQed your bass, I'd make it lower and take out from the mids, but hey, you do your production with your flavor, so who am I to question you?

I like how your style is like a crossover of nu-metal, goth and Rob Zombie.

Also, your vocals are like some creepy cult-classic movie's gothic metal soundtrack that everyone's parents don't want their children to listen to, but they still blast in the car. Your vibrato is still well attended to, phenomenal.

There was wah all over the place. In your vocals. In your guitar tracks. Out in the background. It worked well, I like what you did with it, especially at the end of the song.

I like your lower production by the way, but I'd especially like some lyrics written out o_o but it's cool, rock on brotha!

[Breaking the Law cover]

NO EFF YOU

I was going to cover this, dangit Schleif, why do you have to be better and faster at eveything than me!? D:<

Haha, just joking, I figured it was matter of time before you covered a good 'ol Jusdas Priest song.

Well, you sure as hell took this thing into your own style, you took this thing spun it upside down, smacked it around and claimed it as your own. And that's cool, this sounds like a modern adaptation of Breaking the Law, and I like it.

I like how you took a style that you approached Mercenary with, doing a clean, soft intro and then rocking the hell out of it. I recognised the tune, but that was the only thing that was similar, you took the same notes but presented them in a different way, then BAM, instant Schlief-mode.

I like the pattern you used on the drums, I probably figure it out if I wasn't lazy, but I'm useless when it comes to really technical stuff. Anyway, it works well here, in my opinon. I really like it.

You sped up the song and made it full of all sorts of other nuances, I think that makes this bad boy much more interesting, but you used some digital sounding leads with some harmonization. I don't know if I agree with it, but I can't see how it hurts at all. It makes this cover sound more digitat, as compared to the original more analog-sounding song.

I think the rhythm riffs you used may be the same, but you must have done something different with them, a different octave perhaps? Maybe, some of them sound nastier, and I like that. You do conflict between two lines going on at the same time really well. Especially towards the end.

You do so many things to make this your own, I think this is really cool, I'll show this around to all of my buddies who like Judas Priest.

Oh by the way, I love how you did the main tune on the drums, that was clever, you're more musically capable than you let on.

Keep rocking, my Swedish friend.

Schleif responds:

good to see you around Ryan! glad you like it man! yeah, i changed most of the riffs to fit my style, while still trying to keep the essence of the original. some of the rhythm-riffs are still more or less the same though, as you pointed out.
i thought a clean and calm intro would be a pretty cool idea, glad you like it!
thanks again fucker, your reviews are fantastic! keep rocking \m/

[Sand's Lament - Changes]

This quite frankly bolws my mind.

There's something about this submission that just grabs me, maybe it's the shock value from the intro, I'm not entirely sure, but I'll try to explain it as much as I can.

The booming overcast noises and shrill reverberations, and everything, especially the chilling voice gets me. I don't know entirely what it is. It's like dark ambience of outter space.

But then it hits hard, out of the realm of something like Shadrock(End of Terminus). You have a grooving grind like his too, it flows nicely but still snarls and crashes. Well, at least, that's what I feel the guitars do. The tone you have on them fits well for what you're doing, but I feel that maybe they lack just a tad of high-end. They thrash nicely, but it'd help if they were more noticeable.

Otherwise everything about them is great.

The section with the bass, even though it keeps on only one note is evocative and it makes your hair stand. That section fits well for the argument over emotional simplicity over technical skill. And honestly, the simplicity of it is great. I love the toms bashing, the wooshing of the vocals, I can tell you put a vibrato or tremolo on them with some sort of verb, I just love that.

The shirll noises are remiscent of something electronic which helps create the atmosphere, as well as the pearly keyboard does too. Even though those keys sound a bit distant.

Okay, but that super heavy section after, with the guitars thrashing even harder and the percussion going harder is my all around favorite. I think that was a great way to end the song. That sort of sound seems to be exlusive, but you nailed it nicely, a hauting, but thrashing tone at the same time.

I loved it.

By the way, your 'equis' scares me a little.

In anycase, please submit more, I can't wait to hear more from you. \m/

WinglessStudios responds:

WOW... I'm speechless... People rarely ever break down my music lol WHat kind of music do you listen to? Progressive metal mayhap? I do have an instrumental if you'd enjoy taking a look at that. I am very pleased with your review am filled with gratitude!

[Nostalgia and Sleep]

I'm astounded.

And I'm quite sorry that I couldn't have written a review for this piece earlier. But now it's reviewing time!

Anyways, I understand that Angels did this song originally with the instruments, so I mean, I could review the instruments, but then this review wouldn't pertain to you, so then I'll just review the section you did; your singing and vocals.

By the way if that artist wants me to review the instruments, let him know I'm up for it.

So you ended up choosing your main vocal style that is common through most of your music submissions. It's cool that you switch between a compromised EQ on vocals to give them a different timbre and then use your skill of vibrato. (I'm still envious of that by the way.)

Your raw growling is good too in my opinion, I can't really detect anything wrong with it at all. It's hard, yet understandable.

When you sing, you leave gaps to let the listener digest the phrases that you you let out that still gives the instuments space and you don't over crowd tem, I have to commend you on this, since I learned a good take on handling vocal composition.

By the way on that grindy, nasty prechorus, I love the pained, frustrated tone in your voice for that part. It made me enjoy this song even more because it's different compared to the rest of the song and works well with what the guitar is doing there.

And you have a nice, clean chorus as usual.

But onto your lyrics. You interest me, you have some interesting lyrics, I know what you like to write and sing about so I already ave evident clues on what you're singing about.

That part, 'I'm starting to enjoy this feeling...' that is some deep, thick and hard hitting stuff, it's like it confirms the dark nature of people that we try to suppress.

'The ground soft enough to sleep beneath... The air is thick enough to eat.' My word, you are cryptic, comparing air and the ground, a place to live and a place to die. It's easier to die than to live.

And it's almost like you regret dieing, but when you die, you take on the features of sleeping. Getting killed by another is like oppressive bondage, and looking back on the the servitute that you're forced to endure through death?

I honestly don't know. Wow, now I JUST looked at your description at the top xD I was off, but hey, that's my interpretation.

Stay metal, and 'till next time. \m/

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

You weren't off. haha. I write surface lyrics with dual meanings. Literal AND metaphoric. It isn't so that I can pretend to be complex or any weird thing like that.. It's just how I think. Angels is pretty similar. We jive well. LOL

That is a hell of a review, and I'm super glad you dug the tune, man. Thanks for all the words and thoughts. Especially your support.

Thank again, brother.