I started out trying to do black metal-style vocals, which are way easier to do than guttural stuff. Once I got that down, I started working on my growls, which are a similar technique (at least for me) in a different part of the throat. Like other people have already said, go from your abdomen, and try to get a good coating of phlegm or something else, as it'll protect your vocal chords. I smoke a lot, which I think helps, but I wouldn't recommend smoking just to get a better metal voice.
Screamers and Growlers - how did you start?
- Thread starter asher
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DecrepitBeing
Well-Known Member
i can only do warbringer style vocals, haha, which is just yelling
Konfyouzd
Return of the Dread-I
goherpsNderp
no refutin' rasputen
i've wanted to dabble in doing backup vocalist screams and growls but every time i see a "in the studio" video of any of the bands i listen to i kind of facepalm when i hear how terrible the vocals sound when they're not going through a microphone and soundboard with music added in. i hear all of these amazing mighty, powerful roars from these guys and then i see how it's done and it seems like it's mostly recording and effects. somehow these "inside voice" volume gross sounds singers make transform into these godlike screams once they pass through a microphone.
so naturally it makes me feel way too embarrassed to even try. the only time i have is when i was at a buddy's practice room and someone had pantera's broken playing through the PA and we were trying to play along. i couldn't hear if i was bad or not, and didn't really care because i had a handful of beers in me and they were on mics too.
maybe one day i'll give it a serious try, with the help of the youtube videos posted.
so naturally it makes me feel way too embarrassed to even try. the only time i have is when i was at a buddy's practice room and someone had pantera's broken playing through the PA and we were trying to play along. i couldn't hear if i was bad or not, and didn't really care because i had a handful of beers in me and they were on mics too.
maybe one day i'll give it a serious try, with the help of the youtube videos posted.
Zeetwig
Dedicated Chiller
I found this guy on youtube some time ago, and his tutorials are REALLY REALLY great! 
I have given this a shot, but due to lack of time and discipline I haven't come that far. I'll pick it up one day though, when I want vocals on my songs 
Blixish's Channel - YouTube
Don't know for how long he'll keep his vids on youtube though, as he has been speaking of leaving youtube some time...
I have given this a shot, but due to lack of time and discipline I haven't come that far. I'll pick it up one day though, when I want vocals on my songs Blixish's Channel - YouTube
Don't know for how long he'll keep his vids on youtube though, as he has been speaking of leaving youtube some time...
ShadowFactoryX
OMNIHILITY
this is one of those things thats hard to explain
i could do lows for a while, but never understood how to do highs
somehow it just hit me, and i've been doing them ever since
three things thats are most important that ive noticed:
-stomach/controlling air flow
-throat
-tongue/mouth
try it at almost whisper volumes, to learn how to make the sound, and take note of how you form your tongue, and lips, and where the sound is coming from, in your throat, or in your mouth
dont know if that is how anyone else does it, but as someone said, do it in the car with an appropriate song, it can help a lot
i'm currently trying to learn how in the heck Neige does his screams. Every time I play Lantlos - "Eribo I collect the stars" it destroys my throat and I can only try a few times.
i could do lows for a while, but never understood how to do highs
somehow it just hit me, and i've been doing them ever since
three things thats are most important that ive noticed:
-stomach/controlling air flow
-throat
-tongue/mouth
try it at almost whisper volumes, to learn how to make the sound, and take note of how you form your tongue, and lips, and where the sound is coming from, in your throat, or in your mouth
dont know if that is how anyone else does it, but as someone said, do it in the car with an appropriate song, it can help a lot
i'm currently trying to learn how in the heck Neige does his screams. Every time I play Lantlos - "Eribo I collect the stars" it destroys my throat and I can only try a few times.
Just wanted to point out that if you aren't 100% sure your vocal technique is correct (as in Melissa Cross correct), you will damage your vocal cords. From what I've read/seen/heard, correct technique rarely comes naturally, and learning by yourself is almost a sure way to head down the wrong path and waste lots of time (and probably hurt yourself). You need personal guidance from someone who knows.
I don't mean to be a jerk, and I'm trying to help the OP when I say disregard most youtube "instructional videos," and most of the replies in this thread, regardless of their good intentions.
I don't mean to be a jerk, and I'm trying to help the OP when I say disregard most youtube "instructional videos," and most of the replies in this thread, regardless of their good intentions.
Metal_Webb
Needs more strings
Also, if you want the nice low gutterals, learn to vocal fry.
I kinda picked up on it one day when I was messing about after listening to "Rosetta Stoned" - Tool. Keenan uses the technique during the intro section.
The trick is to copy the technique, which is making what feels to be the lower part of you vocal chords "bubble". Start off by doing it speaking until you get it. Once you have it, put it on your growl and off you go!
Below is an example I found of some "clean" frying. Gives you an idea what to aim for.
I kinda picked up on it one day when I was messing about after listening to "Rosetta Stoned" - Tool. Keenan uses the technique during the intro section.
The trick is to copy the technique, which is making what feels to be the lower part of you vocal chords "bubble". Start off by doing it speaking until you get it. Once you have it, put it on your growl and off you go!
Below is an example I found of some "clean" frying. Gives you an idea what to aim for.
broj15
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I started screaming to make myself more marketable to bands. The mord shit you know how to do the easier it is to find a position in a band. Now I'm glad I learned because it means I don't have to worry about finding a vocalist for my solo project. I just learned by watching YouTube and studying how the the throat, stomach, and vocal chords are involved in screaming so I didn't totally trash my voice
Sepultorture
Murder Machine
To start i drank milk with heavier fat content, helped to coat my throat. DO NOT SMOKE, makes it worse, sounds great, kills like crazy.
for growls go from the bottom of the diaphram, don't try to growl to high in your thraot, this hurts alot afterwards also.
start with one song a day, don't go hittin yer bong and trying to do The Bleeding in one shot, again more ouchy fail. it's like exercise, it takes time and patience.
i also try to avoid singing alot to my fave DM bands live, as you can't hear how hard your trying to sing it and most times you sound like a heavy old smoker afterwards.
screams you want higher in the throat for obvious sound reasons but try not to force the hell out of them cus that can also cause some serious throat ouch later.
again start with one song a day, after a week 2 songs, then three, work up to a full album. eventually getting up to doing a headlining bands full sets worth, if you can do a full set daily your good to go. after i complete a session of vocals i usually drinking some hot tea with lemon, honey and ginseng in it, soathes the savage ouch.
keep it brutal \m/
for growls go from the bottom of the diaphram, don't try to growl to high in your thraot, this hurts alot afterwards also.
start with one song a day, don't go hittin yer bong and trying to do The Bleeding in one shot, again more ouchy fail. it's like exercise, it takes time and patience.
i also try to avoid singing alot to my fave DM bands live, as you can't hear how hard your trying to sing it and most times you sound like a heavy old smoker afterwards.
screams you want higher in the throat for obvious sound reasons but try not to force the hell out of them cus that can also cause some serious throat ouch later.
again start with one song a day, after a week 2 songs, then three, work up to a full album. eventually getting up to doing a headlining bands full sets worth, if you can do a full set daily your good to go. after i complete a session of vocals i usually drinking some hot tea with lemon, honey and ginseng in it, soathes the savage ouch.
keep it brutal \m/
asher
So Did We
So, I've been really busy lately, but thanks everyone for all the responses!
Does anyone do anything more sludgey? I imagine a lot of the technique might carry over? I do love Akerfeldt dearly (as well as Johan Hegg) but I'm drawn to things that feel a little more emotionally charged to me, such as most of John Baizley's vocals in Baroness or some of Troy Saunders' songs in Mastodon.
Does anyone do anything more sludgey? I imagine a lot of the technique might carry over? I do love Akerfeldt dearly (as well as Johan Hegg) but I'm drawn to things that feel a little more emotionally charged to me, such as most of John Baizley's vocals in Baroness or some of Troy Saunders' songs in Mastodon.
Blind Theory
Well-Known Member
I am going to buy The Zen of Screaming in the next paycheck or two so I'll let you know what I think when I do get it.
I'll try and explain my take on the crying infant technique that Blixish talks about on youtube.
So what I do is this: First, instead of trying to make that sound, I substitute it for a deep breath. The trick is to put your hand on your upper stomach where your lower rib cage meets your abdomen. That is your diaphragm. Inhale as much as you can (air control can come later), and while pressing down with your hand in the above mentioned area, exhale so you can hear your exhale. Basically what that did for me was to find the part of my body that the power for the growl was going to come from.
The next step I took was applying the vocal distortion to guitars. The way I thought about it was, a guitar signal dry just sounds like...undistorted something. Apply a pedal and you have distortion. Same thing with the voice minus batteries. Try the inhale/exhale thing again but this time add distortion. I can't explain how to except to tell you that when I do it, I feel it come from my lower throat. And by feel I don't mean it hurts, I just mean I can tell that is where it is generated from. Work on it until you can apply it all together and then focus on controlling all aspects: Air flow, distortion, lows, highs, etc, etc, etc.
P.S. To get a higher pitched scream, smile. To do lower stuff you would form your mouth into like...when you say poop. In all seriousness, when you get to the middle of the word poop. Or just Poo I suppose. That is kind of the formation of the mouth for low gutterals. To get it higher pitched, take that formation and move until you are smiling almost. You should notice as you move your mouth, the pitch changes. It will take a lot of practice if you are like me to make it sound good, though.
Good luck!
I'll try and explain my take on the crying infant technique that Blixish talks about on youtube.
So what I do is this: First, instead of trying to make that sound, I substitute it for a deep breath. The trick is to put your hand on your upper stomach where your lower rib cage meets your abdomen. That is your diaphragm. Inhale as much as you can (air control can come later), and while pressing down with your hand in the above mentioned area, exhale so you can hear your exhale. Basically what that did for me was to find the part of my body that the power for the growl was going to come from.
The next step I took was applying the vocal distortion to guitars. The way I thought about it was, a guitar signal dry just sounds like...undistorted something. Apply a pedal and you have distortion. Same thing with the voice minus batteries. Try the inhale/exhale thing again but this time add distortion. I can't explain how to except to tell you that when I do it, I feel it come from my lower throat. And by feel I don't mean it hurts, I just mean I can tell that is where it is generated from. Work on it until you can apply it all together and then focus on controlling all aspects: Air flow, distortion, lows, highs, etc, etc, etc.
P.S. To get a higher pitched scream, smile. To do lower stuff you would form your mouth into like...when you say poop. In all seriousness, when you get to the middle of the word poop. Or just Poo I suppose. That is kind of the formation of the mouth for low gutterals. To get it higher pitched, take that formation and move until you are smiling almost. You should notice as you move your mouth, the pitch changes. It will take a lot of practice if you are like me to make it sound good, though.
Good luck!
eric86
Well-Known Member
I started doing metal vocals in 2008. I think an awful lot of technique based things are helpful, but imo nothing beats good old fashioned practice. The techniques like tongue placements, jaw movement etc just come from practicing, and develop themselves. I think basic information like breathing decently, and using your diaphragm are very important and look at those first, but a lot of the other techniques are interchangeable between vocalists, and sometime are better off being left to work out on your own. To start with, it will be weak, you will be short of breath, sound like shit and be a bit sore afterwards. This happens to everyone, and you need to stick at it to improve. Most of all, enjoy it, and don't expect too much too soon. For anyone interested, here is my latest stuff- War Faction - Holy Defilement - YouTube
Augury
f*ckin bow down!
I started with sounding like a retard. No really, I just watched some YT vids how to make false chord and tried it... Then developed by myself. My vox are actually pretty decent but I don't think they're decent enough. Btw, I'm doing gutturals and low growls, although I recently figured out how to do high growling so I'm working on it now.
Sludge vox take more influence from hardcore vox than metal. It's more straight up yelling than anything else. Other bands with good vocals in that style are Isis, Mouth of the Architect, Rosetta, and Neurosis. I love doing sludge vocals, they're way funner than most other vocal styles.
pineappleman
Why can I not sleep?
I started out just trying to imitate what I heard Mikael Akerfeldt and Tommy Rogers doing. Eventually I realized I could also do much higher screams than I had been doing, but my lows are still fairly weak. Learning to breathe from my diaphragm (thanks Dan Tompkins!) was another thing that made a big improvement in my technique. I'm still working on expanding my technique beyond the "fry" screams though.
Ethos:
Tesma - Sea of Lies (feat. Josh Jacobs of Testament of Apollo) by Taclite on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Ethos:
Tesma - Sea of Lies (feat. Josh Jacobs of Testament of Apollo) by Taclite on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Jarlesworth
Member
I've been skimming over random explanations of how to do this, and I think I have it now. I just need to practice it now.. Thanks, guys!!
asher
So Did We
Yeah, I'm a big fan of what I listed and ISIS. I like Kelly's vocals alright, haven't listened to any Mouth and very little Rosetta. They just seem to strike a different emotional chord than death growl/scream styles that happens to resonate with me a little more, I think.
eric86
Well-Known Member
This is your best bet. While taking in information is important, practice is the only way you get better, especially early on.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
I started off by trying to cop Chad Gray's (Mudvayne) vocals. I do NOT recommend this, as that dude does NOT scream 'properly' and proof of that is just watching any live Mudvayne/Hellyeah content. His vocals do not hold up live, at all.
But I wanted to do the lows and highs just like him, which really I think is just a big Anselmo influence.
I was pushing so much, I was just continuously tearing up my throat. You shouldn't be breaking blood vessels or feeling like you're going to hurl at the end of a scream.
I'm not trained to give any advice on technique, but something that helped me big time was watching Lamb Of God's Making Of Sacrament. When they're in pre-production, they're in a small room doing vocals and you can hear Randy's actual vocal sound.
A big part of his recorded sound is a TON of compression and a shitload of gain on his mic. You don't need to push THAT much to get the sound, just like playing guitar through any modern amp, you don't need to rely on the guitar to make the distortion, the amp does it for ya. Or a pedal or whatever ya do.
Make the gear work for you. It takes some time to learn how to use compression properly and dealing with a hi-gain mic setting live can be tricky without a gate set properly.
Devin Townsend is another good example of this. I think back in the day with SYL he was really just going for it, but if you watch him recording the vocals for "Supercrush!", he's just sitting down in a chair and it's fairly effortless. An SM7B mic has been pretty popular for screaming vox for quite a while now, I think the way it picks up the distorting voice just really brings out the grit better than say a C414 or something that's ultra clean.
Just because singing comes from the body, doesn't mean the sound you're going for can't be enhanced with gear.
But I wanted to do the lows and highs just like him, which really I think is just a big Anselmo influence.
I was pushing so much, I was just continuously tearing up my throat. You shouldn't be breaking blood vessels or feeling like you're going to hurl at the end of a scream.
I'm not trained to give any advice on technique, but something that helped me big time was watching Lamb Of God's Making Of Sacrament. When they're in pre-production, they're in a small room doing vocals and you can hear Randy's actual vocal sound.
A big part of his recorded sound is a TON of compression and a shitload of gain on his mic. You don't need to push THAT much to get the sound, just like playing guitar through any modern amp, you don't need to rely on the guitar to make the distortion, the amp does it for ya. Or a pedal or whatever ya do.
Make the gear work for you. It takes some time to learn how to use compression properly and dealing with a hi-gain mic setting live can be tricky without a gate set properly.
Devin Townsend is another good example of this. I think back in the day with SYL he was really just going for it, but if you watch him recording the vocals for "Supercrush!", he's just sitting down in a chair and it's fairly effortless. An SM7B mic has been pretty popular for screaming vox for quite a while now, I think the way it picks up the distorting voice just really brings out the grit better than say a C414 or something that's ultra clean.
Just because singing comes from the body, doesn't mean the sound you're going for can't be enhanced with gear.
