Rise of the Death Egg (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)

[Uberwulf X]

I've been working on this for a while. I submitted an atmospheric Death Egg song ages ago that was nowhere near OCR quality, this I realize. However, after being off the site for a while and finally coming back, I want to try my hand again, this time with symphonic rock.
 
Source material: Death Egg Zone, Hidden Palace Zone
 
https://soundcloud.com/uberwulf-x/rise-of-the-death-egg
 
I was gonna start off with this as Finished because I've been working it with some feedback offsite, but I'm still getting feedback and would like y'all's so here it is as a WIP.

[Fringale]

I had an enjoyable listen, especially given the... peculiar source.    I'd say it was a good call to transpose that melody, although I don't know if it is still recognizable enough, if you intend to submit it.

 

However I have a few remarks if you will (I'm by no mean an expert though, so take them with a grain of salt):

- The soundscape strikes me as odd, as everything seems either panned to the extremes or stereo'd, which leaves the center kinda empty (and gives the piece a somewhat 'hollow' feeling). More specifically, panning the snare right was a curious choice, I couldn't get used to it.

- Regarding the drums, I found them quite repetitive and mechanical, and the instrumentation as a whole would benefit greatly from more humanization and pattern variations. It gets reallly noticeable the further the track progresses.

- On that subject, I feel the piece is kinda long for its own good. I would have prefered if it were 1 or 2 minutes shorter, or had more sonic variety and stand-out/memorizable moments (I'd say the 2nd part of the track lacks some focus as a whole, as the synth-guitar melody/solo from 3:45 onward seemed a bit random at times, and chord changes are very few and far between).

 

Hopefully I didn't come across as too negative, please keep at it!