Ok, for the new people who don't know me here's how I review. I pay little attention to the technical side of things cause I'm not a musician. I actually know next to nothing about music. But I listen, and I try to tell people what I liked or didn't like. So there won't be any ranking of the various parts of the song...I just rank based on how much I enjoyed listening to the song. That is of course if you all met the challenge...and in this case you did.
Reviewing this round took more time than usual. The topic of this rounds challenge isn't something I'm well versed in, so I did read up on all the characters you selected for your songs. Don't be surprised if I have everyone write a song about dodgeball in the future. I know a lot more about dodgeball...
Edric Haleen - Is That Too Much To Ask? (An appeal To The American People)
I normally burn a CD of my favorite Christmas music every year. This is going on my 2016 CD...not sure if you’ll like that or not. The only thing I didn’t like was the aggressive “WAR” at the end. The sudden change in tone may have made the point you were trying to make, but at the same time it shocked me from my happy place.
Glen Raphael - Elisha The Prophet
As a former teacher, the topic of 42 children getting mauled by bears just hits the sweet spot for me. I never really noticed the no chorus part of the song, so you did a good job of keeping it catchy despite the challenge. Again, I didn’t care for the ending of the song. Just didn’t flow like I felt the rest of the song did.
Emperor Gum - Pyramus
The music is creepy as hell, and I loved that. The lyrics were interesting at times, then too Yoda like for my taste at other times. Vocally it’s also hit & miss. Sometimes you manage to salvage a verse or 2, but then one gets muddled enough to kinda take you out of the moment. Overall I liked the song, one of your better ones. But I think it could be better, and the easiest way to improve it is to get a guest vocalist.
Jailhouse Payback - The Story Of Xenu And The Revolt In The Stars
That’s one crazy ass story...but it sounds purdy. Only issue I have is that if someone doesn’t wiki this backstory, they’re sure as hell going to be confused as fuck as a listener. Unless you’re into Scientology….so small audience.
Megalodon - Cassandra
Don’t really have anything bad to say here. I liked how you went most of the song without specifically mentioning Cassandra or Apollo. Makes it more relatable, while clearly meeting the challenge. Like I said, no negatives, but I might have even left out the direct mention in the last verse. That’s really nitpicking though…
Ross Durand - Sympathy For Hades
Your style kinda lends itself to good storytelling, so I think this probably helped you get into the backstory of your topic. The vocal performance was solid, and a little evil which may bump you up over a few people since there haven’t been any weak songs so far.
Rob From Amersfoort - Pygmalion & Galatea
I didn’t really find anything all that interesting about this track. The music was too repetitive, the lyrics not all that creative, and at the end you held the last note for 10 seconds seemingly just to meet the 2 minute minimum. I think this round was too strong for this song to stand much of a chance. I’m far from an expert on the topic, but it seems you read some things into the story that may contradict what the actual link you gave us said about Pygmalion.
Governing Dynamics - Wax Wings
I thought I was going to finish all these reviews tonight, but that song took a while. KIDDING! I enjoyed the entire thing. While your vocals aren’t always great, they get the job done without being distracting. Musically it was my favorite song you’ve done in awhile. Not that you haven’t done songs recently that I liked, but I just enjoyed this one THAT much. Especially when he’s falling into the sea & the music picks up to “I’m a badass” level.
Mark Humble - Waiting For Persephone
What’s going to drop you in my rankings some is just my personal taste. I’m inclined to like upbeat songs more so than slower soothing songs like this. This is pretty much a lullaby to me. It’s beautiful...the music...the vocals...all great. Meets the challenge, but it’s just not something I would listen to much.
James Young - Unbound
Music was solid all the way through, but I did get a little bored with the pace until the 3rd verse came around & it picked up. Same with the vocals, I really enjoyed them once the tone became more aggressive. I thought this had a stronger ending than most this round. It actually felt like it should be ending when it did, and left me feeling content with how you left things.
Ominous Ride - Sisyphus
Another which I have nothing bad to say...so I’m going to nitpick again. Ok, I liked how you turned the lyrics into dialogue, but you need to get some guest vocalist for the different characters if you’re going to do that. That way someone not looking at the lyrics sheet will pick up on it instantly. Given the nature of this contest you may not have had that much time, but if you work on this song later on...that’s my 1 suggestion.
Jeff Brown - Orion (Shadow)
As I mentioned to Mark above, my personal taste would drop you a little in the rankings simply because this is way to slow for me. Lyrically it’s not very dense, and the song last for nearly 6 minutes. Being that long it was also a bit too repetitive to hold my interest all the way through. What I did like was your voice & performance. Glad you decided to shadow! A lot of new competitors don’t really do that their first time around!
