söndag 24 Feb 2008, 7:16

Those of you who know me recognize that I once came from the land of Coldplay. A time when I thought that no band would ever top it and that Chris Martin was the best vocalist in the world. My god have I changed since then. With the introduction of metal to my life my musical tastes have shifted quite dramatically so I thought that maybe I should give my perspective of harsh metal vocals since I went from hating them to loving them in such a short time space. It is still fresh in my mind why I hated them so embark with me upon my epic quest to determine the place of the cookie monster vocals in metal.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q53/kojak101/neand.jpg

Metal is the only genre of music that commonly employs harsh vocals within its music. That being said the technique can be found in other genres early on. A variation of it can be found on Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", a progressive rock album with very limited usage of vocals. The album consisted only of two tracks both just under half an hour each and was essentially one long song cut in half. On the second half of the album there are some odd vocals used that while were not exactly the harsh vocals used within metal, they were resembled it in many ways.

The sining only takes up about on minute of a 48 minute album and upon reading the album booklet the vocalist was credited to someone under the moniker "Neanderthal Man". Interesting side note; the only reason that these vocals were on the album was because the record studio said that he HAD to have vocals on the album so that it would sell better. Oldfield did what they said just not in the way that they liked. Thus they were used in this case to purposely not sound likable. This wasn't everyones reaction as strangely enough many fans thought it was an interesting direction.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest known usage of harsh vocals goes to a man by the name of Screamin' Jay Hawkins. His most famous song 'I Put A Spell On You' is his biggest hit and considered by most to be a one hit wonder phenomenon. Many considered it a band ahead of its time and Hawkins would wear very theatric clothing and act very dramatically. In fact its noticeable that even Alice Cooper himself seems to have been very influenced by the amount of theatrics that were displayed on stage. Part of these theatrics were the use of harsh (at the time) gibberish lyrics that almost sounded like witch doctor spells.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orNpH6iyokI

Now I've learned a lot about music since I started actively listening to and seeking it out. You see I was never into music before. I would listen to the radio and thats all. No older brother to expose me to different music here. I wasn't in to buying albums, I didn't even download them illegally. If I wanted to listen to music then I would put the radio, after all they only play good music because that all that people listen to right?

Obviously I was way off and after being exposed to music that wasn't on the radio it didn't take long for me to fall in love with it. Power and symphonic metal. I had no clue that such genres existed and I was instantly drawn to them. Such theatrical music that was still heavy. Like the Lord of The Rings Soundtrack on speed. Yes I was ignorant but the theatrical side of music relates to harsh vocals.

Death Metal Vocals are the theatrical component of Death Metal (redundant). It sounds strange being put that way but it brings emotion to a song and is just as intricate as any other from of singing. It can bring a multitude of feelings to the table. In Opeth it is a contrast to the clean singing on the album. In Amon Amarth it is commanding voice of power. In Cannibal Corpse it is..well you get the idea. Its like when distortion came out on electric guitars. People at the time thought how can this be music its just noise. You hear similar sentiments about death vocals and after all, the voice is an instrument as well.

I thought that harsh singing was an unacceptable style because thats what I was told. After slowly being exposed to it mostly through a gradual listening of 'Opeth' albums I began to tolerate them and then I learned to love them. Now I barely understand why I had a problem with them in the first place. Sure, even today I still can't handle a lot of really brutal stuff but it doest stop me from enjoying an album most of the time. It all depends on how they are utilized.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q53/kojak101/Repka_Death_Leprosy.jpg

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to claim that it takes even more skill to sing harshly than it does cleanly. It would make for an interesting argument thats for sure. People fail to recognize that like with any other vocalist, there are bad harsh singers and there are good harsh singers. The bad ones are normally only around for a very short period of time. For one because they suck but also because their lack of developing a correct technique means that their on a quick path to shredding the absolute hell out of their vocal cords.

Correct harsh vocals do not do damage to your vocals and just like in other music the vocalist should have all the same skills. This involves holding a note, staying in key, staying in Tune, reaching the appropriate notes and keeping time. The amount of practice that it takes to be able to do this should be proof enough that people who say that anyone can just shout harsh metal vocals are a bit uniformed to say the least.

Harsh vocals will not be accepted as an 'appropriate' style of singing even amongst the metal fans for quite some time. You tend to find that it takes people I while to get used to and is an acquired taste. There will always be outliers though.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q53/kojak101/606814.jpg

While it took me a lot of listening for something to finally and almost instantaneously click in my brain it took my girlfriend the first 5 seconds of 'Cry of the Black Birds' by Amon Amarth to hook her. The mainstream will always view harsh vocals as talentless form. Saying that anyone can do it without practice is the same as saying anyone can sing the latest hit song on the radio without practice. I'm not saying you have to like it, I'm saying that you should not instantly dismiss it as a talentless style of singing.

Here some gateway bands into harsh vocals
Motorhead
Opeth
Orange Goblin
High on Fire (Death is This Communion)
Amon Amarth (With Oden on our side)
Amorphis (Especially more recent efforts)
Orphaned Land
Devin Townsend
Strapping Young Lad (Alien)
Epica
Leaves' Eyes
Mastodon (Blood Mountain)
Nevermore (This Godless Endevour)
Nightwish (Once)

Harsh Singing will not kill your daughter nor does that headline have anything to do with this journal.

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