QUEENSRYCHE

stpatrik wrote:

Runicen wrote:

stpatrik wrote:

With all due respect, I personally feel they don't really need DeGarmo anymore. As far as I'm concerned, the s/t, which I feel is way better than the last 3 records the original band made, was proof that Tate was the problem rather than DeGarmo not being there anymore. Lundgren has a good report with Wilton live, and judging by Where Dreams Go To Die, he certainly has songwriting chops too. The next album will be really interesting. La Torre can play instruments and thus contributes as well, that's probably why the great vocal melodies are back, too.

This is a distinct possibility.  Whatever the next album from Toddryche is, it'll pretty much show whether they can really pull it out of the bag or if the new self-titled was about all the gas they had left in the tank.  For my part, I'm hoping for a total triumph.

One observation on the new one that is a little problematic (and Todd being more of an instrumentalist/musician himself than Tate may address this as he's brought in more on the writing side) is that the vocal melodies were pretty pedestrian and uninteresting - to the point that, even now, Tate could have probably sung them without much difficulty even with his drastically reduced range.

I can se La Torre sorta held back a little, but no way Tate could sing ém. Judging by the pro shot show from Brazil, he can barely hold a note anymore, much less make his way through harmonies without failing. Besides Paul Stanley, I really can't think of another vocalist whose range has diminished so drastically.

Have you heard Joe Elliot lately???? crapola

I know a lot of people have said Mark Slaughter's vocals sound really shot during live performances in recent years.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Runicen wrote:

This isn't meant as a knock against La Torre because I sure as hell couldn't do it, but over the range of live videos I've seen of the new lineup on Youtube, he sounds like he's a stiff breeze from shredding his pipes when he hits those notes.  I mean, he's squeezing pretty damn hard to get those sounds out...

You could hear that coming a mile away when he first joined. He was impressive, but you could hear that there was no way he was gonna tour continuously and hold up. Just a few months in he was screaming (not singing) many of those high notes (especially QoTR). He's my age and has never toured at Ryche's level...he's got a TOUGH road ahead of him. He better dial it back a little (more) on future material.

I think he sounds much better now than he did in the beginning, when he was trying to sing everything like Geoff would. Now he's using a style and tones that, I assume, are much more within his natural range.

Vexer6 wrote:

I know a lot of people have said Mark Slaughter's vocals sound really shot during live performances in recent years.

He sounds pretty bad, yeah. Not the entire time, but anything that comes close to the upper register falls severely flat. Joe Elliot isn't nearly as bad. He still sounds decent live.

Not to derail the thread completely, but is there anybody going who still sounds more or less the way they did "in the day?"

I've read some critiques of Dio having lost some range by the end, but he could still fundamentally sing the songs, even if he wasn't going to be adding any really high ad libs like he might have in the 70s, so I suppose that's an example of what I'd be looking for.

Lemmy can still hit all of the notes that he could back in the day!

Lemmy doesn't hit notes. Lemmy violates the air nearest to his larynx.

Mr. Biff Byford

Runicen wrote:

Not to derail the thread completely, but is there anybody going who still sounds more or less the way they did "in the day?"  

I've read some critiques of Dio having lost some range by the end, but he could still fundamentally sing the songs, even if he wasn't going to be adding any really high ad libs like he might have in the 70s, so I suppose that's an example of what I'd be looking for.

John Arch still wails just as high as he used to, Midnight was great on his weird 00's stuff. Leather Leone sounds pretty good. Out of those who actually kept recording a decent amount, "The Tyrant" Conklin gets the nod.

BearOnUnicycle wrote:

Runicen wrote:

Not to derail the thread completely, but is there anybody going who still sounds more or less the way they did "in the day?"  

I've read some critiques of Dio having lost some range by the end, but he could still fundamentally sing the songs, even if he wasn't going to be adding any really high ad libs like he might have in the 70s, so I suppose that's an example of what I'd be looking for.

John Arch still wails just as high as he used to, Midnight was great on his weird 00's stuff. Leather Leone sounds pretty good. Out of those who actually kept recording a decent amount, "The Tyrant" Conklin gets the nod.

Not a single singer you mentioned has (had) done any sort of intensive touring the way Dio & Tate have. Their voices are (were) still pretty much intact, general age notwithstanding.

Much as I'm not a huge fan of his voice, Bruce Dickinson has held up well, when you consider the amount of gigs he has under his belt.

Boris2008 wrote:

Much as I'm not a huge fan of his voice, Bruce Dickinson has held up well, when you consider the amount of gigs he has under his belt.

Agreed.

On albums Coverdale sounds good but i'm hearing he's cheating.

Eric Adams. Manowar are a comical farce of themselves these days but dude's voice is top notch! Even at that dreadful 5+ hours Guinness record concert he was belting the high screams until the very end.

Dark Horseman wrote:

On albums Coverdale sounds good but i'm hearing he's cheating.

Say it ain't so!   

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t11674p50-whitesnake-is-the-greatest-band-ever?highlight=whitesnake

At the end of the linked thread watch the video.

Klaus Meine still sounds pretty great.

Singers whose initial style pushed them outside the comfortable range of their voice tend to burn their voice out rather quickly.

I bet if you asked Ian Gillan in the late 80s while he was going through multiple painful throat surgeries to repair the damage he inflicted by screaming his lungs out for over a decade if he regretted that choice he would probably say yes.

S.D. wrote:

Singers whose initial style pushed them outside the comfortable range of their voice tend to burn their voice out rather quickly.

I bet if you asked Ian Gillan in the late 80s while he was going through multiple painful throat surgeries to repair the damage he inflicted by screaming his lungs out for over a decade if he regretted that choice he would probably say yes.  

Sadly Gillan really should hang it up, just saw part of a 2011 gig and it was sad (the band sounded great)

The one who amazes me is Brian Johnson, who has for 30+ years looked like he was about to blow his voice out/have a heart attack/sh*t himself on stage, yet he still sounds great!   

Boris2008 wrote:

Sadly Gillan really should hang it up, just saw part of a 2011 gig and it was sad (the band sounded great)

I don't think so, he re-arranged those songs years ago so that he could sing them. He still has a good voice (listen to their most recent album), he just has to sing in his normal range now.

Same thing happened to Ian Anderson, he permanently damaged his voice while recording the Under Wraps album. Since then he had to change his style to suit the new lessened range he had to work with, including re-arranging all the vocals from their back catalog. He has now hired a vocalist for his solo tours and he concentrates mostly on playing guitar and flute.

Getting older sucks!   

Ouch. That Whitesnake live vid is pretty painful. Any chance it was just an off night captured on a cell phone? There are some Q&A vids on the official channel where he does a few acoustic songs with Aldrich and it sounds like he's still got the chops.

S.D. wrote:

I don't think so, he re-arranged those songs years ago so that he could sing them.  He still has a good voice (listen to their most recent album), he just has to sing in his normal range now.  

Same thing happened to Ian Anderson, he permanently damaged his voice while recording the Under Wraps album.  Since then he had to change his style to suit the new lessened range he had to work with, including re-arranging all the vocals from their back catalog.  He has now hired a vocalist for his solo tours and he concentrates mostly on playing guitar and flute.  

Gillan honestly has a lot going for him in that he never STOPPED singing. There are a ton of singers who took a few years off (Tate around Promised Land comes to mind, along with Robert Plant in the late 80s) and their voices degraded DRAMATICALLY during their off time. His voice isn't what it once was, but he can still more or less pull off being a rock frontman.

Anderson, unfortunately, probably made his situation worse after Under Wraps because he kept trying to push it back and I think he fried what was left in the process. Listen to Catfish Rising (some people hate it, I love it) and you hear the last real hurrah from his "new" voice. Everything after was the almost spoken singing.

But he hired a singer for the tour? I hadn't heard of that.

Runicen wrote:

But he hired a singer for the tour?  I hadn't heard of that.

He hired a singer for the TAAB2 tour last year, mostly to sing the more challenging sections from the original album. Anderson still sang during the acoustic sections and on the new songs from TAAB2.

Anderson's new solo album comes out next month, I understand that he will be taking the additional vocalist on tour again for this album.

I definitely don't blame him. He is still one helluva songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist, if he thinks the fans will get a better show if another vocalist sings the older material then I'm fine with it.

I remember the first time I head Def Leppard's On Through the Night, I thought it was a different singer. Mutt Lange pushed Joe Elliot to go higher. Unfortunately Joe can't hit all those notes in most of their hit songs.

S.D. wrote:

He hired a singer for the TAAB2 tour last year, mostly to sing the more challenging sections from the original album.  Anderson still sang during the acoustic sections and on the new songs from TAAB2.  

Anderson's new solo album comes out next month, I understand that he will be taking the additional vocalist on tour again for this album.

I definitely don't blame him.  He is still one helluva songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist, if he thinks the fans will get a better show if another vocalist sings the older material then I'm fine with it.  

My jury's still out on TAAB2, but I'm very much looking forward to the new one regardless.

Given that IA is so quick to reshuffle lineups to suit what he thinks the music needs, it's actually kind of refreshing that he's willing to do it in areas that are normally his sole domain. I don't know any other band that has really gone that route...