I am happy to announce a new sponsor for the Songwriting Competition:
kv331 audio is kind enough give away a bundle of either SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle, or a freely selectable set of 3 SynthMaster Expansions (donations until Spring 2018)
License will not turn into NFR, you need to have a kv311 audio user account in order to pick up Expansions
More info on kv331 audio: https://www.kv331audio.com
A huge thank you goes to kv331 Audio for providing the licenses.
Here are my votes. There's a lot of subjectivity and I'm obviously biased towards the music genres that I enjoy the most, but this contest is seriously tough to score, the quality of the entries is very high. Kudos to everyone regardless of the result!
01 (10pts) - Nige - King of Ashes. I loved the production, many elements working very well together. The song has so many memorable parts, and has that prog style that I'm digging so much right now. It really makes me want to listen to it more times.
02 (9pts) - Moa22 - Burn With me. Another genre I quite like. The voices stand out to me, great job! great atmosphere with the acoustic guitars at the end.
03 (8pts) - TBase2000 - Big Stick. Great song, it reminds me to White Zombie "La Sexorcisto" album in the sound and the singing. Groovy guitar riff, powerful vocals, great delivery. On top of that, I like the mix very much.
04 (7pts) - kc23 - Hyperthyroid. Don't dig the first part too much, a little conventional. But I really enjoyed the second half of the song. I think there are some problems with the mix, but I don't know to what point should I judge the mixing.
05 (6pts) - erictracks - Through the Night. I think the song is well produced and performed, I like the guitar arpeggios very much, but to be honest, the whole style doesn't click too much with me, kinda drags for too long at some points.
06 (5pts) - Donkey Tugger - In Orange. I almost feel bad giving this the lowest score, I had a lot of fun listening to it, especially the second part. I did enjoy the voices and the vibe of the singing parts, felt very energetic, reminded me of Ministry. I liked it very much. Didn't enjoy the first half of the song, though, and the guitars felt a bit too thin and wide.
About the voting... really subjective process. Perhaps in the future there could be a bit more precise "creative brief" and/or evaluation criteria so everybody has a common ground for evaluation and better yet, can get in the competition knowing what will be "judged". Just an opinion.
Anyway, I just went with my gut about this. Here it goes:
Nige-King of Ashes Really good structure. Really nice harmonic progression as well. Those odd time signatures won me over!
Erictracks-Through the Night Although the guitar sound gets a little bit harsh, I really like the song a lot. Reminds me of Adrian Belew. And a little bit of (a less proggy) Chris Squire and Pixies mixed in it too!
Moa22-Burn With Me Great headbanging groove! Reminds me a bit of QOTSA. With a nice spin.
OctopusOnFire-Heart of Stone Great vibe. A little bit speedy for my taste… a few bpm less would have let it groove some more I think... but maybe its the sound of the guitars. That, and a stronger melody, be it a voice or an instrument. And it will be a great tune!
Tbase2000-Big Stick Nice sounds! That tribal thing sounds great. I think you could have exploited the structure a bit more. And I think the harmony may be a little too straight forward for my taste. But a good song.
donkey tugger-In Orange Its not that I don´t like it, I think there are really good ideas in this song. However, the doom parts are not that "doomy" to me… and the thrash parts are too "thrashy" for me. As I said before… subjective!
About the voting... really subjective process. Perhaps in the future there could be a bit more precise "creative brief" and/or evaluation criteria so everybody has a common ground for evaluation and better yet, can get in the competition knowing what will be "judged". Just an opinion.
Though there are no criteria for what will be judged. Every opinion is different. As mentioned before - it could have just been a brief list, though commentary (feedback) was encouraged.
Still two votes left:
Donkey Tugger and erictracks
Still tomorrow yet - hopefully the evil flu (ok, it's a cold) will subside a bit more and hearing will be restored in the right ear, thereby enabling stereo listening for the first time in days..
I appear to be doing about what I expected for that monstrosity!
I have risen from the dead and after several cups of coffee these are my random musings, in order of magnitude;
Erictracks - Lovely, and quite different than everything else. I'm always a sucker for anything jangle and definitely the most catchy (which for me means best..) actual song of the bunch.
Nige - First off, it's a good metel name (Nigel Tufnell, Spinal Tap...) and apparently no children born in the UK this year were called Nigel so you need all the help you can get...Nah, ambitious songwriting and very nicely done.
Tbase 2000 - Is that James Hetfield? Perhaps a bit more generic than Nige's song and less memorable for me. Nice geetaring though and an extra metel mark for the swearing.
Hyperthyroid - Quite 'proggy', but I won't mark you down for it. Can see what you were going for, not sure for me it all totally hangs together as a coherent piece of music, but I salute the effort!
Octopus on Fire - Had a bit of a videogame feel for me. Could be wrong though as the last computer game I played was probably manic miner. Liked the upfront drums on this, not so the keyboards- there's no place for sinthesisers in metel! OK, Jump by Van Halen..that can stay. -
MOA22 - Some nice songwriting touches in this one - liking the drop to the acoustic bit for example. The little flutey, err 'Jethro Tull' bit didn't really seem to fit though, and did get on my nerves a bit!
Nothing much at all (not even up to me usual cigarette habit) unfortunately, due to Satan's own cold. The random streams of conciousness were more due to lack of sleep plus painkillers/coffee.
My dudes thank you for the honest feedback, now I need to finally get around to voting.
BTW I agree with kc23. Some guidelines would make the voting a less vague process.
NIge:
This is on another level. Extremely listenable. I like the synth texture in the second verse, it moves the song along and and adds that extra bit of interest. Could use some more excitement in the bridge, it's just kind of there like an obligation. This mix sounds awesome. Not a fan of the strings, but I get it's sort of a genre thing.
Tbase2000:
Okay this is close to Nige's entry. Well though-out and professional sounding. Has that radio-rock vibe. Super energetic mix and vocals. Not a lot of nuance, but this *is* rock/metal month. Sort of steamrolls the competition you know?. 98 Rock up in Baltimore would play*the*shit out of this.
MOA22:
Damn you guys have these radio-ready drums DOWN COLD. The quiet 'burn with me' bits are some of the best hooks in the competition, imo. My ears perked up a bit from 3:30 onward. This was like, different but cohesive and creative. But, I'm disturbed by the intro and outro imagery and sound effects. I know you didn't intend this, but it makes me think of the Station nightclub fire and now I'm bummed out.
kc23:
Intro riff is a bit...conventional?, but it nicely sets up your second part. I don't really know what we're judging on, but 1:12 to 2:05 is SO GOOD. 1:45 to 2:05 is extremely my shit. But, I can't decide if I want more of that, or if the intro riff is necessary to the song itself. Regardless, that was a really talented bit, nicely done.
donkey tugger:
Lyrically it's my favorite entry. That intro riff is insane, too. As the only entry with a legit blastbeat I salute you. It's a bit fatiguing on the ears overall, but I suspect this may be intended.
OctopusOnFire:
Striking contrast from the intro to the main body of the song. I like that bit from 2:30 on, that's brilliant. Jeez how'd you get that huge punch on those toms. Sounds incredible. Breakdown is welcome. This is breakneck speed. You're obviously a very skillful composer, but honestly I kind of lost the plot in places.
I am happy to announce a new sponsor for the Songwriting Competition:
