Not quite but I like the cut of your jib.

Well, in any time Vortex from Dimmu Borgir sings, it makes me cringe, though I do rather like Dimmu Borgir.

I actually like Lindberg's vocals. I think he fits the album perfectly. I personally don't bother the violins, altough I think they're good for the atmosphere. (The last minute of Within is just...awesome, in my opinion.)

I don't think that vocals done by, for example Mikael Stanne just wouldn't fit in.

Death Magnetic - Metallica.
I'm always going to support Metallica, but someone needs to snap james back into the eighties, no matter how bad the hair was
im glad that lars got his drums sounding back to the old sound tho
Im pretty sure im not the only one that thinks that.

That's pure blasphemy. John Connelly is a great thrash vocalist.

I think Bathory's Twilight of the Gods could have benefited from a better singer or just from better singing, but there's not much that could have been done about it, it's not like Quorthon was going to pack up and leave vocal duties to someone else.

Dark Tranquillity, Dimension Zero and Arch Enemy also come to mind.
You really can't generalize with melodeath.

Speaking of Arch Enemy the first three albums are pure gold musically, but man does Johan Liiva not sound good at all. I don't think Angela's any better, but at least she fits the music.

I would probably like Kamelot a bit more if their vocalist wasn't such a pansy. The Woods of Ypres vocalist ruins a lot of his own songs by doing the clean parts as well.

I thought Lars' drumming sucked especially on "The Day That Never Comes"-come on James didn't really sound that bad!

Damn straight!

Never been able to get into Vio-lence because of those terrible vocals.

Tompa's vocals kick ass if you ask me. Maybe they're better suited in Skitsystem or Lock Up, but i think they fit the music perfectly and are cool.

Meshuggah - That dude needs to STFU. His shouting is nowhere on par with the rest of the band. They must be really good friends.

Control Denied - Admittedly, its been a long while since I heard any; mostly because the vocals at the time turned me off. I might need to check it out again, though.

Devastation - reasonable death/thrash dragged down by shitty vocals.

...and blasphemy(!): Schuldiner wasn't the greatest singer.

I was just thinking that about Meshuggah last night, haha, how they must be friends or something. I would have added them, but I don't care for Meshuggah that much to begin with.

Both have already been mentioned, but I'd like to restate:

all non-Lord Worm Cryptopsy albums (though, I can't speak for their newest release - though based on the majority, it sucks on more than just the vocal-level).

Mayhem albums with Atilla (and personally, I'm not a big fan of Dead either).

silencer.

death-pierce me is an amazing album

the vocals though...FUCK!

Roy Khan is one of the best metal vocalists out there.

Its not that he sounds bad but Its his style of singing that could be better. I feel the same way about his vocals. I feel like he had this 'catchy' style of singing on that album that really bothered me. Lars' drumming will always suck but they will always make good with it.

The band "Confessor". I checked them out back in the day because they were on the same Earache label with Nocturnus, Bolt Thrower and the like. They looked like a band that was in the same vein. When I popped the tape in my car, I was....well hell - just listen to that stupid fuck sing. What fucking lameness.

He could have at least done a second take on the title track "Twilight of the Gods" when he sings in what's supposed to be a powerful moment in the song (the phrase "It is the twilight of the gooooodddds") and misses the last note by a mile.

He's pretty dull, not that I think Kamelot are any good anyway.

Yeah, it sounds way too overproduced on those. Personally I found him more enjoyable in Borknagar and live Arcturus. Although he also really messed up Arcturus' last studio CD; he sounds so whiny and drawn out it gives me a headache.




I think he overdid it on their last one, but I really liked all the prior albums.

I remember liking the music on Cynic's "Focus", but I can't say the same thing about the robot vocals.

Same here.

Concerning Mayhem's vocalists, I've always prefered Maniac over both Dead and Attila.

I really like Freternia; both of their albums are really catchy, but I don't like their vocalist at all. He sounds just like the singer from The Offspring.

I think he overdid it on their last one, but I really liked all the prior albums.[/quote]

He just always seems like he is over doing it, or adding some sort of affectation that makes the overall experience suffer.

I didn't find his performance on Ghost Opera bad at all, he still sounded awesome.

Same here

Also Dio singing Ozzy tunes can sound really really silly.

I was thinking of Confessor as well. The singing was a total turn-off, but I thought the music was kind of bland too.

I could never get into Violence because of the singer either.

Anyone ever hear The Gathering's Almost A Dance CD? It is the follow-up to their great Always disc. From what I recall, the music was not too much different sounding from what was found on Always, but the vocals have to be the worst, most amateurish, singing I've heard on a professionally released recording. Sounds like they just got a random friend who never sang before and was suffering from a head cold to come into the studio one day to help them out because they had a deadline to meet and no one else wanted to sing.

He just always seems like he is over doing it, or adding some sort of affectation that makes the overall experience suffer.[/quote]

Over did what? How?


Roy Khan is awesome.

Yeah, maybe, but the Ozzy Sabbath tunes are classic.

Nerdery?? Do you think he's too into literature or history or something? I don't get it. Anyway, I think mark the Shark has a fantastic voice and don't find it to be nasal-sounding at all.

Revelation, the US doom band, always comes to mind when a thread like this is created. The music is pretty fine doom with a real old-school sensibility, but the vocals are awful .. both borin and seemingly off-key.. they totally kill the mood for me. Against Nature seems slightly more tolerable somehow.

Edit: And I"m a huge fan of Atilla's performance on "De mysteriis". I find it absolutely appropriate and surely one of the most emotive, strange and captivating vocal works on a black metal album. His voice can convey evil,, sorrow and fright so wonderfully .. and I believe it's marvelous that he pretty much improvised the performancee and interpreted Dead's lyrics in a unique way that Dead never could have. It's strange, but when I first heard a song from that album (it was "Life Eternal") I laughed at the singing with some derision, but the more I listened, the more it worked its way into my consciousness and I started getting chills. Wonderful stuff.

As for "The Red in the Sky is Ours", the problem with the violin is not that it's a violin on a metal album, but that the fucker never even bothered to tune the thing. Damn, it really does sound awful. Not too big on that album.

I mean nerdery in his voice - He sounds like some 120 pound D and D player.

I see some Khan discussion going on here. I think he is great, but can see why people wouldn't like him. They don't sound the same, but he and Barlow are both overly dramatic, so they are similar in the vein of most people either love the vocals, or think its melodramatic crap.

haha, weird .. are we listening to the same Manilla Road? He has a pretty deep voice and sounds quite mighty to me, except on "Open the Gates" when his cold made some of the delivery weak.

The vocals make Manilla Road unlistenable to me. I tried Crystal Logic and the instrumentation was awesome but his voice... eugh. :S Death's Sound Of Perseverance was another album where the vocals fucked it up. Some of the most amazing songs Death have ever done, but Chuck Schuldiner sounding like the bastard offspring of Dani Filth and a dead parrot brings it down a lot. Also, probably stating the obvious, but I doubt the new Cryptopsy album would be quite as reviled by most metalheads if the vocalist hadn't sprinked whiny clean singing all over it.

Weird; Manilla Road's vocals are a huge part of why the band is so cool. Nobody else sounds like Shelton. He is also one of those guys who improved vocally as the band aged, with some of his finest performances being on the last three albums. He has this unbeatable tone and some killer charisma to his voice that just makes him great.

I've always liked "weird" vocals though.

Over did what? How?


Roy Khan is awesome.[/quote]

Yes indeed. His being "awesome" completely disregards the previous comment.
To be concise, he over emphasizes certain notes or syllables and they just come out sounding awkward to me. Anything else is just a matter of taste.
It's not even like I don't like the band, they are decent.

I'd say more like 90% of thrash metal albums. Great music... some of the best metal music actually, but vocals fuck it up really bad.