Do heavy metal singers need a lozenge after a concert?

I dunno, but they should act like a pony…cuz they’re a little horse.

Some people flex their biceps. These guys have buff vocal chords. That and when you have a microphone it is a lot easier to make it sound as if you’re yelling.. even when you aren’t. There is a skill factor and some techniques that can be used. That said, I can’t stand “yell” music. I miss the days of Sinatra music… Al Green…. Bing Crosby .. you know.. real music.

For certain types of metal “growling” just works. It’s a bit of an acquired taste and one that I have. It takes a lot of care and caution to sing that way.

I’ve heard they gargle with whiskey.

How many of them are untrained? Singers, metal or otherwise, are vocal athletes. Their singing is how they earn a living, so you know that they train. Most train well enough to do shows day after day for weeks (or even months). We aren’t talking ordinary people on the street; we’re talking people conditioned for that sort of thing.

@Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One Fair enough, but to me, those are drunk warblers in close proximity to a piano. No complexity, no timing, and rarely even any credit to the pianist whose only reason for existing is to (loosely) justify them as “musicians” rather than “orators”. Real musicians have more than just lyrics, even the a capella ones like Pentatonix. If you don’t have a prominent rhythm and a melody, even if it’s just a guy beat-boxing, you aren’t doing music; you’re reading lyrics with accompaniment. Then there are these people who like doing it old-school… as in “Vaudeville”. “Rabbit” and “The Spine” are twins with very wide vocal ranges, and they like harmonizing with their bandmates.

I’d say quite a lot of rock and metal singers don’t train. Or at least don’t train well and don’t take care of their voice. That’s why so many’s voices start going by the time they’re a decade and a half or two into their careers. Case in point: James Hetfield, of Metallica. He didn’t start out as the best vocalist out there, but he gradually developed a pretty great voice (especially during the 1990s). And yeah, he trained, but I don’t know that he ever heeded the training that seriously or bothered to try to take care of his voice. By this point in time all he can manage is off-key crooning. Every so often you can hear a little hint of what he use to be, then it quickly fades out of existence and he’s back to his tuneless “ooohwooooooawoahhhhhhhhhh”.

It depends on whether they know what they’re doing, and whether they have the chops.

One well known vocalist who is a friend of the family, and has played full time for about 20 years, has almost no speaking voice left. He can still growl for an hour every night, though.

People that sing from the throat tend to burn out quickly. If one projects from the abdomen, they’ll do better and end up less damaged.

Hubby has been a part time heavy metal vocalist for 25 years, and still has his full vocal range.

No lozenges, but an occasional shot of Rumpelmints (sp?) doesn’t hurt

@Seek

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you live around the Tampa area.

Yep.

Just a hunch I had.

Where else are you going to find a ready population of 40+ year old heavy metal vocalists?

40+ (and 50+ and 60+) year old heavy metal vocalists? Eh, Los Angeles. 40+ year old death metal vocalists? Tampa. Nowhere else on this continent.