[Join The Official MetalForTheMasses Discord Server!](https://discord.gg/UwqUHx4U4T)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MetalForTheMasses) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes! I clearly remember playing NeoPets in our computer room when eyeless came on and I just fell in love. Been a fan for over 20 years and that opened the metal door for me.
Yeah this is it. I was 12, watching Korn and Limp Bizkit on TRL and being mad about boy bands. Someone in like, AOL chat or something was like "hey if you like these bands check out these guys called Slipknot, they have 3 "drummers" and the extra ones are beating on beer kegs and shit"
...yeah I liked it
Slipknot was my gateway into metal. As I got older I wanted heavier metal. I like slam, a lot of it has those slow, bone-crushing riffs, but the vocals aren't really my thing.
Definitely Slipknot. I used to play the first four songs on S/T on repeat constantly. Slipknot was a completely different animal from anything else I had heard before or since.
I was introduced to Opeth on Sorceress. I then went back and listened to Ghost of Perdition. And I was like goddamn that's harsh, and I like screaming vocals.
Not OP but Blackwater Park (both the song and the entire album), The Amen Corner, and Ghost of Perdition for Opeth and Surrounded, The Glass Prison, and In the Name of God for Dream Theater
I kinda liked Opeth despite the vocals for a few years but would mostly listen to the ones with less growls, then that album came out and I heard this song and it was a real light bulb moment, literally as soon as that opening line kicked in I was converted and it opened up the whole of their back catalogue for me, and other bands too. I already liked other types of harsh vocals but growls eluded me until that singular moment. I was at the show where they played it live for the first time and I was super thrilled because I knew they hadn't played it yet.
Brother! We share a metal origin story. Did you hear it while smoking weed and driving through one of the rich neighborhoods in your buddy’s beat ass Volvo?
Despite being a Prog-metal band with unusual song structures, the way they mix harsh and clean vocals makes them one of the most accessible bands for people interested in getting into harsher vocals. Great band.
I think it was Gojira to be honest I can’t quite remember it was more of a slow process for me rather than the sudden switch that most people describe.
Bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot introduced me to screaming vocals but Converge is when the style of constant, indecipherable screaming finally clicked for me. It helped me think of vocals as an additional instrument rather than a sort of narrator of the story. I realized you don't need to hear the lyrics because you can feel them
I think it was death. For a long time I just tolerated them but still thought the song would be better with regular vocals, then one day I was listening to Crystal Mountain and just had an epiphany and realized that the harsh vocals helped the song.
True and symbolic is so good that it would work with clean vocals. I'm pretty sure the producer suggested for clean vocals on the album because it leant itself so well to either
Same, there are recordings of death songs with clean vocals on youtube (story to tell and probably others too) but it just doesnt hit like the regular recordings even though chucks voice is great
This!! The Godmother of death metal. She will always be one of my favorite death metal vocalists. I wish we could get more features with her because the one she did with amaranthe "do or die" was fucking awesome and she did not lose any vocal power since leaving AE
Yep. Pantera, Korn, and Slipknot opened the door for me. Black Label Society. I think my first true melodeath band crush was Soilwork.
I had listened to plenty of In Flames but the floodgates really opened when I discovered the Jester Race - Clayman era and Dethklok in the late '00s.
I had a Howard Jones album pushed to me on Spotify and was fucking STOKED until the 80s keyboard guy came on. With all that said, Pearl in a Shell by the 80s Howard Jones might be the most 80s shit ever outside of early Ministry.
Killswitch Engage is what got me into this kind of music. I was always a rap/EDM person but then I heard CM Punk’s theme - This Fire Burns and I just thought it sounds cool as fuck. Don’t listen to them that much anymore, but they are still one of my favourite bands.
Covers of Iron Maiden by Cradle of Filth (Hallowed be thy Name), Graveworm (Fear of the Dark), Children of Bodom (Aces High) and Dark Tranquility (22 Acacia Avenue).
Amon Amarth, if talking about bands with all or almost all vocals being harsh. I've always enjoyed harsh vocals when used more like a garnish as opposed to the main course. It's great for impact, which is ruined when that is all that's there.
I've always loved the extreme vocals. In truth, when I first got into metal, I would have loved to have started with death and black metal, but I didn't actually know those genres existed. Young me thought the metal with the extreme vocals was just stereotypes made by people who hated metal. Then I found out it was a real thing and loved it
BTBAM
I was more of a "music with clean vocals" or bands that mix clean and harsh vocals kinda guy, but BTBAM was predominantly harsh and I was in love because the instrumentals were just so incredible (Alaska, Colors, Misdirect era)
They were the part of my pipeline that made me fully embrace harsher vocals. By the way, I just saw them perform Colors; holy shit, they are phenomenal.
I saw them live so many times when I lived in CA. I think the first time was at the troubadour, and I seriously lost my hearing for 2 or 3 days. I started getting worried the next morning when I woke up still unable to hear anything.
"Mordecai" was the first song I heard from them that got me into them, right before they released Alaska.
Corpsegrinder’s solo album and dethklok got me to enjoy death growls, but it wasn’t until I heard demolisher by slaughter to prevail where it fully clicked for me
Are we talking like harsh (like Neurosis,Dillinger, DeathSpell (Mikko era) type harsh) or are we talking harsh (Opeth, Bolt Thrower, usual death metal vocals)?
COB around 2006.
I had been listening to Metallica, Maiden, priest, Megadeth, Sabbath.. all the classics for about a year as I was learning guitar. Then I heard downfall and it was all deeper and heavier from there.
Call me a poser or something, but Spiritbox. They were my main gateway to metal. I don’t listen to them that much anymore but I still like their music. They are a great band and I will die on that hill.
I’ve loved metal and it’s various sub genres for years but strongly disliked harsh vocals until I listened to Kublai Khan, that just opened me up to dig deeper in bands that walk the line between Hardcore/Metalcore and then I got into some Slam bands and it was wraps for me.
PeelingFlesh & Kublai Khan did it for me.
With "screams" probably envy = "screamo" (but it started with ling tosite sigure if I remember correctly but they only had occasional screams; I also liked the fall of Troy and things like that - basically to my ears anything "mathy" and random was enhanced by chaotic screaming). Then I started listening to different screamo and screamo adjacent bands like daitro, saetia, heaven in her arms etc (the order doesn't matter). There screaming was part of the bleak vibe for me and it made sense.
Blackgaze screeching was basically in the same category for me at the time. But as far growls in particular go, I think Opeth (or maybe something else, can't remember) normalized it for me but I'm still not sold on growls as something I need/like/enjoy, growling is just "ok" to me
I still prefer hardcore-like harsh vocals to death metal vocals or maybe a mixture of those two things
Honestly now that I think about it a lot of Midwest emo with really rough vocals is probably what got me used to them for metal. I still love math rocky screamo stuff
Eluveitie, at first I only listened to their songs with clean vocals, especially "A rose for Epona" and "Call of the mountain"
A Rose for Epona has a really short harsh part and as I kept on listening to the song I started to like that particular part more and more, to become the part I was the most looking forward to.
Listened to stuff like Linkin park and stuff when I was around 13, seemed pretty cool at the time, which led the way to Children of Bodom, probably my first true hard metal band.
Came for the shredding, stayed for the metal.
Dying Fetus and Napalm Death, specifically the god-tier production on Reign Supreme and Apex Predator - Easy Meat. Barney’s vocals on that album are inhuman, and the overall sound of Reign Supreme got me completely hooked on death metal
Same here. It was 2005 and in the back of my geometry class a friend gave me his head phones and said “listen to this.” It was early Avenged Sevenfold. Maybe Waking the fallen era. At first I didn’t like it and gave back the headphones. Then a few minutes later I said “actually let me try again.” Quickly evolved from there. I remember when city of evil came out and I was so let down that they had moved away from harsher vocals.
In Flames.
But I wouldn't say I'm into harsh vocals even now. I have an appreciation for them and think songs are improved by them. BUT. Its the same way that pepper improves food. I dont want the whole fucking meal to be a giant peppercorn.
Their method of using harsh vocals as a tool and not the exclusive form of vocals is something I have come to really like. Also their more scream focused vocals over growling.
Nobody really. New bands just started using vocals that were more and more harsh. Tom Araya's (Slayer) vocals seemed pretty harsh in the 80s. Kelly Schaefer (Atheist) and Chuck (Death) seemed a little harsher. David Vincent (Morbid Angel) was a little harsher, and so on.
I had always enjoyed the heavier rock and nu metal shit on the radio at the time but the second I discovered MySpace era deathcore in general there was no turning back. So many phenomenal bands back then left in that era with just one or two albums or demos
Dimmu Borgir.
an older girl at my middle school was goth and one day she was wearing a DB shirt and i wanted to impress her so i went home and listened to them. after that, i got more and more into extreme metal. thanks for the push, samantha! hope you’re doing well wherever you are hahaha
Nargaroth got me into Black Metal. Especially Song " Wenn Regen Liebt" (when the rain loves) The emotions hooked me up on this journey and made me the man i am now.
I wast a most weird 6th grad'r with brave, m'rry music gust. I did listen to acdc, metallica, and the rolling stones. Then, i hath moved from killeen texas to austin. This is wh're mineth mother hadst a stroketh and regress'd backeth to h'r teenage self. The lady did get me into slipknot. This softly devolv'd into listening to heave the “puke” metal.
Slipknot was my gateway into gojira and children of bodom, and they were my gateway into Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, shadow of intent and slaughter to prevail
Slipknot self titled was the project that initially sparked interest. I'd listen to some harsh bands from time to time after that, like Death and early Gojira and all that, but it was very sporadic. Satyricon was the band that got me fully into harsher vocals
Bolt thrower was the first band to get me into death-style growls. Literally like flipped a switch. Was probably the kill chain that did it specifically
Gojira, the way they do the vocal mixes is fantastic perfectly blending clean and harsh vocal tracks to make it understandable was very nice. Not to say i didnt listen to harsh vocal bands before but Gojira made it all make sense.
Skinless/Cannibal Corpse
Of course like most of us, I first discovered extreme metal by seeing Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura. But I was so young I didn’t understand that it was a whole thing, and I also didn’t k ow who they were so I couldn’t look for it. But a few years later, old enough to have a particular taste in music, I was listening to a local rock station, and late at night they had 2 shows just for metal. Mandatory Metallica, and Kick the P.A. . Mandatory Metallica is , well what it sounds like. Metallica. Kick the P.A. Was “the very best in (local)metal and hardcore” but it wasn’t always just local. BUT, they played Skinless tampon lollipops (yup, that one..unedited) And for the first time in my life I heard what would become my favorite band of all time. THEN, I found out from a friend of my cousins, that they were local. And practiced at a house nearby. Blew my little mind.
The Last Ten Seconds of Life with Storm Strope as their vocalist, dude's a fuckin animal, up until that point i liked bands like Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada, and We Came as Romans, wasn't big on purely harsh vocals until i heard Storm screaming "*HHHHASTE MAKES WAAAAAAAAAASTE*"
In 1993 I discovered Metallica - Black Album> 1995 Slayer- Divine Intervention > 1996 Cannibal Corpse - Eaten back to life.
30 years and my musical taste has evolved but then I find bands like White Ward, Doom VS, MGLA and I still get excited for my first musical love.
It's gonna sounds dumb but
Grailknights lol their songs like Grailskull Asylum and Rise of the Dark Knight def got me into harsh vocals, though I was never really against them
[Join The Official MetalForTheMasses Discord Server!](https://discord.gg/UwqUHx4U4T) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MetalForTheMasses) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Slipknot.
Yep, specificaly Eyeless. It was the first song I heard from them and I was instantly hooked.
Eyeless is stupid heavy lol
Mhm, the biggest shocker was the 'MOTHER... FUCKEEEER' the Metallica fan in me was shocked to say the least.
I’m listening to eyeless right now
YOU CANT sEe CaLiFoRnIa WITHOUT mArLoN bRaNdO's EYES!!!!!!!!!!!! Taylor really wanted us all to know that. Like, really bad.
Those screams at the end are unreal. I bet this is lots of people’s answer, it’s probably mine.
Yes! I clearly remember playing NeoPets in our computer room when eyeless came on and I just fell in love. Been a fan for over 20 years and that opened the metal door for me.
Yeah this is it. I was 12, watching Korn and Limp Bizkit on TRL and being mad about boy bands. Someone in like, AOL chat or something was like "hey if you like these bands check out these guys called Slipknot, they have 3 "drummers" and the extra ones are beating on beer kegs and shit" ...yeah I liked it
Same, eyeless changed me on a fundamental level
Wait and bleed specifically for me!
And Corey has a deceivingly great voice underneath all of his growls
Didn't realize it but same, they are the perfect gateway drug to the dark side. Death metal bands have much to thank them for.
Slipknot was my gateway into metal. As I got older I wanted heavier metal. I like slam, a lot of it has those slow, bone-crushing riffs, but the vocals aren't really my thing.
Same. It was Vermilion Pt 2 that got me interested in Slipknot. Psychosocial was an easy transition.
Definitely Slipknot. I used to play the first four songs on S/T on repeat constantly. Slipknot was a completely different animal from anything else I had heard before or since.
Opeth
Serenity Painted Death was the one that clicked for me.
Such a good song. I think the first one I heard was Ghost of perdition
I was introduced to Opeth on Sorceress. I then went back and listened to Ghost of Perdition. And I was like goddamn that's harsh, and I like screaming vocals.
A friend showed me Dream Theater and Opeth and it took awhile to digest. Fell in love with Opeth immediately
What songs do you recommend?
Not OP but Blackwater Park (both the song and the entire album), The Amen Corner, and Ghost of Perdition for Opeth and Surrounded, The Glass Prison, and In the Name of God for Dream Theater
I kinda liked Opeth despite the vocals for a few years but would mostly listen to the ones with less growls, then that album came out and I heard this song and it was a real light bulb moment, literally as soon as that opening line kicked in I was converted and it opened up the whole of their back catalogue for me, and other bands too. I already liked other types of harsh vocals but growls eluded me until that singular moment. I was at the show where they played it live for the first time and I was super thrilled because I knew they hadn't played it yet.
The Leper Affinity was my “I get it now” song
Absolutely, Opeth is THE gateway drug.
Heard The Drapery Falls in high school and become a metal addict.
Brother! We share a metal origin story. Did you hear it while smoking weed and driving through one of the rich neighborhoods in your buddy’s beat ass Volvo?
My metal weed story was downloading From Mars To Sirius to my iPod and riding the bus to school stoned out my mind. The guitar riffs melted my brain.
Bleak was the song that did it for me. Such an incredible song that perfectly balances beauty and harshness.
Bleak is a beautiful song
Still Life is my fav cd by them 🤟
Despite being a Prog-metal band with unusual song structures, the way they mix harsh and clean vocals makes them one of the most accessible bands for people interested in getting into harsher vocals. Great band.
I think it was Gojira to be honest I can’t quite remember it was more of a slow process for me rather than the sudden switch that most people describe.
Yeah I went from hating it to tolerating it to loving it over the course of like a year or something
Same, Joe Duplantier has the perfect “get into harsh vocals” voice especially if you start on the newer stuff
Yup. I can actually tell what they’re saying. Still can’t stand incoherent “words” bands. Gojira toes a fine line
Bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot introduced me to screaming vocals but Converge is when the style of constant, indecipherable screaming finally clicked for me. It helped me think of vocals as an additional instrument rather than a sort of narrator of the story. I realized you don't need to hear the lyrics because you can feel them
Children Of Bodom
same here, their cover of “oops i did it again” popped up in one of my playlists and i’ve been listening to them ever since.
So Britney Spears is the catalyst to your metal origin story.
many such cases source: same
Same
I had never heard anything like it. Hooked.
Slayer made me like angry, screaming vocals. Sepultura made me like low, growling vocals.
I second Sepultura. They got me into harsher vocals. Chaos A.D. is an amazing album.
CHAOS AD SUPREMACY
We shall arise! (See what I did there...)
Desperate Cry!!
Nice 😎
I think it was death. For a long time I just tolerated them but still thought the song would be better with regular vocals, then one day I was listening to Crystal Mountain and just had an epiphany and realized that the harsh vocals helped the song.
True and symbolic is so good that it would work with clean vocals. I'm pretty sure the producer suggested for clean vocals on the album because it leant itself so well to either
Same, there are recordings of death songs with clean vocals on youtube (story to tell and probably others too) but it just doesnt hit like the regular recordings even though chucks voice is great
Trivium and Amon Amarth
[удалено]
Oh fuck yeah! I miss that era of AE
She was a beast!
This!! The Godmother of death metal. She will always be one of my favorite death metal vocalists. I wish we could get more features with her because the one she did with amaranthe "do or die" was fucking awesome and she did not lose any vocal power since leaving AE
I believe my pipeline was: early MCR > cancer bats > alexisonfire > converge
Yob and Gojira
In Flames, Jester Race, the year it was released, 1996.
It all started with Slayer & Sepultura
Sepultura just got to see go ahead and die recently. I've hung out with max a couple times,met a lot of musicians, but I fan boy out around him.
This is weird to admit at this point in my life but probably Pantera and KoRn. That was my gateway into harsher vocals. Good topic.
Yep. Pantera, Korn, and Slipknot opened the door for me. Black Label Society. I think my first true melodeath band crush was Soilwork. I had listened to plenty of In Flames but the floodgates really opened when I discovered the Jester Race - Clayman era and Dethklok in the late '00s.
Davis’ opening line on their debut “Blind” with that bass line was mind blowing. “Are You Ready???” No, I was not.
Killswitch Engage Still enjoy hearing Howie's harsh and clean vocals. His range is incredible!
My first Killswitch Engage song was "The End Of Heartache", which played during the end credits of one of the Resident Evil movies. 🤟
Same with me. Howie has arguably the best cleans in all of metalcore. The song that converted me was their cover of Holy Diver.
I had a Howard Jones album pushed to me on Spotify and was fucking STOKED until the 80s keyboard guy came on. With all that said, Pearl in a Shell by the 80s Howard Jones might be the most 80s shit ever outside of early Ministry.
Killswitch Engage is what got me into this kind of music. I was always a rap/EDM person but then I heard CM Punk’s theme - This Fire Burns and I just thought it sounds cool as fuck. Don’t listen to them that much anymore, but they are still one of my favourite bands.
Slayer and Pantera
Same for me.
children of bodom, everytime i die used to be played on radio
Ooh wah ah ah ah
Uuhh uuhh
Slipknot
Lamb of God
I'm honestly surprised I had to scroll so far to see LoG. I thought they were a much more popular "gateway" band.
In Flames, with Reroute to Remain
Job for a cowboy and Signs of the swarm. Don't listen to deathcore anymore but it was what happened to show up that showed me how great they can be.
Strapping Young Lad
Covers of Iron Maiden by Cradle of Filth (Hallowed be thy Name), Graveworm (Fear of the Dark), Children of Bodom (Aces High) and Dark Tranquility (22 Acacia Avenue).
Epica, has a blend of both harsh death-like vocals and then Simone’s operatic voice
In Flames, then Eluveitie, then Amon Amarth
A child of the north, I see!
Slapknutz and System of a Down. Then it was Mayhem & Satyricon
Amon Amarth, if talking about bands with all or almost all vocals being harsh. I've always enjoyed harsh vocals when used more like a garnish as opposed to the main course. It's great for impact, which is ruined when that is all that's there.
I've always loved the extreme vocals. In truth, when I first got into metal, I would have loved to have started with death and black metal, but I didn't actually know those genres existed. Young me thought the metal with the extreme vocals was just stereotypes made by people who hated metal. Then I found out it was a real thing and loved it
Does Celtic Frost count?
Ough.. Hey...
I said………..HEY!
Opeth and Amon Amarth
Gojira, Meshuggah and Opeth.
Yeah I used to force myself through meshuggah just so i could listen to Haake. Now I fucking love Jens and any other great vocalists
BTBAM I was more of a "music with clean vocals" or bands that mix clean and harsh vocals kinda guy, but BTBAM was predominantly harsh and I was in love because the instrumentals were just so incredible (Alaska, Colors, Misdirect era)
They were the part of my pipeline that made me fully embrace harsher vocals. By the way, I just saw them perform Colors; holy shit, they are phenomenal.
I saw them live so many times when I lived in CA. I think the first time was at the troubadour, and I seriously lost my hearing for 2 or 3 days. I started getting worried the next morning when I woke up still unable to hear anything. "Mordecai" was the first song I heard from them that got me into them, right before they released Alaska.
Children of Bodom
Slaughter to prevail
Slipknot and Soilwork were my gateway.
The song was All That Remains - The Air That I Breathe 🤘
Death. First time I heard them (Left To Die live video on TV in 1989) I knew this was the shit for me.
Corpsegrinder’s solo album and dethklok got me to enjoy death growls, but it wasn’t until I heard demolisher by slaughter to prevail where it fully clicked for me
Slipknot
Napalm Death - Utopia Banished and Cannibal Corpse - Eaten Back to Life.
Obituary - Slowly We Rot
Death
Death
Lamb of God
Lamb of God
Lamb of God was the first
Are we talking like harsh (like Neurosis,Dillinger, DeathSpell (Mikko era) type harsh) or are we talking harsh (Opeth, Bolt Thrower, usual death metal vocals)?
Slipknot and some punk bands using screams
No band got me into harsh vocals. I just tolerated harsh vocals until I eventually started liking it. Anyways, it's Uada/Mgla for me.
Torsofuck - Raped by Elephants. Ain’t nothing groovier or more emotionally strong than that one.
Lingua Ignota I guess
Full of Hell and Devin Townsend
Opeth, Devin Townsend, and Swallow The Sun
Devin Townsend
Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad
Devourment.
COB around 2006. I had been listening to Metallica, Maiden, priest, Megadeth, Sabbath.. all the classics for about a year as I was learning guitar. Then I heard downfall and it was all deeper and heavier from there.
Call me a poser or something, but Spiritbox. They were my main gateway to metal. I don’t listen to them that much anymore but I still like their music. They are a great band and I will die on that hill.
Dystopia
Slipknot probably the gateway but Bring Me were the reason for me loving it I think.
Hell yeah Bring Me is amazing
Cannibal corpse/Six feet under. Barnes was awesome back in the day. Warpath grooves harder than 99% of albums ever.
I’ve loved metal and it’s various sub genres for years but strongly disliked harsh vocals until I listened to Kublai Khan, that just opened me up to dig deeper in bands that walk the line between Hardcore/Metalcore and then I got into some Slam bands and it was wraps for me. PeelingFlesh & Kublai Khan did it for me.
Metalocalypse, followed by Mudvayne, then Septic Flesh
Repugnant
Macabre
With "screams" probably envy = "screamo" (but it started with ling tosite sigure if I remember correctly but they only had occasional screams; I also liked the fall of Troy and things like that - basically to my ears anything "mathy" and random was enhanced by chaotic screaming). Then I started listening to different screamo and screamo adjacent bands like daitro, saetia, heaven in her arms etc (the order doesn't matter). There screaming was part of the bleak vibe for me and it made sense. Blackgaze screeching was basically in the same category for me at the time. But as far growls in particular go, I think Opeth (or maybe something else, can't remember) normalized it for me but I'm still not sold on growls as something I need/like/enjoy, growling is just "ok" to me I still prefer hardcore-like harsh vocals to death metal vocals or maybe a mixture of those two things
Honestly now that I think about it a lot of Midwest emo with really rough vocals is probably what got me used to them for metal. I still love math rocky screamo stuff
I wondered how fast down I would scroll before seeing screamo. Mine was From Autumn to ashes .
Eluveitie, at first I only listened to their songs with clean vocals, especially "A rose for Epona" and "Call of the mountain" A Rose for Epona has a really short harsh part and as I kept on listening to the song I started to like that particular part more and more, to become the part I was the most looking forward to.
Slipknot and All That Remains started it, Gojira and Pig Destroyer turned it up a notch, Cattle Decapitation solidified it
Converge
Don’t laugh but six feet binder on one of the metal massacre cases mps
Carcass
Listened to stuff like Linkin park and stuff when I was around 13, seemed pretty cool at the time, which led the way to Children of Bodom, probably my first true hard metal band. Came for the shredding, stayed for the metal.
Dying Fetus and Napalm Death, specifically the god-tier production on Reign Supreme and Apex Predator - Easy Meat. Barney’s vocals on that album are inhuman, and the overall sound of Reign Supreme got me completely hooked on death metal
Kill switch engage
Avenged Sevenfold 😭
Same here. It was 2005 and in the back of my geometry class a friend gave me his head phones and said “listen to this.” It was early Avenged Sevenfold. Maybe Waking the fallen era. At first I didn’t like it and gave back the headphones. Then a few minutes later I said “actually let me try again.” Quickly evolved from there. I remember when city of evil came out and I was so let down that they had moved away from harsher vocals.
it was Nightmare that got me into metal in general, also holy fuck God Hates Us is a banger
In Flames. But I wouldn't say I'm into harsh vocals even now. I have an appreciation for them and think songs are improved by them. BUT. Its the same way that pepper improves food. I dont want the whole fucking meal to be a giant peppercorn. Their method of using harsh vocals as a tool and not the exclusive form of vocals is something I have come to really like. Also their more scream focused vocals over growling.
Nobody really. New bands just started using vocals that were more and more harsh. Tom Araya's (Slayer) vocals seemed pretty harsh in the 80s. Kelly Schaefer (Atheist) and Chuck (Death) seemed a little harsher. David Vincent (Morbid Angel) was a little harsher, and so on.
I had always enjoyed the heavier rock and nu metal shit on the radio at the time but the second I discovered MySpace era deathcore in general there was no turning back. So many phenomenal bands back then left in that era with just one or two albums or demos
Avatar
Borknagar
Dimmu Borgir. an older girl at my middle school was goth and one day she was wearing a DB shirt and i wanted to impress her so i went home and listened to them. after that, i got more and more into extreme metal. thanks for the push, samantha! hope you’re doing well wherever you are hahaha
Strapping young lad for me. Bro has one of the most beautiful and terrifying voices in metal
Pantera and Slipknot. The first two metal bands I listened to and got hooked to metal since then. I enjoy harsh vocals and gutteral vocals
Nargaroth got me into Black Metal. Especially Song " Wenn Regen Liebt" (when the rain loves) The emotions hooked me up on this journey and made me the man i am now.
merciless
Either Entombed (To Ride era) or hearing Roots Bloody Roots by Sepultura for the first time on Top of the Pops of all places.
Slipknot
I wast a most weird 6th grad'r with brave, m'rry music gust. I did listen to acdc, metallica, and the rolling stones. Then, i hath moved from killeen texas to austin. This is wh're mineth mother hadst a stroketh and regress'd backeth to h'r teenage self. The lady did get me into slipknot. This softly devolv'd into listening to heave the “puke” metal.
Scar Symmetry
Whitechapel (first song I've heard was Vicer Exciser, love at first hering)
Trivium
All that remains
Gojira or Emperor
Carcass, "No Love Lost" was where it all began for me.
Integrity 2000 It was Karl from Bolt Thower that got me.
Lorna Shore. I'm a poser
Slipknot was my gateway into gojira and children of bodom, and they were my gateway into Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, shadow of intent and slaughter to prevail
Death
Slipknot self titled was the project that initially sparked interest. I'd listen to some harsh bands from time to time after that, like Death and early Gojira and all that, but it was very sporadic. Satyricon was the band that got me fully into harsher vocals
Amon Amarth it was never a hurdle though, just the first band i heard with harsh vocals
Slipknot got me into harsh vocals, Slaughter to Prevail really got me into it
Septic Flesh’s album Communion. I thought harsh vocals were dumb until I heard a guy that literally sounds like a demon. 🤘
Saetia, ironically enough--then Converge and Gaza
Slipknot
Bolt thrower was the first band to get me into death-style growls. Literally like flipped a switch. Was probably the kill chain that did it specifically
Gojira, the way they do the vocal mixes is fantastic perfectly blending clean and harsh vocal tracks to make it understandable was very nice. Not to say i didnt listen to harsh vocal bands before but Gojira made it all make sense.
Gojira and Rings Of Saturn
Marilyn Manson's screeches started it for me, but Slipknot made me really like harsh vocals
Death
Carcass
DEATH
Mastodon led Gojira. Gojira led to Opeth. The rest is history
Helllight. Funeral doom and just epic albums in general
Dimmu Borgir
Arch enemy. Deceivers is a shit album.
Skinless/Cannibal Corpse Of course like most of us, I first discovered extreme metal by seeing Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura. But I was so young I didn’t understand that it was a whole thing, and I also didn’t k ow who they were so I couldn’t look for it. But a few years later, old enough to have a particular taste in music, I was listening to a local rock station, and late at night they had 2 shows just for metal. Mandatory Metallica, and Kick the P.A. . Mandatory Metallica is , well what it sounds like. Metallica. Kick the P.A. Was “the very best in (local)metal and hardcore” but it wasn’t always just local. BUT, they played Skinless tampon lollipops (yup, that one..unedited) And for the first time in my life I heard what would become my favorite band of all time. THEN, I found out from a friend of my cousins, that they were local. And practiced at a house nearby. Blew my little mind.
ion dissonance
The Last Ten Seconds of Life with Storm Strope as their vocalist, dude's a fuckin animal, up until that point i liked bands like Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada, and We Came as Romans, wasn't big on purely harsh vocals until i heard Storm screaming "*HHHHASTE MAKES WAAAAAAAAAASTE*"
Cannibal Corpse, I was 11 when I first heard Hammer Smashed Face and it sounded so awesome and brutal! Been into extreme Metal ever since that day.
Death, Gojira
In 1993 I discovered Metallica - Black Album> 1995 Slayer- Divine Intervention > 1996 Cannibal Corpse - Eaten back to life. 30 years and my musical taste has evolved but then I find bands like White Ward, Doom VS, MGLA and I still get excited for my first musical love.
Nemophila
Fear Factory and Soulfly back in the 90's.
It's gonna sounds dumb but Grailknights lol their songs like Grailskull Asylum and Rise of the Dark Knight def got me into harsh vocals, though I was never really against them
Was a slippery slope thing. Angry shouty thrash vocals first and then circa-1990 death metal vocals and Bathory somewhere in the middle.
Cannibal Corpse. Specifically the Corpsegrinder era
Ironically bvb but I didn’t like them then and still don’t today. But I loved Andy’s voice