I've been doing metal vocals for about a year now. I started with stuff like Lamb of God (Ashes of the Wake was my favorite album during winter) since the vocals were easy to understand and then match.

I'm having trouble improving overall, and especially with highs. I've read Suspended's guide and a few others so I have a vague idea of where to go.

www.myspace.com/takethesunrise is my band, with me on drums and vox. I'd like some general tips and critiques on the vox, which are about 5 months old now.

much thanks,

CqqM.

It might be useful for me to add what I'm going for >.>:
I'm really into Salt the Wound lows and Whitechapel lows atm, and my favorite highs are Abigail Williams' and, sorry to say, BMTH. So, any tips toward achieving a sound similar, and general exercises to improve range and stamina would be grand.

I gave the 20 seconds or so of Val Kilmer a listen (slow ass internet connection and me being impatient). Your lows sound pretty decent, but overall you seem to be lacking power in your voice. Could be the recording however. As far as increasing stamina goes, just try to hold your growls and screams as long as you can. I've been doing this with Cryptopsy's open face surgery lately, replaying that 26 second scream section and doing my different growls, gutturals, squeals and gurgles to it to increase my stamina. Your highs are alot better than mine I must say, and I've been doing death vocals for about 7 years now. I'd say just try to get the technique of opening your throat more for the screams if you want them to be really high, or try just pushing more air with them.

Not trying to discredit suspended's guide or anything, but I always drink dr. pepper or mountain dew when I'm doing vocals, sometimes water to clean out the phlegm. This may help you out if you want to give that a try.

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Yeah, that's what I've worked on since those recordings. Those were originally just supposed to be placeholders so I could teach our actual vocalist the songs, so I recorded them on a shitty $8 mic. Then he left and I moved so we kinda got shafted.

So yeah, I'm better at projecting but I'm having trouble getting down gutterals and brees.


Personally, I like having phlegm but I'd also like to do minimal damage to my chords. I drink milk and tea before hand, or after brushing muh teeth. I only get like 10-15 minutes of practice in every few days since I'm now living in an apartment but I'm trying to find a band where I moved to get some more practice in.


Also, my lung capacity is shit, partially because they've always been, partially because CO has low air density and partially because I smoke.
How beneficial to lung capacity would quitting smoking be/vs. effects it might have on vocal sound?

also, around 0:55-1:10 is about as loud and low as I can get.

this week I'll just record some vocals and throw em up so there's a more accurate example.

I've made the mistake of starting smoking about 15 months ago, and I haven't noticed a loss of any power or projection in my vocals. I know in the long run quitting will probably help. My vocals have gotten more harsh since starting smoking, but I'd consider that a good thing. My squeals are basically an extension of my gutturals, I just port the sound through one side of my mouth and shape my throat to make the bree sound. I also have a somewhat unique technique of making this sewery chewbacca growl by letting more air flow across the inside of my cheek causing it to ripple and add a weird "through a fan" sound to it. It also looks ridiculous.

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