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

[LikeADog93]

The lower register ones, like It's So Easy, Brownstone, Double Talkin Jive, and Knockin On Heavens Door. On the flip side, he is consistently bad on You Could Be Mine and Paradise City (I hate how he does the intro)

[default_]

He sounds awful on RQ. 

[RONIN]

A simple fix is to sing the songs differently and adjust them to his current vocal range.

But he can't be arsed to do it. 

[Towelie]

Just listening to the Live At The Forum 2017 soundboard. Those first two verses/choruses on TWAT are brutal. He frequently slips off key and can barely get to the end of each line. Why does he insist on performing it when he simply can't do it? Imagine playing this to a non-Guns fan... I actually think they'd laugh at you.

[Underhardy]

I Feel Good

[RONIN]

6 minutes ago, Towelie said:

Why does he insist on performing it when he simply can't do it? Imagine playing this to a non-Guns fan... I actually think they'd laugh at you.

Ego. Is Axl motivated by any other muse? Cake or ribs perhaps. 

Chinese songs being on the setlist is his attempt to save face for 23 years of failure. 

[MildlyArtistic]

On 5/12/2018 at 6:57 PM, Gibson_Guy87 said:

He sounds really cool at 2:08. I was at this show and had a "holy shit!" kinda moment when I heard him sing it 

 

Axl's really low voice sounds absolutely fucking incredible. I'm really glad he uses it for the chorus of Better now, but I wish he'd use it on more songs. 

[lame ass security]

23 minutes ago, MildlyArtistic said:

Axl's really low voice sounds absolutely fucking incredible. I'm really glad he uses it for the chorus of Better now, but I wish he'd use it on more songs. 

It's been rumored that Axl is in preliminary talks to replace Richard Sterban as the bass singer for the Oak Ridge Boys.

Edited May 25, 2018 by lame ass security
Spelling

[F*ck Fear]

2 hours ago, Towelie said:

Just listening to the Live At The Forum 2017 soundboard. Those first two verses/choruses on TWAT are brutal. He frequently slips off key and can barely get to the end of each line. Why does he insist on performing it when he simply can't do it? Imagine playing this to a non-Guns fan... I actually think they'd laugh at you.

There's maybe six songs from that show i can tolerate, the rest is awful. The same can be said about the whole of 2017 tour.

[Gordon Comstock]

2 hours ago, Towelie said:

Why does Axl insist on keeping the CD songs in the set when he sounds dreadful on every single one of them? 

Songs that Axl can still pull off:

It's So Easy

Mr Brownstone

Jungle

Double Talkin Jive

Rocket Queen

Nightrain

Civil War

KOHD

LALD

The Seeker

Patience (minus the outro)

^^^ 

That's really it, isn't it? I can't think of a single CD song that he's sounded good singing on the NITL tour. Even the title track, which is arguably the easiest track to sing from Chinese Democracy, sounds ropey these days (check out his awful rendition from the 2017 Live at the Forum soundboard).

TIL has always sounded crappy live and TWAT is just shockingly woeful every time. I actually feel embarrassed for him when he does this.

 

I'd take RQ and LALD off the list and add CD (it's usually good), Wichita Lineman, I Feel Good, Madagascar (usually), and Out Ta Get Me.

I'm a huge CD fan but I wish they'd drop TIL, Sorry and TWAT for good.

[Towelie]

On 5/12/2018 at 6:57 PM, Gibson_Guy87 said:

He sounds really cool at 2:08. I was at this show and had a "holy shit!" kinda moment when I heard him sing it 

 

He sounds ridiculous here.

[IncitingChaos]

I’m excited for the tour that Axl abandons the mickey voice! 

[Gibson87]

1 hour ago, Towelie said:

He sounds ridiculous here.

Agree to disagree 

[Gordon Comstock]

1 hour ago, Towelie said:

He sounds ridiculous here.

 

That's a vocal style I'd be interested in hearing on something new, but it doesn't work in Better. That song should've been dropped long ago, it was a weak live song before the reunion but ffs, Axl just can't (or won't) sing it properly anymore; it's the same sort of thing with YCBM, or Paradise City - those songs need 'aggressive' vocals. He doesn't have to sound like 1991, but using his weakest singing voice drags the songs down more than anything else.

[UsedYourIllusion]

We need his natural baritone on songs like Bad Obsession, you ain’t the first, November Rain (he sings it too clean these days), mama kin, since I don’t have you. It’d also help having Izzy sing 14 years and Dust N’ Bones, Duff sing So Fine and Attitude or maybe a few Spaghetti Incident songs. 

[IncitingChaos]

There seems to be a lot of negative feelings towards the band right now. 

Axl’s voice has a lot of power though. If he sounds really good on Sunday I expect everyone will change their tune. I honestly care more about how Axl sounds than who’s in the band. He’s the make or break here. 

However if he sounds like 2017 then I’m getting my pitchfork! I can’t listen to Axl butcher these festivals 

[Pedrolg]

2 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

There seems to be a lot of negative feelings towards the band right now. 

Axl’s voice has a lot of power though. If he sounds really good on Sunday I expect everyone will change their tune. I honestly care more about how Axl sounds than who’s in the band. He’s the make or break here. 

However if he sounds like 2017 then I’m getting my pitchfork! I can’t listen to Axl butcher these festivals 

What bothers me is that Axl has so much left in him still. If you listen to the AC/DC and the moments he shines on GNR songs, he still has loads of power, range and versatility compared to guys like Bon Jovi, Hetfield, Plant, Brian Johnson etc. He is clinging to habits and not performing at his best. A combination of down tuning and reworking a few songs, with a conscious effort to move away from the falsetto would lead to Axl being a monster for 10 + years. 

[IncitingChaos]

I’m just happy they are starting a new leg. I always get high expectations for something different vocally. He’s gotta get it fixed soon I feel. 

[Pedrolg]

1 hour ago, IncitingChaos said:

I’m just happy they are starting a new leg. I always get high expectations for something different vocally. He’s gotta get it fixed soon I feel. 

Nah, I don't really think so, even though I hope you are right. The fact is this tour is massively successful, both financially and critically. There are many shows in 2017 that were very well reviewed, there's this odd thing that makes his currently vocals somehow project better live. I hate the falsetto, but the shows I went to in the NITL tour (Brazil end of 2016) seemed pretty good live to me. Afterwards I went to youtube and found them pretty bad.

I hope Axl realizes that eventually. I know his voice is not what it used to be, and what he does is very demanding, but I'm also certain that he has more than enough in him to be able to perform at much better levels at this point. He just needs to move away from what he's doing. We should find out soon enough, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[GNRfanMILO]

2 hours ago, Pedrolg said:

Nah, I don't really think so, even though I hope you are right. The fact is this tour is massively successful, both financially and critically. There are many shows in 2017 that were very well reviewed, there's this odd thing that makes his currently vocals somehow project better live. I hate the falsetto, but the shows I went to in the NITL tour (Brazil end of 2016) seemed pretty good live to me. Afterwards I went to youtube and found them pretty bad.

I hope Axl realizes that eventually. I know his voice is not what it used to be, and what he does is very demanding, but I'm also certain that he has more than enough in him to be able to perform at much better levels at this point. He just needs to move away from what he's doing. We should find out soon enough, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

The 2016 Brazil dates were pretty good for me, atleast on YouTube. I went to see him in Buenos Aires a few weeks before and he was having an ill. There is, for example, a particular WTTJ (i think its Porto Alegre) that he sounds fucking great.

The problem here is that the media somehow doesn't criticize his voice anymore, atleast since they reunited. I don't know why, but since Slash is back in the mix, Axl being fat and sounding like a dying cat doesn't seem like a problem anymore..

Edited May 31, 2018 by GNRfanMILO

[Gordon Comstock]

I listened to his 3 songs on Angel Down again recently.

He sounded sofa king great on that album.

 

Spoiler

 

[IncitingChaos]

i like Axl’s control and voice here at 4:29-5:11.

Then the ending at 7:35 I’ve never heard Axl so over prepared before. He sings those final lines so fast nobody can keep up with him haha you know he was nervous about that.

[ChristmasFnatic]

Is it true he sounds like crap on the first few dates of a tour, then improve in the end?

[Towelie]

11 minutes ago, ChristmasFnatic said:

Is it true he sounds like crap on the first few dates of a tour

Yes

Quote

 then improve in the end?

No.

[Bailey96]

2 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

i like Axl’s control and voice here at 4:29-5:11.

Then the ending at 7:35 I’ve never heard Axl so over prepared before. He sings those final lines so fast nobody can keep up with him haha you know he was nervous about that.

Man I remember seeing a live periscope of this concert and being so excited seeing coma in the setlist. Now I’m burned out on this song. Time to see another deep cut axl could pull off. Bad obsession, you ain’t the first pretty tied up, the garden maybe, they could give locomotive a shot if they wanted to.