What do you think about this?
I hate it and don`t understand, why singers are doing that. The bands have good musicians, they play good riffs and than.....the singer is growling.
I wanted to go to a metal festival. But before doing that I checked the line up......90% of the bands have growling singers.
That is the end of heavy metal.
Why does all the kids like that. Am I too old....????

Not at all."You're never too old if you're too young to die..."

I'm 16 and I hate this "death growl" that people tend to do nowadays. I know The Butt like it. Well, at leaste I think he does. I just don't get it. Some bands make it work, just none that I've ever heard.

(Drags out the .txt file defending harsh vocals. :P)

It's understandable that you may not like harsh vocals, but they're hardly the "end of heavy metal". Keep an open mind. They actually require a lot of talent/control in order to pull off a convincing shriek/growl.

Now, you ask why they do that: They're meant to convey a specific type of emotion, based on what kind of vocal is being used; death growls are meant to convey brutality or aggressiveness, black metal shrieks are meant to convey an angry, tortured, pain-filled essence.

Not to mention, the inherent style of black and death metal wouldn't allow for clean vocals anyway, in 99.9% of cases. You can't honestly listen to a death metal song and expect them to sing clean?

And it's not just "kids" that like them. There are users here, like RLP, who enjoy these types of vocals.

You know prokyon, like many other-metal fans everywhere, you realize you have the luxury to basically avoid extreme music like death metal/black metal/grindcore/hardcore and stuff like that if you genuinely "hate" and "don't understand" the need for or distinct appeal of harsh vocals in the vein of low-pitched 'growls', guttural 'grunts' or whatever else you might come across. I just think the growling vocal style is an amazingly natural, almost perfect, match for the extreme and brutal music it accompanies. Not only do growling vocals almost serve as an additional percussive element in the songs, but more importantly, it totally belongs and defines a major extreme metal genre like death metal, especially, and then you have the black metal and grind vocal styles that incorporate their own variations of growls, screams and shrieks to convey the emotion and vibe of the music. If you think you actually sort of like the music and what the players are doing, then I suggest you might like to listen to many more bands and songs and chances are the growling and all will 'grow' on you like an acquired taste and you might even begin to accept and love it all. Far from being the "end of heavy metal", I'd argue that extreme styles like death metal and others have helped to massively rejuvenate, even heroically 'rescue' heavy metal from the cesspool of the maddening and mindless mediocrity into which tons of mainstream metal bands, veterans and newcomers alike, had sunk the genre into. And I ain't condscending you at all when I say, that regarding death metal and growling vocals, you might finally "get it"..



Yea buddy, you can say that again!!. I don't merely 'enjoy' but hugely love and can't get enough of top-notch growling vocals in my dm. I'm gonna be 32 in September so I've stopped being a 'kid' a long time ago I've been loving this music--sheer brutality, growls and pure awesomeness of it all, since I was 18. And seriously, heck no, it isn't just "kids" that swear by dm, bm and all that. Apparently, a majority of extreme metal fans are actually in their thirties, old enough to have been there, done that, heard and seen tons of acts to be the sort of passionately die-hard, devoted fans they are today.

Btw, prokyon's comment of 'The bands have good musicians, they play good riffs and than.....the singer is growling.' reminds me of NoWayOut's remark in the 'Zero the Hero cover' thread recently. NWO said pretty much the same thing along the lines of how the growling vocals are "such a waste of the music". Everytime I think of that comment, I can't help but laugh and sigh in amusement. ..Gosh, at least you guys fancy the music..there's hope yet!!!

ugh, I hate it. Closest I get to that rubbish is listening to Axl Rose.

I wouldn't even listen to him. Death growl or not, I hate him and any band that he's part of just as much.

You guys are being such complete ass-hats, really. How the fuck did you bring Axl Rose into this? He hasn't ever wandered anywhere near death metal or growling vocals...And 62_SG, I somehow thought that you were pretty much a big GnR and Rose fan. So, regardless of your opinion on death growls being "rubbish", alluding to Axl Rose on this topic is borderline-lunacy. WR is fine though, he just hates the guy, no matter what he does with the vocals or what band he fronts.

You may just be too old.

I didn't like growling at first but The Butt changed my perspective on it and now I love it. I was all "this gives metal a worse sterotype" and he's all "but it's awesome and brutal" and I'm like "hmm I never thought of it that way..." and now I understand how gutteral it is and it really adds to the death metal/black metal/thrash metal atmosphere. It rules! it's so brutal it's amazing.

Yeah, I didn't say anything about him sounding like he's growling... Actually, now that ithink about it, I have no idea how he got him into this discussion either.

The closest I come to listening to that is Axl Rose? I on't get it.

Is that really how it happened?

But yeah, agreed totally.

Found this on YouTube, for anyone who might be interested... this fella makes it look so easy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wrCloZqGQk

Haha, Grole. It's growl, not grole. As in grow-ul

Yeah dude, you're pretty much the one that convinced me to give growling a second chance, and now I love it.

I couldn't really get into the style of intense growling and shrieking in black/death metal. I do like it when hints of it are used, mainly falsettos like Ian Gillan, Halford, Robert Plant,... Dio's growls, which are becoming more prominent in his singing nowadays because he's getting older. Layne Staley's growls were great when he was alive.

I fancy myself to be a rock vocalist, I've been practicing for about a year and have improved a lot since I first began, not to say I'm good or anything but I know it can be tough on the throat when you're not doing it properly. I try to incorporate Dio and Layne's growls with high falsetto's like Plant and Gillan. That being said, while I'm not a fan of the strictly growling/shrieking style I do respect it as it isn't easy.

Gaunt, first up, I wanna wish you tons of luck in your ambition and efforts to be a rock vocalist...Hope you practice and hone your talents and skills, to soon become confident enough to write and sing your own stuff. And then hopefully you get your real, proper breakthrough to show everybody what you've got to offer on mics.
I used to do lead vocals for a heavy rock band for a few years in my early twenties..but then everything in life conspired to make all that fizzle out soon afterwards. I sort of regret that immensely, today.


I'm hugely surprised though to see you bring up guys like Gillan, Plant and Halford--and that too, their high-pitched screams or 'falsettos' on the topic of "growls", especially the extremely low-pitched variety to be heard, especially in death metal. These guys could scarcely be associated with growling, ever. And Layne Staley?? Could you seriously consider some of his vocal stuff to constitute actual growling??..And Dio??. I don't hate his voice or anything and I won't even get into whether his voice has worsened or held up just fine, with his advancing age. But mate, Dio's 'growling', if it can genuinely even be called that, is a counterfeit substitute for the authentic article.

As I said above, I think the artists employed "hints" of growling and high falsettos. By that I mean very little, but still noticeable enough to accentuate their cleaner sides and their darker sides.

Not knowing much about the subject, I decided to look into it and the chorus of Boris the Spider by The Who from 1966 seems to be a popular example of early growling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8dSBWysmnM

There is also mention of a track called I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkinns from 1956, but I don't really hear it in that, not like in Boris the Spider anyway.

I can't say I'm much of a fan of growling, either. For a short time, around '91 or so, I started listening to Sepultura, Napalm Death, and a few others. I checked it out. Maybe i am too old, also. Or it's a generation thing. 20+ years ago, people didn't know what I saw in bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Preist, Motorhead, etc. I'm fine with it. Let the younger guys take metal to a new level and make it their own.

I don't think growling is any worse than the high pitched shrieks, melodramatic goth vocals, or roaring operatic styles used by other metal bands. Certain styles work better for certian bands and certain styles of music.

Just because what a lot of what he does is screaming, or at least very raspy and harsh vocals.

I just think most of it sounds stupid (its growing on me though, I can actually tolerate it now rather than telling whoever is listening to it to turn it down. Ask me again in two years)

I don't hear "growling" in Boris so much as I hear strain to "sing" a register much too low for the vocalist.

Growling is a vocal tool ... just as is rap, shrieking, screaming ... all of them have their place. I personally prefer artists who "use" the various tools at their disposal rather than rely on any single one to define their sound.

Of the bands I've heard that use growling, I like 36CrazyFists and a few others

They are good in some occasions, but its not good ALL of the time IMO. Its great for letting off some steam, I personally love it in Ozzy's 'Tomorrow' off Ozzmosis when in picks up and he starts screaming. Halford also does it well, IMO Breaking The Law could use more. If I can get a band together this year at school I wanna cover BTL with harsher vocals.

I don't care for it.

At all.

You seriously reckon 'growling' is like some personal pressure cooker valve to 'let off some steam' as in pent-up anger, frustration or aggression?? You could be taken to mean dm vocalists AND presumably we fans of the genre and the vocal style are perpetually aggravated and angry all the time and doing or hearing 'growling' vocals is a safe, pleasant metal way of venting and relaxing. I don't know Psycho, maybe you're no more right or wrong about it than you would be if you had said pretty much the same thing about METAL music, generally. I'm a bit baffled by your comments about Ozzy and Halford regarding growling. Halford is a bona fide screamer, alright but when does he seriously growl, I gotta wonder. But then I haven't heard every song of his and I don't totally remember Breaking the Law ..And Ozzy sure doesn't have a genuine growl in Tomorrow that you cite here. Some of you guys are making me seriously wonder if you actually recognize what real 'growling vocals' are.

But, please go ahead and give BTL the 'harsh' makeover, vocally. I might even wanna hear that particular version even more than the original all over again.

Thats how it is for me. I generally won't listen to a song with growling unless I'm pissed off and need to vent or I'm in a thrashy mosh pit mood. As per Tomorrow I site the line: Living in the thunder driving me insane. Its even better when you crank up the volume with massive bass.