Current opinion on James Labrie

Harry Hood wrote: Dude needs to grow his hair back out. Or at the least have a wig prepared for shows and public appearances. (Andrew WK has done this for years). That haircut is fine for his private life, but for a metal frontman it's just unforgiveable.

Epignosis wrote: Please don't misunderstand me (I wouldn't wish this misfortune on anyone), but I think his voice sounds better after his food poisoning incident- I honestly do.  I really don't like the singing on much of Images & Words.  He seems to have a warmer tone on later albums that isn't so shrill.

This.

Dude needs to grow his hair back out. Or at the least have a wig prepared for shows and public appearances. (Andrew WK has done this for years).

Edited by Harry Hood - May 01 2011 at 03:39

he has his faults, but DT would'nt be DT without his vocals

I dont mind them, they dont usually bother me, and hell, sometimes his vocals send chills down my spine (Learning to Live, Octavarium, The Count of Tuscany, etc...)

He's good in the studio, just OK live. He's good with melody, just decent with loud metal. But I wouldn't accept DT without his voice.

I do not like his vocals. Sometimes good but generally they don't do much for me and often I dislike them.
Maybe they are better now but really, from beginning to now I am not a fan.

I've also noticed the maturity between albums. Listening to Awake or Images and Words, he sounds so much higher (sound-wise) and younger compared to Black Clouds and Systematic Chaos.

He's very hard to bear when he gets into those head voice-y high sustains because his diction is especially terrible at these times.  Also, has an annoying habit of breathing very audibly between lines when he's doing soft singing.  Sure, Matt Bellamy does that too and in a far more annoying way but I don't consider him a great singer either.  My no.1 complaint with LaBrie though is that he has a whole slew of artificial mannerisms. When he does grit, it sounds like a bad Hetfield imitiation. When he sings softly, like on Another Day, he seems to be channeling George Michael and doing it badly again.  The emotive thrust is almost always overshot and overwrought. Now, if you don't mind any of these things, you'd like his singing a lot because he has really good range but for me, these and many other things are very off putting so I bear with his singing perforce on those DT songs and albums that I like .

^ That's my main complaint with LaBrie - he's much better in the studio than live, not just as far as range is concerned, but also hitting notes (pitch) - he's usually a bit flat, which is something that will annoy some people, while others don't even notice.

Epignosis wrote: Prog Geo wrote: Well, I can't understand this hate about James Labrie here. I accept that his voice isn't so good now. But generally I like his vocals and A change of seasons is an amazing Ep. Please don't misunderstand me (I wouldn't wish this misfortune on anyone), but I think his voice sounds better after his food poisoning incident- I honestly do.  I really don't like the singing on much of Images & Words.  He seems to have a warmer tone on later albums that isn't so shrill.

I will agree with the warmer tone. I understand what you want to say. But for me, those days his voice was great.