My preference in metal singers

[TwizstedJesus]

Am I the only one here? Did you guys forget Ray Fuckin' Alder???His high range is sweet,and his mids and lows are just as sweet,just not as high lol. You can never go wrong with anything Alder,especially No Exit. Greatest metal album of all time!

 

[Comic Book Dude]

I don't know if a lower register always translates to power. It's great for mood, but sometimes, nothing says POWER like a scream in the higher range. Halford, Kiske and Harnell (and , of course......John West!) are great examples of this. Kelly Sundown Carpenter sends tremors up and down my spine with his strength in the high range.
I also like the guys without the huge range, but who know how to "sing" the song. Tom Englund, Mike Tirelli and Dug Pinnick are some of my faves. Of course, there are the vocal gods like Dio, Russell Allen, Jorn Lande and Jeff Scott Soto who can do whatever the hell they want.
Finally, there are the dudes with the "ugly" voices who can deliver a vocal like nobody's business. You know who they are.....the Jon Olivas, Blackie Lawless', Udo and Mandy Lions of the world. Not the prettiest voicest, but man are they fun to listen to.
I guess it all boils down to.......personal taste!

 

[...AndTimeBegan]

For me it depends on the vocalist/band. When it comes to melodic vocals, sometimes I might prefer lower, more powerful stuff like Russel Allen and Jorn Lande, but sometimes I absolutely love softer atmospheric vocals like the guys from Riverside and Andromeda and of course Mike from Opeth and Jonas from Katatonia.

For extreme stuff, the same holds true. Sometimes I'll listen to vocalists that have a much lower growl like Mike from Opeth or Peter from Hypocrisy (who has an amazing range). I'll also listen to stuff like Dismember and Edge Of Sanity for that deeper, lower growl. Although I'm not much for the really gutteral stuff like Devourment.

At the same time, I'll also take a growl that stands out from everything else like Chuck's, or John Tardy's, or Kelly Schaefer's, or Jeff Walker's.

 

[sccaldwell]

Really, it's all just personal preference (and perhaps "what you're in the mood for at that moment").

But for me, a singer is sort of like a guitarist. If a singer is simply wailing at the top of his lungs (and range) for the whole song, to me it's sort of like listening to Ynwgie Malmsteen (or any other speed-metalish guitarist) play a million notes-a-second for 5 minutes. Impressive at first, but it quickly gets BORING. High-end range for a singer is AMAZING when it's saved for the "punch" of the song.

A prime example (for me) is Enchant's "What To Say"(the song's about a guy dying from brain cancer, and what he'd say to his 6-year-old son if he could still speak...based on true story, BTW). Although Ted has a high voice, anyway, when he hits that really high chorus of "I hope that you won't forget me," it STILL sends chills down my spine. If he'd sung the entire song at that altitude, it would have completely lost its punch.

Another example: Listen to "Used" by Pain of Salvation, and you'll hear Daniel using a fair chunk of his considerable range to perfect effect (and that's the key word: EFFECT), building and building until it hits its emotional, lyrical, and vocally-high peak.

That's one of the reasons why I was less-than-blown-away by Stratovarius (truth: I fell asleep. Really.). While their singer has a great voice and awesome high-end range, and the guitarist is very talented (and they were both dead-on in concert), after the first couple of songs, the NOVELTY of the singer's range and the guitarist's speed wore off, and I was left...well, asleep.

Some people just don't like high-pitched and/or falsetto voice, but for me it's all about HOW it's used, as well as how often...just like speed for a guitarist/keyboardist, or other instrumentalist.

Chris Salinas' brilliant performances in both Power of Omen's "Test of Wills" and Zero Hour's "Face The Fear" are also stand-out examples of HOW to use incredible range to incredible effect, IMHO. He's one of the top singers in metal today, as far as I'm concerned.

But again, it's really all just personal pref.

Craig

 

[Kenneth R.]

Zak Stevens should have stuck with the deeper tone, ala Handful of Rain.

not a fan of Lance at all, Ray Alder is best in mid/low register, Chris Salinas is an excellent example of how to pull it off. So is Daniel Gildenlow.

 

[Harley D]

I guess I will show my Manowar bias and throw in Eric Adams. He can do it all and has been for a long time now.

 

[rushzil2112]

Daniel to me is the epitomy of using his range tastefully and effectively. Another perfect moment is on Inside, starting at 5:00 and on, his build up, and his almost growling, building up to that scream at 5:43(well, not high on disc, but live he sure sings that not real high). King of Loss is also a good example of being all over the place, but tastefully. Also Reconciliation, from 2:54 to 3:50. The singing too high all the time really bothers me, which is why I am no longer a big fan of power metal, because it just wore down on me, now I have to have diversity, not one or the other, but one and the other. I also second everybody on here about Ray Alder, but I do prefer his mid-lows. I do think that best overall mid-low voice ever is Akerfeldt, and he also has the best growl period, coming in second is a tie between Vintersorg and Dan Swano.

 

[mëtålspëd]

I only listen to pit bull grindcore.... how does that translate on the register?

 

[adaher]

I'm not much into high pitched wailing anymore except when used judiciously. It's kinda like death vocals, it's cool in spots but not something I want to hear througout a song.

I'm not much into lower register singers like Tom Englund either.

My favorite are the more natural sounding singers who can effortlessly go high, low, and mid range, like Jorn Lande, Roy Khan, DC Cooper, and John West.

 

[7thSaviour]

Some of my favorite singers:
Bruce Dickinson
Rob Halford
Geoff Tate
Ralf Scheepers
Piet Sielck
Chris Boltendahl
DC Cooper
Timo Kotipelto
Rey Parra
Mike Lee
Michael Sweet
Eric Adams
David DeFeis
Nils K. Rue
Brad Delp
Lance King
Rob Rock
James Rivera
Billy(A Lower Deep)
Mike Dimeo
Mike Vescera
Tony Moore
etc.

 

[Comic Book Dude]

I guess I will show my Manowar bias and throw in Eric Adams. He can do it all and has been for a long time now.

Nothing wrong with Eric Adams. He's easily one of the most overlooked vocalists out there. My buds and I always thought that if he were in any band other than Manowar, he'd be widely considered to be one of the best singers (don't get me wrong.....I really like Manowar....a lot!).

 

[TychoCelchu]

Mikael Stanne - singing voice, awesome. But does he himself agree? A couple years back Dark Tranquillity were playing a show and someone in the audience called for 'Auction' from Projector (a song where he sings clean the whole time), and he explicitly stated they wouldn't do that one. (If any of you were at the Detroit show you may remember that). Too bad, I love his singing voice. (I flipped when they did do Therein).

 

[Jibrille]

Mikael Stanne - singing voice, awesome. But does he himself agree? A couple years back Dark Tranquillity were playing a show and someone in the audience called for 'Auction' from Projector (a song where he sings clean the whole time), and he explicitly stated they wouldn't do that one. (If any of you were at the Detroit show you may remember that). Too bad, I love his singing voice. (I flipped when they did do Therein).

Well, most bands don't stray from a planned setlist so it could just have been said to shut the guy up as some people never stop yelling for whatever particular song they want whenever there is silence.

And personally, I have a wide range of vocal styles I like. In many cases I'll even suffer through vocals I don't particularly care for if the music is that good. I'd have to say my absolute favorite is Roy Khan but I'll listen to various death vox, lower vocal ranges, higher vocal ranges, heavy accents, etc. Pretty much anyone Arjen gets for Ayreon is within my tastes.

 

[Chizilla]

IMPORTANCE IS TO INTERPRET + INTONATE RIGHT AND SING WITH YOUR HEART! I've met/seen many Bullshiters! YOU GOTTA "LIVE WITH OR DIE" if you wanna sing!

 

[Ostracised]

I personally like any vocalist that adds something to the music. Doesn't matter what sex they are or what register they sing (roar, growl) in. If they sound good, and add the right color at the right time to the music, I like it.

 

[PatrickHoyt]

IMPORTANCE IS TO INTERPRET + INTONATE RIGHT AND SING WITH YOUR HEART! I've met/seen many Bullshiters! YOU GOTTA "LIVE WITH OR DIE" if you wanna sing!

I agree with this and follow this as a singer 100%

 

[TBJ]

Mikael Stanne - singing voice, awesome. But does he himself agree? A couple years back Dark Tranquillity were playing a show and someone in the audience called for 'Auction' from Projector (a song where he sings clean the whole time), and he explicitly stated they wouldn't do that one. (If any of you were at the Detroit show you may remember that). Too bad, I love his singing voice. (I flipped when they did do Therein).

I second this. Mikael Stanne has one of the most emotive(?) voices in all of metaldom. His growls are clear and varied and his clean vocals remind me of 80's new wave mixed with goth. I always think how it would sound for him to do an album of all sisters of mercy covers or something like that. Would be amazing.

 

[Kenneth R.]

Stanne is epic.

 

[7thSaviour]

Mikael Stanne - singing voice, awesome. But does he himself agree? A couple years back Dark Tranquillity were playing a show and someone in the audience called for 'Auction' from Projector (a song where he sings clean the whole time), and he explicitly stated they wouldn't do that one. (If any of you were at the Detroit show you may remember that). Too bad, I love his singing voice. (I flipped when they did do Therein).

Can't wait to see MS and the boys again on 6/09! I last saw them on the Damage Done tour.

 

[ConnieOH]

You can never go wrong with anything Alder,especially No Exit. Greatest metal album of all time!

+1