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

[WhazUp]

1 hour ago, Gibsonfender2323 said:

Personally I would rather have Axl take steps on preserving his vocal cords then trying to sound as he did 30 years ago that could possibly cost him his voice entierly

Whenever he reaches a point where I think the rasp is gone forever, like 2002 he busts out the rasp in 2006.  Or 2010.  Or going from Mickey Axl in 2011-2014 to kickass Axl in 2016 with both GNR and Axl/DC

I am curious at this point how much of his vocals comes down to age and needing extra preservation, and how much of it comes down to preparation - because he does belt out the rasp consistently on songs like ISE and the Jungle intro/outro, even in the past 3 years

 

[Lies They Tell]

The only video you really need to watch in order to understand Axl's current voice, is to watch some of the Nightrain videos of recent years. Those videos tell you everything you need to know.

He sounds raspy when he's singing in his lower voice. Then he sounds like Mickey when he's singing in his higher voice. Then he sounds raspy again when he starts SCREAMING in his higher voice.

So his lower voice is alright, but his higher voice sounds like Mickey unless he's screaming. It's as simple as that.

Brian Johnsons AC/DC songs had pretty much no higher pitch singing at all. They were either low pitch singing or high pitch screaming. That's why Axl sounded so good on those songs. That's why he'd still sound pretty good on those songs. Only the very highest screams might cause trouble.

The trouble that he has with his very highest voice is also noticeable in the Nightrain performances. Either he's avoiding the very highest notes, or he's lost that part of his voice.

[Jordan Rose]

In the 2011-2014 years I always imagined that if he ever did play with Slash again that his pride would force him to sing the absolute best he could. I could never picture him doing his falsetto gimmick through a show like he was then if he was playing with Slash. After all the criticisms he's thrown Slash's way with regard to weak albums, playing with people he once wouldn't have been seen dead near, 'throwing it all away' etc, I just can't get my head round them all on stage together listening to that singing crystal clear in their monitors. Slash and Duff went to see Axl/DC in London. I mean, what do they think when they hear him come back to his own band and just plain suck? 

[Tom-Ass]

2 hours ago, Jordan Rose said:

In the 2011-2014 years I always imagined that if he ever did play with Slash again that his pride would force him to sing the absolute best he could. I could never picture him doing his falsetto gimmick through a show like he was then if he was playing with Slash. After all the criticisms he's thrown Slash's way with regard to weak albums, playing with people he once wouldn't have been seen dead near, 'throwing it all away' etc, I just can't get my head round them all on stage together listening to that singing crystal clear in their monitors. Slash and Duff went to see Axl/DC in London. I mean, what do they think when they hear him come back to his own band and just plain suck? 

I really did think he was going to come out like he had something to prove with the reunion and try and win back some of his old fans detractors. I expected him to come out in better shape physically and vocally than he had been in years.  That couldn't have been farther from the truth. I personally wouldn't go see this band for free if Slash wasn't involved.  No doubt that part of his struggles are just due to age but he does himself no favors being out of shape and winded.

[AxlRoseCDII]

I have to say, the recent SCOM and Miami concert wasn’t even his worst or bad, but I realized Axl has no grit or charm left in his voice. I thought even up until 2017 it was still there a little bit. It’s just gone now.

[jacdaniel]

Dead Horse is a train wreck. I’d just instantly drop it if I was them. Axl is terrible on it. And Slash is not even playing the solo that well either. It’s just not working, neither was Locomotive. 
 

Probably they don’t rehearse together anyways.

[Alejandro GNR]

21 minutes ago, jacdaniel said:

Dead Horse is a train wreck. I’d just instantly drop it if I was them. Axl is terrible on it. And Slash is not even playing the solo that well either. It’s just not working, neither was Locomotive. 
 

Probably they don’t rehearse together anyways.

I get what you say...the videos dont sound good at all.

BUT I’ve seen GnR 6 times and the songs I most enjoyed live where YCBM and Yesterdays...2 of the worst songs to see on You Tube.

The guys who attended some shows with me told me how good Axl was...so its a very VERY strange case hahahaa

That said..I hope I get to hear Dead Horse and Loco live

[jamillos]

Locomotive was actually pretty good, which is a paradox, considering it's way more complicated than DH, which they keep screwing up. As for Axl, there's no rasp required, ergo he's fine there too. 

[dogman]

On 2/3/2020 at 5:06 AM, Lies They Tell said:

The only video you really need to watch in order to understand Axl's current voice, is to watch some of the Nightrain videos of recent years. Those videos tell you everything you need to know.

He sounds raspy when he's singing in his lower voice. Then he sounds like Mickey when he's singing in his higher voice. Then he sounds raspy again when he starts SCREAMING in his higher voice.

So his lower voice is alright, but his higher voice sounds like Mickey unless he's screaming. It's as simple as that.

Brian Johnsons AC/DC songs had pretty much no higher pitch singing at all. They were either low pitch singing or high pitch screaming. That's why Axl sounded so good on those songs. That's why he'd still sound pretty good on those songs. Only the very highest screams might cause trouble.

The trouble that he has with his very highest voice is also noticeable in the Nightrain performances. Either he's avoiding the very highest notes, or he's lost that part of his voice.

 Pretty much what everyone needs to know.  Except, I'd argue it's more his middle register than is problematic.  So, he's good low and real high, but not his mid-range.  AC/DC was great because there is almost no mid-range.  It's all high.  

Think about the songs he sucks on:

Paradise

SCOM

YCBM

Parts of Nightrain

Second half of Estranged

Rocket Queen

 

The list goes on.  The thing is, almost all GNR songs shift from low to mid to high during the same song, sometimes even mid verse.  Take Estranged for example:

When I find out all the reasons
Maybe I'll find another way
Find another day
With all the changing seasons of my life
Maybe I'll get it right next time
An now that you've been broken down
Got your head out of the clouds
You're back down on the ground

The red indicates mid-range vocals, and these are the parts he's mickey on.  The blue then shifts to low, and he sounds good.  And there is a brief line that shifts to high where you get the classic rasp.  This is a perfect example of why Axl sounds great sometimes and like crap other times.  Fact is, he just doesn't have his mid-range anymore.  And it's a shame because so many GNR songs were written with that mid-range.

 

 

[Alejandro GNR]

3 minutes ago, dogman said:

 Pretty much what everyone needs to know.  Except, I'd argue it's more his middle register than is problematic.  So, he's good low and real high, but not his mid-range.  AC/DC was great because there is almost no mid-range.  It's all high.  

Think about the songs he sucks on:

Paradise

SCOM

YCBM

Parts of Nightrain

Second half of Estranged

Rocket Queen

 

The list goes on.  The thing is, almost all GNR songs shift from low to mid to high during the same song, sometimes even mid verse.  Take Estranged for example:

When I find out all the reasons
Maybe I'll find another way
Find another day
With all the changing seasons of my life
Maybe I'll get it right next time
An now that you've been broken down
Got your head out of the clouds
You're back down on the ground

The red indicates mid-range vocals, and these are the parts he's mickey on.  The blue then shifts to low, and he sounds good.  And there is a brief line that shifts to high where you get the classic rasp.  This is a perfect example of why Axl sounds great sometimes and like crap other times.  Fact is, he just doesn't have his mid-range anymore.  And it's a shame because so many GNR songs were written with that mid-range.

 

 

Exactly...listen to him singing Touch Too Much or High Voltage verses...he mickyes those parts yet he is fantastic on the higher parts.

How could anyone not ask him about his vocal changes in the China Exchange...what a waste of an opportunity

[Sisyphus]

His voice is absolutely terrible. And it's not just about the lack of power or rasp anymore. It has changed drastically. Lost all the appeal. Even his talking voice is completely different to what it used to be. I find that very odd.

Even on the rare occasion he does sound remotely good he doesn't sound like himself. His voice is shot. I'm not a singer and I lack the appropriate terminology but his voice used to be so rich and colorful, nowadays even when he manages to belt out a decent raspy scream it still comes out flat and empty. I don't know if that makes any sense but some of you might understand what I mean.

I honestly can't listen to YouTube videos anymore. Makes me cringe. I also won't be going to any shows in Europe.

[koldbeer2]

17 minutes ago, Sisyphus said:

His voice is absolutely terrible. And it's not just about the lack of power or rasp anymore. It has changed drastically. Lost all the appeal. Even his talking voice is completely different to what it used to be. I find that very odd.

Even on the rare occasion he does sound remotely good he doesn't sound like himself. His voice is shot. I'm not a singer and I lack the appropriate terminology but his voice used to be so rich and colorful, nowadays even when he manages to belt out a decent raspy scream it still comes out flat and empty. I don't know if that makes any sense but some of you might understand what I mean.

 

Yes, I said on the other thread his higher voice is SO airy sounding, it just seems to lack any real crispness that he once had. As I said on the other thread, its not about rasp, its about that sharp quality, and it just seems very lacking these days. 

Even if you compare it to say 2017, there is a big difference (try looking at some Jungles from Europe 2017 for example, his voice sounds far less strained, worn out and much more crisp, I was at the london gig and whilst it wasn't vintage, his voice still really carried well on Jungle) and his voice was hardly as good as it was in 2016 by that point either.

The other thing is, I think he has actually lost range now as well, he is having to stretch to the limits to get notes that were previously reasonably comfortable for him. As iffy as his rasp has been at times in the past 10 years, he has always had the range to fall back on...now even that is getting increasingly limited at the top end.

Edited February 4, 2020 by koldbeer2

[BadApples87]

Dude needs a backing track like Kiss and Aerosmith now.  They are all getting older and have lost their range.

[El Guapo]

19 minutes ago, BadApples87 said:

Dude needs a backing track like Kiss and Aerosmith now.  They are all getting older and have lost their range.

They all should just quit. 

[Lies They Tell]

3 hours ago, dogman said:

And there is a brief line that shifts to high where you get the classic rasp.  

But he never sounds raspy just because he shifts to a high voice. It's not the pitch that makes him raspy. Like I said his high pitched voice only sounds good when he's using his screaming voice.

Just look at the Estranged performance from Miami for example. That line that you said would be classic raspy Axl is not raspy at all. It's clean. Why? Because he's not using his screaming voice there.

Likewise his midrange is still great when he uses the screaming voice. Some might call it the chest voice or what ever.

But my point is that there's no big difference between the mid-range and the high-range. Well the high range might be slightly more pleasing to the ear, but it's defintely not raspy, unless Axl's screaming.

Thats why I didn't even talk about the mid-range specifically in my original post, because there's no difference in raspiness between the mid-range and the high-range. Both are raspy only when Axl is screaming. 

[AxlRoseCDII]

3 hours ago, jamillos said:

Locomotive was actually pretty good, which is a paradox, considering it's way more complicated than DH, which they keep screwing up. As for Axl, there's no rasp required, ergo he's fine there too. 

No rasp required on Dead Horse??? Did we listen to the same song?

[Lies They Tell]

3 hours ago, Alejandro GNR said:

Exactly...listen to him singing Touch Too Much or High Voltage verses...he mickyes those parts yet he is fantastic on the higher parts.

Both in Touch Too Much and High Voltage he becomes raspy when he starts to scream.  It's not the pitch of his voice that make him raspy. It's the screaming voice that makes him raspy.

Both his mid range voice and his high range voice is raspy only when he screams.

[slash23579]

His mid range voice can actually be pretty raspy with no screams. Not a lot of examples of this recently but off the top of my head I’m thinking of the last verse of Dont Cry and also the verses of Madagascar. When I saw Madagascar in 2017 I was surprised how raspy he was singing the verses

[jamillos]

47 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

No rasp required on Dead Horse??? Did we listen to the same song?

Talking bout Loco here. 

[AxlRoseCDII]

Just now, jamillos said:

Talking bout Loco here. 

Ah. My apologies, friend.

[Lies They Tell]

24 minutes ago, slash23579 said:

His mid range voice can actually be pretty raspy with no screams. Not a lot of examples of this recently but off the top of my head I’m thinking of the last verse of Dont Cry and also the verses of Madagascar. When I saw Madagascar in 2017 I was surprised how raspy he was singing the verses

Yeah, that's another reason why I don't usually talk about the mid-range, cause The mid-range is actually a very broad term, when we're talking about someone like Axl.

The mid-range that you're talking about is a lower pitched mid-range than the one that a couple of others are talking about.

But yeah, we all know that he can still sing with a raspy voice, when he uses his low voice. And Madagascar is a good example of how high he can go with that raspy chest voice.

But Madagascar is mostly a pretty low pitched song vocally. He only needs to sing a few higher pitched notes here and there.

So it's much easier for him than songs that are mostly higher pitched.

That lower mid-range is the most complicated part of Axl's voice. It's kinda the limit of Axl's raspy singing voice. When it gets higher pitched than that he needs to start sceaming to sound raspy.

[Zinia_29]

18 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

I really did think he was going to come out like he had something to prove with the reunion and try and win back some of his old fans detractors. I expected him to come out in better shape physically and vocally than he had been in years.  

He did all of that though, in 2016. but after 2017/18 all things went downhill.

[DTJ80]

1 hour ago, Lies They Tell said:

Yeah, that's another reason why I don't usually talk about the mid-range, cause The mid-range is actually a very broad term, when we're talking about someone like Axl.

The mid-range that you're talking about is a lower pitched mid-range than the one that a couple of others are talking about.

But yeah, we all know that he can still sing with a raspy voice, when he uses his low voice. And Madagascar is a good example of how high he can go with that raspy chest voice.

But Madagascar is mostly a pretty low pitched song vocally. He only needs to sing a few higher pitched notes here and there.

So it's much easier for him than songs that are mostly higher pitched.

That lower mid-range is the most complicated part of Axl's voice. It's kinda the limit of Axl's raspy singing voice. When it gets higher pitched than that he needs to start sceaming to sound raspy.

You seem to have an excellent grasp on his vocal levels. I was discussing this on another thread and maybe you can really shed light on this - based on his current vocal abilities as they appear to be, what tracks across the catalogue COULD be sung ‘the best’? Unfortunately SCOM/NR will ALWAYS be played but if we could handpick the rest regardless of whether likely or not.......

[koldbeer2]

2 hours ago, Lies They Tell said:

 

That lower mid-range is the most complicated part of Axl's voice. It's kinda the limit of Axl's raspy singing voice. When it gets higher pitched than that he needs to start sceaming to sound raspy.

Even back in the 90s his mid range was kinda a little iffy at times. I listened to one of those vocal coach reactions from one of the 90s shows and they said what is noticeable is how Axl didn't use a huge amount of note variety, it all kinda held within 3-4 notes of each other for large chunks of the song in that raspy head voice he used to have, only occasionally dipping into the raspy mid section. I tend to agree looking back now, but to be fair he didn't need to because he had the vocal chops back then to get away with it. Its only really in the early days of the band (say 86-88) and ironically 2010 (especially in Europe) that he had a cracking sounding mid range rasp with that classic blended head/chest mix (Street of dreams often featured that at the start of the song). At other times, its been a weakness for sure, though he often found ways around it.

Problem is, I think his vocal chops in other parts of his voice have weakened to the point where it is proving hard for him to hide the naturally weaker parts of his voice and its getting increasingly restrictive and worn down/airy sounding.

[bdinan]

5 hours ago, El Guapo said:

They all should just quit. 

It's to the point where I'm embarrassed for some performers - Axl included.