Hi there, this is the Raucous Rocker. Today, I am going to do my first list(s), two top five lists of my favorite vocalists in metal. There are a lot of great vocalists and I have had trouble choosing just five for each, but they are all vocalists that I feel deserve their recognition. Most of these vocalists are from larger bands because they seem to be, for some reason, a whole lot better than ones from smaller bands (generally speaking). Also, these vocalists are not necessarily who I think are the best in the entire industry, they are just my personal favorites. So without further ado, let’s begin.
This is divided into two parts with five vocalists each, clean singers and growlers. I was planning to add female vocalists as well but found that it was too long, so I may make another list encompassing the women in metal later.
Clean Singers
These are the vocalists who just sing using their normal voices. It’s harder to sound good singing clean than it is to growl successfully, but the ones that pull it off are some of the most enjoyable singers I have ever heard. These are my top five clean singers:
5. Rob Halford (Judas Priest): Of course, Halford had to be on my list, as he is one of the most influential vocalists in metal history and has one of the biggest vocal ranges to boot. The only question people may be asking is, "Why is he so low on the list?" Well, I like him but I don’t love him. His falsetto can get kind of annoying and he’s not really pleasurable to listen to like most of these other vocalists.
4. Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, Dio): Again, here is one of the most famous metal vocalists ever. He had a good voice, good range and lots of feeling; his voice just sounded like it was made for the music his band was playing along with him. It’s really sad that he’s no longer with us—for those of you who are unaware, he passed away in May of 2010—as he was a great source of musical talent and will be missed.
3. Dave Draiman (Disturbed): Yeah, any hardcore metalheads out there will probably kill me for putting the singer from Disturbed over Halford and Dio, but I really do like him better. Unlike the other two, he doesn’t have a really good range, but his voice is just generally very good-sounding and doesn’t ever sound strained or forced. He also does those weird vocal "effects" at the beginning of a lot of their songs which is kind of cool, although sometimes it does sound kind of odd.
Article comments
1 - G-slicin
No Keith Buckley from every time i die and the damned things. I'm disappointed
2 - Charlie Doherty
It took my a while to get full into Judas Priest's catalog but man, Halford does deserve to be high up on anyone's list. He's got more versatility vocally than you realize-you gotta hear Halford's thrash metal mid-'90s band Fight, which features his much grittier vocal style.
Good list but I'm surprised Into Eternity's lead singer Stu Block didn't make it. That guy is like the melodic death metal version of Rob Halford (especially on tracks like "Timeless Winter")! Unreal vocal range and totally underrated.
3 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
@2,
Yea...and no love for King Diamond, Michael Kiske or Devin Townsend either?!
4 - Raucous Rocker
Wow, apparently no one fathoms that with a top FIVE list, there are going to be a few singers out of the hundreds that exist left off of it. To everyone who commented:
King Diamond, Michael Kiske and Keith Buckley all annoy me, Devin Townsend I'm not familiar enough with and Stu Block was close to making it, but as I said when I can only include five clean and five harsh, there are bound to be some good ones left out.
5 - tatzkie
yeah! i love disturbed, it's good that you list him on clean vocals.
6 - turtebeast
I had no idea Patton was so versatile. He always annoyed me on epic. I'll have to give his other stuff a go. Great list.
7 - Jules Manson
I think a very well deserved honorable mention goes to a very talented singer, song writer, and amazing guitarist from a smaller death metal band. The gentleman I speak of is the one and only Mikael Ã.. .kerfeldt of a "little" band from Sweden called Opeth. He is not only a great growler but he also has a very, dare I say it? He has a beautiful clean singing voice too.