Women in metal. There's just not enough of them, Wish there were more. At the current rate, a 50/50 ratio is millennia away. Rather than complain I decided to celebrate 10 important influential figures in metal. I'm keeping the focus on metal genre so leaving out the likes of Joplin, Slick, Turner, Nicks, Bessie Smith, Aretha, Jinx Dawson, Heart, Runaways etc isn't out of ignorance.

Created by:

Mark Ayoub | 27.04.2021

1.	Girlschool (If Sabbath are considered the Godfathers of metal then surely Girlschool are the (slightly younger) Godmothers. It would be an insult to women and the history of metal not to put these lasses at the top or pick individual members past & present. Simply put, the longest running all women metal band proved that women could play and play hard. As Lemmy once quipped "Play well for chicks? They're better than you!" Here, here.)
2.	Rock Goddess (Out of the 500 or so NWOBHM bands known to exist only two had all female members with a decent profile. One was Girlschool and the other is this pick. They also happen to share the same bassist Tracey Lamb. What makes this band stick out apart from the rarity of an all women metal band in the 70's was their age when they first formed. Drummer Julie Turner was only 9 years old! And they were managed by their dad. Cool dad.)
3.	Vixen (Ah glam metal, the sausage-fest that tried to cover their...ahem...sausages in hairspray, maquillage and lots and lots of grog. Thankfully we got a reprieve with this bunch who were not groupies for Motley Crue or the roadies for Poison. They wrote, they played and while they didn't achieve the same level of fame as their male counterparts (gee, I wonder why) still an important stepping stone for women in metal.)
4.	L7 (If NWOBHM and glam were sausage-fests then grunge was a bull farm. L7 showed that women could pull off the grunge aesthetic, flannel shirts and all with a venom and bite that kept grunge's controversial relationship with metal in-tact. Don't believe me? The band is featured on MS with some even referring to them as alternative metal rather than the grunge label.)
5.	Doro - Warlock (An attractive woman fronting a band with other men is insignificant these days but in the 80's, in metal, Warlock were among the first. It was clear from the beginning that Doro was always the focal point of the group and the proof is as of writing, she continues a successful 30 year solo career while sporadically reuniting with her old bandmates. Imagine the amount of crap she would have to put up with from sleazy label suites. Has anything changed?)
6.	Sabina Classen - Holy Moses (If Warlock was a bit glammy then Holy Moses was the antithesis. Thrash is a not a pretty genre nor should it be. And a woman fronting a thrash band is just as rare now as it was in the 80's. Shame. Fortunately those women who emerged since dabbled in further extreme genres.)
7.	Jo-Anne Bench - Bolt Thrower (Even death metal aficionados would have trouble realising that the bass in this acclaimed English band was played by a bird. Fortunately, given the bands more underground nature and not being the frontwoman would keep the sexist commentators at bay. She remained a vital member of the band, never being used as a cheap marketing ploy. And that's how it should be for all bands right? Right?)
8.	Sean Yseult - White Zombie (It wasn't just on British soil where women were getting in on the extreme metal action. The US had noise/groove/industrial provocateurs White Zombie with frontman Bob's (yes I'm calling him that) then muse Sean Yseult handling the tight grooves.)
9.	Anneke Van Giersbergen - The Gathering (Meanwhile in Scandinavia there was another extreme genre emerging - death/doom. And while not an original member of the band AVG helped the band evolve into the more Gothic and Trip-Hop inspired group they are known for now. Her work with Devin Townsend is also highly recommended.)
10.	Angela Gossow - Arch Enemy (While Sabina Classen's vocals were harsh, growls they were not. And so, I'm calling it - Angela Gossow - the most influential woman in death and melo-death. The first well known female vocalist to exclusively use death growls. Her stage presence sent chills down the spines of many a punter. And the shock on peoples faces when they heard those vocals and be told "they're done by a woman." A perfect way to end this list. I'm sure there's enough for a sequel.)