Thanks. I haven't sung that one in years.

But it's not as hard as you think. The gut and the resonators in and around the soft pallet do all the work. If you are coughing it's because you are allowing the sound to linger in your throat on the way up to your pallet. Try the sumo wrestler sound very lightly until you feel you are shooting past your vocal cords. Then you can add a little more force safely until you've got it.

The power push Jaime talks about is definitely in play here.

That sounds awesome!

I'm doing (I think) the exact same thing. When I mimic your sound it's (to my ear) very, very similar. The one thing I still want to fine-tune, that you've gotten down great, is the release to the point it's not "stuffy."

But I still stick to my point of view: It's totally grunting. It's grunting without the throat. I don't know if I'm shooting it to my soft palate - - --- -

Cut that. I just tried a sliding exercise where I try to focus a tone from a falsetto to a full to a growl/grit (I won't say scream, I think screaming is what reinforced falsetto and fry are), and it's totally on the spot. On the soft palate, that is. The focus of the sound doesn't change, but the feeling changes a LOT. This is probably due to the fact that I have to tense more (= apply more power push / downwards pressure) and because of the fact I'm applying more force I have to be extra careful not to tense the throat. In the beginning I looked like a moron with my head tilted back a tad bit and my eyes half-closed, just putting 101% of my effort into trying to keep the pressure and the focus in perfect balance so I wouldn't feel the familiar sting/dryness that led me to always stop practicing in the first place.

Just to clear up something, even though most people say it (and many, many people contradict): You don't ever, ever ever ever have to feel pain. At all. Pain is anything that's uncomfortable or makes you cough or something unnatural. I'll try to get a sound sample up quickly to demonstrate how I sound, how it differs from GTRn's sound and just to put it up for analysis.

Keep in mind though, that just because now I gotta admit the tone is focused to my soft palate, the visualization is what acted against me in the first place. I'd still go with trying to sound like someone stabbed you (not screaming, but tensing the abdomen/diaphragm really hard) and fine-tuning that sound.

Also, a tip I feel is very good for starting out: Don't try to focus this grunting thing on a note. Just go with whatever note you feel like. Don't try to sound intentionally low or high, go with your normal speaking range for example. In the beginning (a month ago) when I tried to cover Wait and Bleed, I got the first phrase of the verse correct, but when the phrase afterwards is on just one note it confused me for some reason, the sound tried to drop down into my throat (I focused on controlling the note) and I had to switch to either fry screaming or singing clean.

In RYV there's one MP3 example, and it's the one where Jaime talks about how his brother did some horror-movie sound with "jaime get out of here." It's a lot like that but more pressure. (Though now that I listen to it and try it it still dries my throat more than the technique I use. I dunno what I'm doing but I'm happy with it.)

Khassera,
Yeah, you seem to be right on the money with your theories. I would be happy to listen to your examples.

I will say that it's probably a good idea to warm up with the monotone examples. "Roots bloody Roots" from Sepultura and "Fight Fire With Fire" from Metallica are two classics which sound killer but don't bounce around much from note to note. This will give a great indication of where to put the sound and how much force to use in a safer manner. Then once that safe approach has been discovered and second nature, then move on to the screams which are sang, Pantera, and Slipknot for example.

Here is one more example but this time it's a little harder. It's "Left Behind" from Slipknot. It's basically the same technique. A good way to test your own scream technique is to do a song which switching between screaming and singing. As you all know, today, it's quite popular to do that. As I Lay Dying and Trivium are two good examples. So if you can quickly switch from scream to sing then you are doing the scream safely.

Guys,

I can't thank you enough for taking the time to post and record these examples.
This is really something I want to learn by heart. I feel like it's the major thing that is missing for me as a vocalist, at least for the time being.

Is there any good starting sounds besides the "grunt" that I could work with? I figure I need to grasp the basic placements and work from there.

When I sing clean, I'm confident that I am placing the tone up in the soft palate. But I'm not as sure when it comes to the powerpush. I'm starting to suspect that I'm not putting it to use as much as I should be doing.
Could this be what is holding me back when it comes to grit?

I figure I ought to practice the powerpush more, but I find it hard to understand when you should use it, and to what extent.

How much breath do you use in your grit while doing left behind?

About as much as it would take to blow out a candle. Any more than that would probably be a bad thing.

Meh, i can't manage to get that screamish sound, i can do the false chord thingy but it sounds too raspy.Any tips?