Pioneering growl queen: Mary Abaza

[the_future_modernes]

Mary Abaza is a Russian guitarist and vocalist with an astonishing vocal range (article linked from the Wikipedia source) :

- Tell me about you as a singer... What brought you to be the growler in the band? And have you ever encountered comments like "female can't sing Death Metal" or such ridiculous comments like that?

....

About me as a singer? Well, I got a unique voice of large compass from contralto to soprano. Then I got a good education- I studied singing in jazz school. It helped me to find my own way of singing death metal applying some jazz tricks, by the way it helps me also in creating music. When I began singing death metal I was crazy about John Tardy as a vocalist, I mean that hysterical manner. Then I added to my voice same black metal high tones and found inside my throat those low sounds.MORE

According to wikipedia, she's one of the world's first female growlers:

Why Mary Abaza is a unique female vocalist? It's because she has got a unique voice of great compass from contralto (overrides male baritone) to soprano (they say, with this rare and uncommon voice, one can be admitted to the Moscow Conservatory without entrance examinations) and withal she is a brilliant growler and added to everything else, she is one of the first female growling vocalists in the world ^{2}. She got jazz and some classical educations and as she said herself, it helped her to find her own way of singing death metal applying some jazz tricks; by the way it helps her in creating music. When Mary began singing death metal she was crazy about John Tardy (Obituary) as a vocalist and imitated something from his hysterical manner. Then she added to her voice some black metal high tones and worked on timbre and articulation ^{3}.MORE

Merlin - Suffer The Children

Website

Merlin - Spirits Of The Dead

MERLIN "SLAUGHTER ON ICE"

Myspace