july contest - GOSSIP

[You™]

They say you can catch more flies with honey but who wants flies?

[bluedad]

talking mainly about contest entries there TBH gary ...

slainte rob

fair enough.

[You™]

(coupled with the (admittedly full of crap - often due to me) 'pop star' thread)
... do i stubbornly carry on ploughing my atonal / arhythymical furrow with only a few folks 'getting' it or ...
... try to take some of those values and integrate them into something more palateable to the 'masses' (not talking commercial success here - just producing something more accessible to more listeners) - hell ... i like a danceable groove too you know ???

I bookmarked that thread and tried to skim a little but it seemed to veer OT too much for me to bother reading all 60 pages right now... but I'm interested in the concept that the mass media superstar is on the wane - I had something around here a while back about that and I've been collecting material offline for a project about it... But if understand your question, I think the answer is pretty easy.

When you work do you gravitate toward a formal set of guidelines or open-ended experimentation?

If you lean toward formalism: Are your creative guidelines too constricting thereby conditioning the results of your creativity into a rigid format?

or...

If you lean toward experimentalism: Do you think there is a lack of integrity when the results of your experiments are skewed to favor a certain outcome?

Now have another drink and consider that if you answered "yes" to those last two questions, maybe a change of process would be worthwhile - not just for the perceived palatability of your work but for growth potential. BTW, that Rooty album for all its gloss and production is gorgeously subversive.

[garret]

garret ...
... whatever youre on at the minute - I WANT SOME !!!
(my 1st ever (and prolly only ever) 1st place vote !!! )
and from someone usually so far away on the musical spectrum its UTTERLY unexpected ...

Lol... I was in complete control of my facilities when I voted, I promise! Okay I was a bit caffeinne-addled, but that's all.

Your track kicks serious arse.. you start with that evil smoke on the water riff (is that sampled?! if not, what evil s/w creation did you use to get that sound)...

Then you swirl around some tasty noise and stacatto vocal stuff, and the track just seethes... it's the ballsiest, most honestly powerful thing in the contest. Many tracks (including mine) tried hard to be energetic... but yours just chugs away like a steam engine. Sure it's not within the genre expectations for Metal, but it's 2004, not 1974 or 1984... if Angus Young were 16 years old today, I could imagine him making music like this.

Now, I'm off to have a beer or twelve... it's been a rough work week and I'm on vacation* for two weeks.
-Garret
* as much of a vacation as you can have chasing an 11 month old around the house

[warbug]

thank you all for your votes! im flattered and amazed!


Final c**t Down

^^^ this is the song i wanted to enter in the contest. but was not finished in time.

[Sicklecell666]

thank you all for your votes! im flattered and amazed!


Final c**t Down

^^^ this is the song i wanted to enter in the contest. but was not finished in time.

I'll take the title as a warning..downloading now & if I hear those crazy synths, I'm outta here

edit: LOL, you freak! I'm retracting my vote!!

[Sleek Month]

Hey! I'm getting votes!

How can I put a stop to this???

I've got it!-More reviews!

Tancos-Somewhere between a christmas carol and the tetris theme. Not very metel at all...

Yaguchi-fairly metel...actually a bit of edge to the guitars...the mix dynamics work well...

Smart-Very odd, but not very metel. Sounds like a bass solo, and I, like most fairly sane people, am not a big fan of bass solos.

Markleford-The guitars lack prescence, and what's with that 808 kick? Other than that, surprisingly metel.

Dr. Acula-Somebody's been taking swigs off the bottle of '80's I keep on top of my fridge...pretty good, though. Guitars sound (just) a little canned, but for once, the vox mix fairly well...

Col. G-Wow...um...dude, get a better mic, and back off it a bit...those pops are really annoying. Great arrangement, composition and sounds aside from that. Love the lyric.

Garret-Sounds a bit murky...I think there's a bit too much low on the toms or something...intersting lo-fi wall of noise, though.

Griels-Sounds a bit thin, vocals not very clear/crisp...drum programming random at best...has a trumpet. Metel has no trumpets.

Jeff Prentice-You might wanna use smaller, tighter kicks if you're gonna have that much double kick action going on...the ones you have are dominating the mix...very scalar...reminds me of yngwie...especially the guitar/keys duel sections. Watch the volumes levels...some of the synths kinda leap out at you...kinda cool, though not my thing.

Joenco-What an odd sound...the rhythm guits sound almost like a gated keyboard...couldn't really hear the bass.

rony aka kara-again, very odd...the guitars are such a background element that they could be anything. Very we're edgy-but we're not noncommital '80's rock sound. I don't know whay, but this one reminds me of Miami Vice...

Nuisances Sonores-f**king excrutiating...Keep up the good work.

Patrick9-Very chaotic. What's everybody got against clean, powerful mixes this month?

PHZ-Metel? Not so much. What's with that drum sound? Nice flange...for a mod.

Scarkord-More industrial, I suppose, but what the hey. The drums are a dead giveaway...not bad for what it is, but I'd love to hear it with massive guitars instead of the oddly filtered sounding ones on there.

sdunn1110-Highway star 2? Your singer sucks. Get rid of him.

Sascha frank-Sounds german...but not in a bad way...I about pissed myself at the first fart break...but not in a bad way...I kinda like this one....but not in a good way. Good guitar and drum programming.

Sickle666-Pretty much pulled off the no/faux guitar thing, but the drum sounds and programming defeat a lot of what could be big dynamics...get rid of the round (808?) kik and accent everything with drums...will be much larger.

Ugo-Not so metel, but very well done for what it is, Whatever it is...which is not metel.

Mo Verdigast-What an odd mix...drums are way too low...also, it sounds like you accidentally left your mic on while you were moving around in your chair...

Vishalshetye-Not very metel, but you're foreign, so I'll give you a break, unlike the English, who, though foreign, deserve nothing! Anyways, sounds pretty good for what it is, but now metel...far too dance/breakbeat.

wilkoryte-Nice metel beginning, didn't blow up like I hoped it would...again, accent more with drums. This sounds like they don't react to what the other instruments or even the song is doing at any given time...which is a problem with a lot of these tracks.

windchillfactor- Really bad reverb there...another one where the vocals don't sound like they belong with the track...very odd drum programming...

Softegg-Sounds German...but not very metel...again, reinforcing the music more with the drums would bring out a lot of power in this one.

Beardedone-Again, not so metel...very jatthy sounding, or something...the drums and guitar sound like they're from different recordings...guitar sounds "boxy".

Bonte-Die chours, Die!Not bad, would have liked to hear a drier, punchier guitar...

Dan Dreibelbis-Die, snare, die! Would have liked larger guitars...and a different snare that didn't dominate the entire mix...and some more bass would be nice.

Duncan Parsons-What can one say? Not very metel. Something about the overtones on the vibes makes me want to kill myself...I like the key solos.

endmusik-Not very metel...I've heard way more metallic issuances form this one before...very noisy, though. Reminds me of '89 for some reason.

Lady J.-Odd treatment. Kinda like it...don't understand why you flattened out the melody on the fast part...has problems, but I understand you were rushed...

rsmus7-It's called a tuner. Download one. Sounds more devo than metel...out of tune devo, that is.

There. I've developed my opinions, now off to vote!

Good luck, all.

-S.

[Sicklecell666]

I was expecting to be tossed in an Oubliette..

Instead I get honesty..



I agree with your opinion, sleek. I wanna re-do the whole track; I was just too eager to participate..

[ugo]

!Ugo

-ugo

[endmusik]

just want to say thanks for the votes

I know my entry isn't TOO metel, but I'm glad it was close enough to get some good feedback and a few votes

[pHz]

Your track kicks serious arse.. you start with that evil smoke on the water riff (is that sampled?! if not, what evil s/w creation did you use to get that sound)...

the SOTW bit is a chopped and tweaked MIDI file i found somewhere thrown through tobybears humanisator to give it some randomosity and played by the dethmetal.sf2 in sfz+ before going though a bit of MDA combo and mobilohm ... the mangled bit that doubles it is the same riff and soundfont going through hematohm

Then you swirl around some tasty noise and stacatto vocal stuff, and the track just seethes... it's the ballsiest, most honestly powerful thing in the contest. Many tracks (including mine) tried hard to be energetic... but yours just chugs away like a steam engine. Sure it's not within the genre expectations for Metal, but it's 2004, not 1974 or 1984... if Angus Young were 16 years old today, I could imagine him making music like this.

heh - steam engine - yeah i guess it is kinda relentless

Now, I'm off to have a beer or twelve... it's been a rough work week and I'm on vacation* for two weeks.
-Garret
* as much of a vacation as you can have chasing an 11 month old around the house

enjoy it mate - got to be better than work no ???

slainte rob

[Yagushi]

This takes your point to the extreme. I believe that the held-captive domestic music market in Japan (almost completely dominated by Sony Music) is the living incarnation of a 'free-music' hell.

As lame as Morning Musume and most of those other Hello Project "bands" are, that guy Tsunku can spit out a great pop tune every once in awhile... The last Aya Matsuura full-length CD is typical "idol singer" swill but I've got to admit that the "Ne?" single kicks ass! But what do I know? "Mini-moni Telephone Ring! Ring! Ring!" is one of my favorite songs of all time!

[Glooper]

Okay... page 4 of reviews.. I have a slight hangover so that might be tainting these reviews...

Wilkoryte - Don't ask again
Wow, Really good guitar sound... I especially like the harmonics at the end. My only complaint is the drums sound a bit sterile, and could do with a bit of variation, drum roles etc... But apart from that, this is great.

Ugo - The Pant's of Fury
Quite funky. I like the drums in the, and I love that funky bass line (is that you playing that?!). This is Quite original... and sounds a little industrial. But has the spirit of metel in there.

T-Willy - Born Yesterday
Good song. The guitars sound good. and the vocals sound good. Though I do think that sometimes the vocals aren't mixed very well. IMHO They might need a bit more compression and reverb. The composition is great.

GuitarJef - The Persian Metal Symph. Orch
Good, original tune. You've used a good range of instruments to keep the song nice and interesting. Not sure I like all of them, but that doesn't really matter. I like it though

Bucodi - mcrazy
Another quite original idea. Seems a mish mash of ideas rather than a song. But some of the sounds and ideas are good and are metel. I would have prefered a better song structure and just one of the ideas developed more...

Rsmus7 - MetelHeart
I like the sound of this song. The vocals might have slightly too much reverb (try putting the pre-delay to about 80 for vocals... it allows the vocal line to shine through, but blends it well with the background. I Don't like the ending... But The song is great...

Softegg - My Ugly me
It feels like too much reverb and the vocals aren't loud enough (and sound like they're being playing in a bathroom). But the sond structure is good and I like the lead synth line, which works really well with the guitars.

Joenco - Sunny Days
Great guitar intro. Not sure I like the chugging sound though when the song starts. And I'm not sure about that lead sound too... But theres some good ideas in here.

Lady J - War Pigs
Great sound... good vocals. Though the vocals could be a bit louder. I like the way you've used the distorted vocals as backing vocals in the intro. Though it has introduced quite a bit of unwanted noise which I would have filtered out... The guitars sound great.

Markleford- Kiken-Ga-Ippai
This is a real mish mash of ideas. Is that a drum and bass bit I hear! The Lead is a tad too loud I feel. But there's some really original ideas in here that somehow manage to work together quite well. Though I feel it could do with slightly more continuety, as it changes slightly too much. But overall I like it.

Beardedone - I refuse to Scream
Nice Guitars. Great drum programming. Though I have to admit that there was nothing that really grab my attention in here.. It's good, it's metel... but it's missing something. Vocals or another Lead line would have helped.

Dreibel - Pig Biting Mad 1
Nice intro.. I like the way the pad and guitar solo interact. And when it kicks in proper, It sounds good, and a has a good vibe to it. The lead instrument could do with a bit of left and right movement, it's always panned fairly hard left and feel that it could fill the space a bit better. But good stuff.

Smart - misfit
Not really metel,... Good build up... but never really goes anywhere and then suddenly ends at less than a minute! It has potential but really needs to progress into something else and fill out the second minute...

Yaguchi01 - Buggie Technicallica
Loud... But good... good guitars.. Very nice big sounding drums. Not sure I like the vocal. But it is metal. God it must have hurt singing it! It's way too short though.

Okay... will probably attempt the next page now (after having a bit of breaky). Then it's voting time...

Ben

[griels]

10 greels (for the jaaath man), probably the worst song I've heard this decade, deserves a vote for that alone.

Yes, it was quite bad wasn't it?

Thanks to Duncan Parsons for the number 1 vote by the way, you loon

Got to somehow make up my shortlist to ten entries that I could actually bear listening to.. Only at 5 so far The problem is that the tunes that are actually bona fide metel are mostly unlistenable for me Except Guitarjeff

[bluedad]

Oki, having coined the term, METEL, I can interpret it any way I want...probably the kind of voice Cronos from venom uses when he goes to the shop for a pint of milk )