Listening to a scatter of newer releases (mainly death metal) with interchangeable riffs, artwork and vocals and I'm bored to tears. Looking for any albums with vocals that are truly unique, or even divisive. Few that come to mind are
Blood Revolt - Indoctrine. War metal with mostly clean vocals courtesy of Alan Averill. Never got into this myself fully, but the idea was an interesting one.
Vio-Lence - Eternal Nightmare. Sean Killian's voice is instantly recognisable and definitely not for everyone. I think it works perfectly on this album.
Longings Past - Meadows of Maseilya. Same vocalist as Enchanter - Defenders of The Realm but here he brings a lot of bizarre inflections and phrasing to the Vocals. On a few tracks he tries to cram in as many words as possible into the verses but somehow still pulls it off.
Killian's voice is what puts me off Vio-Lence, I like the tunes but can't stand him. Ditto Baloff and Exodus, I can't listen to Bonded By Blood at all, give me the rerecorded version any day.
Scott Jeffreys from Confessor instantly came to mind when I saw the thread title. Took me a long time to come around to his voice but that first album is a personal favourite now.
Alan Tecchio in Watchtower. There's lads who do high stuff but he does really, really high and just stays there. I wouldn't have it any other way, though.
Masvidal through the vocoder on Focus. The first time hearing it was mental. It's fundamental to the sound, though. Genius stuff.
Always loved Killian too. He sounded demented, really twisted rather than just another mundane thrash growler.
Tardy from Obituary. When SWR came out there was nothing else like it.
Also... David Vincent, Bow to me, faithfullyyyyyyyy
Class
I discovered Inquisitor through a thread like this on the old forum. So, Inquisitor.
"I anti-chriiist, I came to fleeeeeeeesh!"
Abbath. Nobody else sounds like him for better or worse. It's not unhinged or that odd but it is something different to the rest.
Paul Catten on the Medulla Nocte albums.
When I first heard it I thought it was shit but soon changed my mind. Anything else would not have worked.
https://youtu.be/yv0tOOqCVtk
Harald Mentor's delivery on the first Ride for Revenge album is brilliant. Dead eyed monotonous and hypnotised sounding.
I think Indoctrine probably the best thing Nemty ever put his name to.
It's a great album. I'll have to root it out for a spin.
Spiderous from Death Citadel :abbath:
Atilla's performance on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas could be classified as both?
I remember getting into black metal and being so put off initially by the vocal approach on that one. Since of course come to regard it as utter genius.
Absolutely. Takes a bit of time to wrap your head around what he's doing because it's so far away from what most BM singers do, but when you get into it you wouldn't want it any other way. Controversial opinion: DMDS with Dead on vocals wouldn't have been as good...*
* I would still like to hear it all the same. One of each would be nice. I'll have to dig out the boxset at the weekend 8)
I'd listened to Nevermore for years before ever getting into Sanctuary, got a bit of a shock hearing those massive high notes on Refuge Denied
Unique - Pete Steele, obviously enough. You'd pick him out in a song in milliseconds.
Oddball - Aldrahn / Dødheimsgard, on A Umbra Omega it is completely ridiculous but absolutely class.
Both, to a degree - Devin Townsend. Unique enough to be quickly recognisable, odd in that he could be up to fuckin anything on his albums vocally.
A mention here for Al Jourgensen on TLORAH too, I was only listening to "You Know What You Are" in the car there and it is like a swarm of wasps singing to you. Class.
Quote from: Pagan Saviour on November 17, 2022, 08:34:53 AMAtilla's performance on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas could be classified as both?
I remember getting into black metal and being so put off initially by the vocal approach on that one. Since of course come to regard it as utter genius.
Still can't stand it, he sounds like a constipated Dave Mustaine.
Chris Reifert has got to be mentioned. He is arguably the best Death Metal vocalist. Having seen him live he delivers on all fronts. Really good range and doesn't really sound like any other vocalist I can think of
Absolutely, I had the same reaction when I first heard Autopsy. I was so used to hearing all the Scott Burns produced stuff that when I heard Mental Funeral for the first time I was left scratching my head. Vocals completely unlike anything else at the time as was the production.
Paul Catton as previously mentioned, demented live. I'd also throw in David Yow.
Akercoke have the some of the best and most varied vocal parts in Death metal
Lee Dorrian, in all phases of his career. Some of it I love (Forest of Equilibrium), some of it I think it's hard going (the groovy stuff).
Oh the groovy stuff is woeful. The Ethereal Mirror is grand, but it got way too mad after that. Fucking hate his Napalm stuff, just barking.
As they're the topic of the moment, I'd have to add Justin Broadrick's Godflesh vocals here. Not growled, kinda punky shouting but with all the layering and effects there's nothing like it. Despite Clayden's best efforts on the early Pitch Shifter stuff.
Pat Walker's vocals seen to be a Marmite affair but I love his voice. From the raw early Warning recordings (The Strength to Dream has become my favourite of his records over the years) to his mellow, introspective 40 Watt Sun stuff I think he is just a total legend.
Terry Jones, of course. Very, very nasal in his approach but an utterly perfect voice for Pagan Altar.
The early Solstice singers each had quite un-metal vocals that took me a while to fully appreciate. I wouldn't want them any other way. In fact, I often use their uniqueness as a test against other epic doom metal singers, and often lament the lack of such character in contemporary doom.
My main issue with him for years is that he sounded like Michael Stipe and I fucking despised R.E.M. - of course, I've since come around to the latter so probably wouldn't have the same problem with him now (the last thing I heard him on was the first 40WS album).
Ah fucking here! Michael Shite Stripe :laugh: He's nasal, but he's not that fucking bad.
I think nasal vocals become even more unbearable with an American accent. It's lind of like Dylan Moran said, there's something extra thick about American thicks. They seem divorced from reality.
QuoteLee Dorrian
Yep. Forrest goes without saying and I always enjoyed Ethereal Mirror, but literally cannot enjoy a Cathedral record after that. Between the vocals and the lyrics with go way over the top in an attempt to be zany - utter cringe.
Browsing on YouTube this morning and stumbled across this,
Anal Cunt's first live performance. Seth Putnam's vocals and performance style can be classed as both unique and oddball, arguably for the wrong reasons. Somewhere in there though there could've been a brilliant extreme vocal approach, he came close to showing what potential he had on Pantera's Great Southern Trendkill if it was used effectively, his screams on that record are something else. Unfortunately he seemed to be just be a bit of a dick and the joke was well worn with AC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcQshB6tvO0
Where is he on TGST? I could never figure out which parts were his.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Alan Averil here. I think he has great range and is unique. Primordial definitely stand out with his vocals, and the music of course
Lord Worm immediately springs to mind. Listening to the first 2 Cryptopsy albums with the lyrics open in front of me I'm still not entirely convinced he's actually using any of the words :laugh:
Quote from: Necro Red on November 18, 2022, 10:14:44 AMI'm surprised nobody has mentioned Alan Averil here. I think he has great range and is unique. Primordial definitely stand out with his vocals, and the music of course
Blood Revolt - Indoctrine mentioned, love his vocals on the album I've it playing as I type and think it works well.
QuoteWhere is he on TGST? I could never figure out which parts were his.
It says on the lyrics pages it'll say "Seth screams on this" or "Seth Screams here"
Stick the title track on headphones, the opening screams are a combination of Phil and Seth.
Edit. It's there on Wikipedia
Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt - Additional vocals on "The Great Southern Trendkill" "War Nerve", "13 Steps to Nowhere" , and "Suicide Note Pt II".
I think he makes an attempt on None So Vile, but trying to read along to Blasphemy Made Flesh is an exercise in total and utter futility :laugh: