MercyfulDeath's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lo-Fi Black-Gaze]

Fuck I thought I was listening to my Transylvanian Hunger CD for the first 10 seconds there. Sounds relatively decent, you gonna continue this?

TheLitch responds:

Oooh I don't know. I do music projects with a friend of mine so eventually we'll do another black metal project. If you want more black metal type stuff go check out my band camp. We have two free albums, Epoch being written by my friend, is very black metal heavy forward.
https://skytemple.bandcamp.com/

[City Ruins [AShattered Past] WIP]

I like it!

So, although I am unfamiliar with the inner workings of music meant for cinematic setpieces and such, I'll try to do a think and give criticism (which should be taken with a grain of salt). If the main goal of this piece is to progress and give weight to a certain sequence then I have to say it wholeheartedly succeeds in that regard. You can really imagine this used while presenting wide shots of a decaying, desolate cityscape/wasteland. The dissonance which begins at 1:10 also gives the piece a sinister character, and could be used to introduce certain elements which subtly imply a cause or reason behind the evil that made what was visually presented.

The percussion that enters around 1:29 or so is wonderful for a smidge of tension a scene could use to progress and it adds a whole lot of weight. However I can't give you all my 5 since as you've said, this is a WIP, so I assume there is room for improvement. Maybe a cello squeezin out some sad notes round the parts before the sinister dissonance and chords? IDK really, jus' throwing out ideas that might stick, in the end it's your piece so you do the thing.

Teckmo-X responds:

Thanks for the review. Good to get some positive feedback with a good amount of detailing. You've captured my intentions almost perfectly. The soundtrack is supposed to have a similar sinister concept but as you mentioned wasteland themed. The song was originally supposed to be put into a video game I am working on with some friends and colleagues and it is still being worked on at a slower pace. Usually I'm not the type to make music like this but it was somewhat something completely new to me and it worked out well. My inspiration came from Neir Automatas OST Album with that sort of composition my goal was similar to that. I understand the percussion at 1:29 and so forth but my intention wasn't to make a drop or to reach a climax, it was just supposed to be simple and easy to listen to. I think I might have over done it a little with percussions but as I have mentioned the song along with the game is still in the works and won't be complete for at least another 4 years. It is being optimized for PC on a monthly bases so hopefully we get the game out for everyone to try out or at least a demo. The review is great and I appreciate it. I hope to release a full version of this or maybe something else since we don't want to spoil too much of this

[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!

[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

[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!