(The Dates of the live clips are: 1991, 1997, 2004, 2008, in that order) The change of Metallica's singer, James Hetfield's voice in "Sad But True" (1991, Metallica, AKA Black Album)
My take: -1991, he was still overdriving his voice alot, putting alot of stress on his vocal cords every night, -by 1997 he had started to damage his voice and had to switch to a cleaner singing style to maintain it, -by 2004, his voice is stronger and more melodic (probably taking voice coaching), but still very clean, -Finally by 2008, he has learned better control to put some of that rasp back in without blowing his voice out. That's why his voice is better now than it has been in years.
he still can do it hes been growling and at his age its very good! and the reason why i think he doesnt sing all the time like before cause he will blow his voice again and im sure that any hardcore metallica fan would not like that! so yeah dont give a fuck! he hes the mighty james hetfield and nobody can compare with him! period!
@FadeToPuppets no... the change began in the year 1992...i have so many shows... i think after his burning incident, his voice chnaged... i like his adult voice at most 1991-early '92...his metal voice 1986-89
Notice that on Kill 'em all and Ride the lightning sound kinda like a tenn. Master of puppets through Death magnetic sound grown man. thumbs upm if ya noticed
@FadeToPuppets I don´t agree. In late 93 and 94 He started to take serious care with his voice. Take a look to some live performances of Metallica in 94, James sounds like his rage is a bit hidden!
Oh, I'll also note the high possibility that some of these clips are just taken from "bad nights". Every band has less than savory shows, sometimes. Either you're too tired to go all out, or you're under the weather, or even environment can be a factor. There's way too many variables at work, here. But I can tell you for certain that James never lost any of his abilities, he just retired a few, until recently.
His voice clened up, instead of becoming more rugged, kinda strange. But that is one of the reason behing Metallica meing "ligher" in their music right now
@FadeToPuppets that are 5 shows...they cutted between songs... 1993 his vioce changed... Mexico sounds really good and his voice sounds good, too...but compare it with a ggod show from 1991...Moskau, or Day on the green
it's not really a "change" in his voice. He just got lazy, and took the rasp out of his voice when singing these lines. Just like how people are saying he's getting his voice back, because he screamed in "Hit the Lights". He never lost the ability, he just got lazy and stopped using it. It's pretty much the difference in doing a 30 minute to an hour set every show, to doing a 2+ hour set every show. It gets tiring, so he stopped putting so much into it, to accommodate a longer show, until now.
@dOnTtReAdOnMETAL Even if he hadn't blown his voice out! it still would of matured, there for still be different to the way it was in the 80s.. extensive touring has also contributed to the change.
@dOnTtReAdOnMETAL if you listen to live shows like san diego 92 compared to seattle 89, there isnt any difference in his voice singing the older songs. thus coming to the conclusion that he lost his voice due to the rigorous tour that lasted 3 years from 91-93. watch vids from 91 and compare to 93. blowing his voice had no effect on him. it healed and he moved on
Don't forget that old age makes it a lot harder to sing like that and not ruin your voice. Just look at Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. Awesome vocalists but quite frankly aren't anywhere near as good as they were in their early/mid-twenties.
I think that how long he's been singing before they perform a song, how tired he is, and how much effort he puts into the singing has an effect on his voice.
