I feel ur pain on the zero bombers man, but that's not the reason I voted you a 5/5. I consider myself somewhat of a classical and orchestral connoissuer . I listened to your song twice before typing this review, so as to properly portray any emotional or logical stimulus.
Intro - Two words? Simplistically deafening. Piano was a wonderful choice. Good pad work. Great build up into 1:08.
1:08 - The drum roll was superb, yet lacking a certain element. For some reason, the description I want to portray eludes me at this moment. Loving your choice of brass here. It successfully captivates me. Smooth transition to 1:22.
1:22 - Superb pad build up and transition into 1:26.
1:26 - At this moment in your arrangement, I half expected to hear a different melody, possibly something that matched your intro a tad better. like being able to split the track into sections, and take 0:00 - 1:08, put it along side 1:26's melody and be mindblown. However, that being said, still a good choice of melody, which nicely compliments the entire song and all of it's changes.
1:56 - Very sudden, abrupt, and abrassive change of pace for my tastes. I would relate it to being immediately snapped out of a trance. Not entirely bad, but not entirely good either.
1:56 - 2:25 - Very good usage of strings, piano, and woodwinds.
2:25 - I couldn't have chosen a better primary transition however, you use the same sound later on, during a main phase of the arrangement. Very risky, but powerful and bold.
2:46 - Those drum beats. Those single hits. Remember earlier in the song when I was snapped out of my trance? I take it back. This just completed a cycle, full 360ยบ.
3:09 - This part of the arrangement was very provocative for me. I love the fact that you incorporated a reverse build into the coda.
3:18 - Successful coda. Your piece was brought together in my opinion, by this essential part.
Now to the critique.
I feel as if I'm left wanting. There were certain elements that were just not there. Although you seem to have a mastery over the genre, I felt as if it were prescribed. Not in the sense that I didn't enjoy the music, because I enjoyed it quite a bit however, I assumed from your first transition to hear an epic crescendo later on in the piece. There elements for it were there, but they weren't brought together. They were placed in different areas.
Overall, I'm giving you a 5/5 review vote, and a 5/5 rank vote. Thank you for your work, and I look forward to seeing it throughout the rest of the NGADM. I am glad to have you as a competitor!
Take heart, this is not an official review. lol.
~FoA