A diatribe about screaming in music

Allow me to start off by giving a synopsis of every conversation ever between a metalhead and a non-metalhead:

NMH(non-metalhead): "What type of music do you like?"

MH: "I'm actually really into metal" (probably obvious because of band tshirt and/or long hair)

NMH: "Oh, like that screaming stuff? How do you understand the words?"

MH: "You develop an ear for it, but sometimes you don't, and that's the point."

NMH: *brain explodes*

There's a simple fact about people not into metal, and it's that they just don't get screaming. This isn't a particularly irrational view; the most common argument I hear is "what's the point of writing meaningful lyrics if you're just going to scream them without enunciation?"

Again, that's not a bad question. But there is a good answer.

Going through something at the moment, I required a walk last night to clear my mind. During that walk, I got around to thinking about how I think, how I feel things in general, and I realized a few things. First, is that the most important emotions I've ever felt (both negative and positive) could not be quantifiable; at best, they were an impression of a state-of-mind that was largely decided by the context in which they happened.

Can't see the connection? Wait for it.

However, as much as the times were confusing and hard to describe without not doing them justice, I definitely had a sense of what was happening and more or less how I felt. So many times when I'm writing a song on acoustic I keep scratching things out because they don't do justice to how I'm feeling; even my final result never (or rarely) gives me an "OH! that's it, exactly" feeling of accomplishment. Screaming, on the other hand, does; even about positive things I feel like something simple, written down as a scream, is more emotionally honest then a cleverly turned phrase sung cleanly. This made me think of why, and yes, I did come up with an answer:

We don't feel in words. Emotionally speaking, we are almost constantly yelling.

Think about it; you'll never see a football player who just scored the winning touchdown running around yelling "this is fantastic I am enjoying this experience because I feel that I have contributed to my team and my sense of self-worth" - it's normally abbreviated to "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO". People who are immeasurably frustrated with something will say "I just wanna scream"; it's how you express a powerful emotion. Metal, specifically the types of metal that use harsh vocals extensively, acknowledges this. Many times, the feelings that prompt the feeling of screaming are complex, but you can't sort much out, or understand most of what you feel. With screamed lyrics, some of it (or most of it, depending on the vocalist) is lost to the scream itself, but the impression is there if you listen carefully.

Screaming is hard to listen to, sometimes it's too much.

So is life.

\m/

Brian

PS: d'Archangel is really starting to come together!

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