Death metal music growl is a vocal technique utilized in heavy metal music genres and used to give them their characteristic sound. Additionally, this vocal technique may also be known as guttural vocals, brutal vocals or black speech.
John Entwistle made this technique famous in The Who’s song “Boris the Spider”, with John Entwistle using his deep voice to produce an infected moaning vocal tone. Many metal singers damage their voices due to poor technique or extended touring; on the contrary, skilled musicians have made careers from using harsh vocals.
Origins
While Death and Possessed had already implemented many of the basic elements of modern death metal (speed, tremolo picking, low-tuned guitars and distortion), Cannibal Corpse became synonymous with it due to Chris Barnes’ guttural bassy vocal style reminiscent of an angry orc. This created an almost inhuman sounding tone which perfectly fit their theme of murders, serial killings, satanic rituals etc.
Death metal’s signature growl can be difficult to master and can result in lasting vocal damage if done incorrectly. Singers who rely heavily on this style often develop nodules in their throat from straining to force air through tightened throats causing pressure build-up that strains vocal cords and causes inflammation; it is best practice to sing from your diaphragm instead of throat as this helps prevent injury to vocal chords.
As it’s impossible to pinpoint who was the first band to use death growls, its beginning can be traced to several seminal albums released during the mid-’80s. Morbid Angel is often credited as pioneering this style with their early demo releases featuring their signature brand of death metal with difficult production quality that made their sound difficult for listeners to understand. By their debut album Eaten Back to Life was released in 1990 they had perfected death growling by dropping its pitch into a deep bassy growl that made sound like whale bellow rather than human voices.
Other bands like Cannibal Corpse, Bathory, Sepultura and Living Sacrifice also experimented with similar sounds and themes during this era; Quorthon from Bathory took this further by using rasping, shrieking vocals that resonated perfectly with his music’s themes of occultism and evil like goat blood on a pentagram.
These harsh, low-pitched vocals have become a hallmark of metal genres in recent years. A recent video by YouTube user Polyphonic explores its roots: Viking Age vocal styles to rock, prog and early metal to present day metal; even if you don’t enjoy growls yourself. Watching this is certainly worth your while!
Techniques
To create an effective death metal growl, singers must first learn how to utilize their voice from the diaphragm rather than throat. When using vocal cords from throat, harsh and unintelligible sounds result. Achieving such results takes practice and won’t happen overnight – hence why bands often employ various techniques in order to achieve desired sounds.
Typically, lower pitch vocals will produce deeper vocals; however, some bands, like Cannibal Corpse, utilize high-pitched falsetto vocals as an accentuating note in their songs. No matter the style of growl used for singing, it is crucial that one warm up and hydrate before beginning, as improper vocal warming up may damage vocal cords leading to nodules and loss of voice altogether.
Practice is also key when it comes to growling lyrics in death metal; an experienced growler should be able to harmonise with the beat and adjust pitch according to musical tempo, creating tension through his/her performance. Many death metal bands also incorporate screaming or guttural noises for added impact in their songs.
Timing can be one of the hardest aspects of this style to master. This is due to it being easy to get carried away and overdo vocal effects such as yelps, barks and shrieks; this often results in bands losing impact from using these vocals too frequently or too frequently.
Even though there are numerous tips available on how to sing death metal, the key point should be experimenting with various sounds and styles until you find one that best suits you. Remember it can take hard work to replicate the sounds you hear on records, as everyone’s tone varies based on genetics and other factors. Once you’ve mastered the basics, add more complex lyrics into your growling technique by including more complicated lyrics; just be mindful to only scream or growl when necessary to convey emotion within a song’s lyrics!
Effects
The death growl is a popular vocalization technique found across extreme metal music genres. This style of singing requires you to use guttural tones and may cause damage to the voice if performed improperly, so proper techniques should always be practiced when performing this vocalization technique. Sing from your diaphragm instead of chest; this will allow your voice to function at its full potential without strain. Also keep breathing steady; any rush through songs or excessive screaming could result in vocal injuries like nodules or ruptured larynx injuries!
Many metalheads believe Cannibal Corpse and Venom to be the pioneers of modern harsh death metal vocals, but several bands began experimenting with them at approximately the same time – from Motorhead’s Lemmy’s whiskey-and-cigar rasp, punk shouts and the distorted shrieks of Black Sabbath and King Crimson to name but a few.
Death metal music utilizes harsh vocal growls to convey aggression and immensity, with those feelings translated by music into something tangible for its listeners to interpret. For an artist to do this successfully, they must have an inborn understanding of music itself as well as how best to convey that expression through vocal performance; otherwise the voice would simply become yet another acoustical instrument such as guitars or drums in this type of genre.
To successfully pull off a death metal growl, the proper equipment is key. A dynamic microphone like the Shure SM7B is often chosen; its dynamic mode can accommodate high volumes and harsh noises while picking up on plenty of reverberation in rooms without proper treatment.
Other useful effects to include are a compressor and an equalizer (EQ). A compressor will help keep consistent levels across your vocal track by controlling any sudden peaks; an EQ gives more precise control over frequencies that clash with vocals; while using a delay can add depth to your voice, particularly helpful if doing screams or needing the effect to carry from part of a song to another.
Terminology
There are various terms used in metal music to describe how singers’ voices sound, such as shrieking, growling, screaming and moaning. Each sound conveys its own mood or emotion – for instance death metal music tends to feature intense and dark tones so the growl vocal style helps convey that.
Death metal emerged as a genre that glorified violence and bloodshed, featuring fast, heavy guitar riffs and drumming, lyrics dealing with horror, death and darkness, as well as its trademark technique: death growls that perfectly captured its brutality.
Though it’s impossible to identify the inventor of death metal’s signature growl, it is clear that various early bands independently employed it. Mantas is often credited as being among the first bands to use it before later bands like Napalm Death refined it further. Chuck Schuldiner was an integral component in helping Death metal evolve; without his trademark growls it would likely never have reached such extraordinary speeds and technical audacity.
The Death Growl differs from other vocal techniques in that its sound is deeper and guttural, often sounding less human and more animal. Some musicians employ techniques such as cupping the microphone or clenching their teeth in order to heighten the growl’s volume; in extreme cases this could even damage their throat so it is crucial that you learn how to perform this vocal technique correctly.
Another musical style known as black metal encompasses both death metal’s heavy basslines with melodies and high pitch shrieks of black metal’s melodies and high pitch shrieks, to produce what some consider the most extreme form of metal music. Many bands use this genre to express their Satanic beliefs through music – many bands utilize black metal sounds while some like Bathory combine both death metal growls and high pitch shrieks into their compositions for maximum impact!
Melodeath is a subgenre of death metal which combines progressive metal’s song structures and tempos with extreme metal’s aggression for maximum accessibility and impact. Melodeath bands such as The Haunted and In Flames sound more thrash metal-oriented while others gravitate more towards heavy/power metal or doom metal genres.