I was just exaggerating to emphasize how much I love his voice.
but what makes his singing really remarkable is his unique sense of melody.
His unique sense of phrasing as well. To me, he has more in common in some sense with the RIO singer Dagmar Krause - equally innovative and influential in her own way - than with people he is often compared to, such as Geoff Tate. Tate had a great voice, but compared to Arch he's just not much to speak of. Arch is a one-of-a-kind vocalist. Once he's dead, no one's going to sing like Arch anymore. Just the way it is.
Can anyone tell me they
don't hear Watchtower or Awaken the Guardian in this song?
I also mentioned elsewhere how his voice happens to be perfectly suited for progressive metal...both his gift for elaborate melodies and piercing timbre. He also reminds me a bit of Geoff Mann or Buddy Lackey in some sense, in that his voice has some kind of magic to it. It makes you step a little bit outside of your head.
I should also comment that I love Ray Alder as well. For all of Arch's talent, he couldn't have done justice to A Pleasant Shade of Gray - it's just not in his domain. Alder, for what it's worth, couldn't have done justice to this great new album.
And you can't argue with the fact that he sings really nasally. It's just as true as the fact that he's skilled. I just don't get why you have to let the air current go through your nose (as in some American accents where it's very popular) when the ONLY phones in English language that actually require you to do so are [m], [n] and [ŋ].
English lets you play fast and loose with nasality as paralinguistic for just that reason - since we don't have to save any nasality for our vowels, it can kind of flow all over the place and bleed into its neighbors without confusing anyone. I dunno if it's the same for any language without nasal vowels though. In any case I like it - nasal singing is neat-o. Check out the band Pagan Altar if you want proof.
