I like the glitchy synths at the beginning. The kick drum and hat in particular are way too heavy, though, and the excessive reverb doesn’t help too much. I think you overdid the distortion after a while. The texture sounds really harsh. Meanwhile, the piece doesn’t have a strong sense of development in the harmonic department. The rhythmic content and a lot of the sound design is creative, but stylistically it’s a bit too experimental to come together well for me. I think a lot of my complaints here are a pretty easy fix. Dialing back the mixing effects alone would probably get you another 1-2 points from me. Filling out the harmonies and creating some more structural variety would be next steps after that. That said, the instrumentation and rhythmic elements are strong here. Keep at it, Axova! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
0/1
Composite score
4.5/10

i'm a fan of abrasive and aggressive sound design, and this delivers on that big time. took me a little while to find the tonal center, and the clashing bass notes at 0:42 still feel a bit too intense even after a couple listens, but it still feels like a lot of thought went into the sheer harmonic density in this. there's a lot of headroom in the track but it still feels overly compressed, and the rhythm doesn't have much energy despite being very loud and forward - i would put a punchier clean kick over the distorted 808 and pull the snare up, then bring everything else down before hitting the master limiter. could also roll the highs off just a little. but i really enjoyed this. make more!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

Crazy beat - piano doesn't seem to fit though and wish it had more variety

Good luck! I’m one of your opponents. :)

Very interesting :) the bit crush at the end was dope lol