Bone-Chillingly Angry
July 15, 2008
Welcome, new visitor! My name is Ari, the man behind Aries9. Here I share my thoughts on music and life, so you can get to know me and my music. Thanks for visiting!
This morning I was listening to System of a Down — and was tapping into the feelings of music. It was a great outlet. Serj Tankian has such an articulate voice. It’s so sharply focused — it’s like a heavy hammer, but it’s engineered and balanced so perfectly, that anyone can use it to hit the nail on the head, deliver a deadly blow.
On the other hand — I really long to discover an act that personifies the same brutal anger that SOAD does, without being cartoony. This is also a problem with most other metal bands, including In Flames, who, along with SOAD, are so brilliant I can’t begin to describe their genius.
Metal bands with their chainsaw voices and cookie-monster gravel, can sound so caricaturized. It’s one thing if they mix it with clean vocals and reserve the hoarse stuff for the key points — but most of bands, that’s all they do. It may have an impact at first, but soon you get numb to their anger. And to me, this compromises the weight of their emotion. It can sound juvenile, shallow, though SOAD and In Flames are the ones that escape that trap most of the time. Most other metal bands don’t.
The flip side of this is that I want to be just as articulate and brutal as SOAD in my angriest of songs. Except I can’t do death metal screams.
Screaming isn’t the only way to express anger. Sometimes, a whisper can give you more chills than blood-curdling scream. Just like the best of horror movies are the ones that don’t show the fearsome monster or gory violence. There must be a way to use restraint and minimalism, so that I can unleash one fierce note and cut through like a over-sharpened knife. A way to express the desperate anger without walking up to within an inch of someone’s face and yelling into oblivion. This is a territory I want to explore more — try to see if I can incorporate into my own music.
Anybody know an act that can do this? Be bone-chillingly angry without screaming? Please let me know.
Filed under: Reflections |