Shattered Skies [5/8 User Band] [melodic groove metal/djent] NEW EP UP FOR FREE DOWNLOAD NOW!

THE REANIMATION EP IS UP HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD:

http://soundcloud.com/shattered-skies/sets/shattered-skies-reanimation-ep

Tracklisting:
1. Beneath the Waves
2. Delusions
3. Attrition
4. Chasing After Time
5. Take the Beaten Path
6. This is What We Built



Enjoy hopefully!

Sean Murphy: lead vocals
James Dunne: bass
Ross McMahon: drums, mixing/production
Ian Rockett: guitar, keyboards, backing vocals

Sounds good man, some good melodies. Vocalist seems to fit decently. I wish the mix had a bit more lows in it, sounds thinner on the bottom end.

Hmm, on what I listened to (to check if it sounded ok) it had plenty of low-end, but each to their own I guess. Thanks!

pretty good band I guess

Sean killed it

I love how tight and big he gets the guitars and drums to sound without it being cluttered at all.

Yeah Ross is really becoming quite the force mixing-wise

Also Dan from TesseracT just commented on the song and said the vocals were great. 'FUCK YES' doesn't even begin to describe it

looks like they actually did pay attention to your dick sucking at the dublin gig

I showed my drummer this song, because he likes gay prog metal shit. First thing he does is cry about how he doesn't like the singer, wtf? But he likes whiny emo band vocals so take that comment with a grain of salt.

ah sure, I guess the vocals are always gonna be the most polarising thing, what can ya do

@Klonere, I shot him the link cos I saw him online on fb chat, but I really didn't think he'd even listen, let alone comment, dick has successfully been sucked

Everybody cries about vocals...it's so annoying. I think the singer is a good match for the band though.

Thanks man, yeah we're totally happy with him. Especially after getting the thumbs up from one of our favourite singers

good work Rockett, so are you fuckers gigging at the moment or wha?

EDIT: Attrition is fucking awesome, I love the vocals (ignore the retards on MI btw, he's doing a great job )

Jesus christ rockett, this is the best 5/8 user band by FAR

however, I have to agree with mistamarko on this, it's missing some warmth on the low end. are you guys mixing/mastering with headphones? that will give you a distorted picture of the bass presence.

i just have headphones right now, bu I fucking love this.

The low end is clear and nice on these mothers.

and the cover art is cool!

thanks for the kind comments guys there may be a few tweaks done to this track between now and the full release so mix critisisms are welcome.

Cheers guys yeah if there's concensus on an issue with the mix we might as well make a few tweaks. Glad yous are enjoying it! And thanks Schubertiad that's a huge compliment!

I didn't want to judge the mix from the YouTube upload because that always sounds both fat and gay, but going by the Soundcloud instead (which surprisingly doesn't really sound that much clearer actually), I kind of agree with the sentiments that it could do with some more beef in the low end, and I'm listening with a sub.

Also, it has this edge to it that sounds kind of.....80's, I guess. I think it's a combination of the keyboard patches with the big reverb on the vocals and snare. Personally I love the 80's so I mean that in a good way, but it may not be to everyone's taste. Perhaps backing slightly off some of the reverb on either one or the other would help the overall mix clarity a little more as well. I've found that generally in metal mixes the vocals sound better with a fairly subtle delay throughout the song (automated up when you want it to actually be noticeable), so you can get away with using a bit less verb and still not have the vocals sound too stark.

Now that all that boring shit is out of the way, I love the track! Some great melodies - Sean is a massive improvement for you guys. Looking forward to hearing Take the Beaten Path with him, because that's probably my favourite track of yours so far.

Actually the snare is something I immediately honed in on, having heard old mixes of the song. It does sound very 80's. Is that a conscious decision by Ross or what?

well its kinda funny, ian does these demos of the songs with this crappy casio keyboard and the drum kit soundfont he has on it has this massive 80's style snare on it. I always loved the way it sounded and for this track I kinda made a consious effort to recreate a modern/live version of that snare. I can probably dial back the reverb on it a bit but for the vocals to fit in the mix they kinda need that long delay. I think maybe I'll leave the reverb on the snare for the intro and midsection but maybe dial it back a bit for the rest of the track. I dunno though I love big reverbed snares.

and yes I'll probably push the bass up a bit for the release, I always find less bass is better than too much bass so it always takes a bit of critisism from other ears to get it right for me.

I hear you on that one - the very top and very bottom end are always the biggest cunts to get right. The top end gets much easier with good quality cymbals though - with cheap shitty ones they always feel too loud no matter what you do with them.

personally I love the 80's snare on the track its just some people hate that shit

out of the 70 or so comments we've had everywhere else no one's said anything about the snare so I guess the 80s is back in

I think this is miles above that other Rocketmaster band, Distributor.

i dont know about all that mixing shit, but the song itself was disshoamgud.jpg, but i will agree that the vocals were a little more homo than i prefer (and i am a huge taylor swift fan)

I will make our singer go on stage

Vocals are kind of lame and there's something odd about the way the dude shifts in and out of pitch. Also, the 8 string is pretty unnecessary as usual and it would probably sound much better without that ridiculous low end. Those keyboard notes that follow the vocal melodies made me lol.

That said though, I like it much better than your previous stuff and I agree that making it sound less "reverb-y" and 80s-esque would make it even better.

So where's the EP?

To be honest, from the comments about the new singer I was expecting something a bit more, uh, raw?
Together with the synthies this indeed sounds kind of 80s.

Still, the improvement is astonishing.

2nd song from the EP up now! It's called Delusions:

http://soundcloud.com/shattered-skies/delusions-ep-version

The EP should be out later next week.

Great song!

Love the vocals in the chorus. The synths are slightly weird sounding in places but it's pretty great overall, good work.

I'm really digging these new tunes

That guitar sounds like an angry dog. :thumbs

Loved the dueling guitar/synth thing. Singer is really good, and has that really sort of commercial rock-lead vocalist sound to him.

yeah, this is the best one so far!

Great chorus

thanks a lot guys, the amount of positive feedback we're getting is really overwhelming

And deservedly so - this kicks ass! But then I've seen this coming for a while now, with the demos getting better and better.

Most definitely the best thing I've heard from you guys. I still can't say it's something I'd put on my iPod as the guitar riffage is still a little unoriginal and I'm not really into the vocalist or the heavy-handed synth, but I can finally see the appeal you guys have. If the other songs on the EP are like that, I could see you going far in the metal scene.

This is pretty killer! Will definitely be checking out the EP when you release it. Will it be a freebie, or on iTunes or bandcamp or something? I'm down to pay for it, so I'm only asking out of curiosity.

Delusions is fucking destroying me.

EDIT: The only criticisms I have are that some of synth voices, as others have said, seem out of place. Also, the harsh vocals lack punch to me. It sounds like they were tracked a whole bunch of times (mostly likely to make them sound harsher than they really do), but it has resulted in the sounding a little washed out to my ears.

Listening now - good stuff!!! The guitar solos are great and the clean vocals are very strong. Also, you guys don't stand out as being just another djent band, so thank you. It sounds more like heavy prog metal with some djent influence. I will have to agree with Mits, the harsh vocals lack punch especially since the vocals overall are so strong imo. When does the EP drop? I'd like to purchase it. Will you make it available in iTunes US or are you going to be lame and only release it on i(reland)Tunes?

I don't know why, but you guys remind of Nintendo somehow.

That's probably a really good thing tho.

I am addicted to 8bit music so I'm sure some of it creeps its way in some how.

Yeah we use the absolute bare minimum of equipment and bottom of the barrel mics, so it's difficult to get the vox (especially harsh vox) sounding anywhere near where we want them to sound until we can afford better gear.

As for the synths, my influences are primarily from 90s UK dance/trance artists like Chicane, Orbital, Prodigy etc so some of the synths probably sound a bit odd and don't quite sit well with some people, but it's just a taste thing in most cases, occasionally it's just cos we haven't got the best synth sound for the job, but most of the time it's just because I have a weird taste.

You didn't answer when exactly you're releasing the EP, butthole. "This week" isn't specific enough.

We're aiming basically for this weekend, Ross is busy with work, I'm busy with exams, and we're trying to finish mixing it at the same time. The hope is Saturday, but it'll be Sunday at the latest. And it'll be up for free on soundcloud and also on bandcamp where we'll put an option to donate. If we get a bit of demand for physical copies, we'll make a few and sell em for 5euro.

If I donate 5 euro, can you send me one in the event of a physical run? Supportin' dem 5/8 bands up in this! You'd better buy my EP when it's released in the fall.

yeah absolutely

also sure thing