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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Hope" data-source="post: 4214121" data-attributes="member: 27051">Coming a little late to the thread, so apologies.  But if you're still looking for feedback, here's my take (from the perspective of a rock/metal bassist with professional recording and gigging experience).  I'd also add a +1 to everything that Thunderfoot said upthread - I'll echo a few of his excellent points below:First off, kudos for getting your act together enough to record songs and get them out there.  A lot of guys never even get that far.  Those aren't empty platitudes - as you'll know, it takes a hell of a lot of effort to whip songs into shape and you can be proud of having gotten that done.It's also encouraging to hear that this genre of metal is still alive and kicking.  Big thumbs up for keeping the flame burning <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.Other posters have covered the issue of acoustics and recording quality.  That's good advice, and is important if you intend for these recordings to catch the attention of listeners, fans, gig promoters, record companies or whoever.  You always wanna sound your best.  Still, maybe you don't see yourselves as being at that stage yet and just want to get your stuff out there, in which case the acoustics are less important than the substance of the songs, which is where I would focus the main attention of my comments.Positives:Your music has a good atmosphere to it, and evokes a strong feel.  This is an absolute intangible and cannot be faked, so you're doing well to have caught something there that is hard to define.You have some cool, catchy grooves going on in the riffs (Fields of Ash and the middle section of Rise ov Thor in particular.)  Makes the music enjoyable and gets the blood flowing <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The use of harmonies by the guitar players is nice.  I could do with hearing more of this.  You have two guitarists - use them!  Don't just have them mirror each other's parts.  Try having them play totally different pieces that riff off each other (some of the stuff at the start of Splayed Before a False God captures this approach well.)Not-so-positivesYour drummer needs to tighten up his playing.  He is good on the straight beats, but his fills and rolls are messy - and in some places, unecessary.  Less is more.  At present, a messy fill is worse than no fill at all.  This applies to the whole band - everyone can be a bit tighter - but it was most noticeable with the drums.  As a bassist, I would find it hard to lock into a groove with him.Your bassist needs to push his playing forward in the composition.  I don't mean he needs to be louder - he just needs to differentiate his parts more strongly from the rhythm guitar.I'm not a huge fan of the death/doom/black/whatever vocal style (even though I've been in bands that used it copiously.)  It obscures the lyrics, even makes them pointless, and makes your music sound samey.  That's just my personal feel, however, and there's clearly a market for it (or vocalists wouldn't still be doing it after all these years, lol!)  Still, I'd recommend tweaking your approach and finding a way to enunciate the lyrics more clearly.  You can keep that power and aggression while managing to make yourself understood <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Oh, and the intro to Splayed Before A False God needs cleaning up.  It's fun to hear you guys goofing it up and nattering about it, but I'd ditch that from a public release.General CommentsYou're all clearly competent players and play with feeling and passion.  Folks will tell you that blind luck matters more than skill and feeling.  Don't listen to them.  While blind luck can get you a fortunate break, maybe snag you some good gigs or a recording deal, it cannot sustain you.  Luck can set you on the road, but only passion, skill and (above all) commitment can keep you there.I'd say that you definitely have what it takes to get gigs on your local scene and maybe further afield than that.  As has been said, you may not be the most original songwriters, but we can't all be avant-garde genre breakers.  There is always room for solid metal on the local scene, even if it is derivative of other bands (as your is, to a certain degree.)  If you can find yourselves a niche, work on your chops and groove in it.  And have fun!  At the end of the day, that's the best reward you can hope for.</blockquote>

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