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

[Choir of Guns]

Well, check this out.

So by what I'm hearing so far, this sounds like traditional Schlief setup. You've been keen on using drum fills lately to begin your songs, which is cool, it's like a fad of sorts maybe? Well I haven't reviewed something of yours in a long time; it's good to hear some new material.

To begin with, there's an interesting sort of sweep arpeggio going on, and if I had to give my assessment, I'd have to believe that it sounds like a programmed lead based on the timbre of the sound. I could be wrong though, since one of my guitars that fancies a single coil sometimes sounds like that too.

Your leads tend to sound a bit of the same as I go through all of your songs. What I would do if I was you would be to try some new techniques, but your style, being like this song, usually never fails as it seems to get a point across. When the rhythm guitar harmonizes with a chord during the beginning, it's a little tough to understand it due to the fuzz on the lead, but it's still there and I know it.

The phrase at 0:21 is cool, and I'd like to learn phrases like that myself. Other things to note are that I hear a little more of the bass guitar than usual, which I like. I also like the dissonant, confliction of the rhythm vs. the bass when the rhythm sustains, I love that. It sort of reminds me a little sliver of Crue. But I also really like the main lead riff, it sounds fluid, fitting, yet meaty. It's catchy too, if it were to be mashed into one of those 8 or 16-bit things that everyone likes, I bet it would be still listenable and catchy.
I can feel it now, even as I pause the song to write this review, that riff is getting into my head lol.

Well, after two minutes into the song, you have a really cool section where you use harmonization on the lead. I guess you either had the other guitar play a few steps away from the root sequence of the lead guitar, or you used an octavizer or something, it s more becoming of what Metaljonus would sound like, but without all the shredding though. But don't get me wrong though, that passage rips though, I'd like to learn that myself. Oh wait, I heard all the arpeggios and speed picking now, okay that's pretty sick. And I like all that focus on the power chords too, I really like this.

Okay, enough about that, for what you did for your lyrics, you always make very interesting comparisons and metaphors in your music that are disgusting yet poetic. I use your music always for an example on how heavy metal can be poetically developed. You compare music functioning like a weapon, preferably like guns.

Violence kills everyone, friends, enemies, and it never ends, and so you're 'singing in defence' it goes with 'gun's you only friend' when you're on a battlefield shooting at friends and enemies, everyone is killing each other, your gun would seem to be the only thing not to turn on you.

Hmm. 'music beyond sense' Is that sense that you feel or sense that you understand? Very cryptic Schleif. A double entendre here. 'like lying strapped to an anvil' 'like neglecting all you know' Despite all we understand, we're going to get what comes to use, be it like a death sentence? Awesome, my good man.

Too bad MP3 device failed on me, otherwise I'd be on this song like a madman.

Schleif responds:

wow dude, your reviews are as fantastic as always! i don't know what to say, as your really just listed all i wanted to say with this song! glad it came through, and i'm really glad you like it. as you noticed, i gave the bass more space in this one, and i'm glad to hear that it turned out the way i wanted it to haha.

i'll try to experiment more with new styles and techniques in the future, for sure. in fact, i'm working on something a bit special as i write haha. once again, thanks for the amazing feedback, you're fucking excellent \m/

[*old* Lunacy Comprehended]

Reviews away!

To be honest, even though you don't appear to be enthusiastic about this submission, I honestly like this piece for what it is. There are errors and mistakes present, but the good here outweighs the bad in my opinion.

Your guitars are fine, even though there appears to be the same guitar played on two tracks panned to left and right. The form of this method is a little thin since there's only one guitar and just drums, but then that allows more room for them to do interesting things.

You had a good amount of polyrythmic transitions here. Not really much remained the same, so it avoided static tendencies. For example, the intro riff sounded like Slipknot, but then you ran into a slick groove.

After that, the pause and cymbal swell added some tension to see what was going to appear next, I liked that. Fill. Then there was a running rhythmic pattern that was really dissonant, but conjunct. It's weird. I mean, your song has weird everything.

The section that sped up was cool to me, but a lot of these sections don't last long though.

I'm glad the drums can keep up, I'm not completely sure where all the components of the drums are going and where they are, they get a little lost, but there's able to be found. Maybe they could have done with some more EQing in my opinion?

Anyway, you could really develop this into something to work with.

Oh, and I did hear that phrase with another guitar, so I guess there's another track of guitar in here. That section it played was really short too.

I guess what I'm trying to say I like this all here, weird time signatures, riffs, it works as weird as it is. By the way, I have no idea where the 9/5 riff and 11/3 are, you got me beat there. O_o

Eteocles responds:

Hey man, thanks for your honest review! I'm actually considering re-working this song and having the vocalist in my band do some screams over it, he really loved it when he heard it for some reason.

And yeah, the Bass in this song is just my guitar with all the treble and mids EQ'd out, it was a slack way to do it but I didn't want to record a whole other bass track hahaha.

There is actually 3 guitars in this song. The left and right channel are both individual guitars and the middle channel is the short lead.

Thanks for the review and opinion! It helps a lot more then you'd imagine and I'll definitely be taking all this into consideration if I rework it and for future songs!

Cheers!

[Distorted Image]

You've got something here.

I like this main riff, it's got a devastating sort of quality, and it's like a demolisher. I believe you're using real guitars here, but I could be wrong.

Although, I have some problems with the guitar tone. I understand electro metal tends to be way out there on EQ, but for this guitar track, it keeps peaking so it gives a rather annoying warble at the upper tips and edges of the ears that may deter other people from enjoying it all the way. Maybe try reducing volume in the future? Or try not to abuse your EQing like you have here too hard lol.

The section in the middle when you sustain on a chord and the drums keep thumping away is cool. Some people hate the volume cutting from other instrument layers suddenly gaining all the volume, but I kind of like it, even though it's common in pop these days. If in the future you want to avoid that, use a compressor if you were not aware of that, but I'm not trying to lecture you, sorry. D:

Anyway, other points of interest were the keyboard effects floating around were cool; the snare's reverb was dirty and sweet. (By the way, nice job using an electronic set.) And the ending was interesting to me, I don't exactly know why, but it just falls right apart real fast, I liked that.

RealPublic responds:

Wow, that's a great comment.

Thank you most kindly.

The track is still before final mastering, so thanks for mentioning other points I didn't know. I usually get my final mastering done when releasing the track on a cd album, if of course I decide to put it on the album.

Thank you again for an awesome review :)

[Dystopia_]

Nice to hear from you again.

Seriously, you have some intense melodic submissions, and this one is definitely not an exception here.

I personally think that this is more of a minor-oriented piece in terms of tonality, since your other songs would tend to be 'happier' per say, but this one has more guttural expression amongst it. It's also nice and chunky too with some high-attack laden riffs.

The guitar riffs are just so polyrhythmic, there's plenty of diversity here, with a great amount of distinction between sections. There's one riff, that I do believe that's in the chorus that's pretty sweet that I wish that I could take away from this song to use on my own lol.

I like how the lead and rhythm interact at the same time signatures at times, that works for me.

Drums are seriously punk, although, it's tough for me to count the beat arrangement for them, I keep registering them on up beats, but they also are constantly changing too, even though there's a steady beat, it's just difficult to hone in exactly where the beats land.

I think I hear bass in there, I don't really know though, there's a lot of 'plop' on the bass which I like a lot, but I keep on insisting to myself that it's the bass playing, which it probably isn't, but still.

I like the EQ arrangement, there's some good strength all around. I can't really make any major suggestions on improvement, except that the drums are real awesome, but just a tiny notch soft sometimes, mostly on cymbals that could be fixed with a little more sharpness on the EQ, maybe some thump added via compressor. This song wouldn't really benefit, but you could perhaps have a song with more an emphasis on the drum beat? That'd be pretty cool.

Anyway, that's enough for one day, keep it rocking. \m/

BERSERKYD responds:

What an enjoyable review ! Thanks again man, I really really appraciate it !
I'll continu experiment music by my own, and find inspiration every where I can. You can check out my new song , Furfur, hope you gonna like it.

Rock On !

[The Cardinal Star]

Most definately epic.

Seriously, I love the songs you and your bro do, they've always been good, and they just continue to get better in different facets at a time. Also, quite honestly, I've liked the shorter stuff recently. You get to take one particularly good idea of yours, and then refine it better, as its own song instead of 'mashing' it with a whole bunch of others to make a long masterpiece-esque song.

Anyway, one of the things really getting me going is the groovy flow of the rhythm in this song, it just infected me as soon as the guitars were brought in. The piano was clear and beautifully toned too, but honestly, the guitars did the trick for me though lol.
I just dig so much the timing on the rhythm; it makes me want to bang my head so badly, it's impossible to keep myself from commencing to do so.

Anyway, the tone is Shadrock standard in my opinion. The grindy stuff, I always like that, but honeslty, I'd love to hear more of the pipe-scrapingly brutality that I used to hear years ago that made you feel abandoned in a warehouse or an asylum of sorts. I just digged that, but this is fantastic too though since the focus isn't completely on the tone of the guitar, which in my opinion is still completely good as it is.

I hear some well-placed lows and highs, personally, but the oscilloscope isn't agreeing with me, so maybe your songs need to be louder?

Anyway, the really cool elements that I loved were the bass fills that circulated all the lows, kind of like a mild sweep, I have a tough time explaining those. Sections such as 1:02.

Another was the tone of the keyboard at 1:22. That's friggin' cool. It's like a really glassy flange with a filter or something, but I just love it, the tone is just fantastic, I'm considering pestering you guys for a sample of that for me to use lol.

I like the bass having permission to the limelight at 1:51. The bass in the song that has a nice tone that allows it to please the whims of metal and slick jazz at the same time with the allotted highs as well as lows. Speaking of jazz, the solo involved was conveniently placed after the bass' quotient. After some scraping haha.

Ooh, that sound that you guys captured at 2:16, I love that sort of ambient noise, it's so celestial, yet powerfully unfamiliar. I've also been successful capturing a sound like that too. :D

The choir was good, too, ambient and evoking, blah, blah, blah lol. I kid, I like how it still stood in the mix, but was still allowed its own space, I need to figure out how to accomplish that!

But overall, a great team effort, thanks to Shadrock. ^_^

Shadrock responds:

Haha thanks again for a most excellent in-depth review. I agree I too miss my old "darker / industrial" metal. It's weird though, you get into a different groove and try new original ideas and you somehow forget your old ones. Although, I think It's time for another go at returning to my roots :)

[Save the Star]

NYN?

He's at it again!! Someone stop this dude!! Wait, he's trying to save the star from a black hole... Wait, what is NYN anyway? Never heard of that before dude.

Anyway, you got me at the intro, but then again, just know it's one of your songs, I can already assume it'll be melodic punk metal awesomeness. And thankfully, you keep up your record with this submission.

For your guitars, tone's good and all, you're probably using a familar tone, since the ones you use aren't necessairily new territory, but suit you well regardless for your style and formula.

The dual lead thing is really cool, oh wait, you usually do that since it's melodic metal lol, okay. This song really jams, but that chugging has some bassy peaking to it that makes it fill the ears real nice. Sometimes hitting those mids work.

The section 1:21 is in opinion cool, with the improvised-sounding chugging and the light cymbal hitting, I always wanted to recreate that, but I never had the good fortune to, ah well, it perfectly suits to your genre.

And then the solo's cool too, but I can't hear the lead all the time at first, but that might have been intentional, because then it returns, but attacking both ears, and then it melds right the frick back into the main groove. DUDE.

I think I heard bass in there, but I'm not all too sure lol.

The drums were so complimentary, that I don't need to go into detail, they're on beat and everything, I don't know if you would play them since that'd wake up everyone in your apartment haha, but still.

The end was cute, and overall, this would be an awesome addition to any flash animation, or any progressive melodic metal epic orchestra lol.

BERSERKYD responds:

Hey thats a HUGE Review, I really appreciate you take the time to wright this.

Well haha! My description is only a quick note to keep you in touch with the song intention. I really like Science Fiction and I find METAL to be one of the best type of music to fit with this genre. And I'm a huge IRON MAIDEN fan, so I really like to be melodic instead of pulling the same double pedal riff with only one chord... Maybe thats why its sound like a jam fest !

I always try to have the best mixe up but you know what, I learn everything by myself since I'm recording, so its really hard to pull something professionnal, there's some artist here that are way better than me to do that. So thanks for all your good comment ! That really Rock me On !

\m/,

[You Like RnB]

I'm feelin' it.

Yeah, son I like this track. I ought to take snippets of it to make R&B loops!! Lol, Jk. I would never do that, it wouldn't be justice for this track.

Boy, this is quite the fiesty little thrasher isn't it? It actually reminds me a little of how I might do a thrasher for some odd reason. Anyway, you must be pissed at R&B since I feel like this too after listening to that sappy crap.

Anyway, words to help this submission along!

That rythm tone is just like fine chef cutlery, cruel and unforgiving, with all the low in it. Just some people might not appreciate all those lows, unless the have booming speakers.

Also, the progression seemed just fine in my opinion. I honestly can't tell where the choruses and verses, but that's fair since I know they do progress, along with other snippets of sections. It progressed pretty smoothly too, I may add, but there's some minor timing errors scattered throughout that are easy to repair, so I don't dwell on those.

Okay, here's the big thing those drums. I love the kick. The snares feel a little castaway, but the main thing is those cymbals, just where they lie in the ears is a little odd. If you could pan them more to either side, that'd be frickin' epic.

And, when the seperate from the rythm blasting, they hold up on thier own nicely with those contrasted sections. Despite al the negative I pointed out, there's good here!

\m/ Don't quit metal.

Casualty responds:

thanks for the awesome feedback man! i never put effort in mixing the final piece though, haha. and honestly, these were just a bunch of riffs i came up with on the spot, just an hour or two of work.

also about rnb, my girlfriend listens to rnb >;O which is gay

[Dirty Cries]

<Copy Paste>

Yeah, do that from my last review for the intrumentals, since this is more about your vocals. But holy frick, I still get the goose bumps, since you arrive at some really interesting, and deep, thought-provoking songs.

So I presume you remember what I said in my last review, with it talking about how I really loved everything, with the guitars sounding like Metallica, and how the bass came out to play every once in a while.

I also talked half the review about the intro too hahaha.

I never talked about how you actually included fills for this song, lol. I love those fills, and I can hear a triplet on that bass kick every once in a while, which is sweet. i also like the EQing on the drums and the crashes too.

Well, anyway, enough about that, vocals. You REALLY did revamp everything about the vocals, and really, everything, as you said, the structure, melody, lyrics, they all ift the song so much better like tetris.

Looks like, through my interpretation, that you really hate humans as a race. 'Hope is lost... Blood won't clot.' That sounds like humans would have to attone and suffer through armageddon, and the clotting is interesting, since clot stopps people from continually bleeding, just as you mentioned, so the bloodsheed and bleeding won't end.

Nice poetic sense.

I see you kept the 'stuffed martyrs' thanks. That was no doubt one of my favorite parts, since it seemed similar to Enter the Sandman, a line that should be remembered and alluded to, and have people thinking 'Why didn't I think of that?' I sure did lol.

Dirty cries, usually crying is considered a cleansing, catharsis action, and has an after feeling of resolution or some cleansing. So even the bodily functions that are initiated to help ourselves and help us deal with so much loss are utterly useless? You're so cryptic!

But... Shoot, the vocal introduction was so smooth and melodic...

Anyway, another section! I think, just like last time, your vocals were on key, but you weren't kidding. They're so much better, they have that Bad-Man standard of roughness and now I don't even know why I said that about the last time. That vocal vibrato! It's there! Oh shoot, that makes this song sound that much more expressive, thank's for singing Bad-Man!

By the way, that autotune was just ghetto lol. But at least you didn't completely overwealm the mix of your vocals with it like T-Pain.

\m/

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

Dude, you hit the nail on the head with your understanding of my feelings. haha. Fuckin eh. We suck. We've fucked ourselves up so bad, we don't even know how bad it is. haha. Some are awake. It's like a nightmare.

Don't get me wrong. I have a nice house, beautiful wife, beautiful children. We are all healthy, sheltered and never hungry. But I fear...as I look around me...this will crumble. Maybe not in my time, but soon. And it creeps to that day without anyone noticing. I kind of feel guilty some days, for having all I have, when others have jack shit and will die a long painful horrible death from circumstances they can't control.

The more I enjoy what gifts I have, the harder it is to know that it could all crumble at the hands of humans that don't mean a thing to me or know I even exist.. In a way, this is my voice. If "they" hear me, maybe they'll figure out their own gifts and smarten the fuck up.

If "they" knew I existed, they would know, I would bitch slap them for letting shit get all fuckered like it is. haha.

What I enjoy, should be for everyone. And sadly, it isn't.

Anyways, that is another day.

Thanks for the review and understanding. You are a kick ass dude.\m/

[Saint Heavy (II)]

How about that?

I think you've got yourself here a well rectified track, you put alot of time in this bad boy from all the way back like a year ago lol. But hey, I think it mostly payed off since this time around, it sounds much better.

The distortion on those guitars is cool, and I think I like them, but I'm not sure if everyone else will take such a liking to them, since they're REALLY fuzzy. I kind've like that, but it's just not going to appeal to other people though.

When one guitar becomes quiet, the still ringing guitar's buzzing is quite overpowering, that's probably the phrasing that I'm looking for. The distortion's just really powerful. Although, everything is synchornized very well, it still all sounds better from last time.

Man, you nailed that solo just like the first version, it sounds really cool, I may have been a bit wrong about that distortion, since it make that lead just wah perfectly. It has a nice tone that I think I may be looking foward to. I also liked how the lead progressively migrated and became louder, it made the impact stick.

That bass seems to either blend it's distortion really well into the rythm or it's cleaner, either way, I learned that it's tough to find good-sounding distortion for bass, and kudos to you for accomplishing that.

By the way. Those drums rock, I mean it, they sound so much better compared to last time too, I don't know what you did, but the ring out much more clearly and better sounding, the snare is a very tiny bit quiet, but it has some nice acoustics for this submission. The also sound much nicer on the crashes too.

I don't know what program you're using, but I use Riffworks T4, and sometimes either Audacity or Ableton, I reccomend Riffworks, the demo is free and good, I think you could makes some interesting submissions with it. ^_^

GraniteOverworld responds:

Like usual, thanks for the review! I can always count on you to have an opinion on Saint Heavy! You should only have to write one more review once this song is completely done. It's gonna top out at like 6 or 7 minutes if it goes right.

But yeah, if you think the distortion is overpowering sometimes, you should hear it when it's cranked. I had the the sustain (Distortion) set at only about halfway for the rhythm and the lead. My fuzz pedal is pretty versatile in the fuzzes it can dial in.

Although I think this solo is good, I still don't like it as much as the very first time I played it. If I could have remembered exactly how the original went and polished that instead, I would adore the sound. Oh well, I still like this one better than the last version.

I don't typically distort my bass, I leave it clean so it cuts through the mix a little better instead of blending into the sludge of the guitar riffs.

The drums are much fuller because I use a lot more cymbal crashes and filled some empty space. A few examples are that between every crash there's a cymbal ride and that there's usually a pedal hi-hat holding the rhythm. Also, I used an equalizer on every individual drum part, except for the toms, which sound rubbish no matter what.

And lastly, I record with Adobe Audition, which gives a lot of production options over most free recording programs.

Anyways, thanks a lot for the feedback. I expect to finish this song soon and to record a new one as well.