Mikael's growl...how loud is it?

Judas Pissed

MEATL
Aug 26, 2003
363
4
18
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Melbourne, Australia
Hey, I've noticed recently theres been lotsa talk about how to growl and sing in similar ways to Opeth and a couple of people have said that Mikael growls very quietly. I understand how it's easier to do it quiet as long as you don't have a dry throat but when he does it live it looks like he's growling incredibly loudly and with lots of force. I was just wondering if it really is quiet or not, I was also curious as to if there's a volume difference between his growl and scream...
 
Hmm I don't know, but when I growl it's comes out loud no matter what. Probably because I'm terrible at controlling my air supply so I run out of breath within 5 seconds. Mike probably learnt how to control his air supply, which means growls in the range of 15 seconds long.

That didn't really help.....but oh well.
 
Judas Pissed said:
Hey, I've noticed recently theres been lotsa talk about how to growl and sing in similar ways to Opeth and a couple of people have said that Mikael growls very quietly.

Hey, JP. In an interview Mikael himself has said that it's quiet. Also, there's a local metal band here that kicks ass and I've talked to their lead singer, Jacob. Jacob's growl is pretty quiet but he says overexaggerating the words makes you look like you're loud when you're growling.
 
Cool, thanks.

One other question...are any effects other than compression and reverb put on his growl? In Bloodbath he sounds 10x heavier than before, just wondering if it had something to do with production effects.
 
Yep its true, I can growl like that sometimes. But u gotta have lots of saliva in the back of ur throat to make it kind of gurgle, which is what makes the growl sound so badass. It's easier for me to just growl loud though.
 
Judas Pissed said:
Cool, thanks.

One other question...are any effects other than compression and reverb put on his growl? In Bloodbath he sounds 10x heavier than before, just wondering if it had something to do with production effects.

The sound doesn't need any extras to be like that...but you made a point with Bloodbath. It could be that he just growls in slightly different style, but on the other hand Swanö and his gadgets may have something to do with it.
 
If Opeth don't hire a dude to sit in front of the mixer adjusting the mic volume at performances I can't draw any other conclusion than that his growl can't be much louder than his normal singing...