[Slayer89]

Originally Posted by Lethe

And of course, when he got his ass kicked.

That scene got a lot of play from me, haha.

Originally Posted by noodles

He's the weak link of the band. They should just kick him out and be done with it.

[noodles]

Originally Posted by Lethe

Edit: That's interesting, noodles. I had suspected that his vocals get heavily compressed and/or distorted. I'm sure he can do it loudly though, because in a live show it's hard to get away with such things - you are always in danger of getting drowned by feedback. When I mean I could do it for hours I actually meant at volume, so I'm pretty sure he can do it, it's really not that hard.

No, he's very quiet all off the time. Just look at how he practically swallows the mic. I've been in bands with screamers who have to hold the mic a foot away, because they have that much projection and volume. Randy sucks.

[GuitarG2]

You know, I saw him on the Sacrament bonus DVD, and he looked alright. Seemed to be over his drinking problem and everything. Plus, it says in the liner notes for As The Palaces Burn that his daughter had died, which when coupled with constant touring and no time to grieve, could drive anyone to be a selfish arsehole.

[Slayer89]

Here's my contribution to the thread.

[sakeido]

Originally Posted by noodles

No, he's very quiet all off the time. Just look at how he practically swallows the mic. I've been in bands with screamers who have to hold the mic a foot away, because they have that much projection and volume. Randy sucks.

I always thought that swallowing the mic was a key part of getting good growls though.

[JerkyChid]

So what have we learned? When your the douce bag vocalist of a kick ass band, don't piss off one of the 4 guys that makes you kick ass, esspecially when your guitarist is brutally bearded. I know someone that met Mark and Willie. Said they were some of the coolest guys ever.

[JBroll]

Originally Posted by Lethe

Edit: That's interesting, noodles. I had suspected that his vocals get heavily compressed and/or distorted. I'm sure he can do it loudly though, because in a live show it's hard to get away with such things - you are always in danger of getting drowned by feedback. When I mean I could do it for hours I actually meant at volume, so I'm pretty sure he can do it, it's really not that hard.

Two things:

First, if you're distorting a voice enough to make it a different sound, chances are it'll get noticed. Second... everyone's voice gets compressed in heavy music. Hell, everyone but opera singers gets compressed. Mixing metal simply needs it. Further, compression doesn't make things louder - it makes the loud things quieter, reducing the dynamic range, and that allows the mix engineer to use more gain from a preamp or the channel fader.

His voice does seem to have developed a lot, for what that's worth. I put AOTW and Sacrament right next to each other, and he's developed quite a few more sounds. Also, louder doesn't mean better, ever, period, end of discussion - a lot of people have the 'silent scream' thing going on, including people who are widely regarded as 'classic' DM vocalists. Further, no guitarist gets to complain about a vocalist being quiet when their picking hand barely exerts enough force to crinkle paper and they crank their pre gain to sound bigger. The important thing isn't how loud he is, it's whether or not his voice fits the music.

All that said, I did enjoy the ass-kicking scene, and Randy just seems to me like Lead Singer's Disease without the entertainment. If I want a vain, eccentric nutjob howling at the moon, I'll put on The Dead Eye... as far as batty vocalists go, you can't beat Dolving.

Jeff

[Lethe]

You're right, there is absolutely nothing wrong with compressing vocals, everybody's doing it.

But compression also brings out the quieter parts of the signal and makes them sound much louder, because usually you will compensate with more gain. When screaming, all the more quiet noises that you wouldn't hear normally, like a small gargle in the back of your throat, become noticable and add to the whole "scream" sound.

For normal singing, compression doesn't alter your sound or timbre a lot when done correctly. No "normal" singer in the world will sound better because he is using a compressor. A heavily compressed scream however sounds a lot more vicious than an unprocessed one, and many people are unaware that it doesn't take a lot, vocally, to sound like that.

I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense to judge a screamer's abilities by the volume he attains. We don't use that as a criteria for "normal" singers, either.

Nevertheless, the whole screaming thing isn't exactly rocket science. You can do it well enough to be in a band far more easily than you can learn an instrument.

[D-EJ915]

randy sucks ass, nothing more to say about it

Originally Posted by sakeido

I always thought that swallowing the mic was a key part of getting good growls though.

that gives you more bass and makes it louder and you probably lose a lot of dynamics, whether it's better is up to you. Like noodles says, a lot of singers can hold it away like normal clean singers can because their technique lets them actually belt it out.

[CaptainD00M]

Originally Posted by noodles

By his guitarist, no less.

Does that not remind anyone of the time that CC Deville knocked out Brett Michaels?