Opeth

[jgcable]

I am into Killswitch Engage and while I was checking them out I was suggested by several people to check out Opeth. They told me that if I like Killswitch Engage I will love Opeth so I made myself a 25 song CD loaded with Opeth songs.
I must be getting old.
The riffs are pretty good, the music is certainly really heavy but the vocals caused me to take the CD and flip it out the window of my car.
How the frig do you kids listen to that cookie monster sounding vocal where you can't understand a single word the maniac singer is saying. There is also no melody at all. Its just low subharmonic screaming. I wish there was a way to turn the vocal tracks off and insert a good singer in there because the music is good.
I also checked out Decapitation. Just aweful. I guess they call them Front Men nowadays because these guys certainly aren't singers.
I know this is a crappy corolation but on the 1st episode of American Idol this year a kid came on and auditioned who was obviously a death metal singer. He did his audition with that horrible cookie monster voice. He sounded just like that guy from Opeth or Decapitation. The judges laughed him off the stage. I did too. It sounded like he was actually joking. I would guess that most people thought he was a goof too although I am sure he was dead serious about his impersonation of Grover from Sesame Street.
I just don't get it. Why write kick ass metal tracks and add such revolting uninspiring dribble for vocals.
Maybe the saying should be:
Those who can sing.. sing
Those who can't sing... join death metal bands.
Those shit vocals would have never cut it in the 80's.
I like Killswitch Engage because even though he does a fair amount of Grover singing.. he mixes it with a fair amount of really good "actual" singing.
I know.. I am an old fart I guess.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Opeth

I saw Opeth a few months ago. Possibly the most boring show I've ever seen in my life...

[Tetsuo]

Re: Opeth

Wow Opeth is the only death like vocal band I really like. Akerfeldt doesn't overdo it either he balances out his stuff and the dynamics is pretty good imo. When I hear Opeth I hear nick drake more than anything else.

[Endrik]

Re: Opeth

IMO technically advanced metal bands with crappy singers aren't better than grunge bands with crappy lead guitarists.

[Fragle]

Re: Opeth

firstly, it's decapitated.....i don't like em, though [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

well, first of all, i like it both: clean "80's style" singing as well as "cookie monster" vocals. however, both need to be done right or it will sound like SHIT...this is why i cannot stand accept (come on, you call that singing?!) or mortician (come on, you call that growling?!).
having that said, i think mikael (opeth) has a great voice, both for growling and screaming. if you think his vox is just subharmonic screaming you need to listen to some really bad stuff....believe me, there's much worse out there.
and btw, IMHO killswitch engage has written exactly ONE good song...vide infra. i CANNOT stand any other song.

many people dismiss a band because of so called cookie monster vocals. i agree, sometimes it's difficult to get past that stuff, but there are a few bands that are really worth it from a musical point of view. testament-the gathering comes to my mind....i know a bunch people that i already got into old school testament, but even though these new songs are KILLER they can't get past the heavy vox...they don't know what they're missing, really.

[jcm800x]

Re: Opeth

Opeth is a great band, I played with them back in 00' and talked Jacksons with them. I have always loved a good death vocal, bands from my area(KSE, Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Unearth) have always mixed the vocal styles with old school death, euro death, thrash and clean. I guess you have to feel that way on the inside to like that type of vocal, I must be pretty messed up!

[markD]

Re: Opeth

i was a part of the death metal scene in tampa when it was in it's infancy. i remember hanging with nasty savage, meeting glen benton form deicide, watching death make their climb to the top (even though they were fom orlando, they played and hung out in tampa A LOT). athiest, obituary, the list goes on and on....what i am getting to is these guys made a conscious effort to have their "vocals" be what they imagined a "voice from the dead" sounded like. it was extreme, it was underground, it was NEW and FRESH!!

now it's cliche and old hat. the originality is gone. they copy something 20+ years old to sound "tough" or "evil" or "metal"...i think it sucks!!!!

but that's just my opinion. i respect the original intention.....

[jcm800x]

Re: Opeth

I remember the original bands too, horror movies put to music is what I heard. Obituary's 'Chopped in half' sums it up for me, good old Fla death metal!

[markD]

Re: Opeth

yep!! it was a very conscious thing to be as much like a dead person as possible [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[jgcable]

Re: Opeth

I guess you have to make a connection with that type of vocal style. I can't.
Its ashame too.. because I like the music.
I went to see Shadows Fall and the music was killer. The playing was killer. The show was killer. The vocals made me want to jump up onstage and deck the lead singer. Good thing Judas Priest was the headliner. Halford made me forget about Shadows Fall with his first word.
Call me old fashioned but I think that a singer should be required to actually sing once in a while.
The guy from Mudvayne sings. Show does the guy from Killswitch Engage and they still scream a bunch.
I guess death metal is different.
Bottom line.. if death metal requires that kind of vocal style its not for me. Damn them though for writing good songs with killer riffs.

[toejam]

Re: Opeth

Opeth kicks ass! Their songs are pretty long and usually a mixture of heavy/mellow. Did you listen to a full song? He can really sing... he does the death metal thing, then they go into the mellow parts where he has a great voice. That's just their thing. If you want an Opeth album with great clean singing only, then pick up the Damnation cd.

[Inazone]

Re: Opeth

For no reason in particular, I have yet to listen to an Opeth album, even though I am into other melodic death metal bands. I have a very limited tolerance for the growling vocals, but will basically "tune out" the vocals if I'm really digging the music. My favorite death metal vocalist was Lawrence Mackrory on Darkane's debut album, but that might be considered black metal or thrash in that it wasn't the low growling typical in death metal. Chuck Billy has also done some great death-style vocals on recent Testament albums, especially on "Dog Faced Gods" and "Fall of Sipledome".

I can't really criticize much, because I play in a death metal band that uses growled vocals...but our vocalist is relatively intelligible compared to most. When listening to a band I'm not familiar with, I think of the vocals more as another instrument and don't try to spend much time deciphering the lyrics.

[jcm800x]

Re: Opeth

Death metal is riff-tastic! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[hippietim]

Re: Opeth

Grrrrrr

[markD]

Re: Opeth

jg, i am totally with you!!! i HATE that vocal style now. i do still like celtic frost and venom, but their vocal aren't TOTAL cookie monster...but my days of digging the death growl are over.