How Death Metal Singers Make Their Extreme Vocalizations

FLORA LICHTMAN: This is Science Friday. I’m Flora Lichtman.

Being able to belt out a tune like Adele or Pavarotti, we know it’s not just about raw talent. We know that the best singers in the world work on their technique, how to control their breath and develop the stamina to hit note after note for a two-hour concert. But pop stars and opera singers, they’re not the only vocalists who figured out how to harness their voices for maximum impact.

[DEATH METAL MUSIC]

Death-metal vocalists also train their voices to hit a unique guttural register, and that scream is not as easy to master as you might think. Vocal scientists at the University of Utah wanted to understand how death-metal singers make their iconic screams, and what they found is not only insightful for metalheads. It might help improve treatment for people with some types of vocal injuries.

Joining me now to talk more about this research are my guests, Dr. Amanda Stark, speech pathologist and vocology researcher at the University of Utah based in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Mark Garrett, lead singer of the band Kardashev and a vocal coach based in Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome to you both to Science Friday.

MARK GARRETT: Thank you for having us.

AMANDA STARK: Yeah, thanks so much.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Amanda, how did you get interested in studying death-metal singing?

AMANDA STARK: Yeah so these extreme metal vocalists use a completely different pattern of vocalizing than we see in other styles of music. They tend to have a lot more activation of the supraglottic structures– so the things that are happening, tissues, muscles, et cetera, above the true vocal folds. And so when we think of a singer, they use mostly this kind of pitch of their voice in their singing. That is mostly just true vocal folds.

Extreme metal vocalists use everything under the sun, including the true vocal folds, but they don’t oscillate them in quite the same way that we see in a clean style of singing. And part of this work is if we can really hone in to the structures that are being used for each of these screens, anatomical structures, tissues within the throat, then we can help better define these things for coaches, for the artists themselves, as well as the scientific community.

FLORA LICHTMAN: What does it look like when you bring one of these performers into the lab?

AMANDA STARK: Yes, let’s give you the visual. First, we do a camera in the back of the throat. So we have a little camera that goes in through the nose, and then it hangs out in the back of their throat, and we can watch as they do different vocalization. And so once we understand their profile– we call it their phenotyping, what their screams are, how they classify their screams, how they describe their screams. Then we do the camera where we look visually at the throat, and then we–

FLORA LICHTMAN: While they’re screaming?

AMANDA STARK: While they’re screaming. And then in some situations, they have electrodes in their muscles of their throats and the camera in their nose. And then I think the really kind of fun part for a lot of these artists was laying in the MRI scanner and being able to then come back out of the scanner to see the interaction between all of these structures of the vocal tract.

FLORA LICHTMAN: That’s so fascinating. OK, I want to do an experiment. So one of the things you were doing was sort of creating a taxonomy of death-metal screams. So, Amanda, will you give me some of the names? And Mark, for each one– I know I’m putting you on the spot. Will you demonstrate it for us?

MARK GARRETT: Sure.

AMANDA STARK: Yeah, we could actually just do some of yours. Mark, I think it would be kind of cool for everyone. There are some overlaps in screams. I think a lot of people have used a term like a false-chord scream. Do you want to try that one?

MARK GARRETT: Yeah, sure. False-chord scream is a really great starting point. It’s loose. It’s open. Compared to other screams, it’s very relaxed, and it really builds on sounds we know how to make– you know what I mean– to create something new. And that sound is very similar to (SCREAMING) A, I, [INAUDIBLE]. That’s a standard false-chord scream.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Keep going. I can’t get– please, I need, like, 10 more.

MARK GARRETT: You know what? With all these screams, I’ll say you’re listening to Science Friday. How about that?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Oh my God, yes.

MARK GARRETT: Here we go, false-chord scream. (SCREAMING) You’re listening to Science Friday.

FLORA LICHTMAN: OK, so that’s false chords. Give me another variety of scream.

MARK GARRETT: So this is a lower tone. This is the tone that I thought was driven mostly by my arytenoids but seems, from what we can see so far, to have a lot of arytenoid and epiglottal activation. It’s very low, and it’s like a [SCREAM] sort of sound. So that would be something like, (SCREAMING) you’re listening to Science Friday.

FLORA LICHTMAN: This is delighting me to no end.

AMANDA STARK: Oh, you should see. It was so fun because these guys not only– like, you can’t appreciate how intense in volume that these screams really are. We had sound booths and multiple walls, and we had some of our colleagues in other room spaces that came over, and they’re like, you guys are really loud.

And I just kind of laughed to myself as I’m approximately four inches from their face with this camera and as their mouths are wide open and their tongues are rolling in their mouth. And then they have this ability to use multiple tissues, multiple muscles within their throat to coordinate their sounds. Actually, would you want to do your Kermit?

MARK GARRETT: Yeah, so a lot of these sounds– and this is one of the most useful things I think I took away from being part of this research is a lot of the way that we teach these sounds– not just me but the other vocal coaches out here who teach extreme vocalization– is we’ll start with a cartoon voice that helps us get into sort of this, as Amanda told me, anticipatory posture to create the sound. And so for me, I’ll do like a (IMITATING KERMIT) hi, ho, Kermit the Frog here. And then I’ll throw a little distortion on it. Hi, ho. And then from there, I just lean into the sound, and it really all just comes back to Kermit the Frog.

Yeah, and then I have probably one of the more wild screams I do that would give you the low, mid, high gamut. But this one is like that cawing crow, and it actually requires me to have a beard because I have to pull on my whiskers to make my mouth resonant enough, but I can do that one. Again, I’ll say, you’re listening to Science Friday. Sounds kind of like this. Let me find it real quick. [SCREAM]. There it is. (SCREAMING) You’re listening to Science Friday.

There you go.

FLORA LICHTMAN: That’s an amazing sound to make.

MARK GARRETT: It’s a lot of fun, yeah, and it builds on a lot of– it builds– this is one thing that I think I also really enjoyed. And, Amanda, I’m sure you can speak to this quite a bit is the whole source-filter model of looking at it because if I take away all the things I’m doing– pulling on my cheeks, curling up my tongue, which is a common technique in the metal vocal world called a tunnel throat. The sound behind that is actually quite simple. It’s just (SCREAMING) ah, ah, ah. But when I add those filters, [SCREAM]. It changes the sound drastically without having to do a lot of extra work in my actual laryngeal muscles, which is a lot of fun.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I mean, I think what’s really hitting me hearing you perform these different sounds is they are so intricate. I mean, Amanda, when you looked at what’s going on in the vocal cords, were you surprised? What were the big take-home points?

AMANDA STARK: I think, naively, I believed when I was just listening or hearing a song or watching stage performances, I think I didn’t appreciate how sophisticated– again, how synchronized all of these things are and how decisions are being made by these artists, by these performers to be able to manipulate their filter, that vocal-tract shape, so beautifully.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Do these screams damage the vocal structures?

AMANDA STARK: I’m always hesitant to globally say yes or no. For the people that we’ve looked at so far and from the literature, we know that the answer is really no.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Is there a benefit to understanding how this works? I mean, is there an application? I mean, it’s obviously cool, but is there also an application?

AMANDA STARK: Oh, it’s huge from how we are going to approach rehab in treating different voice disorders to swallowing, Parkinson’s disease, esophageal problems, and swallowing. It really is going to be that extensive to be able to educate clinicians, ENTs, GI doctors, neurologists, you name it about these vocal mechanisms and how these sounds– how this complexity of these sounds impacts the human body.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Mark, you’re a vocal coach. Could you teach me a scream?

MARK GARRETT: [LAUGHS] Flora, you could absolutely learn to do metal vocals. Now, can you learn how to do a perfect scream in the next minute or so? Probably not, but I can show you a good way to get started.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Yeah, I’m in.

MARK GARRETT: OK.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I’m in. Let’s try.

MARK GARRETT: Perfect. So we’re going to start you off with a basic false-chord mid because a false-chord mid builds on sounds that we have to make to survive, and one of those sounds is clearing our throat. So what I want you to do, in as natural a way as possible– don’t try to simulate the sound, but just let’s say you’re watching TV, and you absentmindedly– [CLEARS THROAT]– clear your throat like that.

FLORA LICHTMAN: [CLEARS THROAT]

MARK GARRETT: Nice. Do you feel– I hear a little bit of rumble. Can you tell me where, roughly, you feel that rumble?

FLORA LICHTMAN: [CLEARS THROAT] I feel it kind of closer to the top– the back. It’s the back of my throat, but it’s sort of closer to the back of my tongue than I would have thought.

MARK GARRETT: OK, so would you say it’s on the back, above the back, or below the back of the tongue?

FLORA LICHTMAN: [CLEARS THROAT] I think it’s right on top of the back– on the back.

MARK GARRETT: OK, well, you want to know something? You’re off to an amazing start. What you would do at this point is you would want to take that throat clear, and you would want to think about holding it in the front of your face, as if that sound could be held right behind your lips, like you were eating a piece of candy. And that would create a sound sort of like this.

[GRUMBLE]

FLORA LICHTMAN: [GRUMBLE]

MARK GARRETT: Yeah, that’s pretty close.

FLORA LICHTMAN: [GRUMBLE]

MARK GARRETT: That’s pretty close, yeah. [GRUMBLE] And then you could open up to a [LOUD GRUMBLE]. So we take that throat clear– [CLEARS THROAT]. [GRUMBLE]. You can think of it as a game-show buzzer back from the ’60s and ’70s. [GRUMBLE]. You can give that a try if you’d like.

FLORA LICHTMAN: [GRUMBLE]

MARK GARRETT: Oh, wow. OK, let’s give–

FLORA LICHTMAN: Am I getting there?

MARK GARRETT: Yes. So now what I want you to do is I want you to take this, and I want you to gently bark it. You don’t have to push too hard, but you’re going to hold on to this sound of kargyraa, this sound of throat singing. You’re going to go (BARKING) low. Low. It’s the game-show buzzer noise– [GRUMBLE]– with a little bit of a bark at the end. (BARKING) Low. Low.

FLORA LICHTMAN: [BARKING]

MARK GARRETT: Flora, are you–

FLORA LICHTMAN: [BARKING]

MARK GARRETT: Flora, are you a metal vocalist and you’re just not telling me? You could be doing false chords very soon. If I had you as a student, I’d be like, oh, this is too easy. This is too easy.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Please stop. It’s embarrassing me, and I don’t believe you. And after so many horrible choir experiences as a kid, this is really turning my whole life around.

AMANDA STARK: You found your space! You found your space!

FLORA LICHTMAN: I found my space.

MARK GARRETT: You can feature on the next Kardashev album. How about that?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Oh my God, that would be such a joy.

AMANDA STARK: Yes!

FLORA LICHTMAN: That would be such a joy. This was so much fun. Thank you both for taking the time to come on the show and teach us about this.

AMANDA STARK: Oh, Flora, thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure to be able to talk with you about our work.

MARK GARRETT: Yeah, I appreciate you having me here. It was an absolute blast. And as I always say, many thanks. Much love. (SCREAMING) I’m out.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Dr. Amanda– [LAUGHS]. Dr. Amanda Stark, speech pathologist and vocology researcher at the University of Utah, based in Salt Lake City; and Mark Garrett, lead singer of the band Kardashev and a vocal coach based in Phoenix, Arizona. To read more about this research, go to sciencefriday.com/metal.

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