Bands Whose Lead Vocalist Change Negatively Impacted the Group

Can be majorly or minorly. Make sure to list the specific change since some groups have made multiples.

Off the top of my head...

Iced Earth (Matthew Barlow -- Ripper Owens). Loved Ripper in Priest, but IE took a very weird (and bad) musical turn after he joined. Voice wasn't as good a fit for them as it was Priest.

Iron Maiden (Bruce Dickinson -- Blaze Bayley). Nuff said.

Killswitch Engage (Jesse Leach -- Howard Jones). His clean vocals would better fit a different style of music, band also got less interesting (though I still like them).

Misfits (Glen Danzig -- Michale Graves). Nuff said.

Cryptopsy (Lord Worm -- Mike DiSalvo). Weak throaty hardcore vocals, and then the band's decline was also upon us.

van halen (at least when sammy hagar left, if not when david lee roth left).

Not that I've ever been a Van Halen fan, but Van Halen.
xp

INXS, which soldiered on with terence trent d'arby and others after mike hutchence's terrible suicide.

TTD'A is great, BTW, but not right for this band.

black flag

lol, which time?

Fish leaving Marillion - Not that they were that great in the first place..

ac/dc perhaps???

Accept (Udo - whomever else)
Judas Priest (Halford - Ripper)
Rainbow (Dio - Bonnett)
Deep Purple (Gillan - Coverdale)

xp: dez was their best imo.

xpost Foreigner (Lou Gramm - the fucktard that took over)

whoever replaced James Hetfield for the St. Anger sessions

When Dodgy replaced their vocalist with a warbly bloooz fatso and subsequently had their request to play a gig for the housemates on Castaway 2000 declined

Admittedly they were already a touch past their prime but Queen.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/85223367.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA54828C496005244E895E33748EBC8A17EAE092B8B567001CEE5

Genesis (Peter Gabriel -- Phil Collins, Phil Collins -- Ray Wilson).
Motley Crue (Vince Neill -- Jon Corabi)
Styx (Dennis DeYoung -- that Gowan doofus or whomever)

journey. i don't care how well the new guy imitates steve perry.

Cannibal Corpse (Chris Barnes -- George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher)...though I will say I like Kill and Gallery of Suicide a lot. think it had less to do with the vocalist and just the band running out of the limited ideas it had.

Genesis (Peter Gabriel -- Phil Collins

I was waiting for this one but IMO the first two Collins-vocal LPs are superior to anything they did in the Gabriel era.

Obv Pink Floyd had both Waters and Gilmour as singers until the former left, which pretty much did for the group.

I dunno, I haven't heard Wind and Wuthering, but I do love Trick of the Tail...but like, I still think Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Selling England, and Foxtrot are better. not that there's really anything wrong with Trick of the Tail, just different levels of quality.

80s Mark Smith -- 90s/00s Mark Smith.

Obv Pink Floyd had both Waters and Gilmour as singers until the former left, which pretty much did for the group.

― anagram, Sunday, April 4, 2010 2:27 PM (2 hours ago)

lol there is a slew of folx on here who would say that neither of those guys held a candle to PV's original singer fwiw.

Yes - Anderson-Horn was a good idea, Drama was a step in the right direction at the time. Getting Anderson back in for 90125 = the beginning of the end.

I never liked Jason Pierce's voice. I liked everything else about Spiritualized.

Iron Maiden (Bruce Dickinson -- Blaze Bayley). Nuff said.

i'd argue that paul di'anno - bruce dickinson was an overall negative, and i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be completely alone in that.

Can post-Damo.

Dillinger Escape Plan post Dimitri.

Journey still tour without Steve Perry, I don't know what they sound like but surely it can't be like Journey?

Joy Division post-Ian Curtis (debateable I'm sure, and i'm not really interested in the debate, i just prefer Joy Div to New Order).

oh i see journey been done.

The Magnetic Fields

van halen, i am a van halen fan, haggar is an anus

velvet underground

is this ever an improvement?

is this ever an improvement?

TS: Signe Andersen vs. Grace Slick

is this ever an improvement?

Some would say it was for Fleetwood Mac. Some would say it wasn't.

is this ever an improvement?

ask david palmer and judy dyble

is this ever an improvement?
Journey (Robert Fleischman -> Steve Perry)

Wait, Gregg Rolie was the singer for the first few Journey albums. Anyway, my point remains.

Dillinger Escape Plan post Dimitri.

Yeah definitely, I haven't really listened to much DEP after Calculating Infinity, which I liked, but some people were saying the new album is good, so I gave it a try, and ugh they sound like some Kerrang/MTV metal band now. A lot of the songs start out pretty cool then the singer starts with all this terrible earnest singing. I guess they're aiming for the crabcore market?

is this ever an improvement?

Some might also say Faith No More.

lol there is a slew of folx on here who would say that neither of those guys held a candle to PV's original singer fwiw

Yeah I realise that but I'm not one of those ppl, IMO Barrett-->Waters/Gilmour was a distinct improvement

We Care A Lot top three of their songs ever but FNM definitely improved by Patton. this should be its own thread though.

Buzzcocks arguably improved by Devoto leaving, too, though that's more to do with the songwriting than the singing, I think. As were Maiden by DiAnno leaving and Dickinson joining.

Shelley Buzzcocks and Magazine both better than Devoto Buzzcocks, good deal all round there.

Ian McCulloch --> Noel Burke (just for one album, thank fuck).

is this ever an improvement?

some might also say that Can improved after Malcolm Mooney's departure and Damo Suzuki's arrival

Yeah definitely, I haven't really listened to much DEP after Calculating Infinity, which I liked, but some people were saying the new album is good, so I gave it a try, and ugh they sound like some Kerrang/MTV metal band now. A lot of the songs start out pretty cool then the singer starts with all this terrible earnest singing. I guess they're aiming for the crabcore market?

Have we heard the same album? While this is the first DEP album that I don't feel is pushing in any new directions (and is a bit of a letdown for it), I really don't hear anything "Kerrang/MTV metal" or "crabcore" about it.

Ultravox. Completely lost it when John Foxx left and they got Midge Ure in, although as with others this was also a matter of the songwriting as much as of the singing.

is this ever an improvement?

There are surely some Joel R Phelps fans that would say otherwise, but I think Silkworm got better after he left.

is this ever an improvement?

Fairport Convention?

Simon & Garfunkel.

is this ever an improvement?

The Doors.

black eyed peas

on the improvement front it's been mentioned but faith no more is the obvious one. Chuck Mosely (sp?) is just a terrible, terrible singer. Patton, whether you like him or not, is working with a decent instrument there.

King Crimson, many times over.

I have a good friend who's a Halen fanatic but ONLY, SPECIFICALLY the Hagar era. This makes me crazy.

Chuck Mosely is great, fuck you

Dillinger Escape Plan post Dimitri.

Also, this is something stupid that metal snobs say when they just want to brag about how long they've been listening to Dillinger Escape Plan

King Crimson, many times over

If you're talking Wetton--->Belew then I agree 100%, this was a disaster.

I agree that improvements are much harder to think of. Amorphis, Sentenced and Fates Warning occur to me. Ultravox counts for me, as I didn't like John Foxx. I liked Menel-era IQ. That's about all that readily occurs to me.

I'm on record over and over that Belew is the pits. Boz was underrated in the KC vocals slot IMO.
xpost

If you're talking Wetton--->Belew then I agree 100%, this was a disaster.

Hell naw.

For me Ure-Ultravox > John Foxx-Ultravox. Both bands had their charms though, and were in a lot of ways completely different musically.

Also disagree re: Yes. Surely, "Drama" is a better album than "Tormato", but generally, Jon Anderson is a better voice for Yes. Trevor Horn is a great songwriter and producer, but his voice is to thin to fit into a symphonic rock band.

Cannibal Corpse (Chris Barnes -- George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher)...though I will say I like Kill and Gallery of Suicide a lot. think it had less to do with the vocalist and just the band running out of the limited ideas it had.

― Phoenix in Flight (Cattle Grind), Sunday, April 4, 2010 4:44 PM bookmarkflaglink

you stupid dumb motherfuc.....

oh....nevermind.

I'll always love Kyuss but John Garcia was clearly the weak link - vocally and, uh, lyrically.