My prog-metal band: Album finished, tunes on MySpace, check 'em out

[Double Agent]

So...my prog-metal band, Gravity's Edge, finally finished our album and some of the tracks are now on our MySpace page. They can be found here:

http://www.myspace.com/edgeofgravity

It has elements of Dream Theater, Coheed & Cambria, Breaking Benjamin, Audioslave, and Killswitch Engage, as well as some proggy keyboard parts and a ballad which kind of sounds like a modern ELP song. The singer is really into metalcore, so there are some "cookie-monster" vocals (a warning for those of you that hate that, I don't hate it, but I don't love it either), but it is pretty balanced with regular singing.

A little backstory....I joined the band really late in the process and didn't get to have a lot of creative input, but I dig the music and the lead guitarist is one of my closets buds. At first, I was just supposed to do bass for one track (the one called Listen Darkly) because the lead guitarist had written to have a bass solo and he wanted me to do the part. Which is weird in retrospect because I'm not a fan of doing bass solos. But, it turned out pretty good IMO. Eventually, I wound up doing the whole album, including re-recording bass parts for some songs that already had a bassline from either the previous bassist or the lead guitarist. I'm proud of my work on the album, although like most people, I tend to cringe when I hear myself playing, noting every little mistake I wish I would have gone back and fixed, but is probably unnoticed by everyone but me. But, its been good for me because I have had to step outside of my comfort zone for some of the tunes that weren't naturally in my style and I had to do some real chops development for the first time in quite a while.

All the tracks except for one were done with my souped-up Spector Rebop 5 (with active EMGs and an EMG preamp) using the DI out from my Genz-Benz GBE600 post EQ with the low mids and high mids slightly boosted and the tube and SS channels blended. Tube side is set with really high gain and very low volume, which gives the tone an edge. The song Walls of Vangelis was recorded with the Spector through an Alembic F1X (my amp was in the shop) which sounded too clean, so we doubled the part and put a fuzz on one of the tracks and blended it with the clean part. It came out sounding really cool, but I'm very happy with all the recorded tones.

Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? Post it here, I am interested in your feedback for both my playing and the band in general. Just curious to hear what TB thinks. Thanks.

[santucci218]

The first song on there reminded me of Element Of Suprise. Anyways, not too bad. One of those bands that will get better with age, so im interested to see where it goes. My only negative comment are the lead singers higher notes sound a bit stressed and naisely. Anyways, the playing is solid and groovin.

[Kyo6JM]

Your bass playing sounds fine (even though the mix on that bass solo is questionable) and the band as a whole seems quite tight. It kinda reminds me of a local band I once auditioned for, M.I.GOD. I gotta say I'm not too impressed with the "cookie monster" vocals. I don't generally mind those, I just don't think these sound very good. The other vocals sound fine in general, but the melodies often sound like an afterthought, giving everything an unnecessarily samey feel.

Btw, is there a specific reason why the band name is spelled "Gravitys Edge" without an apostrophe on that MySpace page? Doesn't look so great...

[ghostjs]

sounds incredible. i dont usually listen to this kinda music but i really enjoy how well this is mixed (well probably cause i dont have a studio or anything..)

[Jonny B]

Sounds good. Lots of potential there.

[Double Agent]

Originally Posted by santucci218

My only negative comment are the lead singers higher notes sound a bit stressed and naisely. Anyways, the playing is solid and groovin.

Thanks for the remarks. I agree about the singer to a point. In his defense, he was brought into this pretty late too. The vocal melodies were already written and not necessarily to his strengths. I'm sure it would sound better had he been in on the writing process from the start. But, we all have room to grow.

Originally Posted by Kyo6JM

Your bass playing sounds fine (even though the mix on that bass solo is questionable) and the band as a whole seems quite tight.....The other vocals sound fine in general, but the melodies often sound like an afterthought, giving everything an unnecessarily samey feel.

Btw, is there a specific reason why the band name is spelled "Gravitys Edge" without an apostrophe on that MySpace page? Doesn't look so great...

Thanks for listening....no reason on the spelling that I am aware of. Also, the mix is out of my hands, but I'm not really complaining. With other bands in this style, you are sometimes lucky to hear the bass at all. On the vocals...did you mean that the cookie-monster melodies were an afterthought or the actual singing melodies? Because I know that the vocal melodies were definitely not an afterthought, so that may be a writing issue more than a performance issue. It may be a legitimate criticism that no one has noticed.

Originally Posted by ghostjs

sounds incredible. i dont usually listen to this kinda music but i really enjoy how well this is mixed (well probably cause i dont have a studio or anything..)

Originally Posted by Jonny B

Sounds good. Lots of potential there.

Thanks for the kind words guys! It can be scary to let other people hear your playing, especially here at TB where there are so many talented players. But, I'm pretty proud of this band since I've been pretty stuck in the cover thing with almost every band I've ever been in. It's cool to chart new waters.

[Kyo6JM]

Originally Posted by Double Agent

the mix is out of my hands, but I'm not really complaining. With other bands in this style, you are sometimes lucky to hear the bass at all.

Believe me, I know the problem very well.

On the vocals...did you mean that the cookie-monster melodies were an afterthought or the actual singing melodies? Because I know that the vocal melodies were definitely not an afterthought, so that may be a writing issue more than a performance issue. It may be a legitimate criticism that no one has noticed.

Then I guess it is a writing issue. I don't think a lot of them would sound particularly captivating just with acoustic guitar underneath. I'm not saying they don't fit, they just seem to lack substance.

[NS2A]

Sounds cool. I like your tone. I agree the solo part should be higher in the mix, or maybe more grindy? It could be my computer speakers.

Is there a reason why the guitarists name is crossed out? And not to nitpick, but the solo pic of the singer has to go. Not a good pose.

[wetzelman1]

Originally Posted by NS2A

Sounds cool. I like your tone. I agree the solo part should be higher in the mix, or maybe more grindy? It could be my computer speakers.

Is there a reason why the guitarists name is crossed out? And not to nitpick, but the solo pic of the singer has to go. Not a good pose.

hahaha killer crotch shot mang!