Math/Djent/Screamo with tenor bass vocals, for my throat

February 27, 2019 12:30 PM

In my musical explorations, I've realized a thing. My musical flavor is basically Good Tiger, my guitar is basically the thing Tosin Abasi carries (look a man can dream), but my own throat is Pearl Jam. I will never soprano like Dance Gavin Dance/Good Tiger's leads. At the same time, if I'm having a band...who are my guideposts? I can kinda screamo for a bit, but such does not a djent hit make. Where's a Pearl Jam voice stand in the era of soprano men who can rock?

And no, I don't want to sound like Between the Buried and Me, waaaaaaay off-genre.

The thing is, if I do vocals, literally I'm Pearl Jam, complete with Jack Black metal snarls. It's laughable. That's not the metal I feel in my heart. In my heart I'm A Lot Like Birds, Tides of Man, Closure in Moscow. There are. no. tenors. I'm no bass, and that has no place in such metal anyway except as rough vocals. Smooths are sopranos. I'm not Kurt Cobain, but maybe in another life I could have been, and the new sound is not there. Help me find my sound. :(

posted by saysthis to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Response by poster: FWIW, if Clutch had karaoke, that would be my bag. I can do guttural stuff. That's where After the Burial fits. That's not what I'm looking for either. I'm looking for where can my kinda voice sing in straight lyrics without sounding utterly stupid on top of mathy/djent rock. I'm looking for bands you might know that have this talent. The alternative is, I'm backup vocals...which is ok, but I sure tried at the soprano stuff, and it doesn't work for me. My octaves fail. Help in that area is welcomed too, but frankly, just show me the bands. They must exist!
posted by saysthis at 12:35 PM on February 27, 2019

Response by poster: One more comment to say, if it's not in English, I welcome it. I sometimes (attempt) to sing not in English. It's just that this genre (as far as I know) tends to exist only in English. Part of why I ask/do this is to spread the love to other languages.
posted by saysthis at 12:39 PM on February 27, 2019

It is all in a well applied vibrato.
posted by Oyéah at 12:43 PM on February 27, 2019

Best answer: Forgive me if this is old, outdated, or just bad, but, my first thought is Metallica?
posted by General Malaise at 12:47 PM on February 27, 2019

Response by poster: No, fair, but here's St. Anger, the mathiest of Metallica I know, and here's We Own the Night, which is the Dance Gavin Dance song that matches that tempo.

Vibrato, I got that. My octave hits Metallica, not DGD. I'm looking for how to sound good in DGD with the register of Metallica. A spurious, difficult question, but if you know what I mean...
posted by saysthis at 1:00 PM on February 27, 2019

Best answer: To my ear, not being knowledgeable about metal and not being a vocal teacher (but I did take voice lessons for years and years), the big difference between Metallica and the high, clear singer in Dance Gavin Dance is not necessarily vocal range but rather tone (warm vs bright) and register. I don't want to presume anything about your knowledge of singing because it sounds like perhaps English is not your first language and there is some confusion in terms. But I think that if you work with a voice teacher you could develop a sound that is much closer to what you are looking for stylistically. I don't think you have to settle for sounding like Eddie Vedder if that's not what you want to sing like. I don't think Youtube is a good replacement for a qualified instructor but this video discusses some of the factors of learning to sing in a higher range. Even if you never reach the same notes as Tillian Pearson, strengthening your head voice will help you achieve a bright, clear tone.
posted by muddgirl at 2:29 PM on February 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

Through the magic of youtube's algorithm, this video showed up in my feed and I thought it might be inspiring as well as give you a few basic vocal exercises: "How PLACEMENT changed my BARITONE singing voice!"
posted by muddgirl at 10:48 PM on March 5, 2019