ELI5: How do singers in black-metal bands like Deafheaven make it through a whole concert without destroying their vocal cords, much less a whole tour?
ELI5: How do singers in black-metal bands like Deafheaven make it through a whole concert without destroying their vocal cords, much less a whole tour?
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Can’t speak to this, but every time this question comes up someone links The Zen of Screaming.
They have rich parents, so they can be reckless because they’ve got a trust fund backing them up.
Its all technique. Someone linked Zen of Screaming, which is pretty much the bible for learning how to do metal vocal techniques. It’s not actual “screaming” but more akin to something like throat singing.
Many metal bands get training from opera coaches because the techniques have a lot in common. Good warm up and using proper skills are also important.
Black metal shrieking and death metal growling aren’t screaming like it sounds, but more or less normal speech volume, but distorted through vocal muscle manipulation, fairly similar to the muscles used in singing. So most of the things that singers do to protect their voices work for metal vocalists too.
Proper technique and a whole lot of practice.
Throat camera analysis of Will Ramos from Lorna Shores .
Follow up video of same vocalist
Sometimes they’re lip syncing.
Training and care probably work for the rest of the time.
There’s a complicated technique to it, which involves using your vocal fry, it’s sort of like how Marge Simpson’s voice sounds. You can talk normally and push your vocals into this area and it sounds grainy and gritty, but isn’t neccessarily painful.
Combine that with a -lot- of practice, muscle development and technique and you can make it very loud. Sometimes with a bit of saliva for good measure/extra gurgliness.
There are some (Maybe a lot?) vocalists that do it the wrong way and just scream through the pain, but they can never sustain this for long and either have to take a break/stop entirely, or lose their voices.
If you listen to something like Periphery, you’ll hear how easily the vocalist can transition from very strong, high clean notes to very gutteral death-metal sounds. It’s a very high level of vocal technique perfection.
There are also actors, voice actors etc who perfect this kind of technique in a different way, such as David Hayter who voices Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid.