Hi,
I am an epic music writer as well.
It appears you didn't seem to have completely orchestrated the track well. I will put my comments below for you.
The piano motif is simplistic and fits well with the theme (Simplicity is desired for epic music). However, audio wise, the sound is way too thin and lacks the hammer on sound that you should bring out. A piano in epic music should sound bell-like (Listen to La Campanella Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt).
0:28 Hits are way too muddy, and does not sound as deep enough for the hits. Perhaps instead of using that particular drum, try using a high tom layered with low tom instead. It provides more cut and warmer punch for a stronger buildup.
0:57 Cellos are way too unmastered here. Remember that cello is considered as "the soul of the orchestra", you do NOT want to skimp on string sections, and in particular, the bass and cello parts. The following string spiccato section requires compression to reduce spikiness and boominess.
1:20 You are clearly following a binary structure here, but here is the catch, binary structure requires the 2nd recapitulation to have an added sound (Listen to Gabriel Shadid - Something To Believe In, notice he adds a soloist choir on top of repeating the same material).
2:06 You must absolutely absolutely absolutely absolutely absolutely absolutely not do this to a structure of an epic music. You have established a structure of introduction -> first build - drop. However, you repeated that format over again with the same level of contrast, and so it sounds stale overall because there is a lack of contrast between the 1st and 2nd part of the music.
2:36 Choirs are clear, but there are muddy frequencies and sonic holes within the sound. You need to fill them. Perhaps more percussion, try African Drums. Also I am guessing you are using Albion orchestral sample library suite, which explains the hit for me. Try NI Damage instead, you will love it.
2:50 It will help if you study Mozart and Beethoven more to understand the human psychoacoustics when playing mellow and smooth parts of music. You ended in a piano solo, but it may be better managed if you ended with a premonition instead for more impact. I cannot emphasize the importance of understanding the roots of orchestration before attempting to orchestrate.
Also, here is a sonic trick that you can try yourself, try adding a sine wave bass on top of your bass line, you will sound a lot more whole when writing.
In case you want to know what I write, here is a track I wrote that was featured in Epic Music World (The largest epic music community in YouTube) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhIHDKLzKoA
I am working on tracks but my progress is slow as I am still studying. Hope these comments will help you out!
Oh btw, your track sounds more orchestral than hybrid to me. Listen to J T Peterson - Queen Of Blades for Hybrid Apocalyptic Alexandrea for Orchestral Hybrid. Try not to mix the term up especially in the EMW or EMC communities, the mods are very particular about those. Perhaps we can exchange more compositions in the future.
and last thing though, just curious which choir sample library are you using. It does not sound like Voxos or Stormchoir.
