In response to the descriptive thread about growling, I thought I'd post an evaluative one.
For my money, growling is not very cool at all. In most cases I merely tolerate it, in many cases I despise it, and in a few cases I find that it actually and truly adds to the music.
As to the latter case, the one and only band who has ever been able to inspire me through growling has been Dark Tranquillity, and almost exclusively on the Damage Done CD (though sometimes earlier, as in Tongues). Mikael does this by using inflection in his growls, giving them a sense of urgency and passion that 99% of death metal growls lack.
Format C: For Cortex's "In time, all your questions will be answered; not what you hoped for, not what you dreamed," is a great example of the highest form of the growl, in my opinion.
Other singers, like Akerfeldt, use absolutely no intonation or inflection in their growls, giving no urgency to the words, let alone the music (more recent Opeth is a better example of this. Listen to the end of the song Blackwater Park). I hate this. I love Opeth, but in spite of their death vocals. I find it to be childish and tired (in terms of whatever aesthetic point it was originally intended to make), and the only evaluative measure of the effectiveness of such vocals seems to be how "eeeeeevil" it all sounds.
Well I don't like it. Beauty and self-conscious eeeeevil don't mix, and I wish that more vocalists would follow the lead of Stanne and actually express their words a bit.
I'd like to here disclaim that I am fully aware of how "Un-metal" my opinions are. I wouldn't be posting this here if I wasn't confident in being completely and utterly "Un-metal." (Though my opinions are pretty informed, I listen to a fair amount of metal). So let's talk evaluatively and aesthetically, rather than personally. Cool?
Great. So what do you all think of the growl as an expressive medium?
For my money, growling is not very cool at all. In most cases I merely tolerate it, in many cases I despise it, and in a few cases I find that it actually and truly adds to the music.
As to the latter case, the one and only band who has ever been able to inspire me through growling has been Dark Tranquillity, and almost exclusively on the Damage Done CD (though sometimes earlier, as in Tongues). Mikael does this by using inflection in his growls, giving them a sense of urgency and passion that 99% of death metal growls lack.
Format C: For Cortex's "In time, all your questions will be answered; not what you hoped for, not what you dreamed," is a great example of the highest form of the growl, in my opinion.
Other singers, like Akerfeldt, use absolutely no intonation or inflection in their growls, giving no urgency to the words, let alone the music (more recent Opeth is a better example of this. Listen to the end of the song Blackwater Park). I hate this. I love Opeth, but in spite of their death vocals. I find it to be childish and tired (in terms of whatever aesthetic point it was originally intended to make), and the only evaluative measure of the effectiveness of such vocals seems to be how "eeeeeevil" it all sounds.
Well I don't like it. Beauty and self-conscious eeeeevil don't mix, and I wish that more vocalists would follow the lead of Stanne and actually express their words a bit.
I'd like to here disclaim that I am fully aware of how "Un-metal" my opinions are. I wouldn't be posting this here if I wasn't confident in being completely and utterly "Un-metal." (Though my opinions are pretty informed, I listen to a fair amount of metal). So let's talk evaluatively and aesthetically, rather than personally. Cool?
Great. So what do you all think of the growl as an expressive medium?