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Poll

POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SCREAMING VOCAL STYLE IN METAL?

 Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 3:50pm by

This one has sure got you guys fired up in the comments sections, so let’s take it to the masses. I can’t say with certainty when the screaming vocal style was first introduced to metal, but I’m guessing it happened some time in the mid-late ’80s. By the early ’90s underground faves like Carcass embraced the technique, but it didn’t become acceptable in the mainstream until bands like Faith No More and the Deftones started screaming into their microphones with reckless abandon. Now you’ve got dudes claiming that anything with clean singing isn’t real metal. What do you guys think?

{democracy:17}

  • Fink

    Honestly, I haven’t really found a metal band with all clean vocals that I was a big fan of. Of course, there isn’t all that many of them, at least in the modern metal scene.

    However, I’m not categorically opposed to all clean vocals from a band. Screaming doesn’t add a certain edge to the music though, I think.

  • Sammy

    I voted with the second choice, but would’ve preferred a fourth, somewhere between legit style and overdone. With some it seems overtly brutal for brutal sake, kind of like a guy who has a truck jacked up 18 inches for no reason other than to make sure you know his dick is really small.

  • Tom

    Predictable screaming is awful. Monotonous screaming is awful. Wholly unintelligible screaming is awful.

    Screaming/Growling/whatever is a fantastic addition when the person doing it does it well. I like a tons of bands that do only screaming, a lot that only sing, and a lot who are comfortable mixing them in a unique way (e.g. not just screamed verses, sung chorus). Screaming can sound really bad-ass and when done well is just as impressive to me as quality melodic singing. I’m not even close to being sick of it.

  • Sammy

    Not to mention that not all clean vocals are created equal. Not everything clean is soaring power metal vocals. There are agressive, yet clean vocals that fit a metal sound. Gothic vocals are deep baritone and sound nothing like Halford-esque shrieks which sound nothing like rough, gravelly singing that’s not screaming. And then there is the Exodus or Slayer style of yelling in key. There’s Jamey Jasta pure yelling which is not that far from rap without the rhythm. There’s Corey Taylor who goes from screaming to yelling to singing agressively to singing purely clean and then back.

    Really, there is a place for it all. No need for a hip hop like war over different *tastes* in music. Because seriously, isn’t this what the debate really is over? Taste or opinion?

  • Ryd1ZZ

    I agree with Sammy, it’s all personal taste. (I also voted 2nd choice)

    at least we can be civil about the whole thing, unlike the blabberfags, who just hate on anything they don’t listen to. Although I have to admit, it is amusing.

  • http://www.metalsucks.net Vince Neilstein

    @ Sammy: isn’t taste/opinion what *all* debates here and everywhere are really over?

  • http://www.myspace.com/mismo Nick

    It’s all about dynamics and variation. I don’t even really listen to the vocals as “screaming” or “singing” as much as, how much are they trying to get their message across with what they’re saying. Monotonous “anything” is boring as piss. Regardess of tone (screeching or clean) you sound like a damn robot. And that’s fine, but just not very interesting.

    Fact is, regardless of vocal style, most metal heads are listening to the drums…then the guitar…then the vox. Poor bass usually gets left behind unless your listening to a stoner band. And I say this all as a guitarist in a non-successful band myself lol.

    And for anyone who believes that “heavy” goes hand in hand with screaming, i’d be obliged to mention that nothing could be further from the truth. The first Cathedral album is probably one of the heaviest things i’ve ever heard on record. Blue Cheer live 2/3 years ago, heaviest sound i think i’ve ever heard at all…my heart murmured and my fat face rippled from the bottom end drums/bass.

    Heavy is what hits your core and makes you move. Or at least makes you want to move. The last few Ministry records did that to me. But so does Jesu (and Godflesh back in the day), who typically have cleaner/non-processed vox. But going one step further, EBM bands like Hocico, Wumpscut, and VAC make me move. And they rarely even use GUITARS. I’m not focused on the vox as much as the music and the melody and of course, the beat/groove.

    So in short (too late)…screaming for the sake of screaming is lame. Screaming for the sake of “heavy” is lame. But screaming because you want a motherfucker to hear each and every syllable…that can work when needed. In the end, i don’t think anyone is paying attention, at least in metal, because metal is rarely a sing alongy genre of music. And that’s fine by me :)

  • Sammy

    True Vince, debate is usually over opinion or taste. I guess I meant that one’s taste is neither right nor wrong, it just is. Saying you dislike something is not the same as saying you’re stupid for not liking what I like or vice versa. Most of those here, as opposed to the infants who post on Blabbermouth, actually put forth thoughtful arguments. They’re all wrong except for me of course, but…Billygoat, that’s a joke.

  • Jethro_Knight

    Usually I don’t find it to be my taste, but sometimes screaming is useful. Over screaming though is annoying as fuck, and it all depends on the style of metal too. I don’t think screamo-Metallica would ever catch on.

    Right now, it’s overdone. But if it was balanced with screaming and singing, then screaming is cool to me (see, A7X “Waking the Fallen” [here come the a7x haters bashing me to death on that one...]).

  • http://www.last.fm/user/Richaod Richaod

    Screamo Metallica… sounds kind of like Trivium.

    I don’t mind extreme vocal styles when done well, but I think they’re definitely more effectively when used sparingly, especially during the climaxes of songs. Just as long as that doesn’t involve overuse of breakdowns as well. :P

  • Karel (Belgium)

    I voted the first option. That doesn’t mean I think bands who use clean vocals a lot aren’t “metal”. This has everything to do with personal taste. I like screams and deep grunts. I even like hardcore bands like Terror, with the monotone screaming of Scott Vogel. What I’m not a big fan of is using screams and/or grunts, but switching to extremely clean singing in the chorus of a song (Caliban, All That Remains…). I always feel that takes away a lot of the energy and drive. But again, this is my opinion. When me and my friends discuss metal, this is the one issue everyone where has a different preference.

  • NuMallCore Pwns YoMama

    I don’t mind screaming and clean singing as long as it’s not formulaic. I’m sick of bands that bark out verses and then have auto tuned clean choruses! Sometimes I like to listen to a band that’s got all aggressive vocals and no clean vocals. Its rare that I want to listen to all clean vocals unless its a good ballad.

  • NuMallCore Pwns YoMama

    … and that’s why I voted the second option :)

  • TTquick

    There are different classifications of screaming. I dont consider Phil Anselmo in Pantera (good Pantera) a screamer. I dont consider Mark Hunter of Chimaira a true screamer Guys like Dani Filth from Cradle or the dude from Geghis Tron simply yell, scream, and throw in the balls in a vice yelp once in a while. Those 2 can peel the paint off the walls. I cant take much of that kind of singing regardless of the musical style.

  • http://www.supmag.com Christopher

    FUCKIN BRUTAL

  • Shnaz

    The best screaming/singer out right now is M.Shadows. The ones who can do the combo are always my favorite—someone else who has that going on right now is Keith Buckley from Every Time I Die. It’s kind of a shout-style, but its in key, so its the best of both worlds.

    But the ultimate master of the gravelly, slightly agressive singing is Kirk Windstein from Crowbar. “Excess in its Purest Form” is genius. If “Planets Collide” were on that record it would be even better.

  • Seth

    I can’t believe you just put one of my favorite vocalists and BY FAR my least favorite vocalist in the same sentence of compliments. Keith Buckley is the fuckin man, M.Shadows is the reason I hate A7x. This is a website full of people who will undoubtedly TRASH emo music and its “whinyness”, but all you Saves the Day haters will then go on and say that you love M.Shadows? He is the whiniest irritating SOB on the planet. Seriously. Please never put Buckley and Shadows in teh same sentence again unless the sentence reads “Keith Buckley bashes Shadows’ skull with an oversized Barry Bonds signature HGH enhanced aluminum baseball bat, then feeds his remains to man-eating pigs.”

  • Adam

    Seth i coudlnt have said it better myself, thats some funny shit right there, but i agree with the fact that theres a time and place for everything,

  • Shiv

    We should all look to Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth for the epitome of all that metal vocals can be

  • http://countshockula.blogspot.com ezra

    I second that Shiv! He really covers all the bases.

  • http://sci-inv.blogspot.com Martijn

    I’ll chime in with the choir: It depends.

    Mastodon and Baroness are both ruined for me by the vocals. IMO their style demands a more melodic, but vocalist in the vein of Phil Anselmo. The main reason why I like Death Is This Communion over the order High On Fire albums are the much improved vocals. I also dislike that very monotous barking grunting style of e.g. Dying Fetus. To me that doesn’t sound dark or evil at all, it’s just boring.

    On the other hand Entombed Lars-Göran Petrov, Obituary’s John Tardy and Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto are among my favourite singers.

  • Niggy Tardust

    All death growls, all the time, you pussies.

    Brooooootal.

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