10 Most Underrated Hard Rock Frontmen

Everyone tends to only focus on the frontman role when it comes to hard rock. Even if the guitarist can lay down 15 different layers of shred in a single song, it doesn’t mean that much if your singer has that much charisma. However, for every great frontman in rock, there are always a few that never got the star treatment they deserved.

While many frontmen have gotten to the top of the charts with minimal effort, these singers worked their tails and still weren’t able to reach the big hits they should have gotten. Then again, a lot of rock and roll comes down to being in the right place at the right time. From a switch in style to playing down their more extravagant tendencies, these singers remain some of the best kept secrets in the rock world.

For every classic frontman that never saw the spotlight in their glory years, there are also many bands coming to the forefront in the past few years whose voice deserves to be heard much more than it is. The entire music industry tends to be a tough business, but if there were any artistic justice in the world, these frontmen would be heralded as the music gods they are.

For most of the ‘00s, the era of hard rock’s glory years was falling by the wayside. Instead of the powerful hard rock of something like Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith, the rock scene at the turn of the millennium seemed to be more concerned about the angsty sounds of nu metal and pop punk than any gritty guitar riffs. Just underneath all of the trends, Shinedown were coming to the forefront with a frontman that hit you like a wrecking ball.

Though the band’s initial beginnings started off as a typical take on nu metal and post grunge, later albums like the Sound of Madness really showed them coming into their own. While the riffs were pretty decent by rock standards, Smith’s vocals were the real selling point, as he took every song to its highest level. In lesser hands, songs like “Second Chance” could be seen as lethargic and melodramatic, but the passion in Smith’s voice feels like the song could mean life or death.

Whereas other hard rock bands at the time were more focused on aping the style of their grunge predecessors, the amount of power in Smith’s throat brought the hard rock world back into the arena.