to be honest i am very neutral about this whole harsh/clean vocals thing and don't mind clean vocals at all (unless theyre whiney emo ones), but i just thought that there was a lot of growl-bashing going on in this thread and i thought there was nobody to defend it. i happen to love the power metal band sinergy (clean vocals) for it's guitar dueling solo's and original melody, as well as lots of other power metal bands. on the other hand lots of melodic death metal has a lot of that stuff too (arch enemy, at the gates, "the old entombed") and so i really got to like harsh vocals. children of bodom is one my favourite bands ever and the only power metal band with harsh vocals i've listened to and so this probably fueled my appreciation for harsh vocals. and it's no coincidence why alexi laiho chose to sing harshly as he admitted he wasn't serious about the vocals too much, but at the same time i think he had a very great "clean voice" when singing the billy idol cover "rebel yell". i kno that this whole thread has to do with expressing opinions but i'm not wrong to ask for them to stay neutral enough to be factually honest.