Written by king_matt on 04.11.2011 at 04:08
Strange, Mikael Åkerfeldt's growls have always sounded incredibly average to me.

I think Opeth as a unite are rather average with some good moments, but the only reason I bothered with checking out the rest of their discography was because of Åkerfeldt's growls.

Speaking of Åkerfeldt, nobody likes Tagtren? If not for his work with Hypocrisy then at least for his contributions in Bloodbath.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 06.11.2011 at 04:03

Speaking of Åkerfeldt, nobody likes Tagtren? If not for his work with Hypocrisy then at least for his contributions in Bloodbath.

It's Tägtgren. I'm sure you appreciate the correction since you took care to correctly spell Mikael's surname, but really, no need to thank me

Written by eponymous on 11.11.2011 at 02:56
It's Tägtgren. I'm sure you appreciate the correction since you took care to correctly spell Mikael's surname, but really, no need to thank me

I just pasted the names from Google so I didn't misspell them. Akerfeldt just happened to have that funky A above it. Not a matter of favoritism or anything.

John Tardy obviously

Johan Hegg

Not a giant Amon fan, but I like Hegg's voice a lot. It's low and throaty, but intelligible. I don't go for that head-in-toilet gurgle where you could read The Bible or the menu for Taco Bell and it wouldn't make a difference.

I like to know what the singer is saying.


P.S. Don't steal that idea!! I'm totally gonna write a toilet-bowl type death metal song where I go, "Bean Burrito, Taco Salad, Guacamole!!!" It's gonna be hilarious.

Johan Hegg? he is a dime a dozen standard griwler

Written by Enteroctopus on 10.03.2016 at 20:48


Not a giant Amon fan, but I like Hegg's voice a lot. It's low and throaty, but intelligible. I don't go for that head-in-toilet gurgle where you could read The Bible or the menu for Taco Bell and it wouldn't make a difference.

I like to know what the singer is saying.

Maurizio Iacono for instance is way better in that style.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.03.2016 at 23:03

Johan Hegg? he is a dime a dozen standard griwler

Really? I can't think of anyone who sounds like him

Written by Enteroctopus on 10.03.2016 at 20:48

I like to know what the singer is saying.

I take it you don't like bands that do their lyrics in other languages, then?

Ola Lindgren, Christian Älvestam, Tom Frost(Baphomet), Peter Tagtgren, John Tardy, Mikael Akerfeldt, Martin Hellion (Sulphur Aeon).

Either Mikael Åkerfeldt or Karl Sanders.

My favorite performances would be David Vincet (Morbid Angel) on Blessed Are the Sick and Chuck Schuldiner (Death) on Leprosy.
I also really really like Vincent on Altars of Madness and Schuldiner on Scream Bloody Gore, they both have very distinct styles, but they both sound like coming from another world, Chuck sounds like he come from a crypt and Vincent from a dark dimension.
I chose their seconds albums tough, because on their debuts neither is very powerful or particurarlry convincing, they have much more power on the second album.
Haven't heard Vincent on other albums, and I think Chuck did a really poor job on Human and ItP tough. He became much better on Symbolic, but there's it's hard to figure how much it's death and how much is thrash. He sounds great but lacks that ''sickness'' in his voice that makes death-metal so distinct.

I don't find modern death-metal much of a big deal, because everyone simply does the same thing, it's such a conservative genre, yet it had potential to be more.
Thrash-metal allowed much more freedom in vocal styles, so you had very distinct vocalists, yet modern death metal vocalist are so obsessed with sounding deeper and deeper that they rarely transmit anything. An neither they're that convincing, sure they sound really scary when you're not familiar with the genre, but after awhile, it sounds like a gimmick. What's the point of sounding deep if I can't hear you over the guitars?

Also the two vocalist from above could do all start of things with their vocals, they really used it as an instrument, yet modern death-metal vocalist are an instrument with just one note.
I also like how Ross Dolan from Immolation sounds, but he's also just a one trick pony that doesn't manage to jump at you like Vincent and Chuck could.
Also a big fan of Mille Petrozza and Max Cavalera on Beneath/Arise and the dude on Epidemic of Violence (Demolition Hammer), but the music is pure thrash, even if they vocals are very close to death.

So my choices from my very limited knowledge are Vincent and Chuck on their first two album.

Chris Barnes is by far the best dm vocalist

Evil Chuck for me (RIP)

I would say the best and my favourite sounding vocalist is John Tardy from Obituary, his vocals are very unique.

Although I would say Chuck was overall the most talented because his vocals were more diverse and he was able to change them to suit whatever style they based their music on. He was also an amazing songwriter aswel as one of the best guitarists ever!

Chuck Schuldiner on Leprosy (Death), Dan Swanö on Crimson (Edge of Sanity), and Karl Willetts on ...For Victory (Bolt Thrower) are my favorite death metal vocal performances.
Lars-Göran Petrov on Left Hand Path (Entombed) is also great.
If Dissection counts as death metal, then Jon Nödtveidt on Storm of the Light's Bane would count to my favorites as well!

Written by Shmelevod on 06.09.2021 at 13:31
The most aggressive vocalists are...Bo Summer of Illdisposed...

Amen. When it comes to the king of the cookie monsters I've got to tip my hat to Bo Summer too. His guttural growls compliment the music like a 6th instrument. Love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsxvxguE4Ew

Written by Angelic Storm on 04.11.2011 at 02:57

Kam Lee

The archetypal death metal vocalist. His growls are just insane!

I agree. Death did never sound better than with Kam on vocals.

Chuck ofc!!! Second best Ross Dolan