When it comes to metal singers, Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe has one of the most recognizable voices in the genre.
In the band’s early days, Blythe’s vocal approach was incredibly harsh – very punk-like, very grindcore-like (and those are qualities that are still present to this day). When it comes to this guttural presentation – as well as Blythe’s various stylized vocal takes – there are two extreme singers who have inspired his approach to metal vocals.
During a recent conversation with Chaoszine, Blythe talked about two vocalists who have had a big impact on how he approaches his own vocal presentation. Who are those vocalists? They are none other than ex-Napalm Death singer Lee Dorian, as well as Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth.
Speaking about the impact that both vocalists have had on him, Blythe shared the following (which was transcribed by Metal Injection):
“Lee Dorian-era Napalm Death. The first era. I love Barney, but I got into Napalm Death before Barney was in the band. The first two Napalm Death records. I really liked Brutal Truth – Kevin Sharp from Brutal Truth.
“A lot of the more grindcore stuff, you know what I’m saying? Very extreme. That was what really attracted me to it is like, these people are… when I first started doing [metal vocals], I was just doing like, the deep ‘Cookie Monster [voice].'”
Blythe goes on to add: “Then I remember the first time I heard the Napalm Death Scum record, I was like ‘what the fuck is that guy doing with his voice? That’s crazy.’ [Them] or Brutal Truth. Just really extreme shit, and so I started doing that.
“Not trying to sound exactly like them, but just to see what kind of weird noises could come out of me. Then as we carried on as a band, I tried not to just sound like one particular thing. Every record we do, Mark [Morton] our guitar player calls them ‘my characters’ – the different pitches or whatever. He’s like, ‘we need to find a new character. You need to find a new character.’ He has different nicknames for them. So with each record, [I] try and expand the voice a little bit.”
Those are two pretty incredible vocalists to be inspired by. Recently, we wrote about the 10 greatest modern metal vocalists, as well as the 10 greatest clean singers in metal; you can check out both features by following the respective links to each story below.
The 10 Greatest Modern Metal Vocalists
The 10 Greatest Clean Singers in Heavy Metal
