Trivium’s Matt Heafy: How I Learned to Scream

If you’re trying to learn how to scream, Trivium‘s Matt Heafy is an ideal example of both what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. In this video exclusive, he takes us through his introduction to when he first heard extreme vocals through the present day as a disciplined master of the human instrument — the voice.

“When I first got into metal, the first band I heard was Metallica. It was Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Slayer… I remember it was when getting into Pantera [that I was] starting to get an introduction to extreme metal vocals,” began Heafy, who singled out Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power as something that encroached this more aggressive territory. He quickly added that it was the band’s following record, The Great Southern Trendkill, where Philip Anselmo’s were more firmly rooted in extremity.

From there it was melodic death metal, death metal, black metal and German metalcore that caught Heafy’s ears as he was gradually turned on to the depth of screaming.

Before learning proper technique under the advice of Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows, Heafy pretty much just went for it and would begin warming up about a week before tour, which he thought was standard at the time.

After suffering a blown out voice in 2013 due to improper singing and screaming techniques is when he decided to implement a more strict regimen to keep his voice in shape and learn how to do it in a way that won’t cause any further damage.

“My ‘safe screaming’ sounds the same as my recorded singing in a live situation,” noted the Trivium frontman, who said he records in the studio with a different technique to get the exact sound he’s aiming for, which may entail intentionally blowing out his vocal chords a bit. Ah, the sacrifices that are made that we’d never know about!

Elsewhere in the video, Heafy explains his list of dos and don’ts in regards to pre-show warmups and routines (eating, especially) and post-show advice in order to maintain his voice for a tour in addition to the support he received from his parents and a note about cupping the microphone.

Watch How Matt Heafy Learned to Scream in the video below.

Follow Trivium on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify and keep up with Heafy’s daily Twitch streams. Get your copy of Trivium’s latest album, What The Dead Men Say, here (as Amazon affiliates we earn on qualifying purchases).