More so than most genres of music, jazz and classical aside, metal holds bands with technical prowess in the highest regards. Bands have been both immortalized and condemned based on the nature of their live performances. If you can’t play something from your album live, you’re likely to get boos and lose some fans. But, if your music is better in a live setting, you will garner more respect from fans and critics alike.
Continue reading ‘Metal Monday: Live Metal Moments’
With each passing year metal subgenres develop their own unique style, most noticeable through vocal differences. Growls, grunts, screams, yells, moans, groans — you name it. While most metal genre tap their lung power, each put their own spin on vocals to develop a trademark primal scream.
Black Sabbath sporting some pretty rad mustaches
Metal pioneers like Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath are purveyors of the moaning/wailing vocal style. The best example of this vocal style in its early stages is the song “N.I.B.” from Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut release, where the catch of the song is Ozzy’s “OH YEAH” at the end of the main riff in the song. Moaning and wailing is also prevalent among many Doom and Sludge metal bands such as Type O Negative and Candlemass (the best modern example being Candlemass’s song “Samarithan” (that Messiah Marcolin is one creepy dude). Power metal and the new wave of British heavy metal used a similar approach, albeit with more power (see: Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson)
Taking cues from punk bands and the new wave of British heavy metal, thrash metal emerged on the scene with its extreme screaming, yelling, and shouting. The quintessential thrash metal vocal style can be heard in any of the early Slayer and Metallica records. This change in vocal style is almost exclusively responsible for all non-clean metal vocals styles to come. Trash metal really cultivated the “pissed off” sound the genre is known for (particulary in songs about social issues sung in the vein of their punk predecessors).
Pioneers of Black Metal, Venom
A direct offshoot of thrash metal, black metal (you know, those evil satanists with the funny face paint and freaky clothes) emerged with a dry, raspy vocal style. The pioneering black metal band, Venom (followed soon by Bathory, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost), were the first to the raspy sound that became synonymous with black metal (most obvious with their album and song “Black Metal”). These gruff black metal vocals eventually evolved, became less raspy and spilled over into what we know as death metal growls. Death metal growls are, more or less, mid tone screaming (something akin to heavier Slayer vocals). Then, in the early 1990s, the inception of “brutal death metal” and the guttural “cookie monster” vocals became the mainstay for death metal (the obvious example here is Cannibal Corpse, being the most well known brutal death metal band in the history of bands).
Alex Erian of Despised Icon squealin' like a pig (maybe)
The pig squeal, a technique in which the vocal “bree bree” mimick the sounds of a dying pig, is another extreme vocal styles from the 80s that was used by underground brutal death and grindcore bands. This technique only recently became popular with the rise of the deathcore genre and bands such as Despised Icon and Job For A Cowboy who used pig squeals on their early releases but have since migrated away from th technique.
Since the major vocal style developments of 80s and 90s, only a few other genres have built upon the styles from previous subgenres. Melodic death metal of the early to mid 90s featured the standard death metal growl, but varied the range in terms of the vocal register. Metalcore, the less intense cousin of deathcore, normally employs both clean, melodic vocals and a range of screaming but primarily features the mid-to-high register.
Melissa Cross, pro screamer (literally)
While vocal style are possibly the most key element in identifying what style of metal you are listening to, vocal technique is what ensures a singer’s ability to shriek, howl or groan for years to come. Though few will believe it, there is proper technique to screaming and growling that prevents vocal chords from being torn to shreds (protecting your voice may not sound very “metal” but being able to perform night after night is pretty important). Melissa Cross can fill you in on all of that, considering that she (and not me) is the expert.
Over the last decade, extreme of metal vocals have become less and less intelligible. Supposed lyrics give way to an abundance of indecipherable pig squeals (as in Despised Icon’s early music). On The Black Dahlia Murder’s latest DVD, Majesty, band members jokingly discuss the future of metal vocals, and mention that it would eventually revert to “people making fart noises with their mouths” – I, for one, would laugh hysterically if this prediction came true but, for metal’s sake, let’s hope that it doesn’t.
Now that you know all about different vocal styles, put yourself to the test. Try to figure out what styles are used in these rad OurStage metal songs (hint, some use fusion styles):
Imagine that lyric sang by say, the singer of Coldplay instead of Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden fame). Not quite the same “oomph” huh? In some styles of metal, it is all about the power and gusto in which a singer delivers their lines. Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, Matt Barlow, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio, Hansi Kürsch, — these are some of the singers who have mastered the art of true heavy metal delivery. Whether it is wailing falsettos or sinister cries, a metal vocalist must keep in mind his voice has to reach to the farthest corners of whatever venue the band is playing at, as well as make a connection to each and every audience member. More so than any metal styles, heavy metal is about emotion. Standing up and fighting for rights, feeling the pain of oppressed people (albeit real or fictional), the woe of a lost lover, epic battles – these are the types of things heavy metal bands sing about, things that cannot be aptly expressed without an apt enforcer on the microphone.
Here at OurStage, we have some talented heavy metal bands, many of which are strongly influenced by greats such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc. (some even were around back then). After scoring through the ranks of metal here at OurStage, I’ve compiled a list of eight powerful songs featuring vocals that best exemplify the spirit and energy captured in true heavy metal.
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| Mystery | by: | Letter 7 |
| Underwater Bells | by: | Revoltons |
| Exile | by: | Introspeccion |
| Gunslinger | by: | Forever Storm |
| Raptors | by: | Winters Dawn |
| Shadow | by: | Sixty 8 |
| Possessed (We Are One) | by: | Dark Empire |
| Going Through Changes | by: | Fires of Babylon |
