MercyfulDeath's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Party Tonight (abrupt ending)]

Yo I'm down to do bass and lead guitar for this!

On to the cover, I think it needs a lil reverb to tie the whole thing together, drums sound a lil dry, but I assume it's because that's how it sounded in the show. Also some separation and distinction between both rhythm guitars would be cool too, but otherwise this cover's pretty fuckin solid bro.

lemmy know if you wanna collab on this!

TheNGVirus responds:

I'd love to collab! DM me so we can talk about it more!

[Symphony Of Stolen Society]

I like it, a lot! I'm not super good with critiquing synthwave and such but from what I can percieve, the whole thing felt ethereal, especially the beginning, with that rhodes piano sounding synth. It really captures that slummy, dark neon feel of cyberpunk imo.

[Whiplash (Cover)]

Fucking hell I haven't heard Metallica seriously in years, kinda grew out of 'em when I was 13 - 14 and discovered direct downloading, still though I revisited KeA to properly critique this tune. OKAY, let's start on the bad, your drums are dry as fuck bro, put some reverb, and deaden the treble on the drums (not the cymbals) a bit so their snap doesn't sound so robotic, that or get EZdrummer. Second, the vox start after 8 bars, not 4, and well, the vox are, ehhh well, I guess I should be straight up and not pad it, they kinda suck dude, I mean okay I'm not one to talk because for the very LEAST you have proper equipment (I still record with a 1/8 mic for vocals, it's extremely hard to get a proper take.), but there's a lot of things missing for the vocals to be passable, for one, REVERB, or a very short delay (-50ms), whichever you prefer. The verb can give the vocals some depth and body, because as they are, they sound flat. Another thing is a smidge of compression, I felt some parts louder than others. The last thing is projection and actual singing, and that can only be achieved through practice. I might be a little biased because I used to shred my throat to this song and a couple of others from this album and era in metal, but I felt you could've projected a rawer, wilder voice, which would've helped the cover tremendously, as it is, well, kid I can tell you're not a day older than 14. I guess the last would be the bass, I found it too low in the mix, but I guess that's me nitpicking, put some mids on that motherfucker! Bass in that era of metal was felt AND heard, just ask Steve Harris, and pretty much every other NWOBHM Metallica ripped off to make Kill 'em All *COUGH*DIAMOND HEAD*COUGH* *COUGH*BLITZKRIEG*COUGH* *COUGH*TANK*COUGH*.

Other than that, I liked your rhythm tone, it's got punch, and hell, you got an interface and a decent modeler, that puts you directly in professional territory. The lead, well, it's got spunk, quite sloppy, but I guess that never stopped a band like Venom from recording. I apologize if I ended up shitting on the submission, but I don't mean any ill from it, I feel you've got quite some potential, but you gotta git gud.

AlphaStormMusic responds:

I’m one of the few people in this world who take criticism well. But when I say criticism, I mean real criticism. Like this review you’ve given me. You didn’t just say what was good and bad, you said what I could do to improve. And for that you have more respect from me. Thank you so much for the review. I’ll definitely be putting all of that to use! :)

Take care!
~AlphaStorm

P.S. I killed my voice after this recording session. My vocals got much weaker by the end and I think you can tell lol

[Virtual World ( Demo Preview )]

Pretty tight man, imo sounds like music for a results screen after completing a level. I'd probably segue back into the original riff with an added lead after the cool part that starts at :29 to then loop it. Otherwise this sounds fuckin radical man.

[Generic Metal-y Thing]

Pretty decent stuff. I really liked the jangly Smithsy opening, the whole instrumental isn't SUUUPER 100% pure metal per-se, but that's just my inner 80's metal curmodgeon talking. You've got some cool melodies going on, plus that descending lick that serves as the main theme is pretty fucking good.

AlexandRyan responds:

Hey thanks so much for your kind words! Yeah you're definitely right about the genre, I'd probably label it more as Post Hardcore or something, which falls somewhere under the blanket term 'metal' in my eyes haha. Thanks again for taking the time to write such a kind comment on my track! :)

[Thrashy Turd]

Fuck dude this turd moshes hard, I dig the fuck out this, especially the crust-like parts like on 0:23, kinda reminds me of Wolfbrigade/Fall of Efrafa/Ekkaia and such. You ever going to do leads for this? It'd sound radical with a couple of tremolo abuse parts. Post more fucking turds dude.

GoreBastard responds:

Thanks man! I'm glad you're a fan of the crusty parts. Wolfbrigade are awesome, but I'd never heard the other two bands you mentioned. Just checked them out and they're excellent, so cheers for that!
Don't know if I'll end up putting much lead stuff on my tunes, mainly because I suck at guitar haha.

Cheers and beers!