How do you feel about Growled Vocals in Heavy Metal Music?

[Yngwie 4String]

I'll admit it was an aquired taste for me, but you have to keep listening to it and after a while it gets pretty awesome, and you can start distinguishing diferent growling styles. I almost prefer to clean vocals now.

[StanFan]

I like both, but it obviously depends on the band. Corpsegrinder can't sing for Maiden and Dickinson can't sing for Cannibal Corpse.

[HollowBassman]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ezp62LcyhGs

[Bryan316]

Growling is fun. It's evil and brutal. I can even tolerate it a little bit when parts of songs call for it.

But it TAKES NO TALENT. I give no respect to singers who just gargle yogurt into a microphone. I tune out their voice and listen to the guitarwork, cuz their singing ain't singing, it's talentless noise.

I'm a Pantera fan, but cannot stand Phil Anselmo. Can't stand his growling. Yes, it's aggressive and fits the music, but when he actually sang Cemetery Gates or Shattered, that's the only time I give him credit as a "singer". Otherwise, he's just a frontman with minimal requirements.

Old In Flames, Amon Amarth, Black Dahlia Murder, Hatebreed... can't stand em. I tolerate Children of Bodom because Alexi is a wizkid on that guitar and the band's songwriting and guitar/key harmonies are truly awesome, but Alexi's voice is like having a hemmoroid on my face and standing before Kate Beckinsale. Oh, and just cuz a girl can growl does NOT make Kittie an awesome band.

I can sorta tolerate Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage, because when he's not growling he really does have a powerful, energetic and wonderfully controlled voice. Listen to their cover of Holy Diver. Except when he starts growling again.


You bring me Russell Allen, or Bruce Dickinson, or Michele Luppi, or Andy Franck, or James Labrie, or Tom Englund, or Ralf Scheepers, or Andi Deris or Geoff Tate or ANY of a hundred singers I could think of with actual vocal ability. Then I'll listen to the band and be able to enjoy it wholly. Please, no more Dillinger Escape Plan or Job For A Cowboy. Please no more.

[*smb]

I used to only listen to metal with clean vocals...but Mastodon's early stuff changed that.

[fenderhutz]

Growling is much better than the Cryptkeeper/Wicked Witch style vocals.

[Bryan316]

AHAHAHA! Wicked Witch!!! No, sorry, I agree with you, those are also far too wacky/comical for me to enjoy. Much like Jag Panzer, almost too funny!

[Flabby1]

Brujeria

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8dRSN3v58JM

if you dont' like that, you're not alive

[fenderhutz]

Originally Posted by Bryan316

AHAHAHA! Wicked Witch!!! No, sorry, I agree with you, those are also far too wacky/comical for me to enjoy. Much like Jag Panzer, almost too funny!

Cradle of Filth came on XMLM and was diggin it with the growling and actually starting laughing when the Wicked Witch of the West decided to pipe in. I can't listen to it.

[spade2you]

I can't stand growler vocals. I don't know when exactly it happened, but metal turned into competition more than being about music. Who tunes the lowest, whose tone is the raunchiest, who growls the hardest, who has the fastest double kick, etc. On top of that, I don't hear much variety in metal. It's all 100% brutal and angry. If you consider Sabbath and Maiden "ideal" metal bands, there was at least some variety to what they were doing. I can barely hear the difference in ROARRRRRRRRR and Rawwrrrrr songs these days.

[HollowBassman]

For all you carrot music fans:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Y_CGB1GuoI&feature=related

[IconBasser]

growls... blegh..

BLLLAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!

oh.. I'm sorry? Uh, what? you just came down with laryngitis?

AArrrggh..AAARRGGHAAAGGH!!!

wait, no, um.. didn't catch that, didja say you ripped your stoma? Wait, er, are you cold? do you want a blanket?

AAAARRRRGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!!!!!

oh.. sh!t.. He's GOT A GUN!!!!! HIT THE DECK!!!

[Yngwie 4String]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gjKuSxg9DE

CHRIS BARNES, GROWLED VOCALS DONE RIGHT. And Yes this does take talent.

[iamlowsound]

For everyone saying that screaming/growling doesn't take talent. You try doing it night in and night out and still be able to talk 6 months from now. It takes a lot of control to be able to do it without ruining your vocal cords. Sure everyone can scream, but can they scream well. Just like everyone can sing, but can they sing well. Back on topic, I like it, but I do find that it is slightly over used in metal these days. BTW I spent a long time learning how to scream correctly, just waiting to be able to use it in a band.

lowsound

[Bryan316]

Brujeria - I must be dead, then.

Six Feet Under - I'd rather be dead.



Here's my agrument. These guys try to be so damned scary on stage.

And then you see Matt Barlow on a stage.

And then you understand true fear.

[iamlowsound]

This is true growled vocals for all you metal fans out there.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oJkp-GiuAWA

These guys are an awesome live show as well. I got pulled up on stage and screamed a song with them a few years ago. I learned to scream listening to these guys.

lowsound

As has been suggested above, growling DOES take talent, unlike what has been suggested here. Can you growl like Corpsegrinder? Mikael Akerfelt? Without any practice or predisposition whatsoever? Even if you didn't want to? Yup, thought so.


Is it my favorite talent to experience, done well? Not always is my answer. Akerfelt in Opeth uses growls and screams in a way which gives incredible effect to his music. In the best death metal bands, the growled vocals take a back seat to the guitar, bass, and drum work (and other instruments where applicable), which is bearable. When growls and screams are front and center and the music doesn't capture my attention, that's when I can't stand growling and screaming.

So, I guess the easy answer is only when it's accompanied by interesting music do I like growls and screams.

[spade2you]

Yup. Gowling, playing a million notes a second, and the fastest double kick take talent, but that doesn't make it sound palatable to most of our ears. The fact that you gotta justify it with talent further reinforces my idea that the modern metal is simply one big competition to see who can outdo the others.

[Sir Edward V]

Originally Posted by Flabby1

Brujeria

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8dRSN3v58JM

if you dont' like that, you're not alive

I'm not a fan of the whole breakdown thing... and that seams to be what most of this song is...

[Bryan316]

Lowsound.

Of all the local bands I know whose singers do the growling.

NONE OF THEM still have a clean voice any more. NONE of them. Growling is an easy way to get onto a stage and get attention, because it takes the least amount of musical ability to accomplish. They don't need to study syncopation to be able to do blast beats or full double bass without confusing their hands. They don't need to study musical scales, chords, arpeggios, or actually practice an instrument to play accurately, precisely, and with stamina.

They just shout.

They don't actually practice using their voice to hit real notes. They aren't even notes. They're barely concievable vowels, that's all.

Even when I don't hate Phil Anselmo, he had a basic understanding of vocal control and tone and notes and harmony. And that's me saying a LOT for Phil.

There's no way in Hades that growling vocals will ever, in my most humble of opinions, be considered a musical ability. It is simply a tolerance for throat pain, and an attention-whore desire to be on a stage. That's all it is.

Not one single growler will ever be able to strike a note that Robert Plant could hit, even now in his 50's. I'm not a fan of Robert Plant at all, and I still give him more credit than damn near every singer on Ozzfest, every freakin year it's existed.