Original Prog-Metal/Rock song, sans vocals

[Cain]

Hey all, I'm posting this to ask whether you think vocals would work over it. I have written lyrics and am composing vocal melodies at the moment, but I haven't recorded them yet...there are a lot of time-signature shifts in the song, but since it's all a straight-eights feel I think they groove pretty nicely with the way I've written the melodies. Basically, I'm asking what you think of the musical aspect and whether you think certain parts are too busy for vocals to work, and what you would adjust about the instruments while keeping the basic feel the same to maybe adjust it, or if the section in question deserves scrapping all together.

The song is called "The Fear of the Faithful" and for those who are interested, the intro and verse is in 4/4, the pre-chorus is in 5/8, the chorus is in 3/4 with a measure of 4/4 at the end to lead into the repeat, and the instrumental interlude (no vocals are intended to be sung over this part) is three measures of 6/8 and a measure of 7/8 at the end of the figure, then back to 4/4.

http://s15.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=187J8CU49AHM00WXK1PV1O4ODK

Please download, yousendit won't bother us for posting original music. :)

EDIT: In addition, disregard the solo. It's really out of place and I plan on ultimately doing away with it.

[Cain]

Bumped. Please listen!

It always seems like I have to struggle to be heard in this forum. :(

[mutt]

You arent alone in that struggle let me tell you. I really enjoyed this peiece, extremely tight and professional. Good quality recording, sounds to me like you knew where you were going with it right from the begining! Im very impressed, tell me now, are you planning on being an instrumental metal band or are you hiring a vocalist?

[Cain]

When I record vocals on this song, they will be mine. I'm a strictly melodic singer...no power metal bellows, death screams, or emo/punk whines allowed! :p My voice is pretty decent, although lacking in power. I would hope to find a good vocalist someday, along with a band.

The biggest thing I could wish for at the moment is a band, with skilled musicians of a like-minded mindset, either people with the technical facility and desire to simply play the parts I write for them (I try to give each instrument something nice to do...not being an expert on drums or bass I'd probably let them do their own thing), or who are on similar pages to really take my solitary compositions to the next level. As of right now, I'm a pretty self-sufficient composer.

My ultimate goal is to make this kind of music for mainstream consumption. One of the challenges in this piece was to make the time changes flow, as opposed to appearing jarring the way they so often do. I hope I did well.

[Squidtech]

Well, while listening I kind of expected it to pick up the pace and get a little more agressive. I think that's mostly because that's the kinda of music I prefer. But It's a very cool kind of mellowed out song. I personally really liked the solo, It didn't seem out of place and for me it's a pretty necessary part of the song. I would definatly listen to this music. The guitar part is fantastic. The solo is great. Vocals would really finish off the song well. Hey, if you released this on an album I'd probably buy it. I'm sticking this on my mp3 player.

Nicely recorded. I'd love to know how it was done
Don't take out the solo.

Much better than anything I've recorded. I'd post mine he if they weren't so poor quality (comp mic......yeah...that's it) and somewhat pathetic. Though I've only recently started playing and am now desperatly trying to learn Unholy Confessions-Avenenged Sevenfold in hopes to cover it (for fun) with my friends/kind of band.

[Moss]

That's great track. Definately the sort of thing that I could listen to over and over again. The writing is excellent and the playing and programming of all the instruments is great. Like Squidtech said, that solo fit's nicely.
That bass drum is the only thing that let's the track down IMO, it probably sounds okay on your uncompressed master copy but on this mp3 it dominates the sound. The rest of the drums sound very good, sounds like you've got some really high-end equipment.
Please post an update when you get the vocals down, I'd love to hear the finished version.