Shemson
05.17.16 | Mostly, it's metal with riffs, mostly harsh vocals with some cleans. There is also one full on heavy song with no cleans, an instrumental and a 'ballad' so something for everyone, really. http://sereneparalysis.bandcamp.com/album/less-than-three |
zakalwe
05.17.16 | Harsh vocals with cleans, an instrumental a ballad and a full on heavy tune. Something for everyone.
Christ almighty I'm dreading it. |
Shemson
05.17.16 | Haha yeah it's not your thing man, I know that already! |
iloveyouall
05.17.16 | "Something for everyone."
"it's not your thing man" |
Shemson
05.17.16 | There's still something for everyone. I didn't say if they'd like that something or not. |
zakalwe
05.17.16 | Hang on a sec. This is fucking surprising! Not bad at all Steve. |
Shemson
05.17.16 | Thanks Zak mate! Seeing as your pie chart has like zero metal I'm taking 'Not bad at all' as a massive victory! |
SitruK6
05.17.16 | I'll give this a listen as soon as I have time |
bnelso55
05.17.16 | Congratulations on the debut! I'll check it out today. |
Shemson
05.17.16 | Thanks lads, appreciate it! |
AlexKzillion
05.17.16 | Oh dang it droppedd |
DungeonBoy
05.17.16 | This isn't bad man. It covers a lot of ground. The crooning clean parts kinda remind me of Dan Swano. What are your influences just out of curiosity? |
Shemson
05.17.16 | Thanks man! Honestly I don't really know what my influences are. I grew up on metal with riffs like Bodom and Decapitated but recently I've been into more groove based metal and more melodic stuff like Deftones and Radiohead so I guess that's why my writing style is a bit all over the place. |
Shemson
05.18.16 | Hey man as long as it's not less than three I'm happy! Thanks for planning to listen, let me know what you think man! |
wwf
05.18.16 | This isn't really my jam musically but it's got hella energy to it so props man |
Shemson
05.18.16 | Thanks man, I appreciate the listen and feedback! |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Just bumping this in case anybody is bored over the weekend and feels like checking some new music. |
wwf
05.21.16 | same |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Haha thanks man! |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | hmm |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Mhmm |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | 3 tracks in this is very strange |
Snide
05.21.16 | This was pretty good man, congrats! |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Thanks BM, appreciate it man!
Strange how park? Too many different blends of styles? |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | idk, do you want me to be nice or go full dissecting mode? |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Nah man I don't come on a website like this for people to be nice, hit me with it, it's important to know my strengths and weaknesses so I can improve. |
Snide
05.21.16 | I didn't find the style blending to be very jarring.
It's a solid 3/5 for me; the only problems I had with it were that some of the songs seemed like filler, and that the cleans (while very competent, you have a great voice) were really out of place or poorly executed in a few songs (such as Silhouette). God, some of the ambient instrumental work on this was great though, and I think you should capitalize on that in your next release. |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Thanks BM man I appreciate it! Where do you think the cleans sound best out of interest? Would it be the more mellow sections because I used to do more like old school Opeth style so the cleans were very mellow and I don't think I'm that great at singing powerfully on choruses yet, that's something I'm trying to work on.
Which songs stood out as good and which filler out of interest? I have my own opinion on which are the best tracks but always good to see what everyone else thinks! |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | i guess i'll listen to it in full and let you know.
for now yeah the main criticism is that this sounds like a handful of competent new thrash/death bands and a handful of incompetent derivative moderncore bands got together and each played for about a minute or so. there's just too much different shit and it's not cohesive. even the production feels inconsistent like sometimes i feel like "damn he almost nailed it" and other times the drums are too clean and too loud.
some of the vocals are good. the others (especially cleans) are very moderncore in a bad way imo. the breakdowns are mostly unnecessary and bad, especially the slow and simple ones.
i'm not gonna give the generic "lol this has breakdowns so it sucks" response but if you look at the osdm classics, they worked there because they fit the structure of the song, they were more complex and hard hitting rather than just being kind of there, and they didnt put 3 of them on every track.
lastly, i hate djent tones and slow djent playing and you kind of approached that in parts, so that's a further negative.
i know it sounds super harsh but i think there's a surprising amount of potential here, just needs to be trimmed a lot and streamlined and focused. i love that you didn't go full clean production.
anyway will listen more |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | what the fuck happened to my line breaks ffs |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Thanks park man, I think that makes sense to me too because I have a lot of different influences going on and it all kind of came together and yeah I'm using a seven string Ibanez through a Line 6 so the tone gets 'djenty' at times but I try and stay away from open string breakdowns most of the time unless I feel it fits (there's maybe two on the whole hour of music?).
I really appreciate any and all feedback though and if you can give me specific moments you think I nailed (like X song X minutes in) that'll really help me perfect my writing. |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | sure i'll start jotting down some notes and then quickly revisit the first few tracks and do the same there. might end up repeating myself a lot but w/e
but yeah find a sound and stick with it, it doesn't have to be clearly defined or imitative, you just need to restrict it a bit. and imo the best way to start is by cutting down on the core |
Shemson
05.21.16 | Thanks man I really appreciate it! |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | alright as expected very repetitive criticism; also note i started writing the following at around the halfway point |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | fairly strong start with less than three into some alright cleans (not a fan of the shifting djents underneath); not a fan of the clean chorus (?) after that nor the djent; some cool stuff in the rest of the track though; nicer cleans and leads about 6 min in; ending itself too core-y
our deity's final gift starts kinda wanky but it's actually cool since it's the only moment like that on the album; not a fan of the cleans and screams following that but the riffs underneath are alright; the 2nd half is pretty cool but the blasts towards the end sound weird (loud hi hats ?); not a fan of the breakdown
first 2 mins of the timid west are cool, the leads and solo in the 2nd half as well; the rest of the tune does little for me
euphoria i think is the best track here but some of the criticisms above and below apply to it as well
sillhouette is a surprisingly great clean track but the potentially great climax around 5:30 is kinda ruined by core vocals; maybe the 2nd best track overall
jihad: cool intro, kind of annoying vox early on, meh chug chug pinch harmonic breakdowny riff, nice atmosphere after that; the second half is better for sure, especially about 4 mins in, but the ending is kinda meh
foreplay is definitely a good example of weird production and discordantly loud drums (the snare and the hi hats), although the tune itself is quite cool
little death could have a better intro than a breakdown; good cleans, riff underneath the cleans is a little too abrasive if that makes any sense?; again with the core vox; the cleans towards the end are kind of weird but not that bad |
parksungjoon
05.21.16 | compulsory listening, considering your opeth ratings and some of the themes i noticed with this album:
edge of sanity - crimson (also spectral sorrows and purgatory afterglow)
dan swano - moontower
swallow the sun - the morning never came
dismember - the god that never was (okay not as relevant as the others but it's full of sick riffs and leads u might apreciate and has wicked dm atmosphere) |
Shemson
05.22.16 | Cool man thanks for listening and getting in depth with the feedback. What I'm basically getting is you like most of what I'm doing except when it gets core or djent in any way so I'll definitely keep that in mind along with any other feedback I get for my next album!
Thanks for the recs too man, I haven't heard any of this stuff so I'll check it all out. |
parksungjoon
05.22.16 | no problem dude, it's nice to see musicians so open to feedback. and yeah like i said there's a lot of potential for greatnesss here.
and yeah i don't hate core itself just the new stuff. like 90s and early 00s metalcore / mathcore i think was really good because it was very technical and occasionally quite dissonant, they didn't resort to just simple chug breakdowns and radio pop vocals like a lot of bands started doing later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIek6mV9wsE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjI5znoKko8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvnbfN03Bzs
they kept it interesting you know? but sadly that kind of style is pretty much dead...
and the djent is yeah i mean honestly none of those djent bands come even close to meshuggah's greatness as far as i'm concerned. |
Shemson
05.22.16 | Thanks man, you gotta be able to take feedback in anything or you won't improve so I appreciate it! |
AlexKzillion
05.22.16 | Overall, I think this is pretty good. Think a lot of the songs are longer then they need to be. Like the guitars and the guitar tones, as well as the screams too. Not to much of a fan of the drums here though, seems like the cymbals are really loud and the actual drums minus the snare are just kind of in the background and aren't to audible during the louder heavier parts of the albums. Plus their seems to be a reliance on this splash crash sounding cymbal which just sounds so abrasive and overbearing and can be kind of annoying at times. Favorite tracks are easily "Euphoria" and "Foreplay". But in my opinion this is quite an achievement to make an album this length all by yourself. Definitely interested to see where you can take this project in the future, a lot of potential here.
Haha your album was my 666th rating. |
Shemson
05.22.16 | Thanks man I appreciate the feedback and rating! Hoping to do more in the future and I'll definitely be mixing the drums different next time! |