Tell me about female-fronted metal bands.

[85 San Dimas]

+1000

and watch out for the bassist / room mate or it will be like Fleetwood Mac

"squared" which would be like.....a million or something, and yep watch the bass player, and yep when in doubt about any decision looking to Benatar/Geraldo will keep you out of trouble. You don't need to be like them at all, but using them as a foundation would be a good thing. I don't know if anyone can touch them. You could also use Joe Lynn Turner...he was kind of girlish.

[straycat]

A band I played in yeas ago(late 60' early70's) had a female as our lead singer and keyboard player.She wrote all our original songs.
She was trained in classical music and opera.A very strong and loud singer.
Were were what they call prog now.Our overall sound was a mix of Yes,Procol Harum and Blue Oyster Cult.
Actualy filled in for 1 gig back in the summer for an all girl 80's metal band.Kind of felt out of place but they made it work.I liked working with them, they were way better than me (I'm a hack) but they needed a rhythm played to round out the sound.
Go for it sounds like a cool deal.

[Cygnus X1]

First thing that comes to mind...for shaping the songs around the voice is Heart.
Lightweight, I know.

Off topic-
stray:what did you want in a 6L6 rig?

[thunderhead]

Megadeth?









(I had to do it)

[Rsmacker]

Right, this isn't a piss-take, and I'm not being nasty, try to read what I'm saying before attacking!!

The only thing to know about ANY female-fronted bands (who aren't firmly established. ie. I mean bar and club bands) is :

a. To 90% of the males in the audience, whether the singer has nice tits and an overly-tight top is what is appealing, not what/how she sings. Raise this to 95% if the blokes are pissed up.
Yes, if she is a shit singer, she will drive people away, but if she has great norks, lots of people will sit through a shite set of dribbly prog-rock fairy tales set to heavy metal. "The music? Erm, yeah, great mate, shhhhh, check out those hooters, I think they are going to fall out of that dress....."

Likewise, if she is a superb singer but looks like she has been hit with a shovel, or has tits like a roof-tiler's nailbag, not many people will sit around to listen. Female fronted bands have to be extremely easy on the eye.

b. If she is over 30, you are doomed. Once again, it matters not how good a singer she is, or what kind of stuff it is, talent doesn't come into it. People will just see an old boiler on stage, and will be wondering just how much slap she has to trowel onto her face to look human in the morning. They'll be more interested in the 24 yr old chick sitting by the bar with the rubber dress who is calling the singer an old witch, or saying "My, what nice skin you have Grandma".
She will appeal to the MILF-lovers, but there again, she can't look too much like a church warden, so when she tries to look alluring, she'll look like an old trout slut. Vicious circle.

Very very few women in any field can look smoulderingly attractive and captivate and enthrall their target audience without exploiting their sexuality. Alas, those not attracted to that sort of thing will attack her weak spots - age, size, dress sense. Blokes don't give a toss who is taking the piss out of them, women do, oh they do.

I know there will be plenty of people who will now come back and say I'm wrong, and get all in touch with their feminist bra-burning side, but I'm not, and you know it.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that 5 fugly old geezers can get up on stage and rock away like they are 21, no problem, but any woman who does, has to look 101%.
If her arse is the size of Wales, people will notice it, and laugh. It only takes one piss-artist to shout it out. And he will, after he shouts "Show us your tits" and she comes back with a great, righteous put-down. That means war. Even if she wins, she will take on board the comments, because women are like that, and her confidence will suffer sooner or later. Downward spiral commences........

This is all without even considering the style of music you are doing -any band relies on its frontman to keep an audience attentive, a woman has a harder job, I think, unless she has titanic tits and dresses like a dominatrix. Even then, there comes a day when she is past that, whereas David Lee Roth is always going to be able to get up onstage and dominate, with or without doing the splits and talking about how many chicks he fucked last night. Male bands can grow old disgracefully, bands with women in have a very short shelf-life.

To me, the worst thing of all is being "involved" with the female singer. I can't think of anything that chills me to the bone more, I don't envy you one bit.
Fancy having to tell her she's getting a bit lardy and should lay off the cakes on the way home, or that she's maybe getting a bit old for some of her outfits? Mutton dressed as lamb? Rather you than me pal! Being married to her could become hell. You ever watched how those little male spiders tread veeeeery carefully round the females when they are trying to mate, in case they get eaten? I hope that doesn't become you!!!

Not trying to be too negative, honestly. Just playing devil's advocate.......

Of course, if you don't play live and just build on a career of recorded ground-breaking female-fronted rock of a totally unique genre, then none of my post will matter, the band will be judged on the merit of the material ONLY.
Fuck me, a pig just flew past my window!


Anyway, good luck with the band!!!
(Prove me wrong, please! I'm not a total cunt, really.)

[Rsmacker]

Fuck it, I should have said:

Check out Detente, featuring the late Dawn Crosby. Hardcore band from early 90's, she had a voice like gravel, I don't expect she ponced about in a lowcut lace top.
Interestingly, Detente are back doing stuff now with Anne Boleyn (Ex-Hellion) on vocals. Now she looked oh-so nice back in that hair band, and she could definitely sing, but can she do the hardcore stuff? Hmmmm, now that I'd like to see...........

[Gartron]

Likewise, if she is a superb singer but looks like she has been hit with a shovel, or has tits like a roof-tiler's nailbag,

:ROTF:

Rsmacker , has anyone told you that you have a beautiful turn of phrase!, your command of the english language is to be saluted sir!

[markD]

i play in a female fronted band and it can be very frustrating. my experieince has shown me that no matter where we were when things started out things don't always turn out that way...meaning we were going to be a BAND not a backing group for a chick.

while my singer and i aren't married or even together, we are good friends. since the singer IS your wife, that MAY be a saving grace for you. there is no underlying sexual tension in my band, but the bass player and i - both of whom came from moderately "established" bands - meaning we have released small label albums, toured, etc. - are becoming MUSICALLY frustrated because suddenly EVERYTHING is about her.

TONS of photograpghs of her....the myspace might as well be HERS...she is starting to bitch about guitar solos and some of our more progressive songs. i mean, i joined KNOWING i'd be playing more pop oriented stuff, but when we sat down it was also agreed upon that "pop" meant SOME of the song structures, not guitar tones and every song being pussified.

we just finished a single that is being released. it was going to be the forerunner for our full length album. now we are doing an acoustic record. she likes that better.

i am not trying to rant or sound bitter...i am NOT there yet, hahahaha - the pay is still too good for the shows and stuff, BUT beware.

there IS a reason MOST girl fronted bands can't keep stable line-ups or just disappear. i call it "diva syndrome". hey, that could be a cool name for a band or album - i reserve the rights to title our acoustic CD "diva syndrome"!!!! hahahahaha!!!!

[triplehold]

Yeah! The honorable Rsmacker summed it up quite nicely and ever so respectfully. Amen!

[Larz]

Lacey Mosley...not really metal I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB5fV_Pewlg

Lita Ford.....

[toejam]

Fuck it, I should have said:

Check out Detente, featuring the late Dawn Crosby. Hardcore band from early 90's, she had a voice like gravel, I don't expect she ponced about in a lowcut lace top.

I never heard of that band, but I did love her thrash metal band Fear of God. I have two of their CDs somewhere around here. Not sure if they put out anything else. I guess Detente was earlier?

[toejam]

The Nymphs also seem to be back. I saw them open up for Bruce Dickinson on his Accident of Birth tour.

http://www.myspace.com/thenymphsrock

[GinSonic]

I guess it's safe to assume then that your wife's vocal abilities lean towards sweet and melodic rather than OTEP, yes?

OTEP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfLnDUPmP4s

There's already some good suggestions. I second Lacuna Coil. Class act for sure;
Lacuna Coil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDaDtHMgVxM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx58hXh4pVA

Here's a few other female fronted metal bands;

Nightwish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xFA5AV3CWo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRNpPMVu5nA

Lullacry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y3eZHU5PFI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvZu0SZuFms

Within Temptation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYmglqPPjcw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bqRn0rLq1c

Xandria:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4AF_7Fpdo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrEnoxyxVDY

Of course, these examples lean towards the Goth Metal side of things.

Where do you all think you'll lean to concerning style and genre? Melodic chick metal as above? Chick rock; Paramore, Fefe Dobson, The Donnas? Alternative rock; Garbage, The Cranberries? Emo?!??!?!?!?{probably not Emo, but I just thought I'd throw that in there.}
G.

[toejam]

Otep kicks ass! Karyn Crisis from the band Crisis is very good, too.

[neilli]

If you like the more rock n roll type metal, check out Crucified Barbara. I liked what I've heard - definite Motorhead influence in there.....