Screaming In Music

[meowchef]

I hate it in about 99% of cases.

I love Tool, Nine Inch Nails and the Deftones. They are as screamy as I can tolerate.

 

[BonsaiK]

So Escapists, whats your view of screaming in music?

I think it's fine. I don't like a lot of "screamo" but I do like some of it. Same with black/death metal. Same with punk where there's screaming. Same with pop, electro, you name it. I don't mind it when songs are all screaming, sometimes that's what suits the song. Best example of a song with tons of screaming in it that I can think of:


No-one does it quite like Hanin Elias, and she's not even going full-tilt here.

As for the technical jibes, screaming, growling and other guttual vocal techniques are highly underrated by those not in the know, and require more skill to get the projection and the stamina than people realise. Sure, anybody can scream, but not just anybody can keep up screaming for the duration of a 45 minute set of music at a live gig. If you don't know what you're doing, and you don't use proper techniques, you'll trash your throat quicksmart and by song 3 you'll be totally fucked. Make no mistake, there's more to it than screaming to yourself in your bathroom or whatever.

 

[-Samurai-]

Most metal vocalists can growl for years without hurting themselves.

If they're winding up in the hospital, they're doing it wrong.

There is a huge difference between growling and screaming.

Growling comes from the very bottom of your stomach. Screaming is purely stress on the vocal chords.

 

[-Samurai-]

Sorry to double post, but I keep having this problem where my posts won't show until I post again in the same thread.

 

[Kenko]

This thread about screaming or growling? They're two different things.

 

[Vortex Traveller]

I can't stand it it hurts my ears! If your a singer Sing, Screaming is not Singing.

Uh, yes it is. Sorry, mate.

Thats the way I see it anyway, I think maybe I missed out the words "to me" in my statment about how screaming is not singing. In the end music's in the eye of the beholder anyway, this is just how I feel personally about screaming in music, it just irritates me.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I can't really say I've ever heard any screaming that I didn't like, but the music as a whole must not suck (or be christian).

 

[ninjapenguin981]

Very specific screaming such as in a few Escape The Fate songs, and Bullet For My Valentine's first album (The Poison) I do like. However the majority of screaming in songs makes me cringe and just ruins the awesome guitar solos or singing that I really like in a song. For example You Are So Beautiful by Escape The Fate, the whole first section of the song is really good IMO but when the screaming comes in it ruins it.

tl:dr - So both yes and no is my opinion.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I like it occasionally, a Roger Daltrey-esque scream of rage punctuating the chorus, or an awesome guitar solo, or even at the start. When they scream instead of sing, I hate it. It's ruined Children of Bodom and thousands of other bands.

I recently got some free music samplers from Amazon, and my reaction was the same for almost every track:

0:00 to 0:10 "Ooh, great riff..."
0:10 to 0:16 "Nice, the drums and bass just kicked in..."
0:16 to the end of the fucking song "FUCK! They're a fucking screaming death band! Damn it, and they sounded good, too..."

What I especially hate is when they think they're really brutal or awesome because they scream. *twitch*

 

[adderseal]

Screaming in music is like chucking a bucket of paint on a painting.

There. Ignorant statement of the day.

 

[Red Right Hand]

If it's done reservedly, I do then quite enjoy a good scream. Artists that use it constantly throughout songs, however, I do not enjoy.

For example, I really enjoy Maynard James Keenan's occasional screams in Tool's "Jerk-Off"

Spoiler

 

[Spacelord]

Depends whether it fits with the music. Screaming and grunting and the like is a relatively experimental form of vocalising though, and as with everything experimental, it can fail. Moreover when it's used to cover up a band's lack of talent (which happens a LOT, especially in local band scenes) it gets really transparent and is quite disappointing.

Bottom line: it must be used wisely.

Oh yea, your the musical expert to decide that?
Death Growling is very hard to do correctly, without ruining your own voice, and it generally takes effort to perform it.

I totally agree

 

[nick n stuff]

i hate screaming in music and cos it's mainly in metal all genres of metal get labelled with it...which is unfortunate cos Maiden, black label and the like don't scream and yet some ignorant people insist that they do cos they're metal too.

incidentally, the Megadeth gig i went too was accompanied by the booing off of job for a cowboy for this exact reason. We got 4 extra Megadeth tracks as a result if the online setlist is anything to go by. was damn good.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

Well scene kids that scream are quite annoying, but any decent metal band with that sort of thing pulls it of fantastically.

 

[notsosavagemessiah]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoQrwKJtv_c&feature=av2n

a prime example of beautiful clean and screaming vocals. I'm not going to post whole videos, just a few links to bands i think can showcase best why i personally prefer "screaming" to lame ass clean vocals, while i'm sure nobody cares, give em a listen, and simply enjoy.

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

amon amarth is a band that has absolutely no shortage of power behind their lyrics and vocals, achieving an atmosphere that simply cannot be built on clean vocals.

But then again, there are things like this out there, and i think it's important to point out, that the two bands above both have MELODY to their screaming, what you're about to hear, most certainly does not, and this is not the kind of metal that i prefer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38j-i8jH7xk&feature=related

 

[A-D.]

By default i dont mind the Screaming or Grunting if done well enough. But as been said before, alot of Bands just dont do it that well. For me, as long as i can actually understand the Lyrics, i.e. the Song is actually about something other than screaming something garbled then its fine by me.

Just never make a Song that has nothing but senseless screaming and/or no real Vocals.

 

[gred]

I like screaming in metal, as long as it fits the sound of the track.
Actually Job for a cowboy and suicide silence have pretty awesome lyrics, so check them out.

 

[blankedboy]

No.
No, no, no, no, no.
I fucking hate screaming, it's effectively just a filler to see how much you can get your fans to hate you.
In fact, I prefer lyricless songs in general.

 

[Nazz3]

It depends.

I hate the screamo type of screaming in songs, like Trivium. It used to be ok but now I just hate it.

The Ensiferum type of screaming is ok though. And growling

 

[gjendemsjo]

I usually can't stand screaming in songs.