Bruce Dickinson

Poto said:
Tate from 86 to 91 was maybe the best metal singer on the planet imo, but no one has ever wiped the floor with Bruce in his prime.
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Vaenyr said:
That would be Eric Adams for me. One of the greatest voices in the business and the most impressive thing is how well he has aged. There's not a single other vocalist whose voice aged as fine as his did.
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Bruce, Rob, Dio, Eric, Kiske, Udo - all were amazing during this era, and not only. Best singer is subjective, but I agree about Bruce (not only in his prime).
I like Bruce's voice more now than in the 80's, so his voice has aged even better for me.
 
Bruce, Rob, and Geoff are my top 3 all time (with apologies to Dio) For me it's preference. Geoff is amazing but prime vs. prime I prefer Bruce. Eric is really good but I could never get past Manowar's cheesiness, aside from their first album. Their last single I happened to hear is godawful...
 
Kalata said:
Bruce, Rob, Dio, Eric, Kiske, Udo - all were amazing during this era, and not only. Best singer is subjective, but I agree about Bruce (not only in his prime).
I like Bruce's voice more now than in the 80's, so his voice has aged even better for me.
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I have to vehemently disagree with that. I adore Bruce, his mid range sounds great, but his higher end sounds atrocious nowadays. I get that songs like HBTN or The Trooper are very challenging with their constant B4s, but listening to the performance linked on the earlier page was painful. If I close my eyes and simply focus on his voice, trying to remain as objective as possible, it genuinely sounds unpleasant, strained, unclearly enunciated.
Eric Adams on the other hand is already over 70 and still manages to pull off many of his trademark screams. I genuinely don't know any other singer who managed to sound so similar to their past self after having a career spanning multiple decades.

You are obviously entitled to your opinion and I'm not saying that you are wrong. I believe Bruce's best years were 1995 - 2008 and his 80's work isn't my favorite, but it's wild to me that someone could listen to his high range and think he aged well.

Gotta agree to disagree I suppose :)
 
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Imo Bruce has adjusted OK in the studio. I thought he pulled out some really solid performances on Senjutsu mostly by using his lower register a little bit more. Consequently, when they played those songs live this year he was able to perform them really well. He definitely shows his age on the last three albums, but he’s also not trying to do any vocal acrobatics on the last two (Final Frontier saw him overreach quite a bit imo). I’m not really expecting him to be able to nail parts from the 80s at this point, especially Powerslave and Piece of Mind material is just way too showboat-y for where he’s at now. Ironically, you could hear him not going for it as much on Somewhere In Time after his voice took a beating on the World Slavery tour. Now is the perfect time for him to be performing those songs and I think he has done a really solid job for the most part. Not going to deny that he is past his peak, but he also isn’t at a point where he should call it quits. I agree that 95 - 08 is the sweet spot, not a bad run at all.

Also, the tuning down discussion from another thread is funny considering that Writing on the Wall being in D allowed him to stretch more than on other songs from the album. Not an example of downtuning but it does show that he’s still capable of a lot if he stays in a more comfortable range. I expect a lot of the solo album is going to be in lower keys.
 
I was able to see Eric Adams at the beginning of the year. His voice has indeed aged very well, from 80's singers he probably has the best voice nowadays. Unfortunately, his live presence and showmanship was quite poor. I think I didn't see him once doing some quicker steps (and I'm not talking about running from side to side), just walking to center of stage and behind the stage. Maybe that's why he has so well preserved voice. So yeah, in terms of voice Eric has no competition, but in live show energy he's miles behind Bruce.
 
Yeah, as far as stage presence and live energy go Bruce is in a league of his own. I remember as a teenager, I was so used to his style that when I saw some other bands live I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed at their live shows.
 
Vaenyr said:
I have to vehemently disagree with that. I adore Bruce, his mid range sounds great, but his higher end sounds atrocious nowadays. I get that songs like HBTN or The Trooper are very challenging with their constant B4s, but listening to the performance linked on the earlier page was painful. If I close my eyes and simply focus on his voice, trying to remain as objective as possible, it genuinely sounds unpleasant, strained, unclearly enunciated.
Eric Adams on the other hand is already over 70 and still manages to pull off many of his trademark screams. I genuinely don't know any other singer who managed to sound so similar to their past self after having a career spanning multiple decades.

You are obviously entitled to your opinion and I'm not saying that you are wrong. I believe Bruce's best years were 1995 - 2008 and his 80's work isn't my favorite, but it's wild to me that someone could listen to his high range and think he aged well.

Gotta agree to disagree I suppose :)
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I wholeheartedly agree with you on Bruce’s best years.
 
Bruce's peak was between, maybe 1997 to 2006. First signs of weakness for me was 2007. Download 07 for example, he sounded tired. But he kept a really high level until 2012-13. After that it's more uneven, with some impressive years, 2018 and 2023 in particular.
 
for me bruce's golden years were powerslave and somewhere in time (against the popular idea, i think in this album, after his compositions and vision is rejected he just concentrated on his vocals and did a legendary job, think of loneliness, wasted, all these highs, the lows in dejavu, the fast words in alexander etc)
i can add fear of the dark. not my favorite album but he shows many sides of his vocals there, be quick, from here to eternity, wasting love etc...
and chemical wedding of course...
live is another thing. he prefers to be more of an entertainer on stage, runs and doing all kinds of stuff. if he just stands still like rob halford i think he would sing much better live but i like his showmanship, who doesn't : )
 
Vaenyr said:
You are obviously entitled to your opinion and I'm not saying that you are wrong. I believe Bruce's best years were 1995 - 2008 and his 80's work isn't my favorite, but it's wild to me that someone could listen to his high range and think he aged well.
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I never said anything about his high range. I was talking about his voice in general. 1994-2011 (plus 2018; but I can also add 2012, 2017 and 2023) were the best years for Bruce imo. And I think he still sounds great both in the studio and live (his voice just needs to warm up), high notes too, but not every night like is normal for every vocalist at this age. His studio voice (1982-1986) and his live performances (1982-1983, early 90's too) were just something else. Like the early 2000's.
Mosh said:
Imo Bruce has adjusted OK in the studio. I thought he pulled out some really solid performances on Senjutsu mostly by using his lower register a little bit more. Consequently, when they played those songs live this year he was able to perform them really well. He definitely shows his age on the last three albums, but he’s also not trying to do any vocal acrobatics on the last two (Final Frontier saw him overreach quite a bit imo). I’m not really expecting him to be able to nail parts from the 80s at this point, especially Powerslave and Piece of Mind material is just way too showboat-y for where he’s at now. Ironically, you could hear him not going for it as much on Somewhere In Time after his voice took a beating on the World Slavery tour. Now is the perfect time for him to be performing those songs and I think he has done a really solid job for the most part. Not going to deny that he is past his peak, but he also isn’t at a point where he should call it quits.
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He adjusted his voice in the studio for SJ, but the high notes on some songs (Stratego, Days and Hell On Earth) sound really good. It's normal his voice to be a bit different for the last two albums (TFF was odd because his voice live at the time was amazing). 2006, he was amazing. I think he showed he can still hit the high notes live, the 80's songs too (we will see with his solo material). He is still really strong. Btw, SIT is full of high notes.
Mosh said:
Also, the tuning down discussion from another thread is funny considering that Writing on the Wall being in D allowed him to stretch more than on other songs from the album. Not an example of downtuning but it does show that he’s still capable of a lot if he stays in a more comfortable range. I expect a lot of the solo album is going to be in lower keys.
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I agree, although I expect a good mix of lower keys and high notes for his solo album.
 
I thought Bruce sounded excellent this tour. Not running around everywhere which allowed him to focus more on his singing certainly helped with that. Does anyone know when he had his hip surgery?
 
Mosh said:
Final Frontier saw him overreach quite a bit imo
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"Mother of Mercy" is very telling in this regard. Everything was going very, very well... and then the chorus came. :( That's the problem when the writer(s) don't pay enough attention to the singer's voice (e.g James LaBrie after his vocal chords accident in late 1994).
 
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