Screaming Female Fronted Bands

Posted by firestormx on Feb. 27, 2012, 1:45 a.m.

So SpectreNectar made a blog about some Canadian (if that stupid word filter is still on, then eskimo = "cana dian" and "that cold place" = "cana da") bands, and I'm now inspired to write a blog about music. Specifically, metal bands with female vocalists, who scream. I absolutely love it, and I thought I'd share a list.

This is far from a "complete" list, but these are some good ones that I happen to have. I'm not a huge fan of girls just singing (or any metal with clean vocals, really), so it's a pretty small list. I'll list them first, and then give a sample of one of their songs. I won't really go into the history of the band or anything though. Lastly, I should clarify that half of these aren't really all that metal, but c'mon…It's a girl screaming…That makes up for the way the music is played.

(Band - Singer)

Arch Enemy - Angela Gossow

Iwrestledabearonce - Krysta Cameron

Otep - Otep Shamaya

Cerebral Bore - Simone "Som" Plujimers

Circle the Sky - Ash

Kittie - Morgan Lander

Straight Line Stitch - Alexis Brown

The Agonist - Alissa White-Gluz

Walls of Jericho - Candace Kucsulain

Orphan Hate - Sina Niklas

Holy Moses - Sabina Classen

Picture me Broken - Layla Brooklyn Alman

Eths - Candice Clot

Astarte - Maria "Tristessa" Kolokouri

Light This City - Laura Nichol

Cadaveria - Cadaveria (that's the name she goes by)

cmkin29 - Kin Lin

Arch Enemy

When you think "female screaming", this is probably the first band you would think of. Definately the most commonly cited band for this sort of thing.

Nemesis:

Iwrestledabearonce

The band has a sense of humour, but it's got a lot of clean vocals, and electronic stuff, which I'm not too fond of. It's definately one of those "not quite metal" bands, but it's still pretty good.

You know that ain't them dogs' real voices:

Otep

Otep is one of the few nu metal bands that I really like (death to most nu metal! *shakes fist*). Her albums feature really heavy songs, some softer songs, and even some spoken word "poetry" (stories about murder and brutality, basically). About a third of her lyrics are really good too, talking about abuse and stuff. She has a really good vocal range to top it all off - throaty raspy screams, shrieks, growls, whispers, clean vocals…

Fists Fall:

Cerebral Bore

This is a pretty new band (well, they're actually almost 7 years old, but they only got the vocalist, and released their debute album, in 2011), featuring "Som" on vocals. She was around on youtube (her channel. You'll have to go back maybe 20 videos to get to her older stuff) doing awesome vocal covers of Dying Fetus and stuff before she joined the band.

Most of the other bands I mentioned are on the cleaner side of metal, but Som is much more on the grind/death side of metal, with really deep and throaty (exhale?) screams, and even does pig squeals. And on top of it all, she was only 19 when she did the album (and was doing the youtube stuff before that). Speaking of youtube, there's another awesome youtube channel singer down below.

The Bald Cadaver (she does some pig squeals from 1:23 and 1:29):

Circle the Sky

Speaking of young, Circle the Sky is an Australian band (a lot of good metalcore stuff comes from Australia too. Spectre was on a Canadian kick, or something…He should look at Australia next), with a 16 year old singer. "The band emerged in 2006, shocking crowds by the petite young lady producing brutal vocals". And they are pretty brutal.

Shark Etiquette:

Kittie

This (all girl) Canadian band was probably the first band with a female screamer that I had ever heard. She's got a good scream (raspy), but sadly she does a lot of clean vocals, so I don't listen to them too much.

Cut Throat:

Straight Line Stitch

A female screamer is pretty rare, and a black one is even rarer! A little Asian girl is probably the rarest (further down)

Black Veil:

The Agonist

Another Canadian band

Thank You Pain:

Walls of Jericho

A Trigger Full of Promises:

Orphan Hate

When she's not doing her clean vocals, she has a really good, deep, growls.

This Child (skip to 0:43 to start the screaming)

Holy Moses

Alright, so I've only been alive for about 2/3s or how long this band has been alive. It was one of the first German thrash metal bands, and definately one of the first female fronted metal bands.

World Chaos (live):

Picture me Broken

I found out today that one of their songs is on Rock Band (DLC). My RB drum set is destroyed, so when I either get my Rold drum kit setup to play Rockband, or I buy a new kit, I definately have to buy it. I'm going to put that video on here to remind myself to buy it. It doesn't really showcase her screams until after the break down (you can skip to 2:30, then she goes between clean vocals, and screams)

Dearest (I'm So Sorry):

Eths

A French metal band. The Agonist is from Montreal (in the Canadian province of Quebec, which is French), but Eths is French vocals, from France, and it is absolutely awesome.

Crucif´re

Astarte

An all female black metal band. Pretty awesome, eh SpectreNectar?

Black Mighty Gods

Light This City

I only recently found this band, so I haven't had much time to listen to them, but I love them so far.

The Unwelcome Savior

Cadaveria

This is actually a pretty weak band to end on. Her "scream" is really more of a yell for the most part. This is also a band I just started listening to, and I haven't really found any songs that stand out yet in my casual listening to them. I'm not really a fan of Symphonic metal (there's never enough power and speed coming from the drums. T_T), and this band is just on the verge of being too symphonic for me.

The Dream (skip to 2:15 for her "yelling")

cmkin29

Alright, this isn't a band, but if you head over to cmkin29's youtube channel, you can see this little Korean girl (I'm sure there's tons of Japanese girls who can do this too…'Cause Japan's weird like that) belting out covers from absolutely amazing singers/bands. From Lamb of God and Arch Enemy, to The Black Dahlia Murder and Job for a Cowboy.

There's quite a few really good female vocalists on youtube, but I thought she was pretty cool.

Cover of "Entombment of a Machine" by "Job For a Cowboy"

And that's that. If there's other bands you know of, let me know, 'cause I love this. If you want more information, or other songs (or albums) to "get into" one of these bands, let me know.

Comments

firestormx 12 years, 2 months ago

Hmm, I try to stay away from the fans of bands I like (especially when I know most of them are like that). I don't go to many concerts either (mainly 'cause I'm not a mosher or anything), so I don't interact with the fans there either.

Most of the fan interaction I do, is with friends I know for other than just music.

Seeing swarms of irritating fans are kind of like having a girlfriend whose ex loved the same stuff you do. You're like "well…If he liked it, he seems like a pretty shitty guy, based on what she's told me…", and you start to kind of feel disgusted liking certain things the that he loved. =P

And what's this "icon obsession"? Despised Icon?

death 12 years, 2 months ago

yeah attitude of most fans and some bands is usually shitty but that's just common human behavior. it occurs with every thing, not just music. i just completely ignore it. some of my favorite bands have said the most ignorant and arrogant things ever but i still love the music they create. i will never bow down to the artists though, i'll just appreciate the art they create.

Black Metal was literally the last form of extreme metal i got into because of all the controversy but after giving it a try (this took multiple times) i found some really good bands of the genre, mostly symphonic black metal but still - i just don't take any of the lyrics or imagery serious at all. it's just fantasy and entertainment. nothing to get worked up over.

my favorite genres are Symphonic Black Metal, Doom/death, Melodic Death Metal and so on. i really love the combination of slow dark riffs contrasting into fast thrashing and double bass. i need the variety and the setting.

JuurianChi 12 years, 2 months ago

In This Moment is pretty cool. :E

Castypher 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:
I'm sure there's a bands out there with the exact same taste as you
I don't know why, but I found that reassuring. I've been starting to like trance-y stuff a bit, and very light electronica in addition to orchestral hybrids (pirate metal is a fun favorite) and ambient tracks. But pop is not my thing at all, considering how overplayed the songs are, and lately I've been unable to fully enjoy good rock, metal, or similar songs.

I think I'm starting to become Steven.

firestormx 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:
In This Moment is pretty cool. :E
Fuck yeah they are. =D

I tend to ignore fans as well, but it's harder for me to ignore things a band does. I know I should just accept their music, but I find I normally get a lot more out of a band (not so much metal bands, but more regular bands - metal only makes up maybe 40% of my listening) if I know more about the band.

For example, two of my favourite songs are "There's no I in Team" by Taking Back Sunday and "Seventy Times Seven" by Brand New, and there's an added layer of awesome because of the story behind the two songs. (One of the members from Brand New was in TBS, and crap went down with a band member and a sister, and what-not)

So because of that, I take a lot of the personality of the band (and its members) in along with the music. Sometimes this can be pretty negative. I liked the band Wednesday 13 a lot (though it did get annoying after a little while), because of the lyrics, the simple metal inspired music, and the fact that he was like Marilyn Manson, if Manson didn't take himself so seriously. Then I learned more about the artist Wednesday 13, and his previous bands, and it kind of killed some of the love, because I don't really like Wednesday 13 as a person.

With metal, though, a lot of it is just imagery and stuff, and they don't really put a lot of personal heart into the lyrics and what-not, so it's a lot easier to ignore what the band says.

firestormx 12 years, 2 months ago

I posted that comment as you were posting yours Kilin.

I like trancey stuff too, but I can't listen to a whole lot of it, and light electroinca and orchestral stuff isn't really my thing.

But pop, while very over played, does have some good music with the popular artists. It's not all mindless pop crap, some of the pop artists do have decent lyrics, and an easy listening factor.

That's why when it comes to music, you have to listen to an album, not a single. A single will be overplayed, and is a very 1 dimensional view of a possibly multi-dimensional artist/band.

For example, Katy Perry has some songs that are annoying as shit, but I did like Teenage Dream, Firework, Waking Up in Vegas, and a handful of others, before they were released as singles, and overplayed as fuck.

LAR Games 12 years, 2 months ago

Man, if someone could see what I have in my iPod at the moment, they would be pretty confused…

I have the theme song of a cartoon called Liberty Kids, Still Alive from Portal (And Mirrors Edge. haha), and some songs from the Lonely Island.

Completely random.

JuurianChi 12 years, 2 months ago

LoserHands 12 years, 2 months ago

If somebody hasn't listened to good screaming, I show them At the Gates.

firestormx 12 years, 2 months ago

Finally watching these youtube clips.

Spectre: I've never heard of Atari Teenage Riot, but I love it. =D

And HOLY SHIT I love Dir En Grey. <3

I thought they were meh at first, because I only herad their regular rock sounding songs, but then I saw the video, and I was like "well…this looks interesting", then the song started about 45 seconds in, and I was like "oh sweet, they do heavy stuff too!".

They have a lot of songs that sound good, and if you look up the translations, they have some songs with good lyrics too.

Toast: I've never heard of Rolo Tomassi either, BUT IT'S GREAT! Her voice is awesome. It reminds me of Kathy from Circle Takes the Square, or the Blood Brothers.

OH! I need to add Circle Takes the Square to the list (along with In This Moment and Red Bacteria Vacuum)

Juurian: For your first video: I never watched Spirited Away (I don't like that studio), but is that song really in it? That's Blood Stain Child!

For your second video: That's also Blood Stain Child! XD

Unfortunatly it's the bassist (male) that screams, and not the girl. BUT, it's still a really good band to listen to, with a fairly unique style.

Duckman: She doesn't seem that hot, haha. They sound like a heavier version of paramore. Hailey from Paramore has her looking-cute moments, and I liker her better. =P

I'll listen to halestorm around the time I'm in the mood for paramore though (I do actually like paramore).

Spectre: That Abbath video is awesome. I love that laugh. XD

Loserhands: Really? At The Gates is your goto? =P

His screaming is very good, and well pronounced, but I wouldn't say he's the poster child for good screaming. He also doesn't have much variety in the way he screams - which isn't really rare mind you. But if I was, say, showcasing good female screams, I'd show them Otep, because of her incredible range.

I don't mean to start an argument about the best screamers, but ATG just seems arbitrary. =P