Post by Henny Macc on Jul 20, 2020 5:41:53 GMT
Mark Vanderbilt
Years active: 1991-1998, 2019?-present
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded vocal range: B♭2-E5 (A♯2-E5) - 2½ octaves
Band history:
- 1991-1997 - Kamelot (lead vocals)
- 1999 - Monarque (lead vocals)
- 2019?-present - Machine (lead vocals)
Recorded high notes:
E5: "Warbird" demo
D♯5/E♭5: "Black Tower", "Future Within", "One Day I'll Win", "One of the Hunted", "Proud Nomad", "Sin", "Song of Roland"
D5: "One of the Hunted", "Red Sands"
C♯5/D♭5: "Call of the Sea", "Black Tower", "Future Within", "Heaven", "One Day I'll Win", "One of the Hunted", "Proud Nomad", "Red Sands", "Rise Again", "Song of Roland", "Troubled Mind", "We Are Not Separate"
C5: "Arion", "Black Tower", "Eternity", "Heaven", "One of the Hunted", "Rise Again", "Sin", "Warbird"
B4: "Arion", "Birth of a Hero", "Call of the Sea", "One Day I'll Win", "One of the Hunted", "Red Sands", "Sin", "Song of Roland", "Troubled Mind", "We Are Not Separate", "What About Me"
A♯4/B♭4: "Arion", "Black Tower", "Crossing Two Rivers", "Eternity", "Future Within", "Heaven", "One Day I'll Win", "One of the Hunted", "Proud Nomad", "Red Sands", "Song of Roland", "Troubled Mind", "Warbird", "What About Me"
A4: "Birth of a Hero" demo
G♯4/A♭4: "Arion", "Call of the Sea", "Crossing Two Rivers", "Eternity", "Heaven", "One of the Hunted", "Rise Again", "Song of Roland", "The Gleeman", "Troubled Mind", "What About Me"
Recorded low notes:
F3: "Eternity", "The Gleeman"
D♯3/E♭3: "One of the Hunted", "Song of Roland", "The Gleeman", "Troubled Mind"
C♯3/D♭3: "Rise Again"
A♯2/B♭2: "One Day I'll Win", "Rebel Yell" live 2019
.......................................................
*Italics marks non-melodic notes.
*Underlines mark notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the song mix.
{Detailed bio}
Mark Vanderbilt was one of the first singers for Kamelot, who replaced founding vocalist Rob Beck in 1991. He is mostly recognized as Kamelot's "first" singer, because Beck did not record any material with the band, whereas Vanderbilt sang on the band's first two albums - 1995's Eternity and 1997's Dominion. During his time in the band, Kamelot was largely just a studio project, and as a result there is no live footage of Vanderbilt performing with them that I have been able to find online. The band did not start to tour until 1998, at which point Vanderbilt was unable to commit to doing so. As a result, he was replaced later that year by Roy Khan, who would go on to become known as the band's "classic" vocalist, and release many of their best-known albums with them.
Following his departure from Kamelot, Vanderbilt briefly formed the band Monarque with Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood, but they only ever released the singular song "Arion" before disbanding. Not much is known about what else he has done since then, but from what I've been able to glean from my research, I've found out that he now lives in Florida and works as a plumber. In addition to that, he apparently joined a local cover band called Machine sometime in ~2019, and has been regularly gigging with them since then. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much in the ways of live footage of Vanderbilt with Machine, but I'd be interested to hear some, as they seem to play a lot of high note-oriented classic rock covers that could potentially be range-expanding for him if he sings them true to the originals.
As far as Vanderbilt's vocals go, he definitely has an impressive high range with strong control into the fifth octave, but his delivery has been subject to criticism by a number of Kamelot fans for his "over-emotional" approach to singing, which borders on cheesy at times. Personally, I would say if he dialed that particular aspect of his singing back though, he would be pretty enjoyable to listen to, as he still has an appropriate amount of power and energy to his voice to otherwise be a good fit for a power metal band. His tone and overall sound apparently get compared to Midnight a lot, though I also hear a lot of influence from Geoff Tate in his vocals. Overall, he kept his singing in Kamelot to a pretty conservative range - rarely going low, and mostly capping out his high singing at E♭5, which sounded like a very comfortable note for him that he sang as a part of song melodies on numerous occasions. The only time that I was able to find him going any higher than this was in the demo of "Warbird", in which he sustains an E5, and still sounds like he has plenty of room for higher notes above that. Perhaps if more recordings of his covers with Machine ever surface, we might get to hear some of those some day!
Mark Vanderbilt was one of the first singers for Kamelot, who replaced founding vocalist Rob Beck in 1991. He is mostly recognized as Kamelot's "first" singer, because Beck did not record any material with the band, whereas Vanderbilt sang on the band's first two albums - 1995's Eternity and 1997's Dominion. During his time in the band, Kamelot was largely just a studio project, and as a result there is no live footage of Vanderbilt performing with them that I have been able to find online. The band did not start to tour until 1998, at which point Vanderbilt was unable to commit to doing so. As a result, he was replaced later that year by Roy Khan, who would go on to become known as the band's "classic" vocalist, and release many of their best-known albums with them.
Following his departure from Kamelot, Vanderbilt briefly formed the band Monarque with Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood, but they only ever released the singular song "Arion" before disbanding. Not much is known about what else he has done since then, but from what I've been able to glean from my research, I've found out that he now lives in Florida and works as a plumber. In addition to that, he apparently joined a local cover band called Machine sometime in ~2019, and has been regularly gigging with them since then. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find much in the ways of live footage of Vanderbilt with Machine, but I'd be interested to hear some, as they seem to play a lot of high note-oriented classic rock covers that could potentially be range-expanding for him if he sings them true to the originals.
As far as Vanderbilt's vocals go, he definitely has an impressive high range with strong control into the fifth octave, but his delivery has been subject to criticism by a number of Kamelot fans for his "over-emotional" approach to singing, which borders on cheesy at times. Personally, I would say if he dialed that particular aspect of his singing back though, he would be pretty enjoyable to listen to, as he still has an appropriate amount of power and energy to his voice to otherwise be a good fit for a power metal band. His tone and overall sound apparently get compared to Midnight a lot, though I also hear a lot of influence from Geoff Tate in his vocals. Overall, he kept his singing in Kamelot to a pretty conservative range - rarely going low, and mostly capping out his high singing at E♭5, which sounded like a very comfortable note for him that he sang as a part of song melodies on numerous occasions. The only time that I was able to find him going any higher than this was in the demo of "Warbird", in which he sustains an E5, and still sounds like he has plenty of room for higher notes above that. Perhaps if more recordings of his covers with Machine ever surface, we might get to hear some of those some day!
{Album ranges}
Kamelot:
Kamelot:
- Eternity (1995) - E♭3-E♭5
- Dominion (1997) - B♭2-D♭3-E♭5
{Best displays of vocal range}
"One Day I'll Win" (B♭2-E♭5)
"Rise Again" (C♯3-C♯5)
"One of the Hunted" (E♭3-E♭5)
"Song of Roland" (E♭3-E♭5)
"One Day I'll Win" (B♭2-E♭5)
"Rise Again" (C♯3-C♯5)
"One of the Hunted" (E♭3-E♭5)
"Song of Roland" (E♭3-E♭5)