[b]Aternicy - Holder of the Eye[/b]

Starts off with some snare work, then adds in guitar, then bass. I like the way it builds up like that, then it comes into the main riff in the song. Double bass and lots of tom work drives the song well coming into the verse, and amazingly, vocals don't come in until 2 and a half minutes in. You never get bored the whole time though. Lots of change ups, more so than you see in many instrumental pieces in fact. This has tons of riffs which is great because there are enough repeated ones to establish structure, but at the same time there is a lot to discover whilst listening.

Production is not fantastic, and the most noticeable issue is that during the guitar solo, the rhythm guitar is louder than the lead and I had trouble hearing it. It sounded fairly good, very Thrash influenced I think, but it was really tough to pick it out, which is a shame.

Musically, this piece is pretty complex, there is a lot to it and it takes several listens to absorb it all which is very nice, because so many bands are easy to give one listen and discard. All the musicians seem good at what they do, the vocals are perhaps less talented than the rest of the group imo. Sort of reminds me of Megadeth's vocals, which I am not very into either. Chorus was weird first listen because I thought it was being said in a different language, their pronunciation of the title is very interesting and made me think Middle Eastern. No doubt hard to find, but I'll definitely see if I can't find some more.

9/10 due to subpar production and not liking the vocalist a ton, though he fit with the band pretty well.

Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe - Themes (Progressive Rock)
38th Parallel - Higher Ground (Hard Rock)
Project 86 - Pipe Dream (Metal of some type, maybe Nu?)
Mod Flanders Conspiracy - Such is the Wrath of the Thrice Angered Manatee (Hardcore ish)
Blindside - Teddy Bear (Hardcore)

^their vocalist used to post here on MX, which is how I found out about them. If you go to the Audio Arena and search, there should be a thread linking to several of their songs up for download; there used to be, anyway. Their website used to be [url]www.anternicy1.com[/url], I think, but I don't think it's there any more. The vocalist left a while ago, and they may have split up.

Also, could you upload one, or more, of your suggestions (if you have time and connection speed to spare)? :)

I've never used yousendit before...how do I use it (it's asking for an email?)...I'll definitely look into that though...

It's actually pretty easy to use. The basic idea is that you upload whatever file you like temporarily to their bit of free webspace. The email it's asking for is the email of whoever you're wanting to give the file to; it sends an email to that address saying "Hello, someone's sent you this file, hosted at *link*".

I always just put my own email address in, though, because once the file's uploaded, you (the person uploading it) are given a link anyway, for convenience's sake. Which you can then hand out to friends/post on MX/etc until it gets taken down again.

[url=http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0TMIE46DSNTCN36U85ULX9C27A]ABWH - Themes[/url]
[url=http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1M4D3M8PCDWPZ2R5NIH6ZOIREN]38th Parallel - Higher Ground[/url]
[url=http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1KGK5J07IYW5O34LE7I01YCAOP]Project 86 - Pipe Dream[/url]
[url=http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0XLOSIUNCHQRF3N1OGCQIXAIMQ]Mod Flanders Conspiracy - Such is...[/url]
[url=http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=13DRMHROV6B3228BZRET4A7DJH]Blindside - Teddy Bear[/url]

Note: Most of these are m4a, not mp3.

Okay, dibs. We'll see if I can play m4as.

EDIT: It appears I can't, so I've started downloading the only mp3 file there.

Not heard or heard of these guys before.
[b]38th Parallel - Higher Ground[/b] - 3:47

Starts off with a really cool rock riff. I mean, I really like this riff. I'm not sure if I'll like it after a few dozen times hearing it, but for now, I like it. It's got some acoustic guitar, I think, enhancing it by flitting around the edges of the main heavier riff.

Vocals come in, and I immediately somewhat like the song less. The guy, whoever he is, doesn't have a particularly bad voice, but I just think hard rock either needs someone with a really good voice (talented singer, I mean) or a gruff male voice. Not to say that's exclusive (Young Heart Attack, for example, fall into neither category, and their vocals are one of my favourite things about them), but I just want to get the point of why I don't like them so much across.

Still, it's not faltered the song too badly. The music I still quite like. The chorus is good, and has that opening riff backing it, even if, as a whole, it does feel a little safe, if you know what I mean. There's nothing to challenge you going on here, but for all that it's done well enough.

The structure of the song is impeccably normal. Intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus. It ends by fading out.

A solid 7/10 It's a reasonably respectable and perfectly enjoyable piece of easy-to-listen-to rock. Plus it had that riff.

[b]Songs;[/b]
[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3DO6KCVJ14UXZ13OEEEN7KJW4Ul=]North - untitled[/url] (relaxed, slightly funky Alt/Indie fodder by a ridiculously good, unsigned college-age band)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=367HOOI9JEQVE1QNCE1MOFY0TN]Nonpoint - Double Stakked[/url] (nu metal)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1ATR27HZU9ORW28AC2R1IGQB3B]Mr Bungle - Girls of P*rn[/url] (funky experimental stuff. Will probably be a slight advantage to have some knowledge of po[font=verdana]r[/font]n)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=05V44QN5L8RTV3ATQKHVS7304M]Mr Lunt - Cheeseburger[/url] (a touching love song, about cheeseburgers)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0AJ424C49M1DK20VPO68P8D47V]Einsturzende Neubauten - Ende Neu[/url] (industrial/experimental)

Copy-pasted from Forced Listening;
That Neubauten track is a live version, with an air compressor solo at the beginning. It's a great piece of music, but unfortunately a lot of it's appeal also lies in it's lyrics, which are in German, and other aspects. The song is very carefully written, both in lyrics and structure, and becomes much greater than it already is if you know it's circumstances and such...not much can be done about that though, so this is just my futile attempt at explaining the inexplicable.

I cant belive you didnt like second heartbeat...
Oh well.

I wonder which version he heard. They had a version on a hopelessly devoted to you compilation first and then they re-recorded it for waking the fallen. They were surprisingly different.

I had the Hopelessly Devoted to You one :S

So my review is kinda defunct I guess...

Well it says its the Hopelessly Devoted to You one in WinAMP.

Oh right, i have the 'Waking The Fallen' one.

Second Heartbeat is awesome. If you like A7X, try All That Remains - The Deepest Grey, or Unearth - The Great Dividers.

Diib

gar, the North song link has expired.. not to worry, got another in que

Sorry man, didn't see your edit until just now. Here's another upload of the North song, unless you're too far into doing another already;

[url]http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1HMOTQIRIS32F20H0NF44HCV3N[/url]

Thanks.. but its nearly done .. I'll try and get the North song now while I can.

eh, may as well use this post for the review as well.. saving one for a sick kid in Antarctica or something

[b]Nonpoint - Double Stakked[/b]

Seems a little surprising for Bartender to recommend nu-metal... so I'm investigating.

A simple guitar riff opens proceedings, and some fairly straightforward drumming follows quickly. There is other percussion too, its a bit like the slap bass sound of Korn, but it sounds better here as actual percussion.

It drops off to just bass and drums, semi-rapped vocals, some screamy one-worders.
Some prominent slap bass, then a heavy chorus about "I got that funky feeling".. nothing really imressive so far.

Same again. But the second chorus slows right down at the end of it, and it goes to an almost reggae feel. This reminds me of an Ochre song, the very same thing happens in the middle. The drums, bass and percussion, carries the rhythm while the guitars are sparse and somewhat atmospheric. I'm liking this bit.

The vocalist is back and he manages to sound a bit like Maynard here, whereas before he wasn't really anything standout (in either good or bad ways).

It gets heavier after a bit, but keeps the slow feel. Then it stops but for a few drum fills. I thought it would have ended up going faster, but it's gone back to the soft reggae bit again. Lots of guitar harmonics, a little guitar solo too, cool.

It fades out on this slow part, which isn't what I expected. I thought it would go heavy, and faster again.. but I don't mind when music goes against what's expected.

For nu-metal.. the first half was typical I guess, and I didn't really think much of it. The second half was good for me, I like that stuff, even when it went heavy for a bit, it was still better than the first half. However, the 2 parts didn't seem to match well and may as well have been 2 different songs. The instrument playing was above average, and it was fairly decent, nothing super though.

7.9/10

____________________________________

[b]Weddings Parties Anything - A Tale They Won't Believe[/b] - punkish sea-shanty about cannibalism. 7 mins

[b]Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun[/b] - laid back, lo-fi indie (up to 3:40 is all you need/should review)

[b]Down - Landing On The Mountains Of Meggido[/b] - haunting acoustic southern rock

[b]Alarum - Reconditioned[/b] - technical jazz/death metal

[b]Anathema - Shroud Of Frost[/b] - melodic doom/death. 7.5 minutes

[b]Darren Hanlon - Falling Aeroplanes[/b] - acoustic.. folk?

[b]Marcy Playground - Rebel Sodville[/b] - renaissance themed rock

[b]Delays - Wanderlust[/b] - feel-good britpop

[b]Wumpscut - Black Death (French Concept)[/b] - heavy industrial/ambient techno

[b]Hot Rubber Glove - Mud Elephant[/b] - trancey dub

If you can find Blueser on IRC - Undernet.. I am able to send, though I proably can't resume. Maybe I won't be on if this big grey cloud turns to a storm...
So at least one of the 10 songs should be easy to find

dubs

[b]Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like the Sun[/b]

So I've heard of but never heard of Broken Social Scene. Don't know what to expect.

Begins with a jazzy sounding classical guitar part and drums. Pretty chilled out. Then vocals which are nice and some bass guitar which is simple but soothing. Some noises are twittering around in the back and add to the song.

Then there is a sample saying "Keep going" and leads into a slightly different part but everything is the same for the most part. This song slowly builds up but more by adding more parts, not increasing intensity. There is even a little guitar solo which is pretty cool. One of those ones you should learn for just fooling around with some freinds who don't play instruments. This song is really cool. The vocalist reminds me of someone but I don't know who. There is a choir in the background now.

I like the little spoken commands as though it were a jam whcih it well may be based on the repetition. It's good repetition though because of the layering.

Post 3:40 - I still like this part. I think it is really cool and chilled out but it is sad sounding. Then some loud noise interrupts and then a clicking. Then the song is over.

I'll find more.
8.5/10

Kadenzza - Monohoke - God of Worm
[url]http://s24.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=186K440I5DGUL13B8N8D3LDD69[/url]

If you need another song to review, just ask, I'll post some Old Man Gloom.

the clicking is the intro to the next track, I just lump those sounds after 3:40 in with that... yep. I think those spoken commands were actually recorded while playing, its just so lo-fi that they didnt bother to take them out of the final mix.

ok, I'll do this one too.. soon

[b]Kadenzza - Mononoke - God Of Worm[/b]

A creepy march riff with synth strings and industrial guts opens the proceedings.
They stop for some half speed blast with some black metalish vocals, sounds somewhat mechanical. Sometimes the blasting is fast.. sometimes not. It seems random as to what they choose to play To get it out... I don't like when it's just blasting away with little to no melody, it bothers me.

There are many slight variations of each of the 2 musical ideas, and they are changing rather rapidly.

At 1:30, it goes more melodic, there's a wild keyboard solo, doubled by guitar?
At 2:30 fingerpicked guitar comes in, very soft here, after a while of this.. soft strings, and the sound of birds... some vocal samples.. how very contrasting to what came first in this song. I'm liking it, but dreading what I thinks going to happen when this bit's finished...

After about 2 mins it slows down... yep.. heres heavy industrial sounding marchy riff, a new one. but theres synth strings, even if dissonant, it's good to hear something with a distinct Hz reading, some bell sounds too and some seething bass hissing.. and back to halfspeed blasts and black metal vocal mechanisms. Goes between the fast and slow blasts often, there is much more keyboard use here too.

A short pause, "I am _____, god of worm" dunno what it says, but it's not Mononoke.
Then probably the heaviest and fastest bit yet comes in, but its not that long, it ends soon after with a few sparse, creepy keyboarded sounds taking it out.


Hmm.. no, its not the type of thing I go for, weirdly interesting though. The second time in FL today I don't see how the contrasting part fits, but it was a good breather from the intense bits. Those heavy bits weren't so bad by the end, maybe I got used to them, maybe it's because there were those keyboard sounds along with them at that point.

Drums like that will probably always annoy me, but melodies, even dissonant stuff, smooths them right out.. I cant really decide, its kind of a musical shock to me.. but it wasn't all that bad after all...
6.4/10?


_________________________________
[b]Weddings Parties Anything - A Tale They Won't Believe[/b] - punkish sea-shanty about cannibalism. 7 mins
[b]Down - Landing On The Mountains Of Meggido[/b] - haunting acoustic southern rock
[b]Alarum - Reconditioned[/b] - technical jazz/death metal
[b]Anathema - Shroud Of Frost[/b] - melodic doom/death. 7.5 minutes
[b]Darren Hanlon - Falling Aeroplanes[/b] - acoustic.. folk?
[b]Marcy Playground - Rebel Sodville[/b] - renaissance themed rock
[b]Delays - Wanderlust[/b] - feel-good britpop
[b]Wumpscut - Black Death (French Concept)[/b] - heavy industrial/ambient techno
[b]Hot Rubber Glove - Mud Elephant[/b] - trancey dub, instrumental

If you can find Blueser on IRC - Undernet.. I am able to send, though I proably can't resume.

Dibs

[b]Alarum - Reconditioned[/b]

Begins with some nice chorused guitar. Then the drums and other guitar come in in a rhythmic chug but with the first riff still going. I like it. Then the chuggy guitars pick up and a guitar solo soon follows. I like the opening bit better, it was more original. In any case, this is still very, very good. The vocals. The singer is not my cup of tea. He has that same sort of crappy vocal like the Vader singer. At least the rest of what is going on is really good. Then clean vocals which are awesome. Reminds me of Winds there.

The drummer just keeps going with that double bass. It's not a blazing fast double bass, but it moves at fair speed. Overall this song is really good. Only the vocals are lacking.

8/10

Winds - Realization
Suidakra - Rest in Silence
Ulver - Crack Bug

Sorry it's short, I have to run. I'll post yousend it links later if no one can find it.

[url]http://s7.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=19MB3I0U0UIRU1565RRIVA3HYI[/url]

Winds - Realization

Dibs.

I own and like [i]The Imaginary Direction of Time[/i], but not [i]Reflections of the I[/i], so I can review this. I know more or less what to expect though, I think.
[b]Winds - Realization[/b] - 4:54

Starts with a relatively simple beat, and a nice wash of piano and strings. I think I was right in what I was expecting. Vocals come in, and it sounds like the same guy, though his voice sounds slightly different. He's got a really good voice, though; not too high pitched, but he really can sing, which fits the music excellently. I'm rather looking forward to some guitar pyrotechnics, I'll admit, since on [i]The Imaginary Direction..[/i], the guitarist is a bit of a nut.

So far I'm just getting little bits of guitar, nothing too good or bad. Ah, wait; a solo. Long (1:26-2:06 approximately), reasonably slow, and nicely widdly. Good stuff. After the solo, a non-singing, almost spoken-word voice comes in. This is the kind of voice you'd associate with Thriller; low, overly dramatic. Like that at the beginning of [i]What is Beauty?[/i] It seems to be something Winds use quite a bit.

After he stops speaking, the "conventional" instruments fade away and we get just a string section playing.

Swift drum intro brings us back into the song some time later, and we're straight back in, with guitar more prominent than before and the guy singing over the top. Strings still playing in the background. This bit I like; after the guy stops singing, the drums are double-bassing away in the background, and the guitars play a pretty good riff.. on which the song leads out.

7.5/10 Just more good stuff from Winds. Ended a little abruptly, I think.

[b]Songs;[/b]
[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1HMOTQIRIS32F20H0NF44HCV3N]North - untitled[/url] (relaxed, slightly funky Alt/Indie fodder by a ridiculously good, unsigned college-age band)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1ATR27HZU9ORW28AC2R1IGQB3B]Mr Bungle - Girls of P*rn[/url] (funky experimental stuff. Will probably be a slight advantage to have some knowledge of po[font=verdana]r[/font]n)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=05V44QN5L8RTV3ATQKHVS7304M]Mr Lunt - Cheeseburger[/url] (a touching love song, about cheeseburgers)

[url=http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0AJ424C49M1DK20VPO68P8D47V]Einsturzende Neubauten - Ende Neu[/url] (industrial/experimental)

Copy-pasted from Forced Listening;
That Neubauten track is a live version, with an air compressor solo at the beginning. It's a great piece of music, but unfortunately a lot of it's appeal also lies in it's lyrics, which are in German, and other aspects. The song is very carefully written, both in lyrics and structure, and becomes much greater than it already is if you know it's circumstances and such...not much can be done about that though, so this is just my futile attempt at explaining the inexplicable.

Dibs

[I][U] North - Untitled [/U][/I]

Song starts with a a nice funky bassline. The whole band then joins in. Sounds like drums, keys and a guitar. The sound they create is a very chilled one. Now the vocals come in... Not too sure if I like his voice.

The same bassline from the beginning continues, with a guitar repeating a fairly simple man riff. The drummer keeps a simple beat going. The keys sound like they are just repeating the same chords, to keep the chord progression 'in tact' or even noticeable, this technique probably helps the bass and guitar mesh together, without them, it may sound just random.

Into the chorus there is a change in bassline, and guitar lead simple yet very effective keeps the same feel from the beginning of the song and sounds really relaxed. Still not sure whether I enjoy the vocals or not...

Back into the verse with the same format as the previous verse... Guitar dropped out and keys played the melody nice...

Into the chorus again, this time with back up vocals, very nice stuff. The atmosphere is still very relaxed.

Guitar solo - Simplistic however it fits the music. [3:26] - [3:30] that part of the solo really didn't fit the song. But the rest of it seemed to be really nice. He loves his mutes :thumb:

Into the bridge with a new guitar riff and the vocalist and the back up vocalist really just singing 'ohhhh' perfect for the atmosphere they had set. Then they had the keys play a relatively high part to finish, very nice way to end the song.

[B] Rating [/B] - 9/10

I loved the song itself and the structure, however I'm just not sure about the vocalist, I can't quite place it, I don't dislike his voice, I think after a few more listens it would be alright :thumb:

[I] Recommendations [/I]

Michael Angelo - No Boundaries (Instrumental - basically a guitar solo)[url]http://s30.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1EBZAC7UK9RH50UF9LV4YDLUAN[/url]

Dream Theater - Hollow Years (Accoustic)
[url]http://s30.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=273AOMIII4HMT3FY61EYQ62Q9L[/url]

Incubus - Sick Sad Little World (Incubus - Rock)[url]http://s26.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0NZADS8KEHGPL0M9OR9CHLT0YA[/url]

Deftones - Passenger (Featuring Maynard of Tool)[url]http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=129GY5MBU47ER2J75HRVKYV24W[/url]

Mudvayne - Death Blooms (Metal)
[url]http://s30.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=22TVVRRE62IK60FYG87XIOEZA8[/url]

im a first timer, but dibs on Dream theater...
edit: Not doing any others from that list

You can do two if you like, a double review, but common practice is just to do one, and recommend a few songs for the next person. You're only supposed to take about 2 hours after you call dibs, though.

[U]Dream Theater - Hollow Years[/U]
now from what i know of dream theater, this song will be awesome. It is. starting with a simple time-keeping beat, it then brings in acoustic/classical guitar, drums, and a bass. Very easing sound, the kind you can fall asleep to. When the vocals come in, the song sounds complete. A very good guitar riff, easy (meaning soothing, its actually somewhat complex) bass, and drums. The chorus sounds like a worship song, but is very good. Great structure to the lyrics. They match the music perfectly. After the first chorus, a piano comes in for a short while, and then fades and the verse starts. Nearer to the end of the song, teh chorus (I think) Is repeated again, only a little harder, the vocalist is more prodominate with another singer. They repeat a line with the piano in the background, it sounds very worship-like. The song ends like that, with the piano guitar and drums doing their own outro.
Overall, a 8/10. Not what i expected from D.T. but good none-the-less.

[u]My Recommendations[/U]
Zao - Hidden (Acoustic) (Dl'd off Kazaa, name may not be accurate, definatly Zao thou)
[url]http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=37DQ3B89KA13L2OK8XQQJNA8DL[/url] (3.9 Meg. will resize upon requst)

Coldplay - Dont Panic (acoustic/soft rock)
[url]http://s14.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3K58CBSOTAHHN0IUVBDIMSQXLN[/url] (798 KB, 44kbps WMA)

Skillet - Forsaken (Christian Metal/Rock, with a girl drummer.)
[url]http://s15.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=16NKWSZ325HEM1XIY5IWR9I77S[/url] (1.44Meg. 64Kbps, MP3)