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

[Original]

The voice discussions crack me up.  JFC.   He’s what 56 or so.  He’s not gonna revert to 1991 vocals.  It’s like the Bon Jovi boards bitching about his vocals sucking.   These guys are pushing 60.  Think of how Axl used to sing and the drugs and smoking he’s done and factor in age.  It all takes a toll.  

[IncitingChaos]

1 minute ago, Original said:

The voice discussions crack me up.  JFC.   He’s what 56 or so.  He’s not gonna revert to 1991 vocals.  It’s like the Bon Jovi boards bitching about his vocals sucking.   These guys are pushing 60.  Think of how Axl used to sing and the drugs and smoking he’s done and factor in age.  It all takes a toll.  

This is a no excuse thread! You won’t be saying that nonsense when ACDC comes around again...you’ll be saying “Ha you losers thought Axl lost his voice! Haters” 

[Jw224]

3 minutes ago, Original said:

The voice discussions crack me up.  JFC.   He’s what 56 or so.  He’s not gonna revert to 1991 vocals.  It’s like the Bon Jovi boards bitching about his vocals sucking.   These guys are pushing 60.  Think of how Axl used to sing and the drugs and smoking he’s done and factor in age.  It all takes a toll.  

I think this issue is that with proper training he could sound good. He might sound different, but it would sound good. It seems like he's fine with not being at all consistent though. 

[MrSoftie]

On 6/5/2018 at 11:27 PM, IncitingChaos said:

Just a reminder of how good Axl was on TIL in 2013...Also in windy conditions in which he couldn’t hear himself that well

I know I'm digging up an old post but possibly the last time there was rasp in Estranged from the same leg:

 

[IncitingChaos]

15 minutes ago, MrSoftie said:

I know I'm digging up an old post but possibly the last time there was rasp in Estranged from the same leg:

 

Haha I was actually there. The last minute was incredible! He really sounded good that night. Rasped Paradise City too 

probably the best acoustics I’ve ever heard at a gnr gig. Every instrument and line was so clear. 

he was pretty good on Jungle at this time too, it had so depth and power to it still

Edited June 7, 2018 by IncitingChaos

[Pedrolg]

22 minutes ago, Original said:

The voice discussions crack me up.  JFC.   He’s what 56 or so.  He’s not gonna revert to 1991 vocals.  It’s like the Bon Jovi boards bitching about his vocals sucking.   These guys are pushing 60.  Think of how Axl used to sing and the drugs and smoking he’s done and factor in age.  It all takes a toll.  

Yeah, it's really all to do with age, really. We was really young in 2010, but went to bed after the tour and woke up old in 2011. He remained old until the end of 2014, sipping into his fountain of youth water sporadically, like in Philly 2012, Vegas 2014 and other gigs extensively posted in this very thread in the last few days. 

He apparently found a second fountain of youth and drank loads from it in 2016, and it showed with both GNR and AC/DC. He ran out of it again in 2017 though, and by last sunday in Berlin he was out. Thankfully Fernando found some hidden away in Axl's vault, right by Atlas Shrugged, and picked it up while searching for a remix of SOYL to quench our thirst for NEW MUSIC.

It doesn't take a lot to recognize that Axl didn't experience (unlike Jon Bon Jovi, to be honest) a gradual decline with age. He had an extremely sudden drop after a beastly tour where he arguably sounded the closest ever to his 90's self, delivering consistently night after night. He has since bounced back, but with a completely different singing technique and forever diminished capabilities. He settled into a different and inferior level of performance (which, regardless of how he did in Odense, seems to be declining - NOW THAT IS AGE RELATED). He still gives glimpses of his former greatness from time to time.

Age does play a part, but the relative demise of Axl vocals is a massive mistery to fans, subject of frenetic speculation for years and years without answers, his disastrous lows peppered by inexplicable highs baffling most fans time and time again. Age doesn't come close to explaining it.

[Ratam]

1 hour ago, Draguns said:

OMG!!!! Axl lost his voice! OMG!!!! Axl is sick!   Oh man.  It was a joke reading this forum on Sunday.  As proof from Shadow, his voice is fine. 

Axl is a guy proud. Then for many critic ,he had reaction and win.

[Tom-Ass]

1 hour ago, F*ck Fear said:

He sounded a bit better than he did in Berlin.

Mind you, the only two songs I had any interest in hearing were Slither and Shadow. Slither sounds better, I shut Shadow off after the first few lines.

 

It get's better right after the first few lines.

[F*ck Fear]

1 hour ago, Original said:

The voice discussions crack me up.  JFC.   He’s what 56 or so.  He’s not gonna revert to 1991 vocals.  It’s like the Bon Jovi boards bitching about his vocals sucking.   These guys are pushing 60.  Think of how Axl used to sing and the drugs and smoking he’s done and factor in age.  It all takes a toll.  

I'm not expecting him to sound like he did in 1991. The guy sounded phenomenal just TWO years ago...

Just now, Tom-Ass said:

It get's better right after the first few lines.

 I'll give it another shot.

[Amir]

Shadow of Your Love was surprisingly good

Slither still needs work; maybe if he used the super-low "Shackler's" voice on the verses?

[Haters Gonna Hate]

Imo Philly 2012 is Axl’s best gnr show since 2010

[IncitingChaos]

18 minutes ago, Haters Gonna Hate said:

Imo Philly 2012 is Axl’s best gnr show since 2010

You’d be neglecting 2016 Houston. Anytime you can sing Coma as well as he did that night then it’s gotta top Philly. 

Edited June 7, 2018 by IncitingChaos

[SoulMonster]

1 hour ago, Original said:

The voice discussions crack me up.  JFC.   He’s what 56 or so.  He’s not gonna revert to 1991 vocals.  It’s like the Bon Jovi boards bitching about his vocals sucking.   These guys are pushing 60.  Think of how Axl used to sing and the drugs and smoking he’s done and factor in age.  It all takes a toll.  

"But, but, but! Steven Tyler can still sing well!"

or

"The fact that his voice sucks means he isn't practising enough, because Steven Tyler"

And hence they have proven to themselves that Axl can't possibly do vocal exercises and prepare before shows.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

8 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

You’d be neglecting 2016 Houston. Anytime you can sing Coma as well as he did that night then it’s gotta top Philly. 

hmm I gotta check that out. Haven't seen it

[IncitingChaos]

2 minutes ago, Haters Gonna Hate said:

hmm I gotta check that out. Haven't seen it

Check out Coma, RQ, and even YCBM wasn’t bad that night. Hell watch the whole show

[GNRfanJen]

2 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

Check out Coma, RQ, and even YCBM wasn’t bad that night. Hell watch the whole show

Can confirm all of this. I was at this show (my first ever GN'R show) and I have not heard Axl sound as good as he did that night, since. It was magic in a bottle. 

[koldweather]

2 hours ago, IncitingChaos said:

Check out Coma, RQ, and even YCBM wasn’t bad that night. Hell watch the whole show

Also Noghtrain is beast, especially the crash and burn, could have come from 88 easily its that good.

[Sonic Reducer]

12 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

"But, but, but! Steven Tyler can still sing well!"

or

"The fact that his voice sucks means he isn't practising enough, because Steven Tyler"

And hence they have proven to themselves that Axl can't possibly do vocal exercises and prepare before shows.

While I don't think comparisons are of much use, you have to admit that Axl Rose is a bad vocalist that delivers inconsistent performances and ruins his own songs. There are discussions on this forum about how that one part of that song was pretty good, or how there were hints of the infamous rasp thrown around here and there. Absolutely pathetic. If you can't sing a song, don't sing it, especially with the kind of money you expect people to pay. It's shameful that there have been years since "Paradise City", the GNR song everyone knows, sounded good. He either needs to rework these songs into acoustic, or otherwise subdued numbers that he can pull off, or work on new material from scratch, and find a new balance.

[adamsapple]

Guess I was lucky, everytime I saw him in concert he was absolutely fantastic. A friend of mine is a music teacher and he said you would basically need TWO singers to do some of the stuff Axl does every night because few people have the range or are willing to push it this much. He's very unique and if he has a bad night so what, he's only human too. Why cant people just enjoy him being out there doing his thing, its not like he point a gun to your head forcing you to attend a concert.

[SoulMonster]

1 minute ago, Sonic Reducer said:

While I don't think comparisons are of much use, you have to admit that Axl Rose is a bad vocalist that delivers inconsistent performances and ruins his own songs. 

No, not at all. I still think he is an impressive singer. Not as good as he used to be, sure, but he still does amazing things. That range at 56 is fantastic. The dynamics. The attack. The sustained screams. The ability to sing different genres and with different voices. All still largely intact. His tonal quality has been reduced, especially for some songs, and he struggles with some songs which he didn't before that seems to be in specific keys. This could probably have been fixed if they'd played somewhat slower so his lungs could keep up and if they'd tuned down, something he seems to refuse to do. That insistence on singing the songs in the original key, as written when he was in his 20s with the most awesome voice ever, is kind of cool even if the result at times could be better. But as I said, he still is a very impressive singer and very few could do what he does on a general basis.

People here get too obsessed with the flaws, too obsessed with "rasp", and frankly don't know what they are talking about.

[sl4yer]

1 minute ago, SoulMonster said:

No, not at all. I still think he is an impressive singer. Not as good as he used to be, sure, but he still does amazing things. That range at 56 is fantastic. The dynamics. The attack. The sustained screams. The ability to sing different genres and with different voices. All still largely intact. His tonal quality has been reduced, especially for some songs, and he struggles with some songs which he didn't before that seems to be in specific keys. This could probably have been fixed if they'd played somewhat slower so his lungs could keep up and if they'd tuned down, something he seems to refuse to do. That insistence on singing the songs in the original key, as written when he was in his 20s with the most awesome voice ever, is kind of cool even if the result at times could be better. But as I said, he still is a very impressive singer and very few could do what he does on a general basis.

People here get too obsessed with the flaws, too obsessed with "rasp", and frankly don't know what they are talking about.

This 

[Sonic Reducer]

17 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

No, not at all. I still think he is an impressive singer. Not as good as he used to be, sure, but he still does amazing things. That range at 56 is fantastic. The dynamics. The attack. The sustained screams. The ability to sing different genres and with different voices. All still largely intact. His tonal quality has been reduced, especially for some songs, and he struggles with some songs which he didn't before that seems to be in specific keys. This could probably have been fixed if they'd played somewhat slower so his lungs could keep up and if they'd tuned down, something he seems to refuse to do. That insistence on singing the songs in the original key, as written when he was in his 20s with the most awesome voice ever, is kind of cool even if the result at times could be better. But as I said, he still is a very impressive singer and very few could do what he does on a general basis.

People here get too obsessed with the flaws, too obsessed with "rasp", and frankly don't know what they are talking about.

I guess it boils down to taste and tolerance. I still think he under-delivers and exploits his fans by asking for outrageous amounts of money. They've played this show so many times, one would expect them to have it down to a t.

[MildlyArtistic]

I feel like I could accept his clean voice a lot more if he sang more akin to how he sounded in 2001/2002. That tour was mostly his clean voice, but it didn't sound as nasal as his current clean voice does nowadays.

[Original]

I don't know- I just enjoyed and appreciated the shows that I attended and the ones I watch on youtube.  We didn't have this band for almost 25 years...a lot of wasted years. 

Speaking of- maybe they should cover Wasted Years!

[Pedrolg]

3 hours ago, Sonic Reducer said:

I guess it boils down to taste and tolerance. I still think he under-delivers and exploits his fans by asking for outrageous amounts of money. They've played this show so many times, one would expect them to have it down to a t.

Exploits his fans is harsh. He tries and puts a lot into his performances, it's easy to see that. He is trying to work with what he has left, and there are loads of videos, even recent soundboards that allow fans and consumers in general to make an informed decision regarding paying to attend a show or not.