the Top 40 Female Artists of All Time : 30 to 21

In 2020 we are making a bigger deal out of how wet the nether regions are rather than the quaity of music being made. Granted the people doing this must have never heard of Lil Kim. This also gives me the chance to take  break from the lists of androgynous guys and  makes this one.The top 40 hottest female artists, might come one day  I am bored at some point but right now we are just focusing on the music. After all if you are writing good songs that stick in my head I do not care what you look like. You are not going to see artists here that I feel are covered by those who do what they do better or are such originators in their genre why listen to imitators. Not only does this list give commonly under rated artists their proper place, but I dig into as expected from me both harder and darker artists not mentioned in the same breath as pop artists. Speaking of that is covered by a handful of ladies as more would be redundant. There is one big one here in particular that takes care of everything . Only one rapper, and they are unique , and this is about their impact on music as a whole so iconoclasts not strippers with prodiucers or entertainers alone. Since this the Abysmal Hymns list there will of course be a darker slant and singer's with any gospel leanings that are blasphemous are obviously disqualified. So here we go...





30- Beth Cameron - Forget Cassettes

A wonderful lyricist, great guitar player and possessing a very dynamically emotive voice that is as vulberable as it angry. While the band only has three albums. Two of those are phenominal .





29-Toni Halliday -Curve


Her purring alto is sex set to music. But she is not limited to that . She can go into a more sing song rap like voice when her band takes a turn toward the more industrial side of 90s alt rock.



 




28-Emile Wandelmer Gold



Not just a sweet voice. She is a capable guitar who channels powerful sonic layers. Vocally she has a melancholy sense to her melodies . Stotic rather than being overly emotive.







27- Lauren Mayberry - Chrvches



She is not only the singer but the drummer of her band. Her voice is sugary pop like while cating a gray shade of melancholy over her smart lyrics. She has a tremndous sense of melody. Much smarter pop than Billie Ellish.





 


26- Fever Ray

Like a darker version of Bjork she is not content with making pop music though very capable of it. Most noted for writing would would later be the "Vikings" theme song. She bends world music and electronica through her own filter of weird.


 




 25- Imogen Heap


She was way ahead of her time when it comes to quirky pop. The new Charli xcx album certainly draws heavy influence from her. Her sense of harmony is unrea and melodies are uncanny.


 




24 Laura Pleasants -Kylesa


She has a powerfu roar that mellowed into a more surreal post punk delivery, though her strength lies in her guitar playing . From a crushing chug to more intricate space rock , she has a range as a guitarist.

 







23- Marissa Nadler


Her ethereal take on dark country inflected folk , doesn't just work off a sound she has created but her ability to write even more haunting, he also has a somewhat secret metal past.





 



22-Melora Creager -Rasptutina



She has the market cornered on victorian chamber music. Sure Black Tape For a Blue Girl uses cellos, Melora, just does it with more bals when needed and has a knack for writing more hooky songs with a touch of 90s angst.


 



21- Lana Del Rey


She took a retro pop sound and married to modern songs with more grace than Amy Winehouse. She has proved her self to be a more consisten song writer than Winehouse who devolved into a one hit wonder

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Eyes : "Underperformer"

Hard core cna be a tricky beast to capture just right. If you lean too far into the punk side it becomes boring, if you focus more on the power then it becomes metal. The tough guys thing from the 90s is done. Most of the good hard core these days comes from Northern Europe. Since the Refused exploded out of Sweden this should not come as a great surpise. Denmark seems another fertile ground for this sort of thing. They kick yup a great deal of chaos , while often leaning more toward the metallic side of the equation they are doing more than just making noise. Tormented but with a clear vision of how they want to tell that tale.

It is not until the groove of the title trakc that they earn mu undivided attention. They do commit to a blasting rage, but keep the bounce in their step. The vocal go into a higher scream. With some mathy dazzle to the riffs they are not just one two three go hardcore. They make some interesting production choices , there is hint of things like industrial touching the songs. Some of the punchier moments have to grow on me. The vocals are often the most abrasive thing that is happening, though they are not letting up much on their attack. "Surf" is more straight forward punk with a rowdy rock touch to it and some hints of melody underlying the nastiness/. "Off" is almost too straight forward for mytastes.

There is a little more room to breath with the expanding contracting dynamics of "Voiceswhispersecrets" . This is really all I ask for from hard core , a little darkness, some depth of emotion and at least minimal dynamics. There is more of a feral lashing out with "Swim" . The more spoken sing song vocals are more interesting than the snarling as the lyrics stand out more. "Victims" is another unrestrained attack upon your ear drums. There is almost more of a Slayer feel to the trhashing tension of the riff that opens the last song. These guiys have plenty of vigor and some sembelence of how to properly channel that into song writing. I want to hear where these guys go from here, as this is a great strating point. So Great I will give it an 8.5.If you are looking for angry new hardcore big on the sonics, this is worth your time.

the White Swan : "Nocturnal Transmission"

Kittie always had potential but following the boundaries of nu-metal did not do them any favors. Mercedes Lander has grown out of her Hot Topic days and is making a fusion of darkness and sudge. Her clear singing voice has not really changes she is just making different choices with it. The first song throbs off one hypnotic theme which works for this , but I hope this is not al there is to this album's song writing. From what I remember Lander had a knack of more hooky song writing  that she did not have to put away with the JNCOs . Not only does it seem like we are following the same formula with "Nocturnal Transmission " as we did the first song , but the riffs and melodies are almost to similasr. Until we get to the chorus that has more of a soaring melody and accented punches. I am going to need them to do something different with the next song.

There is a more of a droning rock like riff, but it is uptempo from what they were doing enough for me to feel like I am not hearing the same song so that works . Her voice has not changed much over the years. She know what works for her and sticks to it. This ep ends with a cover of Tracy Bonham's "Take Me to the Sky". I remember who Tracy Bonham is. I think of her as a one hit one wonder from the 90s and this song is not her one hit. It does coast on the atmosphere and works dynamically I think they could have taken a lesson when they sat down to learn this song at band practice . For while i know this is not what the original sounds like evening not remembering it if I ever heard it, I do know a great deal about 90s alternative music as I was in high school as it kicked off. The song writing had hooks, the vocal melody to this song is catchier than their originals. Yes they added their won sound to this but it high lights my most common complaint of bands now having a sound but not songs. Lander does come from a time where this was not the case.  So you can have a sound as they proved with this cover and still have a song, they just did not write. I do think Lander is in her own right just as capable of a song writer as Tracy Bonham. Not John Bonham, but better than Jason Bonham at writing songs not the drums.

If you liked Kittie you have probaly already grown out of ni-metal so should be able to embrace this. Her voice sounds great and it's a pretty solid and mature step forwad from where she came from that I can respect , more so than if she put out a new Kittie album. I will give this a 9, I think it's as good as she could have done while still getting her feet under this new project and breaking off into some more relevent for today.

Ascension of the Watchers : "Apocrypha"

This post-industrial side project of Fear Factory vocalist Burton C Bell has always held potential, so lets see if it has finally arrived with this album. The guitars this time around do not just sit back in a laguid Jesu like drone. Still very seperate from Fear Factory or his other projects there still resides a Killing Joke like feel. The melody and dynamics of the song are all dialed in . Bell uses a more tender tone at times rather than his normal baritone croon. I has to listen to the second song a third time for it to sink in. This perhaps means it loses me in it's atmposphere or perhaps doesn't demand my attnetion. It's pleasant enough. I like the guitars. Bell hovers in the background with little in the way of hooks. The drumming to the title track gives it the motion that the previous song needed. The guitar is strummed and Bell has more room to play with the morose melody.

"A Wolf Interlude" doesn't grab me and once again drifts off in the atmosphere , but the album comes back stronger with "Honoree" and " Stormcrow" . The first song balances ambiance and melody. It has more of a Cocteau Twins feel musically. Then the latter works in the samw way post-rock does. Ominious and driven. The dark clouds remain for " Cygnus Aeon".  Brooding , but with a flowing sense of tension. There is a more melodic ballad like tone to "Key to the Cosmos" which gives it an almost Pink Floyd by way of dark wave feel. "Bells of Peridtion" coasts along on atmosphere that seems to float out from the previous song.

The stronger beat and more defined melody of "Wanderers" puts them on more solid footing. "Sign Your Name" is a stummed ballad with a western feel. The more organic nature is welcome in ight of the album's general tone. I will round this down to a 9, not because it's not a solid album, just some of the atmosphere makes it easy for the songs to drift away and get lost into rather than make you beg for more. Still a 9 is outstanding and finds this project really living up to the potential I have know it has all along./

Soundtrack for the week : the Dragon -con that wan't there edition

Well it would have been Dragon -Con. But alas they are having to do a virtual convention ,which unless they have one on Second Life it is unlikely I will tune in for as it sound more like a weekend of podcasts and Youtube channels which just doesn''t compare. I am not the only one  having a rough time with the weekend, but Dragon con and and Frolicon are the two times of the times of the year where I feel. can just blend in . Not sure I would go as far and say 'they are my people though I do have friends from the conventions that are like family. Perhaps I am more bonded to the Frolicon crew, but it's stil hard after going 20 years in a row . Some people had begun to ask for playlists on Facebook so here is one.  A playlist for the con that was not there but in the spirit of the con.


Demons & Wizards - "Diabolic"

 



Marilyn Manson- "We Are Chaos"



 


Dunwich - "Solitude"



 





Mushroomhead- "the Heresy"




 




Sound VVitch- "Transformative Fire"




 Igorrr- "Parpaing"



 




 Palaye Royale - "Lonely"



 


Corlyx- "Porcelin Skin"


 


 Ulver - "Nostalgia"

 


 Blaqk Audio -" Bird Sister"


 

Narrow Head : " 12th House Rock"

I hear a lot of sounds I like on this album and so far I am only two minutes into it. The vocals have a high droning quality and more of an edge than you typically get from the more detached Hum school of shoe gaze rocking. The singer reminds me of the guy from I Mother Earth though more laid back than Edwin.  The vocals however begin to fall into the riffs more as the fuzzed out guitar sonics begin to become more of the focus. Aong with Hum , I can also hear Failure and Smashing Pumpkins early days in the zip code of the sound they are going for. There are enough dynamic touches to keep you engaged. Even when the wall of sound fades back into background it is a pleasing background to have.

"Stuttering Stanley" finds the vocals taking on more of a mumbled whine that brings Sunny Day Real Estate to mind. Yeah I know all these other bands are being summoned when I hear this. But it is a compliment as it's jarring my memory of all these bands I used to listen to more in the 90s, but often find myself having to hunt down again when the nostagia strikes/. The title track has a cool groove to it but at only a minute and a half they do not give it a chance to fully develop. In the meantime there  is a more muscular stomp and barked vocal to the punchy " Hard to Swallow".  "Crank Case" also digs into similar sonic territory. "Nodding Off" lives up to it's name as it delves into narcotic shoe gazing with a rock edge.  The put more of a Deftones like punch to "Night Tryst" . I ike the way the riff to "Emmagazey" is accented. The slurred vocals are tighter in their phrashing, making this one of the  album's most accessible songs.

 While the breezy ballad "Wastrel" does not go any where, it is followed by "Delano Door" . The verses feature the spoken word of female voice. It is another more Deftones like moment, but it works great. Lots of creepy groove, I want more of what is going on here. Some where between grunge and shoe gaze sits " Bulma" . It ends on a more shoe gazing note. I will give this album a 9 and see how it grows on me. Yes the can be at time compared to many bands so while nothing is new under the sun in this regard , they are all bands I like, and woven together in a way that is more original than not. This album is being dropped by Holy Roar Records.

Marilyn Manson : "We are Chaos"

Was reading an interview with Manson today. He spoke about how this album is a collaboration with Shooter Jennings. Uh what ? In this day and age there is no shorage of things for him to feel angsty about. The album opens with a tripped out spoken word thing very much like "Portrait of an American Family". When the song kicks in , it's very bass driven. I do like that there is more of a metallic edge to the guitars . I was expecting something more rock n roll. But I am fine with this! The title track however is the kind of rock n roll I though we were going to be getting into . It might have more of a glam touch that recalls " Mechanical Animals" , though not a bleak or dark as that album.

Manson said Bowie was an influence on this album , I can vaguely hear it on " Don't Chase the Dead" . It is a song that I had to listen to 3 or 4 times before it sunk in. Bowie is not the only 70s glam icon he draws from as "Paint You With My Love" has a major T-Rex vibe. I like how the piano helps build the groove to " Half Way & one Step Forward".  His voice might not be as great as it was on " Mechanical Animals" but it is one of his best preformances. He is actualy trying to sing in places. "Infinate Darkness" returns to the rowdier Manson you might be looking for. The song still has dynamics and doesn't find him relentlessly screaming , but falling back to brood.

We make it all the way to " Perfume" before there is any mention of Satan. The layers of vocals might be excess but over all I like the mood of the song. It has a sexy strut to it. There is more of a late 90s Placebo like feel to " Keep My Head Together". I like how the electronics are blended with the more organic instrumentation. I like all the elements in place for " Solve Coagula" . This is one of his most melodic albums. The song goes off into a some what jammy section. This and many other of the songs on this album have a strong sense of dynamics. This song might be the most noticeable sign of his collaboration with Shooter. The album closes with a strummed acoustic ballad. It is not the best song on the album , but it works and we do not hear him do a great deal of that kind of thing. I think this album almost works the best when he steps the furthest out of his comfort zone. I wil give this album a 9.5 and see how it grows on me. As it is I am impressed.