Thanks a lot for listening guys, and for the comments.
Tom - wow lots of comments (that's a good thing). I guess the first guitar is "thinner" by choice. It's a higher register, and bordering on feedback. I like the contrast.
As far as bringing in the drums earlier - that's the good thing about not being "commercial"
I don't worry about "short attention spans"
re: the glitchy synth part - that's just a sequenced sample set. it's kind of lo fi - and I left it like that. I think I was looking for the contrast between that and the other parts - so the lack of "air" is probably on purpose.
These things aren't all conscious decisions
Bill - the guitar parts are either using S-Gear amps, or the Mercuriall Reaxis (I love this one) - both of these go into Torpedo WOS for speaker emulation. I like to go with alnico speakers, but some of the Reaxis ones go through Mesa cabs. I guess you just don't like the tone of these
There are billions of options