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[miko2]

Today's Song: Blind by Hydrogyn

There are so many many many female-fronted metal bands out there these days. It's become a huge trend in Europe. I read a review that said a few years ago the big metal trends were American metalcore bands (Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, As I Lay Dying, Underoath, Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Lamb of God, Still Remains, Trivium, Poison the Well, Darkest Hour, All that Remains, etc) and European death metal (also too many bands to really name). But female-fronted goth and symphonic metal on the lines of Nightwish, Leaves Eyes, Within Temptation, Epica and After Forever has become huge in Europe just in the last few years.

Thus, when I looked up Leaves Eyes on Amazon the other day on a whim (to see if they had anything new out), the list of "other bands similar to Leaves Eyes" went on for some 20 pages and included not only a lot of bands I already listen to, but a bunch of ones that were new to me. That's even though I've looked for such bands on several occasions in the past.

I downloaded songs from: Imperia, Eyes of Eden, Satyrian, Krypteria, Ego Likeness, Hydrogyn, Octavia Sperati, Asrai, Coronatus, and Autumn. Some I downloaded from eMusic, some from iTunes, some from Amazon. Asrai in particular I wasn't able to find on eMusic or iTunes, but after downloading it from Amazon I noticed that it was on iTunes, only listed as "Astrai" with a "t". It was listed that way on eMusic too, and even with Amazon, which had it under the right name, the mp3 I downloaded came with the name spelled "Astrai". But their name is spelled without a t on their albumn covers.

There was yet another bands, Delain, created by a former member of Within Temptation, that I couldn't download anything from on either iTunes, eMusic or Amazon. Boo!

Most of these bands are good at what they do, but they're all varations on the same theme -- gothic metal or symphonic power metal. Some are much more gothic and less metal, similar to The Dreamside or The Crest. Some lean to the hard rock sounds of Evanescense and Lacuna Coil. Quite a few are going for the full symphonic power metal sound of Nightwish, After Forever and Epica.

I would have to say that the most original-sounding of the group, based on my first impressions, was Hydrogyn. They play a much more traditional, bluesy heavy metal style, the kind that owes a lot to AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Led Zeppelin. That kind of sound requires a different sort of singer, and their lead singer Julie ("just Julie") has not only the kind of multi-octave voice that a symphonic/gothic metal band would wnt, but the throaty, bluesey voice best suited for what this band wants to do. And, incidentally, the hydrogen peroxide-dyed hair and good looks necessary to make her a focal point of all of their album covers.

This video requires a warning -- very sleazy.

Hydrogyn -- Blind

Their cover of a Skid Row song:

Hydrogyn -- 18 and Life

Here they are prforming a classic Dio song live:

Hydrogyn -- Rainbow in the Dark (live)