Bands with two or more canonical singers in different eras

mmin@lemmy.one to Music@beehaw.org – 18 points –

I was listening to Marillion the other day and I started thinking about bands that have different eras with different singers and each of these eras have their fans. I guess there are loads of such bands when you started thinking about it.

Some that I can think of off the top of my head are:

  • Marillion (Fish and Steve Hogarth)
  • Fates Warning (John Arch and Ray Alder)
  • Black Sabbath (Ozzy and Dio)
  • Genesis (Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins)
  • Nightwish

These are interesting because the vocalist gives the voice to the band and in many cases, the sound changes drastically with the change of vocalist. Still, many bands manage to pull it off.

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  • Black Flag (Keith Morris / Henry Rollins)
  • Iron Maiden have had three (Paul DiAnno / Bruce Dickinson / Blaze Bayley*)

*Though Blaze's two albums weren't terribly good)

I was gonna mention Maiden but then I thought Dickinson is so dominant among the three. But they do all have their fans.

I always thought Damian Wilson would have done a good job.

Yeah, Dickinson is the de facto Maiden singer. So much so that he came back for another go around.

I dipped out at Powerslave, so I didn't even know about Blaze until I read your comment.

My first real impression of Maiden was when X factor was released, and Kerrang! were making a big deal of Bayley taking over from Bruce. I liked that record well enough, but it pales next to the classics.

I mean, there's Van Halen and Van Haggar. Does Blink 182 count (Mark + Tom, Mark + Matt, and now Mark + Tom again)?

Two bands from 90's grunge:

Alice in Chains (Layne Staley / William Duvall) Stone Temple Pilots (Scott Weiland / Jeff Gutt)

Dance Gavin Dance have had three "eras," though most fans seem to like all of them despite maybe having a favorite. They started with Johnny Craig on vocals for their first EP and record, then fired him and got Kurt Travis for two albums, then brought Johnny back for another album, then replaced him again with Tilian Pearson for the rest of their career to date (aside from a small tour where he was replaced by Andrew Wells due to a rehab stint.)

the misfits have 3 distinct eras with danzig, graves and jerry only on lead vocals

Malice Mizer. The band had three different vocalists, and each time the music style and direction was different.

It went from Prog Goth rock (Tetsuo) to lighter Art / Synth Pop (Gackt), and then lastly dark metal (Klaha), all while maintaining its classical influence throughout.

King Crimson

Greg Lake and John Wetton being my favourites.

Yeah, this one rings a bell with me too.

Oh, Sepultura.

To many, the band effectively broke up when Max Cavalera left, but the Derrick Green incarnation certainly has its fans.

Napalm Death. They've had like three or four different lead vocalists over the years. Somewhat interestingly, none of original members are in the band and haven't been for several decades.

2 that have been more so "We can continue touring" reasons:

  • Foreigner (Lou Gramm, Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen)
  • Journey (Steve Perry, Arnel Pneda)
    • I do not recommend seeing Journey with Arnel at the head. I've never seen a singer hate being at his own show as much as him.
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Oh, and Faith No More too. I was so disappointed as a kid when I bought one album and Mike Patton didn’t sing on it…