The Light Eternal - Full Album (Instrumental) Feedback appreciated!

[MakewayforMan]

Hey guys & gals! So I have posted the finished instrumentals to RIVOLTA, the debut album of my solo project, The Light Eternal (link below). I will be going into the studio within the next month to start tracking vocals.

There are currently two songs that include vocals - Make Then Your Anthem and Surface of the Sun - but they are limited due to the fact that they are more for intro/breakdown purposes and I wanted to see how my vision for those pieces played out.

The entire record was written, performed, engineered, and mixed by yours truly. The vocal tracks, however, will be produced out-of-house because I live in a studio apartment in DC and don't want my neighbors to hate me.

This is not your typical prog metal project, and the music is really written to be more vocal-centric, so the vox will really tie everything together more fluidly once they're tracked. But I wanted to post it here first to see what you guys think of the instrumentals. I'd love to hear your feedback, either here or on soundcloud.

So give 'er a listen and please feel free to comment!

-Lysol

link: https://soundcloud.com/the-light-eternal

 

[vansinn]

You've spend a lotta time on this! Good work

A few comments:

At times, I find some part-arrangements a touch too dense.
One of your arrangements has as sequence with a severely distorted guitar, where IMHO the surrounding material is too dense, leaving the [assumed] wanted-dense guitar to not come-forth, as I feel it ought to.

At times, I find the drums too flat-snapping and too much in-my-face.
However, do notice that this could simply be my moods today, and I of course fully realize you intend this material to be in this type of proggy style.

One of your songs, I think it's no.2, has a pumping bass, which has a tendency to cause a resonance in the upper bass range.
But do notice that I have a known room-mode coupling right there - not severe, but still..
My point is that many rooms will display kindof the same couplings, so this might annoy others.
My room is 4x6 meters, walls are multi layer bric, I have minimal sound treatment, and in general, it's behaving just fine. Untreated rooms might be more prone to such upper bass exitations, so it's just meant as a comment..

 

[MakewayforMan]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll admit, mixing is not my strong suit. I'm getting there, but I've still got a long way to go. In regards to the drums being really in your face, I completely agree and have received similar feedback. The snare in particular is very prevalent. For drum compression, I use Stillwell's Bombardier on the master and Rocket on the individual drum tracks, which can cut through a mix like a knife if you let it. I have actually taken the drums back a bit in recent mixes, but even so I'm hearing similar feedback. I am a drummer at heart, and love mixes with big drums, so that might also have something to do with it But thanks for the insight, very helpful!

 

[vansinn]

I'll admit, mixing is not my strong suit.

Then it'll be interesting hearing how you progress - because I think your tracks are mixed pretty well!
My comments were intended towards the few parts that didn't sit right (with my ears), that's all.
A Bit weird others haven't chimed in on this; methinks it's good stuff

 

[MakewayforMan]

A Bit weird others haven't chimed in on this; methinks it's good stuff

Thanks! I really appreciate the kind words