Ji-In Cho:

Just happen to be listening to Anneke's "Drive" album at the moment. She is still my favorite vocalist ever. She has grown tremendously as an artist since that first GATHERING album she did. Always pushing herself to try different things with various projects and I pretty much drank her bath water and begged for more years ago.

Also curious that this topic has come up since I have been getting right back into SKUNK ANASIE lately. I was recently watching their live acoustic show from a couple years ago and Skin is as phenomenal a force as she's ever been. Tremendous power and ultimate voice control. S.A. as a band have always written great songs, but she brings everything to life. Her solo album is the epitome of frailty and honesty and I have spent plenty of time watching videos of her singing alongside the likes of Pavrotti et al. Scary good talent.

Lisa:

I love Anneke's vocals! Always follow her!

Pryti:

Love it!

3 names:

1. Jutta Weinhold of Zed Yago (later Velvet Viper and solo). AKA the Female Dio. If you like heavy metal then Zed Yago's Pilgrimage is a must. One of my favorite HM albums. And Jutta's vocals is half its value. The juicy songwriting is the other half.

One of my favorite songs ever (top 20)



Zed Yago's debut is also great. Jutta's voice makes this epic doom anthem:



2. Leather Leone, known from her solo work and the work with Chastain. A voice in the same vein as Jutta's but from across the Atlantic. Interestingly, I've seen her being dubbed the female Dio as well (much more recently though). I guess it's a thing now. Anyway, Leather is awesome and Chastain's The Voice of the Cult, For Those Who Dare or her Shock Waves album are excellent and highly recommended. For those who like heavy metal of course.



A very cool interview of her I ran across recently that is well worth the read. She basically gave it all up because she refused to sell her sexuality.
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/chastain-le ... -interview

3. Anneke. The Anneke.
I feel in love with her voice the moment I heard this:



I heard this for the first time in 1997 in Bristol, at the Full Moon pub, where an enthusiastic waitress told me to wait a second after I inquired what is playing. She brought back the Mandylion CD and exclaimed enthusiastically "it's great! worth every penny!", clearly very eager to spread the love for Anneke and very happy that someone had asked.

Not a huge fan of her pop stuff but she is special. Last thing that got me, even in all its pompous cheesiness is this - again thanks to Anneke:




Those are the clear favorites. But of course, there are more. Debbie Gunn for one deserves a mention. Tons of attitude in a tough scene. CORPSE!


Ann Boleyn, legendary frontwoman of Hellion and owner of New Renaissance records.

My favorite Hellion track, really special heavy metal:


Finally, although it's a given, this was the first heavy metal I listened to with female vocals and it still remains a favorite to this day:

If I had the time I would dedicate some space to others such as Sabina Classen of Holy Moses, Lita Ford, Nicole Lee (already covered!) but I will end this post with the coolest female in the metal universe, member of one of the coolest bands in metal, providing the intro to this MASTERPIECE (best song on the album, one of the band's best):

The only real "problem" these girls have is not realizing that, on a sale of 1-10, they're both 6's.

Fuck me that was awful

No talent core

I knew that you in particular would enjoy it.

See, now, this one HAS to be a joke. I refuse to believe that these two girls weren't taking the piss with their horrendous singing here, and with the atrocious lyrical content of the song.

Jo bench from Bolt Thrower plays a big part in that band's crushing sound...

Fucking HATE that band. Bland, boring metal-by-numbers sold on the fact the singers have tits.

You stole my thunder Vic! I knew I could rely on you to go for female musicians because of their musical talents, and not the way they look.

Here's a few more.



Some Kiwi doom metal (love the bass sound)



My current favourite



And then I'll fuck it all up with this...

"chicks in metal" have always basically been a novelty of course. But the very, very few exceptions that are actually genuine have been covered by Vim and Vic pretty much. I'd add Katherine Katz from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Christy Cather from Ludicra.

You all know who i will post, so here she is.

I like plenty of female led music, but about 0.5% of that is 'metal'. Something about the combo just always sounds shit to me. Except with shouting. I spose Distillers count but it's really ungirly. I quite liked them, lots of shouting.

I posted Torpor (UK sludgey type) as a recent discovery and they have a female vocalist, but again mainly dirty screams, you can't un-know it's a girl once you do, but you probably couldn't tell most of the time.

First couple of albums are ok, then she started to think she was better than she actually was.