The first stirrings of the death beast, pt. 5
posted on 13 Aug 2015 under category History
So, it’s the middle of 2004, and I have a whole album written and am in the process of recording it, but with no idea of how to deal with not having a vocalist. I was working on the Rampage front as well, since Aerik had just joined in the spring of 2004 and we had released the Displeasures of the Flesh EP. As the only other working vocalist I was in regular contact with I naturally asked him to join Death Beast as well. I don’t recall exactly why, but he didn’t want to. None of the other people I was in contact with were singers, and it was complicated by the fact that I didn’t really know exactly what I wanted for vocals for Death Beast. I was of course also deep into running Barbarian Wrath Vinland, so of course I was in regular contact with Opyros/Black Goat, and I would give him occasional recording updates as I proceeded with getting the music ready. I remember telling him constantly that I just couldn’t find anyone to sing, and I don’t know if he just got tired of hearing it or what but one day he said the line that clicked with me. “You know, your vocals were pretty good on that Festering Sore album. Why don’t you give Death Beast a try?”
I remembered offering Rampage to Opyros before, but he didn’t like my vocals. I had spent so much time revamping Rampage by getting a new singer, and by expanding Death Beast by always working with other singers. My first thought, which lasted for half a second, was “I don’t want to go backwards - I just changed Rampage to be more than just me, so why would I turn Death Beast into Rampage?” Silly, maybe, but the thought was there.
Like I said, for about half a second. Then I thought, “Well, if he’s asking, why not give it a whirl?”
Anyone who’s heard the demo compilation has heard the tracks that I did vocals on at the end, which were earlier recordings of the album with me doing guide vocals for Dementor. Maybe it was because it was just a guide, but I wasn’t really pushing myself any, which is why they sound so weak. I knew if I were going to do this, I’d have to go strong, much stronger than I’ve ever done vocals before. I also, of course, had to settle on a style, since I’d had a weird mix of screaming and black metal growls with Dementor, and then the gruff old-school rasp of Ramrod.
I went back to basics - thinking about where the band started, we ended up with a blend of very early Slayer and early Exodus, with bits of Slaughter and Nasty Savage, Possessed, Metallica, and other thrash bands from the old days. Many of those have varied vocal styles from each other, but thinking about them from a higher perspective I noticed the threads of similarity that really separate those vocal styles from black or death metal. Keeping Tom Araya, Paul Baloff, and Nasty Ronnie at the forefront of my mind, I noticed that they all focus on annunciation, while still staying gruff (Tom and Paul, at least), with a lot of screams or falsetto ‘stabs’ for accents.
He asked for two songs, so I queued up “Apocalypse Metal” and “Thunder of Armageddon”. I kept in mind Dementor’s vocals, mainly, but with less of a Black Metal approach and more of Bonded by Blood and Show No Mercy on my mind. I pushed my voice hard, screaming my throat raw but focusing on actually hitting at least the accent notes and going for power over any sort of technique. When I was done, I forwarded the two tracks to Opyros.
And I got the thumbs up. I’d found my new vocalist.