Recent updates
- S(crap)s: I Miss My Death / Kaoskult / Raus & Perunwit (split) / Spatial / Thy Flesh (13/06/14)
- Hatebreed: The rise of brutality (12/06/14)
- Vomiting Corpses: Coma - The spheres of innocence (11/06/14)
- Mayhem: Esoteric warfare (10/06/14)
- S(crap)s: Akrotheism / Black Altar / Druknroll / Enthroned / Funeral Sutra (09/06/14)
- Agalloch: The serpent & the sphere (08/06/14)
- Dark Tranquillity: Construct (07/06/14)
- In Flames: The jester race (06/06/14)
- S(crap)s: Souldrainer / Tonic Breed / Rude / Defying / Electric Hellride / Scorned Disciple (05/06/14)
- Culted: Oblique to all paths (04/06/14)
- read
Recent discussions
Lists of Domination
GD's Top 10 Best Growlers
30/12/09 || Global Domination
Introduction by Lord K Philipson: Hello, fuck you and welcome to another of our most appreciated top 10 lists here at GD. Expect no Vanessa Carlton’s. Do not look for any Pavarotti’s. Forget about Bruce Dickinson’s as well. Be sure you won’t find anything but meaty fucken grunters in here. Well, most of them do nothing but grunt but there might be that exception to the rule… the one fucko who can actually growl and sing when needed. And whaddya fucken know… The very same fucko obviously ended up winning the damn thing.
We all know you are disagreeing cunts and will find deserts in your vaginas after reading this one since we didn’t include your favourite death metal vocalist. Tough. You are always invited to discuss this list over at our forums. Find the topic yourself.
With that said, enjoy our picks, suck our dicks and do not listen to The Kicks. Poetry at large. Read on.
10. Muhammed Suiçmez – Necrophagist
The ultra-technical, ultra-flashy guitarwork by Necrophagist’s frontman Muhammed Suiçmez may be their main attraction, but his growling is pretty damn nice as well; extremely guttural and abrasive (and kind of scary, as a matter of fact), the deep bellow of this Turkish-born wunderkind makes it sound like he’s been doin’ some eating of the dead himself recently (yucky mental image, right? Sorry…).
Sure, it’s pretty monotone in terms of expression, but I don’t care about that; it fits NecroP’s incredibly intense, never-let-up-for-one-second brand of technical death metal perfectly, and you haven’t experienced Muhammed’s awesome growl yet, go listen to Foul body autopsy IMMEDIATELY; seriously, he even makes that clogged toilet-growl (the one that Prostitute Disfigurement guy used) sound cool! Now, if he’d only hurry up with the third album, everything’d be all hunky-dory…
-Smalley
9. Roberth Karlsson – Facebreaker/Scar Symmetry
This is probably the best growler to which you never listen. Okay, so you’re a fucken metal newbie like staffer Smalley.
So Mr. Smalley, name off your favorite growlers.
Well, first off I fucken love, loooooooooouuuuuve, liieeeeoeooooouuuuve Chuck Billy in his growling stage, he is fantastic. Then you have the tops and the bestest like Joergen Sandstrom, Mikael A., David Vincent, Peter T., and… Chuck Billy.
Chuck Billy is not a growler!!!!
But it’s sooo good. =D Check out this song! It’s so cool! \m/(>.<)\m/
Well, regardless of your obvious brain damage, you forgot some beasts of the mic, like ROBERTH KARLSSON!!!
Want to hear Robban’s fantastic growling? Check out some fucken Facebreaker immediately. Youtube that shit or something and be ready to be blown away. Or, you can go find that Edge of Sanity album without Dan Swano. Dan’s not on it so who cares which album it was, amirite?! Or if you’ve got that bit of homosexuality in your system go grab the newest Scar Symmetry and take a listen to some of the best death metal growling this year.
Why he’s so low on this list is just a big indicator of how big he isn’t. Take heed, ye Smalley’s of the world. Robban slays, more than a few of the guys on this list. Don’t be fooled by the numbers!
-Trauma
8. Karl Willetts – Bolt Thrower
Bolt Thrower is certainly one of the best things that death metal has brought to this earth, and that’s a scientifically proven fact. Don’t believe me? Let’s do the maths:
Bolt Thrower = One of the best things death metal has brought to this earth.
Q.e.d. With them ruling all, it’s almost evident that their long-running vocalist has to be part of this list, as his performance has been one of the decisive elements of their great sound through the ages.
What sets Karl Willetts apart from most other death metal growlers is his ability to sound heavy and aggressive while also being intelligible instead of going maniacal or Rauuurghmunchmunchrurgrrurrr breeeeeee raughrghhhurr! on us. In that his vocal delivery is in line with Bolt Thrower’s overall sound that doesn’t have to rely on blast beats, slam breakdowns, insane speeds and all this fancy modern stuff to get the death metal sauce flowing. They simply don’t need it, thanks to, and here it comes… Quality. Magic word.
Similarly, Karl Willetts simply puts everything he’s got into the vocal delivery without sounding forced, and that does wonders for his flow and the vocals’ fitting into the trademark wall of sound that Bolt Thrower generate. Among the things he does have going for him is knowledge of “real” singing, which is something he obviously never does on an album, but that is revealed by his structured approach and clear pronunciation of every word to the last letter. Which leads us to another big bonus, namely his lyrics. These are not just plastered over the music and, by chance, correlate with what the instruments do, but are more than well-integrated into the big picture. And awesome. Now when we take all of this and put it in a blender with dedication, consistency and an awe-inspiring heaviness brought forward by the band, the only question is… will it blend?
Damn straight it blends and it has been doing so for a long time. Now put your trust in Karl and the rest of the band that they will take the right decision and only record an album if it’s worthy of their legacy. I salute them for keeping their heads out of their asses despite constant praising critical acclaim like my little kissing of their according body parts here. Now get them back on the forums again, lady and gentlemen!
-Habakuk
7. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher – Cannibal Corpse
When Chris Barnes left Cannibal Corpse and fucked off to make a fool of himself with Six Feet Under, there was some trepidation among fans of the band. Who will enter the fold to fill Barnes’ obviously big shoes? Will the replacement be less brootal, less inarticulate that Barnes? Will the Corpse enter the realm of has-beens in the annals of death metal? Well, now we all know what happened, right? George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher came in and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
George’s unholy vokills is really something else: it’s an incredible mixture of burping, throwing up and a guy who screams after being stabbed in the belly. Most of the time, George goes for the trademark “death growl”, which means that, even when he tries to “sing” the lyrics, what comes out is an inarticulate low-end noise. Which is, y’know, pretty good for what the Corpse’s music stand for. I also like his ability to go from deep belches to high-pitched screams in a blink of an eye and make them last, too.
But, y’all know what? This is forest for the trees crap. If you like death metal at its most brootal, you like Cannibal Corpse. And if you like Cannibal Corpse, then you REALLY like George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. You like his vokills, you like his no-shit-from-anyone attitude, you like his lyrics, you like his stage persona with the windmill headbanging, you like everyfuckingthing about him. Do I have to spell it for ya? George “Corpsefuckingrinder” Fisher. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!
-Khlysty
6. Chuck Schuldiner – Death
The tale of Evil Chuck is one of a visionary, of a man possessed by the spirit of death metal, boundless energy and unlimited talent. Others might have growled first, but Chuck was the all-knowing forefather of death, and in his infinite wisdom he recognized the fact that inhuman growling and grunting was the way to go. His progression as a vocalist was very steady, and even if he doesn’t sound as guttural as many of his peers, you’d be hard pressed to match the passion of his delivery. His vocal lines always had character and plenty of inspired moments, and his flawless enunciation quite astonishing fact.
Chuck wanted to be heard and understood, and he wanted us to know this was an age for extreme measures to become the essence of metal. Needless to say, he succeeded in more ways than one… and so I leave you with these words he once sung in that unforgettable growl, words in a timeless voice that will continue to haunt us until the end…
“There will be zero tolerance for the creator of hallowed intentions
There will be zero tolerance, fate is your deciding God”
-Baalzamon666
5. David Vincent – Morbid Angel
Y’know, very few albums blew my mind in my youth quite like “Altars of Madness”. Genre-defining, era-defining, call it what you want; in short, Morbid Angel had come to make death metal the definitive way, and everything that came after that was trying to reach that pinnacle. That’s true even for the following Morbid Angel albums, which were good, but never were as striking and powerful as their debut. Also, Morbid Angel is one of those bands in which the whole is so much more important than the individual.
Sure, Pete Sandoval probably made the blast-beat a trademark of the genre. True, Trey Azagthoth is the riffmeister that made people from Cannibal Corpse to Napalm Death weep with blasphemous envy. And, yes, David Vincent was a huge part of the band’s original sound, with his raw, evil rasp, vocals fit to be the voice of Satan himself. Maybe Cronos was the first to perform harsh vocals, maybe not, who knows? But the one who spread that style like a plague to all who would listen, that would be David Vincent.
Sure, eventually he went gay, left Morbid Angel, formed a ridiculous band with his wife, so on, but his legacy, as far as I’m concerned, is untarnished. Even better, he’s been back to the fold for a few years now, right where he belongs. It’s a shame people forget about Morbid Angel, and particularly Vincent, when thinking of death metal. These guys were the very soul of the age of death metal, and no one could ever touch that debut album of theirs, with its historic drumming, melodic riffs and grim, rough vocals. I, for one, after listening to Vincent’s performance in “Altars of Madness”, thought to myself: that’s what I want to do!
-Euthanatos
4. Peter Tägtgren – Hypocrisy
This list is great simply because most of these fucks have been around a long time, and we have heard their growls and screeches develop – just get better and better – until they obstreperously vacate their bladders upon the competition. Heggs and toast, Sandy, the Chuckmeister, and of course Rat-tat-Tägtgren each started out a bit basic but now you can hear just one line of blasphemy uttered from their lungs of steel and immediately place the grunter.
So my coverage of Evil Pete is going to be of the historical variety. Grab my cock and let’s take a trip down memory lane. Is this going to be complete look at Petey’s four thousand side projects, or even a step-by-step of Hypocrisy’s albums? No. Fuck off.
We’ll start on the foggy shores of yesteryear. He wasn’t too happy with his vocals on their first demo, released as Seditious, in 1991. Only sang on one track on the band’s first full-length, the title track Penetralia in fact. While he has his moments on there, it was definitely a good choice to leave the growling to Masse. Very uneven, kinda sloppy, not terrible but certainly not the Überhowler we know and love.
Pete took back the vocal reigns starting on the “Inferior devoties” EP, and he kicks the shit out of Mental emotions. Good job, man, we knew you had it in you. His Evilness has a great low grumble that is full of grit, and high soaring screams that would make the blackest ov the black envious. The little green men could not have a better ambassador.
As for Hypocrisy’s midperiod, I’m not too knowledgeable. This seems to be one of the more popular tracks and Pete’s vocals sound pretty good. Nothing too high effort, mind you, but good. Lower, some nice incorporation of his gremlinself, and a natural confidence. Like he was surrounded by supermodels and his dark circles suddenly disappeared. And the ladies all thought he had morphed into evil Johnny Depp.
Looky here! Thanks to my amazing research skills I’ve found that Tattoo-gren was in a sweet death/grind outfit called Lock Up with a bunch of dudes from Napalm Death. Sweetness says I – there’s even some tits on the cover. Trademark scream of intense doom is all over this track.
Time to make up some history. The winter was cold. It was fucken Sweden, after all. His vocals had become stale. The bags under his eyes had bags under their eyes. Fuckers touched his chin. He did not look even remotely like evil Johnny Depp. Duder was bummed. But then the phone rang, and it was Bloodbath. Yep, the whole band minus Mr. Number One Growler was gathered around the phone. Somewhat gayly. And they needed Tägtgren’s help! Assherfeldt had more important shit to do than Bloodbath. Where were they gonna find someone as spectacular behind the mic? They thought and thought, and finally came up with da man himself. Tägtgren considered the proposition for about two seconds, then agreed. So it was that one of the most badass tunes of all time was laid down. You can thank me later for the video. His performance on “Nightmares” is the stuff that growling dreams are made of. If you don’t own the album, you will never, ever be involved in any FFM action. In fact, you’re probably involved in some MMMDogCat action right now. What a jerk.
Let’s skip randomly to “Into the abyss”, a crusty and cruel release from Hypocrisy at the turn of the millennium. “Blinded” is a fine example of Rattat laying down the anti-melodious wonder. Was this his standout material in terms of his storied career? No, but few can sound as nasty or as frenzied when they’re in the mood. Plus, Peter the producer knows just how much to layer his vocals so that Hypocrisy doesn’t sound like Behemoth (behemothBEhemothBEHEmothbeheMOTH) with their over the top 900 guys are singing the same line shit.
That takes us to today’s Hypocrisy. Having only heard snippets of “…Divinity”, my reference point for Tagteamgren’s vocals is “Virus”, and he sounds rawk-us. Everyone who listened to his performance in Bloodbath knew he was gonna unleash the beast when it came to his own material, and tracks like Warpath confirmed it. Jeebus, would you listen to that opening scream? Godly. You could demolish buildings with that shit. Someday when I stop buying beer and start selling semen at blowout prices, I’ll have some extra dough to spend on “Taste” and will be able to hear if he’s bringing the pain (hur hur) at the same level as “Virus”. Certainly hope so.
I hope you enjoyed my brief, incomplete and largely incomprehensible summary of Evil Pete’s vocal stylings. I know I’ve always been impressed by his surely alien throat and will continue to perk up whenever Hypocrisy is mentioned solely for his harsh, heavy, and one-of-a-kind growl. His clean singing, well, uh, let’s just say he ain’t making it on that top 10 list.
-Daemonomania
3. Johan Hegg – Amon Amarth
When the music your band plays is given the moniker of “Viking metal” (which isn’t a real thing, but that’s a story for later), you’d better have a singer who sounds a bit manlier than Tiny Tim on extended estrogen therapy, right? Fortunately, Johan Hegg is a perfect fit for Amon Amarth’s take-no-prisoners style, matching their signature heavy guitar work wonderfully with his not too harsh, not too clean, but just right, sore-throated, rumbling growls. This guy sounds exactly like what you’d imagine a battle-hardened, vintage viking would (if they sung in metal bands, that is) and while his growling was a bit muddled on the first few AA albums (in addition to him doing those higher-pitched screams a bit too much), by the time “Versus the world” hit in ’02, he was definitely showing more clarity and control over his vox, and he hasn’t fucked it up ever since, hence, he’s an awesome growler.
Yes, he does need to cut some flab if he’s going to perform shirtless like that (gross, man!), and no, he doesn’t have the deepest growl in death metal, but Amon Amarth is melodic death metal (and not “Viking metal, lolz!!!” Seriously, you might as well say pirate metal’s a sub-genre because Alestorm exists!! …ahem), and Hegg’s growls are guaranteed to get your thirst for blood goin’ anyway, so he really is a kick-ass death growler in the end. Now, go burn ‘n pillage (not necessarily in that order) some villages to make him happy, and be sure you’re listening to Amon Amarth as you do so, naturally.
-Smalley
2. Jörgen Sandström – The Project Hate MCMXCIX/Vicious Art/Krux, ex-Grave/Entombed
I could write an essay about my admiration for this fucko’s vocals. But I won’t, simply becoz I have rightfully praised and held J’s grunts in the highest regard for over a fucken decade and a half or something. I have stated over and over how this guy is the best, which he is. I don’t have to do it here in great lengths. You know my opinion on J already. You know he’s one of my closest friends. You know he fucken eats every single grunter in the world for breakfast.
There. The truth. Just a few more things before I wrap this up.
A list of the world’s best growlers without Jörgen Sandström on it would be a farce. A list of the world’s best growlers without Jörgen Sandström as number 1 is plain wrong. For some reason he was beaten by Opeth’s Mike Åkerfeldt (who I’d consider to be number 3 after silver medalist Robban Karlsson – further up on this list) this time around. Mike is a better all-around vocalist, obviously, but is he a better growler than J?
Not a fucken chance.
There is no one in the world of death metal that can top J. Where most growlers are one dimensional – J offers variety and an insane depth (fast forward to 2:04 or listen to the first 30 seconds of this clip to hear a few of J’s styles while at 0:28 in this tune you’ll hear his basic, fantastic growl). He can do the lowest of grunts while spicing everything up with some insane higher screams that literally send shivers down yer spine. The combination of all the styles that J possesses makes for a fantastic and unbeatable performance – demo after demo, album after album. And he’s been topping himself with every visit in the studio, time and time again.
Another plus for Mr. Sandström is that he’s got an incredible output in his voice. Most growlers tend to not have any power in their voices. They sound deep and demonic and all, sure, but there’s no punch to be found. J is a completely new ballgame. He literally belches out so much power you are waiting for this to happen, in the vocal booth or on stage.
I am blessed to be able to have Jörgen sing in the 2 bands I am in; The Project Hate MCMXCIX and Torture Division. I am blessed to be best friends with the fucken guy. J is utter, global domination vocal-wise. He is the muthafucken Georges St. Pierre of death metal roars. The world champion of this art.
Anyone who says anything else is a fucken liar and should be shot like one.
-Lord K Philipson
1. Mike Åkerfeldt – Opeth
brutal (broot’l) adj.
1. Extremely ruthless or cruel.
2. Crude or unfeeling in manner or speech.
3. Harsh; unrelenting: a brutal winter in the Arctic.
4. Disagreeably precise or penetrating: spoke with brutal honesty.
Add bone-chilling pathos and crystal-clear articulation to the equation and you’ve just described the phenomenal voice of our champ, the man with the mustache: Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth, Bloodbath). With an enviable directness and rhythmic precision, his delivery is always immaculate, both live and on record. There’s a unique timbre to Åkerfeldt’s voice, which gives it a raw crude edge most growlers can only dream of; no matter if the grunting is performed gutturally or shriekingly, it is always harsh and unrelenting, like a brutal winter in the Arctic.
Most of Evil Mike’s growls that are caught on tape can be found on all of Opeth’s records of course, and when comparing his efforts on 1994’s “Orchid” to 2008’s “Watershed”, one can’t but marvel at how he’s been able to perfect an already at an early stage fantastic growl into an extremely cruel machine of death that spews out venom and sulfur with penetrating demonic force. Mike’s voice was a bit higher in pitch during the 90’s, which is of course a result of not only the obvious decadent effects of drinking and smoking, but the fact that he’s older. Still, who cares, as the diabolic grunt we get nowadays is so rich and full of hellish overtones that you wouldn’t want his more mature growl, if you will, to sound any other way.
Åkerpenis’ work with Bloodbath can of course not be left without mention– listen to this or this – pure and crude brilliance. The sophistication of Opeth gets pushed aside a little in favor of an even rawer output. Me like. Well, who doesn’t. His guest appearances on Katatonia’s “Brave Murder Day” and “Sounds of Decay” as well as Edge of Sanity’s “Crimson” in the mid-90’s are not to be belittled either, no matter when or where Migayl lent his vocal cords to anyone, they produced the harshest and most ruthless sounds ever to come out of a human being.
As an ending note, as nothing is worthy nor capable of topping it, I present to you the most blood-freezing, bloodcurdling, blood-younameit shriek in all of metal – the grand finale of Opeth’s mega opus Black Rose Immortal. The music calms down at 7:40 (in the clip) to beckon the end, and moves tentatively forward to the softly sang/whispered phrase “At night I always dream of you”, and at 9:19 – curtain. The world ends, the universe collapses, each and all are wholly encompassed in a shroud of pitch-black despair. A true divine moment.
-CadenZ
