On the Wings of Victory (MY BAND. WE HAVE MUSIC UP!!!)

[TomStrife]

We just had a recording session with Tasteless Records the other day to record demos for our upcoming EP titled "The Sound and the Fury."

The unfortunate thing about these sessions is that we were so pumped to do them, that we all got nervous and overwhelmed.

I'm the vocalist and I had a really soar throat/bad cough that day, but I wasn't going to say anything to attempt to stop this recording.

So my band agreed to release the demo of our song "Make Me New" to the general public. It's our simplest song that pretty much anyone can play, but it's a warm up. The final version will be much heavier with a really awesome guitar solo at the end (our new guitarist just bailed a Glam Metal band).

So tell me what you think.
Constructive criticism is needed.
Be honest.
If we suck, tell me.

www.myspace.com/onthewingsofvictory
www.purevolume.com/onthewingsofvictory

Also, none of our songs are of the same genre.
We have "Make Me New" which is kinda just a generic, melodicy hardcore kinda thing, while we also have a song called "Lockdown" which is a blatant Mathcore track.

[Walter Sobchak]

I enjoyed it.

It was a genre piece, and thats well and good if you mix up the genres, like you said you were planning on.

The recording is what I have a problem with. The bass drum isn't loud enough for me. When he goes into his double bass pedaling, it isn't as loud as it should be. I don't know how you miked the drums, but I imagine you just did an overhead. Make it louder in future recordings.

[Sir Kenneth]

It doesn't suck, but perhaps you should have gone with the mathcore track instead? Not that the track you have uploaded is bad, but if you really are a progressive hardcore band as you write, it would perhaps be better to upload a track that is progressive hardcore.
It kind of defeats the whole purpose of putting out a demo if that demo is not representive of what your band is REALLY like.

I like your vocals though.

[TomStrife]

Thanks for the constructive criticism.
We'll have more stuff up soon.

As for the vocals, I have range, but two of the members dislike my deep so I can't utilize it.

[Daddy]

The guitars are FAR too boomy. Slap whoever mixed this for you, because they should have clamped down on the bass frequencies on the guitar. That would have helped a lot, and should have gone without saying.

The cymbals could use with some more compression - not a lot, just use a multi-band compressor to clamp down on those highs by say...3 dB? They just sound a bit too 'all over the place', if you ask me. If I could, I'd try out it, since I'd be interested in trying a few things, but I can't. Oh well. It's like the cymbals are sitting on top of everything else, instead of simply being in the background.

Boost the mids on your vocals. Your voice is simply not cutting through enough. Actually, scratch that. It cuts through fine - it just sounds like its not cutting through because of the tons of bass/boom on the guitars.

Wheres the effing bass guitar? Were you trying to cover up for it by leaving in all the bass frequencies on the guitars? Please don't do that. =/
Wait. your myspace says theres a bass player...Where is he on the track, or am I somehow deaf?

See, I checked to see if maybe it was just my speakers on this PC that wasn't showing any bass, but I played your song back through the monitors in my music room, and I still can't hear it.

Boost the highs on the double kick a bit, if you want it to cut through.

Finally; I know you'll hate me for saying this, but please rewrite that song. It doesn't feel like it has any coherent structure that the listener can grasp onto or make the song memorable for them (okay, just me). I'm guessing you guys didn't have a producer (or the producer was/is a noob), because I, personally, would have hammered you about it.

But it's just a demo; it can be fixed.

[TomStrife]

He let us record with him for free so....yeah, we expected it to be crap

Yeah, our bassist tracked with us.
In the recording the bass was too loud so we toned it down when we polished it.
There is bass in there. I know for a fact.
I watched him track it.

We already changed the song alot.
I have more range, and we our new guitarist does alot more stuff like solos.

We end the whole song with a breakdown.
We normally don't go for breakdowns ever because unless they're done right, they're just a generic pile of garbage.

Well, the breakdown we wrote in the final version is sick.

Our new guitarist also just quit a Glam metal band so his riffs are quite amazing comapred to our old lead guitarist.

That demo was just recorded to showcase our basic sound.

I can't wait until we professionally record our tracks.

[Daddy]

He let us record with him for free so....yeah, we expected it to be crap

Yeah, our bassist tracked with us.
In the recording the bass was too loud so we toned it down when we polished it.
There is bass in there. I know for a fact.
I watched him track it.

We already changed the song alot.
I have more range, and we our new guitarist does alot more stuff like solos.

We end the whole song with a breakdown.
We normally don't go for breakdowns ever because unless they're done right, they're just a generic pile of garbage.

Well, the breakdown we wrote in the final version is sick.

Our new guitarist also just quit a Glam metal band so his riffs are quite amazing comapred to our old lead guitarist.

That demo was just recorded to showcase our basic sound.

I can't wait until we professionally record our tracks.

Ah, fair enough.
Still can't hear the bass. All i hear are boomy guitars, and those are easy to fix when mixing/mastering.

If I were your lead guitarist, I wouldn't play a solo on that song. To be honest, I don't think it'd serve the song any good. But whatever floats your/his boat.

Can't wait to hear the 'final' recording. I'll hold off more critique till then.

[TomStrife]

The solo would work better in other songs, but I was outvoted.

The breakdown, though....is perfect to say the least.
Ends the song very well.