Lead Singers Leaving

James Deuce · 10-24-2009, 05:13 AM

Since I can't think of any off the top of my head, what is your take on a lead singer leaving a band you enjoy? Let's say the lead singer of Metallica leaves, and a new singer comes in...but doesn't really sound at all like the one that left. Would you still call them Metallica, would you even support them anymore? This could work for any band, just thought of a band that a lot of people like on here. (Metallica is probably a horrible choice, as a lot of their sound is from instrumentals)

Obviously it would depend on how they sound. Even if they do sound alright, I don't know if I could support them like I did in the past. For me the sound of the vocals for a band is key. You can add in all of the instrumentals, which makes up only half of it, in my opinion. It just changes the whole image of the band.

Good Mourning · 10-25-2009, 08:33 PM

Umm, I would most likely refer to a band as who they are, but if they sounded different and I didn't like it, I would just not listen to the new stuff they put out.

dxanman · 10-25-2009, 08:41 PM

I would say that it would depend on what the band sounded like with a new singer. That would determine if I continued to listen or not.

AC/DC had Bon Scott. I liked their stuff from '74-'79. Brian Johnson comes in in 1980 and gives the band their best-selling album ever (and one of the best selling all-time). I'm still a huge AC/DC fan because their sound hasn't changed much - except for getting a little harder.

Van Halen: David Lee Roth - I liked them (Panama, Jump, etc.). With Sammy Hagar came in - and softened them up little (in my opinion) - I didn't like a lot of their stuff. And, can anyone really remember what the third lead singer's name was?
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But, if it were a band that I liked today, I'd have to see what happened. The only time it's happened to a band I listened to was a couple years ago when the lead singer of Trust Company quit the band and started Amity Lane. Amity Lane's only CD was horrible! But, luckily, Trust Company is getting back together and should be releasing a new album later this year or early '10. I guess I got lucky on that one.

Raoul The Duke · 10-25-2009, 08:43 PM

Funny, I was just talking to a friend about this the other day. Alice in Chains continuing without their singer is just an abomination and is what sparked the conversation. I think bands should take the Grateful Dead route, when Jerry Garcia died they continued being a band but they changed their name. It just seems like false advertisement to call yourself something when an essential part of it is missing.

Mikk · 10-25-2009, 08:46 PM

Journey don't sound anywhere near as good now which is a shame as they were greatness.

Sometimes though it can be for the better.

dxanman · 10-25-2009, 08:48 PM

I heard somewhere that Journey's lead singer was some Philippino guy who sang in a Journey cover band. Is that true?

Mikk · 10-25-2009, 09:04 PM

I think they saw him on youtube and asked him to audition and he did and got it and yes he is either Philippino or asian.

Tommy Platinum · 10-26-2009, 01:20 AM

Iron Maiden wern't the same without Dickinson, though he's not the original singer anyway. I am going to assume you mean a singer who has been there a long time through all the bands best/most successful work. Usually I would agree that it doesn't work replacing them when they have been there a long time. I liked Alice in Chain's latest album but at the same time I do agree that Layne was a key component and without him they would have been better calling the band something else.

Guns N Roses is a good example of how important the singer is. Everybody else has left since the Use Your Illusion era, but to me Axl alone is a lot more important to Guns N Roses than the rest of them put together. Without Axl it wouldn't be GnR. With Axl but without Slash, Duff etc, it still is, in my opinion at least.

So yeah, in general I think when a singer who has been with the band a long time leaves, it is damn hard to replace them and usually you have to change the whole band's sound. It is only when a band is still finding their sound just starting out when replacing the singer isn't a big problem. Killswitch did well bringing Howard Jones in.

By the way Metallica is a bad example because Hetfield plays guitar and writes a lot of stuff lol.

TheBoogeyMan · 10-31-2009, 05:59 PM

For me, Though Bruce was and still is a huge part of maiden, when he left i still considered them Iron Maiden. That was mostly due to Steve Harris and Dave Murray still being around. However, i try to rarely dwell on the blaze bayley era of maiden, those were dark times.

Lead Singers Leaving

This is a discussion on Lead Singers Leaving within the Music Room forums, part of the Entertainment Forums category; Since I can't think of any off the top of my head, what is your take on a lead singer ...