Female Fronted Metalcore Bands

After weeks of writing blog posts on upcoming metalcore bands to be on the lookout for, there's been something missing from these posts that I finally realized what it was just a few days ago, females. There are SO many great metalcore bands out there that are fronted by a female, or in a case you'll see later are all female. So to make up for my stupidity of not covering one of these bands sooner, I'm going to talk about three different bands here that should be under your radar. So sit back and get ready to bang your head to some sick female fronted metalcore bands!

Red Handed Denial

First up let's look at Red Handed Denial. This independent band based from Toronto, Ontario has been active since 2008. Since then, they have released a total of two EPs and one full length, all independently and self released. So while they've been around for quite some time, they still haven't hit it big which is honestly something that's very disappointing. These guys are so far from generic, their music is very unique and doesn't sound like any generic metalcore band. On top of that, vocalist Lauren Babic brings bone chilling clean vocals and heavy screams to the table to round out this fantastic and young quintet. While Babic mostly uses cleans, I feel that she does an excellent job of combining in her screamed parts in their music as well. And even in the songs where she relies more on her cleans, it's still super catchy and the tunes will be left stuck in your head and you'll find yourself humming it for the next few days. Their progressive metal style with their strings really goes well with Lauren's vocals. I've listened to their 2016 EP, titled Wanderer, the most and this album posses a perfect combination of heavy and slower or more soothing elements that are common in the progressive metal genre. The album finishes off with an instrumental song that really brings the album to a breathtaking and phenomenal end to an album that you just don't want to end. I can't wait to hear more from these guys in the coming years! Here's hoping they can make their first U.S. tour soon!!


Collector, taken from their EP titled Wanderer.

Oathbreaker

If you're looking for a unique band that sounds like Defeater, Converge, Deafhaven, Touche Amore, and so many more bands, then look no further than the Belgian metal band Oathbreaker. These guys aren't particularly related to just one subgenre of metal, and because of that I felt the need to really highlight these guys's work. Their unique sound has been known to be as hard hitting as your average hardcore band with the combination of Caro's unique high pitched screams that have been compared to the sound of Converge's screams and have also been described as a combination of black metal shrieks mixed with some screamo. Another unique aspect of Oathbreaker is the length of their songs, which not always but most songs on an album are typically at least 5 minutes long. And while most people might think that makes the songs drag on, they do an amazing job of staying consistent on changing up styles during songs and making these lengthy songs seem like a breeze to get through. Another, little more popular comparison would be to Silent Circus era of Between the Buried and Me, at least that's the kind of vibe I get from a few of their songs.   

Glimpse of the Unseen comes from Oathbreaker's debut album from 2011. This is an excellent example of their lengthy song style that they do an amazing job of pulling off.

Conquer Divide

Finally, let's take a look at the all female band Conquer Divide. With a little over a million views for their music video for Nightmares, these ladies are the most popular band that I'm presenting in this post, but they are still very important in being presented here not only because they're an all female band but there's also really great too of course! They utilize two different singers, one screamer and one clean vocalist, something that's very common for bands to do of course. Something unique about Conquer Divide is that the members are from three different countries: U.S., U.K., and Serbia. They formed in 2012 and have only released one album that came out in 2015 and two singles that weren't featured on their sole album. So these guys are pretty new if you can't tell, and the fact they have over a million views on a music video despite not having any previous releases. That fast impact they made was definitely more than deserving as they are a great hard and heavy hitting band with the usage of some powerful screams by Janel Duarte and beautifully sung cleans by Kiarely Castillo. Conquer Divide is the ultimate example that metal and heavy music can most definitely be done by females, and better yet can most definitely be done much better than most guys. 

Nightmares is Conquer Divide's million view video and rightfully so as it shows off what they're capable of. It's heavy, it's dark, and most of all it's catchy.


Hopefully this has given you a nice preview to just a few of the many great female fronted bands that are out there in the world of metalcore! If you're new to this genre, some really popular bands I didn't mention due to their already high recognition and experience are: The Agonist, Abnormality, Jinjer, Eyes Set to Kill, Light This City (no longer together), and so many more from there!

Forevermore

Forevermore is a Christian metalcore act that formed in 2009. Despite their experience, they still haven't quite made it big. Despite this, since their inception they've released four full length albums and 1 EP. Those full lengths released in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 respectively, with the latter two being released under Solid State Records (same record label as Silent Planet as well as a whole handful of other bigger named bands). The first two albums and their EP were self released. Honestly, I'm very surprised that these guys still haven't made a bigger following yet. I remember first looking them up my junior year of high school when it was announced that they had signed to Solid State so I figured I'd give them a listen and I was very impressed and thought that they would be big in the next few years. To my surprise though, they have not. But there's still hope that they will in the next few years.

Their style is very unique. Their releases in the years prior to being signed are all very different from their sound now. They still keep the heavy hitting sound, but they've been slowly transitioning into a little slower and a more progressive sound with each release, at least that's how I would go about describing it so I might be wrong. Regardless, Forevermore have always had a unique sound that has just gotten more and more unique with each new album they've put out thus far. Their original vocalist, Jordan Furr, left after their second album, but their new vocalist, Kramer Lowe, has been doing an excellent job of keeping the progressing progressive sound of the band. Not only that, the band is extremely fascinated with the theory of Spiral Dynamics and even tackled this theory and made a concept album centered around it. That album was their 2016 release, Integral. I won't waste your time explaining the theory (mainly because it's really complex and would take too long for me to explain) but just know that not only is their sound a very sophisticated, and deeper sound than you usually hear from a generic metal band, but even their lyrics and themes tackle sophisticated concepts as well. Whether they stick to a sort of progressive sound or switch things up, or if they keep it up with tackling a complex theory in the form of another concept album or not, expect some new stuff from them in the coming year or so. And don't let their small fan base fool you, these guys are more than deserving of some more recognition.


Moths and Rust, is off of Forevermore's 2010 debut album with the same name.


Nascent is off of their latest album Integral. I decided to show off two songs from them to show their progression as a band and to show off the two vocalists that have graced this band.

Polaris

To celebrate the release of their debut full length album titled The Mortal Coil, today's blog post is over Polaris! Australian metalcore has been a reoccurring theme for this blog, mainly because it seems that Australia knows how to do metal properly, and Polaris is no different from that trend! Polaris was formed in 2012, releasing their first EP in 2013, their second EP in 2016, and now their first full length yesterday! The first two EPs were self released, but they caught the eye of Resist Records after the release of their last EP and signed with them just earlier this year. They're also signed to Sharptone Records in the U.S. and U.K. which is also the record label for big name bands such as Miss May I, We Came as Romans, and Emmure, just to name a few. Previously, Polaris has been very popular for their high octane, high energy onstage performances which has been what has catapulted them to the following that they have today. They've toured with some big name bands such as Parkway Drive, Periphery, and are even currently touring the U.K. with Emmure and Chelsea Grin. So the fact that they've caught the eyes of all these big name bands and a big name record label with just releasing 2 EPs previously, that says a lot about these guys are and the places that they'll go.

Another trend that they follow that's been another reoccurring theme is they're another progressive band. What makes them different though? Well, I wouldn't really say that progressive is their main focus, but they definitely infuse a lot of progressive metal melodies and grooves in some of their music. They do an excellent job of mixing those progressive metal grooves in with some fast paced and heavy hitting metalcore. It's honestly tough for me to pick on the question of if they're heavier than Erra because Erra is definitely still heavy but these guys really remind me of an early era of Erra. I do think that Polaris is a little faster paced though which is excellent because the faster the tempo the better, in my opinion anyways. Regardless though, Polaris is a very young band that's gotten quite the following in just the few years of their activity, so you better keep them on your radar of breakthrough bands because I guarantee they're going to be playing a lot more headlining shows in the years to come!


Here's The Remedy, one of the singles Polaris released for their brand new album that's out now!