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Favourite “Tortured” Vocals


Zigmand

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Fairly certain we have a thread about this somewhere, so it might get merged, fair warning. Here are a couple from me, anyway.

The classic album for this is Bethlehem's Dictius Te Necare, featuring Rainer Landfermann (bassist of Pavor) on vocals:

 

Jute Gyte also has some intense vocals. Discontinuities is my favorite album of his, I think, but the guy is ridiculously prolific. Here's a sample:

 

 

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Thank you for the examples so far!

I imagine most will be black metal vocals—or some derivation thereof—but, out of curiosity, does anyone know of tortured vocals in other, more distantly related sub-genres or even in another genre altogether, possibly before the advent of metal?

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I prefer the more infrequent "tortured" vocal sound nowadays.  The harrowing howls of Mizmor on "Cairn to God" is a good example.  Spectral Lore had one such moment on their "III" album also that just made me enthralled and fearful at the same time.  Not aware of anything outside of the metal genre.

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There are some pretty intense vocals outside of BM. I don't know if I'd call much of this "tortured" (that's a pretty specific sound to me and it's an easy one to get wrong, some people just sound fake and turn me off), but nevertheless, harsh as fuck in a good way. Here's a song called "Sea Hag" by one of my favorite doom bands, Burning Witch:

Here's a track called "Skin Coat" from Khanate, a related doom act, a bit more abstract and arguably more intense - the vocals are definitely nastier. These guys are divisive but I love them.

 

Here's one of my favorite grindcore bands, Discordance Axis - a song called "Rain Perimeter" from their album Jou Hou:

 

The first two tracks on this screamo/hardcore split are by a band called Puritan - pretty intense and obscure, I wish their stuff was easier to find. One of my favorites from years ago. The Reversal Of Man tracks might appeal to you as well, I'm not as familiar with them but the vocals are similar.

 

Predating metal, I don't know of any recordings of extreme vocals. Would love to hear some, if they're out there.

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I always thought Jonas Renkse's vocals on early Katatonia releases sounded pretty extreme/tortured, considering he destroyed his voice over them. Might not be quite what you're looking for, though. At least it's something other than black metal (despite how much they were clearly influenced by it...)

I was also fucking impressed with Mgla's vocalist first time I heard them. But then again, for black metal it's par for the course.

I can't really think of anything outside metal, either, but I too would love to hear some examples if anyone could provide them.

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