What is with Progressive Metal bands' singers?

~Rael~ wrote: popeyethecat wrote: Picking the right type of vocals for Metal is VERY difficult. Hair Metal vocals? Death Metal vocals? Black Metal vocals? As much as I LOVE Metal (and not just the Prog stuff) pretty much ALL the vocal styles are...awful. Or you could go the other way and have Nightwish-y vocals, but although they can be very good, I'm not a fan of that either. The music is so aggressive that it's very difficult to get it right. I'd love to be in a band, but I can't do anywere near any of those styles (being female and not a soprano...or Angela Gossow). So here's the question, whose vocals do you LIKE?   Well, Pain of Salvation is my favorite band, and Gildenlow is the most talented vocalist I know of. Even though Gildenlow's voice can get to that high falsetto, he can pull it off. I'm not into death metal vocals, but Opeth is the exception, especially since Akerfeldt's clean vocals are very good. I like a mixture of screaming and singing in my metal, and prefer singing over screaming. All screaming and no singing can wear my down. I love Colors by Between the Buried and Me, but I wish they would sing a bit more. I love Tool.

Give maudlin of the Well a try, they strike a great balance between growls and clean IMO.

Have you ever given a listen to RPI singers from some of those 70s groups ? Operatic influences abound ...

ya, i dont like the high pitched 80's sound either. as for meshuga, that would be prog metal which really doesnt sound the same. between the buried and me, a life once lost, opeth. strictly in the prog rock section it is pretty much all 80's voice. i really like porcupine tree though. no high squeels there. Personally i love the alice in chains type vocals and wish a super technical, jazz theory prog rok band would come out with those type of vocals.

^Not singing like Angela Gossow is definitely a good thing!

There are a lot of these "hair metal" type singers in Prog Metal, many growlers just arent good at it (even Akerfeldt on those first two albums) and lets not get started on Black Metal vocals. But, there are some really strong, unique, powerfull and above all pleasent singers in any of the three metal sub genres here. The likes of Gildenlow, Toby Driver, Maynard James Keenan, Anneka van Giersbergan, Devin Townsend,  Akerfeldt, Dameon Wilson, July Kiss, Simmone Simons, Niko Knappe and many others are all excellent.

Norbert wrote: Rather Neurosis than  Meshuggah, if you ask me. That music really doesn't sound like glam metal.  And  I actually like most DT and SX albums, and Spiral Architect, too.

Edited by Moatilliatta - August 30 2008 at 03:31

Nil Recurring wrote: Opeth

I don't think so, but even so, it doesnt sound so bad as Rael is referring.

actually anything from the tech/post/experimental genre is very removed from almost anything that fits the classical prog metal description. cant think of one band that has that 80's style of vocals. 

 Most of the prog metal bands are influence by the '80's metal - exactly hard and heavy and here and there some trash and powermetal. So why is not so obvious that the vocals, the manner of interpretation is took from that era. While symphonic prog bands are more influenced by the '70's prog, that why on some symphonic bands from today you may never found vocal parts like on Fates Warning for example, because they are influence by a diffrent kind of music and manner of interpretation. Always prog metal from today will be influenced by '80's metal, like symphonic or eclectic by the '70's, each genre with thier influence.

kibble_alex wrote: Why not MESHUGGAH??? If it says "cheesy 80s vocals" on one side of the coin, then it says "Meshuggah" on the other side. Check um out. I DARE you

Hehe I second that motion.
Meshuggah is so far removed from 80s hair metal. Absolutely crushing.

rael, check out the Tech Extreme genre on here... no glam there.