Mike Patton, for sheer versatililty, and also he is a true "vocalist", noises, screams, all sorts of sounds, not just singing in its more traditional form he uses his vocal cords in a far more diverse and varying way than most mentioned here.
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Aboslutley.
Patton is unbelievable. The man can do it all. While he would have his roots based in the alternative metal scene, he can sing pretty much any style. WHich isnt something most of the names already mentioned can do.
For example.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=j-XzqcP79vQ
Here is Patton in faith no more crooning a burt bacharach song. Pretty straight forward but he does it well.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=mwrMdusKOMw
Here is Patton with his band Fantomas who are an absract, performance art rock band. Very hard to describe anyway. Everysound he makes is rehearsed and the same on the album. There is no improv there even though it sounds like it. Again the man gives his vocal cords a work out.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=XZf7KgSnksk
Here is performing as Mondo Cane Patton doing Italian swing songs from the 50's and 60's. He did a few shows in italy during the summer and it will be released this year. I was reading a bit about this, and not only does he deliver the songs in fluent italian, but apparently some of these songs are to be sung with a dialect that originated in Naples. And Patton was able to pull it off flawlessly. So could you imagine an Italian coming over to cork and performing Irish folk songs with a perfect Irish or regional accent.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=8PV7BtzQvJQ
Here is Patton with Faith No More. If you want someone that can just scream then Patton is your man. I don't actually like this song but the lad gives it his all in the screaming dept. He said that often he used to get nosebleeds and migraine headaches after shows where he had screamed a lot.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xfv8h6nI-8
Here is Patton with his band Peeping Tom, who are have a more mainstream almost hip hop sound. Listen in this track how Patton goes from singing falsetto to screaming his lungs out back to falsetto in the space of about three seconds. Thats some range. I love a lot of the singers mentioned like Vedder, Layne Staley and they were great within a specific genre. But none of them could compare vocally to Mike Patton.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=4J-9k13zWLQ
Patton again with faith no more doing a bee gees and take that cover. He can hold a note. Its mainly live clips that i am posting so you can see that he is not a vocalist that merely can do the business the the studio.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=_PgJcSM-cbQ
This is with his band Tomahawk and is one of the only studio clips because the band have yet to tour the record. They did an album interpreting rare native american songs from the turn of the 20th century. Different certainly but Patton came through it effortlessly.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=VzuoHwDuf00
This is Peeping Tom again. Its a live version of Across 110th Street with a Slideshow video. Rahzel is also on this track. Its pretty much straight forward but another example of Patton vocal versatility.
The case for Mike Patton rests
