Music I Liked: Female Vocals

When this post publishes, I will be off-grid in the North Cascades, where I don’t have access to new music discoveries. Instead, this week I’m going to talk about a musical pet peeve. I have a few of them: I hate the word “platter” to describe an album. Likewise, “slab” is overused. But the one that really boils my blood is “female vocals.” Those of you on the indie side of the spectrum may not know what I’m talking about, but I bet the metalheads do.

What Metalheads Know

Platter and slab are stylistic preferences, but female vocals pisses me off because it’s BS. When metalheads read the words “female vocals” in a review, they instantly know that the writer is referring to a woman’s soaring soprano contrasted with a man’s aggressive singing style, usually a death growl. This style, pioneered by Theatre of Tragedy, is also described as “beauty and the beast vocals,” which I much prefer. “Beauty and the beast” actually describes what you are hearing. It evokes the complementary opposites of the fairy tale.

“Female vocals” does not describe the contrasting vocal styles that both oppose and complement one another in beauty and the beast vocals. It centers the aggressive masculine voice, making the soaring angelic vocal an “effect” rather than a critical element. This attitude seems to extend to the bands, who usually rely on guest vocalists or treat their female members as disposable.

Even when there is no contrasting aggressive vocal style, “female vocals” is used as if it means something. An entire genre of metal that relies on a soaring angelic vocal line for impact has no more useful descriptor than “female vocals.”

But of course the biggest problem with the term “female vocals” is that it presumes a single style of singing for all female vocalists. Which is ludicrous. Female vocalists are not synonymous with angelic voices, or even with clean singing. Women are fully capable of death growls, black metal shrieks, and rock-star grit. So here is a sampling of “female vocals” I like.

Myrkur

Get you a girl who can do both, amirite?

Witch Mountain

With a name like that, we can certainly look forward to Kayla Dixon’s female vocals. After all, only Iceland ha male witches. Everywhere else, only females were doomed to live on Witch Mountain.

Sleigh Bells

Like Agent Fresco, this indie band is heavy enough that some people describe Sleigh Bells as metal. They use clean “female vocals.” But Alexis Krauss is still not quite what most metal writers mean by female vocals.

Thunderpussy

It’s not metal. It’s technically clean singing. But there’s nothing hygienic about Molly Sides vocals for Thunderpussy.

Morgengrau

But let’s not stray too far from the paths where female vocals rule. How about some death metal from E. Morgengrau?

Light This City

Since “female vocals” all sound the same, it stands to reason that you either like them or you don’t. So I’m not sure why Laura Nichol’s female vocals for Light This City are more abrasive to me than some of the others. What do you think? Can you hear a difference?

Your Chance to Die

I first heard Som Pluijmers in Cerebral Bore and her vocals certainly bored a hole in my skull. After she left that band, I lost track of her. But here she is in Your Chance to Die.

Angist

I’ve been waiting a long time for a new recording from my favorite female vocalist, Angist’s Edda. I’ve heard new material at live shows, and the band as a whole has gotten much better than this old recording. But even this old thing will give you a concussion.