Introduction to the blog, and about me.

I’m Elliot, I’m 21 years old and I’m a student. In a great many ways, I’m completely normal. However, as an Extreme Metal vocalist, I spend a good portion of my life making inhuman noises and growls into a microphone for the benefit of audiences everywhere!

Over my 6 years or so of experience doing what I will henceforth refer to as ‘death growling’ (though I often perform other kinds of extreme vocal, that is an explanation I’ll save for another, much longer post), I’ve been fascinated by the different sounds and techniques of other vocalists, both extreme or no, and tried to incorporate aspects of their styles into the way I sing and perform. However, beyond this form of learning, there is a near-total lack of what I would call good, solid and informed advice on the subject of  extreme vocals despite the near endless books and tutorials for other instruments in the genre. While there are numerous ‘how to’ guides on the internet, and the infamous ‘Zen of Screaming’ DVD’s by Melissa Cross as well as billions of utterly useless youtube tutorials on the subject, most of what these fonts of knowledge espouse is either really inaccessible, stupid or in the worst cases, just plain wrong. 

 The aim of this blog is to provide a dedicated source of knowledge and information for extreme vocalists of whichever genre or amount of experience to read on the intricacies and nuances of extreme vocals as well as the basics.

What do I consider to be extreme vocals? In today’s musical sphere, there is an endless supply of bands that have what I would consider an “extreme vocal style”. From the screaming of pop tinged metalcore bands of the mid-noughties to the guttural indecipherable tones of slam death metal and everything in between, any kind of noise that a person can make with their throat that isn’t traditional melodic singing, I would consider to be worth attention.  So whether you’re singing in a throwback New York Hardcore style band or rasping blasphemies and praising the name of Satan in a black metal band, there’ll hopefully be something on this site that you can use to better your art, or at least give you an interesting read!

I intend to use this blog to post advice, exercises and in depth analyses of different vocals styles as well as every so often interviews/ Q+A sessions with vocalists I respect/admire. Most of what will be on this blog is my personal opinion on vocals as an art form, and consequently is massively biased and subjective, however I will do my best to avoid this as much as possible. Feel free to take what you will, and leave whatever you disagree with and develop your own ideas and style.

A bit more information about me?  So nice of you to ask. I’ve been doing extreme vocals since I was 15. I started off by singing along with Children of Bodom and Cradle of Filth tracks off my iPod while walking around, not really thinking much of it. Then over time, I got better and started to take it more seriously, practicing regularly and attempting to actually replicate the vocal tones of songs I was listening to. After a while, I built up confidence enough to go looking for a band. Following a few completely non-functioning bands I either tried out for, or attempted to start, I joined my first band Phyrexia in 2008, and the rest is history. I’m currently in three bands (Phyrexia, Aeternum and Wolfsword for anyone interested enough to look me up) and spend the majority of my time either writing for or practicing with these bands, planning or running shows  or attending other peoples’ shows. I’m into all kinds of music, though as you can probably tell by this point I spend most of my time listening to Metal of one kind or another. My main influences on my vocal styles nowadays are George “Corpsegrinder” Fischer, Tom Araya, Johan Hegg, Chance Garnette, Angela Gossow, Nergal, Glen Benton and Bruce Dickinson, with honourable mentions going to Abbath, Tomas Lindberg, Trevor Strnad and Sean LaCanne. When I’m not doing stuff based around music, I play bass, read fantasy novels and play far too many video games for my own good. In addition to this, I’m a fairly stoic atheist and have a really dark sense of humour, this will most likely come through at points during this blog.

Here's a link to a track on the last release I did:

Aeternum [UK] -As The Last Kingdom Burns

So, now that the big douchey introduction is over, happy reading!