Post by Henny Macc on Jul 14, 2020 5:53:38 GMT
John Greely (October 13, 1962 - )
Years active: 1976-1992?, 2006-present
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded vocal range: A1-B5
Band history:
- 1976-1981 - Synn (lead vocals)
- 1991-1992 - Iced Earth (lead vocals)
- 2006 - Avoiding X (lead vocals)
- 2007-present - Seventh Servant (lead vocals, guitars)
- 2017-present - Bloody Times (lead vocals)
{Additional bands (years/roles unknown)}
- Qua-Z Modo (lead vocals)
- Tribunal (lead vocals)
- Brutus
- Chronic
- Razor's Edge
Recorded high notes:
B5: "Travel in Stygian"
A♯5/B♭5: "Angels Holocaust"
G♯5/A♭5: "Desert Rain", "Iced Earth" live Tampa 1992, "Mystical End", "Pure Evil"
G5: "Angels Holocaust", crowd singalong live Frankfurt 1992, "Die in a Hole", "Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992, "One Fateful Night", "Pure Evil", "The Path I Choose", "The Revenge (Until Blood Boils, Part 2)"
F♯5/G♭5: "Angels Holocaust", crowd singalong live Tampa 1992, "Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992, "The Path I Choose", "Travel in Stygian"
F5: "Stormrider" live Frankfurt 1992, "The Path I Choose", "Travel in Stygian"
E5: "Alliance", "Burnt", "Desert Rain", "Forevermore", "Fort Sumter", "Iced Earth" live Tampa 1992, "Operation Focus", "The Path I Choose", "The Revenge (Until Blood Boils, Part 2)", "Tree of Life", "Whitestone"
D♯5/E♭5: "Angels Holocaust", "Desert Rain", "Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992, "Pure Evil", "The Path I Choose"
D5: "Conflict - Introduction to War", "Future Secret", "Jezebel", "Open Door", "The Revelation of Jesus Christ", "Whitestone"
C♯5/D♭5: "Burnt", "Conflict - Introduction to War", "Forevermore", "Jezebel", "Mystical End", "Travel in Stygian"
C5: "Burnt", "Forevermore", "Open Door", "Travel in Stygian", "Whitestone"
B4: "Burnt", "Fort Sumter", "Forevermore", "Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992, "Open Door", "The Revelation of Jesus Christ", "The Revenge (Until Blood Boils, Part 2)", "Tree of Life", "Whitestone"
A♯4/B♭4: "Burnt", "Desert Rain"
A4: "Alliance", "Burnt", "Conflict - Introduction to War", "Forevermore", "Jezebel", "Open Door", "Operation Focus", "Pure Evil", "Pursuit of Destruction", "The Almighty One", "The Revelation of Jesus Christ", "Tree of Life", "Whitestone"
G♯4/A♭4: "Before the Vision", crowd singalong live Frankfurt 1992, "Desert Rain", "Mystical End", "Pure Evil"
G4: "Alliance", "Burnt", "Die in a Hole", "Forevermore", "Fort Sumter", "Jezebel", "One Fateful Night", "Open Door", "Pursuit of Destruction", "The Almighty One", "The Revelation of Jesus Christ", "The Revenge (Until Blood Boils, Part 2)", "Tree of Life", "Whitestone"
Recorded low notes:
E3: "Burnt", "Forever", "Jezebel", "Open Door", "Operation Focus", "Pursuit of Destruction", "The Curse of Genevieve (Reworked)", "The Revelation of Jesus Christ", "Tree of Life", "Whitestone"
D♯3/E♭3: "Angels Holocaust", "Burnt", "Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992, "Reaching the End"
D3: "Forevermore", "Future Secret", "Jezebel", "Open Door"
C3: "Future Secret", "Whitestone"
A2: "Alliance", "Pursuit of Destruction"
G♯2/A♭2: "Angels Holocaust", "Reaching the End"
G2: "Forevermore"
F♯2/G♭2: "Reaching the End"
A1: "The Curse of Genevieve (Reworked)"
.......................................................
*Italics mark non-melodic notes.
*Underlines mark notes in backing vocals.
{Detailed bio}
John Greely is best known as having been the second lead vocalist in Iced Earth, who replaced their original vocalist Gene Adam in 1991 and performed on their second album, Night of the Stormrider later that year. He went on to tour Europe with the band in 1992, but was then fired as a result of clashes with band leader/rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer, and was later replaced by Matt Barlow, the band's best-known vocalist. For a long time after that, Greely seemed to disappear from the music scene, and as far as I have been able to find, he did not record or perform with any bands for the next decade and a half. In 2007, however, he launched his own project, Seventh Servant - a Christian metal band in which he handles all guitar duties in addition to vocals. Though this band then went for another decade without releasing anything after their formation, in 2018 they finally released their first EP, entitled The Benediction. In addition to this, in 2017 Greely did some guest vocals with a power/historical metal band called Bloody Times, and released an EP with them called Destructive Singles, marking his first official release since Night of the Stormrider. Later that same year, he was announced as the official lead vocalist of Bloody Times, and went on to release a full album with them in 2019, entitled On a Mission. To this day, he continues to serve as a member of both Seventh Servant and Bloody Times.
According to Greely's MetalArchives page, he also was a member of several other bands at various points (Avoiding X, Brutus, Chronic, Qua-Z Modo, Razor's Edge, Synn, and Tribunal are all listed as names of bands that he's been in), but I have been able to find little to no information about his membership and tenure in any of these. The extent that I've been able to put together is that Synn was his first band that he was in from ages fourteen to nineteen, and that Avoiding X was formed in 2006 and put out a demo in 2007, but there is no information as to whether Greely recorded on that demo, or how long he stayed in the band for. This makes me wonder about the timeline of his membership in some of these bands, and whether Greely was actually as absent from the music scene as he appeared between the years of 1992 and 2007. Since there are no years indicated for most of them, there is no way of telling whether they were bands that he was in before or Iced Earth; thus leaving the overall picture of Greely's musical history somewhat incomplete.
Regardless, however, on the limited material he has released, Greely has proven himself to be a very competent vocalist with a range to be reckoned with. His tessitura is a bit unusual for a power metal singer, as many of the songs off Night of the Stormrider are sung in a more mid/lower high range with occasional piercing head voice screams or select melody lines in the fifth octave, rather than being built around the constant high pitched wailing that power metal is known for (something that can especially be heard by many of his successors in Iced Earth). However, this says nothing against Greely's abilities to hit higher notes - as the moments that he chose to bring out such notes resulted in some pretty astonishing ones. His B♭5 in "Angels Holocaust" has always been something of a jawdropping note for me personally (and is one that not even Matt Barlow ever dared to replicate!), and there are a number of other moments on that album where he demonstrates some highly impressive mid/upper fifth octave notes with strong resonance and control. Honestly, I would've liked to hear Iced Earth record more with him, because it sounds like they would've had a lot of potential with him if they had continued together.
Despite the 25 year gap in Greely's recorded discography, when he resumed releasing music again in 2017, he proved that his vocal abilities have certainly not fallen behind by much in his later years. His recordings with both Seventh Servant and Bloody Times prove that his high range is very much still intact, and feature him singing as high as E5 in multiple songs, even getting as high as G5 in "Die in a Hole" and "The Revenge (Until Blood Boils, Part 2)"! His voice has also audibly deepened over time, and in Bloody Times he has begun to occasional demonstrate some actual second octave singing, which we had heard almost none of from him before (as none of his Iced Earth material ever featured singing below E♭3). The songs "Alliance" and "Pursuit of Destruction" both feature quality low passages with some rich-sounding A2s by Greely, but one of the biggest surprises for his low range was in the song "The Curse of Genevieve (Reworked)", which features a boomy spoken passage all the way down to some solid A1s! Unfortunately that leaves us with quite the range gap for this man, but I must say I am very impressed both with his range overall, and also how well his voice has aged after over two decades not releasing music. I look forward to hearing what else he will do now that he's making music again!
John Greely is best known as having been the second lead vocalist in Iced Earth, who replaced their original vocalist Gene Adam in 1991 and performed on their second album, Night of the Stormrider later that year. He went on to tour Europe with the band in 1992, but was then fired as a result of clashes with band leader/rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer, and was later replaced by Matt Barlow, the band's best-known vocalist. For a long time after that, Greely seemed to disappear from the music scene, and as far as I have been able to find, he did not record or perform with any bands for the next decade and a half. In 2007, however, he launched his own project, Seventh Servant - a Christian metal band in which he handles all guitar duties in addition to vocals. Though this band then went for another decade without releasing anything after their formation, in 2018 they finally released their first EP, entitled The Benediction. In addition to this, in 2017 Greely did some guest vocals with a power/historical metal band called Bloody Times, and released an EP with them called Destructive Singles, marking his first official release since Night of the Stormrider. Later that same year, he was announced as the official lead vocalist of Bloody Times, and went on to release a full album with them in 2019, entitled On a Mission. To this day, he continues to serve as a member of both Seventh Servant and Bloody Times.
According to Greely's MetalArchives page, he also was a member of several other bands at various points (Avoiding X, Brutus, Chronic, Qua-Z Modo, Razor's Edge, Synn, and Tribunal are all listed as names of bands that he's been in), but I have been able to find little to no information about his membership and tenure in any of these. The extent that I've been able to put together is that Synn was his first band that he was in from ages fourteen to nineteen, and that Avoiding X was formed in 2006 and put out a demo in 2007, but there is no information as to whether Greely recorded on that demo, or how long he stayed in the band for. This makes me wonder about the timeline of his membership in some of these bands, and whether Greely was actually as absent from the music scene as he appeared between the years of 1992 and 2007. Since there are no years indicated for most of them, there is no way of telling whether they were bands that he was in before or Iced Earth; thus leaving the overall picture of Greely's musical history somewhat incomplete.
Regardless, however, on the limited material he has released, Greely has proven himself to be a very competent vocalist with a range to be reckoned with. His tessitura is a bit unusual for a power metal singer, as many of the songs off Night of the Stormrider are sung in a more mid/lower high range with occasional piercing head voice screams or select melody lines in the fifth octave, rather than being built around the constant high pitched wailing that power metal is known for (something that can especially be heard by many of his successors in Iced Earth). However, this says nothing against Greely's abilities to hit higher notes - as the moments that he chose to bring out such notes resulted in some pretty astonishing ones. His B♭5 in "Angels Holocaust" has always been something of a jawdropping note for me personally (and is one that not even Matt Barlow ever dared to replicate!), and there are a number of other moments on that album where he demonstrates some highly impressive mid/upper fifth octave notes with strong resonance and control. Honestly, I would've liked to hear Iced Earth record more with him, because it sounds like they would've had a lot of potential with him if they had continued together.
Despite the 25 year gap in Greely's recorded discography, when he resumed releasing music again in 2017, he proved that his vocal abilities have certainly not fallen behind by much in his later years. His recordings with both Seventh Servant and Bloody Times prove that his high range is very much still intact, and feature him singing as high as E5 in multiple songs, even getting as high as G5 in "Die in a Hole" and "The Revenge (Until Blood Boils, Part 2)"! His voice has also audibly deepened over time, and in Bloody Times he has begun to occasional demonstrate some actual second octave singing, which we had heard almost none of from him before (as none of his Iced Earth material ever featured singing below E♭3). The songs "Alliance" and "Pursuit of Destruction" both feature quality low passages with some rich-sounding A2s by Greely, but one of the biggest surprises for his low range was in the song "The Curse of Genevieve (Reworked)", which features a boomy spoken passage all the way down to some solid A1s! Unfortunately that leaves us with quite the range gap for this man, but I must say I am very impressed both with his range overall, and also how well his voice has aged after over two decades not releasing music. I look forward to hearing what else he will do now that he's making music again!
{Album ranges}
Iced Earth:
Bloody Times:
Seventh Servant:
Iced Earth:
- Night of the Stormrider (1992) - F♯2-D♯3-A♯5-B5
Bloody Times:
- Destructive Singles (2017) - A2-D5
- On a Mission (2019) - A1-A2-G5
Seventh Servant:
- The Benediction (2018) - E3-A4-D5
- The Tree of Life (2022) - G2-D3-G5
{Best displays of vocal range}
"Angels Holocaust" (G♯2-D♯3-A♯5)
"Alliance" (A2-E5)
"Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992 (E♭3-G5)
"Future Secret" (C3-D5)
"Burnt" (E♭3-C5-E5)
"Pursuit of Destruction" (A2-A4)
"Operation Focus" (E3-E5)
"Angels Holocaust" (G♯2-D♯3-A♯5)
"Alliance" (A2-E5)
"Iced Earth" live Frankfurt 1992 (E♭3-G5)
"Future Secret" (C3-D5)
"Burnt" (E♭3-C5-E5)
"Pursuit of Destruction" (A2-A4)
"Operation Focus" (E3-E5)