Do Black Metal Vocals
One of the things that sets black metal apart from other metal genres is its distinct vocal style.If you're a singer in a black metal band, use these steps to make your vocals scream "black metal."
Steps
- Listen to black metal and understand what it's about. Secular black metal is about evil, death, and depression. Make the sound you think somebody would make with their last breath if they were slowly dying. Use that sound to form words. However, Christian black metal is about positive/negative topics related to Christian beliefs.
- Decide what kind of scream you want to do. Do you want a Marduk "argh I messed up my voice" sound, a Krieg/Burzum "pitched" sound, a Chthonic "Screamed" sound, Malevolentia "Shriek" sound, or the "Sabbath" burp?"
- Learn about the different types of voices you can sing in. Singers and vocal stylists use the terms "chest voice" and "head voice" to refer to using different parts of their vocal chords to achieve different effects. For a shout like, Krieg-esque approach, you'll want to practice singing in chest voice quite high, but not breaking into head voice.
- Add a raspy like sound to your voice by gurgling slightly at the back of the throat once you can sing comfortably at a "shout" pitch, and push with the diaphragm (try tensing your abdominal muscles). This should produce a quite high, shout like sound if you're doing it right.
- Start trying to increase the strength of your "gurgling" technique (slowly - don't push yourself too hard, or you'll ruin your voice), increase your range (once again, slowly, for the same reasons), etc.
- Try singing while applying the same technique you learnt in step 2 - the rasp effect, but without the diaphragmatic support, for a different style. Many trainers/teachers will tell you that this is a really bad thing to do, singing without diaphragmatic support, but in some instances - such as in a soprano voice - it can't hurt.
Tips
- Remember, the old-school bands that you admire didn't get their vocal techniques out of a book - they experimented, found something they could use, and used it well. Don't try to emulate other people, try to develop your own unique style.
- Drink fluids prior to practicing or performing
- Drinking milk or dairy products can coat your throat, making singing difficult.
- As with clean singing, don't do this every hour of every day, because you'll obviously lose your voice. If you're doing a gig, save warming up for just before the gig, and try to implement some standard warm-up techniques.
- Don't completely shun lower-pitched vocals. Some of the best black metal albums, especially in the DSBM realm, have incredibly low vocals.
- Another good technique that sometimes works is to actually inhale, with a tensed throat. This can produce either a very high-pitched shriek, or a low-pitched gurgle
Warnings
- Pain means you're doing it wrong.
- Understand the phrase "shrug it off and let it go".
- Be prepared for people to criticize your music, you, and your vocals, as the people who don't like Black Metal won't understand or care as to why you're making such a "horrible" sound and calling it music.
- Don't push yourself too hard as you're practicing. Pushing yourself too hard can result in ruining your voice.
- If people judge you, it's because they aren't educated enough to hear the beauty of the form.
- People may think you're weird, you may want to practice alone in a separate area or with a friend who can help you.
