15 Best Hard Rock Singers Of All Time
3. Ian Gillan - Deep Purple
Every hard rock band coming out of the 60's seem to be pigeonholed as standard rock with a bad attitude. Whereas bands like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were making amazing records, these harsher takes on rock and roll always got a nasty reputation for being a lesser form of the standard rock collective. Out of all these harsher sounding acts, Deep Purple came to the forefront and showed every band what true professionalism looked like.
As opposed to the archetype for rock bands starting in a garage, the members of Deep Purple came together as a group of professional musicians, with Ian Gillan being the voice to assault your eardrums. While the band's instrumentation from guitarist Ritchie Blackmore put you on edge, Gillan's voice grabbed the audience by the throat and demanded the utmost attention. One needs to only look at the band's live album Made in Japan to see the pure power of Gillan's natural voice on tracks like "Child In Time."
As time went on, Gillan's high-end style ended up impacting the heavy metal world as we know it, influencing everyone from Iron Maiden to Judas Priest. There have been many screamers to come out of heavy metal, but in terms of raw power, Ian Gillan stands alone as metal's first sonic banshee.