female vocals in metal

[ShadarLogoth]

I forget, don't Asmegin have female vocalists?

yeah, the have female vocals, but not exclusively. they are a fucking amazing band though.

 

[CaGeD iN]

Estuary (formerly Estuary of Calamity). Their singer, Zdenka Prado comes across as even more brutal than Gossow.

Check them out here:
http://www.myspace.com/estuary

i think they have a female backup but a guy doing the main ones, if that was a female doing all that, you would expect her to be on steroids!

 

[zekeyou]

i think they have a female backup but a guy doing the main ones, if that was a female doing all that, you would expect her to be on steroids!

Nope, she's the vocalist. I met her a couple years ago-- she's actually a pretty dimunitive lady-- you'd never expect that to come out of her pipes....

 

[Trows]

They have 3 vocalists.

Clean, growling and female. She also plays the violin if I recall.

 

[Skepticism]

I don't see the big fuss about Gossow, she's not even that good of a female vocalist. Like I said, Ozma is better, and so is Doc (Wetwork).
EDIT: Some more good female vocals, this time clean vocals, listen to "J'ai Fait Une Promesse" by Anathema.

 

[Wenchmaster]

I don't think Gossow is amazing, but when I first heard it I thought it was a man like so many other people.

 

[Space Cadet]

I hate Gossow's vocals...

Anyway, I highly recommend Giant Squid for some female vocals. Doom-ish band that is simply amazing. Witch isn't bad, either. The way their songs are mixed, it actually sounds like a witch at a seance.

Female vocals can really make a song better, too. "Weight" by Isis is the perfect example.

 

[Dauden]

Draconian anyone? I think the mix of harsh guy vocals with the soft chick vocals rule. Really female vocals work best in doom metal in my opinion. I also really dig Nightwish, and think Tarja has a fresh approach, too bad she's gone. As for a band like Leaves' Eyes... I dunno, I find them really boring. Also saw them live with Blind Guardian, didn't really improve my idea of them.

 

[sdmf2]

Draconian anyone? I think the mix of harsh guy vocals with the soft chick vocals rule. Really female vocals work best in doom metal in my opinion. I also really dig Nightwish, and think Tarja has a fresh approach, too bad she's gone. As for a band like Leaves' Eyes... I dunno, I find them really boring. Also saw them live with Blind Guardian, didn't really improve my idea of them.

Draconian is a great band, from the album that Ive heard. and that chick's vocals really help out in their case. Leaves Eyes werent bad when I saw them live.... the woman singing was pretty good actually. I was suprised.

 

[Dauden]

^ She is a good singer for sure. Did you see them in Toronto? I was saddened by the basically non-existant guitar tone, probably what ruined it for me. She definitely did a good job though, yeah.

 

[sdmf2]

i had no idea they were even here.

 

[Dauden]

Wow, it was Blind Guardian, with Leaves' Eyes supporting, awesome show (was at the Opera House... *looks at ticket*... November 26th 2006)

 

[Astarael]

I absolutely love Isis - Weight {seeing them in a week, excitement!!!}, and ditto the Draconian female vocals - I rekon they do mix in very well with the harsh male ones.

 

[CaGeD iN]

draconian is one of my fav bands....

 

[sdmf2]

Wow, it was Blind Guardian, with Leaves' Eyes supporting, awesome show (was at the Opera House... *looks at ticket*... November 26th 2006)

Oh yeah I saw that show. I thought you were talking about Draconian.

 

[CaGeD iN]

from what i have heard of trail of tears the female vocals arent put in it very well, tristania widows weeds has some excellent songs on it

 

[*Bianca*]

I love Leaves' Eyes, and Draconian... but FF metal happens to be my fave of all so maybe I'm biased. A SHORT list of my faves would be Amaran, After Forever, Within Temptation, Epica, To-Mera, Stream of Passion, Lacuna Coil, The Gathering (not really metal but for some reason they're still tacked on to that genre), Leaves' Eyes, Midnattsol, Theatre of Tragedy (the old stuff), Drain STH, and a whole bunch of other bands. I'm divided on Nightwish, sometimes they're just too much and sometimes I'm all about it. I also really enjoy Arch Enemy, although I have to say that Wages of Sin was the best album by far. The newest one synthesized her vox too much and I didn't feel it was as passionate as a whole. I used to love Kittie, but they peaked with Oracle and nothing else I've heard by them even came close. I'm not crazy about Tristania, I just don't think she has a good voice.

 

[Wenchmaster]

Errr...I forgot Aghora completely. They're good. Except practically every song on the self-titled seems to sound the same.

 

[chrisdoig24k]

I just found out that the female vocals in Agalloch's 'From Which Of This Oak' demo were all done by John's mum!

 

[Έρεβος]

I don't generally like female voices in metal; feminine voices just don't have the right power or tone -- and nearly all the female grunts and screams sound entirely comical -- but there are some exceptions. On the other hand, female vocals used along with male vocals can be excellent -- but nearly always require the male vocals to be dominant, while the female vocals take a secondary role meant only the complement. It creates an excellent contrast to have clean very feminine female vocals along with the powerful male growls and screams, greatly adding to the expressed power within the growls and screams through this contrast.

Some metal bands with female vocals that I like:
* Wolves in the Throne Room: the clean female vocals in Diadem of 12 Stars are excellent -- used as an absolutely perfect complement of the primal male grunts & screams.
* Aghora: the vocals aren't so appealing in themselves, but the music is meant to be instrumentally driven -- and the mild female clean vocals complement the music quite well, without overpowering it or dominating in any way.
* Cruachan: the female vocals added to the growls/screams, and actually dominating in many or most songs, interestingly add to the flavor of the music quite well.
* Epica: not really all that amazing a band; but I find some songs to be quite good -- though usually only those combining a good deal of grunts with Simone's vocals. The other songs aren't bad: they just don't bring the power or aggressive feel metal should have.
* Dark Tranquillity: uses a bit of female vocals, creating a great contrast/transition between the male clean vocals and growls.

** There are certainly a multitude of excellent black & death metal bands that bring female vocals into some of their songs -- which adds a great contrast to the absolute aggressive primal tones of the male vocals; but in most cases the female vocals aren't prominent enough to really mention the individual bands. Though I'm sure there are some that I do like that I can't think of at the moment.