Pedrolg
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Posts posted by Pedrolg
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At this point I don't think it has anything to do with him caring. It's absolutely clear to me that the Axl/DC thing did some serious damage to his upper range. I remember the voice cracks appearing here and there on the American leg of the Rock or Bust tour, and then starting to appear more and more as he went back to GNR. It deteriorated to the point where he is no longer able to even sing TIL. The Better bridge, the ending of TWAT. Those were moments where he would still shine even in the 2011-2014 era. It's not that they sound bad right now, it's more a matter of him being unable to to them. I don't think rehearsals would change that. His tools are deteriorating through use and age.
I don't know where this whole "Axl is lazy" things really comes from. He doesn't strike me as a lazy person, particularly when it comes to performing. There is no way somebody in his 50's performs at the intensity he does, for the time that he does without some serious actual preparation. You could see the pride he had whenever he sang the TIL chorus. I doubt he would be ok with simply having to scrap the song from the setlist due to lazyness.
Singing is a young man's game, and Axl is getting old. His style is crazy demanding, singing way above his natural register with tremendous distortion for years and years. Lesser singers have lost their voices at younger ages. TBH Axl has probably lasted longer at a decent level than a lot of singers with similar styles do. I would bet that he is fully aware of the deterioration of his voice, and that it could even have a relation with his reluctance to release music.
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Sad that the time has come for Axl. His voice is done. That last piece of greatness that were the raspy high screams have finally died too. All that is left is his lower register. He should record some some stuff in it, tune the GNR down if possible and sing out his days with class and dignity. The mickey stuff is just not cool.
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The idea of Axl returning from a somewhat long layoff, in a massively publicized gig, considering the level of vocal performances of 2019 is absolutely terrifying. Unless something is actually happening in terms of activity behind the scenes there is absolutely no way he pulls this off. No way.
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36 minutes ago, UcudBmine said:AC/DC songs aren't GN'R songs, Brian Johnson is nowhere near Axl vocalwise. These songs require Axl to scream, his own songs require hin to actually sing. That's a big difference.
Brian Johnson was an absolute beast of a vocalist. He had ridiculous range, power, and versatility. I really recommend you listen to some of his work before joining AC/DC. He had a somewhat Robert Plant-esque vibe and an absolutely incredible voice. Once he joined AC/DC, all they had him do was sing screamers on the absolute upper limits of his range and with ridiculous rasp.
It was awesome for a while. The original vocals of Hells Bells are really an amazing feat. However, doing that on a consistent basis absolutely obliterated his voice through the years, and he has been a shadow of himself for decades, tuning down stuff and adapting his voice to sound serviceable.
Singing early Brian Johnson AC/DC material is very harmful for most people's voices. The more rasp and the further above the natural register one sings, the greater the impact on the vocal chords. If singing like that did Axl in at 56 years old, that's absolutely zero coincidence. It permanently changed Brian's voice in a matter of 6-7 years when he was in his 30's and 40's.
Edit: this is how Brian Johnson used to sound
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He is not holding back at all. If you listen to parts where rasp is mandatory, such as the Better bridge, he goes for it and really struggles. It sounds painful, it cracks a bit as it's not as full as it used to be.
Since coming back in 2011 with his voice shot to pieces in RIR 2011 (after a whole tour of insane rasp), Axl has been carefully dosing the amounts of distortion he applies to his voice. Much of the years that followed were full of mickey, but every now and then there were moments that showed he still had it. In each of those years you will find some of those moments, from the Philly show at Electric Factory to the awesome renditions of TWAT in Vegas 2014.
That's how he started 2016, but then, with AC/DC and stuff, the switch was flipped. With GNR, he had those monstrous screams in LALD and WTTJ. He upstaged Bach and rasped all the way through My Michelle in more than one occasion. Out ta get me too, Nightrain, even RQ on some nights had rasp. With AC/DC it was insanely high notes with absurd amounts o rasp throughout whole shows.
His voice begin to deteriorate already by the end of 2016, and is has been steadily suffering since then. It got to a point where he removed TIL from the setlist - it's a song that is clearly emotional to him, and a spotlight for his voice to shine in shows. He is unable to sing it now. He is been dealing with all those crazy cracks and moments where his voice fails him in the past two and a half years and it's painful.
It's pretty clear to me that he knows since 2011 that the rasp would eventually screw him. He got understandably carried away in 2016, produced fantastic performances but pushed himself waaaay to hard. Now his voice is suffering. We all need to make peace with it, because I don't remember a single case of a singer recovering his vocal form at that age.
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Listening to live recordings from 2016 has officially become depressing. Axl sounded so fucking great back then.
Coming to think of it, the only bits of the NITL where he sounded truly great were the ones around the time where he worked with AC/DC.
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Listened to lots of the past few shows, and sadly Axl doesn't sound great. It's serviceable enough that I think he can still perform, but it's just not good. It's telling that he gave up TIL completely, as it used to be kind of his solo spot. He knows he has limitations at this point. I'd say his current level of performance is probably worse than 2012-2014.
It's one of the two things a) he came back with a point to prove in 2016, is pushing himself as far as he can but his voice is deteriorating with age, touring with GNR and AC/DC etc or b) his strong level of performances in 2016 are solely due to AC/DC forcing him into working on his voice through that year. 2011-2014, 2017-2020 is just regular Axl aging without a shitload of vocal exercise
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2 minutes ago, Ak1nney said:Vocals obviously get worse with age, but the fact that every time Axl has been in shape, he sings amazing... it is definitely related.
Nah, we was in shape in 2002 and sounded bad, and was in worse shape in 2010 and sounded great. A lot of opera singers are overweight with ridiculous range and power. Tim Maia, a Brazilian singer, has been fat through his whole career and was a great singer.
Axl's issue is not carrying a few extra pounds. Doing what he does at nearly 60 is simply not possible if you are in shitty cardio shape. His issue is 30 years of singing way above his natural vocal range with an insane amount of vocal distortion, and possibly without proper technique for a good part of it.
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Saw some videos, and he does sound noticeably weaker, with some hints of Bridge School at some points. The big difference from previous concerts in such a short time indicates some specific issue like a cold or something.
Tbh I think the obsessive discussion and derision of Axl's looks and weight that relentlessly takes over threads in this forum has reached disgusting levels. It's frequently toxic and weirdly obsessive, while full of arguments that make absolutely no sense. There are loads of fantastic singers that are overweight through their whole careers, and singers who look fantastic for their ages (Bon Jovi being one of them) that have absolutely obliterated their voices. There is zero correlation.
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Is Axl sounding terrible again? He started this leg on pretty decent vocal shape. Did it go downhill?
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Well, for 3 shows into a tour Axl sounds quite solid, even though the setlist is a bit stale.
Maybe he used his voice on the time off
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Axl rolling out of bed and into those festivals after a somewhat big layoff, and after sounding rough throughout the last leg. It has all the ingredients for a disaster.
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It's sad, but nothing excites me at this point unless Axl manages to get a least some of his voice back. A new album might make him do that, but at this point I'm doubtful.
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10 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:
I kind of agree with this... some of the best versions of LALD, WTTJ, Nightrain, Estranged, etc are from the 'throne' era. But on the other hand, being stuck in a chair didn't make Rocket Queen, YCBM, Better, SCOM, etc sound any better than normal.
The best RQ of the tour he was actually healed from the foot and bouncing around. I remember being really excited when hearing it. I thought Axl had finally found his groove, and was starting to get close to some of the 2006 stuff, after nailing the AC/DC gig. Then it all went downhill.
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12 hours ago, F*ck Fear said:
That's not saying much.
Its better than the forum. Sounds like he is working on his voice again. I bet we will hear something related to acdc soon
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Axl is bouncing back.
Even Better has some nice rasp. Also, in the bridge his full fledged AC/DC voice shows up, with power and none of the ever present cracks from 2017 and 2018
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Yeah. Axl singing the brian songs sends shivers down my spine. What he does is not human, it's absolutely ridiculous. If he is done, he probably lasted longer than most singers would doing what he does. I wouldn't discard a comeback though.
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3 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:
Agree on the 06/07 vocals. the best clean vocal I’ve ever heard from Axl is on Sailing from :55 on. There’s no distortion, heavy rasp, or anything to mask it it’s just a great display of singing and for a guy like Axl with a low natural voice to hit these notes makes the vocal more amazing.
Amazing. Really highlights how far he has fallen. I can imagine him absolutely mickeying this in terrible fashion if he attempted it today. Those AC/DC videos showcase him in absolute beast mode.
I truly hope Axl has another rebirth of sorts in him (a realistic one, bringing close to 2016 levels). I do fear however that this is it. His mid range has been problematic for years, and those heights he reached back in 2016, together with the neverending schedule and whatever his preparation routines (or lack of) are finished frying his awesome upper ranges.
He still has his awesome lower voice to work with though, and that is probably never going away.
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1 minute ago, IncitingChaos said:
Nice ending on patience!
Yeah, he was struggling with that voice earlier this year. He seemed to recover faster than usual from the first gig (not that he sounds great now, but he did evolve). Maybe he's been doing something or there's something in the works with AC/DC
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9 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:
most of jungle is weak now. He can't dig down deep enough to get anything with power out. Just doesn't seem to have it right now. Even when he sounds decent he's using an odd array of vocals to get the sound close but it's not good. Gotta wonder what's going through his mind as he's hearing himself try to hit these notes at the moment.
Unusual. It sounds less mickeyish than I expected, but it really seems like he is going a long way to avoid using rasp. It's a bit deeper than his usual falsetto and very clean for WTTJ, a song where he usually brings out a bit of rasp. Odd, and it indicates he is aware of issues.
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this is the last Axl/DC show. Sounds good to me.
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Doing well is something he is very far from. It's painful to listen to.
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Something seriously has to be done. His performances have reached an unacceptable level. It's cringe from start to finish. I've seen amateur karaoke dudes perform those "seriously demanding" GNR song. Hell, I'm one of those, had a band in high school and currently can perform a better (albeit bad) rendition of YCBM. It is simply terrible. Sad that it came to this. In 2016 we had hints of old Axl coming back all over the shows.
It's just too much of a coincidence that he sounded good on GNR songs right when he was working his ass off for AC/DC.
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3 hours ago, AFGnR said:
First minute, voice is all over the place. 2002 Mickey, rasp, baritone etc.. Crazy
That's utterly terrible. And this song was really one of the last to become terrible. It used to be a high point even in bad shows. Painful to listen to.
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The "Axl's Voice" Thread - Please Keep All Discussion Here
in GUNS N' ROSES - DISCUSSION & NEWS
Posted · Edited by Pedrolg
Let's all hope for a second wind for Axl. How did he sound on You're Crazy @ Miami? Can't find a single video of it. Saw loads of performances of that song in 2012 and damn he sounded good on them.
Edit: found it. He tries so fucking hard on it. It doesn't sound bad, but it is VERY diminished when compared to 2012. He also goes for some pretty high notes and while he does reach them, his voice massively cracks. As I said before, I truly doubt it's a matter of effort.