Singer / songwriters of metal

[Cheiron]

This thread has turned into 'my favorite metal artists'

Apparently to some Luca sings in Rhapsody (and didn't collaborate as heavily as he does/has), Tony sings in Black Sabbath, Paul Gilbert sang in Mr. Big, Urban wrote the music for all of his bands, Jorn wrote a good song, Oliva didn't have Paul O'Neil (and didn't have his brother to write most of the riffs), etc.

I could write down my favorite metal songwriters, but most of them don't also play all the instruments and sing on the album. There are some band projects out there where one guy does everything and other people play the instruments. But there's nto really a John Mayer, Joan Baez, Dan Folgelberg etc.

 

[Cheiron]

BlackRoseMetalHeart - You are right. And the E-Street band has been performing with other artists over the years as well. I don't know how much they get involved in writing the music that ends up on albums. I'm not really a fan of The Boss, so I haven't read much up on it.

 

[Purveyor Of Evil]

Coolness, some great answers. Why the ass didn't I think of Hubi? That's a winner right there. However, maybe I badly worded the parameters of the question. Or maybe it's just confusing in general ha. I would agree that wholeheartedly Arjen, Tobias, Tuomas, and the ilk are amazing songwriters for their bands. But that's the problem, it is for their bands, Ayreon, Avantasia, etc. Like, if Arjen struck out under his name Arjen
Lucassen, then he would be the perfect candidate. When I hear his name I think of the music and grand sweeping songs with tons of depth and layers of meaning, not guitar skills even though he is super capable.

Maybe its me being anal, but I don't quite count Halford, Jorn, or folks like that in the answer I'm looking for, because it's not ROB Halford solo, it's "Halford" the band. Jorn falls too much into a Joe Lynn Turner kinda thing, amazing singer, writes cool stuff, but he's more a singer for hire for alot of things.

And Jon Oliva is King Dingaling for sure, but same thing, he's Savatage or Jon Oliva's Pain, which while having his name in the band name its skewed enough for band purposes.

I guess another non metal example of what I'm looking for is the metal equivalent of someone like Jackson Browne. Like, when I think of him I think of the dude and a piano or Telecaster, singing solo and acoustic, with a band, or however he wants on the songs he wrote.


Shit, not only that but I believe the decision to go solo under your name, allows for so much more creative expression. Again, using Jackson as an example, man he has so many songs over the years that are light years apart from each other in terms of style, but they all have that Jackson Browne bad ass mofo vibe to em.

Would the metal community allow a band to have songs that were old school metal ala Maiden Saxon on one half and then straight up Journey worship on the other side?

Or on the other side of the coin, would a general music community allow a Journey inspired solo artist to get away with real honest to god heavy metal as well?

I have long posts.

Yes, you are being anal. Rob Halford wrote "Resurrection" on his own, plus he also plays guitar and bass enough at least to write. I'm sure in HIS band HE has the final say on everything. Therefore, he fits your criteria. The same applies to Bruce Dickinson.

 

[Purveyor Of Evil]

We could also throw Lemmy into the mix.

 

[Soundscape]

in prog: Don Anderson, Toby Driver, Andre Matos, Daniel Gildenlow, Jim Matheos

 

[Comic Book Dude]

This thread has turned into 'my favorite metal artists'

Apparently to some Luca sings in Rhapsody (and didn't collaborate as heavily as he does/has), Tony sings in Black Sabbath, Paul Gilbert sang in Mr. Big, Urban wrote the music for all of his bands, Jorn wrote a good song, Oliva didn't have Paul O'Neil (and didn't have his brother to write most of the riffs), etc.


If you're including my post where I mention Paul Gilbert as the "some" you're talking about, think again. Surely you know that Gilbert has released at least five solo cd's that he SANG and played on, writing just about all the material himself (and some collaboration). Give me/us some credit.

A few others I like (yes...these are personal picks!) and would add :
Harry Hess (Harem Scarem)
Dave Meniketti (Y+T)
and last, someone I dig who's not too popular, but is prolific...Pete Ahonen from Burning Point.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Demonaz for Immortal, even though he isn't in the band anymore he still pens all the lyrics and some of the music.

Leif from Candlemass is another that I can think of that hasn't been mentioned.

 

[end]

They've been mentioned but Arjen Luccassen and Daniel Gildenlow stand out the most to me.

 

[shadowmac]

Lance King is instrumental in the writing in most of the projects that he's involved with. Geoffe Tate is now the primary writer for Queensryche, but even when DeGarmo was in the band, he was writing 50% or so. As guys have mentioned, Arjen writes everything for his numerous projects. Tobias Sammet writes everything.
Andy B. Franck of BRAINSTORM has written for several projects, Kiko Loureiro of Angra, Carl Cadden James of Shadow Gallery...

Joe Satriani writes and sings (i.e. "Big Bad Moon"), but he's not metal. Sambora is actually a great singer, again not metal.

 

[Pelata]

I second Doug Pinnick and add Ty Tabor...

 

[Rycher]

Geoffe Tate is now the primary writer for Queensryche

Tate writes lyrics, but not a note of music. Jason Slater and Kelly Grey wrote the majority of the music for American Soldier.

 

[Pelata]

Paul Gilbert sang in Mr. Big,

He actually did lead vocals on a bonus track on one of the Greatest Hits releases...called "Unnatural".

His solo albums (w/ vocals) are fantastic!! Great talent...

I also agree w/ Harry Hess from Harem Scarem...and would add Pete Lesperance (his solo album is fantastic...wrote and sang all the songs)...

 

[labrekk]

Fucking Michael Bormann! Dude! Man, for his first solo album, Michael sang, guitar, bass, drummed and produced. Even now he tends to multi task a bit in the studio. To me its laughable that Jaded Heart exists without him.

I respect Bormann as a singer and a musician. I enjoy some albums he sang on (The Sygnet, Bloodbound, Letter X..)

But Jaded Heart is WAY better and heavier since he left the band. The last 3 CDs are excellent, while I never cared for the early stuff...

 

[labrekk]

Tony Martin would classify. On his 2005 solo album "Scream" (which was excellent IMO), he sang, played bass and drums. I think he might have played some guitar too. Before that album, I thought he was only able to sing...

 

[fatesmiles]

I would say Jim Matheos. He has traditionally written about 90% of Fates music and lyrics. Not a virtuoso showoff but extremely talented on his solo work as well as Fates Warning.

 

[SharkBlack]

I would say Jim Matheos. He has traditionally written about 90% of Fates music and lyrics. Not a virtuoso showoff but extremely talented on his solo work as well as Fates Warning.

+1