I love the ominous, apprehensive mood at the beginning. Perhaps it’s a little slow to develop, but you establish the atmosphere extremely well here. The stop-start transition at :54 threw me off a bit. It seemed like it was this subtle, melodramatic build, but then the section after it is very reserved and mellow, with nothing to release the tension of the build-up (crash, pads, etc.). That said, you launch into this beautiful cinematic section that tugs at my emotions. The quality of your samples is quite impressively high, and the vocal section at 1:26 was quite the emotional height. You transitioned well into the breakdown section, leaving yourself plenty of room for contrast and climax once again. However, I wish you had made an attempt to develop the themes you presented during the first chorus (1:26) further. Otherwise, the piece lacks a sense of overarching development and finality, and the end result of the emotional input is a rather unconventional bell-curve. Perhaps these structural details are extremely picky, though, and I’ll admit I have very specific preferences in that area. The mixing and mastering are fantastic. I simply couldn’t find any flaws. As I’ve touched upon before, the instrumentation and atmosphere are fantastic, and you also did a great job with the texture, dynamic contrast, and the like. Overall great work! I simply would’ve loved to see you flesh out the choral part over multiple refrains next time because I’m the biggest structural fuss in Newgrounds history! :D Keep at it, man. ;)
9.5/10