Snide
07.07.16 | https://blackmalachite.bandcamp.com/
I hope you all enjoy! Constructive critique always welcome. |
zaruyache
07.07.16 | COME TO BRAZIL |
Snake.
07.07.16 | uh oh |
Futures
07.07.16 | dilton come 2 rio u saved me life!!! |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Zaru: I can't come to brazil till I tour locally tbh
@Snake: Uh oh is hopefully about the impending thread and not about the music (possibly both?) |
zaruyache
07.07.16 | i hate the wub wub bs in the first track, but the latter half is dec. video games woo |
Snide
07.07.16 | @zaru: You know me, I love me sum wubs. Can't wait to hear what you think about the rest of the album! |
LotusFlower
07.07.16 | ill give this a look eventually |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Cl0ver: Thanks man! Hope you enjoy it when you get around to it! |
wtferrothorn
07.07.16 | I"m at the motivation, and this isn't too bad. I feel the same about the first track as zaru, and a couple of the tracks feel a bit run-of-the-mill, but I really liked what was going on in Frost Depth, Radioactive Storm, The Desolate House, and Glitch Memories (really wish this track was a bit longer tho). |
Snide
07.07.16 | @wferrothorn: Thank you for the honesty! I'm glad you're enjoying some of the tracks so far, can't wait to hear what you think of the whole thing. |
wtferrothorn
07.07.16 | Now that I've listened to the whole thing, it has it's ups and downs. The more in your face, wub-wub electronic and metal elements aren't really my cup of tea, but I thought the piano pieces were pretty, the ending of Redeemed was sweet, and Serenity had some cool things going on in it sound-wise. It's definitely a smorgasbord of an album. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @wtferrothorn: Thank you so much! Redeemed ironically is my favorite track on the album. I'm glad you were able to enjoy some of it, I'm guessing inconsistency is my biggest issue?
@toad: I hope you like the production on the rest of the album, honestly I feel I mixed a lot of others better than Skyscraper Underground. |
wtferrothorn
07.07.16 | I guess. With all these genres, there were bound to be some tracks that weren't as interesting to me as the others based on personal preference. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @wferrothorn: So which track do you think is your favorite? I'm not gonna make another album for a while (gonna at least put out two or three EPs before I follow up with a sophomore album.) Gonna take the opportunity to hone in on my skills in particular genres. |
wtferrothorn
07.07.16 | My favorite is probably either Glitch Memories, The Motivation, or Serenity. If Glitch was a bit more fleshed out than just a 1 min track, it'd definitely be my fave. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @wtferrothorn: I'm glad you like The Motivation, I was a bit nervous about that one considering I've never dabbled in Synthwave before. If you really dig Glitch Memories that much I might make an extended version, it was only meant to be an interlude originally. Serenity was honestly me going full throttle on ignoring song structure and just trying to make a cool ambient atmosphere. |
Drifter
07.07.16 | I'll listen to this tonight, I'll give my rating/opinion tomorrow probably |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Drifter: Thank you! Can't wait to hear what you think about it. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @six: I'm thinking of just doing a west coast US tour first tbh, not Somalia. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Angry: Thanks! The Great Escape was fun to make, and is probably my favorite metal related piece of music that I've ever done in my solo projects. |
Gmork89
07.07.16 | Pretty cool so far, what did you use for the electronics if you don't mind my asking? |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Gmork: Thank you! The programs I use are FL Studio, Sony Acid (My main interface), Audacity (for some specific things), and Reaper. |
Gmork89
07.07.16 | Excellent thanks for the insight! I'm impressed by the quality of the production here, great work. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Gmork: Thanks! Production quality was something I really struggled on in my old work, and I'm glad that everything's up to par here. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Angry: The artwork was done by Daniel Danko of Danko Designs. Dude's pretty damn talented. |
user
07.07.16 | certainly your best work yet. did you use any samples? |
Snide
07.07.16 | @user: Yeah I used samples, (not as many as my Itachi / Pokemon remixes)
@Angry: Thanks man that means a lot, what do you think you're gonna rate it? Glow was something I'd always wanted to do since I'd never done anything acoustic before. |
user
07.07.16 | did you sample anything in "the great escape?" |
BallsDeep
07.07.16 | Not usually my cup of tea but this is a really creative, fun and engaging album and better than anything I could make so you should be proud of yourself man |
Snide
07.07.16 | @User: Yeah, the guitars were sampled from a loop pack and I ran them through a reaper filter to get the tone that I wanted, plus sampled a few extra notes and such.
@Angry: Skyscraper Underground is the worst? Damn, it's the wubs at the beginning isn't it.
@BallsDeep: Thank you so much! |
Drifter
07.07.16 | I'll make a comment tomorrow ranking each track, but oh my god, I LOVE Eternal |
BallsDeep
07.07.16 | hmm one approach for the future would be possibly to segment the album more to tell the narrative e.g. first few tracks are ambient, next few are more metallic, next few are heavy electronic then the last few are melancholic piano so it all feels a bit more holistic and aligns with the story your trying to convey, although that might detract from the unpredictability of it |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Angry: Damn you're only 16? You sound way more mature than most your age. I'm glad that Glow is getting some more attention too, I love that track. Yeah my next effort will probably be a 3-4 song EP.
@Drifter: Thanks man! Glad you dig Eternal so much, I can't wait to see your rating and comments ranking the tracks.
@BallsDeep: Well the story itself varies in intensity which is why I switched up the track order and such. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Angry: Yeah man you sound like you're at least my age (23), but yeah I'm already hyped to start working on new music. I'm gonna take a little bit of a break though, promote the album for a month or so then move onto the new EP. |
BallsDeep
07.07.16 | Fair enough its your story, you've definitely got some talent in you
btw stay tuned fellas sometime soon ill be uploading a purely acoustic melodic/black metal sort of EP with the dodgy band project i've got (mainly because my electric is broken haha but we decide to stick to acoustic/drums/vocals for this one). definitely not as fun as this but id appreciate if you gave me your thoughts when I upload it |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Angry: Trust me, with how long I've been on this site, we all have immature moments. I already have a name and artwork done for the new EP, but I'm gonna wait a little bit before revealing it.
@BallsDeep: Thanks man! Hey your project actually sounds really cool, post on my shoutbox when it's done. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Angry: Dude, I can't wait to see once more people listen to my album what the rating's gonna settle on. |
Snide
07.07.16 | I'm just glad that I started up Black Malachite, my old projects were terrible. |
Snide
07.07.16 | Well there was "My Tears, Your Weapon" which was honestly complete shit. Then there were a few projects before that which I think I've mostly purged from the internet for being ten times worse. |
CalculatingInfinity
07.07.16 | Listened as promised :3
First listen so I'll just fire whatever thoughts I have:
- Great album cover, you made that?
- Only track I could say I never want to listen to again is Redeemer, pretty terrible. Awful beat that just makes me think of an 8-bit boss that's supposed to be 'oh so scary' yet is just embarrassing. I mean 1:03 onward it's trying so hard to be looming and scary yet is so basic and tacky it's worthless.
- Best tracks for me are Sunlight (why has no one talked about this, dis is a banger), Radioactive Storm and Eternal. Sunlight is very chilled, solid beat and synths which gives me a clear picture of what you're trying to convey, nice progression while not making any unnecessary jumps in songwriting which feels jarring and disrupts the flow of the song. Feels cohesive, which is very important in electronic for me. Radioactive Storm is your best transition track here, keeps the pace up for what's to come despite not liking your placement of it in the tracklisting and Eternal is great. Keep using your piano and intertwine it with ambient/electronic stylings, think it is going to be your greatest strength.
- If this is meant to be a concept album like the story you gave implies, this did not feel like one. Feels like a giant mish mash of ideas rather than a cohesive narrative or atmosphere you're trying to show. Biggest reason why is because none of the songs feel like logical progression of the next track. For example Radioactive Storm implies something large is going to happen in the story, it's building up to something and then the next track starts with a solemn beginning with a violin and ambient sounds. It doesn't work, and contradicts the means of the last track. Maybe you're going for dis-fragmented pieces coming together like a faze of memories but I generally dislike this approach in songwriting and storytelling in general, few times it works for me.
- The state of the production for the drums mate, you need real drums and if they were they sounded programmed as hell.
- Rest I can say are nit picks which just amassed in number which hindered the experience for me (e.g. 2:00-2:05 on Serenity the way the wave from the sea just stops all sound and suddenly comes back, that isn't what happens on an actual seaside). |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Calc: Thanks for listening to the album man!
- I didn't make the album cover, it was made for me by Daniel Danko of Danko Designs.
- Yeah I guess the track was a little basic.
- I'm glad to see Sunlight get some love, where do you think Radioactive Storm should have been in the tracklisting?
- I was somewhat going for that memory approach, he was traveling to various locations attempting to find the key to his past in a distorted world.
- The next time I use drums, I'm getting a better drum machine (probably Superior instead of the shit I'm using now)
Thank you so much for the honesty man. |
CalculatingInfinity
07.07.16 | No probs, you took the time to make it so the least I can do is be honest. To answer your question, anytime before a more upbeat track. I personally think if he was traveling through various locations through a fragmented reality, since you can't do it visually have like a queue that shows the transition from world to world or call them interludes which are really similar but slightly different. |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Calc: I seriously appreciate the honesty, it's the only way I'm ever going to improve. I might actually release a small RPG (4-5 hour) based off of the album on Steam. I'm gonna have my friend do all the artwork for it while I make the story, some additional background music, etc. That way there's a visual accompaniment to the album. |
Drifter
07.07.16 | My ranking (no less than 1 min interludes):
1. Eternal
2. Serenity
3. Redeemed
4. Glow
5. It Descends
6. The Great Escape
7. Frost Depth
8. The Desolate House
9. Skyscraper Underground
10. Glitch Memories
11. The Motivation
12. Radioactive Storm
13. Sunlight
14. Neon Toxicity
I don't know too much about this type of music, but I really enjoy this album. I'm trying to expand my music collection/rating/knowledge everyday and that's a lot easier when you're only 15 and on summer break.
I give this album a 4 honestly. For me, there's just too many tracks that are just background noise. After a couple of listens, I still sort of stop what I'm doing to listen to the song playing and just enjoy it, instead of just having it be noise in the background |
Snide
07.07.16 | @Drifter: Thank you so much! I'm glad you were able to enjoy it so much. I'm also really happy to see Redeemed and Glow so high up there because those are my favorites on the album. Expanding musical knowledge is great, I still try to find new music whenever I can (I'm 23) |
ScuroFantasma
07.08.16 | Not bad at all. Not usually the kind of music I'd go for but I enjoyed this on my first listen. I liked some tracks more than others because they vary widely, but yeah, solid album. |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Scuro: Thanks dude! What style tracks did you dig the most? |
ScuroFantasma
07.08.16 | I liked the softer piano ones and the first guitar driven metal-y one the most, disliked the dubstep ones though but that's not a fault on your end, I'm just not into that style. The rest was in between. |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Scuro: Awesome! You'll probably like future releases from me then, I'm moving away from straight up dubstep and focusing on softer subgenres on my next release. Feel free to rate the album man. |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Angry: Yeah I'm actually already working on my next release, although I'm not gonna announce it for a little bit. |
torts
07.08.16 | you're the worst |
Snide
07.08.16 | "you're the worst"
I'm guessing you didn't like the album torts |
BlacKapes
07.08.16 | no offense but this is terrible and inconsistent in the worst way possible, no offense |
Snide
07.08.16 | "no offense but this is terrible and inconsistent in the worst way possible, no offense"
No worries BlacKapes! I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, any constructive critique for me in terms of what could be done better to improve the consistency. |
BlacKapes
07.08.16 | stylistically inconsistent, you'll have 2 chill tracks surrounding some heavy electronic industrial shit and then a really dissonant track then a soundscape like wtf, its jarring as hell. also honestly nothing was really that interesting or good except the last 2 tracks and in a few other places |
Snide
07.08.16 | @BlacKapes: Thank you for the honesty. Yeah my next release I'm going to focus on one particular style for the entire EP (leaning more towards chillstep / synthwave at the moment) and keep it consistent, hopefully it'll have more interesting moments as well while still keeping the organization. |
BlacKapes
07.08.16 | yeah you could have easily separated this into 3 eps and it would have made more sense |
BlacKapes
07.08.16 | like i can understand if there are varying styles in every song like bungle but there are only 3 main styles here |
Snide
07.08.16 | @BlacKapes: Ironically I'm probably going to make three focused EPs or so before I work on my next album, there's a lot of learning I still can do, and a lot of things I still want to try before I hone in on whatever my signature sound will be. |
ScuroFantasma
07.08.16 | @Malachite - will do, needs more time |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Scuro: Interested to know how it settles for you! |
trackbytrackreviews
07.08.16 | 4/5, production is nice
"Black Malachite is an experimental project; intended to immerse the listener in a multi-layered aural experience, dabbling in many different genres."
this is cringey tho |
LotusFlower
07.08.16 | the word dab has been ruined for me.
Also I actually quite like what youre doing here aside from some stylistic choices that sour me out, id say... since youre taking the time to learn some more skills, try figuring out mastering and mixing a bit more. This could earn an easy 3.5 if there was some more dynamic-ness in the mix. Everything is just too same level in sound to have that kind of UMPH most electronic music of this style has.
As for now though, you did a great job with what you did and im really quite impressed with some of this. Anyone who gave you a 1 for being snide can go burn. |
Snide
07.08.16 | @track: Thank you so much! To tell you the truth, that description I kinda originally just put there as a placeholder until I figured something else out lol.
@Cl0ver: Thank you so much man, I need to buy studio monitors so that I can mix and master with better accuracy and catch the little nuances in my production (the worn five year old dell speakers I have are good, but just aren't cutting it for the level I need in my music). |
LotusFlower
07.08.16 | i know there are people who master tracks, dont know the price for that but maybe it would be worth trying one of em out once or twice? |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Cl0ver: maybe, but I'd rather learn how to master better myself instead of hiring someone. |
Futures
07.08.16 | Well there was "My Tears, Your Weapon" which was honestly complete shit. Then there were a few projects before that which I think I've mostly purged from the internet for being ten times worse.
it really was. why did you buy fake facebook likes for your page though? |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Futures: I didn't buy likes for MTYW, I used Facebook's built in advertising service and spent 50 bucks |
Futures
07.08.16 | no you didn't |
Snide
07.08.16 | 50 bucks gets you about 300 likes on a Facebook post from the built in ad service, then you invite the accounts that liked the post. |
Futures
07.08.16 | who are you |
Snide
07.08.16 | MTYW is a defunct project so it doesn't matter anyways.
Black Malachite is what I want to focus on. |
CaimanJesus
07.08.16 | The cover art is sweet |
Snide
07.08.16 | @CaimanJesus: Thank you! It was made for me by Daniel Danko of Danko Designs. Are you gonna jam the album? |
CaimanJesus
07.08.16 | Sure why not |
Snide
07.08.16 | Sweet! Can't wait to hear what you think! |
torts
07.08.16 | still fucking is the worst |
Snide
07.08.16 | @Torts: If you have any constructive critique for me on how to improve, that would be great to hear! |
BallsDeep
07.08.16 | I wouldn't listen to what the immature little fuck has to say anyway Malachite |
Snide
07.08.16 | @BallsDeep: I don't mind, I think of it as preparation for future success. There's going to be people who hate what I create for any multitude of reasons (they genuinely hate the music, they hate the genre, they hate me, etc). It's just additional practice on how to keep myself level headed even when people say negative things. |
BallsDeep
07.08.16 | Fair way of looking at it but asking him for constructive criticism there's a 99% chance you'll just get given a one word 'snide remark' |
Snide
07.08.16 | @BallsDeep: I don't mind honestly. This album was never going to change the minds of those who hate me for me, and I've come to peace with that. I just have to wade through, keep making the music that I love to make, and keep improving. |
CaimanJesus
07.09.16 | It was decent. Not a fan off the generic ass guitar riffs thrown in though. |
Snide
07.09.16 | @Caiman: Thank you for the honesty! I'm going to work on integrating guitars better in future releases. |
LotusFlower
07.09.16 | id say avoid the generic riff/dubstep combination, its a lot better to see it worked in with more ambient selections or different genres. along with there being more effects on the guitar to integrate it into the soundscape instead of just being there at times.
Kinda like Celldweller's work on End of an Empire. Or something Haywyre does with his organic instrument work on his stuff. |
CaimanJesus
07.09.16 | haywyre is dope
|
LotusFlower
07.09.16 | i love me some haywyre, shame his new ep was kinda lame though. |
p4p
07.09.16 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKSpPkZAuE more inspiration for u snide |
Snide
07.09.16 | @Cl0ver: I actually have Celldweller's Sonix producer pack ironically, so that'll make things a lot easier in that regard.
@p4p: That was a really nice song. I've never listened to Hybrid Minds before, but I really dig it. |
DrGonzo1937
07.09.16 | Kudos for trying man, this is ambitious stuff. But I think some of it just doesn't work all that well. There's too many ideas thrown at it and it makes it very incoherent. Personally, I'm not massive on the dub stuff, and I didn't like the metal stuff either, plus the tempo change in "The Great Escape" was weird. That said, I love the Daft Punk influence that's in some of the tracks, and your slower ambient stuff is great as well.
My opinion is to focus on a more consistent sound next time, but this was a solid effort for sure man, I enjoyed it. |
Snide
07.09.16 | @Gonzo: Thank you so much! That's what I'm gonna focus on with my next release, the consistency and keeping everything more focused. My next release is gonna be only a four song EP so it'll be a little easier for me that way. |
wwf
07.09.16 | Fuck ratings and fuck criticisms dude, do whatever you want and never do anything else. As others have said, this album's kinda all over the place so some of it is right up my alley and some of it isn't my shit at all, but that doesn't mean you should change what you do just to appeal to some music critics on a website lmao.
The production on this is very consistently well done btw, which is always lovely to hear on a self-released album |
DrGonzo1937
07.09.16 | No worries BlackMalachite. It was good. Yeah, that was a big project to take on haha. If you're only doing an EP next time definitely let us know, I look forward to hearing that. |
Snide
07.09.16 | @wwf: Thanks man! Yeah Honestly the thing I do want to do next is focus on one genre in particular, and blend my influences in a way that it doesn't seem forced (something I've needed to work on for a while).
@Gonzo: I will man! Once I make some progress on the new EP I'll announce it. |
