10 Greatest Metal Singers Of All Time

10. Lemmy

One of the key components of metal is the amount of grit and gravel you put into your delivery. Coming out of the psychedelic band Hawkwind, Lemmy formed Motorhead and became the perfect example of the metallic badass.

The way Lemmy would perform was very unusual, with the microphone set up above him, forcing him to look up to sing properly. While other singers might find this technique counterproductive, Lemmy explained many times that his setup was always used to get the most power out of his voice. Across Motorhead's discography, Lemmy's voice doesn't so much croon as it does bark its way through classics like "Ace of Spades." His delivery had so little frills that it went on to inspire not just metal singers, but also the harder genres of rock like punk.

Whenever you put on a Motorhead classic, you can always expect Lemmy voice to sound like a man who just swallowed razorblades in order to deliver vocal venom to your ears. Lemmy used to joke that no one could replace him in Motorhead because no one sings as bad as him. With a wave of growlers in Lem's shadow, most singers wouldn't dare to touch Motorhead's gruff vocal attack.