- Title: Master the growl: Dutch school teaches art of metal vocals
- Date: 14th January 2025
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) INSTRUCTOR AT METAL FACTORY, MARCELLA BOVIO, SAYING: "Well it's a staple in the metal community and it's a vocal effect that is very used. I particularly like it because it has a rawness to it. I think it's a very nice way to express and that way also release some maybe bottled up anger. So in a way it's also like a sort of coping mechanism for frustr
- Embargoed: 28th January 2025 11:48
- Keywords: Metal growling
- Location: EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS
- City: EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Music
- Reuters ID: LVA003293113012025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: In the Dutch city of Eindhoven, students at the Metal Factory (MF) can earn a degree that includes mastering the art of growling. The unique three-year vocational study program, part of Summa College, specializes in metal music and, according to coordinator Kevin Quilligan, 36, it is one of its kind in Europe.
Marcella Bovio, 45, a seasoned metal singer originally from Mexico and instructor at the Metal Factory since its founding in 2013, explains that learning to growl starts with a simple sigh. This sound, akin to a teenager's frustrated groan, is the foundation upon which students build their growling skills.
Seeing young adults sigh in frustration is a common sight, but watching them use their vocal cords to transform that sigh into a primal scream and adding a melody to it is something else entirely.
Growling "has a rawness to it. I think it's a very nice way to express and that way also release some maybe bottled up anger", Bovio said. And while it may sound harsh, it doesn’t have to damage your voice. "You should be able to speak clearly afterward. If you’re hoarse, you’ve probably overdone it," she said.
For Kevin Schoonhagen, a 22-year old Dutch student and lead singer of a band called Crave, growling is one of the purest forms of expressing emotion.
"When you're happy you scream, when you're scared you scream, when you're angry you scream, when you're sad you scream", he said.
Despite misconceptions about metal music, Quilligan challenges the view of growling as dark and brutal. "I think the biggest misconception is the idea that that we're a bunch of cavemen, just doing stuff out of kind of only roughness," he said. "Whereas in the professional side and in the industry side, most people are really kind, really warm, really tolerant, very inclusive. But you have to kind of take that first step."
(Production: Bart Biesemans, Yiming Woo, Charlotte Van Campenhout) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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