•| Animal Noises In Metal: A Perspective (Re)

Okay, so let me first give you some kind of timeline when I started hearing Old McDonald's farm vocals. I grew up around rap being the primary music that people listened to. I found a few token rock enthusiasts, but I digress. What's interesting is that while that was my environment, inside my household I heard R&B and Rock music. My Chemical Romance and their song "Helena" was my gateway to eventual disgustingly heavier bands.

I used to watch the Helena music video whenever I could catch it. Either before or after school. Though I was around other music, Rock is the genre that became my favorite and still is. After being sucked into Helena, I went down a proverbial whirlpool where I found bands like Nickelback, Linkin Park, Hinder, Three Days Grace, Fall Out Boy and etc. Now, this is where the path of rock started to heat up. Around 2007, I discovered Bullet For My Valentine and the song tears don't fall. I don't think any words can perfectly describe the level of violation that song invoked onto me. Listening to their music, such as Scream Aim Fire, Your betrayal, Waking the demon and etc; Introduced me into the first stage of animal sounds. The raw and emotional screaming and the growling.

I suppose you can imagine a cat and a dog with band shirts on, sharp and deadly wristbands doing vocals more or less. Normally people would try to bury their eardrums with unhealthy amounts of cotton to avoid that, but it was actually pleasant to listen to. It's not really something that seemed forced or out of place. Now after nearly becoming bald at a tender age of adolescence, I eventually discovered Suxxxx Silence(Not sure ing that word here, but if you don't know this band, just search Mitch Lucker). Officially, my path is flaming and smoking because that band was pretty much the height of my exposure to livestock vocals at the time. This was a new kind of heavy that turned you into a punching bag. You only live once or YOLO, was my first, which was like experiencing getting ran over by a mosh pit. Then songs like Disengage and Wake Up that continued that trend of destruction.

At this point in my discovery, I've heard all kinds of rock like soft rock, hard rock, punk rock, metal and now deathcore. The epitome of animal noises. Just like when I first heard BFMV, I also enjoyed this style of music too. Once high school was finally over and out of my life, I found bands like Thy Art Is Murder and Chelsea Grin. So here we are, present day, and now I've listened to more deathcore. I'm currently into Lorna Shore, Immortal Disfigurement, Brand Of Sacrifice, Infant Annihilator, Mental Cruelty and others.

Okay, after that semi autobiography of my music experience, we're ready to discuss this. As most people know, there's a lot of criticism of rock music involving animals stepping on Legos vocals. Personally, I like to also call them "Bathtub Vocals"(lows) and "Carnage Vocals"(highs). So the idea is that sounding like said animals, doesn't require skill or talent to do. However this is far from reality as honing and sustaining these vocal styles takes practice. Years of practice. Seeing as how a vocalist would have to do this continually throughout a song and also at live performances. There's also the idea that the instruments only serve a purpose of being "noise". Though the level of expertise that these drummers, bassists and guitarists have to play these songs is very advanced. Now, just like most things revolving around entertainment, there are preferences. So I'll speak on mine.

Why do I like these heavier styles of musical delivery when it comes to vocals and instruments? Well hear me out. So, I think there's a level of raw human expression and primitive release with this sound. For example, Lorna Shore recently released their single, "Sun//Eater". If you haven't heard it yet, YouTube is willing to help you out. In the final breakdown section of the song, I'm particularly fond of Will's vocal expression which captured a sense of darkness and inspiration. Between suffering and self empowerment. I think the lyrical content mirrors his delivery accurately. The instrumental also showcases the grand and larger than life subject matter that is simultaneously taking you through the chapters of a story. This kind of music is appealing to me generally, because it contains an unpleasant sound that coexists with raw expression within the vocals and instrumentation while using lyrics to further insinuate that pure primitive element.

That's my perspective. To end this, I want to say that even though I generally like this kind of musical expression, of course I won't be swayed and love struck by every band or every song. Some hit and miss. Something I also enjoy, is making fun of the music as you may have noticed throughout this blog. While there are ideas about the music not requiring skill or talent, I think it's a cool thing to be able to have fun with the things you like. It's okay to make jokes about it but still like it. So before I take my leave, enjoy this video:

-If you read this, I truly appreciate it. I'd be happy to hear what you think about the subject too. Let's chit chat.