Best female-fronted metal bands?

[HaTikva]

Somehow metal used to be for a long time a very male thing. If you think of the pioneers (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, ...) ... The only exception, if you wish to tag them as metal (which is debatable) I can think of is Jarboe's presence in the early incarnation of Swans. In the nineties we in Europe suddenly had a rise of female presence in metal but most are all in the same tag being gothic metal: Within Temptation, Epica, Nightwish, After Forever, ... All the same type of music with an emphasis on opera-esque vocals. The Gathering is a bit of an exceptional case as they were never sticking to just one subcategory of metal. But I still have rarely heard female vocalists in other subcategories of metal, whereas I'm sure there must be female vocalists in progressive metal, doom metal, noise rock, etc as well?


Which are in your opinion the best female-fronted metal bands? (female fronted = we talk explicitly about female vocals as far as that wasn't obvious yet)

I would be tempted to say The Gathering, because of Anneke's incredible vocal reach.

 

[Vossyrus]

In the nineties we in Europe suddenly had a rise of female presence in metal but most are all in the same tag being gothic metal

Almost always female fronted metal bands are labeled as "gothic metal." I've never understood this as there's nothing gothic about 99% of them.

 

[metal_wrath]

Early Theatre of Tragedy was a very influential band as far as Gothic metal goes. Still the best Gothic metal with a female singer.

 

[Hail The Wizard!]

Amesoeurs.

 

[Caecius]

Holy Moses

 

[VelociBrad]

Holy Moses

Came in to say this.

Also, Estuary.

 

[RedFox742]

I've actually grown rather fond of Delain.

Dunno what other people think.

 

[Vitor]

Somehow metal used to be for a long time a very male thing. If you think of the pioneers (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, ...) ... The only exception, if you wish to tag them as metal (which is debatable) I can think of is Jarboe's presence in the early incarnation of Swans. In the nineties we in Europe suddenly had a rise of female presence in metal but most are all in the same tag being gothic metal: Within Temptation, Epica, Nightwish, After Forever, ... All the same type of music with an emphasis on opera-esque vocals. The Gathering is a bit of an exceptional case as they were never sticking to just one subcategory of metal. But I still have rarely heard female vocalists in other subcategories of metal, whereas I'm sure there must be female vocalists in progressive metal, doom metal, noise rock, etc as well?


Which are in your opinion the best female-fronted metal bands? (female fronted = we talk explicitly about female vocals as far as that wasn't obvious yet)

I would be tempted to say The Gathering, because of Anneke's incredible vocal reach.

You already have the answer for your question. I can't find a better singer than her, and i'm talking about all the world music, including joss stone, mariah, j-lo, amy lsdhouse and anyone else.

 

[J.]

my favorite female fronted band, though not metal, is Dead Can Dance.

the better metal ones I've heard are Thorr's Hammer, Mourn, and Fairyland's debut.

 

[Slayed Necros]

 

[mutantllama]

Detente(boring riffs, awesome vocals)

 

[Burkhard]

Detente(boring riffs, awesome vocals)

Sounds like you're quoting Fenriz.


Détente


Fear of God


Madder Mortem



Atrox (Monika Edvardsen-era)



Znowhite


Ice Age


Chastain


Sacrilege (UK)



The Third And The Mortal
Death-Hymn:

 

[mutantllama]

Well I kinda of was attempting to.

 

[metal_wrath]

Judging from this thread, 90% of female fronted Metal bands are unexceptional.

 

[Burkhard]

Well I kinda of was attempting to.

You forgot the sunglasses.

Judging from this thread, 90% of female fronted Metal bands are unexceptional.

If you dropped the "female fronted", it wouldn't be any different.

 

[Vitor]

another good girl is Lana Lane.

fergie is anorther good one.

 

[ArneZ]

Well, I like it when females sounds like females, not fucking men. So id go with bands like Deadlock.

 

[JontRevolting]

Although no longer with us,Wendy O Williams was great.

 

[metal_wrath]

You forgot the sunglasses.


If you dropped the "female fronted", it wouldn't be any different.

I would say around 80% of metal bands in general.

The difference is there are very few female fronted bands so we end up with around a dozen decent ones.

 

[scytheavatar]

If you dropped the "female fronted", it wouldn't be any different.

More like "If you dropped the 'metal', it wouldn't be any different." The majority of female fronted bands of any genre is crap, heck how many female musicians don't suck? Anneke certainly doesn't suck, so too is Gorod's Sandrine, but that's about it. Females should just stay in the kitchen and leave the good music to us men.