While I hold Opeth in high respect, my opinion comes not from Homerism.
Opeth's - Damnation was my favorite album of theirs, so this album will very well appeal to me.

As a singer myself, I am attracted to a beautiful, crisp, and clear voice coming from the mic... and with death metal growls, I cannot acheive this sense. They do not take much skill, they do not take a lot of melody to use, and you can barely understand the lyrics... which is another issue I am critical of.

Music is all just subjective to the listener, and for one I am glad a greatly talented band such as Opeth are going to put out something that caters to someone with a more experienced ear for clean vocals. Which is something the metal genre's need more of imo.

I'm not much of an Opeth fan but thought I'd give it a listen to at least. Except it's already been pulled by youtube. Anyone else know where I can find it?

Ah, sorry about that, Here you are!

http://stereogum.com/766792/opeth-th...ng-the-chapel/

Not you're fault, youtube and copyright bullshit.

Thanks for the link!

"experienced ear for clean vocals" LMAO that's about the most self-interested way to phrase a preference I've seen in a long time.

Seriously though, metal needs more clean vocals? There are plenty of bands that do great clean vocals. Plenty. Unless you're insisting that the subgenres that utilize harsh vocals begin to produce bands that use clean vocals. To that end, I'd ask 'why?' There's a bit more room in black metal for clean vocals, but those bands have to be heavily influenced by folk or post-rock or etc. to make it work (basically, then need to be Agalloch worshippers). Clean vocals in pure or Technical death metal would be awful; the harsh vocals are utilized in DM because the vocals are a rhythm instrument in that subgenre.

Nothing like a clean vocal verse to really hammer home a song about botched surgeries, shark attacks, nuclear holocaust, and corpse fornication.

I'm an Opeth fan, I think it's just okay. It reminds me of late seventies alternative music, as I would call it. I'm more into the death metal stuff they do, but I like their renaissance stylings and euro progressions also. This is not that. Thx for putting this thread out.

how can death metal play out the way you explain it should? I don't think you can have that edge, that sloth, the sound of disaster without the growls & screams, shrieks etc.

Dio style stuff is what you want, maybe. Or, something else, but death metal genre is all about the sound of satanic overtaking and the wicked. It must sound brutal and there is nothing more brutal than the sound of evil.

It would be like taking the swirling flanger effects off 'darth vader' and just hearing JE Jones normally. It would be okay, perhaps, but it wouldn't have near the effect it had in the film. Evil sounds unworldly.

On the subject of clean vocals in Black Metal, have you ever heard of the band Ulver?

I didn't see your post before I wrote the comments above. Good explanation - I especially appreciate the view you have on "harsh vocals as a rhythm" as opposed to carrying out melody.

Of course! I've heard their whole discography. I prefer their early stuff, but they're so unique that it is always worth giving each new Ulver album a few listens.

I realize I may have sounded like an ass with that comment, but how that meant to come across was that I have an experienced ear for clean vocals. By experienced I mean that I've listened to a ton of different music over the last 10 years, and in depth... I'm by far not your average radio listener. I do admit that I've listened to very little metal sub-genre bands with consistant growls, because to me it is an instant turn-off. I do understand the reasoning behind growling in certain metal genre's and I respect that some people find beauty in it, I'm just saying that I do not.


What I mean is that I am glad that opeth is doing something that a lot of metal bands don't do... which is make something suited for a different type of listener.

But yes please Reaper, fill me in with some talented metal bands with a cleaner style vocal for me to give a try. I'm always open for good tunes I haven't heard.

And sorry for coming across an ass. I had a much more subtle response originally and my webpage crashed, so I was annoyed when I posted the second time around.

Just looking through some playlists on my iPod, mostly band's who have put out albums in the last three years, in roughly alphabetical order:
Angra, (newer) Amorphis, Ark, Blind Guardian, Briton Rites, Celesty, Cage, Cloudscape, Devin Townsend, Enforcer, Falconer, Heathen, Hell, (newer) Katatonia, Pain of Salvation, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, Lost Horizon, Manticora, Symphony X, Wolverine, Voltax... the list goes on and on. So many sweet progressive metal bands and power metal bands and doom metal bands and heavy metal bands use only clean vocals.

1st lesson of Metal: No one gives one **** how long you've been listening. Accentuating only confirms poser status.

Stick to what you know, which is fringe Metal music.

http://youtu.be/NBdICUT50vA