Sound Field

- This is Sound Field.

- We all scream, maybe from happiness, anger, fear, shock, pain, but why so much screaming in metal?

And how do we do it without destroying our voice?

Nahre and I are gonna find out.

(dramatic music) - We'll likely never know when screaming and music first intersected, but the best guess is that it occurred in tribal music from around the world.

After hearing a common Viking vocalization, a 10th century Arab traveler in Denmark said this, never before have I heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings.

The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, only more untamed.

- Sounds pretty metal, right?

Screaming has appeared in operas and avant garde compositions going back to the 1800s.

Ah - But for its first appearance in pop music, many people point to blues musicians who often had to yell over the crowds in the clubs they played.

One example is a song deemed too scary for radio, Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 1956 classic, I Put a Spell on You.

Because you're mine Oh yeah - But the real groundwork for metal came with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Both bands took the blues and made it heavier, adding theatrics, and of course, the howling of Ozzy Osbourne and Robert Plant.

Ah ah ah ah - That's when metal screaming really took off, whether it was the barroom mania of AC/DC, the leather-clad intimidation of Judas Priest, or the black metal bands of Europe.

I don't have that much knowledge about metal, hardcore, what is it, metalcore?

- Metal - Hardcore?

Metal.

- or hardcore music.

Metal, yeah, I don't know that much about metal.

("Deceiver" by Judas Priest) Oh, let me tell you - This is, I like this head voice.

Eh eh eh - That first bit was quite, maybe not beautiful, but it was quite refined.

- He had vibrato going real high.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I thought that was tight.

I was shaking at the knees - It's so recognizable too, that-- - Yeah.

- It's specific tone of screaming.

- [LA] Yep.

- I don't think I've ever screamed like that ever, even.

Just in life.

- I can see how.

(Corey screaming) - Whoa.

The areas that I did notice in metal were the virtuosity of the players, the guitarists, the drummers.

- Metal drumming, double bass pedal, and like, how fast you have to be.

- Super intense.

- Yeah, how fast you have to be.

- But I never really thought about the screaming.

And I just thought, okay that's just part of the genre, but now that I think about it, I'm sure it takes a lot of energy, a lot of technique.

There seems to be more to it than I previously thought maybe.

I think it'd be hard to sing and scream and growl that way while, you know, banging your head though.

Kind of up and down?

- They do it though, they do it, like.

(Natalie screaming) - So, that's kind of how you do it.

- Keep it.

(Natalie chuckles) That was cold.

- That was cool.

- Cool, I'm glad you all, glad you all liked that.

When you're playing aggressive music, you have to give an aggressive performance.

For me, it's like this is a very emotional experience playing this sort of music.

- So, how do these metal vocalists scream?

Well, they basically do it just like babies.

(baby crying) Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski of the Pacific Voice and Speech Foundation told Inside Science, a little baby has all the sounds, it has the sounds of scream and growl, and inhalation and high pitch, and whistle and low pitch.

- I'm not really a metal kid, I'm just kind of a den mother.

(Melissa screams) What I just did is I made my true vocal folds flutter.

When you speak, your vocal folds, which are at the top of your windpipe, they come together like this, right?

They're actually horizontal in your body, but I'm gonna do it like this so you can see better.

When we talk, they do this.

When we sing, they do waves, cycles per second, they're pitches, right?

In other words, this is like a 440, right?

If you're singing A, that is 440 sound waves per second.

When I sing that note, my vocal folds vibrate 440 times per second, right?

But in screaming, it's not a repeating periodic wave, it's chaos, it's a flutter, it's like a fart, it's like (blows raspberry) like that.

- What's the maintenance, or like, what are the exercises you do so you don't-- - Oh, I just do normal vocal warm-ups, like, entirely just your basic run of the mill vocal warm-ups.

- Okay.

- First two shows that I ever did doing vocals like this, I like, destroyed my voice.

- Word.

- And you know, I haven't blown out my voice since then 'cause I figured out, like okay, well this is just how you do it, and-- - You take care of your voice.

- Yeah.

Just like, not like you're just gonna go for a run and like, be like okay, I can run a marathon now, and I'm just gonna do this and I'm gonna be fine the next time, no you have to like, warm up, you have to stretch, you have to practice.

For instance, opera singers also like, really push their voice.

I could guarantee you that we sort of all use our diaphragms in very similar ways.

I just learned how to use it a little bit differently.

- Add your own texture.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

- You can't imitate this.

When you imitate, you're in your left brain, right?

That's the brain that does math problems.

But like, when you were a kid on the playground and you were going (mimics siren wailing) I'm a fireman, (mimics siren wailing) you're just like, straight up right brain.

So, I have to take all the technical information and put it in the right brain, and that's how it gets super wacky because I say okay, pretend you're a cat.

(mimics cat meowing) Pretend you're a cat that has laryngitis.

(mimics raspy cat meowing) Right?

You know, but you cannot think about your diaphragm, you can't think of air in your windpipe because there's no neural steering wheels to close your vocal folds in the front or the back.

I just pretend there's particles coming out of my eyes and then I go (screams).

- The larger the larynx and lungs, the greater your potential is for a louder scream.

Some people are just built better for it, like Jill Drake, a classroom assistant from the UK.

(Jill screams) That's 129 decibels, almost as loud as a gunshot, and definitely powerful enough to damage your hearing.

Okay, so screaming is a skill, but how do they compare to the great singers like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey?

Take Faith No More's Mike Patton for example.

(Mike screams) His vocal range is reportedly over six octaves, going from E flat one to to E seven.

Compare that to Mariah Carey's range of G sharp two to G seven.

- So, you don't scream because you can't sing, screaming is just an expression of rage.

And it's wonderful.

See, it's not a skill that you develop because you can't do anything else.

Who cares if it's not music?

Okay, it's theater, okay, whatever it is, it's cool.

Most importantly, it's a connection.

It is an opportunity to connect, and that's what music really is, no matter what the genre is, right?

- The early 2000s saw the rise of a number of groups that blended thrash and hardcore metal with punk and alternative rock for mixtures of harshness and complex melodies.

The genres were known as metalcore, screamo, post-hardcore, and whatever else bands and their fans decided to call them.

Bands like Underoath.

I swear we need to find some - [Nahre] Bullet for My Valentine.

There's always something different going on - [Nahre] Bring Me the Horizon.

Can you feel my heart - [Nahre] And dozens more cut their teeth on the Warped Tour.

- All right, you wanna call it this time?

Rock Paper Scissors, shoot?

- Okay, one, two, three.

Go.

- Boom.

Oh my God - [LA] Nahre and I are gonna listen to the screaming vocal track of a mystery song chosen by our producers, and we're gonna try to create our own music that we think would fit under it.

(singer screaming) I wear them proudly - What are they saying?

Whoa - Okay.

We got a key.

Clock counting down - Okay, so it goes like.

(light piano music) I'm so clueless, I don't even know where to start.

- If we came from like, an avant garde angle, we don't know what the original, I'm sure the original is just like.

Da da da da da da da da da You know what I'm saying?

Like, if we came left field with it.

- Mm-hmm, let's try to just find ways to use our resources.

- [LA] Yeah.

- And see if we can tap into that kind of primal energy.

A lot of motives that I hear in metal also are in Baroque music.

- Really?

- [Nahre] Like all the.

(frantic piano music) - [LA] That!

That!

- That's Vivaldi!

- All of that!

That's what I'm talking about, all of that.

- You know that's Baroque, that's Baroque music.

- We gotta get, see, yeah, we gotta get all that into the draft.

Stand up and scream (Nahre laughs) - Yeah, that's right.

(LA laughs) (thunder crashes) Oh my God (singer screaming) - [Nahre] And now that you've heard our version, let's listen to the original.

- Three, two, one.

- Oh.

- I knew it was gonna be a six, I knew it.

Oh my God - Oh, interesting.

I totally hear it now.

If only he knew If only he knew Just stand up and scream The tainted clock is counting down Da da da dum da da da dum - I mean, you have to be very on top of your playing.

- Your rhythm has to be spot on.

- Hardcore players.

Da da dum da da dum da da dum da da dum (gentle music)