Why Does Sludgey Hardcore Fuck Up With Vocals?
 

Here we have a perfectly good sub-genre of music TOTALLY ruined by appropriating Death Metal style vocals.

Exhibit A:

You know when you really wish they had a 'delete thread' option here?

Forget it. this thread does not exist. sorry.

its okay.
I thought about replying but I didnt know how.

There are tons of hardcore bands that are ruined by the terrible vocals.
I wish I knew enoguh about underground hardcore to contribute to this thread.

glassjaw.
me and a friend were talking today about it.
The vocals kill it.

you know, vocals very rarely get in the way of me liking a band... notable exceptions being things like khanate and glassjaw.. their vocalists are so so terrible and such a focus in the band (and the production) that they get really distracting, even when the music is great!... but yeah.

i've accepted that most people don't know how to sing and have no interest in learning, or they adopt the worst vocal style imaginable to suit whatever scene they belong in (or are trying to belong in). but that's okay, because vocals are generally the least important part of a band and rarely get in the way of a talented band and are usually just a space filler anyway (thinking of helmet for a second, does anyone think page hamilton's "barking vocals" were actually good?)...

whoa rhys.

whoa... we both replied at the exact same time and mentioned glassjaw (and my reply wasn't even exclusively about hardcore)..

You oversimplify things, that's not always the case.

It was meant to be.
Maybe it just is bad.

that's why I said "generally", trasher.

and rhys, it WAS meant to be. goddamn. that daryl palumbo guy is a terrible vocalist! he's trying to do the ol' mike patton crooner-to-screamer thing, but he doesn't hit any notes, he just hits a constant whine. he occassionally stumbles across an interesting lyric, but it's either him paraphrasing frank zappa ("if life is such a ball that i run the world from city hall and i own you all") or being so misogynistic that it's hilarious ("suck on the end of my dick that cums lead you fuckin whore"). too bad, because the music was really cool, really really talented. also note that i've read interviews with that daryl guy and he comes off as the biggest asshole i've ever seen, like everyone in the world owes him because he has chrone's disease and he's been a virgin all of his life. he's an idiot.

Meh I still think It was a gross overstatement...
Anyways carry on I like reading this stuff.

Hes got the idea somewhat but he can't quite get there with it.
Too bad.
I still enjoy the cd however once in a while.

Palumbo does Glassjaw justice.

Well, my point is, I don't really listen to music for the vocals (much less the lyrics), I haven't cared much for vocalists or lyrics for years, and I prefer instrumental music... vocals are rarely a selling point for bands I like... I mean, unless we're talking about Cocteau Twins, some folk singers, Slowdive, and maybe a few others, vocals rarely take prominence over the main instruments and are hardly a focal point in the grand picture... So, that's my point: Since I don't really care about vocals, I've learned to overlook them in my enjoyment of music. I can admit most vocalists are awful, but that's USUALLY okay if the music is good.. it doesn't distract from the music unless the vocals are just AWFUL (glassjaw dude) or just embarassing.. I mean, that Atreyu band.. jesus, they have some good music, but the singer(s) are so embarassingly awful that I could never even bother to listen to them.

On the other hand, there are tons of death metal bands with horrible -- just HORRIBLE -- vocalists but they just blend in with the incredible music enough that it's okay. So, that's my point. Vocalists, in the grand scheme of things, are very rarely important enough for me to write off or care about a band. Otherwise, I'd like Linkin Park (that guy is a pretty great singer!).

One big draw to me about hardcore is the "honest man telling it how he sees it" style. Which is why I suppose I prefer old hardcore to all the new cookie monster vocal post-crossover stuff. All the growling only comes off as inane machismo.

whoa whoa whoa sweet child o mine! what do you think yr doing? you can't pick on raging speedhorn, they are/were aye-mazing!! the vocals are awesome, there's the one that sounds like the titular "dungeon whippet" or a massively aggrieved chihuahua and the one that looks like the scariest human alive who does the "OOORRGGGH" low bits and when those bad boys link up... well, flawless. they did weaken a tad when they started to incorporate actual words into their songs but still... I saw them four times i think and had a blast each and every time.

its great with these bands where there's always a lyric sheet with the record but when you here it the singer is really just going "NNYYYYYYYAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

i like death metal and black metal vocals because they are like another instrument and not really the voice of the band, it's like some really fucked up instrument on top of everything.

i think vocals like eddie vedder's or the dude from nickelback's are way more macho-bullshit than some dude growling.

if it weren't for their vocal stylings, neither burzum nor converge would be as intense as they were/are.

(of course, there's growling and there's growling, say david vincent in altars of madness is insanely good, but then in domination he seems so devoid of everything it sucks, still domination is an amazing album)

and yeah, glassjaw suck.

i don't like the growling vocals, unless I am listening to anaplm death or something. I like my hardcore to be intelligible.
or at least somewhat intelligible. hardcore music is very simple, and very basic, so the lyrics and vocals are the main melodic thrust, think minor threat, you know?most hardcore sounds the same musically, and it is the vocals and the character of the vocals that make me enjoy it or prefer a specific band.

and FEAR is better than any current hardcore act.