Screamers and Growlers - how did you start?

[eric86]

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.

A lot of what is said above is very relevant. I try and practice with a pa and without, but at a live gig you get plenty of gain through the pa which aids in helping use technique instead of relying on the raw anselmo shouting type of vocal to make your voice distort. You need a balance of reasonable volume, while maintaining control/technique in order not to hurt yourself. If possible, i would try and practice through a pa (Mine is cheap and does well) as well as in a room un-miced. Good luck.

 

[SkapocalypseNow]

To be honest, I started out in my car practicing along to a lot of Arch Enemy. Lot of listening as well as practicing, though, since I had no real experience in the matter, I sorta had to analyze Angela's vocal tone that gave me an idea of what I was doing wrong. The more I practiced the more I realized it was WHERE it was coming from that mattered just as much as anything else. Once I got to a point where it was completely comfortable to do, I moved into a little bit of volume control, but that all went out the window when I got into a band setting

 

[WildBroskiAppears]

The thing that always really helped me was listening to the textures in the sound of their screams or growls. Mitch Lucker was my first real inspiration to start, and if I listened closely I could almost feel it in my throat what he was doing with his growls. One common piece of advice is to groan like you do when you wake up early, and keep that tension on your throat while forcing more air through. Believe me, it sounds terrible as you begin and refine over time. I felt embarrassed in an empty house when I started. Good luck man

 

[Blood Ghost]

For me, I just wanted to do it because I felt a natural urge to. I wanted to do vocals about as bad as I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I began working on it. I learned to clean sing first, of course. My voice is fairly demonic at the moment, but I'm trying to work on breath control so I can hold longer screams and growls. It's not something I think about too hard, I just do it until I find a way that doesn't hurt and stick with that. I do seriously need voice training, though.

 

[CannibalKiller]

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.

please explain to me how higher screams are easier than growls? i can growl fairly well and i use a lot of power and it sounds pretty cool, but my BM vocals sound like, well...BM.

 

[vampiregenocide]

Anyone got any advice on high screams and trying to control screams into words? I've been practising but when I try to sing words I lose power.

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.

To be fair, that's mostly because he's drunk and smoked a fucking lot over the years and it's ruined his voice. If you watch videos of him from around L.D50, he sounded amazing.

 

[BIG ND SWEATY]

i also tried copying the singer from aegaeon
Aegaeon- "Dissension" Studio Update 3 - YouTube
its at the end of the video btw

 

[Blasphemer]

Start in the car. Turn the music up real loud, and start sceaming and trying and mimic the vocals in the songs you listen to. Over time, turn the music down, and start to listen to how you sound. After that, start screaming the songs how you would sound, not trying to mimic the vocals in said song.

Hopefully that helps, it worked for me.

This is exactly what I did. I did it with Last Chance to Reason's Level 2 and Intronaut's Valley of Smoke.

 

[Captain_Awesome]

I'm not entirely sure at which point I wanted to growl, maybe after listening to Waking the Fallen by Avenged Sevenfold in about 2010 and then listening to This War is Ours Part II by Escape the Fate (literally just that song) in 2011, which made me want to growl and sing along.

I then naturally looked for tutorial videos on youtube, though I didn't really find any good ones for a long time. I think the first style that sort of worked for me was inhale screams - which I worked out myself in the end, but I didn't like the sound of them, didn't feel comfortable with how they felt and I didn't like how words were phrased and articulated.

Eventually I stumbled across a fantastic video by a guy who was doing a tutorial as part of a course at college or music school where he was doing singing. He coherently introduced and explained the vocal fry technique or the 'angry sigh' as it's also known. It didn't take me too long to get and it's extremely powerful and you can phrase words quite clearly. Since then I've also managed expand the sound of it, from getting the lowest of lows to even black metal highs. I've also managed to use it as a way to get Hardcore shout style growls and a more metalcore August Burns Red type style, though that actually took longer to get. It's been very versatile for me

I was originally the lead guitarist in our band, but then when our vocalist quit because he was a bellend, I'd been practicing all these vocals so I stepped up to the plate. I'm also a decent clean singer with a Baritone voice and so far screaming and growling with the 'angry sigh' technique hasn't caused any problems with my singing if done in moderation and hasn't done any damage to my throat.

Sorry it was a long post, but I quite enjoyed telling my little story, haha I would post the video that helped me but I can't find it, if I do though I'll make sure to post it cos I know it will help someone out.

 

[leftyguitarjoe]

I can growl well enough to do backup screams and stuff. My vocals sound kinda like the dude from Xerath only not as amazing

 

[Blackhearted]

I was getting into Dimmu Borgir at the time (I was 12) and turns out black metal vocals and Gollum imitations have a lot in common.

 

[leftyguitarjoe]

I guess I should actually answer OP's question.

I figured out how to do death vocals in the car like everyone else

I do this thing where I tighten my throat and push with my stomach. If you do it right, you should feel the sound coming from the back/bottom of your throat, not at the top where your normal speaking voice comes from.

 

[FrancescoFiligoi]

Didn't use any guide at all, even if I've seen both "Zen Of Screaming" videos, but that was 10 years after I started growling/screaming/singing.

I just tried emulating whatever record I was listening in my car: Death/Cannibal Corpse/Suffocation/Carcass...at first it was very tough since my voice couldn't handle it for too much time, but then I got used to it and I think I have a good "tone"

My issues however are keeping screams/growls long enough, also I suffer from headaches when I push too hard.

 

[MatthewK]

I have serious doubts that most of the dude's known for their screaming vocals had any training or have even thought very much about it.

 

[Variant]

Sepultura circa Beneath The Remains. Figured it out.


Friggen' kids.

 

[blaaargh]

please explain to me how higher screams are easier than growls? i can growl fairly well and i use a lot of power and it sounds pretty cool, but my BM vocals sound like, well...BM.

That's just been my experience... probably worked out that way for me because at the time when I was first trying to start getting into harsh vocals, I pretty much only listened to BM. Since then, though, I've been doing more growling and shouting, and my shrieks have fallen off a bit. It all comes down to what you practice most, like anything else.

On another note, I've been getting into throat singing a lot lately. It uses a very similar technique to growling, only you don't distort your vocal chords. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone trying to learn how to growl.

 

[SkapocalypseNow]

^ Your username is oddly relevant to the thread