DamienFleisch's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dance of the Poltergeist]

This is a really fun piece, and it's got this big ol' dose of personality that your audition piece has too. It makes your music immediately identifiable. And you seem to have a great talent for coming up with catchy melodies, I may be singing this to myself all day!

Good luck!

Azhthar responds:

Cool! Glad you like it. Yep I got a tendence to twisted circus music and grotesque stuff like this ;) Wonder what the others in our group are going to do...
Good luck for you, too!

[Jesterous]

Awesome song! It sounds a little like Periphery meets Vildhjarta but with a little more groove. The guitar tones are excellent too.

Great track!

PirateCrab responds:

Thanks dude, two of my biggest influences! I'm pretty sure you can hear the Vildhjarta influence at 1:57, then Tesseract after with the cleans haha! Thall.

[Bowels of The Machine]

This is really great! The synths are very full and heavy sounding and I love the groove of the whole song. When it pulls back a bit around 0:51 is my favorite part.

LunyAlex responds:

Thank you very much! This psyches me.

[Wasted Earth]

I like this piece a lot, and I went back to listen to the original version, but I think I like this one a lot more. The strings and the way you used them added a really nice ebb and flow to the whole piece that kept me very interested the whole time. And it sounded like you were using some clustered chord voicings that created some really lovely sounds and blended well with the resonances in the piano.

Very nicely done :)

Conquestus responds:

Hey thanks, that was a great review! You are right about the voice. I thought it would give the whole thing one subtile and lovely touch, which would perfectly fit. Thanks for your confirmation. :D

[The Place of a Skull]

Ahh this is great! I'm glad you added the description. When I listened last night I thought "Ooo is that some 12 tone?"

I really like that the sections of this piece are so different and yet still feel cohesive. What really brought the music and the art and everything together for me was the description of the art, especially the "desparate hunger" part. I think that sums up exactly the feeling I get from your music.

Phonometrologist responds:

You seem to really know your stuff. I can't say that I know many who enjoy the technique created by Schoenberg, but I'm finding more and more. I for one do, and have gotten great inspiration from that approach. For example here, the tonality of the latter half wouldn't even have existed without first utilizing the Twelve Tone Row Matrix that is heard in the beginning. It can be a great tool and a different approach for coming up with a chord progression--even though that is going against its purpose. To me it's like going back to the works of Bach where each single note is getting as much attention to it as the next where they are carefully woven together.
Cohesiveness was really the challenge and if it wasn't for that technique, it most likely would be lacking.
I've "sat" with the artwork by Heartgrinder for quite a while and I started to see the commonality that I could project into the music as well. I call it the heart of humanity, and the music by all of its different attributes is how I attempted to portray it.
Well, as you can see, I enjoyed your review. Thank you for allowing me to "hear" your perspective.

[Destruction of a World]

I like the sounds and textures you used a lot, they're very rich. With that artwork, I think a lot of people, myself included, would have gone for the epic hybrid orchestral sound. Your track works really well, though, and I enjoyed it. Kudos on thinking outside the box!

popraz responds:

Thank you !

[As Is]

This is nice. I like the slow build and the relaxed groove of the the whole thing. Good job!

flippytomtom responds:

thank you so much

[last stand]

For a first time working in a DAW this is impressive. It's a good tune, it's not really anything new but I also don't get the vibe that it's trying to be anything new. It seems to me you knew the conventions of the style you were going for and nailed them.

As far as the mix goes, I have a few comments. I was hearing some of those low-mid frequencies muddying up the mix a little bit, which could be fixed with a little EQ help. It's probably in the rhythm guitar and/or bass somewhere between like 500-1200hz. I also thought that kick drum could use a little more power which could also be achieved by playing around with the EQ.

All around solid tune! Keep up the good work.

8-bitheroes responds:

Thanks for the advice on the eq, i will give it a tweak when i get some time and try scooping out some of the low mid.

[Contrast]

Very cool piece, I really liked that build up to 1:00. That was a really strong moment.

My only critique is that I think it could have used a little more in the bass frequencies. That could add a lot of power to the piece.

And some really cool harmonies, man! I really enjoyed it.

PascalPalomino responds:

Thanks a lot mate!