Mar 102016
 

Izegrim-The Ferryman's End

 

When I come across an album that’s adorned by an Eliran Kantor painting, that’s a very good sign. It tends to signify attention to detail and pride in craftsmanship, not only in the packaging but usually in the music. Of course, it’s no guarantee of metal quality, but in the case of Izegrim‘s new album The Ferryman’s End, the audio and the visual art are a fine match.

The new album, which is Izegrim‘s fifth, is due for release on April 15 by Listenable Records, and today we bring you a new song to sample — a track called “Reclaim My Identity”. Continue reading »

Feb 082012
 

Let’s be honest: women vocalists in extreme metal are still a curiosity. I’m referring to women whose vocals range from bestial growls to blood-curdling shrieks, not the ones who sing pretty in folk metal bands or outfits like Nightwish and Epica. Of course, as soon as you step outside the extreme-metal-loving world, dudes who sing harsh are curiosities, too. Fuck, in that outside world, so are all of us. But within our world, it’s the female growlers who are the novelties.

What makes them a curiosity isn’t that they can do it well, it’s that they can do it at all. And so some fans get overly excited about women vocalists whose vocals really aren’t all that great. On the other hand, because metal is a male-dominated culture, good female vocalists are also the victims of prejudice — the kind of judgmental pomposity that proclaims there’s no place for a woman in the front of an extreme metal band. Consider those two phenomena together and you reach the conclusion that it’s damned tough for a woman’s vocals to be considered for what they are, on the merits, divorced from who’s delivering them.

Maybe the day will arrive when everyone becomes gender-blind in judging metal vocalists, but human biology and male-female relationships being what they are, I doubt it. Fuck, I’m as susceptible to the curiosity effect as anyone else. Why else do you think I’m writing this post?

What I’ve collected here are four new songs or videos by female-fronted extreme metal bands: Landmine Marathon (U.S.), Wykked Wytch (U.S.), and Izegrim (The Netherlands). Continue reading »