The Replacements - Part 2: Successes

Continuing on from part 1, where I looked at the occasionally downright shambolic decisions made by some of metal's biggest acts when it comes to replacing a frontman, this time I will focus on some of the many success stories.

Bruce Dickinson

In 1981, Iron Maiden were coming out of a hectic 2 year period of touring and recording. They had released 2 albums and had gone on to play bigger and bigger venues in front of an ever-growing fanbase. Maiden were the new heroes of British metal, and a band most expected to go on to greater things. To lose the singer/frontman at such a crucial point would have derailed almost any other band. But this was Iron Maiden. Steve Harris made the brave desicion to fire Paul DiAnno as he felt that DiAnno was becoming more of a hinderance due to his drinking and erratic behaviour. Enter a pretty much unknown young singer, Bruce Dickinson. At the time, Dickinson was frontman for another up and coming Britich band, Samson. His decision to join Maiden would prove disastrous for Samson, but for Maiden, Bruce was the catalyst they needed, the mussing link to take them all the way to the top. He had the look and the voice that was perfect for Steve's vision. The band exploded and went on to become on of the biggest, most loved and respected bands in metal history. Would any of this have been realistically achievable with DiAnno? I suppose we will never know, but with the confident, charismatic and most importantly, impressively talented Dickinson on board, the standard was set and the bands future assured.

William DuVall

This was always going to be a controversial one. Replacing a legendary, passionate and respected frontman like Layne Staley would be hard enough as is, but when you take into account that AIC hadn't released an album in a decade and during that time, Staley had died of a drug overdose, it becomes a whole new challenge. It was one that the band, with DuVall at the helm, took head on and silenced the naysayers and doubters with ease. I was lucky enough to see the band perfom with DuVall at the Download Festival a few years ago and it was a genuine "goosebumps experience". Of course, he could be accused of being a Staley clone (if not in looks, obviously), but the point is, he delivers and the band has successfully been regenerated and rejuvinated at the same time.

John Bush

As one of the members of  the so-called "Big Four", Anthrax were big players in the 80's metal scene - even managing to break through to the mainstream consciousness with their cover/collaboration of "Bring The Noise" with Public Enemy. So, the departure of Joey Belladonna could easily have completely derailed the band. Enter former (and current) Armored Saint singer John Bush. Bush brought with him a far superior vocal range, which was also better suited to the Grunge era of the early 90's than the higher range thrash style vocals of Belladonna. When this new (improved?)  incarnation of Anthrax released the ground-breaking and all conquering "Sound Of White Noise", they took the "Beavis and Butt-Head generation" completely by storm - It has to be noted that getting the "rub" from B&B was in essence a "golden ticket" for any band. The two decades that followed brought mixed fortunes for the band, along with a tiresome "soap opera" farce of replacement vocalists and scrapped albums. Overall though, Bush-era 'Thrax was a massive success.

Howard Jones

When Jesse Leach quit KsE for "health reasons", it shook the band. They had just released the superb "Alive Of Just Breathing" and had caught the imagination of metalheads who has been starved of quality metal in the preceeding Nu-Metal years. They seemed guaranteed to be a break out band and go froward as the next big name in the scene. Replacing a vocalist at this point could have been a disaster. It was crucial that they chose the right man for the job. Enter Howard Jones, a relative unknown. Although he didn't have the ferocity and edge to rival Jesse's considerable talents, he had a very strong clean voice and was hugely charismatic. KsE didn't miss a beat. A string of successful albums and tours followed  as the band continued on its path to become a heavy hitter in the scene. A definite success story.

Ronny James Dio

Of all the men on this list, it could be argued that the challenge facing Dio was the most daunting. He was to replace the mighty Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. Sabbath had an amazing first half to the 1970's, releasing five classic albums in succession. It was the latter half of the decade, however, where things started to go wrong for the band and following three lacklustre albums, Ozzy's alcohol and drug problems got too much for the band and he was fired. In came American, Ronnie James Dio. A man who already had a rock pedigree as the singer of Rainbow. In 1980 the band released the incredible "Heaven And Hell" album which not only rejuvinated the band, but took them to the next level. In the years to come, Dio would record with the band sporadically, but almost everything he recorded with the band was of a high standard, including my personal favourite Sabbath album, Dehumanizer. Although, it should be noted that the Sabbath name itself became pretty much worthless after being tainted by a ridiculous revolving door of vocalists.

There are of course many others in both camps, including probably the most successful of all the replacements, Brian Johnson, who brought AC/DC back from the brink of collapse and led them to become one of the biggest bands on the planet. Also worthy of a mention in the success section are Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Barney Greenway (Napalm Death), James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Tomi Jautsen (Amorphis) and many others. Other notable failures include such poorly thought out choices as John Corabi (Mötley Crüe), Marco Aro (The Haunted), Kristoffer Göbel (Falconer), etc

I will come back to this subject at a later date.