Rolling Metal Thread 2009

right -- and not just limited physical range, but limited emotional range, too. (i.e., 100% trumped-up "anger" all the time gets boring really fast.)

That's why I like singers like Stu Block of Into Eternity, who are versatile enough to capture a large range of emotion.

xp I mean, say what you want about the uselessness of lyrics having some kind of concrete linguistic meaning, but at least lyrics (in all kinds of music) have the effect of providing shades of feeling when singers aren't good enough to do it themselves.

Guys, new Jamie Saft ("Black Shabbis") is A++

http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/Large/76/1056576.jpg

Instrumental virtuosity is essential in every facet of metal EXCEPT for vocals. Guitarists sit in their rooms and play all day. Drummers have personal trainers. The singer's job is to throw buckets of water on the crowd and get wasted after the show.

This is why I get excited when I hear about any metal band with a female vocalist. They're not nearly as lazy most of the time.

good growlers and screechers can be understood once you develop an ear for it. i can understand a lot of "vomit" lyrics that just sound like noise to my gf, for example.

like some posters above, i'm also not a big lyric guy. as long as i get the general gist, either through a good expressive vocalist, or just words here and there, i'm good.

the kind of vocalists i have grown to hate more than any other are these post-metal (or whatever the fuck people are calling it now) guys like the Cult of Luna guy. just these bland rage roars that shit all over whatever the band is playing, whether heavy and loud or slow and melodic.

I'm not a big fan of the belching vocals or the post-metal vocals, to be honest. Like, I can't even listen to Nile.

And I will say, sometimes when I flip through Stairway to Hell, I'm kind of jealous of the days when people could actually talk about the lyrics on metal albums.

The singer's job is to throw buckets of water on the crowd and get wasted after the show.

Hahah, okay, I just imagined Bruce Dickinson doing nothing but that. Opening notes of "The Trooper" starts, he just starts flinging water and not saying a word...

Huh, I recall being fairly fond of Nile's vocals (I've not heard their last few albums, so I wouldn't know if they've changed)
Hmm, though when I'm trying to call them up in my head now, I hear the Pessimist guy instead. That's not a good thing. "I'll kill her... before... you can... kill her!" Sigh.

I'm curious about that Saft album. I'm not really a fan, but a friend said it's quite nifty. It's all or mostly original songs, right?

Does anyone do the ultra-low possibly pitch-shifted gurgles anymore? That was a hoot for a while. Beherit etc, I mean. There were a few horror and porno grind groups that took it too far though.

The most absurd vocal style is the grindcore pig squeal. So stupid.

Esoteric are kings of ultra-low right now. i can't play their album around my girl without getting weird looks, though. might as well whip out a Magic card set or something.

i was listening to Devastation the other night and thinking there was a vocal style that worked pretty well over death/trash music. almost hardcore punk sounding.

*thrash

And grind core vocals are my least favorite of all, which is one of the big reasons I don't listen to a lot of it. Screw it, Chuck's right, extreme metal vocals suck.

haha

Huh, I haven't heard Esoteric since _The Pernicious Enigma_. Are they still doing that odd, odd, odd acid-nightmare style of doom?
I was really terribly fond of those guys when I was in my biggest doom phase. Last time I played _Epistemological Despondency_ it was somewhat perplexing.

It's not to my knowledge an established and in any way common vocal style, but man oh man do I hate the terrified dumbass commander vocals on Mayhem's Grand Declaration of War. That record had pretty good screeching though! Though I might've been fooled by the great relief I felt whenever the fellow stopped hollering about cold and damp stuff.

Esoteric has gotten a little more shoegazey, but yeah, same thing pretty much.

extreme metal vocalists need j0hn to pop in and set some ppl straight on this thread.

"Cobra! Retreeeeeaaaaat!"

someone should start a different type of "metal" vocal styles poll (and not just the extreme types please).

Whoa! Opeth/Enslaved US tour this May. No openers. Just an evening with the best metal bands from Scandinavia today.

That cancelled Enslaved headlining tour would have been amazing. So disappointed by that.

i like a lot of "extreme" music and, and the task of dealing with impossibly off-putting vocal styles is a big part of this kind of love. it's not just metal, either - you've got your hardcore he-man bellowing, crazy art vocals the likes of early gira & bargeld, hysterical screaming in noise music, all kindsa bad-to-listen-to mouth sounds. anyway, though i was always inclined to dig the music, the associated singin' styles kept me away from doom and black metal for quite a while. i just couldn't feature voluntarily listening to that crap for more than a few minutes at a time. over the years, though, i somehow grew accustomed. the shrieking/croaking/burping caca-phony sounds natural to me now, and it's hard to imagine the music existing without. plus, there's a lot more room for variety, personality and shading of intensity than some folks seem to give credit for.

not backtracking, really: still think that borderline-incoherent bellowing is often the worst kind of vocal straightjacket, esp when applied to whole genres

not sure how to reconcile the above. maybe just "when it works, it really works; but when it doesn't, it really sucks"

^ probably true of every vocal style that ever was

"That cancelled Enslaved headlining tour would have been amazing. So disappointed by that."

I got to see them headline last year, which was fantastic. But this time they'll get to play for big crowds...

"Hahah, okay, I just imagined Bruce Dickinson doing nothing but that. Opening notes of "The Trooper" starts, he just starts flinging water and not saying a word..."

Oh Ned, you know I was taking the piss... :)

Just to be clear, I'm not giving anybody a waiver for musically inept or inapt vocals, and I will shut off instrumentally-appealing music after about five seconds of hating the vocalist, especially hating the vocalist in some drearily genre-cliche-ish way. And my #1 metal albums both this year and last had hugely melodic (female) singers. But then I still love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega. It's an interesting question, though, whether I'd love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega even more if they had real singers. Possibly, but not definitely. If you treat vocals as an instrument, you have to treat them as an interesting instrument. Which doesn't mean they have to have any particular conventional technique, but they better not sound like hitting one broken drum over and over again for the length of an album.

I really dig grindcore & some black metal vocals but can't put up with the bullfrog early Cynic style of stuff. I dig the black metal vocals that sound inhuman, textural, like a troll on the other end of an icy canyon. The "screams of agony" thing doesn't really do it for me.

Satyricon were fantastic tonight. Too bad about Septic Flesh and Cradle of Filth.

I just wanna say how much I'm loving that Jamie Saft album. I highly recommend. "Der Judenstein" is this really sludgy, doomy track, and "Army Girl" sounds amazing. I think this might be my favorite album of the year so far - metal or not.

This is why I get excited when I hear about any metal band with a female vocalist. They're not nearly as lazy most of the time.

Speaking of which, I'm mildly impressed by the new Serpencult album. It's as if Electric Wizard was fronted by Lee Aaron.

If I YSI one of the tracks, will you guys take a listen?

Oh yes, I'm just trying to keep myself from buying it unheard, so that would be grand.

Hrm, I'm listening to Nile's _Black Seeds of Vengeance_ now, and yup, I really like the hell out of these vocals, though they're perhaps a bit too sibilant at times. Deep and gurgly and fairly easy to understand to boot.
Also, one track has a fantastic guest-appearance by Krusty The Clown. DESOOOLAAAAAATE!

Really? I've sat there with the lyric sheet and still had no idea what the hell Karl Sanders is saying.

mildly impressed by the new Serpencult album

I was tolerable of it but not as impressed as I hoped to be. (Mentioned it a bit upthread, I think.)

Mordy, this is, um...interesting so far.

It's an interesting question, though, whether I'd love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega even more if they had real singers. Possibly, but not definitely.

the vocals for these two groups are some of my favorite in their respective styles. i started writing a post last night about how much i love Wrest's vox on the Lurker of Chalice stuff. it's really hard for me to imagine any other vocal style working for either of these groups.

speaking of bad vocals, I'm listening to Harvey Milk right now, and this guy's vox are just on the right side of tolerable for me.

Harvey Milk's vocals suit the music so perfectly.

new 2009 album from Urna - self described as "post funeral doom metal from Italy"

Urna - Iter ad lucem

2 new sample tracks on myspace

Urna
http://www.myspace.com/urnaproject

stated Influences:

Funeral Doom
Post Metal
Black Metal
Electronics & Ambient Soundscapes
Drone
Sludge Death Metal
and some others

expansive crushing twisting dynamics, big churning psychedelic riffs

Second track on the album:
http://rapidshare.com/files/194385864/02_Blood.mp3.html

Personally would much prefer if Harvey Milk's vocals had more Burke Shelley in them and less King Buzzo.

A few '09 records with loud guitars (or other instruments that sound like guitars) on them that I've decided I like since the last list I posted:

Death – …For The Whole World To See (Drag City reissue EP)
Dirty Little Rabbits – Simon (The End EP)
The Answer – Everyday Demons (The End)
Black Lips – 200 Million Thousand (Vice)
Gene Dante and the Future Starlets – The Romantic Lead (Omnirox Entertainment)
Talk Normal – Talk Normal (myspace/talknormal EP)

really don't hear any buzzo in the harvey milk vox at all.

I think they're perfect for the band too. strained/fragile for the "clean" parts, strained/burly for the rest.

Mostly just sound like your old who-cares pigfuck to me (a shame, since the sludge of the '70s riffs can be pretty awesome.)

album version is better but the vox SO PERFECT for that song.

bah, embedding disabled. just click on the link!

Hey Chuck, there is a new Shakin' Street album out this month.

http://shakinstreetofthe21stcentury.maxximum.org/

in non-metal news, the new nashville pussy album sucks and so does the new mono album. (mono + 23 piece orchestra = worst classical music of all time. and most boring.)

there is a new Shakin' Street album

Yay!

new nashville pussy album sucks

I already pointed this out on the Rolling Country thread!