hey Chris Liepe here yes new Avenged Sevenfold what a spring it's been for Heavy Music let's
just get right into it
oh yeah stop motion right
[Music]
his voice sounds great I've always loved the sound of M Shadows rasp grit in particular
the way that he implements compression you just know it's him singing let's back it up
a little bit and unpack his sound [Music] first of all here his slides right in the
shadows those are the notes but let's go to the approach now right no that's how I'd naturally
sing it we want to change what we do and feel it out right lower the larynx right and then
practice holding back a bit of air right right right I darken Lord [Applause] right right
changes my placement now I want to feel out the effects of this lifting something heavy
idea with my right I should feel high I should feel like it's above your voice box
right in this right in the shadows huh that's beginning to sound a little bit more like
him right in the right in the shadows then combine that with the notes this takes a lot
of work and if you're interested in going further in this these types of techniques
click the link below and join my free voice course
[Music] here are the Distortion coming out in my voice has been laid over quite literally
the sound that I'm producing with my primary vocal cords this is the sound we hear here
[Music] clean there [Music] so you can hear that there's he's not just the whole time
he's very dream he's very clean in certain parts and he's bringing he's holding back
air and squaring that with pitch over just certain notes that creates the overall feeling
of being aggressive but also sort of laid back gives him somewhere to go and saves his
voice a little too [Music]
happy solution [Music]
[Music]
there's a sense that he's laying back in the beat that he's able to float over this drudgy
melody a lot of singers tend to get a little bit too hyped when they start getting aggressive
with his voice but he's found this perfect balance between aggression and sedatedness
or relaxation
[Music] now here he's ahead of the beat he switched gears
right key key Dynamic shift this is what makes vocalists interesting
[Music]
his timing his pocket the way he's pulling back the way he's pushing the way he's phrasing
is extremely important to notice here [Music] everything
[Music] listen to that chorus again and listen to how he's developing the words Awake and
Alive [Music]
here are the vowel slowly changes
I'm away
and with it his flavor of grit changes slightly as well he's not a static singer he's a very
Dynamic singer he places things very differently even though he's got this overarching dark
sound the fact that he moves his placement around and uses uses long held out words in
this context to shape the sound it's not just about singing the words it's not just about
hitting the notes it's this wonderful tone shaping and arcing that's happening in the
midst that's what makes his voice so interesting and engaging and what makes these lyrics so
hooky
let the way
static there [Music] [Applause]
experiment with that in your own voice and don't judge what comes out just figure out
how you can make things sound differently over just one word
you will discover all sorts of tonal possibilities and approaches in your own voice if you can
do that [Music]
oh that's awesome he's combined this this faster Temple pushing of the beat like I talked
about earlier and his dragging the beat back so we have these these two uh forces pushing
and pulling at each other that are both voices over the music now this brings up another
amazing writing technique and this happens in movies this happens all over the place
is this idea of foreshadowing he has done both of these things and what we come to find
out is that both of these ways of delivering his vocals over this song Now come together
and and work together and help sort of finish the musical plot if you will genius writing
genius arranging [Music]
foreign
the extra Distortion that's put on that line and how it's a bit more band Limited in EQ
pan slightly over here to give it this sort of nagging over here but that tone that he
gets on Skies
[Music] brings that hook back
what an amazing Dynamic shift
a flangy effect there on eyes
[Music] foreign
[Music] familiarity here [Music] now listen this is just going back to his grit if we
take those words in equal phase right in is really clean
this way we're not trapped in trying to be distorted all the time and we can be more
expressive and dynamic he's very good at this foreign
[Music]
foreign [Music]
[Music]
oh how he cleans it up wonderfully masterful control over his own Dynamics compression
and expression [Music]
[Music]
notice how he really gritted it up over tear serious
narrative story telling being a tenderness to your lyrics through song not just singing
notes not just I want to be distorted because I don't have to I want to have that grit of
my favorite singer no he's he's telling a story he's arcing characters he's he's being
engaged with the meaning of why he's doing what he's doing and that lends to this idea
of when there's a word like tear you want your voice to sound like it's tearing yeah
[Music]
is that singing in the round again [Music]
[Music] nobody yes
[Music]
oh
I love stuff like this [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign
that we can live in and appreciate a guitar solo in 2023 thank you Avenged Sevenfold and
I feel slightly connected to this skeleton I haven't been paying as much attention to
the video on this first listen uh I'll have to go back and watch the video again and really
appreciate the art of this
[Applause] [Music] it's very vocal notes in that guitar solo wow I love his tone it sounds
like a single coil sound um which I love it when there's you get that sort of staticky
pick attack that you don't get as much uh when you when you overdrive a single coil
sounded pickup nice [Music] [Applause] [Music]
turns
oh yeah like I said I really want to go back and just pay attention to the that sub story
in the in the video I as as the skeleton gets out of the man walks around and has this experience
and goes back in uh yeah I'd read through the lyrics and that's one of the reasons I
love songs like this from from bands that have been following for a while is that there's
there's a lot of depth the more you listen the more you watch the more you engage with
things the more you pick up on the art of it all and listening through and doing a vocal
analysis the first time sometimes you miss a lot of those other things and what I particularly
like about the vocals on this track is something I've mentioned in other Avenged Sevenfold
videos that I've done is that he has this wonderful way of taking you on a journey even
within one particular phrase I love that that's still represented here his voice sounds better
than ever again if you'd like more help with your own voice taking some of the things out
of songs that you love out of vocalists that you love and figuring out how to do it with
your own voice in a way that's safe and freeing click that link below and join my free course
we'll see for more