Leaves' Eyes

This is a symphonic metal band from Germany and and Norway (I think). I'm really impressed with their sound, but despite there last CD being called King of Kings I don't think they are a Christian band. Anyone know anything about them? I'm wondering if they would be considered safe to listen to. I know, for some people that's a loaded question and likely to open a can of worms, but I'm going to go there anyway.

Here's their "Edge of Steel" song (warning: if you don't like operatic female voices aligned with growling male vocals, don't push play.  )

As far as lyrical content goes, they're more or less the Viking/ Norse mythology type

Samson wrote:

As far as lyrical content goes, they're more or less the Viking/ Norse mythology type

That's the gist I've been seeing with the few songs I've heard so far. However, I've been perusing their lyrical content at darklyrics.com, and sadly their lyrics lean more towards the "all hail Odin" path, rather than simply singing about Norse mythology. How unfortunate; I really love their sound. It is just so hard to find good symphonic and power metal bands that are at least safe to listen to, if not Christian.

I dig the female vocals (for the most part), but not at all a fan of the male vocals (I know the whole Beauty & the Beast vocal arrangement is big in the symphonic world...but I just can't get into the growling vocal thing).  Very talented group though.  
I have never heard of them being accused of being a "Christian" band of any sort.  When I think of great female fronted symphonic/power style metal bands I tend to reach for some Battle Beast (again not at all a Christian band).  They have one of those rare female singers who can go from soft and very melodic to cranking out some serious vocal grit.

Quote :

(warning: if you don't like operatic female voices aligned with growling male vocals, don't push play.  )

Thank you for the heads up.  I am not hitting play!

I saw these guys and gal open for Sonata Arctica (one of my favorite [secular] power metal bands) this past Friday evening.

They're definitely not a Christian band.  The male singer (growler) did most of the interacting with the audience and was somewhat foul.  The female singer wasn't foul and seemed like she was a very nice person though.  They had songs such as Hell To The Heavens which didn't seem to "Christian-friendly" to me haha.  They sounded pretty good though and despite their silly antics, my wife and I still enjoyed them somewhat.  This style of metal really isn't my thing, but if you guys are looking for other band in a similar vein, there are a ton out there like them.

kerrick wrote:

 if you guys are looking for other band in a similar vein, there are a ton out there like them.

I am very interested in this style, but sadly the "ton" you refer are all secular. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; I recently discovered Seven Kingdoms, a female-fronted power metal band from Florida, and I haven't been able to find any reason to fault their lyrics. But my preference is more toward the operatic females and orchestral parts, like Nightwish and Epica, but all of those seem to lean more to the dark side of "safe for Christian ears".   I wish Whispers of Heaven were able to put out more; that gal sounds awesome!

Yeah I'm not aware of many Christian bands in that vein other than Whisper From Heaven either...

Ulterium Records has a few female-fronted bands on their roster; maybe Emil can give us some more insight on them.  (End Of September, Ivory Moon, Sleeping Romance...)  I know not everything on Ulterium is Christian, but I think it's all pretty Christian-friendly.

The Metal Archives' advanced search function is pretty handy too:
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/advanced/searching/bands?bandName=&genre=symphonic&country=&yearCreationFrom=&yearCreationTo=&bandNotes=&status=&themes=Christianity%2C+-anti&location=&bandLabelName=#bands

And...
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/advanced/searching/bands?bandName=&genre=gothic&country=&yearCreationFrom=&yearCreationTo=&bandNotes=&status=&themes=Christianity%2C+-anti&location=&bandLabelName=#bands

Using those two searches, I found a few that might be good contenders:
Perpetual Legacy, Veritas Infinita, 7th Symphony, Violet Sun, Inside Mankind, Eternal Saviour, Gog Magog, Vexing Souls, Fountain Of Tears, Adoration, Motus Deus, Setareth, Undish, Black Widows, etc.

kerrick wrote:

Yeah I'm not aware of many Christian bands in that vein other than Whisper From Heaven either...

Ulterium Records has a few female-fronted bands on their roster; maybe Emil can give us some more insight on them.  (End Of September, Ivory Moon, Sleeping Romance...)  I know not everything on Ulterium is Christian, but I think it's all pretty Christian-friendly.

The Metal Archives' advanced search function is pretty handy too:
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/advanced/searching/bands?bandName=&genre=symphonic&country=&yearCreationFrom=&yearCreationTo=&bandNotes=&status=&themes=Christianity%2C+-anti&location=&bandLabelName=#bands

And...
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/advanced/searching/bands?bandName=&genre=gothic&country=&yearCreationFrom=&yearCreationTo=&bandNotes=&status=&themes=Christianity%2C+-anti&location=&bandLabelName=#bands

Using those two searches, I found a few that might be good contenders:
Perpetual Legacy, Veritas Infinita, 7th Symphony, Violet Sun, Inside Mankind, Eternal Saviour, Gog Magog, Vexing Souls, Fountain Of Tears, Adoration, Motus Deus, Setareth, Undish, Black Widows, etc.

I'll definitely check those out.

I believe Fountain of Tears is Christian. They had a song ("Real") on a music sampler from Blastbeats.com (aka Cross Rhythms Music)  back in 1999. They were (are?) good, but definitely more goth than metal.

Right on; I hope you find something good!  Those searches I did were for lyrical theme: "Christian (and not anti-) and genre: "symphonic" for the first and "gothic" for the second.  There's no way to search for "female-fronted" on the Metal Archives but those two subgenres oftentimes have female lead singers.  Happy hunting!

kerrick wrote:

Right on; I hope you find something good!  Those searches I did were for lyrical theme: "Christian (and not anti-) and genre: "symphonic" for the first and "gothic" for the second.  There's no way to search for "female-fronted" on the Metal Archives but those two subgenres oftentimes have female lead singers.  Happy hunting!

Thanks. That gives me a start. I never thought to search through Metal Archives. And hunting it will be, because just like hunting not all of them are ones you want to "bag"  

• Are they singing in English? I like to listen to some foreign music, but not a lot.  
  
• Are the ladies singing or just belting out music. There is definitely a difference. Tarja can sing, but Wendi Kaizer just belted out music. I like Wendi for the style, but for symphonic metal with a woman singing the voice has to be angelic for me to like it. Call me particular. 
  
• Can I understand them? You would think if the band passed #1 and #2 the answer to this would be yes, but it's not necessarily true. Sometimes the problem is with the mix where the music overpowers the voice, and sometimes it's the voice. There is a woman that sings in our church that I can never understand, while another woman, who also sings soprano is easily understood. 
  
• And of course, is the music good. 
  

Thanks for the head start though. I'm not holding my breath on a lot of them, but who knows ... there might be some I like there. And even the ones that aren't female fronted are good too! I just have a particular fondness for the other.

Picky picky PICKY! 

The Metal Archives is a pretty great spot to search; their search function works really well.  The problem is you sometimes gotta be pretty clever/thoughtful with how you search...  For example, when finding Christian bands, use lyrical themes such as "Christianity," "Christian," "God," "Faith," etc.  And of course not all bands have the [correct] lyrical themes labeled, but it's a start.  Something else that is very handy is to find a band you like and then see what other bands the members are in.  I've found some good bands that way too.