Growling vocals and great music

Maybe I'm getting old(33) but lately I've been hearing some fantastic playing but then the "vocals" start and it ruins it for me. It's just my opinion, but does this happen to anybody else. Like Messugah, AMAZING playing, but the vocals just make me lose it.

+467564 While i love opeth growls, I do hate when bands like meshugga, dark tranqility, kilswich, and others of the like do the growl thing. Its pointless and annoying. Youd think that maybe they would use it once in a while but damn..........

I Agree, I Agree, I Agree and did I mention I AGREE!

I hate growling vocals and screaming. Its like whats to point of writting lyrics if noone can understand you? My bass player in my old band couldn't sing a lick. He sucked. so he decided he would scream all the time to make up for it. Annoyed the crap out of me.

-Art

I hate growls.... leave that to animals plz.

I dunno, I have mixed feelings on the growl thing. I think it's kinda cool, if I can manage to understand what they are saying anyways, but most of the time I can't so I have to follow along in the lyrics book. But, once I've memorized the lyrics it's kinda cool to hear the song being sung in that style. In an evil way. Then again I only have two bands at the moment that I listen to that use the growl. Opeth and Suidakra, and both also sing using clean vocals at times too, which is cool.

I like it with Opeth or Chuck Billy from Testament. but most of the time it sounds childish as in bands like Six Feet under and Cannible Corpse.

*shrug*

I guess I focus so much on the music anyway, the vocals are just another "instrument," just another part of the music. True, some "death" style vocals are annoying after a bit, but some fit oh so well (case in point: Children of Bodom). In the end, it's just another style, the polar opposite of singers like Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford; it just depends on my mood as to which I listen to.

Gonna have to disagree with you fellas. Now, in all honesty, I cut my teeth with bands like these and still to this day love them. Granted, growling vox are an aquired taste, but for the people who listen to and love the metal genre (with growl vox,) it evokes a certain feel and emotion that I can only compare with angst and agression...but can also be something beautiful as well as aggressive (i.e. Dark Tranquillity's "The Endless Feed"...WE ARE STILL ALIVE!!! I get goosebumps whenever I hear that part.) As far as the comment of growling vox being pointless, I'd like to see how so seeing as I can understand many of these kinds of bands lyrics. Basically it all comes down to personal taste, but calling growling vox "pointless" is going a little too far I'd say.

DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE!

Oh, yeah, sometimes it's very cool (Death, Meshuggah, Opeth) and sometimes I don't like it... who knows?

I have heard one instance where a semi-growl works perfectly. Beyond the Pale by POS. Gives me chills every time I hear that part of the song.

I hate growling minus Devin Townsend.

I only have Damnation by Opeth so I don't know about Mikael Akerfeldt's growls...but we'll have to see.

Man, I hate growls.

Soilwork + Arch Enemy = good growling

Hey, it's all good with me. A few years back I used to be a full on prog nazi, until I was introduced to dark side... I love the aggression aspect of it, I guess, and with the right lyrics and arrangements, it conveys an aggressive and striking desperation that any other vocal style can't touch. It also depends on the vocalist, too -- just like your suck-ass singers, you'll get guys who can't scream or growl and just sound rediculous and can't be taken seriously.

(i.e. Dark Tranquillity's "The Endless Feed"...WE ARE STILL ALIVE!!! I get goosebumps whenever I hear that part.)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes that song -- the synths and programming make it golden.

And on Meshuggah, yeah they definitely take some getting used to. I find I can't really listen to them on a regular basis, but when the mood comes, Meshuggah is the best band on the planet. Kiddman's vocals aren't really growls as they are just flat out screaming, which can be unnerving, but it goes with the cold, calculated and emotionless music the band creates.

ORIGINAL: jcharney

I hate growling minus Devin Townsend.

I only have Damnation by Opeth so I don't know about Mikael Akerfeldt's growls...but we'll have to see.

Man, I hate growls.

Oh man I am going to be a fanboy here, but I LOVE AKERFELDTS GROWLS they come in like a hammer to the face as matika would put it.

ORIGINAL: EyelessStorm

ORIGINAL: jcharney

I hate growling minus Devin Townsend.

I only have Damnation by Opeth so I don't know about Mikael Akerfeldt's growls...but we'll have to see.

Man, I hate growls.

Oh man I am going to be a fanboy here, but I LOVE AKERFELDTS GROWLS they come in like a hammer to the face as matika would put it.

Well, I've been needing some new Opeth anyway, so !

Yeah, when I first started to get into this new age metal, I couldn't stand it, but turns out I only like when Opeth does it. I guess it's becuase they can growl but then sing and harmonize so well too.

It's good contrast, and I think if you're gonna growl, you should sing well too.

ORIGINAL: willyz


It's good contrast, and I think if you're gonna growl, you should sing well too.

Which is why I like Soilwork so much



sweet 1111 posts. That sort of thing won't happen for 1111 more posts!

Yeah... I still have to find a band thats full-on fucking aggressive music and crystal clear music, and that actually works... And I probably wont like it if I find one, I think its all about the attitude of the music. Aggressive+growls its the way its done. I cant imagine any other type of vocals for Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, Meshuggah, Pantera, Death, Morbid Angel, Nile, Hypocrisy, etc etc etc. Am I the only person that thinks that Devin Townsend doesnt growl at all? I love the guys music, but to me he sounds much more like an aggressive screamer than a growler. Way too fucking different.

I love growling, it just fits aggressive music like Superterrorizer said. Around a year ago I wasn't much into it, but when I was exposed to Opeth I began to appreciate it more.You can't have sick blast beats at 200+ bpm and brutal guitar playing, and then throw high pitched vox over the top. It just doesn't fit.

it seems people that like the high pitched singing metal hate the growling and the guys that like the growling think bands like dream theater and symphony x vocal stylings sound really homosexual. to me i appreciate both in a different way. i love the new unearth cd and some soilwork is great. i liked orphaned land and then i love kamelot and edguy so i get a lil of both. its all about an open mind.

Opeth, At the Gates, Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan, Dissection, Emperor, Cave In, Enslaved, Isis, Mastodon, Harkonen, Immortal, Cynic, Death, etc.... growling vocals kick ass. They work in some kinds of music and not in others.

Opeth is the only one I tolerate

NP: Opeth 25 March 2004 bootleg

Not even Satan could sound as evil as Mikael Akerfeldt does.

I'm pro growling. I actually enjoy growling my self too, so that helps.

ORIGINAL: drumline0671

I love growling, it just fits aggressive music like Superterrorizer said. Around a year ago I wasn't much into it, but when I was exposed to Opeth I began to appreciate it more.You can't have sick blast beats at 200+ bpm and brutal guitar playing, and then throw high pitched vox over the top. It just doesn't fit.

Word. And the good thing about good growling/screaming vocals is if you but a good death vocal over some power metal you've basically got the Gothenburg sound.

I LOVE growling..

You have to be open to the idea of music expressing some dark and terrible emotions.. many people do not like music to do this.

Also, ive found that once people accept growling as another vocal technique (ie drop the stereotypes and prejudice) it is much better received.

I feel the same as the thread starter, too

I don't like it. I want to like Opeth, but it ain't gonna happen my friends.

I dunno, I've never been a fan of growling....I mean...I like it to an extent...early Hetfield..JLB on recent albums....my current problem is that singers tend to all sound the same now...exapmples....the way it should be..

the 70's and 80's
Freddie Mercury
Jon Anderson
Geddy Lee
Peter GAbriel
Phil "what" Collins
Robert Plant
Bono
Fish
Geoff Tate

The list goes on......name one current singer in a band with mainstream success that you could not confuse for someone else in the mainstream market....I really can't...

I don't like growling, not AT ALL! I like singing along to songs so, well, you see the problem . But that's not the reason really, i just appreciate clever lyrics and i actually want to hear them in the song, and also it's nice to hear melodies in not only the music but in the vocals! i'm constantly picking up bands from your posts and checking them out, cos i wanna find and listen to as much great music as possible but some bands that've been mentioned, like let's say Opeth, i don't think i'm even gonna THINK of listening to it, i've understood it's very much growling. But there is something that bothers me, i KNOW that i'm missing out on a hell of a lot VERY GOOD music, just cos i can't bear to listen to it cos of the vocals. I've tried, you know the music and playing sounds great but i just CAN'T ignore the growiling, or screaming even better!

Well for me it's kinda the opposite... I grew up on a lot of hardcore with major growling. But I got tired of it, and shortly after I got into DT and the whole progressive world opened up for me, which kept me for many years.

But recently I'm getting back into stuff like KillSwitch Engage, Soilwork, Full Blown Chaos... not Opeth though...

But I guess it's just a phase, cuz at the same time I'm getting into PoS as well, with BE, Remedy Lane and Perfect Element Pt. 1. So there's still hope for me

<Also, ive found that once people accept growling as another vocal technique (ie drop the stereotypes and prejudice) it is much better received.>


Im not prejudiced towards growls, I just don't like them, it's a preference. I accept balet as a dance technique but it doesn't mean I like watching it.

Growling and screaming vocals always sound terrible to me. A singer can put a grit and emotion in his voice without creating the equivalent of attacking a snare drum with a jackhammer, or putting a guitar in a wood chipper, or pushing a piano out of a 3rd story window. It's not so much music as it is cacophony and aural refuse.

ORIGINAL: ClarkW

Growling and screaming vocals always sound terrible to me. A singer can put a grit and emotion in his voice without creating the equivalent of attacking a snare drum with a jackhammer, or putting a guitar in a wood chipper, or pushing a piano out of a 3rd story window. It's not so much music as it is cacophony and aural refuse.

The point is to have the most intense evil-sounding vocals possible, and growling is the only way to go. Of course you wouldn't have growls with pretty music, it would defeat the purpose - but so does having la-la vocals with death metal, they don't fit. Pretty simple really.

The more screaming the better.

e point is to have the most intense evil-sounding vocals possible, and growling is the only way to go. Of course you wouldn't have growls with pretty music, it would defeat the purpose - but so does having la-la vocals with death metal, they don't fit. Pretty simple really.

Although Pantera is somewhat growling, I still consider it singing. Same with early Metallica. You can have singing with intense heavy music. Ozzy does it, others have too. I was listening to sound samples for the new Ozzfest and most of the bands have that screaming/growling vocals. It's not wrong for them to do it, but I dont care for it.

ORIGINAL: Yarbles

Gonna have to disagree with you fellas. Now, in all honesty, I cut my teeth with bands like these and still to this day love them. Granted, growling vox are an aquired taste, but for the people who listen to and love the metal genre (with growl vox,) it evokes a certain feel and emotion that I can only compare with angst and agression...but can also be something beautiful as well as aggressive (i.e. Dark Tranquillity's "The Endless Feed"...WE ARE STILL ALIVE!!! I get goosebumps whenever I hear that part.) As far as the comment of growling vox being pointless, I'd like to see how so seeing as I can understand many of these kinds of bands lyrics. Basically it all comes down to personal taste, but calling growling vox "pointless" is going a little too far I'd say.

+1 I remember the first time I heard a death metal song...twas Napalm Death...

ORIGINAL: bill1971

<Also, ive found that once people accept growling as another vocal technique (ie drop the stereotypes and prejudice) it is much better received.>


Im not prejudiced towards growls, I just don't like them, it's a preference. I accept balet as a dance technique but it doesn't mean I like watching it.

Thank-you, I'm aware of what a preference is, but I feel you are missing my point. I'll run with your dance example..

If you were passionate about dance, and you enjoyed a range of styles of dance, do you not find it curious that you can't enjoy ballet, simply another form of dance? ESPECIALLY given that you like an exotic form of dance (Prog), are thus open to the idea of pushing the boundaries of dance? The dancing metaphor is not the best to use here, as you mention not "liking to watch it", but its that most anti-growlers are repulsed by growling vocals, or initially have a repulsed feeling and somehow manipulate that into a rationalised 'dislike'.. Many anti-growlers have the attitude that "it ruins the music". Does ballet ruin the art form of dance?

Why are MANY more people repulsed by growling than by say.. falsetto, or singing in a high octaves? The only way I see, is that its the feelings attached to the growling (which come from something preconceived, as they are incredibly different/controversial compared to "normal vocals" we are accustomed to from infancy) that prohibit a true exploration of growling as a vocal technique, and a true vicarious experience of the art form on a whole.

Growling is cool if it's a really mean and evil growl.

If it's weak, then it just spoils it.

I choose good singing over growling anyday, though. Obviously.

It sucks when those stupid "EmOxCoRe" bands growl. They sound like aggravated monkeys.