Singing > Screaming/Growling?

[asmegin_slayer]

I can say for certain that i would like Nevermore if it werent for his nasty vocals. While i appreciate singers that can sing and scream i cant stand the high pitched clean vocals.

I totally understand what your saying..

And most people who here nevermore either the first time or not would think think that his vocals is really "weird" and sometimes "wtf"? I was that person myself for awhile, but still enjoy the music...

Obviously you don't like it, no problem... I'll still love you

 

[Rotatous]

I think mercenary(dk) do a pretty good job of clean vocals only.

 

[Harry]

I like both. Scar Symmetry is a perfect example of why I love both (the band, not the forum member, well I love Dave too but you know what I mean)

 

[TheAceOfSpades1]

To me it really depends on the emotion/mood/style the artist/band is trying to convey.

 

[CynicEidolon]

Yep. Today's metalheads don't like real singers.

Gonna get the neg. for this...

That's because MOST metalheads are brainless fucktards that just think speed and noise are all that can make METALZ! music...

"It doesn't have to sound like shit to be evil." - Someones sig. on here.

 

[heineken_fretwalker]

Too bad Vortex sucks in Dimmu... He's perfect in Borknagar more like.

No, sir, it's actually quite the opposite. Vortex is awesome in Dimmu, but he sucks in, say, Arcturus, because he doesn't have the voice to carry a band. His tone is always the same, it never varies. Which brings me to...

It's personal taste. I kind of dig Vortex's singing in Dimmu, but he only has the kind of whiny tone you hear, he doesn't vary it at all.

This. 100% correct.

 

[awesomeaustin]

I'm into both.

 

[awesomeaustin]

Say that to the guys from Dream Theater

fixed

 

[arktan]

If i want to listen to some good singing i listen to Anna Netrebko (just a famous example) or Emilie Simon. Their stuff is mostly based around the voice.

If i want to listen to metal then i listen to the overall thing which means:
Instruments + Percussion + Vocals + other stuff
Whatever makes the song sound right is great. Sometimes one must just ride the E or B or A string of the guitar and sometimes one must just put in a growl so that the whole thing comes out "right" (from the writers/bands perspective). Some bands write stuff which mostly requires clean singing (Dream Theater) and other stuff that requires growling/cleansing in a few parts (Opeth) or for whole songs (Cannibal Corpse).
There is absolutely no way to say something like singing>growling or vice versa. You know why? Imagine Dream Theater's "A right of passage" being growled... bad, right?
And now imagine Cannibal Corpse's "Suffer" sung cleanly. Yeah, i'd commit suicide after that too

Someone here mentioned that growling/screaming is the easy way out. You could aswell turn the tide and say that singing is the easier way out since the music stays "simpler". It's a double-edged sword.

I personally think that there is no easy way out when writing music.
As composer/writer you have an idea and you try to get it on paper. Be it with singing or growling for the vocals, it doesn't matter but you already have an idea in what direction it will go.
I personally have never planned a clean part for a singer and then switched my writing to growling just because i couldn't figure out the arrangement of the instruments so that they fit for clean vocals.
At least not yet and let's hope that it stays so

 

[Scali]

I don't mind a bit of screaming/growling, but I don't like it throughout the entire song.
For example, I like bands like Nightwish, Epica or Within Temptation, where the woman does the 'clean' vocals, adding melodic context, and the man adds the aggression with some grunting and such.

I also really like Iron Maiden with Bruce Dickinson. He never really screams outright, but he can sound pretty aggressive or even evil (including evil laughter and things like that). Then again, I suppose Bruce Dickinson might be the best vocalist that metal ever had.
In the past I didn't really like those '70s' vocals, like Robert Plant, David Coverdale and such... but well, Coverdale has really grown on me with the Whitesnake stuff he did. Those incredibly high screams that he does, they're pretty cool really... not to mention incredibly hard to pull off. You don't hear that style of singing anymore with more modern metal. A song like Whitesnake's Still Of The Night or Crying In The Rain is just epic, and a lot of that is in the extreme vocals.

 

[B36arin]

I think mercenary(dk) do a pretty good job of clean vocals only.

Mercenary's vocals are absolutely fantastic, but use both clean and growled vocals, although the emphasis is on Mikkel's clean singing. Awesome band!

Oh, and to enter the other debate, Warrel Dane is one of the best vocalists in metal. And I must admit that I enjoy some of his lyrics as well...

 

[TheMasterplan]

I side with those who subscribe to how it factors in to the atmosphere/mood of songs or the bands playing them. When it comes to listening, I'm all about teh br00tuhlz, but when it comes to writing I love intertwining the melody into the heavier bits which more often than not calls for vocal variety to really drive home the feel of a particular riff/section/whatever.

As some have mentioned it works well especially in Scar Symmetry-type stuff where the two styles are almost playing off of one another, etc. But sometimes it can work both ways like in Anaal Nathrakh's latest especially. Not only are the vocals positively ridiculous, but I believe there is also distortion on them in certain parts. Whatever the case may be, it really helps nail that completely apocalyptic sound they have going for them.

That being said, I am primarily a death vocalist but can also sing, but I'm only worth a shit in the lower registries. I must've smoked cigars as a baby or something.

 

[lucasreis]

I fully understand the subject of this thread.

I like singing and screaming styles but screaming is so fucking overused it´s not even funny. Yeah, some bands blend them perfectly like Scar Symmetry and Opeth. But some bands have just screams and they make me tired like Meshuggah, yeah, I said it. I love their instrumental parts but Jens Kidman is boring after a while, I wish someone like Chris Alvestam SANG on Meshuggah tracks, for example.

On the other hand I love stuff like Carcass and I don´t get tired with the vocal style because it´s really fitting.

I would love to see a band like Arch Enemy with a real singer though, they would sound 10 times better in my opinion.

While I like lots of screaming bands and singing bands I wish there were more modern Dios, Halfords and Dickinsons, and not that power metal bullshit that some bands are doing, I mean, singing with fucking balls, you know? So, yeah, I agree, I wish there was more singing these days and I bet there isn´t much singing nowadays because growls are way easier to do than singing like Dio does...

 

[troyguitar]

DIO! Fucker is 67 (Yes, sixty seven!!) years old and still sings better than almost anyone in metal. I'm going to see him next Friday with Heaven and Hell, can't wait!

 

[Triple-J]

DIO! Fucker is 67 (Yes, sixty seven!!) years old and still sings better than almost anyone in metal. I'm going to see him next Friday with Heaven and Hell, can't wait!

That's the type of singing I really love he has a great voice and despite his size an awesome stage presence Dio is the Frank Sinatra of metal!

As for singing I think it's a two way street and it's easier to go by what I don't like within each style.
For example I cannot stand the Robert Plant/Joe Elliot/cock-rock type singers who sound like they are getting a blowjob while they are at the mic all that "ooh oooooh owwww! baby! baby! baby! yeaaahh!!" just cracks me up with laughter it's so bad.

The flipside of this is I am sick of screaming as I think it's better off when used as a sort of exclamation point within the music and has more impact when it's used that way, the rise of screaming in metal has really began to put me off it and drive me towards people who do sing because I like to hear someone with a vocal identity which is something most screamers don't have.

 

[JohnIce]

Someone here mentioned that growling/screaming is the easy way out. You could aswell turn the tide and say that singing is the easier way out since the music stays "simpler". It's a double-edged sword.

I personally think that there is no easy way out when writing music.
As composer/writer you have an idea and you try to get it on paper. Be it with singing or growling for the vocals, it doesn't matter but you already have an idea in what direction it will go.
I personally have never planned a clean part for a singer and then switched my writing to growling just because i couldn't figure out the arrangement of the instruments so that they fit for clean vocals.
At least not yet and let's hope that it stays so

Well, that's because you're probably good at writing music A screaming part doesn't guarantee that the instrumental arrangement is complex and super awesome. And you can sing over complex riffs too. There are many bands who write incredibly boring and generic parts to scream over, and all their clean parts sound the same. Textbook example:



One song of theirs can be cool, but listen to a whole album and the only thing that changes in every song is pretty much the lyrics.

Compare it to this:



Kind of a leap, but I'm just saying that music doesn't have to be simple just cause it has singing over it, and it doesn't automatically become complex because you scream over it.

 

[PostOrganic]

Maybe I would have thought the same way as the OP when I first started listening to metal. I was like... why are they ruining this good music with screaming. But now I get it, and would not want it any other way. Clean vocals with something like Decapitated would just not work IMO. Totally depends on the band though...

 

[-TheWickerMan-]

no

growling > singing imo
(and iron maiden are my favorite band)

 

[ARC7789]

excuse my lateness, but i never cared for Nevermore's voice till i got the "Year of the Voyager" Live cd IMO he sounds 10x better live then what they do to his voice recorded

 

[troyguitar]

excuse my lateness, but i never cared for Nevermore's voice till i got the "Year of the Voyager" Live cd IMO he sounds 10x better live then what they do to his voice recorded

I would agree with that. It also shows that he does not suck at singing like some people here have claimed...