thanks to the title of a shitty furry parody video,
(seperate links)
I thought it was this.
Well I’m definitely happier with what it is.
Reanimation - Star
Rating: 3.6/4.5 or 4/5 or 8/10
tl;dr edition:
This song as a whole feels like 4 different songs welded together with no aim or direction. The song opens wonderfully, with a good sound and buildup but never delivers on the expectations of a truly epic chorus or hardcore shred. It has a lot of little things that make it somewhat good but on the whole it falls flat as a song, and comes off rather as a mix of different ideas arranged into a song. It could have worked (thinking of songs like Bohemian Rhapsody) if a more standard approach was adopted, which is allowing new sections to be fully realized within themselves over a long period of time to create a sense of epic scale, but the short time of 3 minutes was too little to accomplish this.
Thoughts on First Listen:
Coming into this I thought it was doom metal, to some degree, with how the intro is set up. I actually really have a soft spot for tempo changes, which can be good for tone if used properly, which I believe is the case here. Also, side-note, thanks for keeping everything in the one sheet-format Antonim prefers, makes my job a LOT easier (looking at you Hellstick ಠ_ಠ). Anywho, lol’d at the Determination riff. Then the solo starts, which is the end of the song. The composition is good during the solo, but with that being the ending (and the way it ends is also weird) the song as a whole feels incomplete. The intro kinda leads you on the idea of a big epic piece with huge slow buildups and stuff, and for the song to be under 3 minutes is counter to that theme.
Intro - (Measures 1-48) Rating: 4/4.5:
Good sound for this section, like I said earlier, the slow pacing and powerful drum hits + guitar strums really make for a nice buildup of anticipation. Here I think the empty feel of the song works best, making you feel like something is missing, to be added later into the song. I think my personal highlight here was the drumming, it has a nice groove and the fills were really well done. Not sure I’d have changed anything about that.
Bridge - (Measures 49-73) Rating 4/4.5
Transition was pretty seamless imo, well done there. I felt maybe the kick for the first half needed a boost, but was perfect during the fill. Here again the somewhat lacking sound works well, with the addition of the strings in a more prominent role, this part sounds more full than the intro, is more catching (loved the composition on the violin strike), and continues to hold back just enough to still be building tension. Not sure how I’d change it (the first half maybe should be more a djent-style of metal? It doesn’t really have anything interesting about it other than the increase in tempo).
Bridge 2 - (Measures 74-112) Rating: 3.5/4.5:
Here’s where the song starts to fall apart for me at least. I like the more complex melody of the acoustic guitar, but the drop in energy is counter to what the first two sections were about. And since this part also has a buildup of it’s own, it just comes off as if the previous part was a chorus and this is a verse, which is not how I see them framed. As is, it feels like we were walking somewhere in the intro. then began running when the tempo changes. With this part’s sudden slowness, it’s like we stopped, turned around, and started walking back in a new direction. However, I did still like the atmosphere here, alongside the still pleasant drumming.
Determination Part - (Measures 113-132) Rating 3/4.5:
I have conflicted feelings here. Obviously this part has the best melodic content of the entire song (which I’m guessing came before Determination?) but everything else about it I don’t like. It feels so out of place, the emptiness feeling like we’ve been betrayed by the hype the intro and bridge gave us (to be fair, I still don’t have any qualms about the drumming).
Solo/Outro - (Measures 133-End) Rating 3.5/4.5:
Instrumentation here is nice, but needs some mixing work. And the backing is lacking somewhat I think. Guitar’s too loud and shrill (though, like I said, I like the composition). Here’s the only part of the song I don’t like the drumming as much, it feels like it’s trying to compete with the solo a bit too much. Also the ending was sudden, which is annoying considering how the entire rest of the song is a buildup to it.