I’m not gonna lie and say I’m a massive metal head, but I’ve gotta say that even though I do love a good beatdown, I’ve never really got behind the famous metal death growl that punctuates so much of that style of music – it tends to just make me laugh because of how stupid it sounds.

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Anyway, I figured that these death growls probably originated with Dani Filth or Max Cavalera or something, but it turns out that this is way too simplistic a view of the famous vocal style and it’s actually developed over centuries and some really famous bands who you absolutely would not expect to be interested in it were responsible for aiding its evolution. Fascinating stuff:

Yeah, I bet you didn’t think you were going to hear about Pink Floyd or The Who in a video about death metal growls but there you go – even some of the greatest bands of all time couldn’t help but be tempted by the fantastic vocal style. Now you’ve watched this you can impress everyone you know down the pub with your unparalleled knowledge of the death growl. Definitely well worth seven minutes of your time watching this video for that.

For more of the same, check out 8 death metal bands that you wished you had never heard of. Brutal list.