Favorite metal singers and guitarists

[makethemsuffer12]

Shit! I forgot to mention Mikael Akerfeldt for both singer and guitarist.

[b_halperin]

these are some of my favorites.. not necessarily the best

Vocals:
Randy Blythe - Lamb of God
Brock Lindow - 36 Crazyfists
Mikael Dahl - Crystal Eyes
Jon Gallagher - Dying Fetus
Paul Masvidal - Cynic
Dez Fafara - Devildriver
Joel Grind - Toxic Holocaust
Warlord - Turisas
Bruce Dickinson - Iron Maiden

Guitar:
Fredrick/Martin - Meshuggah
Michael Keane - The Faceless
Jon Gallagher - Dying Fetus
N8 Feet Under/Scunty D. - Skeletonwitch
Mark Morton/Chris Adler - Lamb of God

[DethMaiden]

There's a handful of guys who I really love and respect for their versatility and songwriting and singing in different ways and playing a mean guitar. That list is Mikael Åkerfeldt, Devin Townsend, and Neige. Hard to say who my favorite singers and guitarists are individually, but those three dudes are hard not to be awestruck by.

[Maiden33]

Originally Posted by SomewhereInTime72

Generic wouldn't really be that bothersome as long as it were awesome. Unfortunately, of those guitarists, riffmaster Iommi is the only one I feel I would truly tip my hat to as awesome.

Yep.

I also think half the vocalists mentioned aren't "singers". If you don't sing notes, you're not a singer. I don't mean to pull a "durr I'm closeminded and hate growling", but I just wish to make the distinction that growling/screaming is vocals, not literally singing.

[JRA]

What the hell

Vocalists:

Rob Halford
Lemmy Kilmister
Ozzy Osbourne (1970-2001-ish)
Bobby Blitz Ellsworth
Bruce Dickinson
Kai Hansen (1995-on)
Bon Scott
Jeff Walker (for balance purposes, I feel like I should add my favorite extreme metal vocalist, and here he is!)
Paul Stanley
Dio


Guitarists:

Alex Lifeson
Ritchie Blackmore
Dave Mustaine
Eddie Van Halen
Kai Hansen
Dimebag Darrell
Alexi Laiho
Quorthon (Bathory)
Glenn Tipton
Jimi Hendrix


Honorary mentions:

Rhythm guitar player: James Hetfield
Riff creator: Tony Iommi
guitar team: Dave Murray/Adrian Smith
guitar player/songwriter: Pete Townsend

[Maiden33]

Originally Posted by JRA

Kai Hansen (1995-on)
Kai Hansen

Kai nearly got a nod from me in some form. I think he's just a huge personality and important figure in the music I really love and I think he's written about 3x his share of great power metal songs. I used to not love his voice, but has time has gone on, he's still not one of my favorites, but I think his voice "FITS" Gamma Ray so unbelievably well, and truly makes them what they are. So for that, I award big points.

Regarding Blackmore:
I can definitely see it argued from an influence/writing perspective. I think Blackmore's style of playing and writing was well ahead of his time, basically crafting what I'd consider the first couple of power metal tunes ever written. But I think as a player he's absolutely overrated. I find most of his solos to honestly be kind of embarrassing, especially because of his tone. As I said, writing-wise he was brilliant, but you had guys from the same general era that could run circles around him solo-wise.

[TonyD]

What about guitar players/singers?

Matt Pike
Devin Townsend
Josh Homme

[JRA]

Originally Posted by Maiden33

Kai nearly got a nod from me in some form. I think he's just a huge personality and important figure in the music I really love and I think he's written about 3x his share of great power metal songs. I used to not love his voice, but has time has gone on, he's still not one of my favorites, but I think his voice "FITS" Gamma Ray so unbelievably well, and truly makes them what they are. So for that, I award big points.

Alot of people think Bruce or Rob bring "opera" to metal, but I feel like Kai is literally a classically trained mezzo-soprano singer given to us by the metal gods to add some "sophistication" to heavy metal. It's pretty hilarious considering that on Walls of Jericho he sounds like a box of smashed assholes. Who knew that 10 plus years of NOT singing would make your vocal abilities grow exponentially?

[Maiden33]

Singer/Guitarist Combos:

"lord" Tim Grose (Dungeon, lord)
John Sykes (Whitesnake, Blue Murder)
Tom S. Englund (Evergrey)
Gary Moore (Solo, Thin lizzy)
Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray, Helloween)
Dave Meniketti (Y&T)

Also I'll give a special nod to these other singer/instrumentalists who I really like:
Jon Oliva - Vocals/Keyboards (Savatage)
Steve Walsh - Vocals/Keyboards (Kansas)
Billy Greer - Bass/Vocals (Kansas, Seventh Key)
Deen Castronovo - Drums/Vocals (Journey)
Mat Sinner - Bass/Vocals (Primal Fear, Sinner)

[Maiden33]

Originally Posted by JRA

Alot of people think Bruce or Rob bring "opera" to metal, but I feel like Kai is literally a classically trained mezzo-soprano singer given to us by the metal gods to add some "sophistication" to heavy metal. It's pretty hilarious considering that on Walls of Jericho he sounds like a box of smashed assholes. Who knew that 10 plus years of NOT singing would make your vocal abilities grow exponentially?

I don't know about that. Kai has never come off as operatic to me. I mean, aside from him doing his occasional bombastic choir bits (see: middle of Valley of the Kings). I don't think he's remotely close to some other guys as far as classical training in metal vocalists goes. See: Khan (Kamelot) and Harry Conklin (Jag Panzer).