 The Death Growl is one of the most iconic sounds in all of Metal. For some, these vocals are the very reason they can't listen to heavier subgenres like Death Metal, but for others, nothing beats the raspy growls of Chuck Shuldiner, Chris Barnes' deep guttural voice, or Mikael Ockerfeld's demonic shouts. So how did these growls come about in the first place? It turns out that the Death Growl has a long disputed history dating back way further than you might expect. Let's take a closer look. The Death Growl, as we know it, came to fruition in the late 1980s thanks to bands like Death, Sepultura, and Cannibal Corpse, but the vocal technique may date back hundreds of years. In fact, it seems altogether too fitting that some of the earliest writings of something resembling a Death Growl come from the Vikings. Obviously, we don't have recordings from these times, so it's hard to confirm, but we do have the writings of a 10th century Arabic trader who traveled to Scandinavia, and this is what he had to say about Norse music. Never before have I heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings in Slesvig. The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, untamed. Allegedly, another traveler described Viking vocals as sounding like a heavily loaded cart rolling down a hill. This sounds an awful lot like Death Growls as we know it, though it could also be referring to throat singing, which is a completely different technique. The Vikings aren't the only historical example of something that could be Death Growling. In 1151, Hildegard von Bingen wrote a play called Order of Virtutum. That play has a role for the Devil, and stage direction says the Devil's lines are meant to be delivered strepitus dia bolly. Again, with no recording, we can't tell exactly what this means, but many have compared Death Growling to the voice of the Devil in the past, so it's not that big of a stretch to think that maybe some performances of Order of Virtutum featured early Death Growls. But to get to concrete origins, we need to jump all the way forward to the 1960s. That's when John Entwistle growls on Boris the Spider by the Some people have called this the first documented use of the Death Growl, though it's done in a different way than we're used to now. The 60s and 70s saw a lot of experimentation with vocals. Check out Pink Floyd's Careful with that Axe UG. Or how about King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man? Some of these songs play with distorted screams, but they use effects to get the distortion. This is different from Death Growling, which is done completely naturally. You can hear some natural, guttural vocals in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells in 1973. While we're getting closer here, this still isn't quite right, and it's not really metal. In some of the earliest metal, we can see the groundwork laid with artificial vocals distortions. A great example of this is Black Sabbath's Iconic Iron Man. This soon gave way to screaming and shouting vocals, a tradition that started in the 1970s with bands like Motorhead. Just listen to Lemmy's raspy voice. This whiskey and cigarette torn voice laid a blueprint for harsher vocals to come in metal. Over the next decade, the genre would push itself into more and more brutal territory. One of the seminal acts at this time was Venom, who would become one of the biggest influences on Death Metal Pioneer's Death. With bands pushing into darker, more aggressive territory, the shrill highs that had dominated metal with the likes of Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson just didn't sound right anymore. That's where bands like Mantis, who would later become Death, came in. Cam Lee and Chuck Shuldiner really started to push these growled vocals to the point that they became a staple in the genre. It's worth noting that you can't give Mantis or Death all the credit here. Around this time, all kinds of bands across metal were experimenting with this sound. Groups like Necrophagia, Possessed, and Master were all pushing into the Death Growl territory too. Thrash band Holy Moses even featured a female vocalist Sabina Klassen, who helped set the pace for future female growlers like Alyssa White Gloss. In the years and decades to come, more musicians would continue to push the Growl and use it in new and exciting ways. And while it may put some off, the Growl has become an intrinsic part of some metal movements. The deep, dark vocals go well with the heavy music and satanic tones, and they really help elevate the music into its own category. Whether you love it or hate it, the Death Growl is an important piece of music history, and it's sure to continue to develop in the years to come. It's really a great lead.