Erica's Top Metal Voice pick so far
 

Thanks for the links and information about female metal vocalists. After listening to them and some of the previous artists you mention, I would have to say so far my ranking would be (drum roll)...

(1) JIMMY RYAN. Reason: versatility. In "Trenches" he uses a moody singing voice, and I like his tone better than some of the other men's, yet he also does screaming and (in the previous song posted) growling. One complaint I have with some of the metal songs in general that use growling is that the singer growls the whole way through. I like the contrast between traditional singing and growling or screaming (although I do worry about them hurting their voices!).

I'll have to listen to more people so I have more to compare to, though.

(2) ANGELA GASSOW. Although the songs I listened to only had her growling, she did it well and her animated and intense theatrics during the pieces probably biased me in her favor.

I thought it was interesting that I can't hear any difference in tone between men or women when they growl. This actually makes me think that a woman could produce metal songs that have more variety than a man could, since she could do chilling pseudo-sweet sounding higher tunes (angelic) and then plunge into demonic-sounding growling, which produces a startle factor that men have a harder time achieving, I feel (although a man could do falsetto, but it doesn't sound the same). It is pleasant to see women who are *not* trying to be sweet or cute, which I feel is a "role" that women singers (and female people, in general) play all too often (pressured by society to do so).

The song "Code of Honor" by Deadlock, for example, amused me because in it the woman is singing a sort of melodic goth-type song in some cute pseudo middle ages type dress while sweetly strolling through some meadow, while the man growls the whole time in a singing/growling duet. The separation along traditional gender lines (woman sweet, lovely, etc. and man tough, harsh, etc.) made a song that to me seemed too stereotypical for what I guess I imagine metal to be, which is songs that violate traditional rules of what "good" singing (and "good" music) is.

--Erica

In my opinion, the best female metal vocalist is by far Annlouice Loegdlund from Diablo Swing Orchestra. However, she doesn't growl or anything so it's a bit different. In fact, most of her vocals are operatic.

Obviously, the best metal vocalist is Katy Perry :P

Im glad you liked Jimmy's vocals. If you want to hear more singing along side his growls you can check out Haste The Day's 'When Everything Falls' album. Which I have if you would want.

Not to be pedantic but technically it's Angela GOssow. Glad you liked her though. :)

3:

Bruce ****inson
Rob Halford
Dio

It has to be the guy from Godsmack. i forgot his name but he's pretty crazy =P

then you should be mentioning Layne Staley from Alice in Chains, seeing as Godsmack's vocalist is basically ripping him off

Mitch Lucker. I think He's pretty good, although the band sucks. What about the vocalist for War From a Harlot's Mouth?

Lars hasn't been on a single album yet. Do you mean Christian [insert last name here, I forget what it is], who was the fantastic vocalist on all of Scar Symmetry's albums so far?

For me it's:
Christian ______ (Scar Symmetry)
Rody Walker (Protest the Hero)
Thomas Rogers Jr. (BTBAM)