Enough with the cookie monster vocals!

[Man-Thing]

Like a lot of you, I am a fan of metal. However, I simply can not stand the cookie monster vocals that are being championed by otherwise tallented bands.

For instance take childern of bodom.They, on the surface appear to have it all to be a truly great metal band. They have some of the greatest riffs I've ever heard, and a powerful double bassed rythym section. They even incorperate keyboards succesfully. Through all of these acheivements though, I am hugely let down once the cookie monster starts singing. What makes it worse to me, is that I actually think he could be a good vocalist (if he tried).

Another example would be Phil Anselmo and the time he had in Pantera. Early on, his vocals were great. He was able to be really aggresive, but still intelligiable. Later on though, he decided it would be a great idea to start singing like a sasquatch. This (to me atleast) was a huge let down in the last two Pantera albums and made them weak and uninspired.

I suppose someone could say that I just don't have the 'ear' to 'hear' it, and that I am wanting metal bands to conform. Well, I think that's just silly. A metal band can still be non-conforming all the while having great vocals (Danzig, Type O Negative, early Metallica). The thing is though, that most new metal bands I've heard sing like they are demon possessed, and this is the norm.

I think it's bad when Tom Araya makes fun of someone's vocals for being un-intelligiable. I guess what I'm saying is that I want a great band like Children of Bodom to actually sing their lyrics, and not just growl.

Yeah, yeah we all get it, your not really human. Your a monster.... A singing monster.

 

[Matt]

Cookie Monster thought he was a pimp. Elmo kicked the teeth out of that mother ****er. How many cookies and can that mother ****er eat now? Elmo is the only pimp of Seasame Street.

 

[Hades]

Man i want some cookies now.

 

[Cyclops]

Now all I can think of is a metal rendition of "C is for Cookie, That's Good Enough For Me".

Thanks alot.

 

[kypade]

Probably my favorite example of vocals ever are on a metal album.

But yeah, usually it sucks. Stop sucking metal. Suckity Metally Sucktaly.

 

[kypade]

I should point out that I've only listened to about 5 metal albums in my whole life, plus the occasional radio song.

 

[Cyclops]

Honestly, I listen to very little metal at all.

Imagine my surprise to find that the spoof "Moving Very Slowly" recorded by fictional metal band Taranchula (Homestar Runner creators Matt and Mike Chapman with some other guys on instruments) was so very close to the stuff it was making fun of!

 

[Addendum]

Chuck Schuldiner invented death metal vocals. He was the best at it. RIP

Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth is the best at it right now

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Check out the videos on the "Alone In The Dark" DVD for more fantastic Cookie Monster vocals.

SLITHER

 

[Batty for Bats!]

****in' Eh! I'm tired of it. I generally like the heavier stuff, just don't like the vocals. Way over played. But its wierd, now that practically every metal band uses the cookie monster vocals, in a way, they are all conformist to what a metal band should sound like. Good stuff with ****ty vocals.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

If you want to be really "Metal", take a page from Glen and Ozzy's book.
The guitars are the star of the show. You have to cut through with either super-high crap, or mega-low crap.

 

[Man-Thing]

I downtune my guitar 87 whole steps.

It's so SATANIC!

 

[jaguarr]

Count me among the people who can't stand the Cookie Monster singing style. It doesn't sound bad-ass, cool or evil. It sounds ******ed and makes me want to give the "singer" a Sucrets. Any moron lacking a vision of longevity as a vocalist can make those idiotic sounds. It takes talent to actually sing. Just ask Ronny James Dio who did everything these dummies have done and more, with a hell of a lot more talent to boot. Or James Hetfield. Or Glenn Danzig. Or Jeff Scott DeSoto. Or Rob Halford. The list is miles long, and I guarantee the names I just mentioned will be remembered long after the bands doing this stuff today are a faded memory.

jag

 

[PLAS]

it seems that Death Metal is an aquiried taste.

but here's some great albums featuring grunt vox used right:

Carcass- Necrotism, Descanting The Insalubrous
Napalm Death- Harmony Corruption
Death- Human
Paradise Lost- Lost Paradise
Entombed- Wolverine Blues
Obituary- Cause Of Death (here the singer just uses his voice as another instrument, no lyrics at all)
Morbid Angel- Blessed Are The Sick
Sepultura- Arise

although a lot of people like Cannibal Corpse, I find them to be pretty cliche

 

[jaguarr]

It's funny, PLAS, because I really love a lot of the music (especially of most of the bands you mentioned), but the vocals have just become tiresome and overdone. All these bands start to sound the same at first listen (though their musicality is pretty varied) BECAUSE their singers are all doing the same schtick.

jag

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

it seems that Death Metal is an aquiried taste.

but here's some great albums featuring grunt vox used right:

Ha, you spin doctor. You turned "Cookie Monster Vocals" into "Grunt-Vox". lol
You must be the guy who made "Sanitation Engineer".

 

[PLAS]

It's funny, PLAS, because I really love a lot of the music (especially of most of the bands you mentioned), but the vocals have just become tiresome and overdone. All these bands start to sound the same at first listen (though their musicality is pretty varied) BECAUSE their singers are all doing the same schtick.

jag

I was very careful to choose bands whose vocalists sounded very different from each other

 

[PLAS]

Ha, you spin doctor. You turned "Cookie Monster Vocals" into "Grunt-Vox". lol
You must be the guy who made "Sanitation Engineer".

well, I was a teenage death metal fan, so sue me

 

[jaguarr]

I was very careful to choose bands whose vocalists sounded very different from each other

Marginally different, IMHO. To-may-toe, to-mah-toe, right?

jag

 

[Strange]

it seems that Death Metal is an aquiried taste.

I agree with this 100% but my question to you is, how many people actually like hearing this type of music compared to the amount of people that for some reason just listen to it for what it represents?

 

[Mr Sparkle]

Count me among the people who can't stand the Cookie Monster singing style. It doesn't sound bad-ass, cool or evil. It sounds ******ed and makes me want to give the "singer" a Sucrets.
jag

LOL "sucrets"!

 

[jaguarr]

LOL "sucrets"!

Remember those?

jag

 

[Mr Sparkle]

yes....we are both older than everyone else but C lee and superman :sad:

 

[jaguarr]

yes....we are both older than everyone else but C lee and superman :sad:

Morg is really old, too, though, so there's one more fogie to make us feel young again.

jag

 

[PLAS]

I agree with this 100% but my question to you is, how many people actually like hearing this type of music compared to the amount of people that for some reason just listen to it for what it represents?

I actually enjoy listening to death metal every once in a while, just like I enjoy indie music, electronica, punk, pop, normal rock, mexican music, jazz, classical, etc.

one has to listen and appreciate all kinds of music for the contributions they make

as for the people who listen to death metal for what it represents, usually closeminded idiots to whom The Cure is no different from Britney Spears, so it's their own loss