Chp 224. The Women in my Life!

I thought of calling this post – A tribute to women of Metal, but then, I know how unworthy I am to make such a humongous mammoth topic.

I don’t want to misguide metal fans all over the world into coming here hoping to find famous Metal women, only to find a few selective ones. Like how 90% of the visitors who came to my 2006 post "Underworld - 3"– a sardonic fiction I wrote about interracial relationships based on the movie, were actually looking for the official Movie review!

[In my defense, I had no idea they were going to make part 3 back then! And oh by the way, I went for the First Day First Show of "Underworld – Rise of the Lycans" on Friday, and it was AMAZINGGG, though a bit disappointed that it was only 80 minutes long. Do watch it in theatre if you’re a true Underworld fan… psst psst, yea I know, aXXo hasn’t released the divX rip yet ]

Hence in order to avoid messing with SEM, I call this post "The women in my life" - Women that I have deep (and a wee bit disturbing) crushes on these days.

A must read for Metal fans or those who want to experiment with new music.

I’ve already mentioned a couple of Symphonic Gothic babes in my post "Sweet Gothic Love" that covered some of the more popular bands like Epica, Sirenia, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Theatre of Tragedy, Tristania, After Forever, Within Temptation, Eden Bridge and Lullacry. This post is more about female vocalists that really really touched me (emotionally speaking ).




First of all, there is Doro.

Love her! Her music style nostalgically reminds me of those Alannah Myles "Black Velvet" and Joan Jett "I love rock and roll / I hate myself for loving you" days.



What I really love about Doro (formerly the vocalist of Warlock) is that her style is exactly like those 80s 90s rock style, and yet she is still able to pull it off even today. In fact, her most recent album was released just last month - Jan 30th (9 days ago!). The album’s called "Fear No Evil", where she paid a tribute to ROCK with her song "Celebrate" (my favorite song in this album).

We celebrate our love for Rock and Metal
We raise our heads as we salute
Tonight we share our love for Rock and Metal
There's nothing more we wanna do

Seriously, we all love that era but how many bands do you know that still play in that style? I can bet my metal-crazy ass anybody listening to this 2009 album would assume it’s a blast from the past. That’s why she is truly the queen of Metal.

Here is the official trailer of her new album, courtesy afmrecords



Enjoy!




Ok now, moving to a little bit more symphonic gothic metal, I give you – Sirenia!

Sirenia’s latest album featuring their new spanish vocalist Ailyn is a must buy, and is worth every penny. No offense to the former vocalists, but I really really love this new album and Ailyn delivered perfectly. Plus she is sooo cute!



Here is their official promo, courtesy Nuclear Blast Records:



See how difficult it is not to fall in love with her! That cute smile, that innocent laughter, that romantic accent, that childish giggle, and yet all those with such dark gothic aura… oooh boy, I am sooo in love!

Listen to these small samples I made of three of my fav songs from their latest album. They are of around 1 minute each only. Thank you dear Eve for showing me how to do this!

It’s just a sample so I hope I won’t get sued for this Plus hey, I am giving them more publicity, free of charge! Also hoping Google won’t delete my post!!! (I’ve always been a very good boy. I swear!)

Here is my favorite song from this album: "Led Astray" [1:02]



Here is another song entitled "The Mind Maelstorm" [1:00] with classic symphonic gothic Gregorian chants, a style that many other bands follow too.



Another song called "Beyond life’s scenery" [0:48], magnifying Ailyn’s alluring voice. If she was a sultry siren, I would gladly captain my ship straight to its rocky death just to listen to her fatal songs! [Refer Odysseus and Sinbad legends]



Now go buy the album before it’s out of stock!




Dark Moor.

Another great band, sometimes categorized as Power Metal. Although there are no female vocalists in the band currently, they still use a lot of female back-up vocals. I would love to see them hire a female frontwoman again. I miss you Elisa!!!



Here is my favorite song called "The Emperor" from their latest album "Tarot".



Also listen to "Devil in the tower" from this album if you buy it. It’s another great symphonic gothic song.




Dark Princess.

One of those symphonic gothic vocalists with a unique voice, the kind that seems to transport you across a serene river amidst time standing still, the kind that gives you an out of body experience as the song transports you to an unblemished Paradise. Meet Olga Romanov, vocalist of the band "Dark Princess".



See if you like her style of songs. This one is called "Living in me".






Battlelore.

A very unique gothic and folk metal band. All their songs are based on J.R.R.Tolkien’s Middle Earth! If you’re a fan of his books or the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and into symphonic Metal, then you are bound to love this band! (They also sing a couple of death metal, which I personally don’t like coz I’m not into that genre. But I love their other songs.)

Another thing very unique about this Finnish gothic band – their vocalist Kaisa is an Indonesian! - Something that you usually don’t see in these kinda bands. And boy do I loveeee her clear pristine voice!



Although their latest album "The Last Alliance" was released last year, I haven’t laid my hands on it yet, so I will talk about my two favorite songs from their album "Third Age of the Sun".

Elves of Lúva – A slow melodic song about the Elves. It has a very raw appeal, and there is a slight North-eastern accent in her English (!) which makes me love this song even more! Feels like one of our local celebrities singing it.




Valier - Queens of the Valar. My favorite song from this album. Listen to the sample [1:08] and you will know why it is my favorite.



You can also listen to the complete song here.




Next on my list is… Tarja Turunen!

First of all, most of you must be knowing Alice Cooper right?

Yeah that famous 70s to 90s Glam Rock band many of us grew up listening to. "Poison" is undoubtedly their most famous song (seriously which Mizo of that era can ever forget "one look, two look, three look, four look" !!! )

Well, my deep crush for the past 5 years Tarja Turunen (ex-frontwoman of Nightwish) came out with her first studio solo album called "My Winter Storm" in 2007 and did a cover of "Poison", which I must admit is freaking awesome.



Here is a slide-show of the song "Poison" by Tarja, courtesy nikoletka2525



For my Mizo visitors, well the other night I was having a discussion with some of my friends – which Mizo pop icon could pull this song off like how Tarja did? We shortlisted the vocalists to two finalists – Mami Varte and Tetei Ralte.



Please feel free to vote! Listen to Tarja’s version and tell me who would "fit" her voice better.








And to end this post… how can I talk about Tarja Turunen and not talk about her former band Nightwish?

Meet Anette Olzon, the new Nightwish vocalist.



The internet community is still deeply divided between who is better, Tarja or Annette. Well, I will not give my opinion, because I love them both and I think they are not comparable as they have different styles. You be the judge, my friend.

Below are two music videos from Nightwish’s latest album featuring Anette: Dark Passion Play [2007] courtesy Nuclear Blast Records.

Bye Bye Beautiful:



Amaranth:



So do YOU think Anette Olzon is better/equal/worse compared to Tarja Turunen? When she joined Nightwish, she must have known that she had some pretty big shoes high-heels to fill. Do you think she managed to fill it?

Cheers, and rock on!!!

If you like this post or you’re a fan of Doro or gothic metal bands like Nightwish, Sirenia, or you’re deeply in love with Ailyn, Tarja etc, feel free to digg!