Just out of curiosity, how would y’all classify Wayne Static’s vocal style?
Guttural singing, not quite a growl.
Serious question. How does that not just torture the singer’s throat?
I think it does.
The wiki links indicate that there are some vocal coaches who teach how to do it so that it isn’t as damaging.
But, they also mention that really trashing your vocal chords is kind of a mark of honor.
Which Killswitch album did you buy? Becuase after the first album they changed singers.
There is plenty of great metel which has no "growl"such as Pantera, Fear Factory, even slayers later stuff; God Hates Us All & Christ Illusion.
It seems to be alot of this new stuff like Hardcore that has alot of this growling. I tend not to like it. Seems to be a bit boring. Much more listen to Lamb of God Or Machine Head which even they have heavy screams and such but doesn’t have that boring repetitive feel of hardcore & other new age metal bands.
I’m with you on the Slayer tip, nobody does it like Tom Araya does it and there’s no growl there at all, just pure screaming. Pantera started out as a pretty straightforward metal band, but by the later albums Phil’s love of all things Death and Black started showing through a bit more and the vocals while perhaps not classic growling did get more and more extreme. Fear Factory on the other hand started out as a technical death metal band that also included clear singing in parts but Soul of a New Machine and Fear Is the Mindkiller both feature prominent death metal vocal styles.
ETA - I saw Morbid Angel opening for Pantera once upon a time and Phil came out and sang with them for a song or two as is really quite capable of doing a pretty decent growl if I do say so myself.
I’m not too fussed about rock/metal lyrics in general, happy just to go with the sound. Sometimes, though, they’re so completely inane that it’s a good thing not to hear them. System of a Down’s last two albums were a big disappointment in places. The not-Serj guy has a very clear voice that reveals some fatuous lyrics, cringe-worthy high school poetry that really killed the mood of the albums. He would benefit from trying the metal growl. Serj’s voice is almost operatic and I don’t hear the words as clearly, which is good.
I can’t stand the damn cookie monster vocals either. A lot of groups that people seem to like, Opeth and Mastadon, I tried but couldn’t get past the vocals there either.
I’ve picked up a few albums this year that I like, the new Nightwish is pretty good and I’ve had it in my car for the last three weeks or so. I have one Trivium album, which I like a bit.
There’s a band from Germany that I like called Rage, they’ve been around since the 80s, but I like the newer stuff a lot better, Black in Mind, End of All Days, Unity and Soundchaser are all very heavy and good.
Bruce Dickinson has had some good albums over the last few years, and the last Priest album was very good as well. There are some other bands that I don’t know if you’d be interested in or not, but I’ll throw them out there so you can at least check them out:
Iced Earth, I like them a bit though a lot of people seem to really like them.
Gamma Ray, ex-guitar player from Helloween started this band in the early 90s.
Iron Saviour, some members of Gamma Ray and others do this as a collaboration.
In Flames, they are the only cookie monster band I can stand, but I only have one album by them so have no idea what they sound like now.