Weighed down by depressions and a couple of different mental illnesses, Huntress front woman Jill Janus has become a strong presence in the heavy metal community. With the band supporting the likes of Lamb Of God, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy and Killswitch Engage, there is clearly something good going on in the Huntress camp. After extensive touring and promoting the band, they continue to express themselves with another album: ‘Shock’.
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When you look at the history of most symphonic, female-fronted metal bands, the vocalist is a very important person, who barely parts ways with a successful band. Most of the time the woman behind the mic is an iconic figure, the eye catcher in front of the band. But that’s not really how the German Xandria works, apparently, because they already made it to their fifth vocalist. To showcase Dianne van Giersbergen’s abilities Xandria releases the EP ‘Fire & Ashes’.
And here we go again! The new album by the Canadian powermetallers of Unleash The Archers is one of the records that I was gradually drilling into the ground, buried under layers of critique. One of the records that, while I was skeptical about almost everything, turned out to be quite entertaining! ‘Time Stands Still’ resulted into being quite the fun record.
Is it possible to fall in love with a voice? Not the physical kind of love, of course, but the sound, coloring and timbre of someone’s vocals? To me the new album by District 97 has definitely made an enormous impression. Some of the female vocals that grace the new record called ‘In Vaults’ are simply electrifying. Will we be able to salvage more than just the vocals from this record?
You might think that I’m promoting Dutch and Belgian bands more than others, because they’re close to home. That is not the case, but it’s true that I get a lot of Dutch bands for review. It’s also true that the Dutch symphonic metal scene is blooming like never before. Following the footsteps of bands like Delain, Within Temptation and After Forever is End Of The Dream. ‘All I Am’ is their first album and it’s very solid.
So many bands have joined the female fronted metal scene over the years. This results in a genre that demands the utmost best of its members and makes it unaffordable to make minor mistakes. Most of all the vocals have to be great, but also the music has to be original and interesting enough. What Jaded Star tries on their first album is very good, but is ‘Memories From The Future’ able to reach for the top?
In the modern Metal industry the so called female fronted metal bands are mostly long haired women with a high soaring vocals. Bands like Nightwish, Amaranthe and Within Temptation have thrived on that genre for quite some years now. But Scarved is delivering us something completely different. This female fronted rockband, formed around vocalist Caro, delivers us the powerful rock album ‘Dynamite’.
It’s sometimes hard to find the real gems in the sea of female-fronted metal bands. Sometimes there are bands that stand up and start making high quality music. One of those bands is the Belgian ‘Ethernity’ that releases an exceptionally good album with ‘Obscure Illusions’.
