In the realm of epic/symphonic metal you probably can't throw a stone without hitting an amazing female vocalist. Simone Simons from Epica, Nightwish's Floor Jansen, Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), and Zora Cock for Blackbrariar are the first that come to mind.

For folk metal there's Eluveitie with two members and Folkstone with I think one.

Very worth mentioning is Alyssa and her harsh vocals, from Arch Enemy.

While she's not been a member in a long while, I have to mention Vibeke Stene as the vocalist from Tristania, maybe my all time favorite.

For all female bands there's Girlschool, and you could say Babymetal, even if they have more members playing with them I don't know how permanent they are.

Others that I know of but haven't really listened much by would be Jinjer and Halestorm.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head, but there's so much more.

Edit: I almost forgot but I have to add: Amy Lee from Evanescence and Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil.

Jinjer is pretty badass. The vocals are top notch in both ends of the spectrum.

Spiritbox

Jinjer

Make Them Suffer

Arch Enemy

Lucrecia

Poppy

Within Temptation

Babymetal

Harper

Those are the ones I listen to, in no particular order

Babymetal comes to mind, but I also want to shout out Sandra Nasić of the Guano Apes for her appearance on Apocalyptica's Path Vol. 2. Also highschool me would kill me if I didn't mention Nightwish. Tarja Turenen was a formative part of my music taste, and 10th man Down, Kinslayer, Dead Gardens, and Creek Mary's Blood all still sit in my favorites list

Jinger band with Tatiana Shmayluk as vocalist is crazy good.

Some of my favorites are:

Delain (who I'm seeing live tonight!)

Nightwish

Xandria

Epica

Jinjer

Arch Enemy

The Agonist

Crypta

Blackbriar

Cellar Darling

Butcher Babies

Spiritbox

Eleine

In This Moment

Nervosa

Frantic Amber

Within Temptation

Infected Rain

Kittie was a favorite of mine back in high school. Haven't listened in a while but I know what I'm listening to today

Feminazgul and Oathbreaker

Otep and Kittie are awesome.

Symphonic epic folk metal with female singers is my jams

• Grai - Russian pagan / folk metal
• Folterkammer - Operatic / symphonic black metal
• Draconian - Swedish doom / goth metal
• Messa - Scarlet Doom metal
• Wardruna - Nordic folk metal

Closet Witch

Sylvaine

Frayle

Cellar Darling

Tristania

After Forever

Just to name a handful off the top of my head.

Arch Enemy is another one.

Doomsday Machine (https://tidal.com/album/51971329?u) great album.

Outside of some other bands that other users have already mentioned, one band I'm aware of is a Swedish metal band called All Ends. It's been a while since I've listened to them but I know about them because the lead singer worked with Crush 40 for the final boss theme from Sonic and the Black Knight.

There are some other bands that I'm going to mention but they don't exclusively make metal (or at least I think, I haven't heard all of their music yet). And yes, they are all bands who make remixes of music from the Touhou games, which their is probably more artists I could mention but I have either forgotten them or just haven't listened to them yet.

The Other Flower, I almost forgot about this artist, Karma is great example of their music.

Akatsuki Records, Bloody Devotion is a great example of their music.

Undead Corporation, The Dream Of A Rabbit Singing In The Night is a good example of their music but I know that they do have music that is much "heavier".

Get In The Ring, while the title says it's "rock" despite the fact that it's clearly metal, 祭炎 is a good example of their music.

Sound Holic, because I don't use Spotify anymore, I have forgotten what the best example would be. The song I've been listening to the most that is at least partially metal is Grip & Break down.

A-One, while I know that they are primarily a eurobeat artist, they often mix other genres into their music. An example of a song that mixes metal with eurobeat is God Only knows, which is from Initial D the Arcade (2021).

There is one more that I want to mention but I don't know if the example I have is "heavy" enough to be considered metal or if it's just "orchestral rock". It's 蒼月の懺悔詩～Universal Nemesis by Yonder Voice. They might have heavier but as I stated earlier, I haven't heard all of their music yet.

Oh man, right now it's Spirit Box, the Warning, Castle Rat, Crypta, Lizzies, and of course Unleash the Archers. Eleine can't be forgotten, even though they're not in heavy rotation for me. Kittie is in that same range where their most recent album is just old enough that it's fallen out of heavy rotation for me

If you wanna step to more of a hard rock end of things, Halestorm is awesome.

If you consider Linkin Park in the same category, Emily has been killing it (but any asshat that whines at me about that is just getting blocked because it was a stupid fucking thing to begin with), so they would deserve a mention even though they aren't historically a female fronted band, and folks love to argue about them being metal at all.

Going back, Lita Ford rode the line between hard rock and metal, as did Joan Jett. Both from the Runaways which was the all girl hard rock band. Vixen may have been better barely hard rock, but they deserve more respect than they get.

That's just the stuff that's in my main playlist of harder rock and metal right now. There's a ton of great bands out there that are woman led.

And hell, you can't really talk about that without at least giving a nod to Doro Pesch, and even Wendy O. They stand out among some of the earlier examples

But, right now, there's so many good to great bands that are female led, or even all women. It's an embarrassment of riches.

Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil. Does Blackmore's Night count? Actually, I don't know if any of these technically count as metal. But I like them anyway.

UNLEASH THE ARCHERS. By far my favorite band.

Gotta mention Spiritbox. Courtney is one of the most celebrated modern metalcore singers.

Visions Of Atlantis has two singers, male and female, with the female being the lead. I forget their names, and I know a quick google search would tell me, but I'm having trouble balancing this message and the steering wheel, plus this bowl of soup is REALLY hot.

I'll just post one since I've not seen it here yet. Sorry If I missed it.

Future Static, Roach Queen is a top song

Such a small woman with a massive voice. I'd never heard of them until I was watching Electric Call Boy in Perth Australia and they were one of the openers.

Lots of great bands here already, and some new to me! One of my favorites I haven't seen here is Spiritbox... Courtney Laplante reminds me of Angela Gossow and Tatiana Shmayluk, she has the nice clean vocals as well as the super gutteral growl.

https://youtu.be/vVDXTFeGYwc

My bits:

Amaranthe

Angtoria

Cinnamon Babe

Dorothy

Nightwish

Venus 5

I discovered Brutus a few weeks ago. Stefanie Mannaerts is the vocalist and plays the drums simultaneously. The power in her voice while smashing the hell out of her drums... incredible. I was blown away when I saw a Video of her performance and realized it. What Have We Done is probably my favorite.

Acid King

Witch Mountain

SubRosa

Bloody Panda

Couch Slut (more hardcore/noise)

Nightwish.

Favorite release: Once (https://tidal.com/album/186100020?u)

If you like Doom Metal you have to listen to Witch Mountain.

Singers:

Amanda Somerville (Trillum, Exit Eden, Kiske/Somerville)

Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion, Mayan, Dark horse/White horse)

Bands:

Kobra and the Lotus - Heavy Rock

Stream of Passion - Progressive Metal

Tardigrade Inferno - Cabaret Metal

Volturian - Symphonic/Pop Metal

In This Moment

I used to love them when I was little, then forgot about them for a decade. They've only improved over time.

Stolen Babies is a long time favorite too, I love Dominique Persi

Theatres des Vampires is also fun

The Birthday Massacre of course

CASTLE RAT

Wargasm for your limp bizkit nu metal riffs without the rapping. Currently putting out quality too

Unleash the Archers, many good ones but I really like the album Apex and especially Shadow Guide and The Matriarch

A Sound of Thunder, Queen of hell and A Sound of Thunder might be my favorites but many greats imo

Number 1 would have to be:

• Triosphere (prog/power?). Ida is utterly amazing.

Some others I didn't see in this thread are:

• Ebony Ark (prog/power)
• To Mera (prog)
• Without Face (prog/goth metal?)
• Mystik (speed)

Late to the party but my recommendation is Oceans of Slumber

TL/DR: Elena Siegman’s vocals for the Call of Duty: Zombies soundtracks are some of my favorite metal vocals ever.

Not that Call of Duty needs more publicity obviously, but I love the story of how Kevin Sherwood and Elena Siegman got to be the names they are today behind the CoD: Zombies metal soundtrack.

Basically they were both audio engineers working on CoD: World at War and when it was decided (late into crunch time) that Zombies would be a featured bonus mode in the game, the directors wanted to add musical easter eggs into each of the maps, both the one planned for release and the 3 expansions.

Sherwood and Siegman got to work on writing the music and recording vocals respectively, but it wasn’t until they were working on the 3rd song that Sherwood decided they really ought to have some harsh, metal vocals in their metal soundtrack. He asked Siegman how they could manage that and if they would need distortion, and Siegman was like “I’ve never tried harsh vocals before, but I’m game.”

Thus, Beauty of Annihilation was born. Fast forward to later games and Siegman is a fan favorite element of the CoDZ series. My personal favorites are BoA, Coming Home, and Pareidolia

The Breeders kicked fucking ass - Kim Deal went on to form the Pixies but her first project is absolutely worth a listen as well.

Fuck yeah Crypta. Fernanda has a monstrous stage presence.

Sadly I just read that Jéssica di Falchi (guitar) left the band the other day.

Julie Christmas is a personal favorite.

The Battle of Mice records are harrowing (content warning for DV). Made Out of Babies was incredible as well. Same for her work with Cult of Luna. Some really, really unique vocals there.

My personal favorite is the Spylacopa Self Titled record. That album was a great blending of styles and guest artists, but Julie's work stands out.

Maria Brink and In This Moment

Arkona - the best folk metal Hulder - great black metal

I’ll be seeing Arkona again in < two weeks!