I'm not even gonna touch the heresy being spoken here about Dio Sabbath. 'Tis a silly place to go.
You know, IRYO and all, but it seems to me that regarding the vocalists, for a Tom Waits fan (for example) you are concentrating way too much solely on the technical aspects of the performance.
With that logic, yeah,
Franks Wild Years is awesome, but it would be even more awesome if it was re-recorded with Dio vocals!
I would pay so much money to hear
Franks Wild Years as sung by Dio!
As far as vocalists go, my main concern is whether they fit the music. Whether they sound
right for the song. Tom Waits
always sounds right for his songs, because he writes them. He inhabits them. He
is those songs. It doesn't matter that he's not a world-class singer, he's a world-class songwriter and vocalist. I can't honestly compare Tom Waits to the lead singer of a symphonic metal band who performs songs written by someone else. They're not comparable.
I do also differentiate between "singers" and "vocalists". Some people are just one or the other, some (the best) are both. I think Floor and Tarja are both, I tend to think of Anette as more of a vocalist.
Focusing on the technical aspects of a performance is literally the singer's job. Do we not judge the band by their instrumental performance? It's their job. Sure, there's a lot to be said for a spirited, wild, less technical live performance, but come on: we're talking about replicating symphonic metal operatics, and you can't just be "good enough" at a gig for that.
Tarja was perfect for the early era of the band and with her, the band was unique among the other female-lead vocal bands. They were at their best with her. She is great live and always will the best for the band. Floor is one of the best too, that's for sure. Imagine the Anette albums with her. She just joined the band when they decided to focus more on the instrumental parts, which is a waste with such a singer. I think Anetter sings better now than when she was in the band, although I like most of her studio performances. She had difficulties live with the older material, unlike Floor, she can sing everything, but Tarja is Tarja. At the end of the day, I think each of them is great for its era.
I completely agree that Tarja and Anette were perfectly suited for their era of the music. I also agree that Floor, unfortunately, could be given much better material that fits her voice more appropriately.
And like I said, Floor may be a better vocalist on paper, but even she just cannot do some of the stuff that Anette did, with Anette being light and breathy and slightly acrobatic in a way, her being more of a folky singer, whereas Floor is the bazooka that blasts everything in its path.
Amaranth live with Floor, for example, is absolutely terrible.
"Absolutely terrible" is a bit much, but I do agree it does not suit Floor's voice. But if we're comparing, I'd take Floor's live version of Amaranth over most of Anette's live versions of Tarja material.
Floor is capable of incredibly light, breathy vocals. She's actually far breathier than Anette, who has more of a consistent "bell" tone to her voice (think Disney Princesses, of which I am, sadly,
very familiar). The reason Floor is great, despite being a bazooka during live performances, is her versatility. She can be light and breathy, she can belt, she can do opera, she can growl - she's a Swiss Army Knife.
Anette has a great sound and she exists purely within that sound, with very little room to stretch outside of it.
They certainly have different strengths and weaknesses, that's why I still hope there's going to be a reunion with all three vocalists one day à la Helloween.
That would be amazing, but I just don't ever see it happening. Firstly, for monetary reasons: they can't pay three lead vocalists an equal wage and there's no way in hell Tarja is doing it for less than Floor. And I can bet with the way she was fired from the band that Anette would also demand equal pay. Secondly, they'd have to do a bit of downtuning for Tarja and Anette. Tarja has been singing in more of a mixed tone for awhile due to age. She stills sounds very good, but her operatics are not what they used to be on the old Nightwish material. I don't even think Anette performs live anymore and she couldn't pull off her songs too well in 2015, so, I can't imagine it's gotten any better.