Soundiron Voices of Rage – the Synth and Software Review

Is this the silliest sample library (in a good way) ever?

Being a reviewer for Synth and Software occasionally allows me to take a deep dive into some unique products. Soundiron’s Voices of Rage has to take the cake. It’s one of the most niche sample libraries out there.

Voices of Rage is a Kontakt sample library that focuses exclusively on aggressive death metal, hardcore, and metalcore vocal performances. If you’re familiar with bands such as Monasteries, Carnifex, Infant Annihilator, or Lorna Shore then you’ve come to the right place!

Voices of Rage comes in as a 7.4 GB download and is compatible with Kontakt Player (6.2.2 or later) and is fully NKS compliant. The collection features the performances of six metal vocal luminaries who, while each having their own specific style, definitely nail the raging, raspy, and almost atonal delivery characteristic to the genre.

For each vocalist, the library includes a sung Phrases preset, as well as a Word Master preset with 100 words that can be used to create custom lyrics with inspiring words such as “Sacrifice,” “Wretched,” “Insanity,” “Crucify,”“Hatred”… you get the idea.

The Phrases presets are quite comprehensive, often including several different songs and sometimes variations for each song. Along with different controls to configure the selections exactly as you want them, there are options for syncing to the host DAW tempo, as well as stretch, release samples, and legato modes.

Just about everything can be automated through MIDI CCs to make the performance fit the track as precisely as possible. All in all, Voices of Rage seems intent on making sure you never runs out of options.

I found Voice of Rage to be quite capable of nailing the type of vocal style so characteristic of death core and the subvariants of that style of metal. Here I used a combination of Aaron and Mixi, which seemed to give the right rhythmic quality to what I was going for, and paired them with some raging bass, drums, and guitars.

It resulted in a track that achieved the metal hardcore vibe I was going for.

While the samples are well edited for the most part, it still required some slight tweaking to get a tight performance with the rest of the tracks. 

With certain vocalists the library offers the option to choose between “Rage” mode and “Evil” mode (or a combination of both). Rage is your standard drank-a-bottle-of-Drano vocal style, while Evil seems to be partially processed to sound raspier – and plainly just more evil.

For vocalist Mixi (the only female singer in the collection), the library provides a series of sustains in standard vowels – EE, OH, OO, AH, etc. – that sound quite lovely and completely unlike what one would expect from such an otherwise aggressive selection of vocals. 

Another surprise in Voices of Rage is the inclusion of a handful of Rage Ambiences. These are synthetic pads derived from the vocals, and are,] once again quite mellow in contrast to the rest of the presets.

Rounding out the library are a number of Vocal Effects from each vocalist that range from breath noises to guttural shouts to grunts and screams. This preset also lends itself quite well to sound design applications such as generating otherworldly creature sounds for films.

All of the presets feature a comprehensive selection of post FX such as reverb, EQ, compression, and distortion for additional fine-tuning.

In closing, I found Soundiron’s Voices of Rage a lot of fun to use despite being such a crazy niche product. Soundiron might have an opportunity to offer a complete death metal bundle with all the instruments needed to create a full track of pure sonic mayhem.

If you need raging metal core vocals, or if you’re a sound designer looking for ways to create unusual vocal and creature effects, Voices of Rage is a great source for guttural and primal vocals that don’t quite sound like any other vocal sample library.