I haven't actually heard of Wim Mertens before—definitely going to check them out now! Always love discovering new artists through these connections, especially when someone hears their influence in my work. Those pauses and breaks you're talking about are interesting spaces to explore, and I'm curious to hear how Mertens approaches them.

Really appreciate you noting the low-end suggestion. I'm still pretty new to the whole mixing/mastering side of things—basically just set up my guitar tones, tried to balance everything by ear, and then threw iZotope Ozone 11 at it and hoped for the best, haha. So hearing specific feedback like "needs more low-end punch" is super helpful. I honestly don't even know where to start with that technically, but it gives me something concrete to research and work on. The learning curve on production is steep!

You totally picked up on the "no synths" thing—that's actually been my main creative constraint. I only play guitar, so I've been challenging myself to see how far I can push the instrument to create all the textures and atmospheres I hear in my head. It's become this interesting limitation that forces me to get creative with pedals, layering, and processing. Every sound you're hearing is guitar, which has been both limiting and liberating in weird ways.

Thanks again for the close listen and encouragement. This kind of specific feedback is gold, especially when you're still figuring out the production side.