Friday, September 17, 2010

death/black metal vocalizing styles

Probably the biggest "hot topic" of debate when it comes to metalheads is the vocal stylings known as "growling".  metal is the only genre of music that incorporates vocals that arent "clean-voice" (archetypical singing).  many people are opposed to the idea of growling; the primary reason being the fact that they cant comprehend the lyrics, due to the natural distortion of the vocal chords.  they see no reason for the singers to 'mutilate' their voice this way.  there are multiple reasons for a metalhead to prefer and enjoy growling as opposed to clean-voice.  the first being the instrumentation of "power" that most clean voice tends to lack.  there are exceptions to this, as with all rules, for example: maynard keenan of the band tooland a perfect circle, and ICS vortex formerly of the band dimmu borgir (and many other bands including lamented souls, arcturus, borknagar, ved buens ende, and dagoba).  however for the most part, when you take the face-melting earth-shattering riffs and drums of a death metal song, and put it behind the whiny sing-song clean-voice vocalizing, it is extremely apparent that the vocals can't match up.  as far as comprehension of lyrics go, death metal focuses on the instrumentation and sound of a song, as opposed to words say.  not to say the lyrics of a death/black metal song can just be disregarded,  some of them are quite profound,  and some of them are badass as fuck.  after years of listening to these types of vocalizing, one can begin to easily decipher the words "behind" the growl, and fully enjoy what the music and lyrics together have to offer.

10 comments:

  1. I like some of them songs, but sometimes it's just over the top. A good friend of mine can growl really good, it's crazy what he can do with his voice srsly. Respect

    Btw, around here we call it 'grunting' :P

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  2. That would hurt my throat so much

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  3. its all good until i cant understand a god damn word they're saying, then it's not music any more, it's just a moron making gurgling noises in a microphone.

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  4. Had a few friends who started a band and their singer could do this for a whole set, freakin amazing

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  6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBtHnWb3G3c

    One of the sickest growling styles in my opinion.

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  7. I like growling vocals in moderation, but some times it feels like it takes way to much away from the music it self.

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  8. I actually enjoy alternations between heavy growling and melodic singing. The contrast is quite pleasing, at least to me.

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  9. I just can't get into the growling, plus it makes my cat freak out!

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  10. I downright absolutely fucking hated it... and then I found Amon Amarth.

    They really couldn't do what they do without singing that way, as it would take away the edge that really makes them feel like legitimate Norsemen. Plus, I'm more of an instrumental kinda guy, so if they have ultimate guitar solos and don't sing about how they hate their dad, I'm game.

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