| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 9 |
| Interest | 9 |
| Melody | 8 |
| Performance | 8 |
| Lyrics | 8 |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
| Recording Quality | 9 |
| Commercial Appeal | 8 |
| Overall | 8.5 |
Hey again to everybody. This time around I’m going to be delving into some metal.
The name of the group is Ditheramb, and I’m going to cover a tune titled “In My Shadow”.
Let me first say that I encountered this band and its spokesman, Steve, about a year or so ago. I thought at the time, the band had potential, but needed some work in the production department, plus a little bit of polish. What a difference some time makes!
From a production standpoint, this sounds like a totally different band. They weren’t bad before, they just sound THAT MUCH BETTER. The overall mix is top notch with a good separation of instruments and sounds. The song has a lot of clarity and definition, and a very nice stereo spread. The drums, which are always hard to eq, sound very natural and big. Good job. The guitars, when distorted, are appropriately angry sounding, I mean, come on, it’s METAL. But they still have good separation of notes, so the chords don’t sound mushy like a lot of metal I hear. The clean guitar in the break in the middle of the songs has a nice, rich tone. So many times, electric guitars played cleanly and acoustics can sound thin. Not here. Nice and full. The bass seemed to get lost sometimes, and I think it had a lot to do with the eq on the bass itself. I don’t know this, but the guitars sounded like they were in a dropped tuning, and when they delved down into the bass register they won the battle with the bass. That’s a minor fix. The vocals are good, and I like the doubling. It beefs them up nicely. I felt at points the vocals were flat, which could be forgiven if the song was more raw; but with something this well produced it hit me more than I think it normally would. I think they also could be brought forward more in the mix. I lost a lot of the lyrics. But the singer ( I think it’s Steve) has a powerful voice with a nice tone to it. I like the use of effects on the vocals near the end of the tune. I like the use of effects in the song also. It’s a nice change of pace. The strings are nice, and the interruption at the end caught me off guard. I like that. Everything works together to create an atmosphere, rather than as the effect of the week thrown in. Well done.
Now, the song itself. I think it’s great. I love the intro, the riff, the contrast in dynamics. The song has great structure. It has great choruses and bridges that aren’t just repeats of the verses. They actually take the song in a different direction! BRAVO! This song has Power. It does this, however, without sacrificing interesting chord changes and frankly, some really pretty (I know you’re not supposed to use that word in metal-I don’t care) melodies that are quite haunting. And one last thing…this band is tight! Great timing and dead-on on the accents. This song has POWER...did I already mention that. I might do it again. Pretty darn professional sounding. Great job. I like it alot.
To listen to the track Click Here