------ ---------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | .......METALSCENE CENTRAL PRESENTS........ | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- ------ _______ ______ _____ _____ ___ ___ |\ ___ \ ___ \ | __ | | __ \ | __ \ / _ \ | | | \ | | | |__) / | |_\| | | \ \ | |_) ) | |_| | | | | \| | | __ < | / | | | | | __ < | ___ | | | | | | | \ \ | |_/| | |_/ / | | \ \ | | | | | | | |\ | | | /_/ |____| |____/ |_| /_/ |_| |_| |_/ |_| | | | / \ | |/ \| Issue 07/2000 http://metalscene.tsx.org galahad@netppl.fi / gregjesko@clds.net / rickhal@videotron.ca Contents: ------------ * Irc Quote of the Month * Quick News * Altered Perception closing * RED Music Disk: Spiritual Annihilation * MFK Fake * DirectX 8 * Interview - Confederates * Song Reviews - Singles - Disks * Article(s) - Scenester: Napster for the Scene - Art of Sampling: Part One * The Whatnot * Random Writings ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IRC QUOTE OF THE MONTH ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Old one since nothing really funny happened. yeah i threw up yesterday...got the puke in my mouth on my way to the bathroom, so I had to swallow it down cool not realy cuz I just wasted some money on a real disgusting shot so what did he gave? I dunno...it tasted like shit anyway dont wanna know what the fuck that was ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUICK NEWS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * UNITED TRACKERS STAFF United Trackers are looking for staff members. If you follow the music and demoscene in general and are interested, take a look at their site. http://www.united-trackers.org * SSS URL Sonic Speed Slayers have been moved to new place. URL to their site is http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~foophge * DESCENTANTS OF THUNDER Thunder Gods have released their first music disk. RR 8/00 will have lot of Thunder Gods stuff in it including interview and review. * FT3 URL Fast Tracker 3 has a new home (same page - new url) at http://www.fast3.org * KUUNVARJO TODAY The legendary Goatleader Kuunvarjo is still making music. It's more like some kind of industrial/gothic. If you're interested, visit these sites: TMM: http://tmakela.cjb.net Funeral Entertainment: http://funement.cjb.net * DESCENTANTS OF THUNDER First Thunder Gods music disk is finally out. Interview and review in the next issue. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ALTERED PERCEPTION CLOSING ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MOD distributing archive Altered Perception is forced to close down. Here is the mail that was sent to users: "Due to financial constraints, Altered Perception will be closing soon. All files that are currently on the archive will be moved to the ModArchive. I thank you for the years you have been with AP. You are what makes AP what it is today. Filecount.pl will be redirecting all file downloads to the mod archive so most of your links should be ok... no guarantees though :P Perhaps in years to come you will see APII, my true vision." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SPIRITUAL ANNIHILATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------- REGAL EMBRYO DISMEMBERMENT PRESENTS S P I R I T U A L A N N I H I L A T I O N m u s i c d i s k Everybody's invited to make tune or two for it. Tracking deadline: 31.12.2000 More info at http://metalscene.tsx.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MFK - FAKE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A while ago new revolutionary new MP3 compressed format that reduces the size of MP3 file to 1/3 was introduced. It's a fake. MFK: a big fake Eggbird of traxer was wondering wether this mfk thing was genuine, a big hack or an amazing compression technique. We searched together on the net, and found the explanation of this fake compressor on usenet: The "compressor" is fake. I knew something was strange when I tried it because it's mathematically impossible to compress an MP3 to 1/3 of it's size losslessly. After messing around with stuff, what the program does is place a copy of the "compressed" files to your c:\windows\system\ logfiles folder. So when you play back the .mfk file, it's just playing back the file placed in your windows folder. (By the way the files it copies to your windows folder have the .nq4 extension) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DIRECTX 8.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft has announced that their DirectX system has been upgraded to version 8.0. "This latest version of DirectX offers updated graphics, faster frame rates, and support for massively multiplayer games. It also offers more immersive audio when running and displaying programs rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3-D animation, and surround sound. If you had an earlier version of DirectX installed on your system, you will see little difference in available space on your hard drive following the installation. DirectX 8.0 will overwrite any earlier versions." - Microsoft Web Site DirectX 8.0 is available for Windows 95, 98 (and 98 SE), ME and 2000. You can download the install file from their web site. URL: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/default.asp ----------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW WITH CONFEDERATES ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Group interview. Confederates members are currently Desperado and Necromancer. Which one of you got the idea of founding a group? Both of us... i think Tell how you actually got together. The whole dirty story of the birth of Confederates. Well, the biggest thing is that we live at the same town. And we have been good friends quite long time. Are you going to stay as two men project or are you going to get more members? That is question of the time. I think that some day, we will get JPK to our members. If he wants to... And some other finnish people too... right despe? Ah.. is there a music disk coming at some point? We have so many projects that we dont know... we have about 5 different projects but maybe we finish only 2 or 1 What is the most general style Confederates do? Desperado make usually something melodic but i like more some trash/heavy/death. We try to be open to all kind of music, but I think that thrash and heavy are the popular ones yeah... We dont track black metal...never! And yes I'm the guy, who try to make so "happier" melodical stuff... Do you have favorite groups on metal scene? I dont have any favourite but thundergods would be good... i havent heard any mod of them my favorite group is "moonstorm" Could you tell me where comes the name "Confederates"? :) from dictionary :) heh :) :) Favorite trackers? Malekith, Betrayer, Icelizard... Cadaver, Manninen, Einherjar, Razor, Skarf(where he is) and Malekith and Betrayer... of course Alright, what equipment you use to make samples or do you use ripped ones? We dont make own samples because we dont play nothing... we use ripped ones. 'cause I'm criminal, I rip all my samples. Damn, I'm dirty... heh...me too :) :) Any special future plans for Confederates? We try to break up, as soon as possible :) Better homepages... some new member, new mods and disks... What do you think is the most important thing to create a good metalmod? You have to make that kind of music what do you like. When i track, i wanna be very agressive, then i do my best mods. How did you guys find tracked metal scene? One of my friends told Url to me... or i found it from cadavers page... i dont remember I have been always wondering that think, actually I don't remember anything about that. Everything happened so fast... How did you find Cadaver's page then? :) i dont remember... :) Maybe i found it with some machine or my friend told it to me... How's the group situation of this scene? Should there be more of them? Quite bad, i think that allmost every group is dead... more trackers and more groups now its great because Confederates is founded... hehe :) Yeah right :) I don't want have more groups, I just want that those groups which already are there would rise from the death I agree Well, we are almost finished with this. What's yer favorite drink? Olvi CXX 12 pack Beer... if you dont like beer, then you arent really Finnish... Olvi Cxx 24 pack :) heh...cool :) Thanks for the interview dudes. thanks goes to you... Pleasure was mine Confederates web site: http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~confes/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SONG REVIEWS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Singles : --------- Crow & Cadaver - Do What You Please Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 8.5/10 ----- Oh this starts a lot like THE EVIL THAT MEN DO, it's the same sample pack even to my ears. :) Still, what we have here is a solid slow metal ballad, with some very intense vocals from Cadaver. He really seems to do it from the heart on this one. Crow has done a great job of cloning Cadaver's style of modtracking, but his composition brings up some elements very personal to him. A very nice tune. ----- URL: http://personal.inet.fi/koti/matti.ahola/mods/dwyp.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Axeslash - Graveyard Of Bones Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 5.5/10 ----- A very old school goatlike tune in my opinion. Everything is pretty lo-fi, like this style prescribes, and vocals very gruesome and cavernous. Bassdrum work is the strongest element, the rest is kind of a blur, except that the vocals stand out efficiently and the solo is impressive. The most downing aspect is lack of originality. ----- URL: ftp://194.236.28.166/AxeSlash/axe-bone.rar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dark Shadow - Automn Wind Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 7/10 ----- This is a new guy on the Scene, correct me if i'm wrong. His song is the first i hear by him and i think it's pretty strong, style is apparent with some Megadeth, IF, and old-Metallica all mixed up in a melting pot. Some of the guitars samples are stretched and some lead guitars are a bit too 'tremoloed', but overall, this aspect is ok. Drumming work is rock solid though, very intense. The finale is a bit drastic. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/Download.asp?SongID=41163 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ansgaros - Oodi Pocemoneille Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 4/10 ----- This is closer to the concept of the show than the crappy lollipopish music they chose for the Pok‚mons. Gotta catch em all, i mean, this brings war and trading in the elementary schools' recreation areas all around the World. Imagine an 8 year old kid, with Pok‚mons, a knife, and an Attitude roughing up a poor skinny, fragile 6 year old, trying to steal his Pok‚mon from him. I think this music is dead accurate, in terms of discerning the right atmosphere :)... ----- URL: http://members.nbci.com/ansgaros/pokeoodi.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ur - Pestilent Dream Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 5/10 ----- Ur borrows Ari's guitars in this song, and some of Morfeus' samples among others. The guitars are used very much like Ari himself would have done himself, so Ur did a good job with them. The song has keyboards and one very evil yell near the end, but it has no purpose at all, only a good eerie atmosphere. It could almost be an intro or outro to something else. The tracking and all the technical elements are executed very professionnally, but i fail to see this as anything else than a good tracking exercise. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43903 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RigQ - Fallen Angel Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 7.5/10 ----- We rarely see this guy in the Events, but he pulls off a pretty decent song with classical piano elements and good lead melodies. Betrayer's rhythm samples are used once again, but they accompany the song, not dictating it. They sound good, and are not used too much like IF, this sounds more like a Scorpions ballad, with classical elements as previously stated. Well, ok, it's heavier than Scorpions, i just wanted to make a point. :) ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43816 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mephisto - Popehunter Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6/10 ----- First of all, how hard is it to chase a Pope? And if you ever go to Vatican and meet the Pope, how the hell does an old and crippled 80 year old shadow of a man run away fast enough to be Hunted? And who the hell cares about a poor old Pope, he's been senile for years anyway....... Oops, sorry, i got carried away there. The song itself doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Pope, probably Mephisto didn't have any idea what to name it. The song is some slow, heavy thing, with sandpaperey guitar, very crunchy, low in volume and all. Drums are impressive and overall sound ok, maybe you have to raise the volume a little bit to give it justice. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43354 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NordavinD - Death v.2 Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 7/10 ----- This is a very good IF style song, a style overdone on the Scene, but still well done with good vocals from Cadaver. This was posted later on the board than it's original date of release. It does deserve a good review. I think the middle slow bit is the best part. Drum arrangements are very realistic, so's the bass samples... A good song. ----- URL: http://www.crosswinds.net/~nordavind/death.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soul Saver - Wings Of Sadness Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 7/10 ----- A short song, with wind effects and lo-fi thunder at the beginning. Good arrangements with the clean guit and choir, but the choir is a bit too lo-fi. The bassdrum and very soft rhythm dist kick, to make for a good ambient kind of dark interlude. Pretty enjoyable. Short but sweeeet. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43567 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeaqar & Soul Saver - Dark Lord Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 5/10 ----- A short bugger of a track, with really evil vocals by Soul Saver, and music similar to some stuff from the Goats, very lo-fi BM with nothing really great about it. The soft middle part is the best element in the song and some of the lead melodies are enjoyable, but the mix lacks a lot, we can't distinct instruments too well at first, and everything is a bit strectched and cacophonic. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=44286 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morfeus - Satyriasis Format: MO3 Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 10/10 ----- Very intriguing stuff from Morfeus. This is not metal, as stated by Morfeus himself. This sounds to me like a solid movie theme, or music from a videogame. The sound is so realistic it's almost impossible to believe it's actually tracked. Morfeus is becoming one of my favorite trackers, and he's also very mysterious with his music, and his webpage, and his song titles. He seems to be very well researched. This is the first perfect note i give to a module, at least during the time i've been on MC staff, but this piece more than deserves it. Listen to this now!! ----- URL: http://www.gowingo.com/web/Morghlith/Satyrias.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Axeslash - R.I.P.P.E.R. Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6/10 ----- Finally, after a long wait, this song is reviewed in RR. It's a killer riff, a speedy song reminescent of some Kill 'em all style type of thing. The overall sound is pretty good, so are the drums samples and guitars, but maybe a bit too trebbly. The main problem of the song is the seemingly absent bass guitar. It's there, but it's masked by the bass drum. No new ideas in the song either, but it differs from the lot of this month, so that makes it interesting. ----- URL: http://io.spaceports.com/~axeslash/axe-ripp.rar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frozen Eyes - Where Worlds Collide Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 4/10 ----- Nice original song, with vocals, but the sound is just unbearable, the samples are similar to those on the scene, but they seem muffled like on purpose. It's sad, because it kills the whole thing. The vocals seem classy, in the fact that they seem well sung, but the quality sucks big time. Of course, if the filesize was lower, i could understand, but here we have a 2Mb file and shitty quality. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=41716 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nightkill - Leatherpantmetal Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 7/10 ----- Harpsi with horror effects and a woman's scream start this song, which at first comes up like a Cadaver Dr. Faustus type song, or like Dieheart's farewell EP (a very short farewell :). The song samples are good and well used, and the slow part with the flute is very contrast to the rest of the piece. Orchestration is well done, stereophony is pretty balanced. But this is a style that is losing its originality, because many people seem to be doing harpsi songs just for the heck of doing one. Still a very well done track. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/Download.asp?SongID=40957 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jaeqar - Raped Ukko Nooa (Finnish children's song) Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 4/10 ----- Ok. Under a minute of raping a children's song. Two well placed yells, a good sound, and you've got under a minute of joke mod. Good work. Now do us a real song, thanks. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/Download.asp?SongID=44347 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buried - Kings Of Metal (Manowar cover) Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6/10 ----- Interesting cover, a bit shy like the author said, but some promising vocals. The sound quality and the guitars are not too great, though the solo is ok. Overall, this is not very loud. 'DON'T TRY TO TELL US WE'RE TOO LOUD, CAUSE THERE AIN'T NO WAY WE'LL EVER TURN DOWN', let's hope not, because we won't hear you :). Anyway, this shows promise, but work on the sound. ----- URL: http://www.geocities.com/ephel.duath/manowar.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Khali - Moon's Silvery Path Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 7/10 ----- Classical interlude by Khali, this is soft and melancholic, and nicely done. None metal though, and as a stand-alone piece, even though good, it has no purpose. Maybe you should have kept it for a disk or ep or something, instead of pushing it off the nest like that. The poor little birdie hasn't even finished growing his fluffy feathers yet... ----- URL: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~khali/Mspath.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pekka Kivari - Pohjola Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6.5/10 ----- Lovely little soft songie by this dude, with nice arrangements. This curiously has some almost absent guitars, and bass sound. Still, it manages to sound ok. It's like a philharmonic orchestra, with a drummer and guitarist, all recorded in an empty concert hall. It could stand great as webpages BG music, not too loud so you can read without being blasted, but as a stand-alone mod, no. It needs company. ----- URL: http://www.sunpoint.net/~peke5/Pohjola.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dark Shadow - Lost Control Format: XM Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6.5/10 ----- Don't want to contradict the author, but he seems to keep control rather than losing it. That is true in mastering to correct way to duplicate the Betrayer/ In Flames/IceLizard style. But like it was said on the board, something is missing. I believe originality is that something. Nice piece of tracking, no doubt there...... ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/Download.asp?SongID=44497 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jaeqar - Furity Of Life Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6/10 ----- Here comes a real song from Jaeqar this time. I must point out that Furity is not an existing word, at least not in my dictionary, but i know what you mean. This is an average song, with average samples, and poor drumming, but it has cool elements, like the ride cym and the piano elements. An interesting composition, but nothing out of the ordinary. The initial pounding heavy riff is good, the rest is ok. At least it lasts more than one minute. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile-show.asp?SongID=44519 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confederates - Massive Conflict Format: IT Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 8/10 ----- Woe.....!!!! Geez, very intense shit, nice thrashing material. Drums are mechanical a bit, but they kick ass, and what's that 11 minute trip if it's not totally insane, for this style?? Imagine how tiring it must be for musicians to play this from beginning to end? At least there are some slower parts, but not a lot. It takes some guts to release this kind of piece i think, especially that even for the fact that it has no vocals and is very long, it has enough variation for it to be none repetitive. I'm impressed by the work behind this track. I read the text, and even 10 parts are stated, they are one. Of course, last RR there were two disks that stood in a single Mod, so maybe you could put this in disks, but since the artist is unsure whether this is a disk or not, we'll assume it's not. Aaahhh, what a load of crap.! ----- URL: http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~confes/Massive.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Axeslash - Justicide (Part two of Corpse-tribute) Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 8.5/10 ----- I haven't heard the original version of this song made by Corpse, but after hearing this tribute...i think i've got to go and download the real version. The samples are great and Axeslash had written into the comments that they are Corpses own. This is a really well tracked Death Metal, but it would of been even better if he would of keeped the orchestral parts alive with the Death Metal parts, 'cause then you could really call this Orchestral Death Metal! ----- URL: ftp://194.236.28.166/AxeSlash/axe-tfmt.rar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aeuk - Eyes Of The Apocalypse Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 8/10 ----- Again a cover that is hard to review, because i haven't ever heard this band's (i think it's Autopsy's) songs, so i've just got to review it as a normal mod song! This song really worked for me because i really did get a feeling of a apocalypse when i listened to this. The samples are very dark and hes really used them brilliantly to make this "dark" feeling. Still something is missing, but what? ----- URL: http://members.xoom.com/tombmaiden/aeuk-mc1.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mannikko - Blood Lust Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 3.5/10 ----- To be simple: I didn't like this song. It sounds that the tracker has just hammered the keyboard while doing this. The only things that look like he has planned what he is doing are the drums. The style is just too simple and the only samples are guitars and drums. The samples are OK, but he just hasn't used them the right way. If you want to hear something different and more professional...don't take this song. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=44087 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crow - Nocturnal Dreams Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 7/10 ----- We've got some really nice slow metal here! Crow has used again his own guitars in this one and they sound a lot like the ones in Forest of Elves, but a lot slower. But the repeativity really ruins the good guitar samples, 'cause they go on and on and on! I heard some lyrics in there, but they aren't that goos (it's sounds more like a bass guitar). Still this is a nice piece, but TOO DAMN REPEATIVE!!! ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile-show.asp?SongID=43768 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pingo - Defender Reviewer: ARAGORN Score:6.5/10 ----- This is the first song i have ever heard from Pingo and it's OK. I really liked the start with the cool sounding acoustiv guitar. After that acoustic intro comes a solo and it was nice, but i still didn't like that lead guitar sample! The song hasn't got anything new to it's genre, but it's not too repeative either so it's a good song, but think twise before downloading!!! ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43797 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LabRat - Western Desperado Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 8.5/10 ----- OH RIGHT...THIS IS COOL! I think that LabRat has invented a style of his own: Western Trash Metal. Well actually no...he hasn't! This song really reminds of Pantera's Cowboys from Hell and some other Pantera songs. The samples in this one are really cool and the western stylish bass guitar in the start really gave a cool cowboy feeling! ----- URL: http://members.nbci.com/metallabrat/lr-weste.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Duskfall - Pain Is My Victory Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 6/10 ----- You just can't listen to a guitar that gives you a feeling of some Korn's songs over 3 minutes. This is just too repeative song. Why couldn't Duskfall make somekind of solo for this song!? The samples are fine and i liked the lead guitar sample that goes on for 3 minutes. The drums were tracked nicely and the rythm guitar really did sound great. Nicely tracked piece of music but...TOO REPETITIVE! ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43767 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confederates - Who? Reviewer: ARAGORN Score: 5/10 ----- This song is mayby 65% of Punk Rock and 35% of Metal. The song didn't really get to me, 'cause im not sure that is it depressive or what? The samples are pretty standart samples. The song isn't that well tracked and it sounds that it has been done in a few hours. The lead guitar parts aren't that well tracked and they sound like you've heard then a thousand times before. The whole song is just that same old same old that you hear all the time! ----- URL: http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~confes/who.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forest of Elves - Crow & Cadaver Reviewer: ARAGORN (Score 9.9/10) & DAOLOTH (Score 5/10) Average Score: 7.45/10 ----- ARAGORN: As a HUGE fan of Epic Power Metal i can say: This is unbeliavably awesome song! This is the best MOD that i have heard in a long, long time. From the start to the end of the song i have this big smile on my face. The guitar samples are just great and crow has done a good work when he has made them fit to the singing of Cadaver. And a usually Cadaver has made a brilliant work with the singing in this song. I could listen to this song over and over and sing with the song! The solo is truelly fantastic and it really fits to the songs theme. The lyrics, samples, tracking, solo, drums, vocals, ALL is FANTASTIC and almost perfect! :) ----- DAOLOTH: Fantasy powermetal with Cadaver's vocals. If you've heard any power metal before, you'll know what this sounds like. The riffs aren't too good, pretty standard, and the harpsichord and drumming sound as expected. The solo is very good, though, and I can't complain about the samples. It sounds like it should. Cadaver's singing is not as good as in previous songs, though. I don't know, I may be a little tired of hearing his powermetal vox. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile-show.asp?SongID=40650 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Axeslash - Breakdown Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 5.5/10 ----- Melodic death metal is the description given by the author of the song, and I think I'll stick with that also. Mind you, not "melo-death as in In Flames", this one's more to the death department with just a few melodic spices here and there. With that part out of the way, to the actual song: very nice really, the song "works", and that's the most important thing I guess. Quite a realistic feel in this piece, could be mistaken (well, almost) for a garage recording. Except for the solos, which are well executed and sound a bit too good for a "tape recorder in the middle of the room and jam"-session. There's some weird bass frequency in one or more of the samples, which caused my otherwise perfectly performing sound system to rattle and hum like crazy. Don't know if it's just my problem or not, so I really can't say if this should affect the score;-) Leaving that aside, samples are good, perhaps guitars could be bit more upfront, but it's good as is, too. Again, vocals would be nice, and a decent ending. I'm such a biatch that I'm gonna take a point off the score just for that goddamn fadeout ending, and I can't think of much anything else to diss. ----- URL: ftp://194.236.28.166/AxeSlash/axe-brek.rar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Shade - Flying Like A Snowflake Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 8/10 ----- Yes! Now this really kicks some major arse from beginning to end. Nothing really unheard of before or too innovative or complicated, just straightforward death with attitude. Yeah, the comments say "black tune", but imho this is definitely more death. Guitars and vocals are by Blue Shade himself, and fit the song damn near perfectly. Especially the vocals score originality points, they're sort of like speech and whispers with lots of echo. Creates a really good atmosphere combined with the guitars, sort of like a contrast between brutality and frailty. However there are some flaws in the volume of the vocals, especially the title phrase "Flying like a snowflake" is barely audible. Dynamics is something I might have liked to have a bit more, but this song doesn't really need 'em. Too much fancy-prancy widdly-dee just might ruin the attitude, so the four or five riffs in the song are enough, since the basic themes vary (thank god or satan). Around the middle of the tune there's a little breach of style, though: a keyboard run. Guess that's about the only "black" element present. Anyhow, I like this one a lot, though I'm sure it would be boring as hell without the vocals. Luckily the vocals are there, so this is a definite recommended download. BTW, the "uah!" in the end is excellent! ----- URL: http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~blueshad/Snow.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ansgaros - NESmerized Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 4.5/10 ----- First of all I'm gonna shock the living piss out of you: I actually know what a NES is;-) So here we have a medley of seven tunes, all from various NES games like Bionic Commando and Ikari Warriors for instance. However, the medley doesn't attempt to emulate the nintendo beepy boopy sound, but is done with actual listenable samples:-) I have to confess that I have absolutely no idea how the original tunes sound, so comparison is pretty impossible to make. All I can say is that with these sounds and arrangements the old NES songs actually sound pretty good. I can't really tell where one tune ends and the next begins, but that's a good thing I guess... even though Ansgaros says he hasn't bothered with any transitions between the songs. Works anyway. I really dunno what more to say. They're NES tunes, so if you're into them, you'll find this amusing. Also, you might wanna listen to this just for the tracking, which is excellent. But I really doubt that this will find a permanent place on anybody's playlist. In through one ear, out through the rear. And god oh god YESSSSS, with a fadeout...>:-] ----- URL: http://members.nbci.com/ansgaros/nesmeriz.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RigQ - The Giana Sisters Go Metal Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 2.5/10 ----- After consulting my roommate I found out that Giana Sisters was apparently some ancient game on the C64 that I've never even heard of and I doubt I've missed much. I'll assume this tune is yet another metalized version of game music, thankfully this one lasts only 2:29 minutes. What can I say? The melody is boring, the drumming is boring, the guitar sample does a few hellish stretches here and there, the tune is pretty much the same all the way through... get the picture? Well at least the samples are mostly ok, as is the tracking. Tracking, not composing, mind you. The credits DO mention that this was done just for fun and I shouldn't expect too much... well, they're right;-) If you've just gotta get a new gamemusic mod, I recommend opting for the aforementioned NESmerized by Ansgaros. Again, this is really hard for me to rate since I have no clue about the original song. Presuming there is one, that is;-) So I'll just go with my feel, which is pretty much that this blows goats. Sorry. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile-show.asp?SongID=44077 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sahaj Maituna - CRiSiZ Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 6/10 ----- Melodic metal with influences from the usual, just power metal, In Flames, and the like. Reminds me a bit of something, but I think that "something" is a load of other mods released in the near past. This song utilizes some classical instruments among the traditional guitars, drums and bass; for instance strings and harpsichord. Not so long ago I just talked with Dragon about the fact that lots of songs use harpsichord nowadays... at first I liked it, now I'm starting to hate it. Anyway, those classical instruments plus the keyboards are what I like most in this song. Dynamics are present, lots of variation and different riffs, but in some miraculous way this still manages to sound quite the same throughout the song. I think it's because the variations are done by changing riffs and instruments, but not the tonality or tempo. All in all, a very nice tune, sounds are good and so is the tracking. Well, the lead guitar is a bit annoying at times, but generally everything's AOK. All this song needs is that little something to give it the oomph it needs, perhaps vocals would've once again been the solution. In this form, the song is nice, but just nice, not great. Doesn't really stick to your head. Oh, and guess how this one ends... yep, it fades out just like that one point from the score. Gotta flex the dictatorial power while you have it;-) If you have no problem with fadeouts, just imagine the score a bit higher, mmkay? ----- URL: http://members.nbci.com/potrancksz/files/crisiz.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warlord - Dismal Moments Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 4/10 ----- A very piano-based gothic metal tune. The piano runs through the whole song, changing patterns, but remaining pretty much the same still. As does the whole song, actually... this one could definitely use some more variation in the form of, let's say, RIFFS... (the guitars are just power chords) Dismal Moments has a quite nice atmosphere, the piano flows around over the song beautifully. Guitars, albeit being only chords, are heavy and slam a nice contrast against the sweet piano. Drums are the problem here, they sound like the drumset is placed in a swimming pool under water, really muffled. I'm such a keyboard and melody freak that I like this piece, even though it is rather repetitive and not too imaginative. Feels like just about every tune I review gets the same comment, "vocals would've been nice", and that applies here too. Just see above, Blue Shade's tune: nothing too special, but with vocals, so immediately it's more enjoyable and gets a higher score. Overall, the piano runs hit the spot for me, otherwise nothing too special. Download if you like pianos and/or gothic-like melodic stuff. ----- URL: http://www.nettilinja.fi/~jaakkola/W_dismal.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soul Saver - Holy Sight In The Sky Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 5/10 ----- One of the more active contributing vocalist's in MC here with a tune of his own... which of course means that this one has a complete vocal line. Usually this would be a good thing, but but but... the vocals are way too loud, and the style isn't really to my liking either, being rather low growls. At the end of the tune there is a short speech part though, which I like. Nice pompous sound in the voice there. The music itself doesn't really grab any attention, since the vocals are so loud and the instruments sort of just jam around in the background. Generally nothing hurts my ears in that department, so I guess it's ok. On the other hand, nothing really sticks out as being excellent, either. Quite a mediocre tune, which I would almost call a bit shitty if it were without vocals. So, music is ok, but too quiet. Stylewise I guess this is somesort of cross between death and black metal... slow, yet the keyboards and chord progressions resemble black metal. Perhaps a bit like Cadaver's slower truuiivil works, only not as good;-) When someone manages to define black metal accurately, please, oh please tell me what the hell it is... :-) Last but not least (for me, that is), the lyrics are pretty darn stupid. Generally I've noticed that just about no mod whatsoever has decent lyrics, but that's a matter of taste again, since my definition of decent is somewhere around Cradle Of Filth or Dark Tranquillity, yet some people apparently actually LIKE the death metal "never use a complete sentence"-style;-) To each their own. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=43570 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Razor - Outcast (CN5 entry) Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 6/10 (as compo entry), 3/10 (as single) ----- Since this was a CN5 (Compo Now! 5) entry, I'm not gonna say anything about the samples, since thay were not for the tracker to choose. Also, the time limit set by CN5 forces me to review this with a bit less critical viewpoint. What we have here is power metal, plain and simple. Right down to the infernal two chord patterning, meaning either Em-C or Am-F. Nothing wrong with those in general, it's just that they're so overused that they should at least be tried to mask somehow. Then again, if the main goal is to achieve something that instantly sounds like power metal and creates a feel that "I know what this kinda stuff is", then here we have success. Everything in the song works quite well, it's just that there's not one original thing about it. Right down to the slow middle part with keyboards, everything is like copied straight from the power metalist's handbook. So, points come for the flawless tracking and ability to create something that works using a given set of samples and under a time limit. Originality points? What? ----- URL: http://venus.spaceports.com/~razor/outcast.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mephisto - Helluva Agony Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 4/10 ----- Somesort of rather slow-paced melodic metal, some might say gothic-influenced as well. I'll just say it has keyboards and synth sounds:-) Quite a relaxing piece, actually... no blastbeats or Stratovarius-like (kikkelihevi) double bassdrum hell, just calmly flowing melodies and slow beats. Funnily enough, it doesn't even get too boring towards the end. What annoys me is the sound, or the samples, if you will. The whole song is really muffled, all instruments are pretty bass-dominant and everything sounds like if you were at a concert with massive hearing damage, losing all high-end perception. Well, the synths are ok, but guitars and drums are of the aforementioned muffled variety. Unfortunate but true, the crappy sound takes out most of the balls from this song. Once more, vocals stick out with their absence... as actually does originality, too. This could well be an intro track to something, since there's a distinct melodic theme throughout the song and the slow pace creates an illusion of the song being short (actually 3:42min, but slow patterns take up more time, duh:-), perfect for an intro. Nice work with the leading keyboard melody, though. Kinda stuck to my head at least, now I'm having trouble getting rid of it... damn you and you're infernal song, Mephisto...;-) Yes, you guessed it: score affected by fadeout ending, I'm really on a crusade about this matter.... haha. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=42865 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Supernecro - Infernal Machinegun Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 5,5/10 ----- "Infernal" seems like the right word for this hunk of brutal noise pollution. Very distorted guitars and vocals create a rather chaotic atmosphere, giving at least me an uncontrollable urge to bang my head against the wall until it bleeds. Definitely has attitude, but could do with a bit more dynamics to suit my tastes... Around 2:30 there's a surprising break in the battery which leads to a rather Kovenant-like ending, which is actually the part that I like best. Generally not a too imaginative song, but it has enough balls to last the 3:33 minutes without making me yawn and hit the stop-button. Samples are good for this style, distorted and ugly:-) Oh yeah, the lyrics kick some serious buttocks in their horrificness...;-) ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=42925 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confederates - My Innocent Dreams Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 4/10 ----- A somewhat progressive piece of melodic metal mixing influences from In Flames and the like, as well as power metal. Lots of dynamics in this one, which I like myself, but somehow this song gives me no feeling whatsoever. It sort of plays in through one ear and shamefully sneaks out the other. Perhaps vocals would've done the trick, with the song clocking in at nearly 5 minutes I got bored after about 3. But maybe I just have a short attention span, goddamn MTV generation... The tracking in itself is very good with all the time changes and everything running smoothly, but my main beef is with the samples, mainly the guitars. The credits of the song actually mention "Ansgaros for great guitar samples", but I beg to disagree. The guitars are just about the fuzziest computer-like guitars I've ever heard, especially during the faster power metal parts. Sorry to say, but it's probably the guitar sound that sucks out most of the "oomph" in this song. ----- URL: http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~confes/Dsp-my.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confederates - Curse Of The Dunces Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 6,5/10 ----- First of all, the song title made me laugh my ass off after for some reason I started pondering it a bit too philosophically:-) Aren't we all plagued by those infernal dumbasses... But the song itself is no joke, it was a positive surprise after "My Innocent Dreams", also courtesy of Confederates. Here the guitars pack some punch and the drumming is also executed with attitude. Stylewise, very power metal-like to me, but if growls were added I'd say more like In Flames. Does this mean that IF is just power metal with growls?;-) Lead guitar sounds very nice and melodies are catchy, here and there the samples do sound a little fucked up, though... nothing serious, just some weird flabby sound I heard in the background at times, which could just be the fault of my sound system. Ah, the ungrateful critic-role snaps on again... so here are the obligatory bitchings: originality. Yes, the song is good, but it feels as if it's been done a thousand times before (often worse than this, mind you:-). Secondly, the fade-out ending. I just generally hate'em, why not end a song decently instead of just wussying out and adding a volume fade? It's really not that difficult. Then again, this probably just my personal opinion, which you're free to throw in the crapper and flush 666 times. ----- URL: http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~confes/Dsp-curs.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nightkill - Sea Of Misfortune Format: IT Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 7,5/10 ----- Nearly choked on my cigarette when I pressed "play" on this one... the keyboards and piano just came on with volume and even sounded good, rendering me a coughing mess attempting to bang my head while gargling my lungs out...:-) So my first impression on this song was "god, this is great". The piano-runs sound excellent, great samples... nothing wrong with the guitars, drums or keyboards either. Hard to find anything to complain about in the sound- or tracking department. Solid, good work with great samples. How about the song musically, then? The style is melodic metal, as you might've guessed from the use of piano (well duh;-)... otherwise I'm not sure which category this would fall into, which is a good thing I guess. Perhaps some Dummy Burger-influences are audible, but I'm not gonna say any more about it. Except that I like it. On to potential problems in the song... first of all, the length, which is a whalloping 9 minutes! Add to that the factors of missing vocals and and very similar piano routines throughout the song, and what do you get? (Boredom!, shouts the moron in the back) Yes, there are tempo changes and mood swings, but to me they sound a bit forced, not really taking the song anywhere. All in all, very good stuff from Nightkill here if you like melodies and keyboard instruments (I do, I do!:-), then again if you're AeuK, stay the hell away from this:-) Some nasty growls would've perhaps shot this into the "over 8 points"-category for me. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile-show.asp?SongID=42992 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Razor - Rage Format: XM Reviewer: LADY IN BLACK Score: 8/10 ----- I disobeyed the direct order in the file comments to listen to this with FT2 and opted or Modplug Player instead. Ha ha!:-) Okay, unspurprisingly for Razor, this one has excellent samples once again. The guitars are really heavy and yes! For once, they have a good amount of bass. Generally the song sounds great, all instruments are decent and give this piece a very professional feel. How many of us are green with envy?:-) Musically peaking, the song falls into the category which I like to call "pomppuhevi", which is something in the vein of Machine Head, Biohazard, Pantera and so on. Anyway, you know the drill, guys wear wide shorts that hang somewhere below the knee and bounce up and down as they play. Personally, I hate that kind of shit, but I'll try to be objective about this song and view it as a satire or something;-) If talking about music in general, this is nothing too original, but as a tracked song, I don't think I've heard much stuff like this. Could be just me and my newbie-loser ignorance, though. The best part in the song is actually the so-called "headache riff" around 1:49, which Sepultura overused shamelessly on Chaos A.D (anyone remember that album anymore? Does anyone WANT to?;-). Hard to decide on how to rate this... but putting my personal hate towards this style aside, it's a hell of a good piece of work from Razor. Technically flawless, just musically a bit unimaginative... then again, that's an integral part of this style, I guess. As usual, vocals would've been nice to have. ----- URL: http://personal.inet.fi/koti/teemu.lehtisaari/rage.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cadaver - Toxic Enema Format: XM Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 5/10 ----- Here we have another perverted deathrock song from Cadaver, this time it's the follow-up to last year's 'The Scatologist'. After having listened to Cadaver's earlier songs, like 'Thru 7 Gates of Hell' and 'Give 'em Hell', one knows what awaits. Straightforward rock/death riffs with growl/scream vocals and a standard verse/chorus/verse arrangement. Fun once. Not now. BTW, doesn't the intro riff sound a little too much like the intro riff in 'Himon Ajamana'? Anyway, this thing works once or twice, much because of Cadaver's relative in-your-face-attitude (rock songs usually are like that), but it's the kind of song that goes in one ear and out the other. Not bad at all, but nothing special either. Extra point awarded for the perverted lyrics :) ----- URL: http://www.student.oulu.fi/~loorni/mods/toxicene.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aeuk - Brain Taste Format: IT Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 3/10 ----- I can hardly hear the guitars, I only hear crash cymbals and some obscure background noise, which I guess is the guitars, bass and rest of the drums. Occasionally I hear the ride cymbal and the kick drum. Well, it grinds anyway, which is good, but hope Impious remakes it pretty much for his grindband's demo. It needs proper mixing. I guess they'll make a real version anyway :) On the other hand it might already have that, MPP has had some problems playing IT-files for some time now (remember Zack's problems?), and I really wish I had IT to play this. ----- URL: http://members.xoom.com/tombmaiden/aeuk-bb.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aegis - Nightmares Coming (Velvet Dreams pt. 2) Format: XM Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 3/10 ----- Another goth/metal song with horrible guitars and way too much piano. This is actually very boring. And why write the silly lyrics in the info text when you don't even have vocals? This could have been good, though, if it had been less uptempo and had dark vocals, better lyrics and better guitars. ----- URL: http://members.xoom.com/theblind/Aegis/music/ag_night2.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Axeslash - Born In A Cell Format: IT Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 5/10 ----- This is the first time I hear one of Axeslash's songs, and I am somewhat surprised. If it hadn't been for the crap vocals (why whisper when you can scream?), this would have been very good. Once again the guitars seem like they're not loud enough, but as I said earlier, I blame MPP, well, until I'm proven otherwise anyway. This song is pretty death metal, and pretty brutal. The guitars sounds good, from what I can hear, and the drumwork is not bad at all, but it's the vocals that destroy this song for me. Not a bad song, but with good vocals it would have been better. ----- URL: http://io.spaceports.com/~axeslash/axe-born.rar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Axeslash - The Brutalist Format: IT Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 4/10 ----- This is pretty damn brutal. Still an average death song without vocals. And the same problem as earlier, the guitars. Compared to the drums they're not loud enough, but they're still audible, so I shouldn't really complain about that. Still, this song gets away with what it does, even if I'm not gonna remember it tomorrow. ----- URL: http://io.spaceports.com/~axeslash/axe-brut.rar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warlord - Born Of The Cold Void Format: XM Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 6/10 ----- I have to admit that I never liked Warlord's music before this. Even if his guitarwork still sounds kinda weak, this is definetly an improvement from earlier songs, and especially his first [songs] with own guitars. This is pretty good slow death (with black elements) and good vocals. Too bad the samples don't fit together so good during the harmony/solo parts, 'cause these parts could have been what lifted this song's score yet another point or two, there are some nice melodies there. All in all somewhat good. Yeah. ----- URL: http://www.nettilinja.fi/~jaakkola/Botcv.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FrozenEyes - Sullen Parity Format: IT Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 7.5/10 ----- Whoa! What a surprise. I never heard FE before, and I was afraid that it was yet another of these goth/metal guys, but man, how wrong I was. This is fast and brutal, yet melodic, blackmetal with very good guitars and vocals. I have no idea what "sullen parity" means, and I'm too lazy to look it up in a dictionary. The lyrics are about forest and night and stuff, that disappoints me a little, but they're ok anyway. But you do know that Blackmetal is supposed to be satanic! :) According to the info text, where is supposed to be some strings in here, but I can't hear 'em anywhere but in the calm parts in the middle. very good. This song pulls off a relative majestic feeling without strings or other synths, it's just the middle part. The guitars sound a little weak in that part, though. A nice surprise and a tracker I'll keep track of :) in the future. ----- URL: http://users.ev1.net/~willsjl/mods/fe-sulln.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fuzzer - Gone (CN5 entry) Format: XM Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 3/10 ----- As this was an entry for CN5, I'm not gonna complain about the quality of samples, but to release a crap CN5 entry without even fixing the samples and/or remaking/rewriting the song is weird. I don't think I would do that. But on the other hand I've released shit for almost three years now, so I guess I'm the last one who should complain. Anyway, a pretty good drive makes this song what it is. ----- URL: http://phobos.spaceports.com/~mikkop/GONE.ZIP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tap - Plex-A-Flex Format: XM Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 4/10 ----- Weird name for a metal song, but what the hell, let's go. Sounds like the standard In Flamesy-melodic song, with some effects. Not bad at all for a first release, but it's too repetitive for me. I don't know why MatoFly's masterpiece [insert song title here] comes to mind, they don't even remotely sound the same, and this isn't even half as good. ----- URL: http://www.geocities.com/jussipol/Plex.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warlord - Fading Memories Format: XM Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 4/10 ----- "Oh no, a goth song" was the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the songtitle. But this is not goth. This is better. Well, the first part is, then the guitars practically disappear, along with the heaviness that showed up in the intro and first riff(s). Why? Anyway, this song really just stands still in one place and never goes anywhere. Not good. Contrary to what Warlord himself said, this song definetly should have had vocals. Now it's just an average melodic song with weak guitars. ----- URL: http://www.nettilinja.fi/~jaakkola/W_fading.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assassin - Selected Lines Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 5/10 ----- I was assigned this song, but it was supposed to be remixed by Makke or Mikke or whatever his name was. Neither the sample text nor the TiS page say anything about this, so I guess this is the original. Anyway, this is a melodic, laidback acoustic song with pretty good leads and such, the lead keyboard sample sounds a little weird, but it just adds a little disharmony to the song, which IMO is good, it sounded a little too polished. Nice average song that I probably won't listen to anymore after finishing this review. ----- URL: http://www.traxinspace.com/Music/Songs/downloadfile.asp?SongID=30494 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kylotan - Failed Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 3/10 ----- The info given in the file does not say who tracked this, but from what I can remeber it was Kylotan or something similar. From what I can tell this is a cover, I have no idea which band wrote this, since the info just says "Failed (Charlesworth/Sizer) Written between 1996 and 2000" and the sample credits. Razors guitars have been somewhat misused, sounds a little out of tune, and the vocal synth just sounds awful. The drumming is boring and standard-sounding. The solo is out of tune, a lot. This was not very good. The good thing is that it felt like it was only about 2 minutes long, but in reality it is 4:01 (Modplug time :) ----- URL: http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/kylotan/files/failed.it -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nightkill - The Circle Of Death Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 8/10 ----- I don't know if Nightkill is one or several persons, but judging from the info given, Nighkill is either a group or several trackers using one handle. The style is somewhat powermetal-ish, but what separates this from the bulk of powersongs released is the totally unhappy feeling given throughout the song, there are no happy-sounding riffs nor "positive" lyrics/vocals anywhere. There is a part that begins at 1:15 that sounds pretty sad, with synths and laidback drumming and a very nice flute solo. Somewhat surprising. Then the happy part enters, one might believe, but holocaust orchestral hits destroy every ounce of happiness and gives me visions of charred, barren landscapes and evil creatures lurking in the darkness. Wow. I am really positively surprised. This was not at all what I had expected, so both thumbs up for this one :) ----- URL: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disks : ------- Aeuk - Tribute To Autopsy Format: IT files Reviewer: DAOLOTH Score: 5/10 ----- I have never heard any of the songs featured on this disk, so I can't comment the accuracy, which makes it a little harder to review this than I would have wanted. That's also why Dragon will be pissed off at me for sending him the reviews one day after the deadline. But that's his problem. I'm gonna do this the easy wasy; line up the songs below and review them one by one, and then finish it off at the end. Fuckdog: The first song on this disk is also the best, because it's short, pretty grinding and it has vocals, something which the rest of the disk should have had. Unfortunately it has the same sounding guitars as the rest of the songs, except for the last two ones, which I find bad, cause it's definetly not good sounding guitars. The vocals, on the other hand, are pretty good, even if they sound a little metallic, like AeuK dipped his head into a steel barrel and did the vocals in there :) Charred Remains: The guitars sound even more blurred in this one than the previous, and once again I'll have to say that I don't like it. Vocals would have been nice, but as AeuK said: "My mic is packed at the moment, deep somewhere..." Uh? I don't want to know more :) Anyway, nice and grinding song. Doesn't need anything else. Severed Survival: Somewhat brutal, pretty heavy, bad guitarsound, good ending. Need I say more? Deathmask: Bad guitarsound and the drums make me nauseous...when it's this slow, vocals would help. But now it's kinda boring. Retribution for the Dead: Bad guitarsound once again :( intriguing melodies and such. Pretty damn heavy, but a little too slow for my taste, especially when there are no vocals. I say fuck filesize and make a good song instead. Skullptures: Guitars again. More realistic drums wouldn't have hurt. The hihat sounds too loud. Interesting riffs, but I guess Autopsy's to blame for that :) Lobotomized: Pretty boring, but slow and heavy, which in this case is good. Good ending, too, a very nice riff there. Pus: Now I was surprised, the guitars actually sound pretty good. Still should have had vocals, if there were any on the original song. But it's too damn slow. I don't think I like Autopsy :( Rot: Same guitarsound as on Pus, I like that. This one should have had vocals, but I've said that about every song, so I won't this time :) Pretty good grinding, but AeuK's guitarplaying leaves much to wish for. I admire AeuK for having the discipline to make this disk in just six days, but hey, maybe you should have worked a little more on the sound, most of the time the guitars sound very bad and you should also have had more vocals, preferrably for every song. Ok, it's a lot to ask for, but what the hell, I'm a picky bastard :) Anyway, bad guitarsound and the lack of vocals lowered the score by at least two points, but then again, I have never heard Autopsy, so as far as I know, this is how the albums sound. Otherwise, pretty admirable work in just six days. I'd never have the discipline nor the time to do that. ----- URL: http://members.xoom.com/tombmaiden/autopsy.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aeuk - Tribute To Autopsy Vol. 2 Format: IT files Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6/10 ----- I'm glad to be reviewing this one, mostly because it follows DAOLOTH's review of the first installment of the Tribute To Autopsy. First of all, i must tell Daoloth (i hope he reads this) that i cannot be pissed at him for missing the deadline. My job is to distribute the songs of the events board to every reviewer (including me) so they can review them. Galahad gives me a deadline, then i usually send the assignments 7-10 days prior to this deadline, which gives more than enough time for everyone to complete their tasks. If you count downloading and reviewing 10 songs or so, i'd say it takes about 2-3 hours, maybe 4 tops. So Daoloth, if you didn't make the deadline, it has nothing to do with the fact that you don't know Autopsy, because you've made a very good review. The real reason is that you waited to the last minute to do your reviews. My job is not to be pissed at you, but to report to Galahad who made the deadlines or not, who did what and how well... Ok, on with the review now. I don't know Autopsy either, only through Aeuk's wonderful journey. He did 21 Autopsy covers, as i did 20 Maiden covers, + vocals on another. To cover so many songs from a band shows dedication, the best dedication a fan could have. You become one with this band, you study the style, the sound, the energy driven from each song, trying to recapture what you think is the purpose for each of them. Pretty intense work, and like Daoloth said, you've got to admire a guy for that. This Tribute, is some fast paced drum/bass oriented music, along with some slower bits and an extremely lo-fi guitar sound, probably downtuned like no tomorrow. This is a chaotic style of music that makes you wanna do some violent acts, i would like to qualify this as mad metal, or padded cell metal. Cause if you listen to this thing for let's say 24 hours straight, that's exactly where you'll end up: A PADDED CELL!! All in all these 6 songs are all pretty much alike in effort, but lack replay value. This Tribute is a one shot deal for me, you listen to it once, acknowledge the accomplishment, then move on and don't look back. So this gets a 6. ----- URL: http://members.xoom.com/tombmaiden/autopsy2.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cadaver - MW3 Musicdisk Format: XM & IT files Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 8/10 ----- Here goes the mother of all late reviews, this one should've been in RR5. Sorry to Aeuk, Cadaver, CroW, Hybrido, Temuz and Warlord for this extreme inconvenience. I'm using my webspace to present this disk, which is music for a game created by CADAVER, a very cool concept in itself. So, here we have mostly nonemetal, even some techno, but what the hell?! It was still done by skillfull metalmod trackers, so with that in mind, we can go ahead. The samples and tracking are very professionnal here, nothing to criticize here. The best part is trying to pick up some metal influences somewhere in there, and i emphasize the word TRYING here. Those guys must have had a lot of fun exploring styles they're not familiar with, it must be a challenge. Anyway, that's about all i've got to say. The grade is based on quality, not style, and if you only wanna hear metal, don't get this. ----- URL: http://pages.infinit.net/ledragon/mw3music.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warlord - Diced, mangled and left to rot EP Format: XM files Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 6/10 ----- First of all, very weird. Second, this is like Aeuk does, only with better guitar samples. Third, this has been done very fast. Fourth, song and album titles fit with the music, but extremely lack any originality, signification or purpose whatsoever. Just a three piece death jam for fun. Given that, it's something we are not used of hearing from Warlord, so he is seemingly trying to explore other styles than his own, which is positive for him. His decision to share this with us is both courageous and friendly, a nice gesture. Song one, plain no vocals death. Song two, plain death with vocals (we don't even wanna know what they are). Song three, same as song one, with better guitar, but a thundering something that's utterly annoying. Moving on... ----- URL: http://members.xoom.com/bloodredsky/w_diced.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daoloth - Crushdisk Format: XM files Reviewer: DRAGON Score: 2/10 ----- Ok, this is some noise to me. Maybe i need recycling or something, but i can't notice anything resembling music here. Only good thing is some average samples and ok drumming. The guy can yell, no doubt about it, but what's the point in wasting a perfectly good throat with meaningless stuff like that. Lack of structure, lack of purpose, lack of melody. Song one, nothing to add, song two, better riffing, but way to short like the previous. This is just a few riffs assembled, nothing more. Song three, geez... Song four, the last of the Mohicans, aaaaargh!!!! Do the feet stomp on burning coals, or something. Death to Peace, and when it's over, Peace Of Mind. No replay value at all. ----- URL: ftp://194.236.28.166/C/Nocturne/Daoloth/Disks/dao-crush.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next month in RR : --------------------- Hypnos - Black Planet (cover of Sisters Of Mercy) Axeslash - None But My Own (cover of Machine Head with vocals) Axeslash - The Black Manifesto Duskfall - The Kindred Ansgaros - A Different Battle Theme Desperado - Turn It On Azaghal - Incorporeal Dismemberment Warlord - Batman Stage 4 Theme Duskfall - Wings... Torn... Ghormak - Avatar Of Order + much more ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SCENESTER - NAPSTER FOR THE SCENE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Source: Modplug news] An idea is being discussed regarding an application like Napster for sharing "scene productions". Their website explains: "The Scenester project has been created to investigate and implement a file sharing network for scene productions which are currently being shared through a system of FTP and Web servers lacking effective indexing and searching capabilities. Several options are currently being investigated: 1. Using existing software (Freenet, Gnutella, Napster) 2. Extending existing software to provide functionality suitable for scene productions (much like napster has specific features for MP3) 3. Creating a new protocol loosely based on napster, with key improvements to support scene productions, and enhancements such as unicode support and a true binary protocol It is expected that number three will be the preferred option, however we intend to borrow heavily from existing protocols when designing and implementing our system. Do you remember the days of disk swapping? How about the BBS scene? Do you miss the sense of community? Maybe you are new to the scene but think that there must be a better way to find scene productions you are looking for and keep in touch with other sceners. We believe that by building a file sharing community for sceners, we can help bring back some of the personality that the scene has been missing for so long. Our concept is to evolve past the current state of the scene spread across IRC, Usenet, FTP and Web by taking the existing scene archive content on scene.org and hornet.org then indexing and distributing it across a network of Scenester servers linked by a stable master server. But there is more to Scenester than large centralized servers, just like napster, each user can chat with other sceners, search for productions and share their favourite productions with others for direct peer to peer download. Imagine being able to search for party releases right after the party has finished and not having to keep scanning the incoming directories on scene.org for the new files as they are uploaded. And what if you could share all your releases like demos, intros, source, libraries, art and music and text from your own computer in a network where people can easily find your stuff? Imagine searching for recent demo releases in the last month and getting back a list of all new productions indexed by group, authors, party and platform? Just think of finally getting rid of IRC and having a chat network for all sceners which makes it easy to exchange files and show your productions off! We need your help to make Scenester happen! Join the mailing list scenester@coollist.com and have your voice heard during the design of the scenester protocol and prototype. Right now what we need most are experienced network coders in to assist us with designing the protocol and developing the code for the client and central server. We have created a project on sourceforge to hold code developed for the project, which will of course be open source under the GNU General Public Licence. By the way, if you arent a programmer there are still plenty of things you can do to help out the project. Tell us your ideas, encourage us, and spread the word to all your scene friends that something better is on the way." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ART OF SAMPLING - PART ONE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This article is for very beginners of tracking. If you have already made your own samples, this article has very little to give you. Before we start This article was written for beginners, I've tried to be easily understandable, and the most important to me, I've tried to explain why some "rules" have to be respected. I start from the beginning, but I assume that you are familiar with computers. I - What do I need to sample ? To sample you don't need a sampler, you need a computer, a sound card and of course some programs. Samplers are used in MIDI music, not in tracked music. Let's start with the computer. A 486 with 8 Mb is, to me, the minimum since you will handle large amounts of data. When I say 'minimum', I mean 'if you have this configuration, that will work fine'. Don't worry, you don't need a Pentium MMX 200 with 64 Mb of SDRAM. :) Some people will tell you that 4 Mb is enough to compose tracked music. I agree, but it's not for editing waves because most of the programs we will use run under Windows, and Windows is known for being a RAM killer.:( Now, a very important point : the sound card. In fact, you have to choice between a Sound Blaster (SB) and a Gravis UltraSound (GUS). Warning, it is highly possible that the sound card which was given with your computer is a 'SB 16 compatible'. That's not a SB 16, and I advise you to buy a new card. My present choice will be a SB 64, because I'm used to work on Sound Blaster cards, but it lacks the GUS' hardware mixing... Anyway, whatever the sound card you buy, extend its memory to 1 Mb. (if the sound card does not have its own memory, like the SB 16, forget it :) ) The last thing about the sound card, it's useless to buy a daughter-board such as a Wave Blaster or a Korg, those cards are intended for MIDI music. (and if you want to compose in MIDI, a Roland or a Yamaha is a better choice) Well, now that you've got a computer with a sound card, you need a program to sample. I advise you to use Cool Edit (exists in Win 3.1 & 95 version), it offers a lot of useful effects, and is able to generate sounds. Cool Edit is a shareware program, you should be able to find it over the Internet. I use Fast Tracker II, if you don't, the manipulations which are done under FT2 could be done with Cool Edit (or Velvet Studio, which is a good tracker indeed...) II - How to sample ? a - Connecting the source to your sound card We must look at what you want to sample from. Remember that the less you have elements between the source and the recorder, the best it is. It implies that you must try to connect directly the source to your sound card. For example if you want to record the sound from a tape, connect your tape player directly to your soundcard's line-in. If you want to record a CD, the best is to use a CD dumper, but if you can't, connect your CD-player directly to your soundcard's line-in too. There is also the problem of recording from MIDI instruments. Try to connect the concerned instrument to your soundcard, but it is often impossible. In that case, connect your MIDI mixing table directly to your soundcard. Also avoid long cables, I mean cables longer than 5 m. b- Volume control Now, your source is connected to the soundcard, what have you to do ? We must set the volume of the source and the recorder. If you can set the volume of your source (MIDI mixing table for example), you must be very careful, if the volume is too loud, you'll have an overdriven sound. What is an overdriven sound ? Well, it's simple, your soundcard is able to record up to a maximum amplitude. If the amplitude of the source is greater than this maximum, there is data loss. Believe me, an overdriven sound is ugly ! But how to set the best level ? If your soundcard has an AGC (automatic gain control), there's no problem, activate it. If it doesn't, you have to set the volume of your source in order to have the loudest part at 0 dB. (which is the maximum signal for a CD too) In the editor's window, your wave mustn't touch the top or the bottom of the frame. To be precise, the ideal is that the maximum amplitude of the wave just touch the top or the bottom of the frame, but you will have this result in normalizing the sample. Of course, do not set the volume too low, you will have data loss too. AGC really makes things easier ! :) Even if you want an overdriven sound, respect the above rule, you'll obtain the effect thanks to post-editing. We'll discuss about advanced fx's another day. Anyhow, in most cases, you can't set the source volume, if you record from a tape or a CD, it's "pure line-in", most common player have no volume control. If they have, it must generally be set to the maximum. (for example on my CD player the volume control was implemented for amplifier without remote control) I think you know enough about volume setting for now, let's sample ! c - Sampling quality First, launch your wave editor. Choose "new" in the menu, you will have a dialog box asking for the sampling rate, the number of bits, etc. Choose 44,100 Hz - 16 bits - mono. Why 44,100 Hz ? The Human ear can listen sounds up to 22,000 Hz, but digital recording requires to use sampling rate twice greater than the maximum frequency you want to sample. If you want to record all the frequencies a human can hear, you must sample at 44,100 Hz. You must also know that a shrill tone is an high frequency wave, and that a bass tone is a low frequency wave. In theory, bass tones don't require to be sample at 44,100 Hz. For example, if your tone is a 200 Hz wave, you should sample it at 400 Hz. In practice, your bass tone always have some shrill tones that interfere with it. To sum up, sample at 44,100 Hz ! If you consider that your final sample is too big, downsample it to 22,050 Hz. Frequencies under 22,050 Hz are not recommended, unless you want an evil goat sound :). What is the difference between 8 bits & 16 bits ? The number of bits is the resolution of the sample. I think that the best way to understand the difference between 8 bits & 16 bits is to record a high, clear and quiet sound. Record it a 44,100 Hz - 16 bits - mono. Listen to it, if you have a good card, and if it's connect to a hi-fi set, you can't hear a difference. (except the stereo) Now convert it to 8 bits. Listen to it... Argh ! Did you hear the fzzzz ? You should also know that all transformations you made on 16 bits waves give better results than on 8 bits wave. If for a question of size, you don't want to use 16 bits sample (yes, 16 bits samples are twice larger than 8 bits samples), I advise you to work in 16 bits, save you work in .WAV format for possible future modifications, and then save it to your tracker's format in 8 bits. Personally, I use 16 bits samples in my modules. (that's why they are BIG :( ) Technical tip : if you have a 44,100 Hz - 16 bits sample, and if you want to convert it to a 22,050 Hz - 8 bits sample, change the frequency first, then the resolution. You will have a better quality. Technical tip : if your source is bad, I mean, if your original sound is bad, because old, or because it isn't right recorded, (in classic music for example, the way the CD has been recorded is important), it is not necessary to maintain a high quality, you can convert your sample to 22,050 Hz - 8 bits, you won't hear the difference. BUT, keep the original 44,100 Hz - 16 bits version, you may need it in the future. It is also clever to change the sample rate if you used a low pass filter. For example, if you removed all the sounds over 15,000 Hz, change the sample rate to 30,000 Hz, it *should* be ok. (according you have good hardware and good software) We will study filters, I promise. ;) d - Sampling (simply :) ) Get ready to sample that is, set your player just a split second before what you want to record. What you want to record should be enough clear and isolated. Press record in the editor, play the sound, when finished, stop it and stop recording. If you record from a MIDI instrument, record, play the note, and stop recording when you can't hear anything from the speakers. It could be a good idea to sample different octaves of the same instrument, that will improve the quality of your modules. Before doing anything, save it to the uncompressed .WAV format. Do not use ADPCM or another compression method, you will have quality loss. I ask you to save now in order to prevent you from commit a suicide if you make an unrecoverable error with the sample. :) Technical tip : If you want to record an instrument from a song, there are few things you should keep in mind. First, it is a better to find the moment in the song when the instrument is played alone. I know it's obvious, but that's important. When you find a good moment, sample 1 s before and 1 s after. Then, you'll have to fade and cut some parts of the sound, that's the next topic... III - First corrections Well, our new sample contains too much data, there are blank before and after the sound, and there certainly are sounds you don't want to have. First select the blanks and delete them. Play it. Is it ok ? If not, choose the part of the song you want to keep and delete everything but this part. Ah ! The sample is less large now ! But... Work isn't over yet.... We'll make the final adjustment in Fast Tracker II. Anyway, normalize your sample at 100 %, whatever its destiny will... Normalizing, will amplify the sound to the maximum it is possible to do without data loss. Also set the DC bias adjustment to 0 %, this will center the wave on the zero volt line. Save your sample to uncompressed .WAV format (you can delete the file later, but for the moment keep a .WAV version of your sample). Now, save it to the .PCM format, but with a .SMP extension, that's the format FT II use. (There's also .IFF, but I use .SMP) Quit Windows and launch FT II. Do not launch FT II from Windows ! Load the sample, go to the sample editor, choose 16 bits (do not convert data !), and you'll have your sample loaded. IV - Final adjustments a - Non-looped samples Consider you work as almost achieved ! Select a small part at the end of the sample and fade it to zero. Select a small part at the beginning and fate it from zero. A sample which starts and ends with zero volume won't click. The click effect is created by brusque differences of amplitude. To avoid this differences, just fade in & out the sound. (you may also have click in using the sample offset effect on a sample) Listen to it... You may have fade too much data, if so, reload the sound and start over. If your sample sounds great, without clicks, you've got a brand new sample ready to use ! To be honest, if your sample sounds great, you're a lucky one, since there is often a lot of work required to obtain great samples. But, in a technical point of view, your sample is ready to play. My goal, was to show you the basic rules of sampling. Next time, we will learn how to obtain great samples. So, your sound is ready, but remember that you have the instruments parameters to set up. Unfortunately, that's not the topic. :) (maybe in a future article ?) b - Looped samples Yup ! That's the hard and boring part ! It's essential that your sample is long enough to be looped, because short samples aren't horror-show to loop. There are exceptions of course, but we won't consider exceptions. Sample than can be looped are mainly strings, choirs, voices, synthetic waves, etc. You can also obtain a reverb effect in looping some short samples, but I won't talk about this, I don't want to confuse you. Great effects could be obtained from original loops, this will be explained another time. (it's hard to be a beginner, isn't it ? ;) ) Listen to your sample and watch the play-line. Loop a part that sounds almost the same from the begining to the end, choose ping-pong loop and listen... If you have no clicks, you won, else you have to modify the beginning and/or the end of the loop until you have no clicks. Of course, you mustn't feel the loop, it must sound natural ! Looped samples requires good instruments setting, but find the loop is the hardest to me. Technical tip : As I said before, clicks are generated by differences of amplitude. In other terms, if in a forward loop the beginning has a different amplitude than the end, that will click. The more the difference is great, the more you will hear that click. FT II offers a X-fade utility, but it may give strange results. Anyway, there's no magic formula, even an AKAI sampler with an automatic system to loop samples fails. You just have to test, again and again until you get a satisfying result. I also advise you to play the looped sample at different octaves to see if it's really fine. What you can try to do, is to put the loop on a 0 V point. (that is an intersection of the wave and the 0 V line) Technical tip : Play few notes with your new sample, if it sounds fine, it's ok, if not, maybe you should modify the loop (if there's one) or add some effects. Sometimes, play with a new sample can give you inspiration, so don't hesitate ! Remember : if you have good samples, you only have an half of what you need to create good music. I can teach you some things about technique, not about art. As I said it, this article was intended for beginners. If you're a beginner, you now know how to sample sounds with few data loss, and how to adapt it to a tracker. You now have to learn how to transform, modify and correct a sound... I'll be pleased to teach you this in another "The Art of Sampling" issue. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE WHATNOT ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ah yes. Yet another Sound Summoner update, but a short one this time. For those that haven't noticed yet, I have placed the readme.txt file on my site. I upload a new readme everytime I edit the thing so that is the latest info. I was hoping to have an open beta ready by the time this issue of RR was released. Looks like it won't happen, but it should be out in a day or two. Bah! Was gonna write some more shite but I'm tired damnit! Till next issue...... -gorjr ----------------------------------------------------------------------- RANDOM WRITINGS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi again. It has been over half years, since Red Rain finally begun to run after long break. As most of you surely remember, MC itself was online much earlier before we got RR staff working effectively. Once again it seems like this is one fucking year of changes in the reviewers department and I really hope people who want to be reviewers read the "what it takes to be a reviewer" article (RR 06/00) before they send their application in. We lost couple of long time reviewers too including Hybrido and Malakhai which is a tremendous shame. Fortunately they were quickly replaced by Aragorn and Lady In Black, who both made awesome test reviews (our current policy when taking new people). You can't even imagine how much reviewer changes can mess up schedules and cause delays. It's a miracle that RR hasn't been late since the first issue. The miracle has a name too and it's Dragon, who has been able to keep the reviews coming no matter what have happened. Maybe next year will be easier for us, though I doubt that :). How many of you know the real old classics from the misty past of tracked metal scene going all the way back to mystic BBS era? I have had this idea for a while that maybe during the MC site facelift there will be a new page for old mods that's very hard to get nowadays. Some kind of archive of oldies where new and little older people could download pieces of tracked metal scene history. You wouldn't propably believe if I would say that some dudes did some real quality tunes back in 1993-1994 unless you hear some of them, so I thought of simply putting some of them online for everybody to download. Second new feature will be the review archive. This means simple text file, where all reviews from each Red Rain issue can be found. Idea for this came from message forum by Axeslash and it will be done. Thanks for it man. Archive got some very positive opinions in the message thread and encouraged us to create it. Contests and Awards pages will be improved a lot too. They will be clearer and contain more information after the facelift. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Red Rain issue 08/2000 release: 10.12.2000 (dd.mm.yyyy) -----------------------------------------------------------------------