Blaze Bayley

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Black Abyss Babe said:
Blaze may have lost some power but he has gained a lot of nuance. Bruce has gone the other way - he used to have power and nuance, now he only has power (at least I think he has). I sometimes wonder if he has made a decision - conciously or otherwise - that as his voice changes with age, to maintain the power at all costs (Bruce I mean). (Of course it's perfectly possible that I'm barking up the wrong tree completely ... :innocent:)

In qualitative terms I don't actually find Bruce and Blaze all that comparable, because I don't think they are trying to be the same thing.
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Said it before but there was no shame in Dio singing in E flat. No idea why Bruce doesn't
 
naranja said:
Said it before but there was no shame in Dio singing in E flat. No idea why Bruce doesn't
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I've only met Dio once when I was doing security at a record store signing--he was kind and humble in that setting, so I couldn't say (or haven't heard anything) about a big ego, which is probably Bruce's reasoning for not downtuning.

It's very odd, since he obviously knows he can't consistently sing certain songs, i.e. dropping Many Door to Hell midway through the Mandrake Tour, yet he's doing interviews after the fact where he says donwtuning is "inauthentic." So...not doing the songs at all is the better option???
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Ascendingthethrone said:
Blaze was being interviewed on Planet Rock this morning. It was lovely when I turned on the engine and heard Ghost in the Machine being introduced. What a great riff. Apparently there will be a new coloured vinyl for the anniversary.

Also,
he said he will play the entire Silicon Messiah album on the upcoming tour.
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It's great that Blaze will acknowledge his classic album. Ghost In The Machine's riff is pure thrash, while it contains Maiden-esque melodies. I wonder if a 3rd album would have had some heavier material?
Black Abyss Babe said:
I think he actually sings better than Bruce these days ... :innocent:
#unpopularmaidenopinions
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Wow.
Black Abyss Babe said:
Blaze may have lost some power but he has gained a lot of nuance. Bruce has gone the other way - he used to have power and nuance, now he only has power (at least I think he has). I sometimes wonder if he has made a decision - conciously or otherwise - that as his voice changes with age, to maintain the power at all costs (Bruce I mean).
In qualitative terms I don't actually find Bruce and Blaze all that comparable, because I don't think they are trying to be the same thing.
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With what happened to Bruce's voice. Blaze is consistent and a better singer now (from early 2000's). Nuance, I'm not sure. Both have power. For Bruce it's important that he still has the high notes and is consistent. But yes, quite different voices. Bruce can allow to use high notes, full voice and power, that's it.
CA Bryers said:
It's very odd, since he obviously knows he can't consistently sing certain songs, i.e. dropping Many Door to Hell midway through the Mandrake Tour, yet he's doing interviews after the fact where he says donwtuning is "inauthentic." So...not doing the songs at all is the better option???
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I know it's not a classic, but Aquarius and Book are harder than Many Doors. And he needed to drop something to play more different songs. He understands his voice and knows for sure, but ofc every singer will try to sing in his natural style. I understand him. Also, it's normal for a physical singer like Bruce (or Rob) to ''skip'' some high notes sporadically live. He was in top form in 2011, then a bit different from 2012 to 2014 (but still strong and almost the same) and then from 2016 on different again (rougher voice, but still with highs; nuance? well, yeah), which is understandable.
naranja said:
Said it before but there was no shame in Dio singing in E flat. No idea why Bruce doesn't
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Well, different voices, although somehow similar.
 
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Ascendingthethrone said:
Bruce’s voice was changed noticeably by cancer.
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Kalata said:
With what happened to Bruce's voice.
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It goes back earlier than the cancer - the change has been much more gradual.
naranja said:
Said it before but there was no shame in Dio singing in E flat. No idea why Bruce doesn't
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Kalata said:
For Bruce it's important that he still has the high notes and is consistent.
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CA Bryers said:
... a big ego, which is probably Bruce's reasoning for not downtuning.
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I'm tempted to try to sum this up as: Blaze wants to make the best use of the instrument he's got now, but Bruce is desperately trying to hang on to the instrument he had 40 years ago. I'm aware that this is probably far too simplistic but it conveys the essence of what I think I'm observing ...

You remember how Bruce said he felt like an "angry wasp" in the small venues he was playing as a solo artist in the '90s? I think that may be the root of it - that he has some sort of innate need to keep proving that he can still fill those big venues. On the studio recordings the nuance is still there but when he steps out onto a stage it's like his mission is to pin the entire audience to the back wall. Which does not much matter when you are actually there, but listening to some of the more recent live albums (like "Nights of the Dead") I just think "whoa, what happened?"

Regarding his refusal to have the songs transposed to a lower pitch (which is what I think you all mean by "downtuning"), I think he may be worried that if he ceases to keep his range "stretched" then it may close down even more, and I can understand that concern. But even when I first saw them live (in 2013 on Maiden England) I noticed that he would sometimes rearrange the tunes slightly to avoid attempting the very high notes. I thought that that was actually quite clever and sensible.
 
How he talks about it in interviews I suspect that Bruce is still a very competitive person plays a huge role. Recently I for example read how Wolf Hofffmann praised his singer Mac Tornillo a top singer because he can still sing all the songs unchanged without transposition - then Bruce would no longer be in this top category!
 
Terry1958 said:
How he talks about it in interviews I suspect that Bruce is still a very competitive person plays a huge role. Recently I for example read how Wolf Hofffmann praised his singer Mac Tornillo a top singer because he can still sing all the songs unchanged without transposition - then Bruce would no longer be in this top category!
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Most people who sing the songs in the original key can - the question is if they can do it with sustained quality and reasonable effort. The answer to that question is often "no". And Bruce is a rather loud singer, while Tornillo sings in speech-level and does not do full-voice singing. It's like, yeah, the guy on a motorbike will ride faster than the guy on the bicycle. Doesn't make for a good comparison though or make the sheer speed more impressive.

So essentially: Stupid pride is stupid pride.
 
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That is my point: Feelings like that (pride/competitiveness) often don't go away because of such a rational explanation that you could of course find.
 
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