I've done a number of Warrel Dane related posts since I've been on steemit. This is because if I had to pick a favorite male vocalist he would have been it. I've seen some live videos of him singing that he did a poor job on, but when he was in top form he had odd embelishments and ways that he delivered a lyric that made him stand out for me. I once indicated Sia was my favorite female vocalist and that again was due to how she embelishes and delivers a lyric in a very unique way.

Unlike Sia though, Warrel Dane is an acquired taste. I want to make this post about Warrel Dane as my tribute to him and for those of you that may not have seen his older performance. PLEASE NOTE: I will be putting this together as a chronological journey. This means the very early videos will not be of the best quality. If you find them annoying my advice is stick with it. He has gone through a massive range. In his earlier performances I used to joke that he "sings like his nuts are in a vice" and I believe he was heavily inspired by things like Judas Priest's Rob Halford in his earlier career. Then he goes very much his own way. Towards the end of his career it was not uncommon for him to sing some haunting Baritone pieces and hitting those high head voice and other singing from his youth proved to be an increasing challenge.

He definitely had problems in his career with numerous substance addictions. It is also apparent in many of the lyrics and their deep poetic moments that he and other band members were very comfortable experimenting with psychedelics. I mention this as I'd say that the thing that hurt some of his non-studio performances the most I believe likely was due to other substance abuses such as Alcohol. Not treating your body kindly charges a toll on many things, including the voice.

Even with these things his studio creations are unlike those of anyone else, and I am saddened that what we have to hear is all that we will ever have to hear from him.

Warrel Dane (born Warrel G. Baker; March 7, 1961 – December 13, 2017)

"Dane was trained for five years as an opera singer and utilized a very broad vocal range, spanning from notes as low as the G♯ below low C, or G♯1, to notes as high as the B♭ below soprano C, or B♭5." - Wikipedia

In 1981 Warrel Dane and others formed their first band. He would have been 19 to 20 years old at the time. It was formed in the Seattle, Washington area.

Serpent's Knight

NOTE: This SHOULD not set your impression of his vocals. He became MUCH better and more dynamic than this.

Serpent's Knight - White Rabbit (full) -Warrel Dane - A Heart Cover.

Serpent's Knight - No Sanctuary

Sanctuary - 1st Edition

This was the band I first encountered Warrel Dane's vocals on and he wasn't my favorite at the time. I heard him first on the album Refuge Denied and it was billed as one of the acts that Dave Mustaine of Megadeth was promoting. While the vocals are impressive I don't really think he started to find his OWN style until the second Sanctuary album.

Refuge Denied

1988

Sanctuary - 1987 - Refuge Denied [FULL ALBUM] High Quality Audio - 39:48

Sanctuary - Battle Angels (live @ Essen, Germany 20-05-1988) - 3:53

Into The Mirror Black

I absolutely loved this album. They lyrics were amazing, the vocals were now something I'd never heard anything like them before. He was coming alive as a vocalist. To me this is a big evolution from Refuge Denied. I listened to this album a lot and then piled in a car to drive 100s of miles to see them only to find out the concert was cancelled when I got there. They broke up as a band sometime near that. This album though is still an amazing piece of work. The song Future Tense was fun at the time as it came out as it was becoming 1990 so the lyrics "so ends the decade now" make a lot of sense if you have the proper context. I didn't need the context, as I was there and lived it.

1989

Sanctuary - 1989 - Into The Mirror Black [FULL ALBUM] High Quality Audio - 46:57

Sanctuary - Future Tense - 5:11

Sanctuary- The Mirror Black -5:09 (Good Example of his style emerging)

Nevermore

I kind of lost track of the band members after the Sanctuary break up. A friend of mine happened to forget a CD for the first Nevermore album at my house, and eventually I listened to it a few times and I was sucked in. Technically speaking the music was much more complex, and aggressive. Yet it was again Warrel Dane and in those earlier albums I believe he truly found something unique and unlike anyone else. Nevermore is both Thrash Metal and Progressive Metal.

Nevermore

1995

Nevermore - Nevermore 1995 [Remastered] [Full Album] - 1:01:52

Nevermore - The Sanity Assassin (Lyrics) - 6:21 (The first Nevermore song that really snagged my attention)

Nevermore - The Hurting Words (Lyrics) - 6:17 (Some lower moments in this one)

In Memory [EP]

1996

Nevermore - Optimist Or Pessimist (Lyrics) - 3:37 (And yes, that's Jeff Loomis on guitar)

Nevermore - Matricide (Lyrics) - 5:20 (Haunting beautiful lyrics - this was in 1996)

The Politics of Ecstasy

1996

Nevermore - The Seven Tongues Of God. - 6:07 (Powerful)

NEVERMORE - Next In Line (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - 3:57 (Unique and Powerful)

Nevermore - The Tiananmen Man - 5:26 (The reason the date of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is always burned into my brain)

Dreaming Neon Black

1999

This is my favorite Nevermore if I had to pick one. The entire album is a masterpiece. The title song is also unique and amazing. Great textures and fluctuation on singing. It also has very deep lyrics. I'll try to find you a copy of the video they won't pull down. I've noticed the song Dreaming Neon Black gets yanked a lot from youtube likely due to copyright.

NEVERMORE - Dreaming Neon Black (Full Album) | 1999 | - 1:06:20 (and worth every single second)

Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black( with lyrics) - 6:28 (If the video is missing look for another copy on youtube... it's worth it)

Nevermore - Beyond Within (live) - 6:08 (Live and years later - studio version can hear as the first song in the full album above)

Dead Heart In a Dead World

This album runs a close second to Dreaming Neon Black for me. Many truly epic and beautiful songs on this one.

2000

Nevermore - Narcosynthesis (Lyrics) - 5:31

Nevermore - The Heart Collector (Lyrics) - 5:56

Nevermore - Insignificant (Lyrics) - 4:58 (Beautiful)

Nevermore - Believe In Nothing (Lyrics) - 4:22

Enemies of Reality

2003 remasterd 2005

Nevermore - Enemies of Reality - Full album - Original Kelly Gray production - 40:53

Nevermore - Enemies Of Reality(remastered) - 5:11

Nevermore - Seed Awakening (#8 Enemies of Reality Remastered) - 4:29

NEVERMORE - I Voyager (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - 4:42

The Godless Endeavor

2005

Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor [Full Album] - 57:18

Nevermore - The Psalm of Lydia - 4:30

The Year of the Voyager

2008

NEVERMORE - The Year Of The Voyager (Full Performance) - 2:06:01

The Obsidian Conspiracy

2010

NEVERMORE - The Obsidian Conspiracy (Full Album) | 2010 | - 45:00

NEVERMORE - Emptiness Unobstructed (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - 5:12

Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy (live at Metalcamp 2010) - 5:28

Nevermore - She Comes In Colors - 5:35

Warrel Dane - Solo Album

Warrel Dane made an epic and incredible solo album. I listen to it frequently. He was actually working on his second solo album this month when he had a heart attack and passed.

Praises to the War Machine

2008

WARREL DANE - Praises to the War Machine (Full Album) | 2008 | - 46:00

WARREL DANE - Brother (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - 3:23

Warrel Dane-August - 3:48

Warrel Dane - Messenger - 3:58

Sanctuary - 2nd Edition

After Nevermore broke up and Jeff Loomis went on to become the new guitarist for Arch Enemy a strange thing happened. Warrel Dane reunited with the old Sanctuary crew and they put out two more albums. They may have done more after that, but without Warrel I don't see that happening. It is great work. It is almost like Sanctuary never broke up.

The Year The Sun Died

2014

Sanctuary - 2014 - The Year The Sun Died [FULL ALBUM] High Quality Audio - 49:52

SANCTUARY - Exitium (Anthem Of The Living) (Lyric Video) - 4:53 (This is a pretty cool song)

SANCTUARY - Question Existence Fading (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - 4:21

SANCTUARY - Frozen (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - 5:49

Inception

2017

Sanctuary - Inception [Full Compilation] 320kbps - 42:27

Guest Appearances

Warrel Dane had a number of guest appearances. I'll link to the albums he was on.

Behemoth - The Apostasy

2007

Behemoth- The Apostasy (FULL ALBUM) - 39:42

Shaded Enmity

2013

Shaded Enmity- "And Life Was Great..." NEW SONG!!! 2013 - 7:25

Shaded Enmity feat. Warrel Dane - 7:26

So How Did I Find Out?

I had no idea he had passed until I happened to see some Warrel Dane TRIBUTE songs on Youtube today. I found myself thinking "tribute?" I then hit up a search engine and sadly learned he had passed on December 13th.

I'd like to share a few of the youtube tributes I can find now to wrap this post up. It is a sad thing, but it happens. His art lives on as long as we continue to listen to it and be inspired by it.

Nevermore - Heart Collector (Warrel Dane Tribute Vocal Cover) - 8:42