Written By Sabbatha Ashvale
Women in Metal – The Amazons
For centuries, women have been scrutinized, dismissed, and strategically sidelined. History doesn’t just record strong women, it records how aggressively the world tried to silence them.
From Joan of Arc condemned for defying expectation, to the women executed during the Salem Witch Trials, to modern headlines still debating whether women are “too emotional” for positions of power – the script feels tired, but it persists.
What’s more striking is how deeply that script runs. Sometimes it’s upheld not just by men, but by women repeating the same old narrative that leadership requires emotional detachment, that power must look a certain way, that strength belongs to someone else. And yet, history keeps proving otherwise.
In heavy music – one of the most uncompromising spaces on earth, women have carved out their own stages, their own authority, and their own sound. They’ve endured scrutiny, gatekeeping, and doubt, and still pushed forward. That’s why I write Women in Metal.
Not to romanticize struggle, but to document resilience. To spotlight the women who were ahead of their time. To remind anyone reading that the uphill battle doesn’t mean you don’t belong on the mountain. You are not too emotional, too much or alone.
For Black History Month, A Rip in Time honors five women who didn’t just join the metal scene, they kickstarted revolutions within it. These artists have dismantled the “traditional” image of the genre, proving that the roots of rebellion and the future of the riff belong to them.
A Rip in Time: Women in Metal is a Metal Lair™ Original Series documenting women who shaped and expanded the underground.
Explore previous chapters of A Rip in Time: Women in Metal, including The Dangerous Ones, The Rebellious Ones and The Defiant Ones.
Women in Metal: Alexis Brown – Straight Line Stitch
Moment: Black Veil – When Skies Wash Ashore 2008
In an era dominated by cookie-cutter metalcore, Alexis’s ability to pivot from ethereal, melodic haunting to a glass-shattering roar pivoted her to fame.
Black Veil was instrumental in bringing the band to a national audience. It remains one of their most viewed music videos and most-streamed songs, perfectly capturing the dynamic vocal range of Alexis Brown that helped the band stand out in the metalcore scene.
Deep Cut: Conversion – Fight For Our Lives 2011
It’s a masterclass in controlled chaos and raw emotional vulnerability.
“Conversion” is a powerful track that showcases the band’s signature blend of melodic hooks and aggressive metalcore. While it was a single, it remains a standout favorite for longtime fans of the group.
Why Them:
Alexis walked into a metalcore scene that claimed aggression and individuality while quietly rewarding sameness.
She refused to shrink herself to fit the mold. Her ability to move from haunting melody to full sonic destruction challenged the idea that heaviness has to look or sound one specific way.
As a Black woman fronting a genre that rarely made space for voices like hers, she carried both visibility and expectation on her shoulders and still delivered performances that spoke louder than any stereotype.
Alexis proved that power in metal is not defined by tradition. It is defined by presence, authenticity, and the courage to take up space even when the scene is not ready for you.
Women in Metal: Cammie Gilbert – Oceans of Slumber
Moment: Fleeting Vigilance – The Banished Heart 2018
The breathtaking performance on this album opened doors. Cammie brought a soulful, progressive gothic depth to metal that felt entirely new, less like a “singer” and more like a high priestess of sorrow.
Deep Cut: To the Sea (A Tolling of the Bells) 2020
is an evocative deep cut from their 2020 self-titled album. It showcases her incredible range and the way she can carry a massive, doomy wall of sound on her shoulders.
Why Them:
Oceans of Slumber represents the evolution of Southern Gothic through a heavy lens.
They have successfully dismantled the “beauty and the beast” trope of melodic metal, replacing it with a sophisticated, soulful vulnerability that feels grounded in real-world ache rather than fantasy.
By anchoring Cammie Gilbert-Marshall’s powerhouse, jazz-inflected vocals to a foundation of progressive death and doom, they’ve created a sound that is as intellectually demanding as it is emotionally devastating.
They are the architects of a new kind of heavy: one that values the weight of the soul as much as the weight of the riff.
Women in Metal: Kayla Phillips – Bleed The Pigs
Moment: White Washed – Overcompensations for Misery 2014
Bleed The Pigs is known for short, sharp bursts of violence. Kayla’s presence is a sonic riot; she redefined what “vocal intensity” means in grindcore and powerviolence, stripping away the polish for something visceral and real.
This song is often cited as the track that put them on the map. It perfectly encapsulates Kayla Phillips’ ferocious vocal range and the band’s blend of grind and sludge.
Deep Cut: For This Defect, And For No Other Guilt, We Here Are Lost – Mortis Fatum 2014
It is absolute, uncompromising sonic warfare and claustrophobic powerviolence.
It’s a deeper dive into their early, raw production that helped build their cult following on platforms like Tumblr and Bandcamp before they hit mainstream metal press like SPIN.
Why Them:
Kayla represents the side of metal that refuses respectability politics. Grindcore and powerviolence pride themselves on extremity, yet women are still expected to prove they belong before they even touch a microphone.
Kayla skips that entire conversation. She shows up loud, furious, and uncompromising, forcing audiences to confront their own biases about who is allowed to embody rage.
Her performances feel less like entertainment and more like confrontation, and that is exactly the point.
Metal was never meant to be comfortable, and Kayla reminds the underground what authenticity actually looks like.
Women in Metal: Skin – Skunk Anansie
Moment: Hedonism– Stoosh 1996
If 1995 was about the arrival of Skunk Anansie, 1996 was about their coronation.
“Hedonism” stripped away the noise to reveal the band’s most lethal weapon: Skin’s unmatched emotive power. It was a rare crossover success that didn’t sacrifice the band’s grit, instead using a haunting, melodic hook to dominate the airwaves.
For many, this wasn’t just a hit song; it was the definitive proof that the ’90s alternative scene had a soul, and it sounded exactly like Skunk Anansie.
The iconic music video was directed by Thomas Krygier, which featured the then-groundbreaking digital face-swapping effects. It really cemented the song’s “moment” in the MTV era.
Deep Cut: Selling Jesus – Paranoid & Sunburnt 1995
“Selling Jesus” – specifically the version featured on the Strange Days soundtrack often gets overshadowed by their later hits, and it represents the raw, politically charged “clout” that defined their early sound.
“Selling Jesus” is the band at their most abrasive and unapologetic. It’s a blistering critique of the commercialization of faith, driven by a jagged, heavy-metal-adjacent riff and Skin’s snarling delivery.
This track serves as the perfect antithesis to their radio hits and a reminder that Skunk Anansie was born from the fires of London’s rock underground with a message that was meant to provoke as much as it was meant to be played loud.
Why Them:
Skin did not wait for rock or metal to make space for her. She took it, reshaped it, and dared audiences to keep up.
At a time when alternative heavy music still centered a very narrow image of who could lead a band, she stood onstage fearless, political, and completely undeniable.
Her presence challenged racism, sexism, and homophobia simply by existing at the top of the bill.
Skin is proof that rebellion is not just distortion and volume. Sometimes rebellion is visibility itself. She changed what a rock icon could look like, and generations of artists are still walking through the door she kicked open.
Women in Metal: Diamond Rowe – Tetrarch
Moment: I’m Not Right – Unstable 2021
Diamond’s lead work brought the “guitar hero” energy back to the forefront of nu-metal.
This track is the undeniable catalyst for Tetrarch’s rise. It showcased their ability to blend modern nu-metal aesthetics with a fierce, heavy edge, earning them a spot on major radio rotations and tours with giants like Lamb of God and Sevendust.
Diamond Rowe’s innovative leads combined with Josh Fore’s raw vocals made this the definitive “we have arrived” statement.
Deep Cut: Oddity – Freak 2017
Before they were topping charts, Tetrarch was honing a much rawer, thrash-influenced nu-metal sound.
“Oddity” is the perfect deep cut because it’s the bridge between their early underground metalcore roots and the polished juggernaut they are now.
It features that same eerie atmosphere they’re known for today but with a more frantic, “garage-shred” energy that fans of their early EPs swear by.
This deep cut represents their hustle in the independent era that built the foundation of the band’s identity before the industry took notice.
Why Them:
For decades, guitar culture treated women as exceptions instead of innovators.
Diamond Rowe quietly dismantles that idea every time she picks up her instrument.
She is not a novelty and she is not a token presence. She is a riff writer, a tone architect, and a modern guitar hero in the truest sense of the word.
Seeing a Black woman leading the direction of a heavy band is the definitive middle finger to a status quo that has spent far too long trying to gatekeep the mosh pit.
Especially in a genre that has historically struggled with representation.
Diamond is not asking to be included in metal’s future. She is actively building it, one crushing riff at a time.
Metal history is full of gatekeepers who believed they were protecting the genre. Time keeps proving they were only slowing it down.
The women in this chapter did not ask to be included in metal’s story. They rewrote it through volume, vision, and refusal to disappear. The future of heavy music does not arrive politely. It arrives loud, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore.
Every era of this genre was reshaped by people who were told they did not belong and showed up anyway. The women honored here are not exceptions or symbols.
Their stories are not about overcoming doubt so much as outlasting it. The mountain was never off limits. It was simply waiting for new voices loud enough to claim it.
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 music.” It’s a time-ripping journey through genres, eras, sounds, and revolutions. Each feature dives into how these artists rewrote their own rules, their riffs, their philosophies and 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, Tatiana Shmailyuk and more have been featured. 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.
- Ministry of Metal – A satirical authority devoted to the laws, rituals, and unspoken rules of heavy music. Proclamations, decrees, cultural edicts, and metal lore delivered with humor and bite.
- Metal Legacy Profiles –
Deep dive essays honoring artists who shaped metal’s sound, culture, and philosophy. These aren’t timelines or greatest-hits lists, but examinations of impact, conflict, evolution, and what each figure left behind. - Road Riffs: Metal On The Map– We take metal beyond the speakers and onto the highway, exploring legendary venues, scene-defining cities, historic landmarks, local haunts, and travel stops tied to real
metal scenes around the world that every metalhead should experience.
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.