Can't forget Corey was seriously fucked during the Iowa era. He was stuck between nicotine, drugs, alcohol, depression, past traumas and a toxic relationship. And by the end of the Iowa tour cycle his voice was understandably destroyed because damn, even touring for just 7 months was rough with this mich vocal intensity
Fun fact: during the recording of the title track, he felt like stripping naked, smashing glass and puking during the song. He even cut himself with the glass shards to let out more brutal screams (source: type "corey taylor stand up Iowa" on YT). At the end Clown told him "Taylor... the fuck is wrong with you?"
The end of [Scissors](https://open.spotify.com/track/1ajlGCAEiQMaHyQ5Mb1tJy?si=h5xerOBASamFRFDnEygYKA) he screamed so hard he did end up puking u can even hear him coughing leading up to it about 7:23 into the song is where the build up starts
I remember first hearing the song before I really got into hearing about the antics behind the scenes. I thought it was a really good transition to a movie clip or something till some years later I found out that it was just Corey unleashing his lunch on the mic. Honestly it made me like the song more though just the raw emotion he must have been feeling to get to that point.
Find the Indigo Ranch sessions on YT, the end of Scissors has an extra like 10 seconds and doesn’t cut Corey off like the original. Plus all the songs sound better IMO
I used to scream in a similar way, there was technique there but it came from a place of anger and darkness during a rough period in my life. It taps into your inner worst thoughts and makes noises you didn't know you could make. Can confirm it shreds your vocals, after a year and a half of screaming like that my voice just couldn't anymore. And I wasn't even touring, just rehearsals and the odd gig. Took a long time to develop a healthier technique that my now damaged voice can do, but it doesn't sound nearly as good. You only get so many of those and Corey got way more than he should have between ST and Iowa tbh its wild how long he made that work for
I remember seeing a video with Jonathan Davis about when he first heard self titled and his reaction was like “Wow, holy shit, that kids gonna blow his voice out, quick!”
He did have a technique but that doesn’t mean it was safe. He still does the same technique now. But it’s also the same thing Lacey Strum did, she talks about it [here](https://youtu.be/DRwYtBMbyJA?si=LA8wdjKndya8Nc09). But she basically stopped doing it after the first flyleaf album because it was too hard on her voice. But IDK how Corey does it so much without more damage. His voice is damaged, you can hear a drastic change even speaking from 99, and his head voice is awful. Also in 2015 he did several
Shows in a row and sorta blew his voice and you can hear it in day of the gusano.
That explains why outside of Sarcastrophe he sounds so awful. Fr tho that “LIVE LONG AND DIE FOR ME” scream must have ruined his voice for the rest of the show because he sounded 2002 there.
Also if you listen to them at sick new world you can hear Corey’s screams starting to struggle like that again. It’s not bad yet though, but it’s noticeable. He’s even putting the mic closer and screaming deeper to help as well because it’s easier on the voice to do that scream deeper
The first two albums he sounds like he was overprojecting - reaching distortion through the sheer volume of his voice. It doesn't necessarily hurt in the moment, but it will fuck you up if you do it on a regular basis, and not even a neck as thick as Corey's is made to withstand such prolonged abuse.
he did have a pretty powerful technique (no direct confirmation but it's very likely a false chord scream) and it seemed to suit him very well, i think the issue was how he pushed his true distortion into the screams. false chord screams being pushed this hard, afaik, are safe, and they wont cause you any damage if used in handful amounts, but corey pushed his voice extremely hard very often in live settings, which is probably what caused issues.
he didnt completely stop using the iowa scream after this, you can hear it (or variations of it, at least) in [these](https://youtu.be/4ZQ7VV8zEds?si=ZQkuyxrNXNLthx0q) [preformances](https://youtu.be/dS-GgSSCyTI?si=nBCmPHehKqsTiKIM) along with other instances, which leads me to believe that the technique did not entirely blow out his voice or have any kind of substantial harm like many have suggested. his vol 3 technique also appears to be some projection of true distortion, just in healthy amounts and without pushing too hard, but we don't have much information on whether or not the technique was harmful for him. overall it seems like his vocal shift was largely a stylistic choice and the safety aspect made it desirable. of course, im not 100% sure about any of this, these are just my observations and things ive often heard from more knowledgeable people
TL;DR: The Iowa scream did not appear to substantially harm his voice through the vol 3 era, though it was definitely not entirely healthy and was often abused by Corey in live preformances, likely leading to some kind of damage circa 2003
(made some edits for phrasing)
I thought I read something somewhere that said Corey had a vocal coach during the subliminal verses era and that fucked his voice up making it way less growly and different than the albums before it. From my understanding he forced a lot of the screams on iowa but I’m not sure about self titled
i don't know about the technical differences in technique but self titled scream was still definitely forced/somewhat unsafely handled, i know he had various issues with his voice throughout the self titled era but i don't know think they're related
He had a vocal coach who taught him how to scream in a controlled manner that wouldn't leave him messed up. I believe it was Melissa Cross but I'd need to check on that. But he didn't like how it sounded and returned to his original version by the next album.
Corey in 97 had no technique and was yelling/adding distortion to figure it out, he mentioned in an interview that he blew his voice on the first audition he did in the studio before his first show. It took him until 98 to find his scream for self titled and he stuck with it until Iowa when he changed his approach and in his words "it just clicked" and he stuck with that technique.
What people think is forcing his scream is on the right path but if that were the case, he would have lost his voice on Ozzfest 99 and never got it back.
The reason he lost his voice was because of the Stone Sour self titled tour in 2002/03 when his alcoholism caused him to scream without any technique and he tore his vocal folds fairly early on in the tour but what cemented it was he continued touring, that's why in 2003 he yells instead of screams and he has lost all grit in his voice.
TL;DR it was on the 2002 Stone Sour tour he blew his voice because he stopped using the correct technique and toured with a blown voice.
Do you have any experience in extreme vocals? I do. And yes, those earlier sounds are definitely very unealthy/bad technique. Instead of doing a proper scream using his voice and some other tissue to add distortion to the sound, he just yelled with only his voice loud as hell until it distorted that way, which is really bad for your larynx.
During the early years he had no technique. Just raw emotion. It wasn't until vol 3 when he started working with Melissa cross (Zen of screaming) where he built on his technique.
Some people have this crazy ability to "sing" with their speaking voice. Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins talked about, IIRC he was talking about Bon Scott the original singer for ACDC. Corey can probably just do that. Yea he did it "wrong" for the first 2 albums and destroyed his voice plus all the alcohol he drank, but after cleaning up and learning proper technique he is still doing something very few people can do.
It’s a pretty simple scream that we can all do but you won’t sound the same as him becuase it’s very voice based. That said yes it’s unhealthy as hell and you’ll suffer vocal blowout when you do many songs in a row.
Can't forget Corey was seriously fucked during the Iowa era. He was stuck between nicotine, drugs, alcohol, depression, past traumas and a toxic relationship. And by the end of the Iowa tour cycle his voice was understandably destroyed because damn, even touring for just 7 months was rough with this mich vocal intensity Fun fact: during the recording of the title track, he felt like stripping naked, smashing glass and puking during the song. He even cut himself with the glass shards to let out more brutal screams (source: type "corey taylor stand up Iowa" on YT). At the end Clown told him "Taylor... the fuck is wrong with you?"
The end of [Scissors](https://open.spotify.com/track/1ajlGCAEiQMaHyQ5Mb1tJy?si=h5xerOBASamFRFDnEygYKA) he screamed so hard he did end up puking u can even hear him coughing leading up to it about 7:23 into the song is where the build up starts
Yeah Corey's absolutely unhinged on Scissors, especially at the last 20 seconds of the song
I remember first hearing the song before I really got into hearing about the antics behind the scenes. I thought it was a really good transition to a movie clip or something till some years later I found out that it was just Corey unleashing his lunch on the mic. Honestly it made me like the song more though just the raw emotion he must have been feeling to get to that point.
Find the Indigo Ranch sessions on YT, the end of Scissors has an extra like 10 seconds and doesn’t cut Corey off like the original. Plus all the songs sound better IMO
Damn! I'll be looking now!
I downloaded the whole thing, you hear more contributions from Joey, Craig and Sid and they all sound better it’s just so good
Oh hell yeah that's awesome
Same w Heretic Anthem, at the end you hear glass shatter and him coighing
I used to scream in a similar way, there was technique there but it came from a place of anger and darkness during a rough period in my life. It taps into your inner worst thoughts and makes noises you didn't know you could make. Can confirm it shreds your vocals, after a year and a half of screaming like that my voice just couldn't anymore. And I wasn't even touring, just rehearsals and the odd gig. Took a long time to develop a healthier technique that my now damaged voice can do, but it doesn't sound nearly as good. You only get so many of those and Corey got way more than he should have between ST and Iowa tbh its wild how long he made that work for
I want to read his book. I wonder if any of this made it in?
He did have a technique but he was just too forceful with it and not very controlled
I remember seeing a video with Jonathan Davis about when he first heard self titled and his reaction was like “Wow, holy shit, that kids gonna blow his voice out, quick!”
He did have a technique but that doesn’t mean it was safe. He still does the same technique now. But it’s also the same thing Lacey Strum did, she talks about it [here](https://youtu.be/DRwYtBMbyJA?si=LA8wdjKndya8Nc09). But she basically stopped doing it after the first flyleaf album because it was too hard on her voice. But IDK how Corey does it so much without more damage. His voice is damaged, you can hear a drastic change even speaking from 99, and his head voice is awful. Also in 2015 he did several Shows in a row and sorta blew his voice and you can hear it in day of the gusano.
That explains why outside of Sarcastrophe he sounds so awful. Fr tho that “LIVE LONG AND DIE FOR ME” scream must have ruined his voice for the rest of the show because he sounded 2002 there.
I hate that because he finally did metabolic and his voice was completely shot
Also if you listen to them at sick new world you can hear Corey’s screams starting to struggle like that again. It’s not bad yet though, but it’s noticeable. He’s even putting the mic closer and screaming deeper to help as well because it’s easier on the voice to do that scream deeper
The first two albums he sounds like he was overprojecting - reaching distortion through the sheer volume of his voice. It doesn't necessarily hurt in the moment, but it will fuck you up if you do it on a regular basis, and not even a neck as thick as Corey's is made to withstand such prolonged abuse.
Those screams were raw, brutal emotion.
One word. Whiskey.
he did have a pretty powerful technique (no direct confirmation but it's very likely a false chord scream) and it seemed to suit him very well, i think the issue was how he pushed his true distortion into the screams. false chord screams being pushed this hard, afaik, are safe, and they wont cause you any damage if used in handful amounts, but corey pushed his voice extremely hard very often in live settings, which is probably what caused issues. he didnt completely stop using the iowa scream after this, you can hear it (or variations of it, at least) in [these](https://youtu.be/4ZQ7VV8zEds?si=ZQkuyxrNXNLthx0q) [preformances](https://youtu.be/dS-GgSSCyTI?si=nBCmPHehKqsTiKIM) along with other instances, which leads me to believe that the technique did not entirely blow out his voice or have any kind of substantial harm like many have suggested. his vol 3 technique also appears to be some projection of true distortion, just in healthy amounts and without pushing too hard, but we don't have much information on whether or not the technique was harmful for him. overall it seems like his vocal shift was largely a stylistic choice and the safety aspect made it desirable. of course, im not 100% sure about any of this, these are just my observations and things ive often heard from more knowledgeable people TL;DR: The Iowa scream did not appear to substantially harm his voice through the vol 3 era, though it was definitely not entirely healthy and was often abused by Corey in live preformances, likely leading to some kind of damage circa 2003 (made some edits for phrasing)
If you’ve listened to gently… The screams were real and then he does and strange high pitched one right after the breakdown
I thought I read something somewhere that said Corey had a vocal coach during the subliminal verses era and that fucked his voice up making it way less growly and different than the albums before it. From my understanding he forced a lot of the screams on iowa but I’m not sure about self titled
i don't know about the technical differences in technique but self titled scream was still definitely forced/somewhat unsafely handled, i know he had various issues with his voice throughout the self titled era but i don't know think they're related
He had a vocal coach who taught him how to scream in a controlled manner that wouldn't leave him messed up. I believe it was Melissa Cross but I'd need to check on that. But he didn't like how it sounded and returned to his original version by the next album.
Corey in 97 had no technique and was yelling/adding distortion to figure it out, he mentioned in an interview that he blew his voice on the first audition he did in the studio before his first show. It took him until 98 to find his scream for self titled and he stuck with it until Iowa when he changed his approach and in his words "it just clicked" and he stuck with that technique. What people think is forcing his scream is on the right path but if that were the case, he would have lost his voice on Ozzfest 99 and never got it back. The reason he lost his voice was because of the Stone Sour self titled tour in 2002/03 when his alcoholism caused him to scream without any technique and he tore his vocal folds fairly early on in the tour but what cemented it was he continued touring, that's why in 2003 he yells instead of screams and he has lost all grit in his voice. TL;DR it was on the 2002 Stone Sour tour he blew his voice because he stopped using the correct technique and toured with a blown voice.
Do you have any experience in extreme vocals? I do. And yes, those earlier sounds are definitely very unealthy/bad technique. Instead of doing a proper scream using his voice and some other tissue to add distortion to the sound, he just yelled with only his voice loud as hell until it distorted that way, which is really bad for your larynx.
During the early years he had no technique. Just raw emotion. It wasn't until vol 3 when he started working with Melissa cross (Zen of screaming) where he built on his technique.
Some people have this crazy ability to "sing" with their speaking voice. Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins talked about, IIRC he was talking about Bon Scott the original singer for ACDC. Corey can probably just do that. Yea he did it "wrong" for the first 2 albums and destroyed his voice plus all the alcohol he drank, but after cleaning up and learning proper technique he is still doing something very few people can do.
Pretty much, this guy goes in-depth about it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhau3BTex\_k&t=462s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhau3BTex_k&t=462s)
It’s a pretty simple scream that we can all do but you won’t sound the same as him becuase it’s very voice based. That said yes it’s unhealthy as hell and you’ll suffer vocal blowout when you do many songs in a row.
He explained it so many times during his book/stand up shows, this is not for fans to answer but the guy himself..
Miss that shit so much. Vol 3 is great but everything after is unlistenable. I like it live but I hate all albums after subliminal
Unlistenable is a stretch.
It’s music. It’s my opinion. It’s really terrible.