Neil Bees - Skulls and Crossbones

Neil Bees

Skulls and Crossbones
self-released; 2015

3.0 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Neil Bees is an artist based in Perth, Western Australia who recently released Skulls and Crossbones that contains eleven original songs. He is a one-man show who plays metal that is reminiscent of Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. The recording quality is below that of a demo. There are tons of instances of digital glitches and digital distortion, the drums are flat, the guitars sound distant and the vocals need a lot of work, etc. 

If Bees want to release any more material the first thing he is going to have to buy is a pop filter for his vocals. The constant popping of his vocals was more than noticeable on my speakers. Bees for some reason decided to pan his vocals hard left and the guitars hard right on some songs which made the vocals harder to understand then they already were.

Bees has his work cut out for him in a number of other departments as well. There are a handful of times he is off-key, the songs are off time and they showcase little originality. The songs themselves revolve around basic guitar chords and drum beats. All the songs start to run into each other and Bees never introduces any new elements into the mix as the album progresses.

The one thing that Bees has going for him is that he is attempting a style of metal that isn’t as oversaturated as many other forms of the genre right now. If he is serious about being a musician he is going to want to find a couple of others musicians to surround himself with. Hopefully, that could bring out some of his innate talent and fix all the timing issues, which are present on Skulls and Crossbones. 

On top of that the recording quality will have to improve by leaps and bounds if he hopes more than his friends will listen to his tunes. Invest in some gear and learn how to use it, buy studio time - do whatever is necessary to make it appealing to the human ear. 

Tweet