Report: Metal's Female Ranks On The Move

November 5, 2007

Bryan Reesman of Grammy.com reports: If the clichéd debate over the presence of women in rock music isn't dead, the often gothed-out females fronting a number of today's metal bands should literally put the last nail in the coffin.

The clubs are alive with the roaring sounds of female metallions. Fueled by some extreme acts and many gothic and ethereal groups, mostly from Europe, female-fronted metal bands are proliferating in number and reaching a wider audience than ever before.

The multi-platinum EVANESCENCE proved that female-fronted rock was a serious mainstream force, and more and more hard rocking women in groups like LACUNA COIL and FLYLEAF (on a mainstream level),ARCH ENEMY, WITHIN TEMPTATION, and IN THIS MOMENT (bubbling under),and LEAVES' EYES and THE AGONIST (growing on an underground level) are showcasing their diversity across many subgenres of metal. Such activity should make female rock star progenitors like Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Lita Ford, Grace Slick, and Janis Joplin proud.

The most immediate trend is the gothic and symphonic metal wave that has recently invaded U.S. shores. Holland's WITHIN TEMPTATION traversed America twice over a five month period recently, while their recent tourmates, Italy's LACUNA COIL, continue to tour regularly. Holland's EPICA and Austria's VISIONS OF ATLANTIS just toured here together. Finland's NIGHTWISH and Holland's AFTER FOREVER will arrive in the States in October, the former headlining the Nokia Theater in New York. Germany's LEAVES' EYES just played America for the third time and will return again in April 2008.

Read the entire article at Grammy.com.

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