Post by lugnut on Feb 21, 2012 17:16:18 GMT -5
One of the biggest stories in metal this year is the revolving door for vocalists. Jesse Leach has returned to Killswitch Engage. Iced Earth played their first L.A. show with new vocalist Stu Block last Saturday at Club Nokia. Dragonforce will soon release their first album with new frontman Marc Hudson. We're sure that with these moves, all of these bands hope to end up on the below list of most successful replacement vocalists in rock and metal.
10. Angela Gossow - Arch Enemy (2001-present)
Michael Amott's soaring guitar melodies have always provided a strong backbone for Arch Enemy's brand of melodic Euro-death. But it was the addition of Angela Gossow on the band's fourth album, 2001's Wages of Sin, that propelled the band to a devoted worldwide following. The act's previous vocalist, Johan Liiva, relied mostly on monotone barks. Gossow has a voice that can hit all ranges of vocal brutality, and it won over U.S. audiences on tours with Ozzfest, Slayer, and Iron Maiden.
9. George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher - Cannibal Corpse (1996-present)
After Cannibal Corpse became death metal's most commercially successful band in the early '90s, disagreements with original growler Chris Barnes saw the entrance of the man called "Corpsegrinder" in 1995. Fisher has provided a solid anchor for the band to continue their gore-obsessed mayhem on albums such as 1996's Vile and the soon-to-be-released Torture. He has helped them remain relevant through numerous metal trends, while Barnes has succumbed to self-parody with subpar originals and cheesy death metal AC/DC covers with his outfit Six Feet Under.
8. Howard Jones - Killswitch Engage (2002-2011)
Longtime fans are excited about the return of Jesse Leach to the fold, but it was Howard Jones that led the band to their largest commercial success with 2004's The End Of Heartache. The undoing of many promising metalcore acts was the comparative wussiness of clean vocal choruses to ferociously barked verses. Jones was capable of pulling off both while still sounding like he had balls. Live, he projected a likeable teddy-bear persona.
7. John Bush - Anthrax (1992-2004, 2009-2010)
Joey Belladonna's anthemic vocals were the right fit for the moshable-thrash of '80s Anthrax. But on 1993's Sound Of White Noise, John Bush's vocals provided the proper amount of world-weary roughness to help the band adjust to the changing '90s metal scene better than some of their contemporaries. The argument of Ozzy vs. Dio will always be a hot topic of metal discussion, but the topic of Bush vs. Belladonna is also a good way to get tensions running between metal fans.
6. Sammy Hagar - Van Halen (1985-1996, 2003-2005)
Let's get one thing clear. We are very stoked that A Different Kind of Truth, Van Halen's first album with David Lee Roth in a quarter-century, turned out awesome. But we also feel that the Hagar era gets a bad rap. His vocals provided a strong base for the band to build expertly-crafted pop-rock that kept Van Halen one of the biggest bands in the world. 1986's 5150 and 1988's OU812 would have been outright disastrous if DLR's over-the-top histrionics were present. (Okay, we admit that 1995's Balance sucked ass.)
5. William DuVall - Alice In Chains (2006-present)
It's always a daunting task to replace a beloved vocalist, even more so when that person has died. William DuVall rose to the task of filling Layne Staley's shoes on the band's 2009 comeback, Black Gives Way To Blue. Live, DuVall's spin on AIC's old material provides a fitting tribute to Staley's original performances, while also taking possession of those songs as his own.
4. Mike Patton - Faith No More (1989-present)
The band's musicianship and mastering of different rock and metal styles on 1987's Introduce Yourself put them on the map. But it wasn't until the addition of crazed vocal genius Mike Patton on 1989's The Real Thing that the band reached the legendary status they have today. The band finally had a vocalist that could go toe-for-toe and match their each musical indulgence. The rapped verses of "Epic," the beautiful melodies of "A Small Victory," the sleazy lounge-croon of "RV" and whatever the fuck he was doing on "Cuckoo For Caca" kept fans on their toes through every album until their 1998 breakup.
3. Bruce Dickinson - Iron Maiden (1982-1993, 2000-present)
Original vocalist Paul Di'Anno's punk-flavored inflections were fine for their first two albums of well-done New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but his 1981 exodus from Iron Maiden was the best thing to happen to the band. Bruce Dickinson's massive pipes allowed them to evolve into the most lyrically ambitious non-prog rock band on the planet, and his incredible stage charisma allowed them to become one of the biggest stadium/arena bands ever, despite receiving no love from radio or mainstream press. It is telling that when Dickinson left the band in the 1990s, they were reduced to playing smaller clubs and theaters. Upon Dickinson's return with 2000's Brave New World, Iron Maiden immediately returned to playing arenas and stadiums, where they have remained since.
2. Ronnie James Dio - Black Sabbath (1979-1982, 1980-1992, 2006-2010)
By the end of the '70s the Ozzy-fronted version of Black Sabbath was drug-addled, uninspired, and creatively bankrupt. The entrance of ex-Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio pumped new blood into a band that was on life support. Dio's vocals are known to be powerful, but his lyrical contributions on 1980's Heaven and Hell and 1981's Mob Rules were the real unsung hero in the early '80s renaissance of Black Sabbath. Dio's dark fantasy-obsessed lyrics helped propel the band back to being one of the heaviest bands in the world for a new generation of teenagers scaring their mothers by listening to Satanic devil music.
1. Brian Johnson - AC/DC (1980-present)
By 1979, AC/DC was already on the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world with Highway To Hell. But alcohol-fueled misadventure led to the death of vocalist Bon Scott. The band bounced back quickly from the tragedy, recruiting new vocalist Brian Johnson into the fold for 1980's Back In Black. Johnson proved capable of delivering the sleazy-blues of his predecessor, while also having a filthy rasp that sounded like he was gargling razor blades. This allowed AC/DC to continue on their path of being the sleaziest blues-rock band in history, while also providing a backdrop to turning their amps up to 111 (one hundred more than eleven) and becoming perhaps the loudest (and most popular) rock band in history.
Even if none of the above were true, the fact that Back In Black has sold 50 million copies and fluctuates with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon for the second highest-selling album in history would still force us to put Brian Johnson at number one on this list.
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Worst:
10. Every Dead Kennedys vocalist not named Jello Biafra - Dead Kennedys (2001-present)
Disputes over royalty payments and licensing have left Jello Biafra on the sidelines while the rest of the Dead Kennedys continue to play punk rock festivals as a sad nostalgia act. Vocalists since 2001 have included non-luminaries such as Dr. Know frontman Brandon Cruz, Jeff Penalty, and current vocalist Skip Greer. No singer yet has matched the energy and power that Biafra's vocals gave to these songs.
9. Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek - The Doors (1971-1973)
Even on the most pedestrian Doors songs, Jim Morrison still provided a charismatic presence that lifted the material. When he passed away in 1971, the band should have hung it up. But considering their previous album L.A. Woman was a huge critical and commercial success, one can't really fault them for chugging along. Kreiger and Manzarek shared vocal duties on 1971's Other Voices and 1972's Full Circle, but neither one did the trick.
8. Israel Joseph I - Bad Brains (1993-1994)
Original vocalist H.R. has always had a volatile relationship with the rest of Bad Brains. A disagreement in the early '90s led to them replacing him with Israel Joseph I. The subsequent 1993 album Rise saw one of the most influential punk-rock acts of the 80's failing to adapt well to the changing music landscape. The effort was a jumbled mess of major-label funk-rock, grunge, and proto-rap metal that didn't excel at any of those things. Joseph didn't cut it, and H.R. was back in the fold within two years.
7. Matt McGachy - Cryptopsy (2007-present)
This French-Canadian group made their name with technical death-metal classics like Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile. They made a colossal error with 2007's The Unspoken King. After firing original vocalist Lord Worm, the band made an attempt at jumping on the metalcore bandwagon. They brought in a vocalist that could do the good cop (clean)-bad cop (death) vocals of the genre. Unfortunately, this both pissed off their fans, and metalcore had already peaked in popularity by the time the album came out. Cryptopsy has yet to release a follow-up.
6. Ripper Owens - Judas Priest (1996-2002) / Iced Earth (2004-2007)
Ripper Owens is not a bad singer. In fact, he is quite good. And the story behind him getting the Judas Priest gig makes you feel good. However, Owens did not bring the amount of soul and gravitas to his efforts that original Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford and previous Iced Earth vocalist Matt Barlow brought. Fans of both bands were happy when Halford and Barlow re-joined their respective bands.
5. Johnny Solinger - Skid Row (1999-present)
Sure, it's irritating whenever we see original frontman Sebastian Bach doing another interview about how Axl Rose is his BFF, or popping up as a participant of another shitty VH1 series. But he is still nowhere near as pathetic as Skid Row has been without him. 2003's Thickskin and 2006's Revolutions Per Minute were full of lackluster radio rock, with Solinger bringing the appropriate level of nothing to his vocals.
4. Blaze Bayley - Iron Maiden (1994-1999)
When vocalist Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in the early '90s, the band should have found a vocalist that could be just as powerful as the man nicknamed "The Air Raid Siren." Unfortunately, they picked Blaze Bayley. The group's popularity was hurt immensely by the flat, emotionless performances given by Bayley on 1995's The X Factor and 1998's Virtual XI. The disparity in vocal presence was made even more obvious when Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999, and started singing Bayley-era songs on tour.
3. Gary Cherone - Van Halen (1996-1999)
Fans will always argue over the merits of Van Halen's Sammy Hagar era. Just about everyone though can find common ground in how disastrous it was to replace him with former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone. Lacking both the charismatic presence of David Lee Roth and the every-man likability of Hagar, Cherone provided zero memorable moments during his brief stint with the band. 1998's Van Halen III would be the band's least commercially successful record, and they didn't have the luxury of blaming illegal downloading then. The album just plain stunk.
2. Whitfield Crane - Life Of Agony (1998)
Throughout the 1990s, Life Of Agony evolved from the tough New York groove-metal of their 1993 debut River Runs Red to the expertly well-done alternative-rock of 1997's Soul Searching Sun. The one constant throughout the evolution was the deeply emotional vocal delivery of Keith Caputo. When Caputo left before the band's run on Ozzfest 1998, they recruited Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane. The goofball persona Crane had presented with his previous band already turned LOA fans against him. He failed to turn the tide with his failed attempts at replicating Cavuto's vocals live, and the band broke up after Ozzfest. We at least give the band credit for breaking up before they went into the studio, unlike...
1. Dan Nelson - Anthrax (2007-2009)
After alienating vocalist John Bush in 2005 by reuniting with previous singer Joey Belladonna for an Among The Living-era reunion tour, and then failing to get along with Belladonna well enough to do a new album with him, Anthrax found themselves at a crossroad. They grabbed unknown vocalist Dan Nelson out of the Chicago metal scene, took him on tour, and even recorded a new album with him. What happened then remains a mystery, as Anthrax released a statement indicating that Nelson left the band due to illness. Nelson then released his own statement expressing that he was shocked to hear that he had resigned from the band, and the statements of illness were false. We will likely never know what really happened, but whatever it was, Nelson has been pissed off ever since.
Anthrax eventually patched things up with Belladonna, and he laid down new vocals for what ended up being 2011's Worship Music. So far the original tracks containing Nelson's vocals have not leaked, so all we know about his stint with the band is from live YouTube clips. Still, the sheer amount of time and effort he's put in with the band qualifies him as number one on our list.
10. Angela Gossow - Arch Enemy (2001-present)
Michael Amott's soaring guitar melodies have always provided a strong backbone for Arch Enemy's brand of melodic Euro-death. But it was the addition of Angela Gossow on the band's fourth album, 2001's Wages of Sin, that propelled the band to a devoted worldwide following. The act's previous vocalist, Johan Liiva, relied mostly on monotone barks. Gossow has a voice that can hit all ranges of vocal brutality, and it won over U.S. audiences on tours with Ozzfest, Slayer, and Iron Maiden.
9. George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher - Cannibal Corpse (1996-present)
After Cannibal Corpse became death metal's most commercially successful band in the early '90s, disagreements with original growler Chris Barnes saw the entrance of the man called "Corpsegrinder" in 1995. Fisher has provided a solid anchor for the band to continue their gore-obsessed mayhem on albums such as 1996's Vile and the soon-to-be-released Torture. He has helped them remain relevant through numerous metal trends, while Barnes has succumbed to self-parody with subpar originals and cheesy death metal AC/DC covers with his outfit Six Feet Under.
8. Howard Jones - Killswitch Engage (2002-2011)
Longtime fans are excited about the return of Jesse Leach to the fold, but it was Howard Jones that led the band to their largest commercial success with 2004's The End Of Heartache. The undoing of many promising metalcore acts was the comparative wussiness of clean vocal choruses to ferociously barked verses. Jones was capable of pulling off both while still sounding like he had balls. Live, he projected a likeable teddy-bear persona.
7. John Bush - Anthrax (1992-2004, 2009-2010)
Joey Belladonna's anthemic vocals were the right fit for the moshable-thrash of '80s Anthrax. But on 1993's Sound Of White Noise, John Bush's vocals provided the proper amount of world-weary roughness to help the band adjust to the changing '90s metal scene better than some of their contemporaries. The argument of Ozzy vs. Dio will always be a hot topic of metal discussion, but the topic of Bush vs. Belladonna is also a good way to get tensions running between metal fans.
6. Sammy Hagar - Van Halen (1985-1996, 2003-2005)
Let's get one thing clear. We are very stoked that A Different Kind of Truth, Van Halen's first album with David Lee Roth in a quarter-century, turned out awesome. But we also feel that the Hagar era gets a bad rap. His vocals provided a strong base for the band to build expertly-crafted pop-rock that kept Van Halen one of the biggest bands in the world. 1986's 5150 and 1988's OU812 would have been outright disastrous if DLR's over-the-top histrionics were present. (Okay, we admit that 1995's Balance sucked ass.)
5. William DuVall - Alice In Chains (2006-present)
It's always a daunting task to replace a beloved vocalist, even more so when that person has died. William DuVall rose to the task of filling Layne Staley's shoes on the band's 2009 comeback, Black Gives Way To Blue. Live, DuVall's spin on AIC's old material provides a fitting tribute to Staley's original performances, while also taking possession of those songs as his own.
4. Mike Patton - Faith No More (1989-present)
The band's musicianship and mastering of different rock and metal styles on 1987's Introduce Yourself put them on the map. But it wasn't until the addition of crazed vocal genius Mike Patton on 1989's The Real Thing that the band reached the legendary status they have today. The band finally had a vocalist that could go toe-for-toe and match their each musical indulgence. The rapped verses of "Epic," the beautiful melodies of "A Small Victory," the sleazy lounge-croon of "RV" and whatever the fuck he was doing on "Cuckoo For Caca" kept fans on their toes through every album until their 1998 breakup.
3. Bruce Dickinson - Iron Maiden (1982-1993, 2000-present)
Original vocalist Paul Di'Anno's punk-flavored inflections were fine for their first two albums of well-done New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but his 1981 exodus from Iron Maiden was the best thing to happen to the band. Bruce Dickinson's massive pipes allowed them to evolve into the most lyrically ambitious non-prog rock band on the planet, and his incredible stage charisma allowed them to become one of the biggest stadium/arena bands ever, despite receiving no love from radio or mainstream press. It is telling that when Dickinson left the band in the 1990s, they were reduced to playing smaller clubs and theaters. Upon Dickinson's return with 2000's Brave New World, Iron Maiden immediately returned to playing arenas and stadiums, where they have remained since.
2. Ronnie James Dio - Black Sabbath (1979-1982, 1980-1992, 2006-2010)
By the end of the '70s the Ozzy-fronted version of Black Sabbath was drug-addled, uninspired, and creatively bankrupt. The entrance of ex-Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio pumped new blood into a band that was on life support. Dio's vocals are known to be powerful, but his lyrical contributions on 1980's Heaven and Hell and 1981's Mob Rules were the real unsung hero in the early '80s renaissance of Black Sabbath. Dio's dark fantasy-obsessed lyrics helped propel the band back to being one of the heaviest bands in the world for a new generation of teenagers scaring their mothers by listening to Satanic devil music.
1. Brian Johnson - AC/DC (1980-present)
By 1979, AC/DC was already on the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world with Highway To Hell. But alcohol-fueled misadventure led to the death of vocalist Bon Scott. The band bounced back quickly from the tragedy, recruiting new vocalist Brian Johnson into the fold for 1980's Back In Black. Johnson proved capable of delivering the sleazy-blues of his predecessor, while also having a filthy rasp that sounded like he was gargling razor blades. This allowed AC/DC to continue on their path of being the sleaziest blues-rock band in history, while also providing a backdrop to turning their amps up to 111 (one hundred more than eleven) and becoming perhaps the loudest (and most popular) rock band in history.
Even if none of the above were true, the fact that Back In Black has sold 50 million copies and fluctuates with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon for the second highest-selling album in history would still force us to put Brian Johnson at number one on this list.
---------
Worst:
10. Every Dead Kennedys vocalist not named Jello Biafra - Dead Kennedys (2001-present)
Disputes over royalty payments and licensing have left Jello Biafra on the sidelines while the rest of the Dead Kennedys continue to play punk rock festivals as a sad nostalgia act. Vocalists since 2001 have included non-luminaries such as Dr. Know frontman Brandon Cruz, Jeff Penalty, and current vocalist Skip Greer. No singer yet has matched the energy and power that Biafra's vocals gave to these songs.
9. Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek - The Doors (1971-1973)
Even on the most pedestrian Doors songs, Jim Morrison still provided a charismatic presence that lifted the material. When he passed away in 1971, the band should have hung it up. But considering their previous album L.A. Woman was a huge critical and commercial success, one can't really fault them for chugging along. Kreiger and Manzarek shared vocal duties on 1971's Other Voices and 1972's Full Circle, but neither one did the trick.
8. Israel Joseph I - Bad Brains (1993-1994)
Original vocalist H.R. has always had a volatile relationship with the rest of Bad Brains. A disagreement in the early '90s led to them replacing him with Israel Joseph I. The subsequent 1993 album Rise saw one of the most influential punk-rock acts of the 80's failing to adapt well to the changing music landscape. The effort was a jumbled mess of major-label funk-rock, grunge, and proto-rap metal that didn't excel at any of those things. Joseph didn't cut it, and H.R. was back in the fold within two years.
7. Matt McGachy - Cryptopsy (2007-present)
This French-Canadian group made their name with technical death-metal classics like Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile. They made a colossal error with 2007's The Unspoken King. After firing original vocalist Lord Worm, the band made an attempt at jumping on the metalcore bandwagon. They brought in a vocalist that could do the good cop (clean)-bad cop (death) vocals of the genre. Unfortunately, this both pissed off their fans, and metalcore had already peaked in popularity by the time the album came out. Cryptopsy has yet to release a follow-up.
6. Ripper Owens - Judas Priest (1996-2002) / Iced Earth (2004-2007)
Ripper Owens is not a bad singer. In fact, he is quite good. And the story behind him getting the Judas Priest gig makes you feel good. However, Owens did not bring the amount of soul and gravitas to his efforts that original Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford and previous Iced Earth vocalist Matt Barlow brought. Fans of both bands were happy when Halford and Barlow re-joined their respective bands.
5. Johnny Solinger - Skid Row (1999-present)
Sure, it's irritating whenever we see original frontman Sebastian Bach doing another interview about how Axl Rose is his BFF, or popping up as a participant of another shitty VH1 series. But he is still nowhere near as pathetic as Skid Row has been without him. 2003's Thickskin and 2006's Revolutions Per Minute were full of lackluster radio rock, with Solinger bringing the appropriate level of nothing to his vocals.
4. Blaze Bayley - Iron Maiden (1994-1999)
When vocalist Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in the early '90s, the band should have found a vocalist that could be just as powerful as the man nicknamed "The Air Raid Siren." Unfortunately, they picked Blaze Bayley. The group's popularity was hurt immensely by the flat, emotionless performances given by Bayley on 1995's The X Factor and 1998's Virtual XI. The disparity in vocal presence was made even more obvious when Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999, and started singing Bayley-era songs on tour.
3. Gary Cherone - Van Halen (1996-1999)
Fans will always argue over the merits of Van Halen's Sammy Hagar era. Just about everyone though can find common ground in how disastrous it was to replace him with former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone. Lacking both the charismatic presence of David Lee Roth and the every-man likability of Hagar, Cherone provided zero memorable moments during his brief stint with the band. 1998's Van Halen III would be the band's least commercially successful record, and they didn't have the luxury of blaming illegal downloading then. The album just plain stunk.
2. Whitfield Crane - Life Of Agony (1998)
Throughout the 1990s, Life Of Agony evolved from the tough New York groove-metal of their 1993 debut River Runs Red to the expertly well-done alternative-rock of 1997's Soul Searching Sun. The one constant throughout the evolution was the deeply emotional vocal delivery of Keith Caputo. When Caputo left before the band's run on Ozzfest 1998, they recruited Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane. The goofball persona Crane had presented with his previous band already turned LOA fans against him. He failed to turn the tide with his failed attempts at replicating Cavuto's vocals live, and the band broke up after Ozzfest. We at least give the band credit for breaking up before they went into the studio, unlike...
1. Dan Nelson - Anthrax (2007-2009)
After alienating vocalist John Bush in 2005 by reuniting with previous singer Joey Belladonna for an Among The Living-era reunion tour, and then failing to get along with Belladonna well enough to do a new album with him, Anthrax found themselves at a crossroad. They grabbed unknown vocalist Dan Nelson out of the Chicago metal scene, took him on tour, and even recorded a new album with him. What happened then remains a mystery, as Anthrax released a statement indicating that Nelson left the band due to illness. Nelson then released his own statement expressing that he was shocked to hear that he had resigned from the band, and the statements of illness were false. We will likely never know what really happened, but whatever it was, Nelson has been pissed off ever since.
Anthrax eventually patched things up with Belladonna, and he laid down new vocals for what ended up being 2011's Worship Music. So far the original tracks containing Nelson's vocals have not leaked, so all we know about his stint with the band is from live YouTube clips. Still, the sheer amount of time and effort he's put in with the band qualifies him as number one on our list.