Favorite vocalists

[MikeT14]

Younger Steven Tyler

[adamq]

Lou Reed!

[sammymvpknight]

For active singers, I’ll go with David Draiman

[Jeezla]

Layne Staley

Eddie Vedder

Aretha Franklin

Howlin Wolf

Chester Bennington

Bradley Nowell

James Hetfield

Bob Marley

James Brown 

John Fogerty

Eric Burdon

Bob Seger

Phil Anselmo

Corey Taylor

 

 

 

Edited May 25 by Jeezla

[INbengalfan]

Lot's of great ones mentioned.

 

I'll toss Brent Smith into the mix.

[Tetsujin]

Tracy Byrd in the realm of country music.

[MacReady]

Andrew Schwab, Tommy Giles, Adele, M. Shadows, Schuyler Croom.

I wish Avenged didn’t turn to **** after their second album.

[Apparition]

John Arch

Hansi Kürsch

Geoff Tate

Robert Lowe

Rob Halford

Harry Conklin

Chris Cornell (RIP)

Tim Aymar (RIP)

Warrel Dane (RIP)

John "Midnight" McDonald (RIP)

Layne Staley (RIP)

Jonas Renkse

Matt McNerney

Erica Stoltz

Jamie Myers

Ann Wilson

 Lorraine Rath/Jessica Way

Beth Gibbons

Jay Munly

Robert Smith

 

Edited May 31 by Apparition

[Chiefs_5627]

Layne Staley is my guy, Jeff Buckley had so much talent also. Scott Stapp gets dissed a lot but he's solid. Ben Burnley n Adam Gontier. 

Old school: Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Steve Perry and, of course, Elvis, Freddie.

Some young pups: Marcus KIng is AMAZING, and I really like that kid from Greta Van Fleet.

Edited May 31 by Chiefs_5627

[Malfatron]

Ronnie james dio

[SodeeWater_Cheezburger]

Bing Crosby
Perry Como
Nat King Cole
Frank Sinatra
Andy Williams
Dean Martin
Jim Reeves
Elvis Presley
Dion Damucci
Johnny Mathis
Fats Domino
Ben E. King
Jackie Wilson
Sam Cooke
Aretha Franklin
John Fogerty
Steven Tyler
Olivia Newton-John
Bob Marley
Sheena Easton
Axl Rose
Harry Connick Jr.
LeAnn Rimes
Christina Aguilera

 

[MKnight82]

On 5/18/2024 at 9:27 AM, naptownskinsfan said:

Good names already mentioned.  As a big metal guy, Burton C. Bell from Fear Factory needs to be on the list.  This is the group that pioneered heavy/clean lyrics, and it’s due to his work.  Fantastic front man in his prime

 

What do you think of the new singer? I have lots of thoughts. As someone who was pro Bell in the Dino vs. Bell spat that ended with Bell leaving, I was certainly skeptical. But here's a bunch of random thoughts from a lifelong Fear Factory fan: 

 

- The new singer isn't that bad. He has been put in a tough spot, coming into a group that has been buried in lawsuits for decades and replacing a beloved frontman. I think he does an admirable job here. His clean vocals sound better than Bell's do now at his age, which has been a criticism Dino has made publicly many times (and he's usually being a **** about it). But I still think Bell's grow and screams sound better than this new guy, and honestly his cleans work better on the newer stuff when the vocal performance was more operatic than the Gary Numan like cleans early on. I also think he struggles with the groove vocal lines on songs like Edgecrusher, Bell just had better flow. 

- The song list has me scratching my head a bit. Opening with What Will Become and two songs from Digimortal? Like why? That album is one of the low points of the group IMO. They leaned way too heavy into the nu metal phase of the time and were definitely trying to write more radio friendly crap. Recharger is also an interesting choice off of the Industrialist, until you hear the new guy sing it and it really fits his vocal style well so I get it. Edgecrusher is also a decent song but really is from a different era, I prefer the pure metal Fear Factory and less nu metal FF. Also not having any songs from Genexus seems criminal, its my second favorite FF album. I think hearing the new guy take a stab at Protomech would be pretty sick. 

- Speaking of albums, here's my stab at Fear Factory album rankings just for fun: 

1. Demanufacture - It's their masterpiece. 

2. Genexus - They are back to the peak of their powers on this album imo. Its the best written album behind only Deman and has the benefit of modern production value behind it. 

3. Archetype - Sorry Dino but this album is straight fire. It really benefits from having a different main songwriter as it sounds fresh and different. 

4. Mechanize - This is the first album to have the modern Fear Factory production value and also has some bangers on it. 

5. Obsolete - They started dipping their toe into the Nu Metal well on this one but there's plenty of great songs on here still. 

6. Aggression Continuum - There are some good riffs on this album but the songs as a whole don't feel as tight. Also they leaned too far into the Synth sound on this one imo. 

7. The Industrialist - This album isn't bad, but something just seems missing. Feels kind of empty as far as innovative writing. 

8. Digimortal - Seems like a bizarre entry in their discography. After the sales success of Obsolete they just went way too nu metal on this one. It also has Back the F Up, which IMO is the worst FF song ever recorded. 

9. Soul of a New Machine - the weren't really FF yet on this one. The songs are too simple and its more of a death metal feel than the industrial sound they would innovate later on. 

10. Transgression - This album was a complete miss imo. 

[SMashMouthMike]

Ozzy

[naptownskinsfan]

On 7/12/2024 at 2:42 PM, MKnight82 said:

 

What do you think of the new singer? I have lots of thoughts. As someone who was pro Bell in the Dino vs. Bell spat that ended with Bell leaving, I was certainly skeptical. But here's a bunch of random thoughts from a lifelong Fear Factory fan: 

 

- The new singer isn't that bad. He has been put in a tough spot, coming into a group that has been buried in lawsuits for decades and replacing a beloved frontman. I think he does an admirable job here. His clean vocals sound better than Bell's do now at his age, which has been a criticism Dino has made publicly many times (and he's usually being a **** about it). But I still think Bell's grow and screams sound better than this new guy, and honestly his cleans work better on the newer stuff when the vocal performance was more operatic than the Gary Numan like cleans early on. I also think he struggles with the groove vocal lines on songs like Edgecrusher, Bell just had better flow. 

- The song list has me scratching my head a bit. Opening with What Will Become and two songs from Digimortal? Like why? That album is one of the low points of the group IMO. They leaned way too heavy into the nu metal phase of the time and were definitely trying to write more radio friendly crap. Recharger is also an interesting choice off of the Industrialist, until you hear the new guy sing it and it really fits his vocal style well so I get it. Edgecrusher is also a decent song but really is from a different era, I prefer the pure metal Fear Factory and less nu metal FF. Also not having any songs from Genexus seems criminal, its my second favorite FF album. I think hearing the new guy take a stab at Protomech would be pretty sick. 

- Speaking of albums, here's my stab at Fear Factory album rankings just for fun: 

1. Demanufacture - It's their masterpiece. 

2. Genexus - They are back to the peak of their powers on this album imo. Its the best written album behind only Deman and has the benefit of modern production value behind it. 

3. Archetype - Sorry Dino but this album is straight fire. It really benefits from having a different main songwriter as it sounds fresh and different. 

4. Mechanize - This is the first album to have the modern Fear Factory production value and also has some bangers on it. 

5. Obsolete - They started dipping their toe into the Nu Metal well on this one but there's plenty of great songs on here still. 

6. Aggression Continuum - There are some good riffs on this album but the songs as a whole don't feel as tight. Also they leaned too far into the Synth sound on this one imo. 

7. The Industrialist - This album isn't bad, but something just seems missing. Feels kind of empty as far as innovative writing. 

8. Digimortal - Seems like a bizarre entry in their discography. After the sales success of Obsolete they just went way too nu metal on this one. It also has Back the F Up, which IMO is the worst FF song ever recorded. 

9. Soul of a New Machine - the weren't really FF yet on this one. The songs are too simple and its more of a death metal feel than the industrial sound they would innovate later on. 

10. Transgression - This album was a complete miss imo. 

I think you have a good list, except one………I would put Transfression in between Mechanize and Obsolete.  Honestly…….I love the change in direction, if only for an album, and there are some really good songs on there.  If I were them, 540,000 Degrees would be my opener for every single show.  I can honestly run for over an hour listening to that song.  My Grave is damn good, Supernova is an interesting one.  Spinal Compression and Contagion are low key favorites of mine, same as Moment of Impact.  And Christian is a very underrated composer, and I love the work he also did for Arkaea.  

As for Milo, I think he’s got a great vocal range and I agree on your assessment.  I just don’t think he can nail the lower range as well, but the trade off is much, much cleaner clean lyrics without the autotune Burton’s been using for probably the last decade.  I actually think he is a better fit for the more modern tracks. 

This band though……….it sucks for all of them.  Dino and Burton have wasted a ton of money on this thing before they split, and now they wasted more.  There is never going to be a reunion.  Ray is out of the music business, and Christian is at poverty level in the industry and relying upon his living filling in as a concert musician.  He deserves so much better out of this.  

[Forge]

Liam Gallagher slander in this thread