James Hetfield

Voice type: Baritone
Vocal range: (E♭1-)B♭1-E♭5(-B♭6)
Best display of range: "Loverman" (B♭1-B4)

Significant high notes:

• E♭5 ("Purify")
  
• D5 ("Broken, Beaten & Scarred" live, "Creeping Death" demo, "Ride The Lightning" demo)
  
• C♯5 ("Jump In The Fire" demo, "Ride The Lightning")
  
• C5 ("Dirty Window" live, "Frantic", "Invisible Kid", "Mercyful Fate", "Ride The Lightning", "Sabbra Cadabra", "Some Kind Of Monster", "The Four Horsemen" live)
  
• B4 ("Broken, Beaten & Scarred", "Creeping Death", "Ride The Lightning", "That Was Just Your Life", "The Ecstasy Of Gold", "The Thing That Should Not Be", "The Unforgiven III", "Trapped Under Ice", "Hate Train")
  
• B♭4 ("All Nightmare Long", "Cure", "Hero Of The Day", "Hole In The Sky", "Loverman", "Mercyful Fate", "No Remorse" live, "Remember Tomorrow")
  
• A4 ("Escape", "Master Of Puppets", "Motorbreath", "Sabbra Cadabra", "The Day That Never Comes", "The House Jack Built", "Rebel Of Babylon")
  

Significant low notes:

• B♭1 ("Loverman", "Low Man's Lyric")
  
• B1 ("All Nightmare Long", "Mama Said", "Wherever I May Roam")
  
• C2 ("All Nightmare Long" demo, "Devils Dance", "Loverman")
  
• C♯2 ("Don't You Think This Here Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand", "Enter Sandman", vocal warm-ups recording)
  
• D2 ("Enter Sandman", "Of Wolf And Man", "Tuesday's Gone")
  
• E♭2 ("Cure", "Hero Of The Day", "King Nothing", "Poor Twisted Me", "Ronnie")
  
• E2 ("All Nightmare Long", "Die, Die My Darling", "Loverman", "To Live Is To Die")
  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TD8dWY2THg

Have you heard his whole discography?

Pretty much. He hasn't got that wide of a discography, so there's not much to worry about. I'm in the process of note-watching him again, now that Ozzy's pretty much done...however, I actually got started on doing so as long ago as September(!), so I've already sorted out most of the material from these early albums. I'm up to ...And Justice For All already, so hopefully it won't take long to get it done; cause reaching the end with Ozzy's was quite a "feelsgoodman" moment.

Actually, Lemmy and Matos are both going to reach their one-year note-watching anniversary in September too...I'll be done with Hetfield by then for sure, but with the order I have lined up at the moment, they're a bit farther back in the line. Here's my current line-up:

• Ozzy (obviously)
  
• Hetfield
  
• Simmons/Stanley (might as well do one for him while I'm at it, with it being practically the same discography and all)
  
• Steele
  
• Warrel
  
• Matos
  
• Lemmy
  
• Anselmo
  

That should keep me occupied for long enough...

Good that Ozzy's just about done!

And yeah that line-up should keep you occupied for a long time. Buckingham's just about done too, after that Cedric should keep me busy awhile, then Nicks, then maybe I'll go back to Christian... maybe I'll do a few more joke ones too, Spydrfish had a good suggestion which was "The Lack of Vocal Range of". I suggested Billie Joe Armstrong, I've heard his whole discography(don't judge me), and his range is like B2-F#4(-A4)! I think my line-up will end up something like...

• Lindsey Buckingham
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala
• Stevie Nicks
• Joe Lynn Turner
• James Christian

After that I dunno... Brad Delp maybe...

Ray wrote:Good that Ozzy's just about done!

And yeah that line-up should keep you occupied for a long time. Buckingham's just about done too, after that Cedric should keep me busy awhile, then Nicks, then maybe I'll go back to Christian... maybe I'll do a few more joke ones too, Spydrfish had a good suggestion which was "The Lack of Vocal Range of". I suggested Billie Joe Armstrong, I've heard his whole discography(don't judge me), and his range is like B2-F#4(-A4)! I think my line-up will end up something like...

• Lindsey Buckingham
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala
• Stevie Nicks
• Joe Lynn Turner
• James Christian

After that I dunno... Brad Delp maybe...

Biilly joe Armstong has a bit bigger range than that, but not much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pce22PKR84k&feature=youtube_gdata

2:19, what the hell, he screams!? You can include that in his range too! Nothing against Green Day, but I hate some teenager girls who scream that he is the greatest vocalist ever.

Doesn't sound too high whatever it is... but yeah, he's a good vocalist, nothing special but...

Ray wrote:Doesn't sound too high whatever it is... but yeah, he's a good vocalist, nothing special but...

I agree. Good enough for the band, but not "the greatest" material.

Ray wrote:maybe I'll do a few more joke ones too, Spydrfish had a good suggestion which was "The Lack of Vocal Range of". I suggested Billie Joe Armstrong, I've heard his whole discography(don't judge me), and his range is like B2-F#4(-A4)!

If you want an actual "the lack of vocal range of" video to do, perhaps you could try Mick Jagger (AKA McJagger)...Spydrfish told me about how Crippan tried to get you guys to do some note-watching for him, and you were just BARELY able to find A2-A4 by him. I'm sure he has more to find, though, so perhaps that wouldn't be the best choice if you're actually gonna note-watch him...especially considering The Rolling Stones' vast discography! Dunno about Billy Joe Armstrong, but if you can prove him as not having range, go for it. One that actually occurred to me this morning was The Vocal Range Of Bruce Willis! That's right, you read that correctly: Bruce Willis had a music career. Check it out. I love how it says "Bruce Willis's singing has been compared favorably to that of Vince Neal, whom Willis attests was a major influence on his vocal stylings", haha! Anyway, there's a thought...
If you guys are gonna discuss Armstrong's range, though, I'm gonna have to ask ya to leave. Take it to a new topic; Papa Het would highly disapprove of this going on in his own. I guess the act of doing so wouldn't be so shameful now that we've got a Chad Kroeger topic going on, haha.

Ray wrote:I think my line-up will end up something like...

• Lindsey Buckingham
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala
• Stevie Nicks
• Joe Lynn Turner
• James Christian

I only see Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Stevie Nicks listed in your upcoming videos now...what happened with Christian? I can understand if you're still too uncertain about Turner to list him, though.

Any chance that there's a full-voiced high note in the "Hit The Lights" opening scream before it goes to the non-modal D5/E♭5? My first thought was C5...

Bruce Willis oh dear... and Vince Neal?! Are you kidding me?! The Mick Jagger thing was funny though, Spydrfish told me about how he only ever found like A2-F#4, so I was like "hmmm, I think there was something high on "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'"", send him a voice clip of the A4, and he was like "great, I'll send it to Crippan and say "happy now?!"". And hey, Green Day are light years better than Nickelback Speaking of Papa Het and Green Day though...

As for Christian, I still have no idea if I'll have enough material... he's bound to have some more low stuff that I just didn't pay enough attention to catch but after the first three-ish albums the music is kind of... mediocre.

No idea on Hetfield, though I think it's closer to Eb5 than D5. The whole thing sounds non-modal to me...

Also I accepted you on Messenger, I should be online most of the day now so

Ray wrote:Bruce Willis oh dear... and Vince Neal?! Are you kidding me?! The Mick Jagger thing was funny though, Spydrfish told me about how he only ever found like A2-F#4, so I was like "hmmm, I think there was something high on "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'"", send him a voice clip of the A4, and he was like "great, I'll send it to Crippan and say "happy now?!"".

There's also A4s on the choruses of "Rock And A Hard Place"...but I'm sure he has more range, it's just a matter of finding it. He probably speaks lower than A2, and I recall hearing one song from Some Girls or something on the radio one time, where he did a glissando up to an unusually high full voice note for him...

Ray wrote:And hey, Green Day are light years better than Nickelback Speaking of Papa Het and Green Day though...

Wow...I think that rendition of the "Welcome To The Jungle" riff may be comparable to the time when Slash tried to play it hammered! Sounds like he hits B4s when he starts singing "Highway To Hell", though...hm...
But yeah, I knew they occasionally do random tributes to classic rock bands live.

Ray wrote:As for Christian, I still have no idea if I'll have enough material... he's bound to have some more low stuff that I just didn't pay enough attention to catch but after the first three-ish albums the music is kind of... mediocre.

Well you said you found that G2...I wouldn't hesitate making a range video just because of a range gap, though. When you've come as far as you have with Christian, I feel like it would be such a waste not to do one. That's actually kinda the only reason I'm still doing one for Hetfield, considering that I now realize that a little more than three octaves isn't TOO surprising of a range for him...

Ray wrote:No idea on Hetfield, though I think it's closer to Eb5 than D5. The whole thing sounds non-modal to me...

Yeah, I thought it might be an E♭5 too, but Jowox and Spydrfish both assured me that it was only a D5. Anyway, I think it might sorta go like this "wo-(non-modal)oh!", ya know? It's just a matter of what the pitches are. I'm also starting to think there may be a few short modal notes during the beginning of certain lines of "Metal Militia"...that would mean full-voiced C5s and C♯5s; but I guess I should make some clips to run by you first before I jump to any conclusions.

Ray wrote:No idea on Hetfield, though I think it's closer to Eb5 than D5. The whole thing sounds non-modal to me...

Perhaps this could help us on the matter...the scream itself doesn't sound as non-modal as I recalled, actually; not like the "Jump In The Fire" D5s or something. But yeah, if it is at least partially non-modal, slow it down to see what the highest full voice note is...if there is one...
After this, we gotta see about those "Metal Militia" C5s and C♯5s that don't sound as non-modal.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/77011714a8382e33/

I say non-modal.

Ray wrote:http://www.zshare.net/audio/77011714a8382e33/

I say non-modal.

I hear at least a full B4...but yeah, the rest could be non-modal.

[Ladies and] gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Hetfield's highest full voice note: not one, but two E♭5s from "Purify"! I question how modal the second one is...however, the first is pretty clearly full.

Maxim wrote:[Ladies and] gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Hetfield's highest full voice note: not one, but two E♭5s from "Purify"! I question how modal the second one is...however, the first is pretty clearly full.

Wow, really great notes! I measured them as D#5:s too, cool find!