Affectionately called this
The term “girl metal” has been in vogue recently.
In short, a heavy metal band with a female vocalist is affectionately called this.
If only the bassist, not the vocalist, is a woman, it is not called “girl metal”.
It is a very visual classification, as long as the frontman is a woman.
The two main categories
The two main categories are as follows.
(1) Only the vocalist is female
(2) All members are female
Theoretically, there may be a girl metal band that does not belong to either category, but I do not know of any.
The first band that fits into (1) would be “Arch Enemy”.
Angela Gossow is popular for her growl, which is as good as her male counterpart’s.
Other bands that seem to be quite diverse in their musicality include the early “Dark Moor”,
“Light This City”,
“Iwrestledabearonce”,
“I Hate Sally,” and others.
In Japan, “Jurassic Jade” is the oldest.
Speaking of (2), “Phantom Blue”, “Aldious”,
etc., seem to be quite few in number.
Why include female members?
The main reason is visual.
Anyway, just having a female member is probably a big deal for male fans.
However, this visual effect is very far from art theory, so I will not mention it here.
There are still many evaluations such as, “It’s amazing for a woman,” or “I thought it was a man’s voice.
I hope that we will be able to get such evaluations as “A man can’t do this” or “This is a woman’s unique charm.
November 24,2022
(Postscript)
This article was written in 2011.
I have changed my mind since then, so I have cut out some sentences that I didn’t like.
However, it has been more than 10 years since I wrote this article.
I can say that the metal world has changed a lot since I wrote this article.
First of all, the term “girl metal” itself is no longer used.
The number of female metal bands has increased, so there is no longer a need to differentiate between them.
It is no longer unusual to find bands with all-female members. The list is endless with bands like “Mary’s Blood”,
“Band-Maid”,
“Lovebites”,
and so on.
The ultimate example is “Babymetal”, a completely new style of music, and in many ways, their arrival at the scene was a turning point in the history of music.
“Arch Enemy” has become even more popular since the change of vocalist to Alissa White-Gluz.
“Light This City”, “Iwrestledabearonce”, and “I Hate Sally” have broken up.
“Jurassic Jade” is still going strong.
I miss “Phantom Blue”, I think they were a good band.
As you know, “Aldious” is still going strong.
The above discussion about the visual aspect being the reason for including women in a band is now outdated.
There are many bands that have charms that only a man cannot have, or that only a woman can have.
The metal world may have become genderless ahead of other fields, although there are calls for the advancement of women in various fields.
September 20,2022 Freakz
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