Tim 'Ripper' Owens

Opinion on him is very mixed but personally i think hes an amazing vocalist and i love every album hes sung on. what does everyone on here think of him?

he's a capable vocalist. Winters Bane's Heart Of A Killer was pretty good, Beyond Fear was good. other than that, he hasn't had a real chance to show his stuff. all the other albums he sang on just plain sucked. not so much vocally, but altogether.

people will disagree with this of course, but screw them.

I like Ripper,he's got a great voice IMO.I like about everything he's done

I like him. I tought he was a fine replacement in Priest, doing the best he could with the weak material. I liked him in Iced Earth and he's great in Beyond Fear. Could the material be better? Maybe in some cases, but as a singer, the dude's got pipes.

Ripper is the man, as far as I'm concerned. The mere fact that he attempted to step into ROB HALFORD's position in Judas Priest (whether or not he was successful depends on who you talk to, of course), showed that he's got a massive amount of guts. He was basically in a no-win situation but he gave it his all. I will always respect him for that.

Vocally, I think he's one of the most underrated guys to come along in the last fifteen years or so, and that's due to the fact that, as mc666 said, he hasn't really had many opportunities to really show what he can do. Other than Beyond Fear (which was great) and to a smaller extent, Winters Bane (which was really guitarist Lou St. Paul's show) he's been in bands with strong leaders (or tyrants, take your pick) like Glenn Tipton and Jon Schaffer so he hasn't had much to do with the song writing/arranging. But for my money, there's no better screamer in metal right now than Owens.

So yea, I guess you can say I'm a big fan.

Me like! Him get bad press because of bad songwriting from other people! Not him fault! Him do good job! Him killer in Priest! Me like...Halford who? Me like Barlow who?


ok, maybe not to that extent, but I really like his singing and have enjoyed everything he's been on.

Ripper is a good vocalist. I agree the Priest and Iced Earth stuff to me is weak material. Winter's Bane is my favorite thing he has done.

Winters Bane is by far the best thing he has done.

Great singer, shouldn't be in Iced Earth though.

He got a good voice but not for JUDAS PRIEST or ICED EARTH.

I saw him tour with Judas Priest and I have the Live Meltdown 2 cd album, and I'm a huge Halford fan, but Ripper was AWESOME on the older material and would NAIL it. He was great as a replacement for Halford.

I think he's an amazing vocalist. Heart of a Killer is probably
my favorite album but Glorious Burden and Jugulator are both
excellent. Demolition has it's moments and the Beyond Fear album
was really good.

Both Ripper and Blaze Bayley don't get the credit they deserve.
It's hard to replace a guy considered one of the best of all time and
both guys did admirable jobs even with some lackluster material given
to them.

Rexorcist wrote:

I saw him tour with Judas Priest and I have the Live Meltdown 2 cd album, and I'm a huge Halford fan, but Ripper was AWESOME on the older material and would NAIL it. He was great as a replacement for Halford.

I agree. His version of Diamonds & Rust is jaw dropping. I don't think that Judgulator or Demolition were great, but they both have songs I think are good. Bullet Train and Cathedral Spires are GREAT songs.

I like everything I've heard him sing on!

I saw him touring with JUDAS PRIEST too and i can tell you that the opening band (SAVATAGE) were far better. Ripper owens was moving like a rapper on stage, moving his arms like he was boxing. Very strange for a metal frontman. His voice was okay but still didnt realy sing right the JUDAS PRIEST tracks. Also he was arrogant and didnt talk to all the fans. He sucked.

krokus wrote:

I saw him touring with JUDAS PRIEST too and i can tell you that the opening band (SAVATAGE) were far better. Ripper owens was moving like a rapper on stage, moving his arms like he was boxing. Very strange for a metal frontman. His voice was okay but still didnt realy sing right the JUDAS PRIEST tracks. Also he was arrogant and didnt talk to all the fans. He sucked.

He must've been having an off night. When I saw him with Priest, he sounded great live, which convinced me to purchase Jugulator. He seemed to have the most energy of the band at the time. Ian Hill looked like he was gonna fall asleep. I'll give you the strange boxing moves, though. Hopefully, he's had time to work on his stage presence since then.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

krokus wrote:

I saw him touring with JUDAS PRIEST too and i can tell you that the opening band (SAVATAGE) were far better. Ripper owens was moving like a rapper on stage, moving his arms like he was boxing. Very strange for a metal frontman. His voice was okay but still didnt realy sing right the JUDAS PRIEST tracks. Also he was arrogant and didnt talk to all the fans. He sucked.

He must've been having an off night. When I saw him with Priest, he sounded great live, which convinced me to purchase Jugulator. He seemed to have the most energy of the band at the time. Ian Hill looked like he was gonna fall asleep. I'll give you the strange boxing moves, though. Hopefully, he's had time to work on his stage presence since then.

Yes, he could have just a bad night because when i read your opinion and the rest, it looks like normaly he was a good frontman for JUDAS PRIEST.
I also hope he worked on his stage presence:D. Take care.

Absolutely top notch Metal Vocalist!!!

As far as I'm concerned, he's one of the best vocalists in metal.

My one complaint about the LIVE MELTDOWN album is that though Owens sounds GREAT vocally, the band doesn't sound quite "right." I think they down-tuned their instruments to match the "brutal" tone of the JUGULATOR songs and that made the classic tracks sound a little weird. Am I the only one who's noticed that?

I have never seen Owens w/Priest or Iced Earth, but believe it or not, I did see him with his Judas Priest tribute band, "British Steel," in a little dump club near me in New Jersey in '94 or '95. I was impressed with his Halford impression even then (when they played "Victim of Changes," my friend and I were standing in front of the stage doing the "Wayne's World" style "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" bow), so a couple of years later when I heard that he was going to be the new Priest singer, not only did I go "Wow, I have a killer 'I knew him when' story now," but I also decided that they'd definitely found the right guy.

Quote :

My one complaint about the LIVE MELTDOWN album is that though Owens sounds GREAT vocally, the band doesn't sound quite "right." I think they down-tuned their instruments to match the "brutal" tone of the JUGULATOR songs and that made the classic tracks sound a little weird. Am I the only one who's noticed that?

Yes, I noticed a slight difference as well. I'm not a musician, so I couldn't tell you what they did exactly, but there is a noticable difference in the live Ripper songs as opposed to the Halford studio versions. It didn't bother me though.

I like him alot. Excellent vocalist, with a great range. I like that before he joined Priest he was in a "Grunge" cover band, besides the Priest cover band

Forever A Heath Bar wrote:

I like him alot. Excellent vocalist, with a great range. I like that before he joined Priest he was in a "Grunge" cover band, besides the Priest cover band

Good cover bands can make a ton of money. But wasn't he in the other cover band after he joined Priest? I thought it was more recent thing where they covered Disturbed and stuff.

Eyesore wrote:

Forever A Heath Bar wrote:

I like him alot. Excellent vocalist, with a great range. I like that before he joined Priest he was in a "Grunge" cover band, besides the Priest cover band

Good cover bands can make a ton of money. But wasn't he in the other cover band after he joined Priest? I thought it was more recent thing where they covered Disturbed and stuff.

Could be not sure. I barely remember a clip of news way back when saying the band he was in played AIC and other Seattle bands of the '90s