I have been told that tongue placement, the shape you make with your mouth, and your actual physical posture makes a difference when doing death metal vocals. I have been doing dm style vocals recently that are satisfactory, and I find all this advice aforementioned completely incorrect. I could compare it to a poor musician, buying a better amp or more gear to make themselves sound better, when the only ones they are fooling are themselves and others who eat this crap and find it believable. I find that if I use my tongue to alliterate as a normal human being does as they do when talking, I get the best sound. Physical posture matters very little, I could stand, or sit. Same thing with my mouth, when doing death metal vocals, I use it just like I do when I talk. Does anyone, who actually do death metal style vocals, agree or disagree?

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*waits for john holland*


the problem here is youre comparing advice for brutal DM vocals (mike majewski of devourment wrote the book on tongue/body placement) to what you're trying to do. when i say put your tongue on the roof of your mouth, im not saying do that when youre trying to suffocation style vocals.

mouth shape? purse your lips as hard and tight as you can. itll eliminate your clarity and make it more brutal sounding. lemay (erosion of sanity is the best example) pursed his lips ,which is half of why his vocals sound so drawn out and tight. the other half is his diaphragm

im listening to standup when im typing this so it may not be perfect...


anyways sounds to me like youre doing fine from what ive heard. id liken your post to trying to get a judas priest tone from a peavey 5150 and a vigier just style conflicts, not faulty advice

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Heheh I like that.

Yeah I see what you mean about the differences in style. I suppose the entire approach would be different when comparing Devourment guy to Frank Mullen.

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tongue placement is essential for range. But so is posture and breathe capacity.

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Yeah... but when my tongue is any place other than the bottom of my mouth, it sound like crap.

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tongue placement does matter for me, and i do that "O" thing with my lips to get the more brutal sound.
also, every time i sing aggressively i put 1 leg on a bed/chair etc, i dont know why i do it because i can sing without it, but it seems to help in some way. i saw also that many vocalists (in flames, dark tranquillity for example) do it too.

well

Its weird. I have found I certainly dont have to do any of the aforementioned, such as posture and mouth shape, to get growls out. But, posture and shape (as well as tongue position which to be fair I just use to sort of cup my mouth instead of cupping the mic) do help sculpt the style alot and change. You dont HAVE to stand up to get SOMETHING out, but it depends on what you want. Stuff like Devourment I would argue you pretty much should stand up... It makes life a hell of a lot easier for one. Also helps you get in the right frame of mind.

While I understand what youre saying, again, I reckon its dependant on what style you are going for. Nothing is mandatory. Hopefully this is the sort of reply you want, sorry im not sure, I dont venture in here too often.

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I've said it before and I'll say it again, those vocals where you can't understand words are fucking stupid. If you can't be brutal with your voice without changing your normal speech pattern and form, you're not fucking brutal and you're trying to hard.

Think about it......if it comes so natrually without doing all this extra mouth shit to sound cooler, shouldn't that make you naturally more brutal than some teenager fucker Oooo-ing all the fucking time?

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sometimes i agree, but this is a shitty blanket statement. ever hear the lowest vocals in impaled?thats fucking brutal. the new psycroptic vocalist, same thing. guttural secret, malignancy, saprogenic.

edit

even one of my faovrite vocalists, when going all about, loses his enunciation and it becomes pure brutality. frank mullen! devoid of truth...not to mention anything on effigy of the forgotten.


what im saying is, while those low slurpy messy vocals can sound awful and boring and cliche, they dont always and are sometimes more brutal than just controlled holler type DM vocals (ross dolan, PFW frank mullen, malevolent creation). its all in how its done

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It's all about Frank Mullen and AJ Magana. Unintelligability usually makes it more brutal, but I don't think a 10 year old can get as burpy as I can.

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In almost all cases I agree... not always though.

This thread is very useful to me... I like where it has gone. And no hostility yet

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Steve Tucker is one of my favorite vocalists. He is quite intelligeble but still grunts at and grinds you like no other. He uses his tongue a lot. I don't like super unintelligible vox like Devourment and Wormed and stuff. I mean sometimes it's cool and br00t3l but it's just something noone ever pays attention to. Someone like Tucker or Erik Rutan just commands your attention with diaphragm burning madness.

Doing an "o" style lip figure helps me, unless I tense my face a lot, then I just get tired. Agreed, just doing it like very articulate speech helps a lot in clarity, to keep it brutal just push your diaphragm more.

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id like to hear a band who uses a good mixture of both does anyone know of an example?

Mm. But I wasn't brutal, or cool, or charming or anything but awkward and a bit embarrased with my guitar before I practiced daily and learnt a long list of techniques. Same thing with singing. When you make music, and not just for gains sake, you wish to express something. But how many in here can honestly say that they could before practice and technique was added?
Don't misunderstand me though - overly brutal death metal vocals can miss the target by light years and often do.

As for the original question. It could be the same thing as me and bends. I tried to do bends and I didn't like them because they didn't sound good. Then I mastered them and they sounded good, but I still don't use them all the time. Maybe it could be worth giving it a try, the thing with the tounge and so on, for a while and see if it leads somewhere; if you don't like the results so what heck.
But unfortunately the thing with techniques is that no matter how much we cherish them for what they help us do, they seldom give off any awards without much sweat and work.

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