Feedback needed for my first song! (Instrumental Death Metal)

[Akkush]

Hi there!

Not sure If this is the right place to post this, but I'm a beginner, and I don't want to promote my music, just want to get some honest feedback from you guys from my first finished song. So, here it is:


I could write pages from my influences, motivation (you can ask), but I'm more interested in your opinion!

What is your overall impression, vibe, does it remember to a particular band?
What do you think about the sound, tone, the mixing?
Do you find it boring without vocals? Is it even a little bit catchy, re-listenable?
What do you think about the name, logo?

Every constructive opinion, idea is welcomed!

Cheers!

 

[guitaardvark]

Sick! This is miles ahead of the first song that I ever wrote.

Here's my feedback. Note that I'm not an avid death/thrash fan, so take that for what it's worth.

Strengths:
- Drum tones are great. The guitar tones suit the song well.
- The section at ~1:10 hit really nicely. The harmonies were interesting, and the sustained notes provided a really nice contrast to the previous sections.
- Really nice mix overall. It's a little hard to hear what's happening with the guitars, but everything is nicely balanced.
- Drum fill at ~1:50 made me smile.
- Really nice solo tone/chord choice. I wish there was a second half!

Things to consider:
- There's a lot of galloping on the guitars, and the drums are doing straight 16th note double kicks for almost the whole song. Consider how you can use variations of rhythm to contrast different sections.
- At 2:03, there's a noticeable gap between takes. A kick+crash hit at the beginning of that bar might mask that gap and help that whole dropout feel smoother.
- Compositionally, there's a lot happening in the low end. The downtuned, palm-muted riffing is cool, but as a listener, I want to hear something in the upper range. I make/enjoy instrumental music so I'm not saying it needs vocals, but it'd be nice if there was a melody to latch onto, even if it's dark/dissonant.

 

[NoodleFace]

I'm getting some Morbid Angel vibes.

I listened on my phone so can't comment on the mix

 

[Rev2010]

Very good first start!, good recording. Have to agree, cut it out with the everlasting double kick, goes on waaaaay too long. The guitars also are kinda just doing the same thing and the intro repeats the same riff too long. Overall though it's a good start, you just need to mix shit up more both guitar and drum-wise. The guitars could also use some more body, they're mixed a bit thin and don't have the oomph that most other recordings have.

 

[Akkush]

Thank you for the feedback!

As for the "never ending double kick" thing, it's a genre thing in deah metal, so basicly that's not your cup of tea, but there's nothing wrong with that!

Hopefully the more songs I write the more I can experiment. This song meant to be a short and simple one.Ű
At least, it's not the "caveman" type of death metal I guess! XD

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I'm getting some Morbid Angel vibes.

I listened on my phone so can't comment on the mix

Definitely Morbid Angel vibes!

 

[Akkush]

Definitely Morbid Angel vibes!

Thank you! I take it as a compliment!

Which part, aspect does it remind you to them?

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Thank you! I take it as a compliment!

Which part, aspect does it remind you to them?

It was meant as a compliment.

The tempo, guitar tone, hectic-ness of the riffs and overall atmosphere have similarities to 'Altars of Madness' (one of my favourite death metal albums).

 

[Mortargag]

VERY Morbid Angel like. One of my fave bands so not a bad thing but definitely should work on developing your own voice/style.
Harmonies were great, maybe add a little variation in the song structure like tempo/timing changes.

 

[Sir_Shreddington]

Very nice!

- I really like the clarity of the mix.
- Guitar sounds good, but I'd like them just a hair louder. Guitar is clear but still retains a lot of gain and they sound punchy. Good job!
- Bass is at a good level with the guitars.
- Your kick drum sounds good. The cymbals seem a little low volume in the mix, maybe turn up 1 db at most? I seem to struggle with getting a good drum sound out of EZdrummer 2, but I know you are supposed to give each drum its own track and I'm not doing that.
- The timing on the rhythm guitars seems a little off on parts, but it sounds kind of cool - so that might be what you're going for? The thing I like about that is that it's not sterile sounding like a lot of metal mixes these days.

For your first time mixing, it sounds solid dude. Keep at it!

 

[Akkush]

Very nice!

- I really like the clarity of the mix.
- Guitar sounds good, but I'd like them just a hair louder. Guitar is clear but still retains a lot of gain and they sound punchy. Good job!
- Bass is at a good level with the guitars.
- Your kick drum sounds good. The cymbals seem a little low volume in the mix, maybe turn up 1 db at most? I seem to struggle with getting a good drum sound out of EZdrummer 2, but I know you are supposed to give each drum its own track and I'm not doing that.
- The timing on the rhythm guitars seems a little off on parts, but it sounds kind of cool - so that might be what you're going for? The thing I like about that is that it's not sterile sounding like a lot of metal mixes these days.

For your first time mixing, it sounds solid dude. Keep at it!

Thank you!
I send it online to a local mixing guy, Hardline Music Studios, Budapest. So that's not my work, and was kinda struggle to decide how should it sound.
Actually in the first version the cymbals were louder, and I thought they were too in your face, so I asked the guy to lower them.
Yeah, the guitars are probably sometimes off beat, it was my first recording, so yeah... let's just say it was intentional
But it wasn't meant to be a tech death song, so maybe it adds to the atmosphere, feel.

 

[Sir_Shreddington]

Thank you!
I send it online to a local mixing guy, Hardline Music Studios, Budapest. So that's not my work, and was kinda struggle to decide how should it sound.
Actually in the first version the cymbals were louder, and I thought they were too in your face, so I asked the guy to lower them.
Yeah, the guitars are probably sometimes off beat, it was my first recording, so yeah... let's just say it was intentional
But it wasn't meant to be a tech death song, so maybe it adds to the atmosphere, feel.

Oh okay, cool! I like the over all feel of the song. Some atmospheric vocals might be cool on some of the longer parts, but over all good job