Back-From-Purgatory's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Chemicals [NGADM]]

Jaw... Meet Floor.

Of Round 1, this was by far my favorite submission. You sir, are a beast. There was practically nothing about this that I didn't like. The amazing guitar playing was... well... amazing... Awww hell, everything in this was pretty damn amazing.
I can really hear some prog influence, and being a big fan of prog, this pleased me greatly, the constant switching up kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire song, there was not a single section of the song where I felt myself bored.
And while I'm not sure, I wanna say I hear some influence from Incubus in your vocals, to me, your vocal style greatly reminded me of Incubus... which is most certainly not a bad thing. Use of somewhat unconventional vocal phrasing keeps things interesting, and sets it apart from the majority of most recycled music today.
Really, I don't know how to describe how much I enjoyed this submission. Kudos to you, sir.

The only thing that bugged me about this song, was the mixing, the kick especially, throughout a good chunk of the song, it sounded like the kick was invading the mixing relentlessly... causing unnatural compression, very noticeably on the vocal line.
Aside from that... I really can't find anything to complain about.

Very amazing stuff, I was greatly impressed with this, and it earned you a 9/10 from me.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thank you BFP!

I'm seriously like super giddy that everyone generally agrees my submission is their favorite. omg C: I feel so honored.

Yes, I do enjoy lots of prog, and that's the main influence here, with some fusion inspiration thrown in.

Lately I've been working on fixing that obnoxious kick compression. But I'll get a better mix out for chemicals when I finish my round 2 track. (And probably lose, all this praise is making me nervous LOL)

I appreciate the review BFP! I'm super glad you're impressed. THANK YOU c:

[timeslip]

Flow me over sax man!

I tell ya what.. I quite enjoyed this for what it is. As a package, it's very well put together, and sounds totally natural. Everything was well played, I didn't hear any fret noise, slipped notes or off time phrasing, and I applaud you for this, as I always have trouble recording acoustic without at least a little bit of fret noise, be it sliding or buzzing. And the sax gave me a great sense of nostalgia, seeing as I used to play sax myself... It was also very well played, and flowed very natural with the rest of the song.
I also really, really liked the outro... it just... felt right.

For what I didn't like... Drums... They sounded horribly fake and over processed, too much reverb, too... floaty... It really sounded like the drums were recorded live in a large room while the rest was recorded in a studio... the contrast is unsettling. I also didn't really agree with the rhythm used on this track, it sounded very slapped together, like not much thought had gone into it, and sounded pretty inappropriate given the style of the song.
Only other thing that bugged me was that aside from the slight lift in the music around 1:07, there's not really a whole lot of variation... While the theme of this was great, I do think it could have benefited from progressing a little more into a different feel.

Regardless... this was very relaxing to listen to when I managed to ignore the terrible drums, I gave this a 7.5/10.

acmeDyne responds:

You hit the nail on the head with the drums. I spent about fifteen minutes total on them because I ran out of time. I probably should have left them out completely and spent that time polishing something else. Thanks for the review!

[Isis]

Brrr....

Well, I noticed you mentioned this having an "Icy" theme to it, and as implied above... I think you did a great job pulling this feeling off, the entire song just pushed the whole icy cavern type imagery into my head. I was also quite fond of the use of panning used in this piece, with the little stabs poking back and forth, which really gave a greater sense of this icy cave, with the sound jumping around, bouncing off the walls.
I also found this to be one of the more unique entries in the NGADM, as it doesn't really sound like something you hear every day in a movie commercial or the like, which earned you a couple points.

As for what I didn't like... First things first... It's very repetitive, and never really strays from the initial theme, which bugged me to no end... While it's nice that you did a great job establishing the theme of the song, I think you could have only benefited from pushing it along into something else, as, aside from a slight shift near the end, it's pretty much the same thing over and over again.
I was also a little put off by a mixing choice.. I found the stabs that play throughout the entire piece a little too loud, and only served to remind me that what I was listening to was essentially the same thing for 3 minutes straight.

Fairly unique, but suffered greatly from the repetitive nature... I gave this one a 6.8/10.

BenTibbetts responds:

OK, thank you for the review.

[Hymn To The Fallen]

Eerie, yet uplifting...

I like the sound you were going for in this piece, it sounds like you were pretty well spot on with the overall sound you were going for... It was pulled off quite well, I was especially fond of the "slidy section"... as I'll call it... starting at around 0:42. It felt pretty unique as far as orchestral scores go, and gave the overall song a nice eerie undertone. Instruments sounded excellent, mixing was great, and your use of lifts didn't sound overly forced.

What bugged me about this the most, was that when all is said and done, I didn't find it at all memorable. I really do think this would work really well as an insert in a movie, however, on it's own, it needs something else to make it truly great.
Some of the lifts I found, while feeling natural, felt a little out of character and unnecessary for the area of the song it was in.
I also found the song felt very redundant, while the melody is nice, I think it is a little overused, or relied on too heavily to push the song forward.
And I was pretty disappointed with the ending, as it just sort of... stops.

Either way, I enjoyed listening to it, got a 6.5/10 from me.

Rampant responds:

I disagree with the 'redundancy' bit: if I tried to force another theme or more variations into a piece this short, I think it would sound meandering and would lose its sense of direction.

Nonetheless, I'm glad you enjoyed listening to it.

[King Samulis]

This track makes me fear for my life.

Seriously, you did a great job composing a piece that stimulates imagery and a story in the listeners mind. From start to finish, it bombarded me with imagery in an unrelenting manner. I was also very impressed by the sounds you used, everything sounded very natural and very epic, nothing sounded overly sampled, and the entire thing flowed together perfectly.
I was also greatly impressed with the near perfect mood switch right near the beginning.
The percussion I also found very well done, and really added that "To War!" vibe to the piece.

As for complaints, I did notice a little clipping here and there. The only other really noticeable thing I have to complain about really was at 1:04, it sounded like the choir cut out in the middle of the phrasing every so often, as if there was a randomly placed breathe point in phrase.

Overall, freaking epic, and I very much enjoyed it. 8.5/10.

Bosa responds:

Thank you, my good sir. Yeah, those little clipping points are hard to notice for me (I don't know if I'm deaf or what). I'll really try to not make the same mistakes next time I release a song.

The impact that the song made on you is exactly what I was going for. It took me a long time, but this song has finally found a use for itself here on Newgrounds.

[King Bosa]

samulis vs. Bosa... FIGHT!

You did a lot of things right in this, including great composition and mixing, everything felt natural, and the section where the staccato strings come in is nothing short of epic. And while the feel of it was fairly cliche, I think you did well to make it your own, and the transitions between sections felt very natural and clean.

Complaints? The solo violin (That is a violin, yeah?) really... really felt like a sample, every time it played a note, it felt very robotic. It rose and hit vibrato in a very unnatural way, it was especially noticeable when it would switch from one note to another as it would just cut off in the middle of a vibrato very abruptly.
As well, while I do think this is a well done piece, I didn't find it all that memorable, the pace at which it moves is both a blessing and a curse... while it doesn't stick with a theme long enough for the listener to get bored, it, the lifted staccato section aside, doesn't really do anything all that memorable either.

All that aside, I did enjoy listening to it, and gave it a 7.5/10.

samulis responds:

Thanks for the review.

I actually really enjoyed the violin sound I used, but I guess that isn't true with most everyone. XD

In the future, I am considering writing a nice, well-formed, melody-based piece so all the classical nuts will not kill me for my excessive cinematic feel.

[Clicky]

Clickity clack pop tink...

I like the theme of this, the feeling you were going for, and enjoyed the soothing sound of the lead as it happily danced around throughout...

However... Gonna be honest, the clicking annoyed the hell out of me, I think you would've been better off using some more natural percussion, because I remember on my first listen, all that clicking reminded me of was clipping audio. And that isn't a thought makes me enjoy music.
On top of that, it's short, and never really goes anywhere. I do think this had potential, I really do... but it feels to me like you had a cool idea, threw it in your DAW of choice, then said, "Screw it, I'm too lazy to come up with more!"

If you had elaborated on this a bit more and replaced the annoying clicks and pops with some more natural percussion, this could have easily scored higher... But as it is, it gets a 5/10 from me.

TheBenjerman responds:

Hmm, definitely got mixed reviews on the clicking part. Good to know, thanks!

["The Last Ship" Short ver.]

Beat Step, go me.

I actually really like this, it's simple, it's mellow, it's got a lot of feeling to it, the instruments work well to set the tone. I can actually see this fitting in perfectly as an insert song for a movie, one of those dramatic fly overs of a city, or when someone comes to some great epiphany... Or even one of those regretful death scenes... I don't know why, but the scene in Spiderman where Peters uncle dies pops in my head. I think this would work great for a scene like that.

However, as a song on it's own, I do have to complain that there should be more to it, maybe some light percussion, not even necessarily drums, maybe some chimes to add some more ambiance... Or hell, even some light rain as a background or something. While I think it'd work wonderfully for an insert, but itself it needs a little extra something to really stand out.

Regardless, great work, get this into a flash, and properly used, it'll make a great impression.

BrokenDeck responds:

^_^ Thanx! Yeah hopefully I can get this used in a flash. +1 for being faster than Step :P

[Trinity]

Too long, didn't listen, loved it, 10/10.

Seriously though, I quite like this, you make great use of velocity and volume to give each section a nice feel and appropriate lifts and falls, and in each individual section, it flows very well. The instruments and samples used were also top notch and it was rare that I found it was obvious that they were samples or that I noticed those subtle hints (Such as forced vibrato) that the samples were indeed samples.

As for what I didn't like, I noticed you mentioned it in your comments, but a few of the transitions were pretty jarring, and I thought some of the transitions between the sections were ultimately unnecessary as the following section carried on in a fairly similar feel to the previous section.
Also, in contrast to what I said about velocity and lifts in what I liked... I also found that occasionally the lift or drop was a little too drastic, almost to the point where I felt the need to turn my speakers volume up or down. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but here and there, I did think the rise was a little "overcooked" so to speak.

That said, great work, keep it up, and your reviews are too damn long. ;D

Step responds:

Hey man thanks for reviewing!

"Too long, didn't listen, loved it, 10/10."

WOO.

"Seriously though, I quite like this, you make great use of velocity and volume to give each section a nice feel and appropriate lifts and falls, and in each individual section, it flows very well."

Awesome. Yeah it probably doesn't flow very well between sections, but in the sections I did try and make sure that the flow was smooth.

"The instruments and samples used were also top notch and it was rare that I found it was obvious that they were samples or that I noticed those subtle hints (Such as forced vibrato) that the samples were indeed samples."

Aha yes, I have trouble with vibrato. I can never get vibrato to sound good. It's probably hard to do so anyway with sample libraries. But yeah I have East/West to thank for their ridiculously good samples.

"As for what I didn't like, I noticed you mentioned it in your comments, but a few of the transitions were pretty jarring, and I thought some of the transitions between the sections were ultimately unnecessary as the following section carried on in a fairly similar feel to the previous section."

Hm yeah I see what you mean. I wanted to make it a little obvious that the medley is changing to a new track in Monster Hunter though. I hear some medleys where I can't even tell when one melody stops and another starts, and sometimes the melodies are combined together in a way that I can barely even recognise them from the original melodies. I wanted there to be clear markers between one melody and another so I didn't want them to be seamless. I did want them to be smooth though, and I kinda failed there haha.

"Also, in contrast to what I said about velocity and lifts in what I liked... I also found that occasionally the lift or drop was a little too drastic, almost to the point where I felt the need to turn my speakers volume up or down. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but here and there, I did think the rise was a little "overcooked" so to speak."

You're not the first to complain about that. And I don't mean in this track, I mean my music in general has those over-exaggerated drops and lifts. I love doing that personally, but if everyone's telling me it's too much, then I suppose I'm the wrong one here :P.

"That said, great work, keep it up, and your reviews are too damn long. ;D"

Tell me something I don't know :P.

Glad you liked it, thanks for the feedback dude!

[This Is It (Radio RMX)]

I approve.

ForeverBound responds:

Nice :D