Clean Vocals or Death Growl? (Modern Prog)

As someone mention above, vocals are like other instruments, used right at the right time, is what works.

Edited by tamijo - November 25 2010 at 04:15

I like a lot of heavy heavy stuff, but I have gotten to the point that I would rather listen to instrumental pieces than put up with Cookie Monsters. As a matter of fact, vocals in general, aside from a handful of true masters, (Di Giacomo, Mercury...) are more likely to wreck a listening experience than enhance it.  

For me, it's a mix of both. I get bored easily, mood changes through vocal and musical styling appeals to me very well. Maybe that's why I dig Into Eternity, Cynic and Opeth as much as I do. 

AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Opeth wreck their songs with death metal growling     There i have said it.   Its true - Opeth's music is amazing but the growling caustic vocals are abysmal!

No, the application of growls in Opeth is wonderful and really embellishes the music.

Clean vocals are the best, and take more skill.

To some extent, maybe, although that's still incredibly shallow to say. There's a massive majority of singers who can't growl like Akerfeldt, just like a lot of singers can't sing like Jon Anderson. They're both skills which require some practice at least and a skill which is usually developed to a degree. In both the above cases, you can here a clear difference in quality on earlier albums where either vocalist appears. Because you don't like harsh vocals it does not mean that they take less skill.

i know some death head will get on  here and spout on about how amazing death metal vocals are, and how it takes so  much talent to scream your vocals raw - but it is not the case.

So if anyone disagrees they're wrong?

Modern prog is a bad joke, and growling only makes it more stupid. Ditch the new garbage and stick to the classics.

Well it does require some skill to do good growls.  You can't discredit them for that just because it's not your style.

Old people.

Mushroom Sword wrote: octopus-4 wrote: I don't like standardised things, Standards arethe countrary of progressive. I like Riverside's growling and I don't like too much the clean voice of Artension but what matters is that the two things are functional to the song, not to the genre. Can we consider Pink Floyd's One of These Days the first example of growling? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8dSBWysmnM

octopus-4 wrote: I don't like standardised things, Standards arethe countrary of progressive. I like Riverside's growling and I don't like too much the clean voice of Artension but what matters is that the two things are functional to the song, not to the genre. Can we consider Pink Floyd's One of These Days the first example of growling?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8dSBWysmnM


Edited by Mushroom Sword - November 24 2010 at 23:44

I've never, ever been capable of listening to growler vocalists.  As a lyric-focused listener, it's usually pretty important to me that I can understand what's being warbled.  Moreover, I find the deep, sepulchral snarls of most metal bands to be deeply unsettling.  I feel like I'm plummeting through the earth's crust into some sort of Hieronymus Bosch-esque hellscape. 

But seriously, no disrespect to the growl fanciers.