*THESE LINKS NO LONGER WORK, LINKS TO NEW RECORDINGS FOUND LATER IN THREAD.*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OSBDvedlc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUi1cyWH ... el&list=UL

These where recorded with an Iphone, the guitar, drums, and vocals where done live, while the bass on the second one was dubbed over. I don't own a PA system so in the recordings I'm literally stressing my vocal chords to project over the guitar and drums.
I do the vocals and guitar, while a friend plays drums, hes been playing since around January of this year.

We are going for a unique sound, implementing alot of groovy riffs while staying heavy. The solos vary, one example is really fast technical shredding while the other is just messing around in the pentatonic scale. As we are a live band, the solos are almost never the same and when we enter the solo we don't know when were going to jump out of it, we just go with it. The solos do have some consistency though, it will always fit the sound, just played differently and I use different techniques.

Despite the obvious flaws, what are your opinions on how we sound and what can make us sound better?

The sound is weak, stoner needs solid lows and mids to work, this is too thin. Of course, being that you recorded this with and iphone noone's expecting you to do magic, but know that the way it sounds right now, is really crappy and detracts a lot from the music.
Voice is plain awful, there's nothing to point out here because everything is just wrong.
The playing overall is quite sloppy, specially the drums, the guy needs to practice more before you start recording him, the strenght of the hits seems inconsistent and he should be playing with a metronome.

Didn't really enjoy the music either, it ain't really heavy nor stoner-y to me, just kind-of catchy riffs, but that's comes down to personal preferences in the end.

Thanks garthmargengi for the critiquing.
Could you go into detail on how I could make it more heavy? I understand I need a thicker tone and better vocals (I'm from the south, hard to do with an accent and have never messed with vocals before these recordings) but are the riffs just to fast or to upbeat?
The drummer is actually going off to collage so I won't be recording with him again, come this fall its going to be me working on everything myself.
What did you think of the solos? I kinda like the sloppy sound I have, its like my signature metal/rock solos among friends. (I play other genres very clean)

Well taking into account this isn't going to be the drummer on it, that you recorded with an iphone, it was all one takes with no PA.... it's alright. I listened to the first one. the first riff sounded alright, better recorded could work for a stoner song. I really don't like the vocals but i can't judge more so since you are half ass shouting singing... the delivery and spacing isn't very good, needs to be tighten up and worked on.
and don't give me that i'm from the south bullshit about your accent in doing vocals. that makes no difference in it.
the second riff montage was too fast and just didn't really work for me... just sloppy ass sounding. as in the playing not noting on the sound quality.

Well, for stoner doom kind of stuff, it's really bass heavy, so lows and mids go up, also adding a fuzz bass is what a lot of stoner bands do, so when you get better recording equipment, just keep that in mind, and it'll sound just great!

Edit: as I do with most people here, I liked your fb page to see when your music improves I like this style of stoner metal where its really bluesy

Cool ideas, albeit a tad generic. I don't think the vocals are really that bad.

It is very very sloppy though, that drummer can't keep time to save his ass. With a few weeks of practice the stuff can really sound pretty cool!

Alright, taking everything into consideration, I've got my eyes on a Big Muff Pi and am going to wait till I have the proper sound equipment before recording anything final.
I have been working on this for a really long time now, I have nearly 75 song ideas, these two were the easiest for the drummer to learn and play.
I'm trying for some form of poetic lyrics, using alot of imagery and trying to set a scene, like a story book.
They are very generic and I'm still working out a way to vocalize them the way I hear them in my head.

A few singing lessons could help improve a big deal. Recording in tracks would also be another obvious improvement since you wouldn't have to be yelling to top everything else.
Don't be ashamed of the accent, if anything it'll give more personality to the music.

The riffs on Astral Dragon though kind of generic ain't bad, it's mostly the drumming that fucks it up there and the lack of bass really shows, a cool bassline could make a huge difference here.
On Black Mage the riff is simply boring in my opinion, the (lack of) rhythm doesn't do anything for me, and the chord progression on it's own can't carry all the weight of the music.

I'm not fond of solos unless they're really good and well placed in the music, and in none of these songs did I find them amusing or felt that they were called for.

On a side note, for the price of that Big Muff, you could get a decent USB audio interface (the Lexicon Alpha is about 50 bucks) which would make a HUGE difference in the sound of your recordings. You won't have the pedal available for playing live, but you'll be able to emulate it's effects and a thousand more via software and the recorded tone will be much richer.

As others have said, it is really lacking a bottom end - I'd also wager it needs more groove to it. You seem very lead oriented, but for me, stoner music relies heavily on a thick, fuzzy and solid rhythm - nothing wrong with some sloppy leads (as you said you are kind of going for) on top of that, but for them to have impact you need your rhythm. I'd suggest not only a more substantial presence of a bassline, but also laying some chords beneath your leads.

And as others said, don't be afraid of letting your accent in. Idiosyncrasies and individuality are what make vocals great.

This is one of my favourite genres of metal, so I'm definitely interested in seeing how you develop.

Alright, after a long time buying some equipment and learning how to properly build tone I have this to show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LPI7QVDxd0

Also, its just me, I retired my original Dean and am now using my first guitar that has been modded to hell and back, only thing original is the wood and neck. C standard with 2 GFS hotrod pickups into my computer and ran through Reaper, I use Hydrogen to make the drum track and record and mix both bass and guitars by myself, the drummer couldn't play and I couldn't record them live anyway.

Also got more into learning how to construct stoner/doom riffs and I've built what I think is a good style.
Still working on my fast solos and will wait to record those because I'm now looking for the best quality.

How does it sound?

I think it sounds great for what you are using.

But the guitar tone needs a lot less bass, unless that's how the genre is meant to be.

Why would you comment if you don't even know the standard of the genre?


Nuclear Guru, even judging on my shitty laptop... that sound is perfect. Great tone, the riffs are good. This is much better than those first two recordings and once you have a real drummer this would be some really good destructive headbobbing stoner doom. If you are going to continue you with just a drum machine, it needs to be more loose, have a swagger and groove to it. But I figured this was more of a demo to show of the tone.
You have a great bones here, now run with it.

I can dig it.

I like it, it's heavy, but I think maybe it could swing a little more. regardless, I enjoyed it

It no longer exists, according to Youtube.

he doesn't care anymore about his older demos. he was looking for further feedback on his most current demo he put up.

Oh shit, I missed that.

It's okay, very easy to miss. You aren't missing much on the earlier demos.. this new one destroys them.