Why Yell

The blog's been getting pretty heavy recently, so here's something lighter.

Chevelle, why do you have to yell? Actually, I guess this is mostly directed toward Chevelle's lead singer, whose name I don't remember. But nameless lead singer of Chevelle, why all the yelling?

I can understand why some singers yell. It makes them sound better. In fact, Zack de la Rocha should never do anything but yell. And the yelling of Korn's lead singer Dingly Dan (whatever) provides a nice counterpoint to his ordinary voice, although I've noticed that, of late, ol' Dan (whatever) seems to be more taken with sounding like Marilyn Manson's funkier brother. In short, there are many bands whose singers profit from yelling.

But Chevelle, you are not one of them. Your harmonies are so appealingly dark, and the tortured angst in your tone is so wonderfully low-key, that any yelling simply turns you into Yet Another Whiny Band (YAWB). And there are too many YAWBs out there already. So why do it?

Do you think that it makes the music more intense? It doesn't. It just makes it look like you couldn't keep your cool. In arguments, or when you're trying to impress someone else with your intensity, yelling just makes you look lazy, like your content doesn't have the punch, so your decibels need to take up the slack. You're better than that, Chevelle.

This message needs to be carried to other bands that yell needlessly. And there's a big difference between yelling and screaming. I'm in favor of a good scream, one which makes it seem like your entire soul has just violently exited your body by way of your voice box. But some people just shouldn't yell, especially if they can sing normally pretty well.

On the other hand, if you're Fred Durst, I think yelling is all you've got, bro, so you might just want to stick to that rather than doing terrible covers of good songs. In fact, Fred, just stop singing altogether.