Could We Have A Grit Technique Critique?
It seems like it's been awhile since we did one of these, where you identify various grit techniques you hear.
This is Judas Priest live from 1982.
At only three seconds in, Rob Halford says: "Hey Memphis"! - Is this motorboat grit? I'm not sure because I know Metallica is sort of the quintessential example of motorboat grit, but here I'm hearing the subharmonics emphasized more than I ever do in Hetfield's vocals.
The only time Hetfeild came even close was maybe on ...And Justice For All and he blew put his voice. soon after. Meanwhiule, Halford is going strong at 74 years old! Clearly Halford's using a different, healthier technique than Hetfield was using on ...And Justice.
Throughout the spoken intro, what is the grit technique, or grit techniques Halford is using?
The spoken intro gets much grittier at 24 seconds into it when he says "The Metal Gods"! Is that Hardcore Bark? I associate Upper Grunt more like what Mick Jagger does on Start Me Up (that was a great critique/explanation you did on that)!
If he isn't using Hardcore Bark when he says "The Metal Gods" and it actually is Upper Grunt, what makes Halford's Upper Grunt so much more distorted than Jagger's?
MY FAVORITE QUESTION IS COMING UP - PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTION IN THE PARAGRAPH BELOW : )
The singing starts at 47 seconds with: "We'd taken too much for granted"- Again, I can't tell if thjis is Upper Grunt of Harcore bark. Is there some sure telltale sing that it is one or the othjer, or is possible for a singer to straddle the line between Upper Grunt and Hardcore Bark?
If you only answer one thing I really hope you answered what I asked in the above paragraph.
At 52 seconds he sings "And all the time it had GROWN" - I put "grown" in caps because he gets a different,. more gurgly, more distorted sound on that word. How does he get that effect? It sounds so cool!
Afterwards, for at least the next minute or so, it sounds like Upper Grunt - there is still nothing as gurgly sounding or as filthily distorted as on "GROWN" at 52 seconds.
It occurs to that the piutch on "GROWN" at 52 seconds is E4, which is one of the lower notes. Is it maybe that it's easier to get that really heavy distortion on E$ and below than on higher notes where you don't hear that gurgly sound and such deep sub-harmonics.
Still even on other E4s in the song, he neevr captures that same level of distortion and massive subharmonics again (by subharmonics I mean it almost sounds as if he's doubling it two octaves lower). The cool thing about it is its not multi=-tracked so he keeps the sharpness of the E4 with the low bass frequencies of an E2.
The Chorus of the song is either clean or in some parts, has light grit, which I would guess is Upper Grunt, lightly applied. Maybe not much throttle or he eased up on the constriction? Which of those two is more likely?
At 3:22 he sings "Better be the slaves" - this sounds more distorted than most of the lines. Does a different grit technique account for this or maybe just more throttle?
Thank you so much!!!
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Kenny Kendall
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Could We Have A Grit Technique Critique?
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