I know I’m going to catch a little hell for them lol.
But fuck me, Courtney with her ethereal clean vocals and bestial growls is a force. Thing is, it takes one fucking great band to hold up to a voice like that.
This is the first song I heard of theirs, though it was The one take version rather than the album/video version.
There’s a lot of female fronted bands doing the sing/scream combo now, but there aren’t many where the entire band is this solid. And, imo, none with the songwriting ability.
Tbh, most of the bands doing that seem like a gimmick rather than something that they really have passion for, and I think that’s the thing that makes spirit box work.
Eh. I think especially since Jinjer female screamers have become much more popular, both for fans and vocalists alike. Of course not everyone is going to be just as skilled but I wouldn't call their attempts a gimmick.
Also, what type of "jokes" were you expecting anyway?
The usual go-to is “but that’s not real metal” with some degree of exaggeration so that it’s obvious it’s not to be taken seriously. There’s the occasional “it’s okay, it’s great that there’s bands for little girls to like”, or some equivalent. And a personal favorite, “poseur /s”.
I tend to call it a gimmick when the way the sing/scream is done never serves individual songs. But, you’re right, it’s probably more of a difference in songwriting and arrangement than the band just trying to jump on the bandwagon. I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head because I tend to just move on without remembering anything other than the fact that it didn’t work (for me anyway).
I think female metal vocalists tend to hear that type of stuff generally a lot, regardless if they scream / growl or not. Though, while metal is pretty male dominated, I'd say the metal community overall is pretty welcoming and open, even if metalheads often tend to portray that stereotypical masculine type image when it comes to their style.
The other band that I can think of that has been around for a bit and is solid is Jinjer. They are more on the hardcore side but their lead singer Tati is very sweet and funny. And they have great music. The whole band is also very talented. Worth the listen!
Eh, they get the whole “that’s not real metal” thing sometimes. It’s usually a joke, but sometimes on certain sites, it can reach nigh incel levels of hate lol.
Probably good reason to bail from those sites TBH.
Until we make the transition to fully clean Abasi style clicking/thumping rhythms bring the gamma-generation’s idea of metal in the 2070s, anything with those guitar tones and/or those growls is automatically metal.
Just remember this, what is or isn’t metal grows almost every day, we have new genres and styles being birthed constantly, just because it’s not some dark fast and growly shit shouldn’t matter, especially when that stuff never even occurred to the originators of metal. The metal “purists” anong us are always the incel-ish douche nozzles who hold back the genre, good music is good music, just ignore the troglodytes and enjoy it.
Also these are the same people that bitch about betrayal from bands like Opeth and Mastodon and all of the other bands that started hard as fuck but now continue to evolve through switching from Death or technical death to progressive metal/rock, they’re still making fantastic music, they’re just better musicians now and don’t have to cover it up through the screaming, volume, and speed.
(Metallica is the main exception here, they’re devoling and every album sounds like their last four, please for the love of God Metallica give us another Master of Puppets or …And Justice for All before i die.)
Nothing! That’s the thing. I don’t really think anyone on this C/ would hate on this kind of band, though I did expect a few jokes. I’m just used to other forums, so I’m always ready for some flak lol. Tbh, I never fucking posted on most metal related forums because there’s usually that nasty little subset of people. But this C/ is metal heaven :)
I’m only a casual metal listener who only really started listening to metal via power metal, but most metalheads I come across seem to appreciate most of the subgenres/metal-adjacent music. I don’t care much for elitism in music either - I’d say a lot of metal fans are quite reasonable and open to new sounds.
I hope more people post some newer bands, so I can discover some new music :)
Yeah, overall metal heads are really cool about accepting that other people can like what they want. It’s a really tiny section that isn’t. Alas, the tiny section is loud lol.
More often than not, metal fans are more about introducing you to what they like, than bashing what you do.
Ain’t that the truth! That’s part of why I love metal as a genre. There’s a huge amount of diversity in the actual sound, so it never gets stale. Even bluegrass, which is probably my second most listened genre, can get a little samey sometimes, and that’s saying a lot.
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