Vocal techniques by MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION's Frontman Hassan Dozakhi

Hey I'm Hassan Dozakhi from Pakistani grindcore band Multinational Corporations. SNRMB Nepal asked me to do a write-up about doing growling/screaming/shouting style vocals so here I am dropping some wisdom (or lack of it) haha .

I don't really know where to start so I'll just go into the basic grassroots and start from the basics. If you want to do good vocals for any kind of extreme music (grind, hardcore, thrash, black metal, etc) a healthy lifestyle does help a lot. Smoking cigarettes looks cool as fuck but all that smoke in and out your lungs only adds up to weakening the natural power and strength of your vocal chords. Trust me on this one - I used to be a heavy smoker (a pack of Marlboro reds a day) until 2012 and the day I quit my vocals became a hell lot better. Just listen to MxCx's "Equality" demo from 2011 and the latest EP "Jamat-al-Maut" from this year. Since quitting smoking, I can growl/scream/shout for longer lengths of time as well as louder and with pretty much any kind of variation I want to, without using any shitty effects. Replacing junk food with healthier alternatives will also help you get the most out of your vocals while also making your own self healthier as well. It's a win-win situation!

Right, so with that out of the way, let's get into the "What to do!" part of this article. But hold on! Before telling y'all what to do, I guess I should tell you what NOT to do! And what exactly do you guys should not be doing? Inhaled vocals. A big problem with a lot of metal vocalists in our part of the world is that they do crappy inhaled vocals. FUCK THAT. I don't want to hear some death core sounding inhaled gobshite over some badass death/thrash kind of music, you know? Did Deicide or Morbid Saint have vocals that sounded like Oceano? LOL. Neither did Infest or Napalm Death for that matter.

But then again these kids do inhaled vocals because they don't know HOW to do actual EXHALED vox. They don't know how to breathe from the gut, or how to keep their vocals away from touching the throat. I see vocal noobs trying to do growls while using their throats - and completely fucking their throats in the process. Your throat is used when you cough. You're not supposed to be mimicking coughing sounds on the mic. You're supposed to be growling and screaming from your gut. Practice breathing through your gut daily for starters, and try and speak using your diaphragm. This is one of the most common things in the world - everyone from your favorite actor to your favorite vocalist (whatever singing style) has to learn to use their diaphragm to speak. Practice breathing in and out through your diaphragm - a basic exercise I do is, inhaling air through the mouth into my body as far as it can go and then exhaling it out slowly through the nose. Soon my body starts reacting normally to it. Practicing diaphragm breathing daily will help you throw your own natural voice around too, so it's another win-win situation here!

Once you know how to correctly breathe, practice your favorite songs. But before you start to shout out the lyrics to "Raining Blood" or "Instinct of Survival" do yourself a favor and DON'T drink anything cold. In fact avoid any kind of drink; the only thing you're allowed to drink is normal lukewarm water. Don't think about drinking beer either until you've gotten to a level where you can scream without fucking up hahaha. But yeah, in the beginning a lot of you will accidentally use your throat but fuck that - use your gut. Exhale the air out your gut and just slightly tighten your throat while moving your tonsils. That way your throat doesn't hurt and you get a true deep guttural sound. Once you practice this, you'll learn how to easily change your pitch from growl to scream whenever you want, all depending on the pitch you aim with. The same thing goes for hardcore/punk style shouting - except that it's a more 'natural' kind of shouting that is actually the same thing that even ancient warriors did on the battlefield - use their diaphragm and abdominal / guttural breathing to shout rallying war-cries haha. The more you practice, the louder you'll get too. Right now I'm at a level where I can stand on the top of my apartment and my growl/scream would probably reach an apartment  4 blocks away. I'm not even joking. But me maintaining a healthy lifestyle helps in that regard too.

Last advice: It also helps to know what kind of vocalist you want to sound like. In the beginning, I was influenced mainly by the vocalists of Brutal Truth, Napalm Death, Carcass, Integrity, Ringworm, Sodom and ended up developing my own style. Don't try too hard to be unique, but don't try too hard to be a rip-off either. Your own natural vocal style will come with time and practice, with your own ways of enunciating certain words and handling changes in your tone/pitch. Doing vocals is really the simplest fucking thing, made hard by idiots who don't know how to growl and end up trying to mimick Suicide Silence inhaled vocal styles.

I'll be back with another column in a few weeks about recording vocals in the studio, and then another one about doing vocals live. Thanks SNRMB Nepal for asking me to write a column. Cheers!