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

[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.

[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/

LimeDisciple responds:

thanks for the review 12 years later :)

[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/

[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.

[Zombie Jesus]

Let's get into this.

So you had some groovy, funky bass thing going on to begin with, but then you completely bust it out with your traditional style of chugging and whatnot. It seems that with your tone, you make use of either a fuzz pedal or use single coil pickups. I may be wrong, but that's what I notice

Oh, and that chromatic sounding riff at 0:23 was pretty cool I like it and I would want to include stuff like that in my music.

But, on the drums, you use the funky sort of vibe again throughout the song, but you meld it with a metal style, I like, it's interesting. I like the timing that you use for the components on the drums, like with the hi-hat, the snare is commonplace, but it works nicely. It helps differentiate this from your other songs a bit.

You like using chromatic scales and things like that, those work well for a horror sound but, you lack that evil drive so much in this piece. When I was listening up to 3:30, at around that part, your sound seemed to have softended up from what it was originally.

^ I say this because the original riff was harder, and as you get along, you become more power sounding, loosing the guteral sense of your chords. But you return back to it, with that chromatic riff that I like, which is a good time to return it, and I like thohse unison notes working together, it has some nice variety.

Oh, and on your vocals. You use your standard formula, clean, but growly vocals, then some vocals using a harmony, and going on back to regular. I didn't notice the panning that you typically did with your vocals in the past, are you moving on to something different? Hell if I know lol.

But, as your title tells, your song seems to be about some semblance of Jesus, I use the word 'semblance' because unlike this song, Jesus could do all the things that were listed here that were not able to be done, like walking on water, turning it into wine, ect.

In my view, I see this song's meaning to be about meeting Jesus after death, not so much being with him, but seeing him, but there's mentioning of inability to commit the Godly things as mentioned. Is this refering to a non-Godly being, like a man, or lowering the releveance of Jesus' power and ability?

I don't entirely know.

This seems like a dialoge going on between to individuals. Perhaps, Jesus is the first stanza, then the traveler is the second and it continues in a pattern as mentioned? Maybe. They could be interchangable, but I don't know if I'm thinking too far into it, it's tough to figure out.

I know I've said this before, but for a metalhead like you, you're quite cryptic and skilled in writing music. This song doesn't convey mental images like your previous songs, but it makes me think.

Anyway, I can't find crap that's wrong with this submission, so I give up. \m/

Schleif responds:

wow, your reviews never cease to amaze! i wanted to try out a few new ideas for riffs, or at least keep some interesting variation going on, like the 3:30-part you mentioned. and you're right, i barely panned the vocals in this one haha. just for a couple of places.

while i did have specific thoughts when writing the lyrics, what i really wanted was to get the listener to think for themselves, and form their own perception of the message. i'm glad you did, and that you shared your thoughts about it.

once again, thanks for the fantastic review!