The Many Sounds of Women in Metal
Put Girlschool beside Nightwish, then follow them with Arch Enemy and Jinjer. The shift is enormous: from the snap of a rock ’n’ roll rhythm section to orchestral space, melodic death metal and a voice that can move from restraint to a roar. Women in metal have never represented one sound. The records become much more interesting when we listen to what the musicians actually do.
This selection follows fifteen records and editions from the Niflheim catalogue. It crosses the border between heavy metal and hard rock, takes in singers who also play guitar, and makes room for bands where women occupy every instrumental role. It is a route through particular recordings, rather than a ranking or a claim to cover the entire history.
Women in metal: start with the band
St Valentines Day Massacre puts Motörhead and Girlschool on the same ten-inch record. That pairing offers a useful starting point: attack, momentum and the pleasure of a band locking together. Listen for the relationship between the rhythm guitar and drums before concentrating on the singer. The urgency comes from the whole ensemble.
Girlschool also make the limitations of the phrase “female-fronted” obvious. A singer at the microphone is only one part of the picture. Guitars, bass and drums are doing the work together; reducing the band to the gender of its vocalist misses most of what is happening. The used UK Bronze edition shown here has visible sleeve wear. Its front and back are worth looking at as two sides of the same physical release, rather than treating the cover as a decorative thumbnail.
Motörhead / Girlschool: St Valentines Day Massacre, front of the used ten-inch sleeve St Valentines Day Massacre: reverse of the same UK Bronze sleeve
Explore the Motörhead / Girlschool ten-inch edition.
Doro and Lita Ford: two different kinds of authority
Warlock’s Triumph and Agony and Doro’s Force Majeure make a revealing pair. The former belongs to the band’s 1987 discography; the latter appears under Doro’s name in 1989. Those dates and releases are documented in Doro’s official discography. Put the records beside one another and listen for how a distinctive voice retains its identity as the surrounding songs and production change.
Doro’s delivery can make a chorus feel like a public declaration. Lita Ford supplies another route into the same broad era of heavy music. Her place in the music includes the guitar as well as the voice, so Lita rewards attention to the space between a vocal hook and an instrumental answer. Try following the guitar through a verse instead of waiting only for the solo. That changes the balance of the record in your ears.
These are different approaches to commanding a song. One listener may be drawn to the force of a sustained vocal line; another to the friction between a polished chorus and a sharp guitar phrase. Neither requires a separate genre label based on who is performing it.
Warlock: Triumph and Agony, used vinyl edition Doro: Force Majeure, used vinyl sleeve with the Doro logo and hammer motif Lita Ford: Lita, used vinyl edition
The copies shown are used vinyl editions of Warlock’s Triumph and Agony, Doro’s Force Majeure and Lita Ford’s Lita. Consult the individual photographs and condition descriptions for each copy.
Nightwish and Tarja: hear the scale change
Nightwish offer an especially useful comparison because two very different physical editions open up the same recording era. The 1997–2001 CD box gathers Angels Fall First, Oceanborn, Wishmaster and Over the Hills and Far Away, with a booklet. Once presents a later point in that development on vinyl. Nightwish’s official Tarja page places these recordings within her years with the band.
The listening question is what happens around the voice. Notice how much room the arrangement gives it, when the guitars move forward, and how a quieter passage changes the weight of the next entrance. A large arrangement can be powerful because of what it withholds as well as what it adds. Hearing several releases in sequence makes those decisions easier to notice.
Tarja’s I Walk Alone then takes the route beyond Nightwish. The pictured vinyl single is the used, signed fifteenth-anniversary edition listed by Niflheim. A single concentrates attention on one song and one object; the CD box invites a much longer journey. Choosing between them is partly a decision about how you want to listen and collect.
Nightwish: 1997–2001 sealed CD box, gathering three albums and an EP Nightwish: Once, sealed vinyl edition Tarja: I Walk Alone, used signed anniversary vinyl single
Arch Enemy: a recording captures a particular line-up
Doomsday Machine, Deceivers and Blood Dynasty let us compare three Arch Enemy releases without confusing a band’s current membership with the people heard on a record. Angela Gossow is the vocalist on Doomsday Machine. Alissa White-Gluz is the vocalist on Deceivers and Blood Dynasty. The band’s recording history documents those different periods.
Listen to the way a harsh vocal phrase cuts across a melodic guitar line. The contrast is part of the music’s character: a voice can sound abrasive while the surrounding lead work remains immediately memorable. Following that relationship across albums is more revealing than treating every extreme vocal as the same technique or emotional effect.
The editions also offer different experiences. The Doomsday Machine black-vinyl release includes a two-sided insert; Deceivers comes with an LP-sized booklet and an OBI strip. The Blood Dynasty CD box includes a flag, water bottle and dog tag. Those extras change the collectible object, while the album remains the reason to spend time with it. Decide whether you want a record to play, printed material to examine, or a box that extends the band’s imagery into other objects.
Arch Enemy: Doomsday Machine, sealed black-vinyl edition Arch Enemy: Deceivers, sealed vinyl edition with OBI Arch Enemy: Blood Dynasty, sealed limited CD box
Compare Doomsday Machine, Deceivers and the Blood Dynasty CD box. All three editions shown were selected from the shop’s sealed releases.
Jinjer and Within Temptation: the power of contrast
Jinjer’s King of Everything makes changes in vocal texture part of the music’s movement. Tatiana Shmayluk’s clean and harsh delivery sits inside a band whose rhythmic shifts demand close attention. The label’s album page identifies that range and the record’s mixture of technical and groove-driven heavy music. Hear how the bass and drums prepare a change before the voice makes it explicit.
Within Temptation’s Angels offers a different scale of drama. Sharon den Adel’s melodic voice is the centre of a song built to stay in the memory. The used CD single includes a bonus studio track and three live tracks, making it a small listening programme rather than simply an album song detached from its context. A single can be an interesting choice when you already know the main release and want another view of the material.
Jinjer: King of Everything, sealed gatefold vinyl Within Temptation: Angels, used CD single
Crucified Barbara and Halestorm: return to the riff
Crucified Barbara bring us back to women occupying the whole band: voice, guitars, bass and drums. Losing the Game and Rock’n’Roll Bachelor are compact vinyl releases that suit their direct approach. Rather than asking a single to provide the range of an album, listen to how quickly it establishes a riff, a personality and a reason to turn the volume up.
Halestorm’s Back From the Dead expands that focus into a full album. Lzzy Hale’s role includes guitar and songwriting alongside singing, a combination explored on the band’s official site. Pay attention to the weight of a guitar entrance after a vocal phrase: the instruments are participating in the same expression, rather than merely supporting it.
Crucified Barbara: Losing the Game, used vinyl single Crucified Barbara: Rock’n’Roll Bachelor, used vinyl single Halestorm: Back From the Dead, sealed gatefold vinyl
The pictured editions are Losing the Game, Rock’n’Roll Bachelor and Back From the Dead. Both Crucified Barbara singles are used copies; the Halestorm gatefold is sealed.
Choose the next record by what you hear
If the rhythm section is what catches you, begin with Girlschool or Crucified Barbara. For a voice that opens up a large arrangement, try the Nightwish box, Tarja or Within Temptation. If you want melody pushing against a harsher vocal surface, follow Arch Enemy into Jinjer. Doro, Lita Ford and Halestorm offer their own routes through the meeting point of riffs and memorable choruses.
These are starting points, not boundaries. The most useful discovery may be the record that unsettles your expectations. For a different perspective on women making uncompromising heavy music on stage, continue with our Witch Club Satan concert review.
The product pages hold the current availability and the details of each physical copy. Used sleeves, sealed reissues, signed singles and multi-disc boxes ask different things of a collector; the musicians deserve the same close attention to their differences.
