Thanks for the comments guys.

First, some clarification.  The reason I created this group was to give a place for people who are going to sell/release their music, promote their group and try to produce something to send to record lables.

There are a lot of very talented people here, creating all sorts of great music, but I've noticed that there are a small percentage in bands who come to the Lounge every once and a while to say "Check out my bands recording!" and they tend to get buried rather quickly.  This group gives all those playing out live, looking to 'make it' guys a place to compare their stuff to others, to ask for advice on improving their recordings/mixes/ideas and to eventually hear the final product.

The reason this particular recording isn't a home recording, IMHO, is that it's purpose is different. I'm not recording this for myself and friends and family. We're recording this because this is the next step in our band. It's a different philosophy. I have tons of home recordings I'd play for you guys that are good, but are not for commercial release.  We're going to be selling this at shows, sending it for reviews and using it to promote the band.

I'd like this group to be the next level, after home recording. Like Line6 Millers group, could post their video here, but this wouldn't be an appropriate place for 14 yr old Stewart to post his cover of "Enter Sandman".

As far as the comments-Wardick, I think you're right.you don't get the style of music. It's supposed to be long and slow and build up. It's an aquired taste to be sure. I appreciate you're taking the time to listen and yeah, the vox are buried-I'm trying all sorts of different things, but I've got a lot of work to do on them.  I'll seriously think about the 'space' point. I mixed all the instruments way before the vocals and may have to remix some stuff for them to fit properly. The rumble is on purpose.

The difference in the vocal shift isn't that dramatic and I'll post it sometime. The vocals just really fit the whole song better this way, but we haven't decided for sure yet.

Aaron-the drums are Vdrums. Best thing since sliced bread. Saved us thousands of dollars in rehearsal and recording costs. I doubt I could mic drums properly and OMG just the thought of 'Ok, kick drum' 'THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP.....' makes me cringe.

Regarding the timing, I'd like to PM you and pick your brain. The vocals will be rerecorded-she can do it, but we may have to hit a 'real' studio to get in her comfort zone. She needs to hear playback and check out what she just did and we can't do that.  We just record tracks and I mix them later.

Geeker-thanks! The vocals may move about 30 seconds forward, we'll see. This song is actually quite sparse on purpose. It's the style. The funny thing is we're much more commercial than a lot of bands in our genre. Female singer, regular lyrics (not about drugs, death or evil), and shorter songs (seriously-these bands have 16 minute songs-you think 2 minutes for the vocals to come in is a long time? Try 10 and then it's distorted screaming).  The guitars-I'll work on the definition-I think I know what you mean. I may have to retrack-my tone doesn't sit very well in the mix and it's pissing me off. I've got a few other things to try as well, so again, we'll see.

Thanks again guys-I appreciate the feedback and I'll use it to improve the track. I'll repost after I get more work done.

Don, thanks for the nice comments! I appreciate it. I know this music is a little different and can be hard to take, so I thank all of you who took the time to check it out.

Now, for the nitpicking questions...Don, you mentioned the drums could be a little more out front. Do you mean the whole kit or any specific drums? I've got each drum on a seperate track so editing is easy. Also, what do  you think of the cymbals?  One of them sounds so tinny it's killing me. We're going to audition cymbals on the brain of the Vdrums and find one which sounds a bit more natural.

This tune was written by the other guitarist. He's acutally a fantastic drummer who wanted to start his own band and wrote all these tunes. I don't write like this. The plain fact is I know too much about guitar to write this stuff. He knows nothing, theory wise, so his writing has nothing but his style on it. I won't let him learn anything else...I know it sounds weird, but there is a point where knowledge gets in the way and a certain naivete can really pay off.

Also, you need a leader. You need someone to come in and say "here's a new song, complete. learn it" I can tell you from experience that writing by committee won't work for us. It's great to have the songs 80% done and then we can all shape them.

It's funny, a lot of bands work this way-look at Metallica. Hetfield wrote all the songs, Hammett just did solos and it was amazing. As soon as all the members started writing, you got St. Anger.

I helped shape the song, helped with all the tones, wrote my own parts and solos (I'm the busy, noisy guy), and am doing all the engineering on this. I'm also playing at producer, but that's just cause I'm in charge of mixing.  The final results will have a band vote with Joe (the guy who wrote all the songs) having the final vote.

Since this is the first time I've ever mixed a band, I'm pretty happy with the results. I love this Golden Age! When else could we ever have done something like this? I've been in a lot of studios and there's always something going on that I don't like-I've never walked out saying 'this is the best we could have done! It's perfect!" This is an opportunity to actually do that. Hence, my asking for fresh sets of ears to point out things I can't hear or am too close to the music to hear properly.

Thanks again guys! All your comments are helpful and are taken seriously.