Posting this here because the metal community seems to be entirely links to tracks and I’m not sure how well received this would be there. Also, I’m open to anything that goes more on the punk rock side of things. I like a little punk in my metal and a little metal in my punk (which is very subjective anyway).
Basically as the title says. I’m bored of my current selection of heavy music and looking for new stuff. To per-emptively get ahead of these answers: yes, I’ve heard Kittie, Nightwish and Arch Enemy before (actually haven’t listened to Kittie since the nu metal days and maybe I should check them out again).
Two bands that I have found in recent years that I absolutely love are:
In This Moment. They started out as pretty much straight metalcore but have a noticeable evolution with each album, to the point that the most recent album sounds like this. Evolution is something I appreciate in a band.
Butcher Babies. Just straight up chaotic. And good shit. And they’re even named after an old school punk song. Chaos and attitude is something I also appreciate in a band. Pity that one of the vocalists left though, having two vocalists was something that really set them apart.
Any other suggestions?
Edit: wasn’t expecting so many great suggestions here. I promise I’ll make my way through each post and suggestion here but it’s going to take time. In the mean time, thanks everyone. At this rate I’m going to have more than enough new (to me) stuff to listen to.
I got kinda (very) overwhelmed by this thread. I was expecting like 5 responses, so you thank you very much for all the suggestions. I have finally made a list from all of this and will be replacing just about my entire music rotation with everything here. Once I find my favourites, I’ll probably let you know some time in the future lol.
Thought I might as well drop some names that are already in my collection that I haven’t seen mentioned here, for the sake of anyone that might come past here in future. Including stuff that’s more on the alternative / hard rock side of things.
General Alternative / Rock:
- 4 Non Blondes
- Anneke van Giersbergen (singer of The Gathering)
Old School:
- Heart
- Janis Joplin
- Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees
Alternative because off-beat / weird:
- Portishead
- Tori Amos
- Björk
Punk:
- Destroy Boys (been on my list for a while, haven’t got around to listening to much yet)
- The Distillers
- Nekra (sadly they seem to only have a demo and this one EP: https://open.spotify.com/album/153G7zAHPl4hinlqhn1lvy)
Hard Rock / Grunge:
- DILLY DALLY
- Guano Apes
- Skunk Anansie
Heavy:
- Devilskin (band I discovered in New Zealand)
- Octavia Sperati (singer went on to do an album or two for The Gathering)
So female fronted metal is my jam. Your examples have a solid range, but here’s some of my picks:
- After Forever
- Beyond the Black
- Ad Infinitum
- Delain
- Within Temptation
- Unsun
- Cellar Darling (and earlier Eluveitie if you don’t mind male and female singers mixing)
- Amaranthe
- Stream of Passion
- Illumishade
- Lacuna Coil
- Leaves’ Eyes
- The Murder of My Sweet
You’ll find a ton of female fronted bands in what (I think) is referred to as "scandi-metal) (Sacndinavian Metal).
Check out Lovebites Lovebites - Holy War
Arkona, Kontrust, Genitorturers. All from quite different subgenres.
Have you tried hard techno? Check out Cassie Raptor
Not sure about the genre but I recently discovered Blackwater Holylight and I quite like them
Jenner, theyre a Serbian thrash metal band.
Along similar lines, System Divide, though I think they only had one album.
I only have a passing interest in metal, but I heard about this Indonesian Muslim all-female metal trio (Voice of Baceprot) a while back and was impressed when I watched the videos of them playing. It’s trippy to see them wearing hijabs and all while kicking ass playing metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v4728NJ7B8
Spiritbox and Conquer Divide!
More garage rock than metal/punk but the Pack AD is a lot of fun.
When I’m not yelling at clouds, I like Tsunami Bomb
Brothers of Metal (despite the name). If you’re into symphonic stuff, Epica and Beyond the Black are worth looking into. I also love Halestorm, but I think they’re somwhere between hard rock and heavy metal.
Brutus. Stefanie Mannaerts is the lead Singer and drummer. Simultaneously! She is absolutely amazing and has so much power in her Voice. My favorite Band of 2025.
The Gathering. Older but still good
Synlakross is pretty decent but it’s got both male and female vocals .
Castle Rat is a fantastic thrash metal band also (I think they’re thrash. All the subgenres get confusing)
