Cookie Monster Vocals

If anyone saw the unfortunate death-metal wannabe on last week's American Idol, take note: this bizarre vocal style is making the news. Jim Fusilli in WSJ writes about what has become known as Cookie Monster singing, which even apparently has its own technique:

Death-metal singing takes a toll on vocalists, according to Ms. Gussow, who joined Arch Enemy in 2001. She says that despite the characteristic rock-salt-and-razors growl, the sound doesn't originate in the throat. It gets pushed up from the abdomen.

"If you use the right abdomen muscles, you get a lot of power," she says. "It's a primal form of vocalizing, but it's also a very controlled style of singing. You can get weak if you don't have muscle power."

She does vocal exercises to keep fit, some of which she learned from Melissa Cross, a New York-based voice teacher whose instructional DVD "The Zen of Screaming" is a favorite of extreme vocalists.

Link to Zen of Screaming

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Others, however, prefer the rich cultural mosaic of Black Metal.