Death growl

A death growl, or simply growl, is a vocal style (an extended vocal technique) usually employed by death metal singers but also used in other heavy metal styles, such as metalcore.[1] Death growls are sometimes criticized for their "ugliness".[2] However, the harshness of death growls is in keeping with death metal's abrasive music style and often dark and obscene subject matter.[2] The progressively more forceful enunciation of metal vocals has been noted from heavy metal to thrash metal to death metal.

Not to be confused with Screaming (music).
For the sound sometimes made by the dying, see Death rattle.
George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, lead vocalist of Cannibal Corpse
Johan Hegg of Swedish band Amon Amarth

Definition

Death metal, in particular, is associated with growled vocals; tends to be lyrically and thematically darker and more morbid than other forms of metal; and features vocals which attempt to evoke chaos, death, and misery by being "usually very deep, guttural, and unintelligible."[3] Natalie Purcell notes, "Although the vast majority of death metal bands use very low, beast-like, almost indiscernible growls as vocals, many also have high and screechy or operatic vocals, or simply deep and forcefully-sung vocals."[4] Sociologist Deena Weinstein has noted of death metal: "Vocalists in this style have a distinctive sound, growling and snarling rather than singing the words, and making ample use of the voice distortion box."[5]

Terminology and technique

Death growls are also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, growled vocals, unclean vocals, harsh vocals, and also jocularly as Cookie Monster vocals.[6]

"To appreciate the music, fans first had to accept a merciless sonic signature: guttural vocals that were little more than a menacing, sub-audible growl. James Hetfield's thrash metal rasp was harsh in contrast to Rob Halford's heavy metal high notes, but creatures like Glen Benton of Deicide tore out their larynxes to summon images of decaying corpses and giant catastrophic horrors."[7]

In June 2007, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in The Netherlands reported that, because of the increased popularity of growling in the region, several patients who had used improper growling technique were being treated for edema and polyps on the vocal folds.[8]

History and variations

Early precedents

Growled vocals may have been a part of Viking music. In the 10th century, Arab-Spanish Sefardi Jewish merchant Abraham ben Jacob visited Denmark and commented on the local music as follows: "Never before I have heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings in Slesvig. The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, only more untamed."[9]

In Hildegard of Bingen's 12th-century allegorical morality play Ordo Virtutum, the role of the Devil uniquely does not employ melodic singing, but is performed in a manner which Hildegard specifies as strepitus diaboli and which is often taken to mean a low and growling voice.[10][11]

In 1966, The Who released the song "Boris the Spider," which featured death growls sung in basso profondo by bass player John Entwistle. This may be considered one of the first uses of death growl in popular music.[12]

The use of growling, "monstrous" vocals for ominous effect in rock music can be traced at least as far back as "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins in 1956. Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells, Part Two," from 1973, contains a section from 11:55 to 16:30 featuring extensive use of guttural vocals which are very close in style to the modern "death growl;" however, this effect was created by manipulating tape speed.[13]

In 1969 and the early 1970s, the song "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson is notable for its heavily distorted vocals sung by Greg Lake. The songs "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath and "One of These Days" by Pink Floyd both contain brief passages of ominously-growled, low-pitched vocals (in both cases studio-manipulated) against a heavy background of rock riffs. Other examples are Roger Waters' screams in some Pink Floyd songs, such as "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" (1967) and "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (1968). Punk rock bands like The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, and 999 also regularly employed gruff-sounding vocals, although not as pronounced as the death growl common in metal music today. The low, raspy, aggressive pitch of Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead was not unlike the death growl and may be thought of as a precursor to the current style.[14] Kate Bush employed raspy, guttural vocals on the track "Get Out of My House" from her 1982 album The Dreaming.

Origins in heavy metal

The advent of the growl as it is used today coincided roughly with the gradual emergence of death metal, and it is thus difficult to pinpoint a specific individual as the inventor of the technique. Different vocalists likely developed the style over time. The band Death (and its precursor Mantas) with its two vocalists—initially Kam Lee and subsequently Chuck Schuldiner—has been cited as among the first bands to utilize growling (although Schuldiner would eventually switch to a more high-pitched screeching, culminating in 1998's The Sound of Perseverance). Other early bands to use the technique include Possessed, Necrophagia, Master, Hellhammer, and Massacre also employed a variation of the growl. Other bands utilizing growling include Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, and Suffocation.

Uses in other subgenres

See also

References
  1. York, Will (July 2004). "Voices from hell". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Retrieved 2007-04-21.
  2. Sharpe-Young, Garry. Death Metal, ISBN 0-9582684-4-4
  3. David Konow, Bang Your Head:The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal. Three Rivers Press, 2002, p.228.
  4. Purcell, Natalie J. Death Metal Music:The Passion and Politics of a Subculture. McFarland, 2003, p. 11.
  5. Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology. MacMillan, 1991, p. 51.
  6. Fusilli, Jim (February 1, 2006). "That's Good Enough for Me". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009.
  7. Ian Christe, Sound of the Beast:The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins, 2003, p.239.
  8. "Grunten" sloopt de stem (Growling destroys the human voice), Nederlands Dagblad, June 28, 2007 (Dutch)
  9. "Vikings and their Music". Viking.no. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  10. Corrigan, Vincent J. (2012). "Hildegard of Bingen". In Matheson, Lister M. (ed.). Icons of the Middle Ages: Rulers, Writers, Rebels, and Saints. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-313-34080-2. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  11. Fassler, Margot (2011). "Music for the Love Feast: Hildegard of Bingen and the Song of Songs". In Begbie, Jeremy S.; Guthrie, Steven R. (eds.). Resonant Witness: Conversations Between Music and Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-8028-6277-8. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  12. "Today We Learned The First Recorded Instance of Death Growls Was From THE WHO in 1966". Metal Injection. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  13. "Classic Tracks : Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells". Sound on Sound. April 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  14. "Leisure & Arts". opinionjournal.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
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