Written By Sabbath Ashvale
The Defiant Ones
A Metal Lair Original Series
Women In Metal is Metal Lair’s weekly spotlight on the women shaping heavy music. The vocalists, riff-smiths, producers, engineers, photographers, writers and scene-builders. No gossip, just craft, impact and respect.
“Not groupies. Not guests. Architects of the sound.”
It’s the same story every woman in metal knows by heart. You raise your voice, and you’re “too much.”You take up space, and suddenly you’re “a problem.”
Men get celebrated for being loud and rebellious. Women get told to shrink, smile, or shut our mouths.
Fuck that.
Women In Metal isn’t here to coddle the narrative. We’re here to kick it down a flight of stairs.
These are The Defiant Ones. The women who refused to soften, refused to apologize, and refused to let anyone rewrite their legacy into something quieter or more convenient.
They didn’t “fit into” metal. They cracked metal open and lived inside it.
Metal is loud. Women in metal are louder. And misogyny? It’s about to get drowned out.
Joan Jett • Suzi Quatro • Alissa White-Gluz • Lzzy Hale • Morgan Lander
A Rip in Time: Women in Metal. A Metal Lair Original Series
A Rip in Time: Joan Jett – The Runaways/Joan Jett And The Blackhearts
Moment: Bad Reputation
Deep Cut: Coney Island Whitefish
A filthy, punk-snarling feminist takedown of sleazy men who think they’re the prize. A cult favorite among fans, and Joan’s been resurrecting it in recent live sets like a wink to the ones who actually pay attention.
Why This One:
Before metal had a mainstream pulse, Joan Jett showed every girl with a guitar that you didn’t need permission to be loud.
She took the punches, the sexism, the dismissals, and built a career out of pure stubborn defiance.
The reason women in rock and metal exist in public today is because Joan refused to shrink, refused to soften, refused to let anyone rewrite her story.
Joan Jett didn’t rise out of some record label fairytale, she clawed her way through the L.A. club trenches until the universe had no choice but to notice.
She was haunting Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco when Kim Fowley, the infamously feral “band-builder” with a reputation that still makes women in music grit their teeth spotted her spark.
Fowley didn’t discover Joan, Joan detonated in his direction and he yanked her into the primordial lineup of what became The Runaways. Joan didn’t thrive because of him, she survived in spite of him.
She was never his creation. She was the rebellion he didn’t know how to control. Joan was the danger and the backbone, the one who made the band feel like rebellion with a pulse.
A Rip in Time: Suzi Quatro – The Pleasure Seekers, Cradle, Solo Career
Moment: Stumblin’ In
Deep Cut: Brain Confusion (For All the Lonely People) – 1973
Originally released only as a non album B-side to her breakthrough single “Can the Can.” Not on the original album. Overshadowed by the hits. Only hardcore fans and vinyl collectors even know she recorded it. It’s proto-punk grit with glam bruises all over it. Pure early Suzi ferocity.
Why This One:
Before anyone called her the Queen of Rock, Suzi Quatro was a Detroit kid shredding bass in The Pleasure Seekers, an all-female garage band she formed with her sisters.
Then the universe did that cosmic click thing. Producer Mickie Most spotted her, flew her to the U.K., and unleashed her leather clad, bass slinging fury onto the glam rock scene. Every woman in rock who came after felt that shockwave.
And yeah, she even carved out a weird little slice of TV history as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days, slicked back hair, attitude for days, introducing Middle America to the concept of a woman who could out-cool every dude in the room without breaking a sweat.
Suzi didn’t follow the rules, she rewrote them in 4/4 time, kicked the door in, and made the boys keep up.
A Rip in Time: Alissa White-Gluz – The Agonist, Arch Enemy
Moment: War Eternal
Deep Cut: Forget Tomorrow – The Agonist (2006 demo)
This is a pre debut album, pre-label, raw as a fresh wound material. Only old school Agonist fans even know this exists.
It’s demo level production with full Alissa ferocity and zero industry polish. Never put on a studio album. Lives in fan archives, bootleg uploads, and old press kits.
This is the equivalent of finding a cracked CD-R in someone’s basement labeled “AGN 06 – FINAL??”
Why This One:
Alissa White-Gluz is what happens when discipline meets danger. Montreal born, vegan, activist, and throat shredder supreme.
She ripped through the underground with The Agonist, mixing political fury with technical precision.
Then came the seismic shift: Angela Gossow personally tapped her as Arch Enemy’s new vocalist, a passing of the torch so respectful and rare it still gives the scene chills.
And let’s be honest. Alissa didn’t “replace” Angela, she forged a new era. She brought her own snarl, her own theatrical fire, her own inhuman clarity.
She embraced the weight, carried it, and then kicked the door wider for every woman in extreme metal who dared to step forward. She’s not just a vocalist, she’s a force multiplier.
A Rip in Time: Lzzy Hale – Halestorm
Moment: I Miss the Misery
Deep Cut: The Proposition – Halestorm (2006 EP / Pre-Album era)
This is Lzzy before the Grammys, before radio dominance, before the arena roar.
The Proposition only exists on an early, independently released EP. A raw, wild, pre label snapshot of the band sharpening their claws.
Most fans have never heard it. Some have never even seen the EP. This is the pure, early Lzzy Hale voltage, bluesy bite, leather worn edge, zero compromise.
Why This One:
Lzzy Hale didn’t just grow into her power, she named it. The spelling “Lzzy” goes all the way back to her childhood, when she refused to be called “Liz.” She carved her own version, four letters, no vowels, all voltage. Lzzy looks like a lightning bolt, and she’s been living up to it ever since.
Long before the Grammys, she and Arejay were touring bars they were too young to drink in and playing their asses off to anyone who would listen.
That work ethic hardened her, sharpened her, and made her the kind of frontwoman who doesn’t just walk onstage, she claims it.
And yes, she’s a feminist. The real kind. The kind who speaks up, protects younger women in the industry, calls out misogyny without flinching, defends LGBTQ+ fans, and refuses to let rock’s old guard decide who gets to be loud.
She turned survival into mentorship and resilience into an art form. Lzzy is one of the only vocalists on earth who can walk into an arena, plant her boots, flash that don’t test me grin, and own every square inch of oxygen without asking permission.
She didn’t break the glass ceiling, she melted it down and forged her mic stand from the scraps.
A Rip in Time: Morgan Lander (Kittie)
Moment: Brackish
Deep Cut: Pink Lemonade (Unreleased Live Rarity)
“Pink Lemonade” sits in the shadows of Kittie’s early years. A song that never received a studio baptism, yet refuses to die. What survives are ghost fragments and uneven live recordings, whispered mentions from fans who were close enough to the stage to feel the feedback in their lungs.
It’s a strange creature, sharp and slippery. The riffs lurch and then dissolve, the mood shifts without warning, and Morgan’s voice flickers between bite and vulnerability. Nothing about it is settled. That’s what makes it mesmerizing.
It captures Kittie before the world carved definitions into them back when they were still shapeshifting in real time, letting instinct lead instead of industry expectations.
“Pink Lemonade” is the kind of deep cut that reminds you of the truth. Some songs aren’t meant to be polished, only witnessed.
Why This One:
Morgan Lander didn’t enter metal, she invaded it. A teenage girl from Ontario screaming with more conviction than half the Ozzfest lineup. She fronted Kittie at a time when the scene still treated women as novelties or girlfriends in the wings.
Morgan didn’t just carve space, she ripped a fucking crater open and dared anyone to fill it.
Kittie’s rise wasn’t cute, curated, or industry approved. It was chaos, youth, and ferocity smashing through the nu-metal era with a feminine rage no one was ready for.
Morgan’s vocals became the sound of every girl who’d been told to “calm down,” “smile,” or “don’t be so dramatic” and decided to scream instead.
She paved a path for an entire generation of women in heavy music, not by being palatable, but by being unstoppable. Morgan isn’t a footnote in metal history, she’s the reason so many women realized they didn’t have to wait for permission to be loud.
We’ve just celebrated five women who refused to shrink. Women who clawed their way through the noise, the gatekeeping, the ridicule, the backhanded compliments, the comparisons, the labels, the silence.
Joan. Suzi. Alissa. Lzzy. Morgan. Different decades, different scenes, same war. They didn’t survive because it was easy. They survived because they were too loud, too stubborn, too talented, too hungry and too alive to disappear.
They smashed doors open with their boots so the next woman wouldn’t have to bruise her shoulder trying.
If you’re a female out there right now learning guitar in your bedroom, screaming into a practice mic, writing riffs no one’s heard yet and dreaming of stages you’ve never stood on. Don’t let anyone make you small. Don’t let the comments, the critics, the boys’ club, or the ghosts of your own doubt tell you this world isn’t yours.
It is yours. It always has been. The industry just took too damn long to notice. Keep going.
Even when no one’s watching.
Even when the room is cold.
Even when you feel like you’re singing into a void.
Every woman in this article felt that way once. And they pushed anyway. Remember what these pioneers endured, confronted, and overcame so you could hold a guitar, a mic, a pen and a dream without apology. You don’t owe the world quiet. You owe the world exactly who you are.
So scream, write, rage and build. Take up space like it’s rent free. And if anyone tries to tell you metal isn’t for you? Make them eat their words.
THEN PLAY LOUDER!
If you enjoyed this you might like our Mallavora Interview – What If Better Never Comes?
Missed last weeks A Rip in Time: Women in Metal? Find it here.
FAQ – A RIP IN TIME: WOMEN IN METAL
Q: What is A Rip in Time: Women in Metal?
A Rip in Time is Metal Lair’s ongoing tribute to the women who’ve reshaped heavy music. Each installment spotlights a groundbreaking artist who challenged the genre’s boundaries from vocal ferocity to creative evolution, showing that metal’s history isn’t just told through distortion, but through defiance.
Q: What makes this series different?
It’s not a checklist of “women in metal.” It’s a time-ripping journey through eras, sounds, and revolutions. Each feature dives into how these artists rewrote their own rules, their riffs, their philosophies, their fire.
Q: Who’s been featured so far?
Each chapter covers a distinct voice in metal’s lineage. Figures like Doro Pesch, Floor Jansen, Angela Gossow, Sabina Classen, and Tatiana Shmailyuk and more. With more icons and unsung heroes to come.
Q: How often does the series update?
A Rip in Time appears periodically throughout the year as new chapters are researched and written. It’s designed to evolve, not just repeat.
Q: Does Metal Lair have other series like this?
Yes! Metal Lair runs several signature series that explore every corner of heavy music:
- Seven Deadly Songs – A weekly roundup of the most unholy new releases.
- Deep Cuts – Hidden gems and lost recordings from rock and metal history.
- Metalhead Horoscopes – Weekly forecasts laced with riffs, attitude, and a lucky song for every sign.
- World Metal Weekly – A global passport through the underground, one country at a time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sabbatha Ashvale is Metal Lair’s resident wildfire in eyeliner. A music journalist and storyteller who writes like she’s swinging a torch through the catacombs of heavy music. She’s equal parts historian and shit-stirrer. Her work focuses on artistry, history, and the often overlooked creators who define metal’s evolving future. She brings depth, grit, and a razor sharp perspective to every piece she writes.