prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

writeup is hilarious =) really funky opening. tons of modulation on the keys and i'm here for it. bass patch is great, just a little bit of grit. percussion initially is really stylistically accurate as well. 1:14 has some fun guitar stuff and some new percussive elements which is nice. bass work there is clever. there's a drop at 1:36 and it goes to just pads. we start to get some hint of the dirt that's about to hit and it builds up to 1:59 which has both a tempo change and a big style change. 2:10 was great, i love the way you sit back in the groove so far for this one. there's a final bass hit at 2:51 and then it's just growling its way out the door after that. there's some fun new textures brought around just in that last bit. it ends on a V which is a bit unsatisfactory but works fine. this is an easy vote, as expected. excellent work between the two of you. YES

i'm going to actually do a vote on this rather than just drooling like my fellow judges opens with some super interesting ensemble goofball arpeggiated chord stuff. i like the ensemble here. we get some melodic content at 0:24, with an eclectic combination of instruments. the guitar's a little not in the mix compared to the rest here. when the beat comes in at 0:36, i can definitely see the J Damashii comparison. the vibe is excellent, guitar especially. imo the drums here are sticking out of the mix more than i'd expect, but the brass and strings are just so great. the flute is indeed too quiet when it comes in after 1:00. this trucks along until 1:25 when we get some delicious rhodes stuff. rhodes is quiet and brass is a bit loud here. there's a drop at 1:56 and the vibe/celeste/bell thing is doing some really fun stuff here. when the melody comes back in at 2:06, the flute's again a bit quiet. there's a funky note in the background at 2:11 in the strings - sounds like the strings are playing a Bb when the flute's playing an A (i think that's supposed to be a predominant to the Ab chord that comes after it, so i'd assume it's supposed to be a fully diminished 7 chord...so, the flute's playing a B double flat, technically). it happens again at 2:22, Bb next to B double flat, but closer so it bites even more. there's a big drop at 2:30 and the string work there is nice. overall energy is much lower here. there's some delightful percussion through this as well. 3:11 is a guitar lead section and i love the tone. it's mixed a little quiet, so when it goes lower all i can hear are sustains in the background. 3:50 has a lovely string tune that is straight out of a disney movie. this functions as an extended outro. there's some guitar notes here that are a bit out of tune. it settles down nicely into a final sustain and it's done. this is a great track! it's super thematic and the style is nailed pretty much across the board. those crunchy notes are unfortunate and i'd love to see them fixed before release, and there's a few times that the lead is stuck behind the (admittedly usually pretty interesting) backing parts. overall though this is a superb work and clearly represents a ton of work. nice job. YES but plz fix those notes

my original vote centered around the mixing and mastering elements, or lack thereof. opening is a lot better mixed, although there's still a surprising amount of extra-low content in the freq analysis. the instruments sound much more together than i remember the original sounding. sustain at 0:31 is a little questionable - didn't notice that the first time around. i also don't remember noticing that the flute doesn't use much vibrato - i think that's a mistake, vibrato helps a lot to hide intonation issues. bendir at 0:39 is still a little dry and in the fore, especially compared to the flute. the swell at 1:07 into the trombone lead is gorgeous. drums sound a lot better this time around. there's still a lot of beater tone on the kick, and the bass is a bit overstated for the context, but it sounds a lot more a part of the ensemble this time around. i didn't remember the fake decrescendo at 2:37, but i can't say i care for that as much - i think the timbral reduction you did naturally there was enough. the recap as an outro sounds beautiful. the last chord maybe could have come a bit sooner. i think this is a lot better overall. the arrangement as a whole is still really fun - there's great interweaving of the lead instruments, the piano work is excellent, and the ensemble works better in ear than it may on paper (flute and trombone is a surprising combo!). i think this still isn't perfect but that's fine, it's over the bar this time around. YES

agree with Flex. this isn't "a little repetitive", it's half a track. if anything, it being jordan is why i gave it a ? at first when he resubbed the second version.

i like your description of the theme. i agree very much with it. starts with some sustained pads and tempo-synced stuff. there's a neat bass that comes in at 0:29 and this builds up to 0:57 when we get the first big hit in the kick. to my ear, the theme doesn't really come in until 1:16, but i like the approach there. there's a short building section without lead until 2:15 when the strings come in. there's some doubling at 2:33, and the melody comes back at 2:51. there's a drop at 3:31, and the mix goes through the chord progression of the original twice more, and then it's done. my concern here is the source usage. the track is 4:09 long, and i only recognize the melodic content from 1:16-1:54 and 2:51-3:31 - about 30% of the work. the chord progression of the original is used from 1:54-2:2:51 and 3:31-4:07, so it'd hinge on if that counts or not. i think so, since in the past we've used chord progressions that were unique (which this is, it's not something generic) and used earlier in the remix so as to establish that progression. so, with that said, i'm all about this. i love the way you play with time - the initial pattern in the kicks that's in 4/4 but is kind of 7+9 is great. i also like the anticipatory chord movement, moving on the last half-beat of the measure. it keeps it moving forward despite the lower-key approach overall. i think the string work also adds a lot. this is a fun listen with a great realization. YES

ambient opening. first big pile of crunch at 0:25 is nice and it continues to creak in and out for a while. there's some plucks that sound like the intro arp in the original around 0:42. the extreme clipping is making my eyes twitch - there are ways to get distorted and beat-up textures without just cranking it past the 0.0 mark. there's a beat that comes in around 1:31, alongside some other percs. there's a melodic element that comes in at 1:47. i like the distorted tone on it, but don't like how blown out this area is as it loses a lot of depth of tone. there's a lot of low mid content below maybe 200hz that's probably unneeded and is causing it to be really cluttered. i agree with chimpa that this section is slow-burn but not in a good way - since there's zero dynamics possible with the overblown backing elements, there needs to be either melodic or rhythmic elements to keep interest. there's little to no rhythmic elements through the entire song that aren't repeated for the entire breadth of the track, and there's little melodic elements that aren't present in the original. there's some piano that comes in around 2:55, and then some sustains and sfx to finish it for the last 40 seconds or so. a gritty, lo-res texture works very well for this original. ultimately, though, this is a pretty boring remix. the slow tempo is a good choice imo but the lack of dynamics (or really even contrast), interesting rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic elements, and even basic elements of mastering really shoot this one down. there's simply not enough to hold interest for 4+ minutes, and what's there for those four minutes is gritty in a bad way and so blown out that you can't actually hear what's going on most of the time. to be clear: i'd love for a heavy, slow-burn industrial mix of this track, as i think it fits perfectly. just turning up all your mastering channels to +6db isn't how to do that though. it's hard to make something sound dirty and covered in rust, and i think this is what you were going for - it just needs more attention to mastering to make those channels sound like that without just cranking them up so the master clips. NO

Game: Flowstone Saga Song: To The Ruin Mastering by Chimpazilla! She rocks! OA put out a call to folks to do remixes of the soundtrack for this game as a promo situation. I personally thing OA is the best thing since sliced bread, so I jumped on the opportunity right away. I listened through the OST a few times and this was one of the songs that stuck out to me. I liked the rhythmic elements and how they added energy to a slower track. I also liked the bridge section, which reminded me of the Beauty and the Beast score =) I probably haven't done a remix that wasn't a requested thing of me since the Chrono Cross project, so it's been several years. I am nowhere near as fast as I used to be, and historically the act of grinding through that lack of familiarity has been a real difficult thing for me to overcome. I had already told OA I'd do a track, though, and shame is a powerful motivator, so I pushed through and made something that I'm proud of. Then Chimpazilla took my stems (eventually, after several technical missteps on my side and some render glitches) and made the track sound awesome. This is primarily Omnisphere and Addictive Drums, with some Gladiator for a few of the leads. I used whatever older version of FL Studio was still on my computer. I did get midis of the parts from OA but used them as guidelines only due to how FL imported and quantized the files (ie. not well). This might be the last track I do on my discrete music PC...my poor i7-870 was struggling to handle all the processing-heavy verby leads.

phasing ping pong pad to start, and a fun whistle synth. kick comes in at 0:33 with some hats, and then the rest of the kit at 0:47. nice synthy drumkit. melody doesn't actually come in until spartan time, and it's accompanied by some guitar chugs. sounds like the time signature changes around 1:45, and then we get a double-time section that adds a lot more energy. i like the idea of changing time sigs in here since the melodic material is unique but repetitive, so this helps mix it up a lot. beat drops out at about 2:49 or so, and we're left with a pretty unique pad and some strummed guitars. the melody's back at 3:49 in the guitar (which sounds just a touch ahead throughout this section) until we're in an extended outro. my primary concern here is the use of source. there's a lot that relies on the chord progression. i heard clear melody from 1:18-1:48, 2:19-2:49, and 3:49-4:20. the outro section from 4:27 through the end at 5:03 is the tail of the melodic material, i think, so i can count that if i'm feeling charitable. that's only 42% source, so it comes down to if i'd be comfortable counting the extended chord progression patterns, switching between the Em, Cm, A, and whatever B chord that is. the original is primarily between Em and Cm. for example, the middle section from 1:48 to 2:19 would count if we just looked at those chord progressions, and that'd squeak by. i think i'm comfortable including that particular section in the breakdown given that it's the same timing (ie. not switching faster and going to other chords) as the original. that'd give me enough there. with that in mind, i think this a pretty neat idea. i like the concept of switching time signatures in a song where the original has a clock ticking, and i think the execution overall sounds solid. nice work. YES

what a dope original! never heard it and it's awesome. starts out with some pretty static tones, but the beat comes in at 0:11. initial writing is pretty faithful to the original. the drums aren't quite what i expected given the original sound concept. the bass is pretty active and the lead is very basic initially. there's a recap at 1:06 and some repeated material (everything from there to 1:24 outside of adding the ascending arp flourishes in a few places). the following section is also very similar to the original outside of a few added flourishes. there's another repeat at 2:00 and then it repeats the opening section and fades out. i like the concept here! i think there's a bit too much repetition for a piece that's only 2:10. i think the style survives the genre adaptation pretty well, though, so that's fun! i think there just needs to be more arrangement here - less ANARCHY TAKAPON and more Nuac. i'd also like to hear the drum mixing bring the drums out, assuming you're willing to use modern mastering tools and you aren't explicitly going for a GB-realistic sound. NO

oh man, i just love darren korb's compositional style. thanks for giving me a reminder to listen to all of his soundtracks today. opens with some highly filtered pads that have a lot of motion on them, which is fun. there's some tempo-synced elements that come in at 0:30 - very patient opening - and some piano. beat comes in at 1:05 in a way that i didn't expect, which is fun. bass is highly filtered, almost sounds like it's next door vs. in the room with us. piano performance has some jazz elements in how the melodic material is rendered which is nice. 2:05 is a new feel, between the new beat and the really effected wind synth (i can't really describe it). that's out quick though, because it's soon after into a much more ethereal section noodling with that wind synth and sustained rain sfx. beat is back at 3:01 and this is a cleaner soundscape, focusing on the keys. the subtle tempo-synced gated synth in the background is nice. the drums and backing elements fade down over time, leaving just the keys and bass eventually. and that's a wrap. this is a great adaptation of a really fun original. i was very curious how you'd be able to replicate what is essentially a guitar groove with some big string swoops with what you opened with, but this is definitely a super interpretive arrangement of a motif-driven original. your arrangement is just full of space, which i think is a really neat parallel to the game itself. excellent work. YES

track appears to be intentionally limited to -3.5db. initial vibe is much more upbeat. bass is surprisingly high. there's some fun bitcrushing effects right off the bat. the first real break section at 0:34 hits nice with the orchestral element there. this kind of trucks through on autopilot until 1:18 (nice break going into this section) when the beat drops and it goes to a very rich interstellar-style orchestration. i like the tempo-synced synth there to keep it moving. after ridley peeks through the bookshelf at his past self, he apparently learns guitar - i liked the change in style here, it's a good change and was needed by this point. the theremin lead is too resonant up top and cuts hard through the mix, but other than that i liked the idea. there's a short break, then some breaks, then at 2:18 we get some intentional detuning around some of the synths alongside some glitchiness. it's a fun idea that visualizes the title. this escalates until 2:57 when we get more theremin lead and orchestration, which fades out over time. this is a nice trail-off. the orchestration comes back with more rich chord blocks at 3:10, and eventually picks back up with the guitar as well. guitar sounded notably dry here, but other than that i liked this again. the theremin lead here is filtered a bit and it's nowhere near as resonant as before. there's a lot of noise going on starting around 4:24 - are you riding a crash cymbal? is that what that is? - but it is still fairly clear what's going on. there's a final big hit, we get more interstellar orchestral chord stacks and rhythmic synth, and then it's done with a tape stop. we seem to have gotten a ton of this original in the remix bin over the last few months. it's been great to see how different they all are. this is no different - i think the highly technical dnb alongside the big cinematic scoring elements works great. kudos on continuing to do different stuff and not stick with a single vibe. YES

always loved dorian when it's not just used as 'weird minor'. starts with piano and sfx, and the ascending scale comes in after a bit. the beat comes in alongside the initial melodic content at 0:37. it's a nice groove, i think 'electro chill' is a good term. the leads used in this section (both the first one and the one at 1:03) remind me a lot of FFX's remastered soundtrack. 1:29 is a bit of a shift, and the detuned lead does some more agile stuff (i didn't care for how this sounded on this lead) before the beat comes back at 1:53. 2:19's a big shift. the same detuned lead is used here, which at this point it's getting a little tired. the vocal pads are nice, and i like the percussive elements used when they come in. the track is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the melodic material overall, and that especially shows up here. after this we get an extended outro and it's done. the tail on this is pretty long (there's fading elements after the last hit for at least five seconds) and probably should be trimmed down. this is straightforward but solid. the arrangement is more in the vibe and instrumentation than the notes. i'd have loved to see more going on in terms of personalizing the melodic material, but what's here sounds good. i particularly like the different pad elements used throughout. YES

i have never heard this original and it's hilarious. and it's the main theme! sometimes nintendo still manages to capture their old magic. big funky beat to start out. there's some sfx but it takes a while to get to some of the material of the original. i didn't notice anything that was close to luigi until 0:39, and more realistically 0:59. i do like the space in this entire no-beat section, there's a lot of air in the compositional concepts. the main theme over the beat is great - what a weird lead, it works great. the ghosty lead right after it is fun too. there's a drum break section starting at 1:56 through 2:14, and then we get some noodly spooky stuff until the main theme comes back at 2:34. this is probably my favorite part of the remix. i agree the whistle is indeed iMpReSsiVe. sampled ending and we're done. what a fun idea! and well-realized. my main concern was that there was enough actual remix material in here since much of the remix was open beats without much melodic content. i recognized material from 0:59 to 1:56 and 2:14 to 3:13, which is about 57%. so we're good there. with that in mind, this is definitely a pass. super fun take on a silly original, and there's a lot of interesting ideas in the drum work throughout. excellent job. YES

starts out with some very ambient hits at range, and slowly starts to build the descending motif from the original. there's a lot of orchestral elements being used, which is nice. i'll note that there's a lot of sustained chords and that's not great orchestral arranging. it's not common that the entire brass section will play block chords. more movement in here would be a goal. there's a big hit at 1:16 with some guitars and orchestral taikos, and now some choir. there's a lot of audible clipping in here. this is where all those block chords become a problem - they're just clogging up the mid range so you can't put other stuff in here. there's also what sounds like mostly copy/paste for each section with one more thing added on top each time. for example the same choir scoring and presentation is used over and over - this is noticeable and becomes irritating pretty early on. at the 3:00 mark there's some slick soloing going but i can't hear anything. everything needs to be turned down by, like, half, and then use a compression and limiting chain to dress it up rather than relying on raw volume to make stuff sound powerful. by about 3:45 i can no longer hear any backing elements. it's just the bass, the taikos, and the lead solo instruments. everything else is just a mash. i can 100% get the idea of having lots of neat ideas and wanting to layer them on top of one another. i tend to be a very additive composer myself. however, after a certain point, there's just too much going on and it all loses impact as a result. that's what you've got going on most of this. if you removed half - literally half - of the compositional elements you've got going on here, i think you'd have a far more impactful (and easier to mix/master) track. i think there's a ton of great stuff here. it's just inaudible and everything's stepping on everything else's toes. trim it way back, reduce the volume a ton, remove all the sustained layering, and see what you get on the other side as a result. if you don't believe me about the clipping, this is by far the most clipping instances i've ever seen in a submission in the panel: NO

big drums right up front, with a big 80s sound to the band sound overall, driven by the bass and the bell synth. snare is really loud up front. there's a nice rhythm guitar underpinning it, and the lead has a good tone, love the vibrato. hits a break at 1:25 and has some synthax pick up the lead. later guitar comes in and that's well-played. harmonized melodic content at 2:05 was nice. drums drop again at 2:16 and the track relies on the bass for a bit to keep it moving, then the fm keys. sax comes back when everything's back in for a solo opportunity. this would have been a nice time to mix up the bass line up a bit, but the energy's still there and it's a good solo. it also sets us nicely onto the outro which is well-handled. this is a lay-up. there are a few elements of the mastering i'd have liked to hear modified - namely turning that snare down a touch - but overall this is a solid rendition of the classic original. i particularly liked the keys that you used in some of the quieter parts to keep it moving, and the solo trailoff into the outro. nice work. YES

yeah, opening is a direct sample with some sfx. 0:19 brings in a trap style beat and bass, with the original melodic material over top in a mostly unaltered state to my ears. i like the bassline, especially at the bridge section. the hats get a little weird around 0:45 - sounds like there's a shaker and a hat in there in the same range. solo sounds good over the top but it's drowned by the backing instrumentation most of the time. was that liquid instruments used to do the solo? there's an odd sustained organ tone at the end, some more sampled material for a few seconds, and then it's done. this needs more arrangement unfortunately. it's already very short - it's pretty hard to pass the arrangement guidelines with a track that's under two minutes, and this has a solo for half the song - and there's not a lot to differentiate it from the original already. separately, using sampled audio in general is a nono, even more when it's 15% of the track (a few seconds is one thing, but this is a measurable percentage). lastly, from a mixing perspective, your elements are mostly all over the place. there's no intentionality that i can hear around what instruments are louder than others at different points in the song. i'd highly recommend revisiting each element and ensuring that it's placed appropriately in the soundscape rather than leaving them all at the same mixer volume setting the entire track. NO

the initial sound quality is an instant no regardless of arrangement elements, so let's address that first. the track is super blown out - there's no reason for orchestral samples to be so massively sausage-ized on the waveform. all of these instruments need to be turned down by half if not more, and i'd recommend turning off your limiter and compression chain before doing initial mixing to ensure that you're not compensating for blowing the ends off of the main with your inputs. once you've got that covered, then you can slowly add back in the mastering chain to top it off. from an arrangement perspective, i think the initial concept is interesting. you've got a broader, more interesting sound palette, but it quickly grows stale as the only change is the addition of the synth lead eventually. i'd recommend either leaning more into the orchestral element and doing more part-writing (so it's not just lead, stabs, timpani, and string pad) on individual instruments, or else lead into the synthy element where that kind of sustained pad works well and flex some creative sound design muscles. either way, this is too simple of an arrangement right now, and larry's right about the loop and ending cutoff. we need more transformative arrangement to be something that can sit on the site. NO

yeah unfortunately this is essentially a cover using chiptunes. we require transformative arrangement here at ocremix - that is, sound swaps aren't enough. in a demake like this, i'd expect to hear updated rhythmic elements, new chords, a more personalized instance of the melodic line, changed time signatures, etc. what's here right now is mostly concernedape's work, and it's just being played by new instruments. that's fine with youtube and some other services but it's not what we do here. i love the idea though! i'm a huge fan of demakes. that track is a good example of the type of arrangement we look for here, and emulating (no pun intended) ben's expansion of the original theme would be a great way to proceed here. NO

would need a real title if it passed. this is a pretty basic original - just the bass riff and the whistle synth - so i'd need to see some pretty transformative elements to make this pass the bar. to my ears, there isn't much arrangement here at all - this sounds essentially like you've taken the existing parts (even some of the drum lines) and put better sounds on them. i think the better sounds sound better! but there's nowhere near the transformative arrangement we require as part of 4.2 in the submission standards. NO

triplet vibe is a good one to start out. the darker backing elements really draw out the feel of the original track too. starting with the B theme is a surprising choice but works pretty well as a prep element.0:51 is where the original starts. hats are a touch bright but only a little. i liked the doubling in the melodic line that starts at 1:42. 2:27 is the B theme again, with a bit of a thinner backing vibe than the A section. there's a second where both melodic elements are competing which is a nice idea too. there's a bit of an altered arp near the end for the last 30s or so and then it's done. this is really close on the arrangement side to being too conservative for me. there is essentially nothing changed here from the original except the placement of the opening 50s and one note in the arp for 30s at the end. there's a lot of window dressing added on top which i'm counting as elements of the arrangement or else it wouldn't get there. obviously the mastering is dope and the synthesis work is superb, and that carries it for me. YES

the waveform diff overall on this one is drastic. also LT this wasn't samples from the original, it's just a very similar synth that was used. starts out with some ambience (assuming this is the sampled element?) and some accelerating piano over time. the piano sounds intentionally filtered. the arp's in the piano, and the lead is a similar tone to the original. the kick starts as a more muted version and then has another kick with more beater added in later. the lead is 1:1 from the original. when the rest of the beat comes in at 1:18, it sounds to me like the track is currently the ongoing ambience, the beat, piano playing some chords and the arp, and the lead. that's pretty sparse compared to the complexity of the original. there's a break at 2:12 with no kick for a bit, but it's back within 15 seconds and we get the B theme for a bit. there's a stutter synth here that i didn't notice before, and that's a nice change. at 2:55 the beat's done for the piece (another 1.5 minutes!). the lead synth appears to truck through the rest of the melodic material in order with the piano under it, and then finish on some more ambient swells. from an arrangement perspective, i like the idea of giving the main body of the melody some more rhythm in the form of percussion. beyond that, there's not much here that isn't lena raine. we need more arrangement than this. section 4.2 in our standards talks about significant arrangement - another word that's used a lot is transformative. this doesn't have that, so it's a nonstarter right there. frim a mixing perspective, the kick is wildly louder than anything else in the track, it's not even close. the spectrum analysis shows a solid wall from 35-60hz, no cutoff below that and nothing close to it above it - that's too much. beyond that, the entire mix feels very muted and quiet due to not having any headroom from the kicks. likely this was mixed on low-bass-response headphones and that's why there's such a crazy difference there - this desperately needs another pass at mixing it on something with accurate response and then subsequently needs some compression to balance it. beyond that, sidechaining at least the ambience and the backing elements under the kick a bit would help with the pressure as well. i'd suggest really committing to the arrangement first. make something that's distinctly Metris's take on lena's work rather than just taking her work and adding pads behind it. change up the melody a bit, play with chords, update and add new textures that are critical to the work and not window dressing, change the tempo, etc. and then come back and get the workshop's view on it to see how it's going. right now this isn't passable. NO

track has >5db of headroom and little dynamic contrast at first glance. would need a new name if it passes as well. at first glance, this appears to be a palette swap. the notes appear to be pretty close to 1:1 outside of no drums. the synthesis concepts are interesting, but i'll note that the choices actually are a net negative overall for the work - the lead's quieter than the arpeggiating synth since the arp is so much brighter than the lead, as opposed to the opposite in the original, and the long release pads mean that there's some overlap on faster chord progressions. it also has no ending - it starts to fade out, but doesn't quite before it just stops. this is not enough arrangement for our site, unfortunately. i think there's a real place for something with interesting juno-type synthesis here, but per 4.2 of our standards we need transformative arrangement. this is a cover and we don't take those unfortunately. NO

is the name a reference to the track's waveform? really loud right off the bat. beat is pretty huge, bass peaks a bit high but it's big. there's some synth guitar chugs right away that are pretty obviously not guitar, but they are appropriately meaty. 0:40 is a bit of a break with some sfx. the beat drops at 1:14 for the B theme, and it picks back up at 1:29 with another rhythmic synth over the beat. there's a bass section at 1:46 and it builds up to the A theme soon after. the track goes through the initial riff a few more times with fewer instruments and then it's done. this track sounds blown out, like mega over the top blown out. the waveform is visibly deformed in several places because it's so loud. it clips constantly through the loudest sections, for example at 0:15-0:30 the chugs are audibly distorted most of the time. i believe at least part of this is due to the bass synth, kick, and chugs all being in the same area (among other instrument groups). so that's something that needs to be addressed. i think the arrangement itself is fine overall - there's a variety of synths being used, the track has a nice shape, and it does some fun stuff as it gets bigger and smaller over time. i think the ending is a downer and could be fleshed out more, but it also sounds like you ran out of ideas around maybe 1:50 or so and so just needed to get over the finish line. i think this definitely is a track that can be on the site someday. some cleaner mastering would do wonders. NO

i can definitely see the PT influence right away on this one. i just played the game so the theme is very familiar to me as well. switching from the faster, more urgent verse to the broad half-time chorus is straight off of every single PT album, especially when layered with the strings in the transition back to the verse. great job getting the style down. i like the intensity at 1:30 switching the acoustic guitar riff to electric. 2:30 is the start of the moon theme - i admit i was wondering how you'd work this in, but this is probably the best way to make it work. there's a heavy emphasis on effecting voices here, and while i can't make out what's being said, someone else may be able to. this doesn't overstay its welcome in the scope of the overall work so i'm good with such a disjointed sfx break. 3:47 is the leshy theme. vocals are a bit more exposed here due to the range, but i can definitely hear your influences here as well. i liked the way that you played with time a few times here to keep it not quite what you expect. the anesthetize reference at 5:14 is great, and within the scope of a 7+ minute work i don't mind some development that's original at all. 6:17 is a much more (initially) straightforward blow through the leshy theme again. the vocal lines and harmonies here are great, your voice sounds the best in the track here. it's shorter than i'd have expected for this section. 7:17 is kind of where the track hits the outro, and it's done quickly after that. even a bigger fill going into the final hit would have been great. also i'd love to have heard the djentier version to be honest! this track kinda doesn't have enough gristle to really fit the cabin's gameplay. this is, of course, great. the mixing is fantastic throughout - you could say that the vocals are a bit quiet in spots, but this is very fitting the style of the influencing tracks so i think it works great. i think the lyrics work well and don't sound too contrived. the themes from the game are interwoven throughout as well. excellent job. YES

opens with acoustic and vocals. there's a bit of pitchiness but the vibrato on the first sustain is beautiful. drums and pads come in at 0:15 and it's kind of a lower vibe here. it builds into 0:33 where the vocals come in for the first time. vocals are obviously low but sound great. guitars are a bit loud here compared to the female vocals when they're lower (before 1:00). the drums under the refrain were a little too complex for what's going on over them in my opinion. the lyrics didn't flow very well on the last line of the refrain either. vent's entry is as expected. there's some pitchiness (chill, through, stings, re in remind). there are some oddly pronounced words as well (through). that said, as usual cyril's tone is super dope (the first two lines are very nice). the unison that comes after this was a bit rough - i only can hear cyril most of it, but there's more pitchiness in here too. unisons are the hardest interval to tune so that's not unexpected. there's a bit of a break right after it with some great bass work, and it builds up into a solo section. there's a few funky notes in here but overall it's a fun solo that has a great shape. there's another unison section that's better balanced and tuned after this. it would have been really nice to hear this section harmonized rather than unison, but the execution's fine. the last two lines of the combined section before the refrain (and the demons/but they wither) are probably my favorite part of the track. the track ends suddenly after the unison refrain. overall i think this is probably over the bar. i think that there's some execution missteps on the lyrics and vocal recordings, but the band sound overall is great and the track overall has some great highs and a good shape. when the track works, it works really well. YES