The "Axl's Voice" Thread - Please Keep All Discussion Here

[estranged_85]

1 hour ago, nikosgnr said:

Does anybody know if Ron Anderson's still around?

Axl's vocal coach (just to clearify)

[nikosgnr]

30 minutes ago, estranged_85 said:

Axl's vocal coach (just to clearify)

Yep.. He did an amazing job last year. Most possible cause of the AXL/DC..

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Pedrolg]

If St. Louis isn't enough to take Axl that extra mile, nothing else will be. This is my last hope of seeing a top performance on the NITL tour.

[IncitingChaos]

Didn't want to say anything in the show thread but Axl still sounds weak. I'll let the others in the thread keep pretending it's good, but Jungle is the real downer at the moment..he can't get that song going anymore 

[MayorFurbush]

On 7/23/2017 at 0:15 AM, IncitingChaos said:

90's Axl wasn't as good as 86-89 Axl

 

best showing of his career here if you ask me 

I miss that natural, unforced clean singing. It was the perfect compliment to his raspy high voice.

Nice and soft. Now...Well, for decades, it seems... When he sings Patience, for instance, it's... I don't even know how to describe it. There's this forced, self-aware kinda "doucheyness" to it.

Listen to the Apollo show. "Can't speed up the time" is a perfect example.

Every bit of me needed him to sing like this on Sorry. 

[Pedrolg]

2 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

Didn't want to say anything in the show thread but Axl still sounds weak. I'll let the others in the thread keep pretending it's good, but Jungle is the real downer at the moment..he can't get that song going anymore 

Yeah, I read the thread and got somewhat excited by Axl improving. He sounds bad. I think he is done, tbh. It is sad, it might be his fault or not, but he is done, imo.

[IncitingChaos]

3 minutes ago, Pedrolg said:

Yeah, I read the thread and got somewhat excited by Axl improving. He sounds bad. I think he is done, tbh. It is sad, it might be his fault or not, but he is done, imo.

Tonight wasn't any better than Apollo. I'm not going to say he's done. But he needs rest. I noticed there are spots where he's finding more rest like the jungle intro and breakdown. They just seem to be extending Slash's parts to give Axl a few seconds to rest. 

[Blackstar]

15 hours ago, nikosgnr said:

Does anybody know if Ron Anderson's still around?

He was at one of the European shows (he was streaming it on his fb page).

[Gibbo]

I have chatted with Ron on Fb pms hes a nice fella

Edited July 28, 2017 by Gibbo

[F*ck Fear]

Even with the shit I've given Ax in the last week about his voice I gotta say, after re-listening to Apollo, there are some great moments. Easy, Chinese, Brownstone, Better (the new voice rocks). 

I think claiming that he's done is a bit dramatic in all honesty. People said that about Axl in 2002 (I liked that style of vocal by the way) but here he comes in 2006 sounding great. Same goes for 2010, dude was on fire. From 2011-2014 people once again claimed he was done but then BAM,! Here comes AC/DC and Axl is fucking slaying it again.

Basically, give it some time and he'll be sounding great again.

[nikosgnr]

6 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

Tonight wasn't any better than Apollo. I'm not going to say he's done. But he needs rest. I noticed there are spots where he's finding more rest like the jungle intro and breakdown. They just seem to be extending Slash's parts to give Axl a few seconds to rest. 

He's not that bad. Considering he's a 55 year old guy touring about a year and a half now, playing almost for 2,5+ hours..!

I think Andersons absence is noticable.

5 hours ago, Blackstar said:

He was at one of the European shows (he was streaming it on his fb page).

Thing is, does he still help him with his voice?

As I see it, probably not..

[GNRfanMILO]

I'm starting to believe that he really is done. The voice cracks that started with ACDC are getting more frequent. He's 55 now, so "2002 sounded like shit and then 2006 was crazy" doesnt work here IMO.

Question for @IncitingChaos, when did he start to struggle (mickying) with Jungle?

Edited July 28, 2017 by GNRfanMILO

[IncitingChaos]

1 hour ago, GNRfanMILO said:

I'm starting to believe that he really is done. The voice cracks that started with ACDC are getting more frequent. He's 55 now, so "2002 sounded like shit and then 2006 was crazy" doesnt work here IMO.

Question for @IncitingChaos, when did he start to struggle (mickying) with Jungle?

Start of the euro tour. He use to Mickey the first line then be fine, but now every time he says Jungle it's bad 

[killuridols]

51 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

Start of the euro tour. He use to Mickey the first line then be fine, but now every time he says Jungle it's bad 

And they added more dates to the tour 

[SurfsUp]

he sounded great on better at the apollo, hasn't really done that since the NITL tour started. the chorus is aggressive and kinda cool sounding, a new vocal technique.

sounds much better than vince neil and sebastian bach still 

Edited July 28, 2017 by SurfsUp

[Sisyphus]

I saw Guns N' Roses in Vienna and I thought it was a good show. Axl sang exactly the way I expected him to sing. It wasn't bad by any means but it wasn't great either. 

My personal opinion is that for the first time since 1993 Axl really prepared for the tour. He figured out when he needs to press hard and when he can lay low. It's obvious he could sing with more rasp but he intentionally opts to use a cleaner and more controlled voice.

From what I'm hearing he's singing the songs very similarly from show to show and in certain moments he goes full on Mickey Mouse with absolutely no intention of forcing himself into something more powerful, grittier, raspier. He's content. He found his range, he figured out a way he could sing and still make millions. The general public won't ever notice. But I did. Very much so.

I feel the show is very, very scripted and so are Axl's vocals. I don't mean it in a bad way, I loved the show and all but Axl clearly has a very clear idea how he intends to sing certain songs. It could be his decision but I think he's following advice of a vocal coach.

I'm no expert so I don't know for sure. It's just my guess. He can't risk blowing out his voice so he's very careful, very astute and he doesn't make mistakes by screaming his lungs out. When he screams he goes for his clean voice almost exclusively, except on certain songs where he traditionally sounds good.

As far as the 2017 shows go, I think his performances are high quality but the problem is they are hardly on par with his singing in early days or even 2006/2010. They're not. I can tell you that first hand. Some say you don't notice it at a show, I noticed it immediately. In Vienna he started really strong, but It's so Easy and Brownstone are easy for him. I think he did great on Better and Sweet Child (saved by so many people singing though) but poorly on some other songs.

I saw him in 2006 and 2010. Both shows were vocally superior. That is from my personal perspective, I like the raspy voice, the UYI tour voice and his early days of course. In 2006 in 2010 he sang his ass off. In 2017, albeit doing enough to keep the fans happy, he was conservative with his voice, the same way he's been conservative the whole tour.

To sum it up, I think this is as good as it gets. He's getting older and I don't think he wants a hoarse voice for the rest of his life. It's obviously harder to rehabilitate at 55 than at 30 and I think he's following the advice of a vocal coach or whoever.

It's not bad. It's good. Hell, even great. But it's no longer his trademark. He found a way around the voice fans want to hear and he did it pretty well. But we, the hardcore fans, we hear it. You can't fool someone with 20 years of listening to every clip on the internet. Watching Paris 1992 show 500 times. Literally. And so many other shows too. You just can't.

If anyone doesn't know where I'm coming from, a good example that comes to mind is Your Could Be Mine from Florida 1992 (there are many more examples, this one just popped into my head). That's THE voice. He cannot replicate that. 
 

But he still sings like a motherfucker! There's only one Axl Rose. Enjoy it while you can people.

Edited July 28, 2017 by Sisyphus

[Pedrolg]

He doesn't sound like a motherfucker. Sure, he still has some great moments, is still impressive on songs like Nightrain, but right now he sounds like a parody of himself and worse than some very amateur singers I've seen on A LOT of the songs, the majority of them.

Those voice cracks that appeared during his AC/DC run were extremely rare before that with GNR, and now they are appearing on parts where Axl used to confortably rasp even 2011-2014. He sounds bad on songs that were strong points of the show in the beggining of the tour, like My Michelle.

How some people fail to notice that or insist that Axl is sounding great is puzzling to me. He sounded great on 2016. He sounded awesome with AC/DC, and the aftermath shows exactly why he never did that again after 2010. Singing AC/DC is not healthy at all: Brian Jonhson's prime voice lasted a whole 3 years while fronting that band and singing stuff like Hells Bells. All he's done after that was make do with whatever he had left, with decent results.

I think Axl did a number on his voice, and it shows at mostly every song at every show on this leg.

[Pedrolg]

13 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

Tonight wasn't any better than Apollo. I'm not going to say he's done. But he needs rest. I noticed there are spots where he's finding more rest like the jungle intro and breakdown. They just seem to be extending Slash's parts to give Axl a few seconds to rest. 

He had rest before this leg. Rest has never, ever, improved Axl's voice. What he actually needs is to reaccess his whole vocal situation, work hard as hell to find something that works with his current skills and is sustainable and still with that. He obviously will not do that. What he is doing now doesn't work for me, anyway. When I say he is done, what I mean is that I don't believe he will ever sound much better than this again.

[IncitingChaos]

26 minutes ago, Pedrolg said:

He had rest before this leg. Rest has never, ever, improved Axl's voice. What he actually needs is to reaccess his whole vocal situation, work hard as hell to find something that works with his current skills and is sustainable and still with that. He obviously will not do that. What he is doing now doesn't work for me, anyway. When I say he is done, what I mean is that I don't believe he will ever sound much better than this again.

I agree to an extent. Working his vocals consistently strengthens his vocal muscles but Axl hasn't done a tour like this for this long since UYI and he damaged his voice on that tour. 

I think he's in too deep contract wise and needs rest. 11-14 the more he sang the Better but now I think he's done too much and really he's out there just making it harder to get back to full strength. I'm thinking like a full years rest to get back for him. 

[NachoLZ]

5 hours ago, SurfsUp said:

he sounded great on better at the apollo, hasn't really done that since the NITL tour started. the chorus is aggressive and kinda cool sounding, a new vocal technique.

sounds much better than vince neil and sebastian bach still 

Yeah but his voice is cracking in every word at the  "I never wanted you to be so full of anger...." part of the song.

[AFGnR]

In 2017, I think he peaked in London/Gdansk, Poland so far.

[IncitingChaos]

well FU*K!!! Now what do we do..back to square one with this asshole and his amazing ability to sing an AC/DC song. You can't tell me he can sound this good and not F'n say "Jungle" properly. 

[AxlRoseCDII]

I think the tempos of the song sound bother me more than Axl's voice being weaker honestly. Civil War is too fast and the monologue before the last chorus sounds ridiculous with how fast he says it.

[IncitingChaos]

15 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

I think the tempos of the song sound bother me more than Axl's voice being weaker honestly. Civil War is too fast and the monologue before the last chorus sounds ridiculous with how fast he says it.

Yea that's awful too! We gotta handle one problem at a time. Bitching about Axl is a full time job. He fixes one thing and other parts start breaking. 

Civil War goes at break neck speed, I think Yesterdays is sang in under 2 min. There's quite a few that they could actually fix a lot of issues just by adjusting tempo. Mainly PC

[Live Like a Suicide]

55 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

well FU*K!!! Now what do we do..back to square one with this asshole and his amazing ability to sing an AC/DC song. You can't tell me he can sound this good and not F'n say "Jungle" properly. 

Perhaps not judging him when you don't know how he trains his voice or uses it? Lol. We all know Axl can still pull of his vocals when he needs to. This is just further evidence of that.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Live Like a Suicide