Ottawa Senators Player Gets Death Growl Lesson From Metal Vocalist On Team's Trip To Sweden… No, For Real

The NHL just wrapped up its pair of Global Series games in Sweden with the Maple Leafs taking on the Red Wings and the Wild taking on the Senators.

And with any event like this, there's usually some kind of "cultural exchange" activity. Those are always interesting, and the NHL had a doozy for Senators forward Parker Kelly.

So what kind of activities could there be in Sweden? Skiing? Assembling Ikea furniture? Discussing the nation's history of geopolitical neutrality.

Nope. They brought in the lead vocalist of metal band Amon Amarth — Johan Hegg — to teach Kelly how to perform your basic death metal growl.

Amon Amarth sometimes gets labeled as a "Viking metal" band. If you watch any clip of them you'll immediately understand why. A lot of their songs are about Vikings, and at some live shows, they have giant Viking statues on stage.

As it turns out, Hegg, is also a big hockey fan, so it was a match made in Swedish metal heaven to have him tutor Kelly on the fine art of the death growl.

Hegg taught Kelly how to perform a growl saying he'd help him chirp his arch rival. And who might that be? Kelly picked Leafs' center Noah Gregor. He just so happens be his former teammate with the Prince Albert Raiders, which is hilarious.

Kelly's first growl wasn't terrible. It helped that he had one of the best in the game as his teacher,

Still, he sounded a bit more like someone puking after an all-night bender than he did someone who could handle mic duties for Cannibal Corpse.

Fortunately, for Parker, Ottawa defeated Minnesota 2-1 in a shootout.

Perhaps Hegg's death growl mentorship helped the team?

...meh.

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