http://soundcloud.com/bloodovsothis/the ... ial-rising

I started a one man Doom/Black/Ambient project that I'm pretty satisfied thus far. It's called Horizons, and my goal is to create a really expansive, atmospheric mix of funeral doom metal and black metal. I know it seems silly to have things this planned out already, but I intend to write a self titled debut of about 75-80 minutes in length across 4 tracks, so pretty lengthy tracks.

I've already recorded a rough demo of the first track titled The Primordial Rising, and I'd really appreciate if you guys let me know what you think of it, or if you'd be interested in hearing further songs. I'll point out that I'm not experienced in mixing/mastering, so the production might be a bit shite, but please judge the music and not the production, as this is in demo stage. Also, I feel the song isn't done justice unless the whole thing is heard in full, as the beginning of the song is pretty slow. I'm already working on another track, so I'll post any further work.

Bump, was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on this one?

The ambients are well done, kept my attention during the long build-up.
I don't feel the drums and guitars are matching the majestic synth atmosphere. They require more doom-influenced sound and mixing.

But the composition is solid enough. Just make sure the final production really lets the heaviness come out.

Do you mean in terms of sound or the actual riffs/drum patterns? I will admit that the production is pretty terrible, I plan to gain a better means of production in the future.

The production. The guitars and drums really need to convey their depth.

I think this could use some more layering to match your goal of an expansive and atmospheric sound. While you do a nice job at building things up, the backdrop of the two choir notes gets really repetitive and with just the usual metal instruments on top of that this tends to stand out a great deal. This rather minimalistic phrasing returns throughout the song, and at 21:30 in length you end up repeating things quite a bit because of their short melodic length to fit into the structure. While you show that you understand how to create a satisfying melody, all of the tension is in the build up of the layers that you do use. I never have to wait to hear a note that I know should be coming along because you always place it right at the end of the pattern.

This is pregnant with good ideas but I don't always feel the connection because of how self contained each section is. Stronger guitars would help with this, but you are certainly capable of longer melodic ideas like you show through the 17:30-19:00 mark. Despite the shortcomings, including those Goran mentioned, I think you show promise and would be interested in hearing further songs as you work on polishing things.


I know you said to judge the music but I also thought I would point out that you have a lot panned hard to the left, which you should be aware of if you weren't.

Forgive me if this is stupidity on my part, but I'm not quite sure what you mean with this part.

In terms of layering in the beginning of the song, what would you recommend in terms of more layers? Do you mean more synth or guitar layers? It turned out to be a bit buried in the mix and hard to hear but there is actually a second guitar line that comes in shortly after the drums and guitar initially increase in volume. Also, I suppose I was going for a bit of a drawn out, droning sound with the intro, do you think this part works well in those terms? I definitely understand this isn't something that people that don't listen to really drawn out material will enjoy.

Anyway, thanks for listening to the whole song! I appreciate the feedback, and I wonder if everyone who listened to the song listened to the whole thing or turned it off before the first buildup even finished. Also, don't know wtf happened with the panning I really need to learn how to properly record and mix, as well as obtaining some adequate equipment to do so!

Nah no stupidity on your part, let me attempt to clarify.

What I mean deals with melodic resolution and suspense. So suppose I have a riff that goes like c d e f g f e d, the next note I expect to hear is c and c will create a feeling of finality or resolution. With the same melody one can have the next note be some note other than c and even avoid c for some time. This makes the listener wait for and pine for that c to come - thus creating tension. With your song I felt like far too many of the riffs repeated without variation in a very predictable way that lead straight toward their obvious melodic resolution without creating that kind of tension. The guitar riff starting around 8:40 is an example of this and while tension can be really subjective I think it relates to how short some of the melodies are. The synth at around 6:30 is a better example of this dry kind of melody, contrast it with how much drama you create through melodic tension with that part at 17:50 using a relatively longer and more intricate melody. I hope that makes more sense, it is somewhat of an intangible concept that I am sure could be better articulated.

As far as the layering goes, a drawn out droning sound is typically more enjoyable for me if that sound is itself really rich or layered with other things to keep my attention. The choir from the intro doesn't really do that for me, and any kind of droning puts a lot of emphasis/focus on the tonal qualities of the notes you sustain. But since you pointed out part of what you did do is buried, maybe you have that locked down and its just a mixing issue. I am not really into a lot of drone doom, funeral doom, or ambient stuff for this very reason though, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

You've got some nice parts in there alright! Did you record with an actual synth or did you use some kind of program on the computer?
I'm working on some songs myself, I'd say they are in the Black-metal genre also. I'd like some synth for my project also, just some ambiance stuff, but I can't afford a real one right now.

The part that begins at 6:27 is nice! Sounds like an old RPG game or something.

So are there any programs on the computer you could use?

Hey, thanks for the feedback! On the synths, I used a computer program called Synthfont that imports MIDI files and plays them using different sound templated called soundfonts. I have no experience using actual synths but these do the job for a computer download, which is free, by the way.

I really liked it! made me think about my projects, which I haven't paid attention to lately... hopefully will have time soon to focus on them
amazing synth sounds you got there