#empyrium

Mira: when we were kids you convinced me dragons didn’t lay eggs

Violet: …they don’t

Mira: ha ha you’re sooo funny

Violet: I’m serious, Mira, did you not hear?

Mira: no?!

Violet: *bursts out laughing*

Main acc: @wkuczewska on Instagram

Underrated! Underutilized! Oppressed, just like men are everywhere! Just kidding. But here are some great metal bands with male opera vocals.

[Volume II] -- [Volume III]

Powerwolf

Probably the currently most famous metal band with a male classical singer. Attila Dorn doesn’t always sing in a classical style, but he’s a classically trained baritone (edit: no he isn’t), he can do it and it sounds best when he does it in Latin. I’m embedding a live video because this band is fucking awesome live. I wish you all spoke German so you could understand what he’s saying outside the songs.

Therion

The OG pioneers of symphonic metal have been utilizing both male and female classical singing since the early days of the genre. With their vocalists changing pretty often, it’s hard to name anyone in particular as “their” singer, although the tenor Thomas Vikström has been their lead male vocalist for about 14 years now (still less than half the time they’ve been active). In this song from their 2018 metal opera, he voices the Antichrist during his first meeting with the fire-breathing demonic magician Apollonius - voiced by baritone Marcus Jupither - who offers his services as advisor.

Empyrium

This goes a bit in a different direction. Empyrium make the kind of music that you would expect to turn into black metal at any given moment, and yet doesn’t. Instead, baritone Thomas Helm contributes entirely clean vocals to the music which is somewhere between neoclassical and folk metal. Black metal without the black, and occasionally without the metal.

Winterage

My favourite new discovery of this year so far: Winterage play Italian symphonic power metal “with strong influences from classical, Irish and medieval music”, and, uhh, clearly Rhapsody, who are also credited as the group leader’s favourite band on their homepage. Daniele Barbarossa’s vocals switch back and forth between English and Italian as well as between classical and power metal.

Veles // Велес

The Russians are the only ones who really appreciate this singing style the way everybody should tbh. Someone told me that Russian music traditionally values bass singers and that might have something to with this. Veles are one example, fueled by the powerful voice of Denis Dianov - other Russian bands that fit the bill are [band redacted for making Z propaganda] and Imperial Age. But I can’t embed any more videos, so I’ll leave it at this.