The best vocalists?

Anacrusis

angelus ex inferis
Aug 26, 2001
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I guess this has been brought up before but who are your favourite vocalists?

I'll put the clean and death vocalists separately since I find it difficult to compare and rate them together.

Clean vocalists:

1. Midnight (ex-Crimson Glory) - sophistication, emotion, range and power, Midnight has it all and then more.. if you don't know who Midnight is then I strongly recommend you to download the songs Lost Reflection, In Dark Places and Transcendence by Crimson Glory
2. Geoff Tate (Queensryche) - second best after Midnight, they were actually trained by the same vocal coach, amazing live
3. Warrel Dane (Nevermore/Sanctuary) - besides a great singer, a very fine lyricist too
4. Jon Oliva (Savatage, Doctor Butcher, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Avatar) - also a great songwriter and dude, can't hit the high notes of the Sirens' days anymore but still rocks
5. Kenn Nardi (Anacrusis) - not exactly the best clean vox but definately the most maniacal shriek I've heard
6. Bruce Dickenson - no introduction needed here
7. Hansi Kursh (Blind Guardian, Demons and Wizards)
8. Mike Paton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle)
9. Dave Mustaine - nuff said
10. Charles Rytkonen (Morgana Lefay, Lefay) - great performance on "Past Present Future" and earlier albums
11. Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) - very underrated
12. Daniel Brennare (Lake Of Tears) - also an excellent songwriter and guitarist
13. Devin Townsend (Steve Vai, Young Stapping Lad, Ocean Machine, Infinity...) - still new to me but so far I'm impressed
14. Fredrik Ohlsson (Veni Domine) and Tom Mallicoat (Lethal) - the best Geoff Tate clones.. (that's a compliment)
15. Robert Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus, Last Chapter) - one of the finest and most uknown American metal vocalists

Others worth mentioning are James Rivera (Helstar, Destiny's End), Daniel Gildenlow (Pain Of Salvation), Andre Matos (Angra, Viper), Stacy Handchild (Vauxdivihl), Shawn Ames (Lord Bane), Stephen Green (Accomplice), Tobi Zoltan (Dreamscape)

Growlers:

1. Mikael Stanne (DT, IF) - the ultimate growler, absolutely crushing performance on the first In Flames album and uncompromising and innovative on all DT albums
2. Mikael Akerfeldt - the smoothest transition between death/black and clean vox, also one of the most prolific songwriters and guitarists
3. Dan Swano - the mastermind behind numerous projects is very close to Akerfeld in the vocal and multi-talents department
4. Tomi Koivusaari (Amorphis) - not much diverse but "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" is one of my fav death albums
5. Fernando Ribeiro (Moonspell, Demonarch) - his "goth" vocals are getting a little boring but his death growl is top notch
6. Anders Friden (In Flames) - a little predictable but still kicks ass, also I like his clean vocals better than Stanne's ones
7. Thomas Lindberg (At The Gates)
8. Felix (Crematory) - underrated
9. Simen and Garm - not growlers but very good combination of black metal shriek and clean vox
10. Paul Masvidal (Cynic)
 
Clean:
1)Simen Hestnaes!
2)Vintersorg
3)Garm
4)Swano
5)Akerfeldt

Distorted:
1)Akerfeldt
2)Swano
3)Lindberg
4)The dude on Bethlehem's SUIZID (sorry, forget the name!)
5)Abbath!
 
Clean:

Warrel Dane(aka vocal god)
Russel Allen(you have to see him live to truely understand his talent)
Bruce Dickenson
Mikael Akerfeldt

Growlers:

Mikael Akerfeldt
Mikael Stanne (He did some of the best growls of all time on The Gallery and The Mind's I, but I don't care for his work on Haven)
Dan Swano

I'm sure I'm forgeting some, but thats all I can think of right now.
 
Clean Vocals:

° Jonas Renske
° M. Akerfeldt
° Aaron Stainthorpe
° Eric Clayton
° ...

Growl/Distorted vocals

° Vocals on S.U.I.Z.I.D. (Bethlehem)
° Runhild (Thorr´s Hammer)
° M.Kehren (Deinonychus)
° G.Benton (Deicide)
° Chris Barnes (Six Feet Under)
° ...
 
Can´t you at least try to spell the name of God Father himself right? It´s BRUCE DICKINSON and nothing else. And how come only two persons here list him? Don´t you listen to the greatest band ever (no, not Opeth) or what? Do you listen to good old Heavy Metal as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and so on at all? Well, I don´t get that expression. No one ever mentions these bands here.

Ok, with that said, here´s my list:

Clean vocals

1. Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
2. Rob Halford (ex-Judas Priest)
3. Warrel Dane (Nevermore)
4. James LaBrie (Dream Theater)
5. Michael Kiske (Helloween)
6. Ozzy Osbourne
7. Tom Araya (Slayer)
8. Eric Adams (Manowar)
9. Simen Hestnaes (Dimmu Borgir)
10. Devin Townsend

Death/Black vocals
1. Johan Lindstrand (ex-The Crown)
2. Jon Nödtveidt (Dissection)
3. David Vincent (ex-Morbid Angel)
4. Dan Swanö (ex-Edge Of Sanity)
5. Glen Benton (Deicide)
6. Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)
7. Lex Icon (Kovenant)
8. Tompa Lindberg (ATG, The Crown)
9. Peter... something (Vader)
10. LG Petrov (Entombed)
 
The bestz:

Jon Nödtveidt - Dissection
Glen Benton - Deicide
David Vincent - Morbid Angel
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Opeth
Jason Blachowicz - Malevolent Creation
Ihsahn - Emperor
Phil Anselmo - Pantera
Nocturno Culto - Darkthrone
Sanrabb - Gehenna
The chick from Opera Ix - Opera Ix :D

...
 
Svenske! I can't believe you put Tom Araya above Simen Hestnaes. Were you deprived as a child !?

Yeah, something like that. :D No, actually; after Michael Kiske the vocalists are in no particular order - or something. I was pretty sure of the top 5 vocalists, but after that it got harder. Come to think of it, Simen Hestnaes should be above both Tom Araya and Eric Adams. Maybe Ozzy too.
 
I agree with all the previously named vocalists completely....

BUT!!!!!!

Where the hell is Hansi Kursch from Blind Guardian?!?!?!?!?!? He is one of my top 3 at least, he is simply stunning!!!!!!
 
the dude that sang on darkane - rusted angel
if you all listen to old darkane cd, and listen to andromeda which he sang on also, you will realize the amazing range of styles and note selection that he has!!! HES AMAZING

james labrie from dream theater = the shit

Believe it or not, james hetfield i think throughout the years has become one awesome vocalist also
 
Best growler ( :lol: that means something else where I'm from...) ever: Aaron Stainthorpe from My Dying Bride (are you really surprised I said that?), on the first couple of albums and EP's. Noone else has ever sounded like him- so harsh and deep, but without that back-of-the-throat distortion that makes him sound like he's actually growling. Awesome.
The new vocalist from Arch Enemy sounds cool, what little I've heard of her, but I may just be impressed by the fact that a female actually managed to sound like a cross between John Tardy and Chuck Schuldiner!!

Favourite overall singer is Garm, though.
Favourite female is Anneke van Giersbergen (the Gathering. Does she have a cool name or what!)
 
All of these posts and no one mentions Anneke :deb: of the Gathering?! Shame on you all! :bah:
Good female vocalists are so many these days that it's hard to pick just a few.. and yeah Anneke and Lisa Gerrard are two of the best. My favs though are Tori Amos and Patricia Kaas (don't laugh).

Where the hell is Hansi Kursch from Blind Guardian?!?!?!?!?!? He is one of my top 3 at least, he is simply stunning!!!!!!
Well he's in my top 10. And I think he's even more stunning on Demons & Wizards (compared to the last Blind Guardian).

the dude that sang on darkane - rusted angel
if you all listen to old darkane cd, and listen to andromeda which he sang on also, you will realize the amazing range of styles and note selection that he has!!! HES AMAZING
He's ok.. He fitted well Darkane's style but on Andromeda though he did a decent/good job on a couple of songs overall I think he's the weak link of the band.
 
Mikael Åkerfeldt,Garm,Jan from In the woods,Tompa Lindberg,Johan Lindstrand,Dan swanö,Carl-Michael Eide and Aldrahn are super-vocalists!!!

From females,I love Agnete Kirkevaag's and Synne Soprana's vocals .....