Vocals

[Charger]

I agree...Hetfield's deeper voice is great and he made good use of it. But now that's he's not even trying to sing like that anymore (most likely cause he simply can't) he just sounds very generic and bland to be honest.

I too have pondered over the years how Metallica would have sounded if they had found a proper singer as well.

Same could ofcourse be said about Megadeth... Dave is hardly a great singer either. BUT he has a very very unique and distinctive voice. I've often compared him to Ozzy. Neither one is a great singer but both make it work with what they've got.


I knew a guy back in the day who hated bands like Anthrax, Metallica and Death Angel (before I knew anything about DA) because their singers were TOO GOOD for Thrash metal. He felt like thrash needed to have a somewhat flawed vocals and/or screaming ie Slayer, Exodus and Megadeth which he held in high regards. That always kind of made me laugh but at the same time I do kind of understand where he came from...most thrash bands do have somewhat questionable vocals and it kind of works and fits the style.

[Zzzptm]

Well, for truly garbage vocals, go to the punk bands that were made up of people who just wanted to be punk. No practice, no rehearsal, no record deal after the first flop...

And for "too good" being a problem, I agree somewhat with that. I have never really enjoyed operatic metal, the vocal style of opera just doesn't do it for me when it's mixed with metal. Works with operas, keep it there.

I'm playing Rory Gallagher's Irish Tour '74 album right now, and his vocals are perfect for his sound. He wears old flannel shirts, has a guitar that's been in more bar fights than it can count, and that voice of his has enough rawness in it to go with the hard times songs and can go vulnerably sweet for the emotional delivery. It's limited in scale range, but his variety of characters he can summon is rich with talent.

And that ability to capture a character in the interpretation of a song is something I expect in a top-notch vocalist. Technical brilliance is cold without the life of a heartfelt character. That's why I love a great Fado song, those singers put so many tears and torn emotions into their delivery that I can feel the pain of loss even when I don't understand the language.