verbicidemusic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Khadr]

From a production standpoint, this is insane. You clearly have a knack for producing hard-hitting, yet nuanced beats. Its reminiscient of Run the Jewels' production, and even a little bit of Death Grips, but at the same time its wholly unique and very much your own, in that it hearkens back to old school hardcore hip-hop and early Madvillain-era experimemtal. Lyrically, its pretty srong throughout and uses some rather vivid imagery, which i find to be pretty appropriate for the subject matter. I do feel, however you could've slipped in a lot more profanity to heighten the aggression a little bit, though i do commend your effort to retaining an intellectual vocabulary throughout. Also, my biggest problem with this song is that i dont feel that your rapping is on par with the stellar production. The flow is rather redundant and sloppy at times, though I dont think thats your fault sincr as a musician, you likely dont practice your rap technique all that much lol. Maybe once NGAUC is over, you can get a more experienced MC to rap over this phenomenal beat. And i know im not a judge or anything, but i feel like a track with this much potential deserves a full review. Awesome work, though. :^)

Ceevro responds:

'Tis true, I'm no rapper. All of your points on my flow are quite valid. Given the subject matter, I had an awful lot to say, and only a certain amount of time to say it in. Rap is really the only genre I could use to get it all out in the time-space. Using profanity is something that I would ordinarily have no issue with, but this time, given that it's a competition piece, I figured I'd try to hit them with poetry over raw aggression. I wanted the meaning of the words to hit harder than my own talent or lack thereof.

This is, however, the first time I've gotten such high praise on production value! Normally, that's the part where I fall short!

[Acerb-False]

This shit's so fucking raw and visceral it would make Michael Gira proud. The distorted yelling, the addition of synths, so fucking perfect! Those guitar tones are ace, too.

jambrother2 responds:

A fellow swans fan! I must admit, swans first two albums were a huge inspiration for this project.

[Cameleon Arc-En-Ciel]

Love it! You've crafted a wholly unique textural tapestry and its beautiful. I don't know if I would call it rock per se, more in line ambient, i think. Great work, though.

etK responds:

Thanks a lot !! I really appreciate it ! :D

[No One Remembers]

Absolutely gorgeous! The guitar arrangements are beautiful, the vocals (possibly my favorite part) are so painfully intimate and honest (very reminiscent of a Nick Drake or Elliott Smith) , the lyrical content perfectly compliments them, and the pads add a sort of haunting element to the piece that add different emotional dimensions to it. Only critiques I have is that I think that the guitars need to be brought down in the mix just a wee bit. They kind of drown out your soft, whispered vocals during the verses. I also felt like the piece could've had a somewhat stronger ending. Still, chilling stuff.

Ceevro responds:

There's always the question of how much power one puts into the ending of a soft, sad song. In some cases, one can really wring the emotion out by attacking the pain, like how Pink Floyd would smash the pain out with soaring vocals...Vera is a favorite piece of theirs.

In this case, I was after a lonely realization of my own insignificance. Perhaps there is something to be said for screaming at the Void...but my thinking is that this piece is about finally understanding how futile that would be. If no one remembers Cnut the Great, king of four countries, I can rest assured that my screaming would drown quickly into the ether. And whether I'm OK with that or not makes no difference in the outcome.

So I don't sound like too much of a downer, I'll tell you the upside of this fact as well:

All of the worst things I have ever done, every embarrassment, every failure, every plainly evil act...those are vanishing just as surely.

[Into the Heart of the Beast]

You did an excellent job of taking a concept and turning it into music. The only thing this piece is lacking is a more lively and exciting percussion section (especially in the climax towards the end with the strings). Other than that, fantastic job. And I love how much artistic thought you put into this piece, cuz ya' know, to some people, music isn't an art and to see people put as much artistic depth into a piece as you did really gives me joy.

Baumarius responds:

I'm glad it does! Music /is/ an art to me, and I use it to portray things that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

Fortunately, the song won't be judged in the contest until July 27th, so I'll go back an see what I can do with that!

[Colored Sky]

First of all, the mixing is spot-on. All of the tracks sound exactly how they should (especially dat lead synth). The small transitions you have before each segment are expertly placed and make every segment much more impactful when they start. The outro is very conclusive and creative, even utilizing some NES samples which is really interesting. Love this piece and I wish you luck in this contest! :D

littlelamp100 responds:

thanks :D

[Indigo (NGAUC '16)]

Love the guitar tones, especially the leads. The melodies here are really quite beautiful, without losing some of the initial heaviness already established by the rhythm guitar in the beginning. The break in the middle is really well done, with some nice lead guitar nuances in the background, bringing us back to the main chord progression with ease and smoothness. Only complaint would be the volume of the kick drum is a little too high (for my taste, anyway) and this song would definitely benefit from a real drummer, and maybe even some complex drum fills to add to the emotional intensity. Overall, really solid and enjoyable piece. Plus, it's nice to see another rock musician in this participating in this competition :P

JDawg00100 responds:

Thanks for the review :P

[Center Stage]

Fucking spectacular! Love the key and scale you used, and the progression and melodies were quite nice, even reminding me of old European pieces at some points. You have my 5 stars for sure!

TimerClock14 responds:

Yeah, the idea of this tune was to take a melody that sounded a bit more classical and put it into a high-energy DnB setting and just see what happened. Based on your review I guess it turned out well :D

Thanks!

[Alive]

Holy CRAP. DAT RIFFS, DAT GROWL, DAT TIME SIGNATURE CHANGE, DAT EVERYTHING!!! In all seriousness, kick-ass song! Nothing felt out-of-place or uneeded. And that solo melted my face off. And I like how you guys went metal but not too metal, just like grunge should be! You and your band rule!

BuckFuddy responds:

Wow thank you so much. We all really appreciate it :D

[Canon Jam]

I liked that. Pretty badass. :D

Mac-Pherson responds:

Good stuff! Thanks a lot!