Not that I'm Complaining...

[Killed_by_Death]

My point is that is doesn't matter whether the musician is male, female, whatever.

It does if you're a groupie.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Metal is split into so many sub-genres these days it's almost impossible to keep up.

I have no intention of keeping up. Heavy Metal is Rock & Roll.

 

[BahamasSteve]

There's also the Lez Zepplin

I caught their show with Quiet Riot, Foghat and the Doobie Brothers for Hawgfest in Denver in 2006.

 

[Sixgunn]

For some reason people are into the female frontman thing...they all end up sounding the same or they completely suck!

Nope. Lacuna Coil, Delain, In This Moment, Halestorm and The Pretty Reckless and even Dead Sara all have some great female vocalists. Charlie (Charlotte Wessels) from Delain is classical and jazz trained (and even sounds a little like Karen Carpenter, at times). She and Cristina from Lacuna Coil have beautiful voices and GREAT melodic sense.

 

[superheavydeathmetal]

Nightwish is so awesome that sometimes I can't stand it.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

I think it's cool.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

don't forget Babymetal !

 

[BahamasSteve]

I'm disappointed I never made it to a Betty Blowtorch show. RIP Bianca.

 

[EMoneySC2]

I really appretiate women in metal bands. We're seeing a surge in bands with female vocalists right now, and I'd say it's pretty cool!

Destiny Potato is one of my current favorites.

 

[Slinger]

Just for Super Freak...

 

[Nic.]

To me there's nothing more boring than a female fronted band where the fact that it's female fronted is a selling point. Usually all I see in those examples are bad Pat Benatar clones.

Agreed, there's a difference between awesome bands that happen to be female fronted, and bands that use "female fronted" as a gimmick. There's an all-female band I like that once mentioned the struggle to be recognised as a "metal band" rather than a "female metal band".

I think most of the female led stuff is Melodic Metal, Gothic Metal and Symphonic Metal based and comes from Scandinavia and Europe

I think part of the reason is that the inherent timbre of the female voice makes the more operatic style of vocals even more amazing (as compared to normal rock vocals, where it doesn't make as large of a difference IMO)

 

[pcake]

don't forget Babymetal !

and i repeat,

 

[Snakeman1066]

I Opened for Otep Shamaya twice... once in Texas during the tour supporting Smash the Control Machine and again in California while they were supporting Hydra.....

She stayed on the bus the entire time except for during her performance and sound check...however her Bass player Jason and i spoke at length and had a few beers...

She put on a great show both times

 

[Nic.]

and i repeat,

you either love or hate them, and getting hated can be awesome publicity. They're definitely using a gimmick, but they're doing it damn well and pushing that gimmick to really high levels. The backing band is solid and the songwriting is pretty good IMO.

 

[CORBS]

We opened for a killer all-female Led Zeppelin tribute act called Lez Zeppelin. They had all the vintage gear, and they were really good. The house was packed with people there to see them, some I imagine coming as a novelty, but once you saw them you totally understood.

 

[brianrost]

When did this happen? have i been asleep for the last 20 years?

After bands gave up on finding a guy who could sing like a castrato, I guess.

 

[Duder]

have i been asleep for the last 20 years?

Yes, some of those bands are actually that old.

 

[hrodbert696]

I think there's really a very simple reason why the female frontperson is so big in metal, apart from the obvious sex appeal angle that many of them play up. It's really just that there aren't a lot of guy singers who can get up there in Robert Plant's vocal range.

 

[El Güero]

That high singing stuff is one of the main reasons I never got into metal. It drives me up the wall. The Beatles kinda started (unintentionally) the higher = better mentality regarding vocals. I couldn't stand Yes because of the singer, and that group had some fantastic musicians.

Otoh, Little Richard and John Fogerty sound great when they sing high.