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A masterclass in death metal vocals

3K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  geoffshreds 
#1 ·


With the peak demonstration of ability at 3:18. Chris Barnes is truly the Freddie Mercury of death metal.
 
#2 ·
I do enjoy his high pitched shrieks, but I can't tell if you're joking or not with this post. He sounds like shit. Like he's out of breathe the whole time. Time has not treated his voice well. He used to sound waaayyyy better. Freddie Mercury of death metal would be someone more like Travis Ryan imo. Masterclass in death metal vocals would be Frank Mullen
 
#3 ·
I'm not a big death metal guy, but Barnes is one of the few vocalists I do like. I saw him live with SFU when Ola came through and as a non-DM guy, I like that I can actually understand him most of the time. They were with Cattle Decapitation, which I absolutely do not get at all.

I don't know what constitutes good DM, but this here is badass:

 
#8 ·
Love both of those guys. Brooks uses the freq cancellation in the mic to create some of his breakup, though, which, while he does better than most, walks the line between "what you can do without fx" and "well, guitar players can use fx, why can't vocalists?"

Eternal Illumination for Becoming... is my idea of the greatest example of extreme metal vocals in one song ever done. There's death growls, thrash rasp, blackened screams and everything in between. That song is a text book example of great underground metal vox.

For me, Mikael from Opeth has/had the best death metal voice ever. I love Martin Van Drunen, Karl Willets, Barney and others, but Mikael mixes cold rasp, intelligible enunciation, amazing vocal control and utter brutality in a way no one else can.

But, like everything else in music, "great" is all in the ear of the beholder.
 
#6 ·
That sounded like Cartman at 3:18. :rofl:

You really can’t get more raw and unpolished than that vocal track. He definitely sounds better in the vid Quigs posted.

I really dug the dude Kagami posted. I gotta check out some more of those guys.
 
#7 ·
Chris Barnes's vocals in that song sounded REALLY shitty to me. Like an example of really poorly done death metal vocals. Personally, I've always considered Peter Tagtgren's work on Bloodbath's album Nightmares Made Flesh as an absolute masterclass in death metal vocals.



Or if we want the Freddie Mercury of death metal vocals, I vote for Christian Alvestam. 100% of the vocals in this song are performed by him, and it's more just a masterclass in metal vocals across the board: death metal, black metal, power metal, soaring cleans:

 
#10 ·
There was some Six Feet Under stuff back when I first got into DM that I didn't like much but then I heard Barnes' stuff with Cannibal Corpse and was muy impressed. A few years back I heard that one SFU album with Rob Arnold and the next one with Ola, and really liked what I heard.
 
#17 ·
I felt the same way when I first heard Dark Matter Dimensions, where neither of the 2 new singers could do the growling or singing as well as Alvestam, but they've gotten better with each album. Have you heard The Singularity? It's definitely worth picking up if you don't have it. It's the best of the albums with the new singers and I'd rank it higher than Holographic Universe.



And although it would've been nice if Alvestam had stayed with Scar Symmetry, the Solution .45 stuff is still pretty good. They have 3 albums out. Have you given any a listen?



 
#23 ·
barnes is a classic death metal vocalist. he has also been smoking pounds of weed every day for the last 40 years. his vocals are tired because he's old. it happens to the best of us. he was an innovator for the genre and i'll always have a soft spot for him. hes also one of those dudes that doesn't do effects on his vocals which seems to also extend to compression and eq which in my opinion is a mistake but hey, hes the dude in charge.

there are plenty of modern death metal vocalists doing cool shit out there right now. i'll always love corpsegrinder, lord worm and glen benton though. early 90s death metal was raw and dangerous sounding.

try as hard as you can to not want to tear your house apart and run around until you puke listening to this.

 
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