| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 9 |
| Interest | 9 |
| Melody | 9 |
| Performance | 9 |
| Lyrics | 0 |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
| Recording Quality | 8 |
| Commercial Appeal | 8 |
| Overall | 8.7 |
Next up is a track from Superhuman called "Hellucination" another hard rocking guitar instrumental. All this shreddage is doing wonders for my rock cred on the site so bring it on lol :) Looking at Dave's bio on his page, seems he is a self taught taught guitarist who plays by ear and plays everything on this track. I've noticed from previous tracks of his I have listened to he has a very god work ethic, he is quite happy to put out a track and change/improve it dependent on the comments he receives and seems quite prepared to take a bit of good advice wherever it may come from. Often this makes his tracks improve quite markedly over time, and achieve quite high rating and very healthy download figures. Also there seems to be a very appreciative audience for good balls out rock riffage on the site and his track more often than not hit the mark head on.
Preamble over, what do I think of the track. Well first you have to mention the very high standard Dave plays to, obviously this stuff is well practiced and fine tuned before recording but the speed and dexterity of the runs is impressive by any standard. All this would be irrelevant if the run where just aimless noodling up and and down the fretboard, but you will be relieved to hear he also has a very strong ear for melody. There is a definite theme at work here, so although there are are fast runs, there is a definite melody going on which is both musical and hooky. I aslo like the tone used for the lead guitar lines, they cut through the mix but they are not shrill and again the eye is always on the melody :) There some excellent fast rhythm guitar work as well, it's fast and furious but again distinct and beds the song, same for the bass, occasionally with Dave's tracks I've had a slight issue with bass definition but the bass guitar on this I can hear very well and is well played. Arrangement wise the song is very well done, the builds are nicely done, there is some tension in some of the solos, some great drum v's guitar fills, very solid, and best of all track is very tight length wise, gives you just enough. leaves you wanting more, and a concise ending as well. No complaints about the structure, very nice work there, sounds like the song has been very well planned and refined.
So it's a bit of love-fest so far, so where's the catch lol, have to have a moan about something don't I lol :) My only issue with the track is the drums. Now I guess from the song info you are using some kind on drum program which actually makes it pretty easy to fix, I really hate the kick drum sample you have used lol and too a lesser extent the snare sample. I am just not getting the kick at all in the mix, I can hear if fine when there is some double pedal action, but for the main part of the song, it's just cutting through enough. The song has lots of propulsion dues to the guitars and snare, but think it need a bit of a boost on the old bass drum kick. Also think tghe snare is very slightly too highly tuned so sounds a bit brittle to me, perhaps a slightly more meaty snare sample tuned slightly lower would make it pop. I know rock mixing is probably the hardest thing in the world to do properly, all those guitar harmonics must play havoc with the settings, but an extra smidgeon of effort on the drum track might just turn a great track into a fantastic track :) I have no problems with the actual drum programming by the way, the actual patterns were very cool, good fils, runs etc, just the kick and drum samples and the mixing of them :) So to summarise, Dave is a fabulous guitarist, one of the best on the site quite easily, and the track is a very cool, superbly played piece of instrumental rock goodness. Actually it has a fair bit of commercial appeal as well, don't think the lack of vocals hurts it at all.
To listen to the track Click Here