RiotFlash's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Chickenshit [Demo]]

really really catchy

id say this is one of your best songs, its really well written. my only suggestion would be to turn up the music and turn down the vocals. maybe add another guitar part. its a really good song, but i feel like it needs a little more music behind it to really push it into professional grade. the song itself is definitely there. i mean, im no producer or professional, but my ear feels like some ambiance is missing, almost like a backdrop pad in electronic music. once again, this is only my attempt at "constructive critiscm" well i guess its more like suggestions...whatever.
the vocal melody is so catchy and the guitar parts are creative. drums sound perfect as always haha.
keep up the good work, the new batch of songs you've been putting out are scary good. like buy-it-on-vinyl good.

Gunshy responds:

you're right. your ears serve you well! the rest of the new batch so far has had synthesizers in the background or some vocal effect with echo or chorus also in the background. this one i didn't do shit to it just to see how it sounded "naked" so to speak. i guess "DEMO" should be added at the end of the title. i'll be rerecording the vocals at some point anyway. they're missing harmonies. i don't think i'll add another guitar, but you're right the distorted parts especially are too soft. and the vocals are just a few hairs too loud.

[Decals (I Don't Know) [De]

tasty!

what a good song :D those drums are incredible, im head over heels in love with how furious they sound. id like to start off by saying that probably 6 out of your 10 points belong to the drumming. the bass department sounds very unique, almost worth listening to this in pairs just to pick out all the cool stuff its doing. the guitars sound great; unique but professional. lyrics are good, i like some of the tongue-in-cheek stuff "not that I would mind, a-ridin' that ass all day long" etc. i know i said something against these 10 minute songs, but this is an exception :P good work haha

Gunshy responds:

:) ! thanks for the words "incredible" and "furious" about the drums! i agree! lol - the bass (see above also) was an enormous undertaking. bringing the bass from the synthesizers i usually use into the real world with a gigantic ibanez roadstar was ridiculous. i ended up using different samples of me playing variations on the notes and beat structure to create the right changes at the right times, where needed.

[+ROSS - Fantastic Prison]

one of my favorites from the album

i think ive made this comment before, but i just love the drums on this. they just sound fierce. this song is one of my favorites from the album. for a lot of reasons. i like how catchy it is for what it is. the singing is just contagious, your voice sounds good on this, and it the way its sung gets it stuck in my head. its weird having a song like this stuck in your head because its not like there's like a main melody or anything. its not like a The Strokes song or something with really loud, front and center melodies. its just some scattered noise, some really good scattered noise.
and, as a bassist, its nice to hear a lot of emphasis on bass guitar. :D
YEAAAAAAAAH OH WELCOME TO REAL LIFEEE. < best part, haha.

Gunshy responds:

:))))

this same drumset is the one i'm using on all the new songs. keeping it consistent throughout. guitar sound as well. single guitar recordings, dual a little bit. i'm getting a more faux live set sound... a big, bold, grinding grunge sound my word, it'll be beautiful

[Something For Nothing]

dafsfdsagas

Part 3 gives me goosebumps.
parts 1 & 2 are good, but part 3 its just so epic and pretty, and it closes the album so well.
one of my favorites by one of my favorites.

Gunshy responds:

thank you, continually, thank you! 10000 thank yous
i feel like part 1 [0:00-6:00] is like the come on for the rest
part 2 has the teeth and is the real meat of the song, the jam [6:00-16:26]
but thank you, so much... part 3 is what made this song all really click, made the album itself click together, with this as the finale.

[>Something 4 Nothing (6 Mix)<]

liuyoyfouy

this is so radically different i think my brain spun a full 360.
sounds really good, but every once in a while i swear im hearing auto-tuned vocals, or maybe its just a digital effect. which is just trippy.

this sounds really good, especially for dividing it into a fourth of what it is. the bass and drums are spot-on perfect, but feel a little overpowering over the vocals. this might be compression or who knows. i could use a little more guitar, but once again, this is a six minute cut, im not going to blame that on you.

but for what it is, a six minute cut, and with newgrounds' limits on audio and etc its good. my only complaint is the vocals are a little bit too faint, and im not loving that digital/autotune effect. just my honest opinion, i dont mean to bitch. because other than that it sounds really good and im eager to hear the actual thing.

Gunshy responds:

very different, indeed!

you ARE hearing autotune. only used in this, the 1st section of the full song, for a more futuristic sound (or modern, i guess). i'm not a fan, either, but it is used pretty sparingly since the program itself doesn't seem to know what to do with double-tracked (etc) vocals... but that may factor into the compression or faintness... i learned a few things about how to use it during this process, so believe me any use in the future will be sparing and better-done.

i think it's the compression with the drums, really, but it also might be the speakers. when i'm counting down until a release of even just one song here on NG i try to listen to that song on as many stereos as i can, because invariably it sounds different on every single one. what i record/engineer/mix on here at home is by various accounts "an insane amount of sound" so i try and experiment with hearing the songs on average desktop speakers or laptop speakers, car stereos, etc., with mixed success. with that said, i made this whole thing a little bit louder than i usually go, again for a more modern sound, so hmmm and eh... idk.

8/10 ain't bad to me, considering this song is/was outside of my usually range, musically, vocally, technically, everything... the fact that start-to-finish it's 24 minutes (and btw it never really returns to any of these beat or rhythm structures, this section is designed to be stand-alone) and has (in full) i think 9 separate guitar solo sections, is ridiculous even to me, epic and just fun to play. the fact that i'm rapping in this part of the song is wwwwaaaaayyyy outside of my usual range, although i've talked on the records before...

i'm rambling...
thanks
and thanks in advance!

[+R]
PLAY IT LOUD ANYWAY
lol

[I Burn Bridges]

woah

Excellent! This doesn't sound very ska to me, but an EXCELLENT song. I'll be sure to check out your other stuff, and if it appeals to me I may purchase it. I can't hear any bass, but it doesn't bother me too much. Your singer has a great voice.

HyruleanHyroe responds:

Yeah, our earlier stuff like this wasn't overly ska-ish, though we've progressed since then. Glad you still like it though! The bass issue is due to some lack of mixing effort on the part of certain anonymous parties. I'll be sure to tell Brian you like his vox! ;D

[Razorback]

Like it!

I could do without the keyboards, but whatever.
the soloing was great, and with vocals, and more structure this could be something a lot bigger.

Skyler182 responds:

Thanks for your review, Dude. I appreaciate it.

[The Land Of The Night.....]

Its was good..

It doesnt have a lot of "replay value" its probably because there are no vocals, but idk some of the best songs are just instruments.

as for a grunge song..where's the anger?! GET MAD. RAWR.

the mainriff/melody was somewhat catchy, and i did like it. i also liked the acoustic backing with electric soloing.

keep it up and GET MAD.

Skyler182 responds:

Now thats some great advice, now my next Grunge song will be awesome. Thanks dude.

[On An -Ism]

Flu?

The vocals are pretty damn good for having the flu.

This song has an interesting feel to it. Its not a grunge epic, this song is nothing that sticks out (therefore it does stick out ;P). This one kinda feels like a Guns n Roses jam if they were Grunge. Its very guitar-centered, and I like the verses, but not so much the chorus.

I don't get where your going with "hard to be a saint in a prision cell"
maybe like its hard to not look like an asshole in a tough situation. or just hard to be wise in a hard situation.

oooh, i solved it yay.

The title of this song sucks, the singing is rather good way better than Saving Face Machine Acoustic and Dead Heroes. Guitar work sound pretty cool. Good song. I wouldn't suggest persuing this new style, but it is a way to open things up and not be redundant, I like it.

Gunshy responds:

i'm glad you like it.
i do like guns n roses. (except of course chinese democracy)
there's a double entendre in the title. the original title was, for the longest time, DAGFAD, from the chords employed in the verses (although here it's the whole thing tuned down to D, as usual). so let me know, which is better, this or "Dag Fad" as the title.
this song emanated out of a few different song ideas, and really all jellied together (for me anyway) after going to mayhem fest in philly and wanting to make some stuff that was more 'metal' in a grunge way. maybe it brings my brand of grunge a little bit back to its roots in a metal or glam metal way, or maybe it brings it forward in time into the nu-metal or post-grunge era? i don't know.
RE: "it's hard to be a saint," the title's double entendre belies the 'joke' of this line; but you got it well with your analysis 'hard to be wise in a hard situation,' but my meaning was more about a larger context, and usually is. it's about how i feel in the world, at large. it's hard to remain good and decent and honorable in a forced or forceful situation. different elements boxing you in, whether real or imagined, make it difficult for a person to keep their wits about them, in terms of staying sane, and being a good person. i try to be a good and decent person in the world, but the world seems to take so much stupid shit so seriously...
self reference alert: in "waiting to die" i refer to earth as "death row," and you can probably just continue that metaphor here. :) thanks for the real, critical review. awesome.

[As If]

Great Bummer Song

Its just another song of yours I'll turn to when I'm down. Why the fuck don't you have a label.

This is like a song, that you'd slam your door shut and start bangin out when you were pissed back in Junior High days.

Like it, keep it up sir.

Gunshy responds:

awesome. thanks. seriously, i know exactly what you're talking about, the door-slamming comment and such... exactly.
the 'why the fuck' question: workin on it, but i definitely gotta work harder.
thanks for the support!