Intro
This is not so much a music review as a shameless plug. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am reviewing music, even music that has yet to be released! But the music I am reviewing will have a slight, ever so small, maybe even unnoticeable, bias. You see, I am treating you, dear reader, to a review of my very own music project – Made By Humans. And to make it even more special, I am going to review the EP, before its even publicly available!
While its true that I will be reviewing the music, there will also be two other parts to this – the background and purpose of this music project, and the philosophy behind it. But I will start with the album review, because that is why you’re here after all. If you like what I have to say about it, then maybe you’ll hang about for Part 2 and 3.
With that out the way, lets begin.
The Album Review
InstruMETAL (what a great name, if I do say so myself) is a 5 track EP, covering about 25 minutes of your time, and is, essentially, one story through 5 parts. Its instrumental metal, with some electronic overtones. Now that you know what you’re getting into, lets dive in… Also, side bar, before we continue – because this is more preview than review, I will keep the track names a surprise for the release. Apart from the last track which was the first single. I have to generate some sort of excitement from it, after all.
Track One
Track One sets the stage. Its bright and hopeful. I know, weird way to describe a track. That is, until you hear it. It has a fantastic baseline running throughout, and the keys really give a feeling of innocence. One could almost imagine this song being the soundtrack to the start of an adventure.
Track Two
This is a darker sounding track from the get-go. The drums hammer home the feeling of urgency and give a sense of overwhelm. Think about this as almost one long breakdown from a hardcore song for the most part, but again, listen for the baseline throughout. Hear the way the drums are leading this feeling and guiding the chugging of guitars. You really get the sense of things not quite going right…
Track Three
Violins start this track off, giving the listener a tense searching vibe with the drums playing second fiddle (ha! See what I did there!). The tension builds through this track, almost devoid of anything that one would consider metal. There’s some guitar in it, but overall, this is very cinematic, or symphonic, in nature. As the mid point of the album, and the audio journey, it plays a very important part. While some may enjoy it, I expect most to skip it. But as this EP is supposed to be taken as a whole experience, the mid track plays a pivotal part. Once it gets released, I’d be very interested to see the stats on this one!
Track Four
I know that I released Track Five as the single, but I must be honest and say that this is probably my favourite track on this EP. Track four doesn’t pull any punches, and thrusts you straight into the action. This song feels like a fight – the hero raging against the enemy. Yet through it all, there’s ups and downs. There’s the hopefulness and brightness of Track One, yet it never feels easily won. This would be easier if you knew the track names of course, but in generating “hype” one must be a bit vague. All in the name of getting some streams on release you see…
Track Five – Victory Spurs Us Onwards
The first single from the EP and a way for me to test out the world of music publishing. My word, what a journey, but we’ll leave that for another blog post (I do need to create content after all). This song is pure victory music. Have you ever played Final Fantasy? After each battle, they have a little tune that’s uplifting and a “you won” type feeling. This song is that in metal form. Another way to describe it would be the inspiration behind this music project. Becoming the Archetype is one of my all time favourite bands, and they have a few songs from the album Terminate Damnation that I wanted to emulate for their amazing overcoming and victory sound. The first one is the 11 minute epic – Elegy. The first 4 minutes or so have lyrics, and then the rest of the almost 8 minutes, is pure instrumental storytelling in a way that I have been hard-pressed to find since. The other song – Ex Nihilo (Latin for Out of Nothing) – has some of the best victory metal ever put to plastic. These two songs are what I wanted Victory Spurs Us Onwards to emulate. See how much more I am able to tell you, dear reader, when you know the track names!
Maybe I’ll have to do a full in-depth review once the EP drops. It all depends of if people are interested in it… Anyways – that is InstruMETAL Vol.1 for your consideration and, hopefully, pleasure. It’ll be out on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and even in Roblox and TikTok when it’s live. In fact, you can stream it no matter your service of choice.
So please stream it, please share it and also, please give me feedback on it.
The Background & Purpose
I hate lo-fi. Nothing riles me up more than chill beats. Its music without being offensive, or standing for something. It’s the mayonnaise of the music world. Its so inoffensive that I find it offensive. And for some reason, when you’re looking for background music – for work, studying, to put on while you entertain, lo-fi is the main suggestion. It irks me. I want music that has soul, that has presence. But I want music that can fade into the background as well. And all the “rock” and “metal” streamer friendly music I have come across is neither, and certainly not good enough to put on and actually listen to and appreciate, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
To give you, dear reader, and idea on what Made By Humans is, the mission statement is as follows: Made By Humans aims to provide high quality, high energy, instrumental rock and metal that is royalty free. It’s great for background music, and great for listening sessions. What this means, in action, is that if you want to, you can use any part, or all of this EP, in your creative content. If you, dear reader, need background music for your Twitch Stream, and are not a fan of lo-fi, then stream this. If you want to use some of this music in your next Instagram Reel, then use this. No copyright claims, no YouTube bots – its made to be used.
This is what Made By Humans is about. It’s main purpose is to build a library of music that is great by itself – stands alone as something you want to put on and listen to. But when you need some music for your live stream boss fight, your DnD session, or anything that needs high energy background music, is also good for that. Because not everything is lo-fi, slow study sessions on a rainy afternoon. Sometimes it looks like attacking the gym, lifting your personal best, pushing through that writer’s block, starting that project – anything where drive, grit and determination are needed. Made By Humans aims to provide that.
And another aspect of it is introducing a new audience to metal. Wait, dear reader, hear me out here. I have good reasons… You see, a lot of people think that they don’t like metal! Strange I know, but apparently it’s a real thing. Their reasons vary, as these things do. The vocals: how can you hear what they are saying? The imagery: everyone wears black and looks super scary and hates me. Or the (often incorrect) conceptions they have about it: its all satanic and evil, and they just hangout in the forest and paint their faces white. Yet, when these very same people actually sit down and listen to intricately created instrumental metal, something clicks. It’s almost primal in the way it flicks on something in their brain. Suddenly they can see the beauty, the story, the musicianship, woven through each layer. And then they can understand and appreciate the talent.
Of course, then we introduce some Norwegian Black Metal and hang out with them in the forest with our white painted faces and black painted nails.
The Philosophy
The name – Made By Humans – is very deliberate (even if a little generic) which encapsules the whole idea here. I believe that a massive backlash to A.I., if not already here, is coming. We were promised A.I. would help with menial tasks – make our life easier. And yet, here it is, and what is it doing? It’s creating art, music, writing essays… It’s taken the creativity of humanity and desilted it into ones and zeros where each unique creation is also super generic.
Now don’t get me wrong – A.I. in its current form has its place, and I use it at work to make my day-to-day easier. But at the end of the day, the joy I get from wiring a blog post is more than I would get from people reading a well articulated argument I prompted the A.I. to write. There is meaning in struggle (as As I Lay Dying Said). Not that writing a blog post is a struggle, but it’s not the easy option. Creating something with your own hands, even if imperfect, will also bring more pride and joy than choosing the easy way to get the same result.
A.I. can’t listen to music the same way we do. It cannot tell us why Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is beautiful. It can only give us a summary of all the other digital ink that other humans have spilled over it. A.I. can’t feel the drum beat in your chest as you jump around in the crowd to Slipknot, but it can describe the feeling with words I don’t even know exist. All this to say, music, at least to me, is deeply personal. It’s more than just sound waves and frequencies.
I believe that creativity is deeply human, that we are all imbued with the desire of our Creator to create. The drive to create should not be surrendered so easily. Or at least as easily as we have until now. Creativity should be protected.
After all – to create is too human.