If anyone’s ever listened to Nightwish, you know what I mean. The lead singer has a very strong and fairly deep voice. She’s had formal training in opera. I’m looking for more female singers like that. I’ve been pointed towards Lacuna Coil and The Gathering, but they just don’t do it for me - they sound like the average pop singer with a very girly voice to me. Amy Lee is closer to what I’m looking for. I’m not looking for the typical R&B voice or Destiny’s Child or anything like that - I’d like to stay in the opera style voice vein of things.
Gosh, I really need to post something in Cafe Society that isn’t asking for music recs. :wally
I’m not into metal AT ALL, but I love Nightwish, in large part due to Tarja’s beautiful voice. And while I’m definitely not the target audience for Evanescence, I think Amy Lee has a tremendous set of pipes as well. (It doesn’t hurt that they’re both really pretty, too.)
Tori Amos definitely doesn’t perform music as “heavy” as those bands, but she has a very powerful voice, with lots of passion and intensity behind it. Her first three albums, Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, and Boys For Pele, are most people’s favorites. Some of her songs might be a bit light for you, but she really has a terrific voice–and her lyrics and music are very good too.
Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy has a strikingly powerful voice. (I think I’ve got Sir Rhosis beat on “not-what-the-OP-is-looking-for” with that one!)
More on topic, I’ve heard a few snippets of a band called Therion who incorporates a lot of opera in their otherwise heavy metal music. Their female voice is very much the opera style you’re thinking of, but they also have male, choral and death metal growls. Definitely edgier than Nightwish, but seems to have more “authentic” opera mixed in.
D
I think the best female voice in music nowadays is Neko Case. She doesn’t do opera, that I know of, but a great voice is a great voice. Her solo stuff is basically “y’allternative,” which I normally hate, but she just makes it work. Her album Blacklisted is one of the best I’ve ever heard, and “Lady Pilot” from that album is now one of my favorite songs ever. I’ve also heard one album from The New Pornographers, and the bits she sings are very good, but the music on the whole is basically forgettable IMO.
I LOVE Neko Case. I’m a huge fan, and I have all four of her albums, plus both New Pornographers albums. (Blacklisted is my favorite too.) I didn’t mention her only because she didn’t sound like what the OP had in mind, but she is wonderful.
Probably not the style you’re looking for, buthave you ever heard country singer Martina McBride? 5-foot-4, with one of the most powerful voices I’ve ever heard. Check out her very first song, Independence Day.
Oh, I got it. I counted it among her four releases, and I love it. As a happy surprise, it only contained one repeated song considering it was a live album (which are often cop-outs for artists to release, in lieu of new material). Neko rules.
When Janie ‘Bob’ Scott was still with The Bobs (an a cappella quartet), she sang lead on their cover of White Room. The recorded version is good, but in the live show her voice could lay waste to entire villages.
The voice you are looking for is Linda Eder. Get her album **It’s Time ** and give it a few listens. In terms of technique, range, emotion, power, artistry and talent… she just can’t be beat.
Try Concrete Blonde’s “Bloodletting.” Lead singer Johnette Napolitano has a growly deep powerful voice, and the entire record has this hard, angry undercurrent. It’s probably most famous for “Joey,” but the entire album is a keeper.
In the live arena, Heart (I forget which is usually the lead singer) has a very powerful, penetrating voice that nonetheless does not devolve into shrill screaming. But it doesn’t come across as well on their albums.