The 7 Greatest Harsh Vocals of Heavy Metal

Maiden Priest has been on an autopilot mode for the past few weeks, giving out album reviews after album reviews the site has become as predictable as the direction Cannibal Corpse is going to take in writing their next album. Let me break down this humdrum and write about something that I always wanted to write. Who doesn't love a list ?, When I was a newbie in metal I used to type phrases like "The greatest doom metal albums" on Google and there it came before me a plethora of suggestions and opinions, that was how I discovered good music in those days and I still do the same to defend my tastes in music. Here I present to you the seven greatest screamers or growlers that ever caressed my ears.

To be completely honest with you I hated harsh vocals, I never saw the appeal of singing in a way that would make the lyrics indecipherable. The furthest I could go was the half singing half screaming of trash metal bands like Megadeth and Slayer. My appetite for heavier music was not satisfied by the trash metal bands, so I searched deeper and gradually that primal urge to scream at the things we hate became the voice of the music I hear.

The greatest of them all is the one pictured above, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and I am going to make that revelation on the onset because you know I am an Opeth fanboy if you have ever read this blog. 

7. Ihsahn 

The front-man of the greatest black metal band ever should be on this list. Like most others on the list he too can sing but it is his unique throaty shriek that makes him on of the best metal singers around. On Emperor's first release In the Nightside Eclipse he sounded like every other black metal singers at the time but on Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk Ihsahn screamed like a man possessed. His conviction and his tone set him apart from the other black metal singers of the era, his vocals raged through the record like a horsemen rampaging through the battlefield. The fact that Emperor always had the best black metal lyrics also helped his cause in being on this list.

His solo output is no slouch either, using his impressive clean singing to further accentuate his shriek, check out the song Unhealer from the album angL wherein he duets with Åkerfeldt on the chorus to see the contrasting styles of the two great vocalists. Ihsahn's greatest harsh vocal performance can be heard in the song Contaminate Me by the band Leprous, that song is an absolute monster and to truly experience the intensity of his voice check out this performance he did with Leprous.    

6. Niklas Kvarforth

If you are the founder and the creative force of a band that plays in the genre called depressive suicidal black metal then you got to have vocals to match for it and Kavarforth has that in spades. His vocals are as miserable as his lyrics for Shining and unlike the other vocalists in this list his vocals are raw and untreated in the records. There is no double tracking or excessive reverb to make the voice sound huge, it's just pure angst and self destruction and he often denounce a good vocal phrasing lest it affects the emotion he wants to instill on you.

V - Halmstad  houses the best Kvarforth vocals put to tape. His vocals on the mid section of the song Besvikelsens dystra monotoni is probably the most impassioned harsh vocals I've heard and I almost feel sorry for his vocal chords, almost because he wants all of us to die. The band Shining is paradoxical in a sense, they play suicidal black metal but their music is worth living for. 

For all the hatred and pain in his voice, Kavarforth can sing a lullaby. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard I Nattens Timma from the VII - Född förlorare album, that was one of the most soothing 4 minutes I've ever heard.   
   

5. Randy Blythe

Lamb of God was the band that introduced me to the harsh vocals, they made me understand the need for such vocalizations to channel the aggression and heaviness of a modern metal band. The band would have been another run of the mill "new wave of American heavy metal" band had the band been fronted by a lesser vocalist. Blythe's vocals, charisma and stage presence made Lamb of God the leader of the scene.

I always consider Lamb of God to be a trash metal influenced instrumentalists with a hardcore punk influenced vocalist.  Blythe had the attitude and the down to earth social awareness of the hardcore punk scene, that along with his vocal ability made him a beast in front of a mic.

Randy Blythe can jump from a low growl to a shriek in a second and no Lamb of God record exemplifies this more than their sixth record Wrath. Reclamation is probably the most underrated Lamb of God song ever, that song has a clear Gojira influence and Blythe gives his all out, from spoken word to low grunts to ear splitting screams, Reclamation is a tour de force in unclean vocal performance. Check it out yourselves if you are still not convinced.  
       

4. Dave Hunt

Anaal Nathrakh is the most atrocious and psychotic band I've heard and those superlatives almost describes what Dave Hunt is all about.

If you recall, some of the most terrifying horror movies have this tag line "based on a true story" and that is exactly how I feel towards his vocals. His screams sound so genuine that it is hard to imagine he is not undergoing torture while recording his vocals. I am not exaggerating things, those vocals are insane and the whole Anaal Nathrak production aesthetics make them even more morbid.

Things get incongruous when he starts to sing, his clean vocal range can put most power metal singers to shame and of late he does King Diamond-esque falsetto singing on songs. This is not a list glorifying singing ability but I have to mention this for there are many out there who believes that screamers scream because they can't sing.

If you want to enjoy Dave Hunt's vocals in all its misanthropic glory I would suggest listning to the album The Whole of Law, that record houses my favorite Anaal Nathrakh song of all time Of Horror,  And the Black Shawls. Listen to the song at your own risk.

3. Chuck Schuldiner

The godfather of death metal, the one who started it all. Chuck Schuldiner with his band Death pioneered a brand of music what we now call death metal, he realized how heavy and brutal it can be when one growls on Slayer songs. He is in the list not because he is a pioneer and hence should be respected, he is in the list because there are not many out there who can rival the passion in his vocals.

Chuck's vocals became higher in pitch and more decipherable with every Death release, the music became more progressive and the lyrics philosophical. He wants his lyrics to be heard and understood, when Chuck screams the words "When beauty shows its ugly face, just be prepared" the conviction in his voice lets you know that it's a warning.

Schuldiner vocal phrasings were precise and slow, allowing enough time for the words to sink into you. He never sacrificed intensity in sounding decipherable and he always had the best lyrics in death metal. The best Death album is always a question for debate among fans as each one them are death metal classics but for me Symbolic is the quintessential Death album, one of the few perfect albums I've heard.

Chuck Schuldiner passed away in the year 2001 due to cancer and he is probably the musician I miss the most.

2. Mikael Stanne

Dark Tranquility is best band to come out of the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene and unlike their peers the band continues to put out acclaimed albums 25 years after their formation. Since the beginning of the new millennium the band has been going for a cold sterile melancholic sound and Stanne's vocals provide warmth and a deathy edge to the music.

Mikael Stanne's harsh vocals are more refined and musical than other death metal singers, always controlled in his delivery and rhythmic in vocal phrasing. His growls show strains of emotion and they are more nuanced than it sounds at first listen and these traits are vital in Dark Tranquility's occasional foray into goth rock.

It won't be fair if I don't write about his baritone singing voice since it has become a huge part of the band's sound. His singing is just gorgeous, so much so that I don't mind Dark Tranquility releasing a Katatonia-esque record.

Dark Tranquility is the band I would recommend someone trying to get into death vox, you cannot go wrong with Fiction or Projector. Check out the song Misery's Crown to know what Stanne is all about.     

1. Mikael Åkerfeldt

I was curious about Opeth, the band was hyped to mars and beyond and Mikael Åkerfeldt's vocals were compared to both angels and demons. In those days Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree battled to be on my playlist and when I saw Opeth being classified as progressive death metal on Wikipedia, I was intrigued. I did what I usually do in those situation, I asked Google "greatest Opeth songs" and someone suggested The Drapery Falls and I've been a fan since then.   

Those growls where out of this world, it was bizarrely atmospheric and enveloping. Mikael stretches the words and its syllables longer than most death metal vocalists and that along with the reverb and multi-tracking makes his growls dense and thick. His tone is reminiscent of  David Vincent of Morbid Angel fame, a deep throaty growl that is brutal but decipherable enough. 

Let us not forget his works for Bloodbath, Edge of  Sanity, Katatonia and Ayreaon, his vocals for the first Bloodbath album is as caustic as the album's guitar tone, reminding everyone of his death metal credentials despite Opeth's progressive leanings. There was collective disappointment among fans when Åkerfeldt abandoned death vocals in Opeth's tenth outing Heritage and since then they have made two more records in the same vein. Well I have grown on to love and respect the band's new direction but deep inside it hurts knowing that we won't hear his growls on a studio record again.

The best Mikael Åkerfeldt harsh vocal performance can be found in Opeth's My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Live and Blackwater Park but since this is a list celebrating unclean vocals alone, I recommend you to check out Weak Aside from the Bloodbath EP Unblessing the Purity.


Honorable Mentions  

Phil Anselmo - The fromer Pantera front-man is probably the most influential metal singer of the  modern era.

Daniel Rostén - Marduk always had the best black metal singers and Mortuus is the best among them.

Greg Puciato - An insanely talented vocalist for the insanely talented The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Oliver Rae Aleron - The Archspire vocalist is probably the only singer who can match a death metal drummer in terms of speed.