Screams/growls for me. IMO he's a pretty crap clean singer, but an alright harsh vocalist.

I dont know him so well to judge, but probobly clean vox

Both. His use of harsh vocals with clean ones is one of the things that make Fear Factory unique. Especially in the early days, when vocalists doing that was virtually unheard of. xD

Written by Angelic Storm on 30.08.2010 at 15:12

Both. His use of harsh vocals with clean ones is one of the things that make Fear Factory unique. Especially in the early days, when vocalists doing that was virtually unheard of. xD

maybe but Im not huge fan of Fear Factor maybe once or 2 times I have listen band , so cant judge but in Gezzer I need hear him more to tell

Written by Bad English on 30.08.2010 at 15:57
maybe but Im not huge fan of Fear Factor maybe once or 2 times I have listen band , so cant judge but in Gezzer I need hear him more to tell

He was very innovative, I think even non-Fear Factory fans would be able to acknowledge that. I still remember being blown away by his haunting voice, doubled with those Barney Greenway/Kam Lee - esque growls the first time I heard Soul Of A New Machine. <3 It might sound funny to young people now, but back then, it really was a fresh and unique sound.

Both, just like in any other band. I find his clean vocals to be weird though.

Screams and growls for me. One thing that drives me nuts is bands combining clean and growled vocals. Growls seem out of place when they come from bands that use predominantly clean vocals and nothing snaps me out of a dirty aggressive atmosphere faster than some wimpy clean vocals pissing all over the music. The soft-ass harmony crap Bell is prone to ruining good Fear Factory songs with aggravates the hel out of me.

Written by Derwood on 30.08.2010 at 18:50

Screams and growls for me. One thing that drives me nuts is bands combining clean and growled vocals. Growls seem out of place when they come from bands that use predominantly clean vocals and nothing snaps me out of a dirty aggressive atmosphere faster than some wimpy clean vocals pissing all over the music. The soft-ass harmony crap Bell is prone to ruining good Fear Factory songs with aggravates the hel out of me.

Yeah, same thing's present in Scar Symmetry. Not that they're very heavy instrumentally to begin with, but the constant shifting between growls and bad cleans ruin it even more.

Written by RobotPolarBear on 30.08.2010 at 14:34

Screams/growls for me. IMO he's a pretty crap clean singer, but an alright harsh vocalist.

99% of metal singers are crappy as clean singers, that's why they growl, shriek, wail, croon and make every other kind of sound that's not clean singing.
Notice how, as decades pass, the number of clean vocalists decreases and the number of al sorts of growlers etc. increases.
In the 70's no one growled. In the 80's also, until the last years of the 80's when death metal appeared. Then in the 90's black metal introduced itself as a genre where clean singing in downright impossible. And now all kinds of metal bands employ vocalists who can't sing...

Sometimes vocalists become IMPOSSIBLY annoying, like that fucking dude of 3 Inches of Blood...

Written by Daniell on 30.08.2010 at 22:56

Written by RobotPolarBear on 30.08.2010 at 14:34

Screams/growls for me. IMO he's a pretty crap clean singer, but an alright harsh vocalist.

99% of metal singers are crappy as clean singers, that's why they growl, shriek, wail, croon and make every other kind of sound that's not clean singing.
Notice how, as decades pass, the number of clean vocalists decreases and the number of al sorts of growlers etc. increases.
In the 70's no one growled. In the 80's also, until the last years of the 80's when death metal appeared. Then in the 90's black metal introduced itself as a genre where clean singing in downright impossible. And now all kinds of metal bands employ vocalists who can't sing...

Sometimes vocalists become IMPOSSIBLY annoying, like that fucking dude of 3 Inches of Blood...

Good point. And I have noticed the rise of growlers and decrease of clean singers in metal, but I never really thought about it much. I'm curious as to why this is the case; I can think of several potential answers, some of which are really obvious and some of which are mere speculation.

Also, which dude from 3 Inches of Blood? There were two dudes last time I checked, both of whom I find rather annoying (the screamer moreso).

Cam Pipes. If I were to ever attend a 3 Inches of Blood gig, I'd eviscerate him with a fork after about 3 songs.

Why so many growlers? Because it's fucking easy as opposed to clean singing which requires actual training i.e. effort - a thing that 99,99% of lazy human bastards will avoid like a plague if they can.
Every wart ridden teenager and his great-uncle's dog want to have a band now, while singing vocalists come in short supply, hence the debacle of wailing pigs attacking us from our CD players when we put a metal CD on.

It isn't about either, or...
It is the fact that he uses both clean and harsh vocals the way he does that makes him a good vocalist.

Written by Derwood on 30.08.2010 at 18:50

One thing that drives me nuts is bands combining clean and growled vocals. Growls seem out of place when they come from bands that use predominantly clean vocals and nothing snaps me out of a dirty aggressive atmosphere faster than some wimpy clean vocals pissing all over the music.

I feel the same.

A lot of people question his clean vocals, but I have always liked them. They were never pussy clean vocals, more of a deeper, echoing baritone that really stood out to me. Of course without the contrast, it would be nothing special...

Written by Daniell on 30.08.2010 at 23:35

Why so many growlers? Because it's fucking easy as opposed to clean singing which requires actual training i.e. effort

That is such total bullshit. Only someone who has never worked at seriously learning to be a growler could make such a ridiculous assertion.

A good growler trains as hard and seriously as a good singer. Mastering growling techniques, especially varied ones that allow the vocalist to offer a range of growls, screams, grunts and more without doing physical damage to their throats and vocal chords, requires technical precision and dedicated work. They take far greater risks with their performances because it is a lot easier to damage things when using extreme techniques. A guy who doesn't take growling seriously ends up sounding like Corpsegrinder.

There's just as many shitty singers out there as there are shitty growlers. The reason there are so few good growlers vs good singers is because it's a fuck of a lot more difficult to become a good growler.

Written by Derwood on 31.08.2010 at 07:26

Written by Daniell on 30.08.2010 at 23:35

Why so many growlers? Because it's fucking easy as opposed to clean singing which requires actual training i.e. effort

That is such total bullshit. Only someone who has never worked at seriously learning to be a growler could make such a ridiculous assertion.

A good growler trains as hard and seriously as a good singer. Mastering growling techniques, especially varied ones that allow the vocalist to offer a range of growls, screams, grunts and more without doing physical damage to their throats and vocal chords, requires technical precision and dedicated work. They take far greater risks with their performances because it is a lot easier to damage things when using extreme techniques. A guy who doesn't take growling seriously ends up sounding like Corpsegrinder.

There's just as many shitty singers out there as there are shitty growlers. The reason there are so few good growlers vs good singers is because it's a fuck of a lot more difficult to become a good growler.

My brother, plus 2 of my friends "sang" for metal bands. They all growled of course. I saw them at rehearsals, recording, live. For quite a few years.
I stand by my point. It's fucking EASY, especially compared with actual singers who sing and care about their voice.
Learning to produce sounds with your diaphragm instead of your vocal cords takes a few hours.

Written by Guest on 31.08.2010 at 14:04

Also not every person in the world can growl properly or not at all!

Believe me, even less people can sing properly.

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Why so many growlers? Because it's fucking easy as opposed to clean singing which requires actual training i.e. effort

That is such total bullshit. Only someone who has never worked at seriously learning to be a growler could make such a ridiculous assertion.

A good growler trains as hard and seriously as a good singer. Mastering growling techniques, especially varied ones that allow the vocalist to offer a range of growls, screams, grunts and more without doing physical damage to their throats and vocal chords, requires technical precision and dedicated work. They take far greater risks with their performances because it is a lot easier to damage things when using extreme techniques. A guy who doesn't take growling seriously ends up sounding like Corpsegrinder.

There's just as many shitty singers out there as there are shitty growlers. The reason there are so few good growlers vs good singers is because it's a fuck of a lot more difficult to become a good growler.

My brother, plus 2 of my friends "sang" for metal bands. They all growled of course. I saw them at rehearsals, recording, live. For quite a few years.
I stand by my point. It's fucking EASY, especially compared with actual singers who sing and care about their voice.
Learning to produce sounds with your diaphragm instead of your vocal cords takes a few hours.

Nope, Growling requires a lot of time of training, so you can make your diaphragm & your throat get used to it & more enduring. Also not every person in the world can growl properly or not at all! (I'm a growler for 5 years & I know it )

What aload of SHITE!! I'm a melo death singer, it took me 10 minutes to be able to growl deep like alvestam but years of sacrifice, like stopping smoking, stopping drinking and exercise and vocal training to get my clean vocals to a good enough standard.

Out of the 7 bands I'm in about 2 out of the 35 band members can't death metal growl..
Guess how many can't sing?? ALL OF THEM... That's why I sing for them..

I bet 95% of the cookie monsters out there can't facking sing at all and from what I heard most of the clean singers in metal don't really do a fantastic job of it either..

Why? Because the other guy was right it takes years of effort and practice, just like guitar and drums to fine tune your skill with an instrument..

Growling's the easiest thing to do ever.. If you have to work hard to be a growler then music is probably not for you..

The "both" option spoils the poll in my opinion, because like mr. Anderson said, he does both in a good way. Archetype track for instance, one my favorites. He has a great harsh and clean vocals in that song.

Theres no real technique to it, you growl low or you scream high... or do a bit in the middle if you feel like mixing it up..

I enjoy the occasional DM vocal, but don't try and justify it as an artform, singing is an artform.. Drawing is an artform.. Even the style of devin townsend powerful vocals is awsome, opeth, mikael, beautiful cleans with hints of aggresive brilliance which is done at the right time for the right effect..

And as I said 2 out of my 35 bands members can't do it..

Can you sing decent clean vocals tracks? Do you know the amount of work and effort goes into this?

On my latest E.P it will take me 100 hours to do the 10 tracks (per song) of clean vocals and I am a session singer so people pay me for this as part of my living and I sing whatever (so I am not awful) .. For my DM band it will take me 4 - 5 hours if I'm having a bad day.

Never heard of a session DM singer.. Probably cause pretty much anyone can do it...

Wow amazing topic! i will go with Both.