GAME OF NOW

I'm curious to see where the rest of this album goes. I'm not a fan of this single, as it is a little too accessible and choir heavy, maybe even generic and bland at first. I do like where the song goes, and it ends strong when Scardust opens up and goes all out... and man, Noa's belt at the conclusion was incredible. But the first 2 minutes of the song does not do it for me, as it's too structurally conventional and just drags.

To be fair, I was not a big fan of Tantibus II when Strangers was first released, but I ended up loving the entire album. Same thing for Avenged Sevenfold's album, Life Is but a Dream... from earlier this year, which their single "Nobody" did not do it for me, but I ended up really liking the album and the song felt well placed in the context of the album. The Game of Now has grown on e a little since the music video first aired, but it does still seem a bit too "poppy" for me, despite this kind of being the band's thing. The band does embrace their alternative side here (I may even go as far as calling it a straight up alt metal song, which may be why I don't like it too much) and the song reminds me of "Under" from Strangers, which was one of the low points of that album.

What I do like here, however, is the new mastering engineer, Robin Schmidt. My biggest complaint from Strangers was the poor mastering job from Jens Bogren. The dynamic range was reduced and the album felt too compressed. Robin's master here really compliments Yonaton Kossov's great mixing work, and the song doesn't feel so constricted under a loss of DR - it feels natural and smooth.

Overall, mediocre start to the song, and decent ending. Good engineering value. I hope it fits well in the album. Scardust is at their best when they embrace their wanky side, and their worst when they embrace their conventional side.