Disturbed's version of The Sound of Silence

lroberts

Rarely do I prefer a cover to the original, but this is one of those times. So I had to pass along this cover The Sound of Silence, which I happened to catch on Conan a few weeks ago. Taking on an iconic song, giving it a new and dramatic spin, and going outside of their usual genre of heavy metal, David Draiman and Disturbed really has something special here. They could have done a heavy metal cover, but they went the opposite direction. I hear him navigate through tonal shifts at 1:45, 2:06 and 3:00, where he seems to add in a little heavy metal style distortion. I would love to hear Ken and/or Bob give their analysis of David's vocals in this song, from range to tone, to phrasing. His natural voice type seems to be baritone, but crosses into tenor range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7RVw3I8eg

highmtn

Wow. That was a really interesting and good performance, with a lot of variance from the original.

He's using a little bit of everything in this.

Starting out on notes that you have to have a little bit of baritone to be able to hit, F#2, he's in a full voice. He has to shed this girth later on.

He establishes the song in this lower octave, and then at 1:45, goes up an octave, singing in a mix of head and light chest. At 2:06 even more head in the mix and then a little light distortion. He kind of flits into full head here and there, like on "The Sound" at 2:20, but even there, it's not an airy head voice. There are a couple of light vocal breaks (cries) that help to hear when he's going into head voice.

By 3:10 he's introducing growl. He's using girth in his midvoice here, for emphasis in the more powerful part of the song.

This is a very dramatic and impressive performance. I feel a little Disturbed after hearing it.

Bob

lroberts

I started working on this song a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of year's of working Ken's program it feels possible. Since starting the program, my comfort zone has shifted higher, and I have trouble singing with enough volume on the lower notes in the first part of the song. In the higher parts, the phrases that I struggle with most with are "Take my arms that I might reach you," at 2:45, and "songs..that voices never share," at 2:05. I'm trying to do those without yelling! As far as growl goes, I have not even tried. I've heard its a technique that metal singers use without hurting their voice, but I don't know where to begin.
Thanks for your help as always!