Melodic Death Metal Demo song

[Axkoa]

I wrote this earlier today, only spent a couple hours on it, would sound a lot better if I had a mic and could sing...but anyway, as per usual, enjoy! If you have any tips I would be super grateful.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/axkoa/melodic-death-metal-demo[/soundcloud]

 

[Logrinn]

Sounds like early Black Sabbath imo :icon_thumright:

 

[Axkoa]

I did a little bit more work on it this morning, more just a filling out of the song. The main riff is sixteenth notes now instead of eighth notes. I added some piano and female choir as well as doing some more fine tuning of the guitar/drums/bass sounds. Extended the intro a bit. Pretty happy how it turned it.  :icon_thumright:

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/axkoa/melodic-death-metal-demo-version2[/soundcloud]

 

[Axkoa]

I think I've done making major changes to it for a while. Here is V3.

The riff at around 3:40 is probably one of the best riffs I've ever written...

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/axkoa/melodic-death-metal-v3[/soundcloud]

 

[zebra]

I like the female choir, but I think if you reigned it in a bit, and only introduced it towards the end of the song, it would be to better effect.  Have you considered adding a some extra guitar tracks?  I think a octave-up harmony part on that 3:40 riff would be great.

Something about lead vocal singing lyrics makes it easier to be lazy with arrangement.  It seems harder to arrange instrumental songs and keep them compelling.  I've been listening to a lot of instrumental music lately (Buckethead's 'Pikes' series, Paul Gilbert, Michael Landau, etc.), so it's something I've been thinking about.  Sitting down with pencil and paper and mapping out one's favorite songs is probably a great exercise (though I've never done it myself).     

 

[Axkoa]

Thanks for the tips Zebra. I tried out with the female choir and as well as the piano lead and it sounded a lot better doing it the way you suggested. It gives the full impact of that first riff. I also mucked around a bit with the riff at 3:40 and found something I like using octaves and stuff.

I know what you mean about arranging with vocals...I plan on putting vocals with this by the end of the year. Planning on getting a mic around my birthday. Fingers crossed!

 

[ThePhilosopher]

I really like the song, but the production is a bit unpolished and sounds a bit demo-ish, which isn't bad necessarily. I imagine the track would sound a lot like something off of Clayman if it were polished.

 

[Axkoa]

I really like the song, but the production is a bit unpolished and sounds a bit demo-ish, which isn't bad necessarily. I imagine the track would sound a lot like something off of Clayman if it were polished.

I know what you mean about production! It's very demo-ish. I literally have never done mixing or anything before so it's all new to me. I am also only using free and demo VSTs so...

 

[ThePhilosopher]

I feel like we've all been there before, and I'm not means an expert at engineering and mixing - though I know the difference it can make in the perception of a song. Keep it up, you'll get there (also keep the stems for when you improve at mixing/engineering - I wish I could revisit some of my old tracks without the need to fully reproduce them.)