Announcing the Winners of Our 1st Annual Readers Choice Awards!

Thanks once again to everyone who voted in our 1st Annual Readers Choice Awards! Over 1,100 votes were cast and 46 albums nominated!

Our original plan was to feature the top 10 vote-getting albums. However, due to a three-way tie for the last spot, we have 12 albums instead! Let’s see if you can identify the albums in the collage below!

Thanks very much to Mimi of the UtF staff for putting this image together!

So, now you see the covers of the honored albums.  Here is a more detailed list of the winners:

1. Modified – Modified
2. Dama – Eirwen
3. (tie) Stream of Passion – Darker Days
3. (tie) Echoterra – Land of the Midnight Sun
5. Crysalys – The Awakening of Gaia
6. Nemesea – The Quiet Resistance
7. Amaranthe – Amaranthe
8. Only Fate Remains – Breathe
9. Benedictum – Dominion
10. (tie) Cassandra Syndrome – Satire X
10. (tie) Draconian – A Rose for the Apocalypse
10. (tie) Noctura – Surrender the Sun

Once again, thanks to everyone who voted this year!  The Awards were a great success – so let’s have it again next year, shall we?

UtF Looks Back on 2011 – and Looks Ahead at 2012

Yup, it’s that time of year: to take a look back on the year that was 2011. In female-fronted rock and metal music, of course. However, while every other media outlet out there shares Top 10 or Top 20 lists of favorite albums, we decided to do a different kind of year-end wrap-up.

Instead of highlighting albums, we chose to highlight bands. All of us at Unleash The Furies discovered a wealth of female-fronted rock and metal bands this past year – some of which didn’t actually release any albums in 2011, but got heavy rotation in our music players regardless. With this idea in mind, four of our staff writers sat down and picked their favorite discoveries of 2011. They also shared their predictions for up-and-coming bands who could make major breakthroughs in 2012.

Let’s start with…

Our Band of the Month for October 2011 Is…

EarlyRise

Talk about a fight to the finish! EarlyRise and Sacramento flip-flopped between the #1 and #2 positions all week long. But in the end, Sacramento couldn’t hold on the lead they had for most of the month as the melodic rockers from Israel came on strong. So, EarlyRise is our Band of the Month for October 2011!

Click here to visit of Band of the Month page on EarlyRise.

Once again, thanks to everyone who voted in our poll! Here are the results:

1. EarlyRise: 448 votes (43.12%)
2. Sacramento: 394 votes (37.92%)
3. Bare Infinity: 115 votes (11.07%)
4. Me Talk Pretty: 50 votes (4.81%)
5. Charetta: 32 votes (3.08%)

We have six bands to choose from in our November 2011 Band of the Month Poll. And those bands are:

• Autumn, a progressive alternative rock band from Groningen, The Netherlands. Autumn’s fifth studio album, Cold Comfort, will be out on November 4^th in Europe and November 8^th in the U.S. via Metal Blade Records.
• Crysalys, an operatic metal band from Italy. Crysalys’ debut CD, The Awakening of Gaia, was released last month via Wormholedeath Records. Click here to read Max’s review on The Awakening of Gaia here at Unleash the Furies.
• Dama, a gothic metal band from Italy. Dama’s debut CD, Eirwen Imaginary/Immaginario¸ was released via Ravenheart Music in July and is a unique album – it’s a double album, with one CD featuring English-language songs, and the second CD containing songs sung in Italian.
• Dylath-Leen, a death metal band from France. Dylath-Leen released its third album, Cabale, in September, and the band will make its fourth appearance at the Metal Female Voices Festival in Belgium later this month.
• Meden Agan, a symphonic metal band from Athens, Greece. Meden Agan released its first full-length album, Erevos Aenaon, last month.
• Van Canto, an a capella metal band from Germany. Van Canto is currently on the Out Of The Dark 2011 Festival tour (featuring Tristania, Serenity, Amberian Dawn, and Xandria) to promote its new album Break the Silence.

To cast your vote, visit our WordPress site and scroll down to find the poll on the right-hand sidebar. Voting closes on Monday, October 31^st, and you can vote once a day!

Which bands would you like to see featured in our next Band of the Month Poll? Let us know by sending an email to unleashthefuriesmetal@gmail.com!

~ Sara