DonaldFletcher's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ebmtechno- Beta]

Held my attention for FIVE FULL MINUTES

Maybe you know how important that is, because 90 percent of the stuff over 3 minutes is usually just the same song x3.

On top of that, this thing is just phenomenal. Only thing I'm noticing- you might want to bring down the hi-hats that arrive before 1 minute, or smooth them out somehow... that was the only part that slightly distracted me.

One thing you did was morphing that melody from Ebmtrance-loop that I heard the other day (Ex: around 0:55) and then bringing it back to the higher energy original. Great idea, and believe me I know that's hard to do right. Nice.

Everything here was very well timed and well orchestrated. I can't say I'm as much of the techno connoisseur as I am for Industrial, but I honestly think this is fantastic.

DomesticTerrorist responds:

Yep, this is the continuation of that song... thanks for the great review!

[Ebmtrance-loop]

You know...

Normally I don't give such high scores to tracks that are this much "bubbly techno" compared to industrial, but this is actually working for me. It makes a fantastic loop and I don't mind having it on repeat right now while I type this- I hope someone gets ahold of this and makes a killer flash with it.

Anyway, what I really like about this is how you managed to put the more cheery techno melody pretty smoothly over the strong darker industrial background. Really adds a lot of depth and feeling to the piece. Very fine job.

When you make this into a song, just make sure you don't simply repeat a loop 2 or three times like a lot of the full-length songs on here seem to do. I'll be honest though, you set my expectations really high and I'm thinking you have the potential to create something that's just truly epic here.

DomesticTerrorist responds:

Thanks for the awesome review, I actually posted the full version late yesterday if you'd like to check it out!

[Inner War [PDM]]

Damn beautiful for something that ain't finished

First off, the vocals are great. I wouldn't change much in their presentation, if anything at all.

Second observation I've got here is that it feels like I just listened to three different great songs here. This thing is seriously operatic in scale and I love it. I don't think it's as innovative as Electric Pulse was, though I think what you're trying to do here is break into a more theatrical type of storytelling / experience-conveying sort of industrial rock (Perfect Drug comes to mind, thinking of something to which I could compare this)

There's just something missing here and I can't quite put my finger on it. Seems like there's no backbone holding together the song especially after three or four minutes. Every segment has its merits, especially the seventy seconds after 2:00 (and it's just awesome how you led into and through all that); I just don't see all the pieces fitting together all that well at this point. I don't know if you need something solid below and between certain parts to bind them together, or even something as simple as standardizing one of your synths and giving it more of a constant presence. Maybe a couple of your transitions could use some touchup - the one at 3:10 was a little distracting for example.

There's a hell of a lot of potential here, but like you said it's a work in progress. I can't wait to see where you take this.

Elfire responds:

thanks for the detailed feedback! youve just underlined what i had suspected, transitions in this one suck. i was having a hard time binding the two parts together. and the glitch part is going to be really hard to break into.
In retrospect its totally different to electric pluse but i didnt want to go too mainstream with this project. (as the next one is back to that sort of style, the only reason this one came first is because i had so much fun with it)
There may come a time in the not so distant future where i cut the "chorus" out totally, in place of something that carrys on the previous theme if i cant get it to fit.
Thanks again for the review!
and perfect drug is ONLY the best NIN song ever!

[Konstruct- beta]

Fine piece of work.

I love the beat here. Very well constructed and even-flowing piece that made effective use of minimal percussion, which is pretty friggin hard to master.
There was no specific point in the piece that really grabbed me by the throat and made me say "What the FUCK, that's awesome!" but this kind of material makes for fantastic late night background music because it's not set up to really rip you off your seat, but to slowly and methodically pound the hell out of you, like a cigar compared to a cigarette. Ha, yeah, I guess that visualization sort of works. Anyway, nice work.

DomesticTerrorist responds:

Thanks dude! I appreciate the kind words.

[Blut]

Hard stuff, man.

And actually, I'm kinda diggin the snare. In the very least because it's something that's really making this track stand out for me. Hard distortions and hard beats are the signature of this piece. I think I'd have toned certain parts down to enhance the listenability of the work, however, that bringing me to the next point.

Main issue for me is that it felt like I just listened to the same minute and a half piece three times. Of course I know I didn't, and there are some variations in your transitions, as well as some division between major segments of the piece, though when you're running so much distortion through a set of human ears in order to elevate your sound to anything above noise you'll have to come up with equally hardcore ways to mix it up enough to keep it interesting. My gut tells me this calls for dramatic tempo shifts at critical points for starters. I think this could be made a lot better with that kind of thinking in mind.

One thing's certain though- I definitely respect how you went balls to the wall hardcore with this thing. Definitely.

Teddybeere responds:

Okay... Maybe with a band-pass along the backround drums and the bass? That should reduce the amount of noise and let the listeners recognize the varying parts. Thank you for the heavyset review, I think I'm going to overwork this and upload it again. Sorry for the morons that tagged all your reviews as useless, I really esteem them.

[Journey into Depth]

Excellent piece of Industrial

This does about everything I love about Industrial.
If any listeners weren't listening with headphones, do it now. This is a perfect example of how you can just use some simple panning to enhance your sound! And the reverb on the main "melody" sound was just right to set a great atmosphere for this piece.
This track was both consciously true to what Industrial is all about, and was a damn good unique piece of music as well. There's a lot of depth of sound here, and the more I listen to it the more I'm hearing. The only drawbacks I'm able to find is that some of the transitions between segments seem a little unduly rough around the edges. The noise at 30 seconds particularly stood out to me- I would have dropped the volume a hair and panned it in from the right. But that's just what I'd do- I'd say there's a good chance you're trying to say something by leaving it standing out like that. There are certain other minor points as well where certain sounds seem to climb through the ceiling and draw undue attention to themselves. Just a suggestion however. This is some incredible work!

WarlordXMaster responds:

Thank you so much for the review. I really appreciate the suggestions. I have another piece I got done with recently, I just don't feel like putting it on here for people to tear it apart. I will definitely put your ideas to work as soon as I can. You are right about the sound 30 part. I will go and redo some of the segments and make it flow even smoother. Thank you so much again. =D

[milk my fear]

Fantastic Industrial that's true to its roots.

I'm taking time away from an assignment due in under 2 hours to write this review, but this track deserves it so I'm going on with it anyway.
Very classy industrial. You definitely have an good hold on what it means to be part of this genre. I would love to know where you got your sounds and what software you're using.
I love how you've got a steady beat going, yet you're able to mix it up with different mechanical noises without having to get away from the consistent mood of the piece. Truly beautiful work. I left this on loop for the past ten minutes or so and it hasn't gotten old yet. Very solid, sophisticated stuff.

DJCHAMELMAMEY responds:

i produced this with my brother in law with a drum pad and reason, this is the first draft, i'm glad to hear you get it. we are working on some new stuff and shall be up soon, thanks for your review

[First to Die]

So bloody good. Almost flawless.

Simply can't say enough good things about this. The guitar and bass compliment each other through the whole 2 minutes and it kept my interest through the whole damn thing.
It wasn't even til my maybe 5th time or so (yeah, I listened to it on loop while I was doing some graphics to accompany my project) that I started to realize that after the intro there's no variation in the drumbeat whatsoever. An extra beat here or there would have made this so much better, but since the lead instruments are composed so perfectly, that made up for any shortcomings. Fabulous.

Ben-Spurgin responds:

Awesome! Thanks so much man! I've been playing with a drummer, but until we can get a decent recording I just do it to a crappy loop to try to get my ideas out. Stay tuned for more! :P

[The Bottomless Well]

Glad I was busy doing something for 60 seconds ;-]

You're right, but after a minute things really start to get interesting. This song was even more listenable the second time around because I finally got into the rhythm and found myself in tune with that alien sort of melody. The only drawback was getting used to it at first, though that probably ended up enhancing the rest of the piece. Who am I to say? Either way... just beautiful.

svinepels responds:

I guess that's the way it is with long, repetitive songs. You have to listen to them more than once. Thanks for the nine points! :)

[Run, Darling, Run]

solid work

I gotta partially agree with cycerin about the vocals. Though I think some minimal, distant or even distorted spoken vocals /behind/ the instruments would greatly magnify the intensity. Your choice of the knives in the background was fantastic. Well done.

kevs91 responds:

This song was written with vocals in mind, but I never got comfortable with writing the lyrics, so I just focused on music.

Vocals are certainly in the future, though, because at some point I'm going to be too curious not to try it out.

Thanks for the review!