melodic metal/hardcore content, critique is most welcome

[oroinvictus]

Thought I might post this on the sturgis forum and see what happens. This is a song that a friend of mine and user on this forum, MisSigsFan, wrote and recorded for his band Recollections (look 'em up on the facebox), and he recently gave me the files to play with it.

Here's the first version I whipped up in about 45 minutes: http://bit.ly/Jgut59

And here's another version that I feel is much, much better: http://bit.ly/IJE9Tm

The guitars are a bit heavy in the low-mids and I don't know how to feel about the lead guitar. Any critique/comment/whatever is welcome. Thanks for your time and thanks to MisSigsFan for the files.

 

[GearMan2point0]

Mix lacks energy, but the music is fantastic

 

[oroinvictus]

What could I do to give it more energy and in-your-faceness? I'm currently pushing my master comping and limiting as hard as it wants to go without clipping at max volume... mind you I'm working on a nearly 6 year old laptop :|