Forgive My Ignorance…..Growl Lovers Wanted

From a vocalist who's had to explore the growl world in order to understand how to produce "vocal distortion", here's my (rather academic) take:

There's two main components to "growling" -- pitch (low, mid, and high/shriek) and amount of rasp (i.e. "distortion"). It's not all or nothing; every growling vocalist actually falls somewhere on a spectrum of these components. Higher pitched, heavily distorted vocals are also considered "screams". Black and death metal vocals most often use maximum distortion to achieve their effect. One band that illustrates the pitch contrast with two vocalists handling each type of growl is Dying Fetus, (though I'd consider them "deathcore" more than anything else).

The thread already touched on growling as using the voice as a percussion instrument, but I wouldn't 100% rule out melody either. I'd consider Dimmu Borgir on the higher end of "melodic" in the black metal spectrum. I've been to Arch Enemy, Opeth, and The Black Dahlia Murder shows and all these vocalists were able to incorporate a discernible, lower-pitched melody line while keeping their voice guttural. On a personal note I also have to admire Five Finger Death Punch's Ivan Moody because he can flip the switch from percussive mid-pitch metalcore growls to clean vocals on a moment's notice. Mainstream though the music is, his vocal techniques make the band for me.
 
LadyK said:
I also have to admire Five Finger Death Punch's Ivan Moody because he can flip the switch from percussive mid-pitch metalcore growls to clean vocals on a moment's notice. Mainstream though the music is, his vocal techniques make the band for me.
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There are so many vocalists that can do it better than Ivan Moody. Haha. Guy from Scar Symmetry for one. The vocalist of Anaal Nathrakh (their last album was one of my favorites of 2007) can do low gutteral vocals, typical death/grind vocals and power/prog-ish melodic vocals as well. Besides, I thought it was standard procedure for metalcore bands to incorporate screams and cleans in every song. :lol:
 
rms said:
:<

I'll take my good production black metal with better players over immortal any day :p
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The last 3 Immortal albums had excellent production and the playing isn't any less technical/competent than Windir. (Great band)

In fact, the production on the last 3 Immortal albums is better than the Dragonlord albums, now that I've gone back and listened. :lol:
 
Jasonic said:
Agreed..
Furthermore, with mentions of In Flames, Arch Enemy, Slipknot, Dummy Burger, etc... me thinks many of you are calling any vocal that is not clean a growl.
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Well, Slipknot aside, the other three bands do indeed fall into the question asked by FatesFan, which was:

Are there different styles of growling or harsh vocals?
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Dimmu Borgir utilize black metal rasps, which are a form of harsh vocals, so not technically a "growl", but, how is it that what In Flames and Arch Enemy do/have done over the years are not considered growls?
 
Jasonic said:
me thinks many of you are calling any vocal that is not clean a growl.
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Well yeah, because that's the Generally-Accepted Terminology. Yes, once you get into a detailed discussion of "harsh vocals", then "growl" can refer to a subset of that style, but when used as the opposite of "clean vocals", then "growl" covers the whole set, and I think that's fine.

It's like the word "car". In its narrow, nitpicky form, an SUV is not a "car". But in its wide form, "car" generally refers to any automobile used for personal transport, whether it's a 2-seat convertible or an SUV.

All "clean" vocals are not "clean" either. If we wanted to be truly precise, we'd use terms like "melodic" and "non-melodic" vocals, or even "tonal" vs. "atonal".

LadyK said:
I've been to Arch Enemy, Opeth, and The Black Dahlia Murder shows and all these vocalists were able to incorporate a discernible, lower-pitched melody line while keeping their voice guttural.
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This is probably an illusion, created by guitar melodies that parallel the rhythm of the vocals. It can make it seem like the vocal has the melody, even though it doesn't. The closest things to "growls with melody" would be Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger), Taneli Jarva (Sentenced/The Black League), or even Lemmy (Motorhead). And those are all immediately recognized as a different thing than Arch Enemy/Opeth vocals.

Neil
 
Sure, I guess a "growl" can be a subset of harsh (IE - not clean) vocals.

I think a successful "Growl" is much different than In Flames / Arch Enemy, etc...

I would say Mikael (OPETH) is middle-ground in what I consider the difference between a growl and a harsh vocal (ala melodic DM, etc).

Well, that's just my opinion of course.....

If you are not really into death, black, or doom / death, I suppose it can all be called a growl.
 
metalsped said:
I thought Serpentine was the newest...
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Dude i came off like a complete dick. Sorry about that :lol:

That vid is a visual abortion though. High.... larious. Especially the shit at the end.

skyrefuge said:
Well yeah, because that's the Generally-Accepted Terminology. Yes, once you get into a detailed discussion of "harsh vocals", then "growl" can refer to a subset of that style, but when used as the opposite of "clean vocals", then "growl" covers the whole set, and I think that's fine.

It's like the word "car". In its narrow, nitpicky form, an SUV is not a "car". But in its wide form, "car" generally refers to any automobile used for personal transport, whether it's a 2-seat convertible or an SUV.

All "clean" vocals are not "clean" either. If we wanted to be truly precise, we'd use terms like "melodic" and "non-melodic" vocals, or even "tonal" vs. "atonal".
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Wait wait wait... are you insinuating that a growl will transport people from point a to point b? :Smug:


god please don't take that seriously...:lol:
 
Kimavir said:
Grab the latest Threshold album and listen to the third track, Elusive. Again, this is a genre and a song that should appeal to you. One of that song's most outstanding features is the back-and-forth calling between the clean and growled vocals.
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BTW, the growling voice on both Slipstream and Elusive from the most recent Threshold album Dead Reckoning, are done by guest vocalist Dan Swano. All the the clean vox are done by Mac.
 
Valarien said:
BTW, the growling voice on both Slipstream and Elusive from the most recent Threshold album Dead Reckoning, are done by guest vocalist Dan Swano. All the the clean vox are done by Mac.
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I know :) Doesn't change the facts that those are songs that should appeal to him and that Dan Swano is awesome.

PS. I don't know what bands go REEEEE RREEE RREEE, but I need a link just to say I've experienced this idiocy.
 
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