Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Sign in to follow this  
Khorus

Z-taxia - Absolute Order (A pay what you want Khorus album)

Recommended Posts



The debut album for my electronic rock project Z-taxia is now up for download from Bandcamp. Features artwork by Kristian "Kristus" Käll and mastering by Claus Larsen aka. Leaether Strip.

Feel free to share your thoughts, and if you like what you hear, passing it on to a friend or two would be amazing. :)

Share this post


Link to post

2nd track was pretty cool. The lyrics are quite immature imo, like the voice of a muppet from the movie Labyrinth. Eyes of Stanley Pain-icize them is my advice, not saying I know how or it'd be easy.

Share this post


Link to post

Oh, sweet! I recall you talking about your musical endeavours a while ago on TTV, but had forgotten that you were so close to putting something out there. A full release is the best possible reminder :D

Despite my attempts to mentally detach the album from its connections with Strife, the stylistic impression that I got was heavily influenced by my recent playthrough of the mapset and I inevitably found the sound of the tracks evoking a sinister, steely and technological feel. This is probably a good thing, all in all, but I guess it's not terribly helpful in review being so particular and dependant an impression.

Anyway, I enjoy much of the album, although admittedly the tracks that I'm more fond of are the ones that I recall from the game (A Murder of Crows is fantastic! H20 and the titular track come a close second and third, respectively). Unfortunately I'm not really sold on the vocals, by and large.
I think the main problem is not that they're necessarily bad. In fact, I think that with the style that you're shooting for they have the potential to work themselves in rather well... Rather, I don't think the arrangement of the music compliments the vocals very well, and almost makes it sound as though they don't belong together. Part of this could be because there isn't much in the way of instrumentation that "plays off" of the vocals, but I also think it's due to the vocals acting as the centerpiece of certain tracks when they might be better off supporting a more prominent melody or sound. In any case, it feels oddly disconnected -- almost as though it and the music weren't arranged with each other in mind, the vocals being added on at the end to try and complete the picture.

Otherwise, I quite liked it! Sometimes I think it sounds a little heavy handed, but I'm no productions master. If I sit listening to things long enough I'll probably start to invent problems that simply aren't there, heh.

Great stuff. I'm heading back over to put Crows on loop.

Share this post


Link to post

Thanks to all for checking it out. :) So far, most people have preferred the instrumentals which has really surprised me. I was a little worried people would think of them as filler or something.

gggmork said:

2nd track was pretty cool. The lyrics are quite immature imo, like the voice of a muppet from the movie Labyrinth. Eyes of Stanley Pain-icize them is my advice, not saying I know how or it'd be easy.


Glad you like the title track. :) Sure I agree that the lyrics are rather pedestrian. These were the first tracks I wrote lyrics for, so I am still really getting to grips with writing and such. Haven't seen the movie Labyrinth yet though hehe.

st.alfonzo said:

Oh, sweet! I recall you talking about your musical endeavours a while ago on TTV, but had forgotten that you were so close to putting something out there. A full release is the best possible reminder :D

Despite my attempts to mentally detach the album from its connections with Strife, the stylistic impression that I got was heavily influenced by my recent playthrough of the mapset and I inevitably found the sound of the tracks evoking a sinister, steely and technological feel. This is probably a good thing, all in all, but I guess it's not terribly helpful in review being so particular and dependant an impression.

Anyway, I enjoy much of the album, although admittedly the tracks that I'm more fond of are the ones that I recall from the game (A Murder of Crows is fantastic! H20 and the titular track come a close second and third, respectively). Unfortunately I'm not really sold on the vocals, by and large.
I think the main problem is not that they're necessarily bad. In fact, I think that with the style that you're shooting for they have the potential to work themselves in rather well... Rather, I don't think the arrangement of the music compliments the vocals very well, and almost makes it sound as though they don't belong together. Part of this could be because there isn't much in the way of instrumentation that "plays off" of the vocals, but I also think it's due to the vocals acting as the centerpiece of certain tracks when they might be better off supporting a more prominent melody or sound. In any case, it feels oddly disconnected -- almost as though it and the music weren't arranged with each other in mind, the vocals being added on at the end to try and complete the picture.

Otherwise, I quite liked it! Sometimes I think it sounds a little heavy handed, but I'm no productions master. If I sit listening to things long enough I'll probably start to invent problems that simply aren't there, heh.

Great stuff. I'm heading back over to put Crows on loop.


Thanks for your interesting critique. :) There's certainly a lot of room for improvement with incorporating vocals, so I'll be continuing to experiment to get it all to gel on future releases.

Great to hear you managed to connect with a track or two, that makes all the hardship involved worthwhile. :)

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
×