Score: 10

"Awesome"

submission: Chains of Ocean and Flame+*~.0

date: August 4, 2009

Great work dude. Things composed by people named Shawn are always great. :)

Score: 8

"Very cool, but needs more variety"

submission: Mind The Gap -ADJ-

date: December 17, 2008

Very cool and bouncy tune; good use of an odd time without making the piece feel too unusual or offbeat--you made it fit very well and made it feel natural. Nice instrumentation and a good deep mix between the instruments. Solid recording quality. My only critique would be that the piece could use better development; the track feels repetitive at times.

Score: 9

"Excellent!"

submission: Blacklight Grudge

date: December 15, 2008

Dude, this is an excellent piece. Great structure, great buildup, and stellar recording quality. Perfect mix of the instruments as well; song tells a story in a way that good songs ought to.

The solo sounds a bit choppy, and does have a few notes that are a little out there, but that's really a nitpick. Felt like I had to work extra hard to find something I didn't like in this piece. This is something I'll be soloing over at home for fun.

Score: 10

"Sweepy goodness"

submission: Hollowed

date: December 10, 2008

Sweep picking makes me a happy panda. Very glad to have found your music on the Audio Advertisements thread.

A bit of stylistic criticism: in my opinion, your tone is very trebley; I think your leads and definitely the rhythm guitar would sound smoother with a little more tonal roundedness. Give that neck pickup some more love. :) I know that's more a matter of personal taste, but the lack of bass and mids in the rhythm guitar gives it an abrasive, somewhat old-fashioned sound to my ear. (Could just be remedied with post-recording eqs also.)

That's just a nitpick on an excellent piece. Your stuff is great to listen to and this is no exception. 5 vote, and 10 stars.

Score: 10

"Excellent!"

submission: Pleasant Obstruction (old)

date: December 9, 2008

Great work man - and it's good to find another prog rock fan here. I love the wah-wah usage, and the recording quality is pretty top notch. Drums are a little low in the mix, but it's very tough to nitpick this thing. Great job, and I'll be sure to be listening to your other work.

What's your gear setup?

Score: 10

"Beautiful"

submission: A Desolate Place (short loop)

date: December 9, 2008

I really like the harmonies and the cluster chords in this; sounds very solid. Reminds me a little of the opening to Pantera's cover of Planet Caravan on the Far Beyond Driven album.

Score: 9

"long intro, but worth the wait"

submission: The Cauldron

date: February 22, 2007

Song sounds incredible once that piano part comes in. The intro is a little long though, and risks losing you along the way. The extremely long intro combined with the pause at the end of it makes this actually seem like two separate and mutually distinct pieces, each good, but not sufficiently related to each other because of the break and their respective lengths. Consider shortening the intro and having it blend into the piano section somehow to make it a little more continuous and this would be perfect in my view.

A great piece of work, particularly once the piano-driven section shows up.

<|>TritoneAngel<|>

Score: 10

"Grown beautifully"

submission: Matchless Ardor 1.2

date: May 11, 2006

Hey man - I thought this sounded familiar, I think I reviewed one of the earlier versions.

As always, sounds great. You have a great sense of building tension and continually building on previous motives within a song. Nice variety of textures and a great emotional feeling. Great to listen to.

Score: 9

"Great beginning.. but NEEDS to be finished"

submission: <--- Empty Promise --->

date: March 29, 2006

You should absolutely finish this song. It's a stellar beginning with a great sense of tension and force... that doesn't go anywhere! This song is just DYING to explode into something humongous, and is so pregnant with possibilities; You could bust into a super-heavy Evanescence-ish rock song from this, or a lush orchestral string textured arrangement, or even just keep it simple and add a little high & fast solo piano bridge section then fading out into this theme. (Of course, being who I am, I have to favor the heavy guitar-laden explosion which just comes to mind naturally from this. But I'm flexible.)

This is too good a beginning not to have a fleshed out middle and end -- take this song where it's dying to go, in whatever direction you prefer. But dear God you just can't let it sit unfinished. You CAN'T.

Great work man -- I look forward to hearing more from you.

<|>TritoneAngel<|>

Score: 9

"Great development"

submission: < - - Reanimated - - >

date: March 29, 2006

This piece really takes you on a journey -- it continuously builds and builds until you feel completely immersed in the song. Really nicely done. Good variety in the instrumentation and nice use of rhythmic and melodic devices to add to that building tension. Solid, solid work.

The mix doesn't bother me so much, though I'm not hugely into the genre so I might not be the best judge out of context. I know it sounds good and it's well written -- and that's good enough for me. Phiffed, with authoritah.