Five Years Later - Melodic punkrock - Comments please!

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fiveyearslater

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Hi, I'm new here.. And I'd like to know what you guys think of my band Five Years Later. Please download a mp3 or more from our website.. Any tips, comments? Post it here!

www.fiveyearslater.com
 
MAKE MY WAY
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The vocal needs to be 1-2db louder. Some of your consonants and vowels are getting stepped on a bit, IMHO, in the beginning.

The backup vocals need to be mixed much louder. Harmony vocals that are good, and these are good ... are GOLDEN.

You label yourself as a 'melodic' punk band. Part of that genre is to have very good backup and harmony vocals, and you have this.

When you have harmony and backup vocals of good quality, they need to take center stage along with the lead vocal, don't cheat the listener on these good backup vocals. Mixing them far back and behind the lead may seem tasteful, but think louder can be more effective.

At 1:12 the vocal level is a wee bit better. I mean, it's not 'bad', it's just the lead vocal could come up to 'in your face'.

I like this song, good singing, good vocals.

kiss your 'what' goodbye ?
 
TAKE CONTROL
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Sounds very ANTHEMIC, I want to stand up and salute :D .

I like the rythm guitar riff.

Again, I think you could bring the lead up 1db or so. Just a little more.

Here, the harmony vocals are mixed a bit better, a bit more balanced, having them both share the spotlight.

This is a great tune, very nice and straightforward 'neo-punk' melodic alternative rock, this song really defines you well in your genre. This is exactly what I think of when I hear 'melodic punk'.

At 1:29, some cello to accompany the lead singer, perhaps something melodically contrapuntal would be smashing. PM me if you would like to collaborate. I play violin, viola and cello.

A string quartet, or real strings would really sound great in some places in your tunes and would further help lend you an 'artsy' edge to your genre placement.

I like this tune very much, I could jump around and groove and jam with this. There is room for some counter melodic work with the violin also and accompaniement in the choruses.
 
TRIVIAL
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A little more compressed sounding guitar than the two other tunes. The mix of this tune is not as hot in the mids and upper mids generally, sounds a bit flat, not as exciting.

At 00:48, things seem to open up a bit, but just for a moment, I dunno' why.

At 0:57, if you want to use this technique by exposing the vocal completely, I suggest that you not step on the last bit of the vocal as you bring the tune back in, let his vocal ride out front for every word of this section, or the 'effect' is weakened.

2:10 to the end I could hear some minimalist violin riff just repeating along with the guitar, or countering the guitar, another cute song, well performed and true to your genre.

Thanks for sharing your music with us, now you owe some folks on this board some reviews yes ?

You obviously have some good experience so spread it around please.
 
Hey lots of thanks man! I appreciate it a lot. These are the final mixes, so using violins in it is too late.. I totally agree violins could improve the songs Take Control and Trivial! Perfect idea, maybe we'll use them on our next recordings.
 
Just listened to Make My Way.
Cool song, instruments sound great but the vocals seem unattached. Don't blend in well and are a bit dry imho.
 
I listened to Trivial.

Not a bad song musically. You can tap your toes to it. I liked the guitars - both the parts played and the sound. The band sounds real tight.

The vocals are a little dry. Need some verb I think. They're getting covered to some extent by the guitars. I think you might need to make an EQ cut in the guits somewhere. Another option is to make an EQ cut in the vox and raise the overall level.

Some of those cymbals are taking up a lot of high end space and really jumping out. Some of them seemed to be close to center - maybe pan them a bit harder.

You could probably boost the bass just a little. It's got a good sound to it BTW.

Multitracking the vocals would really sound cool with this style.

Good job.
 
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