Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA

Thanks for the links and information about female metal vocalists. After listening to them and some of the previous artists you mention, I would have to say so far my ranking would be (drum roll)...

(1) JIMMY RYAN. Reason: versatility. In "Trenches" he uses a moody singing voice, and I like his tone better than some of the other men's, yet he also does screaming and (in the previous song posted) growling. One complaint I have with some of the metal songs in general that use growling is that the singer growls the whole way through. I like the contrast between traditional singing and growling or screaming (although I do worry about them hurting their voices!).

I'll have to listen to more people so I have more to compare to, though.

(2) ANGELA GASSOW. Although the songs I listened to only had her growling, she did it well and her animated and intense theatrics during the pieces probably biased me in her favor.

I thought it was interesting that I can't hear any difference in tone between men or women when they growl. This actually makes me think that a woman could produce metal songs that have more variety than a man could, since she could do chilling pseudo-sweet sounding higher tunes (angelic) and then plunge into demonic-sounding growling, which produces a startle factor that men have a harder time achieving, I feel (although a man could do falsetto, but it doesn't sound the same). It is pleasant to see women who are *not* trying to be sweet or cute, which I feel is a "role" that women singers (and female people, in general) play all too often (pressured by society to do so).

The song "Code of Honor" by Deadlock, for example, amused me because in it the woman is singing a sort of melodic goth-type song in some cute pseudo middle ages type dress while sweetly strolling through some meadow, while the man growls the whole time in a singing/growling duet. The separation along traditional gender lines (woman sweet, lovely, etc. and man tough, harsh, etc.) made a song that to me seemed too stereotypical for what I guess I imagine metal to be, which is songs that violate traditional rules of what "good" singing (and "good" music) is.

--Erica

Originally Posted by OBEY

"Never trust your own eyes, believe what you are told".