Iron Maiden

[tigeraid]

There's not many people on earth that has the vocal range of Bruce Dickinson.

 

Matthew Barlow, and possibly Rob Halford. That is all.

[Red Baron]

Barlow doesn't even come close to either Bruce or Rob.

[Slayer]

The line-up is Aja “Bruce Chickinson” Kim on vocals, Linda “Nikki McBURRain” McDonald on drums, Elizabeth “Adrienne Smith” Schall and Sara “MiniMurray” Marsh on guitars, and Wanda "Steph Harris" Ortiz on bass.

 

Good to see they have their own Nicko there in the middle

[tigeraid]

Barlow doesn't even come close to either Bruce or Rob.

 

You've got to be shitting me.

[Red Baron]

He can only sing from low to high pitch. He's near Rob Halford, but Bruce is on his own pedistal.

[Rendclaw]

And Liz Schall got kicked out of the band as of a couple days ago. Its a fucking pity, because she had Adrian Smith's playing *down*.

 

Geoff Tate circa 1988 was a match for Bruce Dickinson. I think that out of all the "true" metal vocalists, Bruce lost the least amount of ability. Its amazing considering Bruce is past 50 now.

[Red Baron]

I can see Tate, but from what I've heard, he doesn't have the range as he once does.

[randomguy]

Geoff Tate in his prime was better than Bruce, Bruce tends to be really sharp or flat on high notes sometimes. But Geoff lost his range very quickly. (Or just decided to stop using it starting with the awful Q2k)

 

Yes, I own "A Call to Irons." The bands on there are just horrible. What's the point of putting out a tribute with covers if they are so bad they make me want to avoid all those bands like the plague?

 

I think it was only like $5 or something though.

[Corey_Lazarus]

IIRC, A Call to Irons is one of those "all-star" tributes where it takes members of various different bands and puts them together on one song. There's one out there for Metallica called Metallic Assault, and some of the songs are decent (the version of "The Unforgiven" on there is superior to the original, thanks to the main vocalist of King's X doing vocal duties and making it sound much more depressing), but the one that stands out in its awfulness is "Nothing Else Matters." It's a piece of shit song by itself, but when you listen to the new one it sounds almost identical to the original, so there's no point to it being on there. Then you look at who played what on it...and Lemmy played bass. Yes. LEMMY. The man whose claim to fame is his vocals and not his bass playing. He didn't sing on a single fucking track.

 

But I digress.

 

Re: Barlow

It's hard to take somebody pimping Barlow seriously when you realize that Matty-boy sings with what seems like three marbles in his mouth at any given time. His voice works on some Iced Earth tracks, specifically "Jack" (I don't think anybody else could do the job he did on that tune), but...meh. He's better than most, but not too memorable if you're not an Iced Earth fan.

[cd213]

Re: Barlow

It's hard to take somebody pimping Barlow seriously when you realize that Matty-boy sings with what seems like three marbles in his mouth at any given time. His voice works on some Iced Earth tracks, specifically "Jack" (I don't think anybody else could do the job he did on that tune), but...meh. He's better than most, but not too memorable if you're not an Iced Earth fan.

 

I'm a HUGE IE fan and I have to agree with you. He has a great voice, but if a non-fan heard it, they wouldn't know who he was.

[Rendclaw]

Re: Barlow

It's hard to take somebody pimping Barlow seriously when you realize that Matty-boy sings with what seems like three marbles in his mouth at any given time. His voice works on some Iced Earth tracks, specifically "Jack" (I don't think anybody else could do the job he did on that tune), but...meh. He's better than most, but not too memorable if you're not an Iced Earth fan.

 

I'm a HUGE IE fan and I have to agree with you. He has a great voice, but if a non-fan heard it, they wouldn't know who he was.

 

I can attest to that. Ripper Owens is perfect for that band.

 

Geoff Tate in his prime was better than Bruce, Bruce tends to be really sharp or flat on high notes sometimes. But Geoff lost his range very quickly. (Or just decided to stop using it starting with the awful Q2k)

 

Yes, I own "A Call to Irons." The bands on there are just horrible. What's the point of putting out a tribute with covers if they are so bad they make me want to avoid all those bands like the plague?

 

I think it was only like $5 or something though.

 

I think I got it for $10. And it was a waste of money... there wasn't one good track on this whole disc.

 

I couldn't honestly say one was better than the other, because if you compared to them at the height of their ability (Bruce from 1982-1985, Geoff from 1984-1988), they are almost exactly matched. Geoff had something of advantage because he had a good backing singer in Chris DeGarmo.

[Corey_Lazarus]

I would argue that Bruce had Geoff outmatched because of him having no need for a backup singer.

[The Metal Maniac]

He has a great voice, but if a non-fan heard it, they wouldn't know who he was.

 

I don't get this comment, mostly because it seems like something that should be obvious and count for every musician.

 

I mean, if someone who didn't listen to metal heard Iron Maiden, they probably wouldn't know Bruce Dickinson's name either, but I don't really think that means anything. It just means they're not a fan.

[Slayer]

Man, that is a rather silly remark

 

"If someone who didn't know who he was heard him... they wouldn't know who he was"

 

I understand what you were saying, but still

 

Quite frankly the only metal voices I'd believe to known by mainstream music folks would be Hetfield and maybe Mustaine

[Copper Feel]

Why Mustaine? Surely Osbourne and for that matter Dickinson would be more well known?

[Rendclaw]

Hetfield and Osbourne are definitely more well known and even though Megadeth has been very successful, Mustaine's is more distinctive than well known.

 

I can see your point Corey, though Bruce often doubled his vocal tracks and sang the backing vocal a little differently or in a harmonizing key during choruses. "Flash of the Blade" comes to mind. Hell, the entire Powerslave album, for that matter. Sure, Adrian Smith sang backup when they performed live, but his voice sounded more like Springsteen than anyone else.

[Red Baron]

Ever here Steve Harris back-up vocals on their earlier albums. Sure it works well with D'Ianno, but with Bruce...ugh...

[Corey_Lazarus]

I mean, if someone who didn't listen to metal heard Iron Maiden, they probably wouldn't know Bruce Dickinson's name either, but I don't really think that means anything. It just means they're not a fan.

I meant that if somebody who wasn't an Iced Earth fan heard Barlow's voice, they'd be like "who the fuck is this guy?" Dickinson's voice is well-known throughout the metal world, ditto Halford, Ozzy, Hetfield, Mustaine, and even Phil Anselmo.

 

Also, the single most distinct voice in metal, punk...fuck, rock n' roll in general, at least in my opinion, has to be Lemmy. You hear his voice and you go "that's fucking Lemmy." It's not a growl, it's just how he actually sounds, and that makes it all the better.

 

Also, anybody notice how the riff to Corrosion of Conformity's "Clean My Wounds" is nearly identical to The Misfits' "Helena"? I know "Clean My Wounds" came out before "Helena," but I somehow doubt that Jerry and Doyle were big COC fans. My girlfriend pointed this out to me the other day, and the only difference is a pair of triplets instead of a solid downward strum.

[The Metal Maniac]

I meant that if somebody who wasn't an Iced Earth fan heard Barlow's voice, they'd be like "who the fuck is this guy?" Dickinson's voice is well-known throughout the metal world, ditto Halford, Ozzy, Hetfield, Mustaine, and even Phil Anselmo.

 

I still fail to see how someone who doesn't listen to Iced Earth not knowing who the former lead singer of Iced Earth is has anything to do with well...anything. Of course people who listen to metal know all those vocalists, because they're the vocalists for some of the biggest metal bands to ever exist.

 

I mean, if I popped in a Trivium CD, and heard their singer, I'd probably say "who the fuck is this guy" too. It doesn't mean he's a bad singer; it just means I have no idea who he is because I don't listen to Trivium. And I just don't see what that has to do with anything besides my own personal ignorance.

 

Anyway, on Maiden..who is it that sings backup live these days? I probably should know this but I don't...anyway, I just wanted to say that on the live version of Paschendale, whoever it is that is doing those background vocals does a good job. You know, on the "The bodies are ours and our foes" bit. Good stuff.

[Red Baron]

Adrian is really the only one I can think of. Harris does do back-up on the older stuff.

[Toshiaki Koala]

Quite frankly the only metal voices I'd believe to known by mainstream music folks would be Hetfield and maybe Mustaine

 

It's gotta be Hetfield, simply because when people who don't know anything hear heavy music, they automatically assume it's Metallica.

 

"Ew, is this, like, Metallica or something? Put on OAR."

[Red Baron]

People would know Axl Rose and possibly Vince Neil over Bruce Dickinson and Dave Mustaine.

[Epic Reine]

Axl, sure, but I don't think Neil really.

 

I think the two most recognizable vocalists in metal are Hetfield and Ozzy. A lot of bands try to emulate Dickinson's vocal style that when a band who was influenced heavily by Maiden was playing in the background of some store some people might actually think it's Bruce. Not a bad thing, just saying that Dickinson's voice isn't as recognizable as people think.

 

Also, while Bruce definatley owns Halford in terms of singing, I think Halford crushes him in terms of screaming. Bruce can't scream or growl quite like Halford can.

[Corey_Lazarus]

But that's alright, because Bruce also doesn't take it from behind like Halford can.

 

Corey Lazarus: providing obvious and awful gay jokes since 2002.

[Henry Spencer]

That hardly qualifies as a joke, I think.

[Rendclaw]

Adrian is really the only one I can think of. Harris does do back-up on the older stuff.

 

You are correct, sir. Adrian's time away from the band was good for him, no matter what my personal feelings are. He grew as both a guitar player and a singer, and it shows in his Psycho Motel stuff as well as on Bruce's more recent solo albums and when he rejoined Maiden back in 99. Just for shits and giggles check out his first solo album, Silver and Gold. It sounds nothing like Maiden, and that impressed the hell out of me when I first heard it.

 

As for Phil Anselmo, I have said before that it was a fucking shame that he stopped singing and kept on screaming and growling. He had a very impressive vocal range, and he just pissed it away.

[Corey_Lazarus]

If you mean his voice on Cowboys compared to, say, Trendkill...I'm totally disagreeing with you. IMO, his voice on the later albums is much better than his voice on the early work (not counting the Glamtera days), simply because he stuck to his limits and didn't do any of that horrendous high-pitch wailing like at the end of "Cemetery Gates." That song is near-perfect until the end when Phil does an awful Halford impression and yells "GAAAAAAAAATES!!!!"

[Rendclaw]

If you mean his voice on Cowboys compared to, say, Trendkill...I'm totally disagreeing with you. IMO, his voice on the later albums is much better than his voice on the early work (not counting the Glamtera days), simply because he stuck to his limits and didn't do any of that horrendous high-pitch wailing like at the end of "Cemetery Gates." That song is near-perfect until the end when Phil does an awful Halford impression and yells "GAAAAAAAAATES!!!!"

 

I'll have to disagree with you on that. I think that he had a more well-rounded singing style on Cowboys than Trendkill. He had someone else doing the heavier screaming on that album like on my favorite track, 13 Steps to Nowhere. I don't think that he changed much after Vulgar Display, but he could actually *sing*, as well as scream and growl when the song called for it. Since we're using Cemetary Gates as an example, that pushes my point home. Phil sang his ass off on that one, going from one emotional point to another in the song. when you look at the lyrics, I don't think it could have been done any other way.

 

And to imitate Halford, he would have have had his nuts in a vise to even come close. I think that he was going for a certain vibe as well as match the harmonic dive Darrell was doing. It worked, at least to me it did. When a singer can pull you into the song and make you feel what the song is portraying, he's good.

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye]

If you want to hear the very best that Phil Anselmo had to offer, listen to the first Down album. He's never come close to that performance on any of his other works.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Which is worse, Down II or Reinventing the Steel?

 

I was kind of forgiving of Down II when it first came out, but time was not kind to that record one bit.