Monday, February 14, 2011

FEMALE-FRONTED ROCK BANDS YOU NEED TO KNOW (part 1)


These bands are only based in my mp3 that I usually listen when I was bored or tired from my school responsibilities and household chores.  Most of them are Christian rock, hard rock and metal which are my favorite sounds for the past two years.  Funny that I started listening to acoustic songs and pop when I was in elementary years then alternative rock, punk & pop rock, in my high school years then in my 1st year in university was pop punk and punk rock too.  Then today my taste of music is much solid and louder, the noisier the better.  I hope you enjoy reading my simple reviews of different bands that are active today.


ADDISON ROAD

- This five-piece Christian pop rock band is one of the “most played” in my mp3 playlist.  I love the lyrics of their songs.  It’s all about life and love with God.  I love the singing ability of Jenny Simmons.  Some of their songs are Christian alt-rock (Who I am In You, Sticking with You, Casualties) but some are Christian pop (My Story, Where It All Begins, All That Matters).  Their songs are kind of mainstream and radio-friendly that’s why they albums reached in Billboards 200.  “Fight Another Day” is quite similar to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” and “Where It All Begins” sounds like The Click Five.
TOP PICKS: Sticking with You, Change in the Making, Always Love, Fight Another Day


FIREFLIGHT
- This band is my all time favorite since I’ve heard their song “Unbreakable” on the radio when I was 4th year high school.  They hit the mainstream success when they release their album “Unbreakable” on 2008.  Honestly, their Unbreakable album is my favorite although all of their albums rocks hard.  This is the first Christian hard rock band I’ve heard which has female lead vocals.  Dawn Michele can really sing even its rock or ballad songs (Wrapped In Your Arms, Forever, Name, All I Need To Be) fast or slow tempos.  She’s my favorite vocalist.  In terms of songwriting, their lyrics all about God and living with faith of Him.  My favorite songs off their album Unbreakable are You Gave Me A Promise and Wrapped In Your Arms and off their album “For Those Who Wait”: New Perspective, Core of My Addiction have a catchy chorus that will stuck in your mind after hearing those songs, and For Those Who Wait (about struggles in life that in the end there is a reward waiting for you, just believe in Him).  There are songs that feature Justin Cox’s screaming vocals like “Call”, “Serenity” and “Liar.”  All in all, this band will have more accomplishments for their future album releases.
TOP PICKS: For Those Who Wait, You Gave Me A Promise, Wrapped In Your Arms, It’s You, Core of my Addiction


EYES SET TO KILL
- This band is the only post-hardcore band that is in my mp3.  Honestly, I’am avoiding to pick post-hardcore bands because of genre issues but this caught my attention.  The reason why I pick this band is because of siblings Alexia and Anissa Rodriguez.  With their new screamer Cisko Miranda, their music somewhat expand to post-hardcore to metalcore.  For me Cisko is a better screamer than former member Brandon Anderson.  I love the alteration of screaming and clean vocals, Cisko in verses and Alexia in chorus.  I never thought that they had a former female vocalist until I watch their video “Liar in the Glass”.  Lindsey Vogt was the clean vocals while Alexia is their rhythm guitarist.  They had an EP where Lindsey sung.  In their debut album “Reach”, Alexia took the clean vocals because of Lindsey’s departure from the band.  Aside from songs with screams, there are only songs that Alexia sings like The World Outside, Ryan, Give You My All, Come Home and Ticking Bombs.  If you want metal songs, Broken Frames, All You Ever Knew, Heights, Deadly Weapons and Falling Fast will satisfy your taste.  Like what Alexia said in their interview about the songwriting, the themes are about brokenness and pain that she felt from past relationships.
TOP PICKS: Reach, Falling Fast, The World Outside, Broken Frames, All You Ever Knew

 
BARLOW GIRL
- Another Christian pop rock band consists of sisters Alyssa, Lauren and Becca Barlow.  They released 3 albums and 1 compilation album.  All the releases are successful and their singles stayed at Christian radios for many weeks.  Their sound ranges to rock, “Never Alone”, “The Guy Song”, “Psalm 73(My God’s Enough)”, “Million Voices”, pop rock like “Average Girl”, “Clothes”, “Enough”, piano ballads “Here’s My Life”, “I Believe In Love”, “Porcelain Heart”, to songs that are violin-influenced like “Sing Me a Love Song”, and “Song for a Broken”.  Of course, their theme is religious.  Alyssa sings most of their songs but there are some that Lauren sings while Becca is their backing vocals (try to search Wikipedia for the songs!!!).
TOP PICKS: Beautiful Ending, I Need You To Love Me, Enough, Grey

  • Alyssa Barlow – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards
  • Becca Barlow – backing vocals, guitars
  • Lauren Barlow – vocals, drums

LACUNA COIL
- A gothic metal band fronted by Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro is one of the well-known gothic metal bands as of today.  Since they had release their album “Karmacode”, they become so successful.  Many reviews said that their recent album “Shallow Life” is less gothic and more on hard rock and alt-metal.  Listen to their songs “Spellbound”, “I Won’t Tell You”, “Not Enough” and “I Like It” that proves to hit the mainstream but there are sounds that are gothic like “The Pain”, “Shallow Life” and “Unchained”.  As of singing vocals, Cristina and Andrea match their voices to their songs.  There are songs that Andrea on verses and Cristina on chorus and vice versa while there are some songs that only Cristina sings.  They sound dark most likely in their past albums but on their recent album, it’s less dark and more mainstream.  Thanks for the Revolver Mag for featuring Cristina Scabbia on their Hottest Chick in Metal and even become the winner on 2007 that this helped the band to gain more fans.
TOP PICKS: Spellbound, I Won’t Tell You, Not Enough, Closer, I Like It


THE AGONIST
- Melodic death metal or deathcore bands doesn’t call my attention at all because of so noisy guitar riffs and exploding drum beats with growling vocals all the time but with Annisa White-Gluz as their vocalist made me pick this band.  She had featured for Revolvers Hottest Chick in Metal and she is pretty.  Most of their songs are all about moral concerns such as animal rights, societal dilemmas, and the state of the world (thanks to Wikipedia!).You can’t even imagine that she can growl like hell.
TOP PICKS: Thank You Pain

  • Alissa White-Gluz - lead vocals
  • Danny Mariano - guitars
  • Chris Kells - bass, backing vocals
  • Simon Mckay - drums
 
EVANESCENCE
- Grammy-award winning gothic rock band (Best New Artist, Best Hard Rock Performance) make them so much famous today.  By the release of Fallen album, it went triple platinum in U.S. and reached #3 on Billboards 200.  Their song Bring Me To Life and My Immortal were their most famous songs of the album.  Ben Moody is the main songwriter of the album but for their sophomore album "The Open Door", it was Amy Lee.  Ben Moody left the band because of musical/songwriting problems.  Lee said on the interview for their second album that he(Moody) wanted to do a song like My Immortal again and to come up a pop rock album.  He always  wanted to earn huge sales.  In contrast to her, she wants to do more dark songs and explore their sound that she doesn't think about the sales.  So in the end, Ben left the band with hatred.  Singles from "The Open Door" album "Call Me When You're Sober", and "Sweet Sacrifice" rocks hard even though its sales is lower than "Fallen".  After many years, it took many changes form them like almost all of the original members left the band making Amy Lee the original member left.  They will be releasing their third album this 2011 but I don't know the exact release date and its gonna be a rock album with electronic sound mix.
TOP PICKS: Bring Me To Life, Call Me When You're Sober, Sweet Sacrifice
  • Amy Lee - vocals
  • Terry Balsamo - lead guitar
  • Tim McCord - bass
  • Will Hunt - drums


HALESTORM
- Hard rock band which consists of original members and siblings Elizabeth “Lzzy” Hale and Arejay Hale, Joe Hottinger, and Josh Smith.  All of their songs are very nice to hear, blending alt-metal and hard rock sound that fits the angst vocals of Lzzy Hale.  This band started in 1990s with the Hale family: Lzzy, Arejay, and their Dad for bass guitar.  The band started when Lzzy was just 13 years old.  For almost more than 15 years of existence, they have only release one EP and one studio album.  Honestly, their album have the combination of hard rock (I Get Off, It’s Not You, Innocence), alternative metal (Love/Hate Heartbreak, What Were You Expecting) to softer ballads (I’m Not An Angel, Rose In December) and something like “Evanescence” sound (Familiar Taste of Poison).  They also have sexy themes like Dirty Work and Dirty Mind to gain more male fans.
TOP PICKS: Bet U Wish U Had Me Back, I’m Not An Angel, Love/Hate Heartbreak

  • Lzzy Hale - vocals, guitar, keyboard
  • Arejay Hale - drums, percussion, backing vocals
  • Joe Hottinger - guitar, backing vocals
  • Josh Smith - bass guitar, backing vocals

WALLS OF JERICHO
- Another female-fronted Melodic Death Metal band.  Of course most of their songs are screaming but on their EP album which Corey Taylor of Slipknot/Stone Sour produced, they have shared their acoustic side.
TOP PICKS:


IN THIS MOMENT
- This metalcore band was the first band I’ve been listening when I started to listen to metal songs.  I love their tune, so solid with strong guitar riffs and heart pounding drum beats which is visible on their first album “Beautiful Tragedy”.  Maria Brink screams to the highest level but there are some songs that are slow.  In their sophomore album “The Dream”, they set aside their metalcore style and got started to hard rock.  It features Maria’s clean vocals and in this album, most of their songs are catchy like their singles Forever and Call Me (Blondie cover).  I also like their song Violet Skies because it has positive and encouraging lyrics.  For their recent third album “A Star-Crossed Wasteland which features Gunshow and The Promise as their singles, it proves that they are back to their original style.  The Promise which features Adrian Patrick of the band Otherwise is my most played song in their 3rd album.  I love the alteration of screaming and clean vocals of Brink and Patrick.
TOP PICKS: The Promise, Violet Skies, Beautiful Tragedy, Prayers, Forever
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