[rock with metal elements] Illusion Of Innocence (stream & mp3 download)

[Mr.Eagle]

Hi everybody.

Today I would like to present to you a song with the title:

Illusion Of Innocence
(October 2010, 06:33)

I'm not really sure about the style, because there are some different sounding parts in this song: first there's an intro that comes along a bit "spherical". This is followed by a quite hard & metal-alike part with some (maybe too much) screaming guitar sounds. After that there comes a slower and more melodic part. And this part goes into the final (faster again) part which contains some elements of the intro.

I hope that you'll like this song...

Kind regards,
Mr.Eagle

[Saga Musix]

Nice stuff!

[Harbinger]

Notes as i'm listening:

Pink Floyd meets Judas Priest meets the Boston Pops. Good engineering, excellent levels and FX usage, and good timbral maneuvering. The bass and rhythmic parts are based on heavy metal, while the guitars are progressive rock, and the use of an orchestra brings out a grand nobility to the emotionalism and travel.

The song probably goes on about 2 minutes too long because there are no other movements or refrains, nor are there are any big key or instrument changes. So it seems to drag on without a natural development of the thematic material.

The chord progressions are considered but not very classical, and the layering in most places is good; but the song could use with some more sectionalization, perhaps some refrains with some virtuosic solos and a repression of the bass or drum lines. Thematic development means going thru your progressions in various styles or educated alterations. Think of Pachelbel's Canon when trying to figure out what to do with a beautiful theme. Even though he repeated the same chord sequence, each pass he added, took away, or reconfigured an instrument's part to turn a single, simple theme into a journey. Modern treatments of variations on a theme include breaking altogether into a new style of an already exposed theme, using different instrumentation entirely, or inserting a section which has nothing to do with the original idea but is somehow weaved in so the listener knows it's still the same song; but always reprising the original idea with a fresh look in the final pass. I'm not sure if you already understand these concepts but i'm noting them here in case other up-and-comers need some ideas on bringing out their musical ideas.

One other note: to better humanize and take them out of their "synth-box" purity, guitars should be very slightly off-tuned. When a guitarist plays a note (or especially a chord) on a guitar, it's rarely pure, because even if the fret is set perfectly, the pressure of the finger on the string will cause it to microtune by about a tenth of a semitone. Now when composing, you won't notice it. But when a microtuned guitar is combined with other instruments especialy synthesizers, it will sound a little more realistic. Adding a little vibrato also humanizes the timbre, and EG should almost always be humanized even if the listener knows it's out of a box. The modern American ear i think always expects the electric guitar to sound as if it's being played rather than assembled out of an algorithm or sample.

I do like the distortion FX and the reverb on the EG parts, however.

Very good work. Keeping!

[Mr.Eagle]

Thank you both for listening and the comments.

Pink Floyd meets Judas Priest meets the Boston Pops.

Well, this statement really made me smile...

...to better humanize and take them out of their "synth-box" purity, guitars should be very slightly off-tuned...

You're absolutely right. But right now I have no idea how I can implement something like this. I'll deal with it when (if) I get back to the music.
Again: thanks for the detailed analysis, Harbinger...