Alexi Laiho (11,515 views)

[clem]

Associated Acts: Children of Bodom, Sinergy, Warmen, Kylähullut
Vocal Range: B♭1-G♯5 (3 Octaves + 10 Semitones)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Google Answer Box Bait}What was Alexi Laiho's vocal range? Alexi Laiho had a vocal range of 3 octaves and 10 semitones; It spanned B♭1-G♯5.
What voice type was Alexi Laiho? Was he a baritone, tenor or bass? Alexi Laiho's voice type was most-consistent with that of a baritone overall. Although, he rarely utilised the attributes that would highlight his natural fach, preferring his signature distorted style of vocal instead.
Was Alexi Laiho a good singer? Could Alexi Laiho sing? Alexi Laiho was quite limited as a singer, although his distorted vocal style proved entirely appropriate for his music.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Questionable Notes}B♭5: ("Oops!... I Did It Again"[1], "Talk Dirty to Me"[1])
G5 ("Kissing the Shadows"[1][3][4])
F♯5 ("I Hurt"[3][4])
E5 ("Halo of Blood"[3][4])
E♭5 ("Shovel Knockout"[3][4])
D5 ("Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)"[3][4], "Kick in the Spleen"[3], "Silent Scream")
C♯5 ("Mistress of Taboo"[2], "Platitudes and Barren Words"[3])
C5 ("Antisocial"[3][4], "Hell Is for Children"[3], "Living Dead Beat"[3], "Next in Line"[3], "Oops!... I Did It Again"[3][4], "Suck My Attitude"[3], "Transference"[3], "Triple Corpse Hammerblow"[1][3])
B4 ("Black Winter Day"[3][4], "Rebel Yell"[3][4], "Transference"[3][4])
A4 ("Black Winter Day"[3][4])

E2 ("Children of Decadence"[3][4])
B♭1 ("Party All the Time"[2][4])
.......................................................
[1] marks yelps and short trills in high range or anacrusis and short dips in low range.
[2] marks notes of questionable identity that cannot be confirmed to be the singer in question.
[3] marks non-melodic notes that don't have a significant enough pitch to warrant inclusion.
[4] marks notes that possess uncertain pitch or have been pitch-shifted.
[5] marks notes that do not fit the previous criteria but are not of a substantial enough quality to warrant counting towards the singer's range.

Significant High Notes:
G♯5 ("Needled 24/7", "Somebody's Watching Me")
F♯5 ("Somebody's Watching Me")
F5 ("Stayin' Alive" 70000 Tons of Metal Karaoke 2012)
E5 ("As Above So Below" COB TV Clip, "Kolme Kättä Ja Kuusi Penistä" Singing with Marco Hietala, "Waiting")
D5 ("Waiting")
C♯5 ("Aces High", "Hate Me" Acoustic 'The Story of COB', "Soon Departed")
C5 ("All Twisted", "Angels Don't Kill", "Are You Dead Yet?", "Everytime I Die", "Hellhounds on My Trail", "Kolme Kättä Ja Kuusi Penistä" Singing with Marco Hietala, "Pussyfoot Miss Suicide", "Relentless Reckless Forever", "Smile Pretty for the Devil", "Stayin' Alive" 70000 Tons of Metal Karaoke 2012, "Turbo Lover" 70000 Tons of Metal Karaoke, "Was It Worth It?")
B4 ("All for Nothing", "Blooddrunk", "Bodom Beach Terror", "Crazy Nights", "Halo of Blood", "Hate Me!", "Horns", "I Hurt", "I Worship Chaos", "Lil' Bloodred Ridin' Hood", "LoBodomy", "Mistress of Taboo", "Morrigan", "My Bodom (I Am the Only One)", "Northpole Throwdown", "Not My Funeral", "Platitudes and Barren Words", "Pussyfoot Miss Suicide", "This Road", "Waiting", "We're Not Gonna Fall", "Widdershins")
B♭4 ("Aces High", "All Twisted", "Angels Don't Kill", "Chokehold (Cocked 'n' Loaded)", "Damaged Beyond Repair", "Dead Man's Hand on You", "Follow the Reaper", "Hate Me!", "Hellhounds on My Trail", "Hold Your Tongue", "If You Want Peace… Prepare for War", "In Your Face", "Living Dead Beat", "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Next in Line", "Northern Comfort", "One Day You Will Cry", "Punch Me I Bleed", "Sixpounder", "Soon Departed", "Tie My Rope", "Trashed, Lost & Strungout", "Triple Corpse Hammerblow", "Ugly", "Wanted Dead or Alive" Live at Pitbull Grand Opening, "Was It Worth It?", "Waste of Skin")
A4 ("Aces High", "All for Nothing", "All Twisted", "Banned from Heaven", "Bastards of Bodom", "Bed of Nails", "Blooddrunk", "Bodom After Midnight", "Bodom Beach Terror", "Chokehold (Cocked 'n' Loaded)", "Cruel Summer", "Danger Zone", "Damaged Beyond Repair", "Done with Everything, Die for Nothing", "Downfall", "Glass Houses", "Ghost Riders in the Sky", "Hate Crew Deathroll", "Hate Me!", "Hecate's Nightmare", "Hellhounds on My Trail", "Hellion", "I Hurt", "I Worship Chaos", "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "Kick in the Spleen", "Kissing the Shadows", "Lil' Bloodred Ridin' Hood", "LoBodomy", "Mask of Sanity", "Needled 24/7", "Next in Line", "Northern Comfort", "Not My Funeral", "One Bottle and a Knee Deep", "Punch Me I Bleed", "Pussyfoot Miss Suicide", "Red Light in My Eyes, Pt 2", "Relapse (The Nature of My Crime)", "Silent Scream", "Smile Pretty for the Devil", "Somebody Put Something in My Drink", "Somebody's Watching Me", "Sleeping in My Car", "Suicide Bomber", "Taste of My Scythe", "This Road", "Tie My Rope", "Transference", "Triple Corpse Hammerblow", "War Inside My Head", "We're Not Gonna Fall", "Widdershins", "Your Days Are Numbered")
G♯4 ("All for Nothing", "Bastards of Bodom", "Bodom After Midnight", "Bodom Blue Moon (The Second Coming)", "Danger Zone", "Deadnight Warrior", "Ghost Riders in the Sky", "I Worship Chaos", "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "Mistress of Taboo", "No Commands", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Platitudes and Barren Words", "Relapse (The Nature of My Crime)", "Say Never Look Back", "Shovel Knockout", "Somebody's Watching Me", "Soon Departed", "Suicide Bomber", "Under Grass and Clover", "Widdershins")
G4 ("All Twisted", "Angels Don't Kill", "Antisocial", "Are You Dead Yet?", "Banned from Heaven", "Bastards of Bodom", "Bed of Nails", "Bodom After Midnight", "Bodom Blue Moon (The Second Coming)", "Chokehold (Cocked 'n' Loaded)", "Crazy Nights", "Cruel Summer", "Cry of the Nihilist", "Damaged Beyond Repair", "Done with Everything, Die for Nothing", "Don't Stop at the Top", "Follow the Reaper", "Ghost Riders in the Sky", "Hate Me!", "Hellhounds on My Trail", "Halo of Blood", "Hell Is for Children", "If You Want Peace… Prepare for War", "I'm Shipping Up to Boston", "In Your Face", "Jessie's Girl", "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "Living Dead Beat", "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Mask of Sanity", "Needled 24/7", "Next in Line", "No Commands", "One Day You Will Cry", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Party All the Time", "Prayer for the Afflicted", "Punch Me I Bleed", "Pussyfoot Miss Suicide", "Relentless Reckless Forever", "Roundtrip to Hell and Back", "Say Never Look Back", "Scream for Silence", "She Is Beautiful", "Sixpounder", "Sleeping in My Car", "Smile Pretty for the Devil", "This Road", "Tie My Rope", "Trashed, Lost & Strungout", "Turbo Lover" 70000 Tons of Metal Karaoke, "Wanted Dead or Alive" Live at Pitbull Grand Opening, "Warheart", "War Inside My Head", "Waste of Skin", "We're Not Gonna Fall", "Widdershins", "Your Days Are Numbered", "You're Better Off Dead")
F♯4 ("Black Winter Day", "Children of Bodom", "Danger Zone", "Dead Man's Hand on You", "Glass Houses", "Hate Me" Acoustic 'The Story of COB', "Hecate's Nightmare", "Hexed", "Hold Your Tongue", "I Hurt", "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "Kick in the Spleen", "Knuckleduster", "Lake Bodom", "LoBodomy", "Mask of Sanity", "My Bodom (I Am the Only One)", "No Commands", "Platitudes and Barren Words", "Rebel Yell", "Red Light in My Eyes, Pt 1", "She Is Beautiful", "Sleeping in My Car", "Somebody Put Something in My Drink", "Soon Departed", "Under Grass and Clover", "Your Days Are Numbered")

Significant Low Notes:
G3 ("Bodom After Midnight", "Cruel Summer", "Don't Stop at the Top", "Ghost Riders in the Sky", "Hatebreeder", "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", "Needled 24/7", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "She Is Beautiful", "Sleeping in My Car", "Towards Dead End")
F♯3 ("Black Widow", "Hate Me" Acoustic 'The Story of COB', "In the Shadows", "Mistress of Taboo", "Red Light in My Eyes, Pt 1", "Somebody Put Something in My Drink")
F3 ("Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Talk Dirty to Me")
E3 ("Danger Zone", "Mistress of Taboo")
D3 ("Children of Bodom", "Man Behind the Mask", "Rebel Yell", "She Is Beautiful", "Talk Dirty to Me", "Turbo Lover" 70000 Tons of Metal Karaoke, "Waiting")
C♯3 ("In the Shadows", "Red Light in My Eyes, Pt 1", "Somebody's Watching Me")
C3 ("Are You Dead Yet?", "Needled 24/7", "Trashed, Lost & Strungout", "Scream for Silence", "Talk Dirty to Me")
B2 ("Rebel Yell")
B♭2 ("Oops!... I Did It Again")
B♭1 ("Dead Man's Hand on You")

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Blue marks falsetto or whistle notes.
Green marks distorted/screamed notes.
Underlines mark notes that are obscured in the song mix.
Italics mark non-melodic notes.
Boldface marks notes that are considered to be particularly notable examples of this person's vocal capabilities.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Album Ranges}With "Children of Bodom"
1997: Something Wild (C♯3-F♯3-F♯4-A4) clem
1999: Hatebreeder (D3-F♯3-F4-A4) 6/9
2000: Follow the Reaper (G3-B♭4-C5) clem
2003: "Hate Crew Deathroll" (C3-A4-G♯5) clem
2005: "Are You Dead Yet?" (C3-G♯3-B♭4-C5) clem
2008: "Blooddrunk" (A3-A4-C5) clem
2009: Skeletons in the Closet (B♭2-B♭4-C♯5-E5) clem *This album is a compilation of covers, recorded during different sessions from 1998-2009
2011: "Relentless Reckless Forever" (C4-G♯4-C5) clem
2013: "Halo of Blood" (B♭1-G4-C5) clem
2015: "I Worship Chaos" (C♯4-F♯4-B4) clem
2019: "Hexed" (B3-G♯4-C♯5) clem

SPOILER: Click to show

{Bio/Vocal analysis}
Whilst far from an accomplished singer, Alexi Laiho's voice was a curious instrument. Primarily a guitar player, the Finn became the frontman to the band, Children of Bodom, when they were unable to find a dedicated vocalist. The first two COB albums used quite a black metal-inspired vocal sound, with unclear intonation and little discernible melody. Any melodic singing was contained almost entirely between G3-G4, and laden with a monstrously heavy distortion, making his 3rd octave notes in particular sound an octave lower than their fundamental pitch. Laiho stated that this technique on early tours caused him to lose his voice entirely, later developing better diaphragmatic support to combat this.

Around the turn of the millennium, Laiho's singing began to shift away from black metal-esque screams, and towards gutturals with more tonality. This was in keeping with the more accessible musical direction, starting with "Follow the Reaper", featuring more simple, catchy songs than heard on the first two albums. These years from 2000-2005 could be considered his vocal peak, consistently roaring up to the top of 4th octave in studio (even delivering a well-sustained C5 in "Angels Don't Kill"), and altogether holding up better on tour than in the formative years.

Laiho continued with that style of guttural vocal, managing to keep up that same level of excessive distortion for which he is best known into his forties. Although he did sound somewhat less resonant, flexible and agile in his upper reaches in his later years than he did in the early-mid 2000s.

In regards to his head register, this aspect of Laiho's voice was rarely utilised, turning up in their more comedic, tongue-in-cheek covers, or general goofing around, in the form of an airy, disconnected falsetto.

Despite being a natural baritone, Laiho's low register was an underutilised asset, usually reserved for cover songs, with few original compositions venturing below the middle of the 3rd octave. However, in "Dead Man's Hand on You", an uncharacteristically slower-paced track for COB, Laiho delivered some Marilyn Manson-esque mixed fry, hitting numerous melodic Bb1s and C2s in the opening passage. A new avenue he could have potentially taken his voice into, these fry-ish lows never made their way into any further releases during Alexi's relatively short career, passing away in January 2021, aged just 41.

Overall, nowhere near as skilled a singer as he was a guitar player, and not a voice that will not be to everyone's tastes, but one who proved a recognisable and enduring frontman for one of the most beloved metal bands of their era and one of the most successful extreme metal bands of all-time.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Range Video by Platypus }

[Henny Macc]

Dang, less than an octave between high notes and low notes? Guess he doesn't have much of a mid range :))

[Zedd Squared]

Plus let's not forget that epic AF octave sized range gap between his lowest note and his second lowest note. I was into the first three CoB albums for a time and I don't remember him really hitting "notes" in it per se which makes the range he has overall here rather surprising.

[Henny Macc]

Yeah so upon listening to his range video, I have to concede that this is actually an instance where counting lows above E3 would be justified for a man, partly because of how few of them there are, and also because of just how much he darkens those F3s and F♯3s to make them sound low.

I guess the breakdown basically amounts to an octave or so of high range, an octave of mid range, half an octave or so of low range, and then that one spoken B♭1 that on paper gives the impression that he actually has a developed low range. :P

[clem]

Apr 25, 2020 8:02:55 GMT Henny Macc said:

Yeah so upon listening to his range video, I have to concede that this is actually an instance where counting lows above E3 would be justified for a man, partly because of how few of them there are, and also because of just how much he darkens those F3s and F♯3s to make them sound low.

I guess the breakdown basically amounts to an octave or so of high range, an octave of mid range, half an octave or so of low range, and then that one spoken B♭1 that on paper gives the impression that he actually has a developed low range.

The whole intro to "Dead Man's Hand on You" was done in that Marilyn Manson-esque mix-fry. As out of character as it is, that passage was centred around C2s and B♭1s. That said, if there was ever to be a case in point for "big range a good singer does not make", Alexi would be the prime example lol.

[Henny Macc]

Yeah, I would describe him as an example of someone that technically has a big range on paper, but not in any practical senses of the phrase.

[clem]

R.I.P :'(