Back-From-Purgatory's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[LO - Rush Hour (NGADM'12)]

Unce unce unce unce...

I like what you were doing with this, the feel of it just makes me wanna bob my head, and sounds like something you'd hear in a night club with people slipping each other E and having a good time while covered in glow in the dark paint.
First things first, I really like that bass sound, I actually think it sounds like something perfect for a dubstep song, but it seems to fit just fine into this setting, and I loved it's growly angry nature. And I dunno why, but the bassy section starting at 0:44 I really liked, I don't know how to explain it, but I just... liked it...

Stuff I didn't like... Well, first thing was that this was overly loud.. I know it's supposed to be a driving track, but it seems like you really pushed this right to the limit. And that leads me to my next complaint, is that the lead synth was quite harsh... and it was a little painful to listen to, which was only amplified by the overall loudness of the track. It'd be nice if it was smoothed out a little bit so that it wasn't as "biting".
And while I didn't take all that much of a dislike to it for this... I do have to add the repetitiveness as a con, there wasn't really that great a feel of progression throughout.. felt a bit more like a really long loop to me.
And I'm going to go ahead and assume that you were sidechaining, but another issue I had was that this was so pumped up in volume that it felt more like that was the compression kicking in and saying, "It's too loud! She's gonna blow!"... Felt a little unnatural.

So yeah... I actually quite enjoyed this track, even if after listening for a while gave me a headache, before said headache, I quite enjoyed it. 6.5/10

[Propter Te]

Wanted so bad to like it...

Starting with what I liked... The effort you put in, and the idea/composition of the song was pretty good, and I was pretty fond of the piano sound... but.. that's kinda where it stops for me...

Complaints...
Mixing I thought was god awful, like listening through a pillow, nothing really sounded clear, and was overly drenched in reverb, this was especially true of the vocals, which sounded ridiculously muddy... the entire mix sounded like it was played through a broken PA system in a back alley venue... Not in a good, "Played live!" kind of way, but a "We're playing in this shit hole because no one else wants us" kind of way. Everything just muddled together with little to no exception.
Vocals... I already mentioned they're muddy as hell and need to be clearer... but while I give you credit for doing vocals at all, I think you really need to work on a few things... Confidence being a large one, your voice wavers A LOT in this song, and it doesn't sound like vibrato to me, it sounds like you're unsure of yourself.
I also nearly had to plug my ears at 3:51... I don't know if that was intended or not, but it sounded freaking horrible to me. Off pitch, completely out of character for the rest of the song.
Touching on mixing a bit again, I noticed that the drums were nearly non-existent, save the crashes, which were overly in-your-face... which was really distracting and unpleasant.

I really do like what you were trying to do with this... but the horrid mixing and the lack of confidence in your vocals really ruined it for me. I can see you doing really well if at the very least you work on making everything sound a bit more clear and boost up your confidence in your voice... but this song was a complete miss for me. 4/10.

[under siege (ngadm)]

\m/ (>.<) \m/

Metal! Fuck yes!
There's a lot I liked about this song, first and foremost you didn't opt to stick with safe patterns and cliche riffs or overly repetitive passages to make a good song, and that earned you an extra few points. And I loved how you utilized multiple guitars to complement each other instead of always opting to have the 2 guitars just running side by side playing the same tune... It really added quite a bit more dynamic to the song.
I was also pleased to hear a synth or two in there, which I always think is a great addition to metal.
The solo... well, I'm impressed, it's not the most technical solo in the world, but it really did sound perfect for the song.

As for things I wasn't too fond of... First would be the mixing... gonna be honest, the mixing here was pretty bad. The drums were too loud, the rhythm guitars were too quiet, and the entire mix to me felt kind of like I was listening to it through a pillow.
I also noticed that the guitars weren't always really on time, it wasn't constant, but it was very noticeable when it did happen thanks to the obnoxiously loud drums. I also noticed a missed not going into the "second solo"... which I didn't really dock you points for, but figured it should be mentioned all the same.

Overall, I really liked the variety of this song, and if it had been mixed a bit better and the guitars adjusted or re-recorded on those off time moments, this could have gotten a much higher score. Regardless, as it is, this earned a 6.5/10 from me.

[Focused Noise (NGADM '12)]

\m/ (>.<) \m/

Being a metalhead myself, I was very pleased to see a few people enter the contest with metal.
I really like the riffing you got going on in here. The guitar tone is crisp and clean, and of course... heavy as fuck. It was well played, and the mixing overall I found was pretty damn good.
I was also quite impressed with the change up at 0:53, while abrupt, it didn't sound horrifically out of place, which is something I, myself, struggle a lot with. In fact, I didn't find any of the transitions to be overly jarring, which I have to give you kudos for.
And that solo, very well played, and I was really impressed at how you balanced a shreddy feel with a more melodic and soulful lead in as opposed to giving the solo a single identity.

Now for my complaints... No denying it... this was horribly repetitive. While the riffing was pretty awesome, this sounds like it was meant for vocals. Because without vocals, the repetitiveness of the song is amplified and becomes very noticeable later in the song. The solo does managed to break that up a bit, but underneath, there really wasn't much new going on. And really, that's my biggest complaint.
And if I'm not crazy, I'm pretty sure I heard a fudged note or two in the solo, but I can't really hold that against you because it didn't in any way take away from the overall song.

Overall, this was pretty enjoyable to listen to, great riffing, awesome solo, but it suffered pretty badly from repetition. Got a 6/10 from me.

Demon-Slayer12 responds:

Thanks for your review, I'll probably finish the song some day with vocals and make it a deadly live song. If this was played at a show with the right band members, it would probably make some heads bang haha

[The Mare and The Tortoise]

Ask and ye shall receive... Told you I'd get to reviewing this sooner or later!

I'm gonna be honest, there wasn't a lot about this that I really enjoyed... I mean, what was there was played good, and I did genuinely enjoy the vocal harmonies in the background. But... yeah... on to my next section.

What I didn't like... Honesty is appreciated? Yes? Good...
The guitar part was boring as hell, and really had nothing to it and IMO was a little too quiet in the mix in comparison to the bass.
I don't know if I'm crazy, because everyone disagreed with me it seems, but I didn't enjoy your main vocals much at all, it constantly sounded like you were struggling to find the right pitch, and bits here and there sounded very forced and unnatural... examples being the high note at 2:01, and the rise at around 1:48... Both of those sounded horribly forced to me. And to be brutally honest, I think running with light auto tune would have done the vocals good... Not T-Pain... but just slight pitch correction.
As mentioned above, I have an issue with the mixing, when all was said and done, the only things that stood out were the vocals and the bass line when things picked up... The guitar sort of faded off into nowhere (I know it was still there... just shy and in hiding), and the "percussion" may as well have been non-existent.
On top of all this, I really didn't see practically any creativity put into this song... I mean, I know it's pop.. and pop by its very nature is pretty much devoid of creativity... but for the purpose of this competition, I really think this is a little too "safe".

To be brutally honest, most of the points I gave you for this one came from the background vocals and the effort you put into them. Because the song itself I felt was... just... boring... cliche... and relying way too heavily on the vocals to get by. Considering all of the above... I gave you a 5/10.

midimachine responds:

cheers for the review and for sitting through it all haha... i can't play guitar very well at all :P
autotune was definitely something i considered. normally i do use at least a little bit of pitch correction BUT it was getting annoying to apply here because I wasn't tuned to A440 (haha), but idk about being forced and unnatural, that's kinda just how i sing i suppose!

[Dayum (NGADM)]

Those angry wub wubs....

Choirs... dubstep... good mix, this combination makes me very happy, and overall this really did sound good. It's come to a point where I don't have to see your name attached to a song to be able to tell it's yours just from the instruments, you have a very cool and unique sound, and that definitely works in your favor. Everything sounds clean and well thought out.
What I really like is how raw the bass is. It doesn't sound ridiculously over processed like you were trying to put all the weight of the song on the bass itself. And I love how you incorporate an underlying melody to help the bass along, and it sounds very natural.

Unfortunately though, this does suffer from severe repetitiveness. And while the change ups are a nice to hear when they do eventually happen, they often felt forced and just sort of tagged on just to keep the flow of the song going.
My biggest suggestion to avoid this would be to cut down the track length significantly, as you really don't have enough going on here to keep listeners interested for a full 5 and a half minutes, and it very quickly loses its appeal after listening for a couple minutes due to the repetitive nature.

I still really enjoy the stuff you put out, and the instruments I think work very well with what you do... but the repetitiveness of this really killed it for me. 6/10.

[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!

[What's Ahead (NGADM 1)]

When the bell tolls, there shall be blood...

I don't know what I mean by that... Either way! I like the sound you were going for with this song, dunno why, but it kind of reminded me of Assassin's Creed, specifically the templars, and a view point on top of a chapel. It's a cool theme, and I loved the use of the bell, as well as good use of a choir and the (I'm assuming) organ (And later strings) that is going in the background mid song.
I also enjoyed the brief breaks in the music from time to time, which I've always found are great ways to emphasize a lift in the music, and I think you pull this off pretty well.

Complaints? Well... Reverb. There's too much of it, way too much of it, it was drowning out your efforts with intense, aggressive rage... It was fighting the song every step of the way.
Aside from the bell and gong (?), there's no percussion... While I don't think every song truly requires percussion, this one feels pretty incomplete without more active percussive elements... And honestly, I found the bell at the very end of the song to be a little out of place.
Next up is the mixing, while not horrible, I found that a lot of what was going on seemed to be completely buried and I had to actively listen to it to try and pick instruments out from the mix... It just didn't feel very cohesive... Kind of like all the instruments were off doing their own things on different sections of the stage, and the audience has to pick and choose what they were listening to, instead of sitting back and enjoying it as a whole.

Regardless, cool idea, execution could have been a little better, I gave this a 6.8/10.

[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.