Round Seven: Baronessa v Gilad (408 views)

[Steve]

This is Baronessa v Gilad in Round Seven of the Clip-Off. You have five days to submit your clips, and until 23:00 BST Time December 8 to vote. December 9 is the Results Day.

The categories for Round Seven are:
1. Best Distorted/Harsh/Heavy Singing: Singing that uses vocal distortion, a harsh tone and/or is generally heavy-sounding.
2. Best Emotional Singing: Affecting an emotional vocal delivery in order to tug at the listener's heartstrings in one way or another..

The contestants are free to post their clips, voting commences as soon as they have.

Vote here.

Current Vote Count: 4

[Gilad]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Heavy Singing - Serj Tankian}
(1:09 - 2:15, 2:50 - 3:18) This song is about a friend's suicide, and Serj's vocal performance is appropriately intense. It's a prime example of why he is one of my favorite vocalists. Animated and frenzied. The raw anger that builds up to the song's final high pitched screams is extremely effective, and is one of the hooks that got me interested in the band in the first place.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Emotional Singing - Ryan Tedder}
(3:00 - 4:53) It was kinda hard for me to find a good clip for this category, because I often find Ryan's emotion to be a bit superficial in his performances. But this song from OneRepublic's debut album provided exactly what I was looking for. Ryan Tedder shows off his signature pop singing abilities with great melismas, only this time with some existential dread that really gets my blood pumping.

[Baronessa]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Distorted/Harsh/Heavy Singing: Lzzy Hale - "I Am the Fire"}

1:22 - 3:28. I'm sure you can endure that extra six seconds for the final sustain at the end. Lzzy spans a cool G3 - G5 with varying degrees of heaviness throughout this clip, intensifying as the song develops further. The performance culminates at two points, firstly with that unGOD(dess)LY G5 and finally with the coda that really hammers home Lzzy's #iconic chainsaw rasp.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Emotional Singing: Andy Bell - "Stay With Me"}

:13 - 2:23. I know I'm doing two for two here, but I think the extra seconds are required to contrast the two post-choruses. This song is probably one of the most earnest in Erasure's entire catalog with Andy going through a solid G2 - A4; the verses tremble with soft vibrato while the chorus A4s pack more of a punch with their respective iterations. The last post-chorus then is comfortably able to set the stage for the upcoming instrumental, effectively conveying the sobering reality that one day we shall all suck our last sherbet lemon.