Great bands with weak vocals?

[Adami]

Has anyone mentioned Guns n' Roses yet? Look, I won't dispute that Axl is the "bad boy frontman" of a lifetime and that he deserves all the credit for being a huge reason why GNR became so big.

But if you look at his vocals alone.... he's at cat ran over by a car levels.

Oh, and since I'm going against legends.... original Black Sabbath. Yeah, burn me at the stake. I'm a moderate fan of that era of the band and the only and sole reason why I even have to write "moderate" it's Ozzy's vocals. He had the merit of being there at the beginning of it all, if he had showed up too late with the genre already going on, I don't think anyone would have cared for his vocals.

Axl Rose might not be a great vocalist, but it's pretty hard to deny that without him, the band would have gone nowhere. It's hard to call a singer weak if they were one of the main reasons the band went where they did.

If we're saying bands with bad live singers, that would be a totally different list. But I interrupted the title to mean a band where the vocals are actively holding back the music. Axl (and Ozzy) are sure not doing that, even if you don't like their voices.

[bosk1]

Has anyone mentioned Guns n' Roses yet? Look, I won't dispute that Axl is the "bad boy frontman" of a lifetime and that he deserves all the credit for being a huge reason why GNR became so big.

But if you look at his vocals alone.... he's at cat ran over by a car levels.

Depends on what you're talking about in general. Live? Yeah, sounds like a banshee past its prime. In studio? Extremely strong vocal lines and raspy screams carried for many seconds, and a wide range - not just in octaves, but in delivery. When I was a dumb kid I thought Appetite had 3 lead singers. Now I'm a dumb adult, but I know better. He has some powerful live moments, but in general, yeah. Not the greatest.

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good assessment.  Going line by line in studio, he delivered some very good vocal moments.  Live, no thank you.  "Cat being run over" is, at least for some of what he delivered, pretty insulting to cats.  But the guy demonstrated that he absolutely could sing.

[Crow]

oh let's put Glassjaw here, their singer is absolutely terrible at singing and it only enhances the music
helps that he at least gets good melodies to work with most of the time

[Stadler]

Has anyone mentioned Guns n' Roses yet? Look, I won't dispute that Axl is the "bad boy frontman" of a lifetime and that he deserves all the credit for being a huge reason why GNR became so big.

But if you look at his vocals alone.... he's at cat ran over by a car levels.

Depends on what you're talking about in general. Live? Yeah, sounds like a banshee past its prime. In studio? Extremely strong vocal lines and raspy screams carried for many seconds, and a wide range - not just in octaves, but in delivery. When I was a dumb kid I thought Appetite had 3 lead singers. Now I'm a dumb adult, but I know better. He has some powerful live moments, but in general, yeah. Not the greatest.

I saw Ozzy live twice; once solo (that tour with Joe Holmes) and once with Sabbath (The End).    The solo tour was one of the worst vocal performances I've ever heard.  Everything you imagine to be bad about Ozzy.   Whiny, cracked, flat, and "let me see your fucking hands!" after every verse.    I saw him on The End tour in Mansfield, MA, and he was excellent.  Human enough where you knew it was live, and it was detuned a shade, but it was solid, and that was a concert worthy of legends (didn't hurt that I was 10 feet from Geezer). 

I saw Axl twice as well, once on the Use Your Illusion tour and once on the Chinese Democracy club tour (1,000 seater in Philly).   He was great the first time; not perfect, it was live, but it was DANGEROUS, and so it fit perfectly.   The second, I was truly blown away; the show started at 11:00 sharp, and I left at ten after two, and he was on the stage singing the entire time, save for Dizzy's solo spot and... one of the guitarists, I think it was Bumblefoot.  So just about three hours.   He sang EVERYTHING, and in tune and (I think anway) the original keys.  Look, if you don't like his tone, you wouldn't have liked it, but it was GOOD (didn't hurt that the cute girl next to me was rubbing her butt against me the whole show while her hubby boyfriend sat at a table and surfed eBay on his phone. Dick didn't look up one time during the show while his wife danced away).   

[MirrorMask]

Maybe I have been a bit too harsh about Axl. What I specifically meant is that when I went back to one of the very earliest bands I started to listen to, basically the second after Bon Jovi when I was a young teen and was starting to discover heavy music, I was like "well... so I put up with this?" - I liked him back in the day but then I just couldn't make myself at ease again with his vocals. Probably having discovered other singers put things into perspective for me and I couldn't go back from Bruce Dickinson to him.

Then again, as I said, I will never deny his huge importance for the scene and if he's still out there doing performances people like, all for the better, it's not that I want him to fail or anything. It was just a case of "Well, maybe if the vocals weren't like that I could still listen a lot to Guns n' Roses" (even though some songs here and there I actually like to this day).

[Indiscipline]

Bloody hell, Stadler, they were auctioning a Vandenberg original vinyl. What was I supposed to do?

[TAC]

Porcupine Tree

[Peter Mc]

Flying Colors is a great example, I should like that band but just can’t get on board with Casey as a singer. Every time Neal Morse sings a passage, it just elevates the thing so much that I’m just wishing he’d sing everything. I get that Portnoy already did lots of albums with Neal singing lead though. For that reason I didn’t bother with album no. 2 and have zero interest in a new one unless they change singer.

Arch Enemy are a band I always quite like instrumentally but a huge turn off once the growls begin. I also struggle with lots of Euro powermetal singers.

Not to derail the thread but with Stadler mentioning how much he’s enjoyed the recent Slash solo records, as I have, just wondering what you think of the two songs released off the upcoming album. I’m a little lukewarm on them, I have to admit, sounds a little Slash/Myles by numbers. Hoping the album is better than these would indicate.

[Peter Mc]

Tell me I'm not the only one thinking current day Dream Theater?

Otherwise, this one's for Katt.... Voyager.

As opposed to Charlie Dominici you mean?

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Porcupine Tree

This is an interesting one. Steven definitely doesn't have a particularly strong voice, but never once while listening to a Porcupine Tree or SW song have I thought, 'you know, this song would be better with a really powerful singer.' Steven's very emotive and his voice is perfect for the music he writes.

[KevShmev]

Queen
Kansas
Queensryche
The Beatles
Journey

[Phoenix87x]

Marillion with H

Not saying that I totally dislike H era. There's a decent amount of their songs that I really enjoy, but alot of it I'm just like meh. And in comparison to fish, its just no contest in imo.

[DTA]

Marillion with H

Not saying that I totally dislike H era. There's a decent amount of their songs that I really enjoy, but alot of it I'm just like meh. And in comparison to fish, its just no contest in imo.

I love the h era of the band but his vocals since around the Marbles era have been a bit of a letdown. Very mumbly and awkward sounding. I love the musical portions of the music but I can’t help but wish that h still retained the power of his earlier days. Not his fault but it’s made my interest wane a bit.

[TAC]

Queen
Kansas
Queensryche
The Beatles
Journey

I think you meant to post this in the Weak Bands with Great Vocals Thread.

[ChuckSteak]

Sometimes it is not the vocals which are weak, but your taste. 

[King Postwhore]

[twosuitsluke]

I'd say that Between the Buried and Me's harsh vocals leave a lot to  be desired. They do pretty much nothing for me, it's the music which luckily is enough to keep me coming back. I've been getting in to them more since Automata was released but my opinion on the growls haven't really changed.

I think Tesseract are another one. I've tried and just can't get into this band at all. I think the vocals are a large part of this.

[Ruba]

Not exactly great, but Children of Bodom. They have some very good songs, but Laiho's vocals are a big turn-off for me. Vocals are important for me, if they aren't good, I'm unlikely to like the band. On the other hand, a great vocalist can make otherwise average band a lot better.

Megadeth has been mentioned many times as a band who's vocalist isn't that great, but his style fits the music well enough. I agree and enjoy many of Mustaine's studio performances, but he's often pretty iffy live. Filter is also pretty similar; Richard Patrick isn't the best of vocalists, but I like his style anyway. And he can scream pretty well.

I don't particularly like Joey Belladonna or Ozzy Osbourne, but I do like old Anthrax and Black Sabbath. I can't give opinions on their whole careers, but I do prefer Bush and Dio as vocalists (and Gillan, but I guess we shouldn't talk about it  )

oh let's put Glassjaw here, their singer is absolutely terrible at singing and it only enhances the music
helps that he at least gets good melodies to work with most of the time

  Daryl is awesome.

[Train of Naught]

I'd say that Between the Buried and Me's harsh vocals leave a lot to  be desired. They do pretty much nothing for me, it's the music which luckily is enough to keep me coming back. I've been getting in to them more since Automata was released but my opinion on the growls haven't really changed.

I think Tesseract are another one. I've tried and just can't get into this band at all. I think the vocals are a large part of this.

Ouch, there go 2 of my favourite singers of all-time (taking Dan Tompkins for TesseracT as he is the one that sang on most of their albums)

[SoundscapeMN]

Weakling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CSXC6Xj8A0

[Schurftkut]

Haken

[Crow]

I'd say that Between the Buried and Me's harsh vocals leave a lot to  be desired. They do pretty much nothing for me, it's the music which luckily is enough to keep me coming back. I've been getting in to them more since Automata was released but my opinion on the growls haven't really changed.

I think Tesseract are another one. I've tried and just can't get into this band at all. I think the vocals are a large part of this.

Ouch, there go 2 of my favourite singers of all-time (taking Dan Tompkins for TesseracT as he is the one that sang on most of their albums)

i will also chime in and say that hypno5e would be a better band with better harsh vox (or none at all)

[Ruba]

To be fair, Tobias Forge isn't that good vocalist, but Ghost is so amazing it's easy to overlook it. His vocal style is pretty much a perfect fit for the band anyway.

[eric42434224]

Accept

[TAC]

Accept

Udo era or Tornillo era?

[Train of Naught]

I'd say that Between the Buried and Me's harsh vocals leave a lot to  be desired. They do pretty much nothing for me, it's the music which luckily is enough to keep me coming back. I've been getting in to them more since Automata was released but my opinion on the growls haven't really changed.

I think Tesseract are another one. I've tried and just can't get into this band at all. I think the vocals are a large part of this.

Ouch, there go 2 of my favourite singers of all-time (taking Dan Tompkins for TesseracT as he is the one that sang on most of their albums)

i will also chime in and say that hypno5e would be a better band with better harsh vox (or none at all)

I mean, I agree with that, I said that in one of the first comments of the thread

[Crow]

you expect me to read the threads i post it? pff 

[Big Hath]

Porcupine Tree

This is an interesting one. Steven definitely doesn't have a particularly strong voice, but never once while listening to a Porcupine Tree or SW song have I thought, 'you know, this song would be better with a really powerful singer.' Steven's very emotive and his voice is perfect for the music he writes.

I'm trying to get over the fact that TAC called Porcupine Tree a great band!

[TAC]

Hah!  I'm willing to concede on PT. Enough people I respect swear by them. I've sampled a number of things and I do think they're all excellent musicians. But that voice...yuck.

[The Walrus]

Hah!  I'm willing to concede on PT. Enough people I respect swear by them. I've sampled a number of things and I do think they're all excellent musicians. But that voice...yuck.

What, you don't like the croonings of a dreary Brit?   

[TAC]

Hah!  I'm willing to concede on PT. Enough people I respect swear by them. I've sampled a number of things and I do think they're all excellent musicians. But that voice...yuck.

What, you don't like the croonings of a dreary Brit whiney pretentious ass?   

No, not really.

[KevShmev]

What, you don't like the croonings of a whiney pretentious ass?   

No, not really.

Me neither, so keep it down, will ya?

[King Postwhore]

What, you don't like the croonings of a whiney pretentious ass?   

No, not really.

Me neither, so keep it down, will ya?

 

[TAC]

[The Walrus]