Angela Gossow. I mean, Arch Enemy wasn't REALLY good with their previous vocalist, but Angela is just....ugh...., same thing with In Flames, I think they would've been better had they kept their respective vocalists. Dark Tranquility's Skydancer was amazing, and In Flames had released Lunar Strain, which was, in my opinion better than The Jesters Race(which is a good album anyways.)

Angela Gossow is like a more forced, mediocre Jeff Walker. Also, Anders Fridén has always been an unremarkable vocalist (and Mikael Stanne can certainly growl circles around him), with the difference that now he's just outright bad.

Honestly, I thought Anders was an alright fit for DT, but it doesn't really matter anyways. A more mediocre Jeff Walker? Well, I wouldn't go that far, but she still is an annoying piece of work who is overrated, hell, I'll go far as to say Arch Enemy is overrated.

manticora's vocalist has always bothered me. Sounds like he's trying to hard.

Michael Kiske era Helloween.

So by bangning Angela,Micheal was really bangning a more mediocre Jeff Walker. Interesting...

Children of Bodom actually, and the one who ruins it: Alexi Laiho. This doesn't need explanation at all.

We've been bashing drummers, especially Lars, for 5 pages now, and yet every single one of you forgot to mention Louie Clemente.

I'm gonna throw David Disanto into this conversation. His grating vocals for me really made Black Future a chore to listen to at times. However, the band got the mix right with Outer Isolation, and he has more than redeemed himself.

Nowadays Black Sabbath and Ozzy, and I don't really mean his vocals.

With thrash you find yourself in a mix with vocals. You can go a little harsh or you could go clean and with those two ways comes endless possibilities it seems. I like Piggy's vocals, and I like Don Doty's as well as countless other harsher vocalists. With thrash I really don't care cause I am too focused on the guitar.

Eric Rutan and Morbid Angel. Glad that ended.

They ARE overrated, no question about that. The only truly masterful piece they have created is Stigmata, and that was when Angela wasn't even in the band. And to think that Michael left both Carcass AND Carnage for that creative void we call Arch Enemy.....

I don't see much of a difference between his performances in one album and the other, except that he's slightly more varied in Outer Isolation. Well, he also shrieks even more there.

Newer Stratovarius could be amazing, but Timo Kotipelto still can't sing worth jack shit. They write better songs now, and Kotipelto does write good vocal lines, but I cannot stand the fuckers voice. It is totally without balls. Weak, thin, straining to hit notes that he obviously wants to hit, covering that fact up with mounds of chorus. Sad, really. He's tolerable when in mid-range, but he really can't do much outside of that.

I find Kotipelto to be an excruciatingly flat and boring vocalist, and I'd actually be interested in the band if it weren't because of him. He should take a few pages from Hansi Kürsch's book about how to be a power metal singer with some actual POWER in your voice. Hell, even a not so technically sound guy like Rock 'n' Rolf is more compelling to listen to than Kotipelto.

Completely disagree there. The three albums he did with them were really fucking good, Domination being my personal favorite Morbid Angel record.

Terri23 beat me to it. Louie Clemente was the weak link in the original line up of Testament. You have one of best lead guitarists in the game, the rest of the guys are really solid players, and Louie was rather mediocre. Not awful, but really unmemorable.

The thing with Metallica...I look at it as pre and post Black album, because that's where they changed their style. I recently read Mick Wall's bio of Metallica, and it sheds some insight into Lars' attitude towards drums. In the early days, he only liked flashy, technical drummers, worked on playing crazy fills, but suffered keeping a beat. Engineers talk about how the guy could play his fills flawlessly and then couldn't keep time. They'd have to due take after take of him playing with James until he could play the song correctly. Bob Rock came along and made Lars work on playing a straight groove, working with a metronome, stuff like that, stuff Lars couldn't do before. Metallica simplified everything once they started working with Bob Rock and their who style changed.

Surprised no one mentioned Dave Holland with Judas Priest. Talk about boring... I guess that's what they wanted (supposedly, they dumped Les Binks because they wanted someone simpler) but he's so dull. Some guys have mentioned AC/DC as having a boring drummer, and yes, Phil Rudd is simple, but he plays exactly what AC/DC needs. His groove is strong and he knows the right parts to accent and when to sit back. AC/DC doesn't work as well with a flashy drummer. Dave Holland was just totally boring. They needed a guy with more flash.

Christian Lindstrom sucked with Saint Vitus. Someone else mentioned Scott Reagers, and while he's an acquired taste, I think Scott ultimately worked well with that band. Christian was awful.

I'm gonna through out Tracey G with Dio. I don't mind him so much, but sooooo many people hate him and the albums he was on.

I know he gets a lot of flak, but I always liked Metallica's leads. I get that they're apparently very simple, but Metallica have some of the catchiest guitar solos in metal, if not exactly particularly technically proficient ones.

Kirk has some pretty good solos, but as a whole he's just a boring guitarrist. The early Metallica records are good because of Hetfield's frantic (pun not intended) riffs, not guitar pyrotechnics.

I tell you what, I'll half back you up: Petrucci has indeed tarnished Dream Theater, but it has little to do with his guitar playing-it's his lyrics! John Petrucci should never write lyrics for DT again! This is especially the case with A Dramatic Turn Of Events (a ruined album for me if there ever was one), but it's certainly a pattern throughout DT's career. Whether it's faux-angst (see "Misunderstood", "Endless Sacrifice", "You Not Me" "As I Am"), christianity (see "Voices", "I Walk Beside You", "This Is The Life"), neoconservative politics (see "The Great Debate", "In The Name Of God", "Sacrificed Sons", "On The Backs Of Angels", "Outcry"), or pure, unmitigated bullshit (see "Under A Glass Moon", "In The Presence Of Enemies", "The Dark Eternal Night", "The Ministry Of Lost Souls", "The Count Of Tuscany"), John Petrucci should never put pen to paper with the aim of writing lyrics ever again. Give me Portnoy or Moore's, hell even LaBrie's lyrics any day.

Moore and Myung have, by far, written the best lyrics for Dream Theater if you ask me.

I'm sure Jim Matheos would have a word with you about it.

Anyone who is listening to Dream Theater for the lyrics is not listening to Dream Theater for the right reasons.

Cradle of Filth.

Burn me at the stake if you want but I've always thought that musically, they were top-notch. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. The lyrics are also quite good in a kind of purple, overblown way. But that diminutive Anglian with the stupid hair and the fucking horrible voice...argh.

Acid Bath for sure.

The riffs are mind blowing and the music is PERFECT. But the vocalist ruins it, especially with the occasional extremely high pitched backing vocals. The lyrics are also cheap attempts at being shocking and poetic.

Yeah, I kinda agree on Acid Bath. I mean, Dax doesn't ruin it for me, but his voice is not all that great and detracts from the otherwise brilliant songwriting.

I bet with such sentiments it won't be long before Peter Steele is mentioned.

Brace yourselves.

Is it too much to ask for good lyrics to a band known for it's intellectual nature?

You don't know what you're talking about.

It may be a bit weird to say Noktu and Celestia because Noktu basically IS Celestia, but his vocals do ruin the band's music to a fairly large extent. Their 2008 full-length could've been great, but instead it was just good because the vocals are way annoying.

Any ladyboys round these parts get totally sports warded by me dude. It's my jurisdiction. Total A&E

I may have to choke a bitch in such a situation.

But on a serious note, Joey Belladonna seems to be back and forth about this. He is probably the most talented member of Anthrax and has some fantastic vocal moments on Spreading the Disease and Worship Music, yet he sounds somewhat out of place on Among The Living and Persistence Of Time due to how punk-ish things got. That said, I love the four albums mentioned though I'm not sure how State Of Euphoria compares vocally.

What the fuck are you talking about? Those vocals and lyrics are some of the best ever. Leave the hall.

i actually agree, they do have some pretty nice music but their singer should be way better, hell i would even take the singer of dimmu over them, that reminds me dimmu have some nice music imo(even if its not even close to black metal anymore)

this might seem like a weird "question" but... purple?

So you don't like Gene Hoglan and Jon Oliva?

This is actually more for one song than the whole band, but Helloween needed a vocalist like David Lee Roth for their song "Take Me Home". In fact, I thought by its sound that it was a Van Halen cover (or a similar '70s and '80s hard rock band) until Deris came in.

Ummm...no.

John Petrucci is not as bad as you make him out to seem. I actually liked the stuff he wrote on those first albums like "Innocence Faded" and "Voices" (nothing wrong whatsoever with those!) and I don't see how anyone can hate on "Lines In The Sand"!
Even the words to "Under A Glass Moon" are wonderfully opaque in a Yes kinda way and LaBrie delivers them wonderfully but I can see how they can be interpreted as BS, Robert Plant's opaque musings after he actually sat down to write and stopped stealing from old blues guys were just as able to get a "HUUHNRH???" response. But back to Petrucci, I don't like the stuff he wrote on "Six Degrees..." onwards. Moore and Myung are far better writers and Portnoy is worse.

LaBrie wrote "Sacrificed Sons" by the way!

I think I'd have to agree here. Gossow isn't exactly a terrible vocalist (pretty forgettable though) but since she joined, Arch Enemy's music seems to have taken a back seat to "dude this chick does growls!" if that makes any sense.

purple prose
 
noun
writing that calls attention to itself because of its obvious use of certain effects, as exaggerated sentiment or pathos, especially in an attempt to enlist or manipulate the reader's sympathies.

From dictionary.com.

He sounded great when I saw Anthrax last week. I get annoyed with their '80s albums because he would have a grating quality at times. I actually though John Bush was a better vocalist for their style of thrash, and I really like his performance on "Sound of White Noise", but they slowed down and diluted their sound too much. However, Joey's voice sounds good on the new one, and he sounded very good live. He has a lower pitch now, and actually sounds more like John Bush in some ways.

Non metal: I probably would enjoy Porcupine Tree if Steven Wilson wasn't ruining the songs with his nasally "nerd" vocals. I appreciate the guy's talents as a songwriter, guitarist, and producer, but his vocals suck.

Gorgoroth. Infernus + Pest = total win, but Askund is ruining the band for me, especially being producer. He's a good drummer, but I guess Gorgoroth needs someone more 'filthy' to play, with a more natural drum sound and go to fucking Grieghallen to record their stuff.