The vocals are distorted, yes, and that's because I applied distortion to them...
I tried without, but that was nowhere near as brutal.
The overriding purpose of the song and mix was to try to achieve a very brutal and loud impression, in the vein of Nails (cf their song "Life is a death sentence") but a little darker.
There is actually rather little compression and limiting going on, believe it or not, but guitars are very loud and there is also a use of reverb serving to boost the chaos further.
Now, all of this is of little worth if it doesn't convey the overall ear raping effect that I am after!
Will review and reconsider the elements!
Thanks for taking the time, much appreciated!
If there are more people wanting to put colour on this - give me a shout!