Punish my heaven bluegrass cover released!
- Thread starter kung
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stizzleomnibus
Decisively Human
I'm not exclusively into death metal, so maybe there will be vast disagreement here. When you think about it, choice of instruments, vocal styles, tempos, and everything else that makes music, is just a choice of voice. I like bluegrass, folk, classical, a small selection of hip-hop, and whatever else has the music that I'm looking for, regardless of the voice. I think cross-genre covers prove this point. While a fiddle sounds nothing like an electric guitar, they can say the same thing (i.e., play the same melody).
It's really difficult to get past voices and conventions when experimenting with new genres. Think about how much the growling turns people off when they first hear metal. I had to listen to the melodies and guitars "around" the vocals when I started. Admittedly, I was listening to In Flames at the time, and I still don't think Anders' voice was every very good. I learned to love it though. Remember that while the voice isn't what you're used to, it's the convention of the genre of the song.
Also, this is IN NO WAY a criticism of DT, but the guy didn't have much to work with. It is very difficult to growl a melody, much the same way that it would be difficult to rap melodically. For this reason, most vocal lines in hip-hop or metal are flat, without soaring highs. Swedes sing through guitars very often. The emphasis in death metal is more on altering the timing, tone, and complex shape/feeling of a growl, something which is impossible in other forms of music.
The only song that comes to mind to illustrate my point is Slania by Eluveite. The chorus features a melodic female voice mirrored by this beautiful, bassy growl. The growl just chants the words while the vocals soar; it's difficult for me to decide which voice is more powerful, but they are stunning together. (I know "beauty and the beast" is hardly new, but that was just a convenient example.) Had the SotB vocalist reworked the growls into a vastly more melodic line in that fashion, it might have been interesting, but inaccurate. I think he did a phenomenal job.
It's really difficult to get past voices and conventions when experimenting with new genres. Think about how much the growling turns people off when they first hear metal. I had to listen to the melodies and guitars "around" the vocals when I started. Admittedly, I was listening to In Flames at the time, and I still don't think Anders' voice was every very good. I learned to love it though. Remember that while the voice isn't what you're used to, it's the convention of the genre of the song.
Also, this is IN NO WAY a criticism of DT, but the guy didn't have much to work with. It is very difficult to growl a melody, much the same way that it would be difficult to rap melodically. For this reason, most vocal lines in hip-hop or metal are flat, without soaring highs. Swedes sing through guitars very often. The emphasis in death metal is more on altering the timing, tone, and complex shape/feeling of a growl, something which is impossible in other forms of music.
The only song that comes to mind to illustrate my point is Slania by Eluveite. The chorus features a melodic female voice mirrored by this beautiful, bassy growl. The growl just chants the words while the vocals soar; it's difficult for me to decide which voice is more powerful, but they are stunning together. (I know "beauty and the beast" is hardly new, but that was just a convenient example.) Had the SotB vocalist reworked the growls into a vastly more melodic line in that fashion, it might have been interesting, but inaccurate. I think he did a phenomenal job.
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