80's metal tune (Sanctuary)

[akarawd]

Sanctuary - Battle Angels

I should be resting my voice really but I had free time so here it is :

http://www.box.net/shared/mflbj2l42v

Apart from my atrocious pronunciation what do you guys think ?

Thanks in advance,

Thanos

PS. No autotuners here - just comp, verb and dly

[Olem]

Vicious, Thanos !

You sing some very high notes here, Thanos! You must have been exhausted after singing this song. It was fantastic. The only thing i could hear was the abruption of your vibrato sometimes in some notes and strainess a couple of times but nothing serious, it was a joy to listen to and i would like to hear it with the music more in the mix.

Cheers!

[DJDeth]

Hey Thanos! Very well done! Nice twang in mid register and powerfull screams. I like Sanctuary and the way Dane was singing back in the day, hope they reunite now after Nevermore had split up...

There is one thing I'm not quite sure about in your screams - it seems to me that there is something wrong with some consonants when you sing very high, as if you had some sort of tongue posision issue. But maybe I'm wrong:) Keep'em coming!

[akarawd]

Vicious, Thanos !

You sing some very high notes here, Thanos! You must have been exhausted after singing this song. It was fantastic. The only thing i could hear was the abruption of your vibrato sometimes in some notes and strainess a couple of times but nothing serious, it was a joy to listen to and i would like to hear it with the music more in the mix.

Cheers!

Thanks Olem, saying it was a joy to listen to is the best compliment ! It wasn't tiring to sing, on the contrary it was a great release - easy melodies and one of my fav tunes.

I tried to use an open throat and forward tongue and didn't force the notes - except for that part after the 1st verse 'till the 1st chorus were I didn't pay attention and it's both out of pitch

and strained. I avoid mixing the music higher as I want to hear all mistakes but I will do that in the future if I find proper backing tracks. Thanks again man !

Hey Thanos! Very well done! Nice twang in mid register and powerfull screams. I like Sanctuary and the way Dane was singing back in the day, hope they reunite now after Nevermore had split up...

There is one thing I'm not quite sure about in your screams - it seems to me that there is something wrong with some consonants when you sing very high, as if you had some sort of tongue posision issue. But maybe I'm wrong:) Keep'em coming!

Thanks DJ, my screams are nowhere as powerful as yours buddy ! Funny you mentioned the tongue, I believe that too.. it adds up to my harsh pronunciation and my not studying the tune so as to use vowel mods. I've brought tongue exercises back to my everyday warm ups and I'm working hard at keeping an open throat, but these days my voice is burnt out, I need to give it a few days of rest.

One thing I know for sure is that if I didn't use twang in this tune, it would have sounded really lame - especially the high melodies. Cheers man !

[gno]

Thanos - that sounded excellent. Your F#5's are very full and seem to be well adducted. Good twang. The screams sounded great to me. Well done.

[jonpall]

*Headbangs!!*

[jonpall]

Great metal singing, Thanos! I think your getting pretty comfortable with this type of singing and there isn't really anything I could suggest for improvements besides just keep practising this style of singing and perhaps dabble in other styles as well, evey now and then to further improve your singing skills.

This is also a good example of metal vocals that are relatively non-raspy, yet work extremely well in very heavy music. Sure, there is a cool rasp on some of the words and phrases, but for the most part it's clean. I think it works because of the twang, attitude, diction, connection with the lyrics, how good you are at singing in tune and your general good feeling for music, which means you've got a good ear. Next time, try mixing the vocals with slightly less volume so the overall song sounds well. We already know you can sing metal well. Now it's time to let us simply enjoy your music and singing. And that's all I can say (a quote from Nigel Tufnel).

[akarawd]

Thanos - that sounded excellent. Your F#5's are very full and seem to be well adducted. Good twang. The screams sounded great to me. Well done.

Thanks for the encouragement Geno, it means a lot coming from you.

Without the "it's the lah-ah" practice I wouldn't have been able to sing most of the song in tune and without strain - most of my previous posts were auto-tiuned.

Great metal singing, Thanos! I think your getting pretty comfortable with this type of singing and there isn't really anything I could suggest for improvements besides just keep practising this style of singing and perhaps dabble in other styles as well, evey now and then to further improve your singing skills.

This is also a good example of metal vocals that are relatively non-raspy, yet work extremely well in very heavy music. Sure, there is a cool rasp on some of the words and phrases, but for the most part it's clean. I think it works because of the twang, attitude, diction, connection with the lyrics, how good you are at singing in tune and your general good feeling for music, which means you've got a good ear. Next time, try mixing the vocals with slightly less volume so the overall song sounds well. We already know you can sing metal well. Now it's time to let us simply enjoy your music and singing. And that's all I can say (a quote from Nigel Tufnel).

Thanks Jon, it's really encouraging buddy. I'm still struggling but I can feel the change, I'm slightly better at what I do ; more consistent, less pitchy and certainly more confident - although I've

yet to standardize "my" voice. So the quest goes on and on ... Thanks again man, you know I take your advice very seriously.

If there's anything else you guys might want to suggest, please be brutally honest.

Cheers,

Thanos

[ronws]

I love the reference to "This is Spinal Tap." No pointers I can add. I also liked that most of the notes were clean, with some distortion added well into the note as an ending, here and there.

[jonpall]

Here's the Spinal Tap quote (at the very end):

[devaitis]

I think that high voice was too weak. No enough breath and resonance.

Nice vibrato.

[akarawd]

No pointers I can add. I also liked that most of the notes were clean, with some distortion added well into the note as an ending, here and there.

Thanks a lot Ron, I appreciate your taking the time to listen and comment !

I think that high voice was too weak. No enough breath and resonance.

Thanks Devaitis but can you please elaborate ? What do you mean "high voice is too weak" and compared to what ?

[ronws]

Oh, jonpall, just when I was sure you wouldn't share the same sense of humor that I have, you go and post somthing like this. Do, indeed, rock on with your bad self.

Nigel lives!

"but these all go to eleven..."

[jonpall]

Thanks a lot Ron, I appreciate your taking the time to listen and comment !

Thanks Devaitis but can you please elaborate ? What do you mean "high voice is too weak" and compared to what ?

I'm 99% sure that he meant that your sound colour is too light and needs to have a lower larynx and/or higher soft palate. For this type of music, I disagree.

[aldertate]

FWIW Sanctuary is playing at Progpower usa this year... they've reformed, and from what I've read are sounding pretty good..

[akarawd]

You've got a lot of potential. Pick up and study Judas Priest's 'Sad Wings of Destiny'

What you're wanting to do is explained in vivid detail. If you listen you'll learn how to do all of it.

Trust me.

I know what you mean, I'll listen to that album again. The thing is, at one point, I thought to myself "why don't

I try to sing the songs from rocka-rolla" thinking I'd get a chance to study his voice without all the intimidating

rasp and power since the songs are much "lighter" but it's all there... the rasp, the power, you name it.

I found it disheartening. I'm working hard on building a singing voice now and when I get it to where I want it to be, I'll

certainly go back and re-study all of the big cats.

I think that high voice was too weak. No enough breath and resonance.

Thanks Devaitis but can you please elaborate ? What do you mean "high voice is too weak" and compared to what ?

I'm 99% sure that he meant that your sound colour is too light and needs to have a lower larynx and/or higher soft palate. For this type of music, I disagree.

The color is light because Warrel Dane uses a light color on that song, I could have used a different/heavier approach but I wanted to stay close to the original.

FWIW Sanctuary is playing at Progpower usa this year... they've reformed, and from what I've read are sounding pretty good..

There are a couple of vids on youtube, they sound terrific.