James' Voice Ten-fifteen Years Ago / Now

[Metallifold]

Wanted to start a discussion between the real Metallica fans about how James' voice has changed since the early-mid nineties. What do you all think about his voice, in comparission to the Black-Load one, and how it has developed through the years?

What is quite factual is that James has a lot wider range than he had 10 years ago, though his voice tend to crack a bit more if he don't push it the right way ( It's about technique ). What do You ( as a fan ) prefer?

I prefer the one he's got now. The reason to that is that even though his voice cracks more than before, he CAN and does at times reach to levels he could in no way reach to, before 1998 or so.

This might be quite a useless thread to some, but heck this debate is ongoing and has been since the Black album.

Feel free to post opinions, that's what my idea with this topic is

Cheers

[metallifreak27]

i personally like the way his voice sounds on LOAD

[Zrak0z]

I like the voice he had in the early years. It was kind of "raw" and I think it fits well on the songs. Nowadays he sure has a lot more wider voice, like you said, and I think it's good that it has changed a little bit. Like their music, his voice evolves aswell.

[even13flow]

I absolutely love everything Jaymz sang from 1999 to the present. I absolutely can't stand the sound of his voice on the early albums, and it's a large part of why I'm such a huge fan of recent live stuff. This past tour was great for me to reconstruct the albums with livemetallica tracks, and I love it far more than any of the studio stuff from the early days!

[wolfway]

86-92 >> all

i like his voice the most like it is in 86 (or aswel on RTL album)

but since your topic is starting from the black album i take the black album. his voice didn't change that much after 91, but in the load, s&m, ... era you can hear it loses a bit of his power, and i don't like it so much no more in the last tour, perhaps the combination with the low tuned ( ) guitars.

i was surpriced of his power during the africa gigs though, but 86-89 is my fav era

[Fadingtoblack]

I love his voice just before it started changing into the James we have now.

From about Master onwards, he'd stopped just screaming, sure it was still raw, but it was singing, up until probably the Black album, where he got a lot deeper. I love it.

In your Time frame though, I really do like his voice circa Load/ReLoad, before it started cracking all the time.

The Madly In Anger tour was average - for amount of stuff ups and also voice cracking, however now he seems to have gotten it back together, doing an amazing show for Black Sabbath and on the more recent shows. (Metallica actually sound like they remember the songs )

[flickn]

I like his voice during the load days better , if theres one thing about metallica I hate is the overuse of the symbols on Lar's kit

[CreepingDave]

I don't dislike any of his 'phases', and my personal preference is the famous Hetfield growl from 88-94. Although it didn't have the range, it had power, nice and raw.

[even13flow]

Alot of people are citing the Load era, but one of the complains I specifically remember about Cunning Stunts is that people said his voice was sounding like shit back then (cracking too?).

[Judge B]

I absolutely love everything Jaymz sang from 1999 to the present. I absolutely can't stand the sound of his voice on the early albums, and it's a large part of why I'm such a huge fan of recent live stuff.

That's pretty much what I was gonna say.