Current opinion on James Labrie

I couldn't find any threads about him. So, what do you think about James Labrie? I've heard some people call him annoying, some people call him skilled, that, "he isn't a rock singer, definitely metal" and even when he sings metal, it isn't very good.

I personally like him very much. I think he's very talented, and really enjoy his vocals. I think the high pitched yelling, especially on the "A Change of Seasons", album, that everyone seems to hate is very impressive.

Well, what do you think of him?

I didn't like his vocals the first few times I heard them, but they very quickly grew on me and I consider them an integral part of Dream Theater's sound (which happens to be my favorite progressive metal band).  An extremely good singer.

On the more more symphonic/prog rock style pieces like Octavarium and Six Degrees his voice fits perfectly. And on Train Of Thought his voice just about fit the heavier style. But his voice fit much less on the last 2 albums where Portnoy took them off in a more Metal direction, especially on Black Clouds the music is just written for a different vocalist. Hopefully the new album is much more like DT and less like the Metal catering that happened on the last album, then LaBrie's presence will feel right.

The guy can sing but there's just something about his voice that I can't get away with. Just my personnal taste I guess as I know many rate him.

I've only heard him off of Scenes from a memory and random tracks like pull me under and panic attack; I think he's an amazingly talented singer, though I do have a soft spot for tenor voices, even though the large vibrato can be grating sometimes.

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.

^ 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.

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 .

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.

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.