How Women are Conquering Metal 

I will only disagree with the last statement. I think that the future of Metal belongs to everyone who is drawn to it and likes it, regardless of gender, religion, social status or any other category that is used today to put people against each other. United we stand, united we never shall fall 🤘

Don’t overlook all the amazing all-female Metal bands in Japan. Here are just a few bands you should know: - Lovebites - Nemophila - Hanabie - Aldeous - Mary’s Blood And all-female Hard Rock bands: - BAND-MAID - Trident - Gacharic Spin - DOLL$BOXX And all-female Hard Core Punk Rock: - OTOBOKE BEAVER And all-female pioneering bands from the 80s: - SHOW-YA - Princess Princess And female-fronted Metal bands: - Unlucky Morpheous - Asterism

The future of metal is more metal. Who cares whether it is male or female.

4:12 Lemmy 🥲 He was a REAL one. Gone but not forgotten! 🤘

I'm almost 50 and i don't remember metal being something "for males only". On the contrary, the most passionate people about metal i met in my life were mostly girls. And especially at concerts. Grew up as a child listenign to stuff like Doro Pesch, Wendy O Williams, Leather Leone, Ann Boleyn, Silvie Lacroix, Lita ford and Joan Jett.. As an adult i fell in love with Liv Kristine Espenas, Anneke Von Giersbergen, Cristina Scabbia,Tarja Turunen, Sharon Den Adel, Simone Simmons, Alyssa WG, Maria Brink, Vibeke Stene, Floor Jansen, Amy Lee, Ailyn, Tatiana Shmayluk, Cammie Gilbert and Lena Scissorhands. There were always female leaders in metal, and there was always plenty of girls listening to metal. Like for everything else i guess. But this documentary put it down like it's something knew and shocking. Wtf?

I am a 52 yo woman metal head. I have been this way pretty much all my life. When I was in school, I was treated like girls were not supposed to like or listen to metal. It used to be so frustrating. Times have definitely changed. Doro Pesch (WARLOCK) was my idol. Even though i liked harder metal. There wasnt any female metal bands out there that i knew of, or any femals that played. Thank you Doro Pesch!!! ❤

Tatiana from Jinjer, she opened my mind to women in metal and now that is all I listen to especially Jinjer, Spiritbox, Infected Rain, Once Human and Venom Prison

I agree, this year my favorite band on Apple Music was The Warning: 3 sister Rock band from Mexico 🎸🥁🎤

Don't forget early American bands like the Runaways (launching the careers of Lita Ford and Joan Jett), Hellion (whose front woman, Anne Boleyn, coined the term "speed metal" and founded New Renaissance Records), Sentinel Beast, Bitch, and Chastain (all with women singers).

me as a brazilian woman, i really thought i would see Crypta here but i'm happy seeing Nervosa as well! haha i love them both. great video! i'm new to the scene so it's really nice to know more about who started it.

What a great report! Congratulations to the reporter and producers for putting together such a complete look at women in heavy metal: the pioneers, the clothes, the vocals, the psychological side, prejudice, sexual harassment and women who make metal in countries where citizens have less freedom. Women have always been part of metal and always will be.

Had the privilege to meet Nervosa when they played Bradford last year. A great band, delightful positive people and excellent spokespersons for metal and thrash 🤘

My favorite band currently is Lovebites (an all female power/thrash/heavy rock band from Japan.

Yo soy alemán de origen, pero vivo en México y también aquí hay un buen Metal de mujeres: The Warning The Hellish Everlight Aryem Anna Fiori She No More Flores y Fuego Medvsa Menos Humanos Paramore Checan sus videos para conocerlas. Hay muchos más grupos. Que viva el Rock!!!

The Warning stands out as having a clear and powerful sound and quite diverse (Evolve, More, 23, Revenant, Choke, Martirio as clear examples!). They lives are tight and with an unusual good sound quality.

The future belongs to the women and men. My favorite female (or with female members) metal/rock bands- Nuclear Death, Derketa, Mythic, Nervosa, Crypta, Girlschool, The Runaways, Fanny, Cultus Profano, Holy Moses, Warlock/Doro, Unholy Altar, Asagraum, Astarte, Gallhammer, Znowhite, Phantom Blue, Headpins, Janis Joplin, Wargod, Burning Witches, Madam X, Vixen, Smashed Gladys, Snap Her, Huntress, Chelsea Wolfe, Coven, Diamanda Galas, The Bags, The Slits, Plasmatics/Wendy O Williams.

I'm listing a few Brazilian bands with female members. - Crypta (all female) - Nervosa (all female) - Torture Squad (singer) - Innocence Lost (singer) - InRaza (singer) - Able to Return (singer) - Brightstorm (singer)

Nervosa, Crypta. Cobra Spell, Lovebites, Burning Witches. That would be an insane summer festival package. All are serious metal.⚡️🎸🤘🏻

You really cant talk about this topic, nor make a video about it without mentioning the all women metal band explosion that has been happening in Japan 🇯🇵 for a decade and a half now. Especially due to the sheer amount of great bands they have produced, and the incredible levels of musicianship and live performances. Plus the Japanese bands have much more reinvented metal by wearing pretty dresses, high heels 👠, and looking very feminine while playing hard, loud, high octane metal. They have really created a fresh take on metal overall...

Excellent video! Learned of a few new bands that rip! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Kittie and Otep are two bands I'm familiar with. Saw Kittie twice, and they put on a great show. Nice seeing more women in the crowd at their show, too.

Metal belongs to Everyone (Women & Men). Horns Up! 😈🤘

She is retired now, but I have such respect for Angela Gossow and what she achieved fronting Arch Enemy. Big fan of Kittie, Inffected rain. Darkened Nocturne Slaughter Cult, Cryptia. Escuela Grind.

It is so wonderful to see more and more women being recognized for their talent in the metal scene! It used to be so niche and now it is becoming way more common! Also as a woman, I have always felt safe at metal shows. Even being in the mosh pit or crowd surfing I have never had a bad experience and people do look out for eachother.

Ever heard of „the Warning“? 3 young ladies from Mexico. They will perform at Wacken this year. Also they are touring in Europe this April. Most of the venues have been upgraded because of the overwhelming response !

As a MetalHead Skate Punk since early teens, I never really felt any distinction between Male and Female bands/singers. I was just as much into Nightwish, Girlschool, Warlock/Doro, Rock Goddess, Runaways and Plasmatics/Wendy O WIlliams as I was into Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, DIo, WASP and everything else. I never really thought much about the gender of the band where the music was concerned. Being a Gay guy may also be a part of that, since the gender only influenced who I may have had a crush on, not the music or whether I liked the band's work. LOL. So it has never mattered to me.

Thanks for the doc, great!

Listen to some Japanese all girl band like Hanabie, Bandmaid and Lovebites. And bands like Arch enemy, Nightwish, Sirenia...

Pretty sure women were always playing metal tho. Phantom Blue, old bassist for white zombie, Lita Ford, Joan Jett back when sabbath was considered metal, Wendy o. Williams, meh it's not like I remember them all. I just rarely met many irl.

I'm glad you made this video. Just this year I've seen The Warning and Plush. Both are all-female metal groups, the former from Mexico and the latter from New York state. I love Burning witches and Cobra Spell. Cobra Spell is an all-female group, with members from Holland and Spain. The future's bright for women in metal. If it matters, I'm a 69 year old male, so this isn't just some rah-rah cheerleading.

Additional to Gregs list: Voice of Baceprot (Indonesia), Punk from GEL, SCROWL (US).

Great documentary!!

Great documentary! In North America, Spiritbox has a Grammy nominated song. Also 10 year old Harper made it to the semi finals on America's Got Talent

Women in Metal has been am ongoing subject in several papers I wrote for my undergraduate degree in Anthropology. You may be interested to know Japan has the highest participation rate of women in heavy metal.

Very good documentary. I would like to see more of this.

Amazing report. Thank you!

A great report. There are so many bands out there either all-women, or mixed gender, who are delivering great music, and with great messaging from a new perspective - bands like Svalbard with 'What was she wearing' and Nervosa with 'Kill the Silence' for example. There are so so many bands to check out but some off the top of my head include: Introtyl, Asagraum, Lovebites, Sisters of Suffocation, Vixen, Frantic Amber, Cobra Spell, Jill Janus in Huntress, Kittie, and on and on. There is much brilliant music from women, and I'm so pleased to see this doco even start to expose these amazing performers... \m/

Some of my current favourite artists are female. It kind of started with Japans all female bands. But it kind of fanned out from there. I believe the sisters in the Mexican hard-rock band The Warning can have a bright future. Warming up for biggies as Halestorm, GnR, Foo Fighters and MUSE (who also invited them to do some concerts on their European tour), and got a reputation of being a very good live band. They also got a short segment at the VMA this year, which they got a LOT of credit for.

I loved this video! ❤️ my band is called EVEREAL and we are a metal band based out of 🇨🇦 CANADA!!!

This is wonderful, thank you

I think Lovebites is the best all female metal band today. I love Band-Maid too.

Great topic, but you left out Japan, now arguably the most prolific incubator of all-female heavy metal bands. One such band, LOVEBITES performed an Wacken (2018), and won for the award for the best new metal band (male and female) that same year.

Really great piece!!!

My metal journey began with Nightwish in the 90s. Later on I became a great fan of Arch Enemy. I also like to hear Cruzified Barbara, Nervosa and many more. Thanks for that awesome documentary.

I listen to Unleash the Archers. Brittney Slayes is amazing!

There have always been women in heavier metal, like Windy O Williams in The Plasmatics, and Jen from the Genitortuers. There's Debbie Gunn from Sentinel Beast. They released their lp 'Depths of Death' in the mid80s. She's an awesome growler vocalist, one of the first in the Thrash metal genre. There's more female musicians who've gone unnoticed by 'mainstream'. The growls come from the diaphram and vocal chords are strenghtened and warmed up by doing a lot of humming, hum as if you're singing.

@DWHistoryandCulture - This was a fantastic video! I support female rock bands. Please do another video about the younger female bands that are breaking out right now! The Warning, Plush, Band Maid, Larkin Poe and so many others!!! Mahalo, Danke, Merci, Muchas Gracias!!!

Wow, this is the best music documentary ive seen in a long time

Women in metal exist since the very begining. Make your homework DW.

If there's Nervosa, there's also Crypta. Three is also a guitarist Nita Strauss. Plus Japanese bands - LOVEBITES, Nemophila, Hanabie, Show-Ya. This was the first thing that came to my mind. And there are many vocalists and other members of metal bands. Yes. The future belongs to women.

I just saw The Iron Maiden’s and Burning Witches live for the first time this year and they kicked ass. Those girls put on a better show than some of the male driven bands I’ve seen. I’ve been discovering a lot more female bands and this documentary has shown more bands that I need to check out.

You have to see 3 mexican girls called "The Warning". They're just fantastic.

Kickass job on the video man. I love videos like these plus I might discover new bands I never heard of. Gotta say thought im quite surprised you didnt mention anyone from Japan. Since 2008 starting with Aldious and still going strong to this day. There are so many now its hard to keep up with but I would say right now the big 4 is Lovebites, Nemophila, Babymetal, and Hanabie(big 5 if you want to include Band-Maid but their mainly hard rock but very popular)

A topic in this direction is looking at Japan. The all female heavy metal bands and mixed band is exploding over there!

I’d never heard of Slave to Sirens before watching this video, and now I’m a fan for life, thank you for introducing me!!

I was one of the fortunate metal heads who got into Wacken 2023 and it was the first time I got to see Nervosa live and they were amazing !!!

The Warning are an incredible 3 sister band. Maybe not classifiable as metal. But they are playing Wacken in 2024.

This is a superb and informative history lesson on the rise of women in metal. As a lifelong fan of metal is has been so exciting seeing women become a bigger and bigger presence in the metalverse, and now not just a presence but an influencer too. Women are starting bands, innovating existing genres and even inventing new genres. The future of metal is more promising and optimistic than its ever been thanks to women! 🤘

Can’t forget Maria Brink from In This Moment. Their first 3-4 albums are 🔥🔥🔥 Jinjer is a new fave of mine too!!!

I saw Joan Jett and Doro Pesch live back in the 80s. Vixen was another favorite of mine. Nowadays I'm pretty much addicted to Burning Witches! Also Frozen Crown, Dorothy, Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless...so many, so rockin' great!

One all-girl metal band that surprised me this year is Hellcats from Slovenia. Check them out, because there is more to this country than Laibach. :) The Lizzies from Spain were a fantastic band. They stopped playing during the pandemic unfortunately, but saw them live in Berlin in 2019 and they were absolutely fantastic. Thundermother from Sweden are pretty cool, too - they had male members sometimes throughout the years, I believe - but they are still strongly marked by its female founder and its different female vocalists. This is an interesting film including some bands I had never heard of, and some very valid points were made. Well done.

Doro is a Metal Goddess!!!!🤟🏾🤟🏾 I remember a power metal band of females called Meanstreak, I could only find one release of theirs.

Been on a big female-led metal lick the last few years with Burning Witches at the top of my list. Avatarium is right up there too and of course, Huntress.

Cool doc... covers a solid range of topics and artists... over a decade ago, I pitched the idea of a full length feature on women in metal, but couldn't get the traction to fund it. Glad to see there is more mainstream interest in such - I might have to dig the pitch out and try again!

Japan gave now a lot of top notch bands_Band Maid, Lovebites, Nemophila, Hanabie etc. There are yet superb bands like the Warning from Mexico and VOB from Indonesia and yet Baby Metal from Japan (ladies) with Kami band (male musicians) but this is super pop metal production they sing one song with Bring Me The Horizon. Next year Japanese bands will take part at the following festivals. Lovebites and Baby Metal_Rock Imperium Festival _Cartagena_ Spain, Resurrection Fest. Galicia - Spain, Hellfest France. Clisson - France, ProgPower USA Festival. Atlanta, Georgia - USA. Baby Metal performed this year with Sabaton and now has worldwide tour. Nemophila and Band Maid toured this year in US. VOB performed last 2022 year in Wacken. Lovebites performed in 2018 at Wacken as the best new metal band awarded by Metal Hamer magazine.

Totally agree. Most innovative metal bands I found recently are formed by girls (and in most cases, they're not from USA nor UK). Congratulations on the video, it's superb!

halestorm, in this moment, laguna coil, so many other good bands with female singers

Excellent and informative reporting for women of metal who have been here forever! Metal is for all. Thanks for the diversification within

Even though there have been women in hard rock & heavy metal since the 70's & 80's, it is more prevalent now. Thank you for both making this documentary & for standing up for women in metal. Even though I look like a mom (because I am), I was raised on heavy rock since I was literally in the crib. So it really was not much of a leap to heavy metal. I first fell in love with that sound of freedom in the 80's beginning with Metallica & it just exploded for me from there. I will be a metal head through infinity.

When mentioning early 2000 Music... Why use a picture of Floor Jansen? For those of us who remember, it was Tarja Turunen who was there in that time 🙏🔥 14:26

Excellent video! I did not think that DW could be a strong competitor to ARTE, congrats!

Thank you for covering the subject. I guess there are some omission. There are some projects and women very much active and independent like Chaos Rising Project.

Don't forget the amazing Japanese all-female bands like BAND-MAID, NEMOPHILA, LOVEBITES, TRiDENT, HANABIE, PARADOXX, Bray me, LUMiRiSE, Lonesome_Blue, HAGANE, SHOW-YA, Aldious, Gacharic Spin, East of Eden, Fate Gear, Bridear, Mary’s Blood, Amane Kagura, KOIAI, exist†trace, Cyntia, MUTANT MONSTER, RAISE A SUILEN, SHISHAMO, PaleNeØ, KILLT MELT LAND, Risky Melody, Sirius, HADES, Ark Royal, Muses, Brats, FullMooN, SCANDAL, Silent Siren, Little Lilith, Hump Back, TEAR'S DROP, Empress, ステミレイ-STMLT, EMANON, FERNPLANET.

I absolutely love that women are gaining more and more power in the world of rock and metal! I've always appreciated a woman who could succeed and thrive in any situation, especially in a traditionally male dominated field. From Janis Joplin and Grace Slick in the 60s to Fleetwood Mac in the 70s to Heart, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner in the 80s, and Paramore in the naughty aughties--and now the women are starting to dominate in metal. I was a fan of female fronted Metal bands like Warlock and Femme Fatale and Vixen, but it wasn't until I discovered Jinjer a year ago that my eyes were opened to the world of female harsh vocals and modern metal. That was a game changer for me. I much prefer women doing extreme vocals than men. There's a beauty in the superpowers that metal gives to women. Women have been pushed down way too long in all aspects of society. They are stepping into their own as leaders in every field, and it's way past time for guys to wake up! Now all my new favorite metal bands have women in them. Jinjer, Spiritbox, Arch Enemy, Dream Palace, Ankor, Unleash the Archers, Hanabie, all bring something new and exciting to the world of metal. As an aging metalhead with a daughter who's into metal, I couldn't be happier that women are taking their rightful place as every bit the equal of men in the metal realm! There's nothing wrong with masculinity in metal--as long as it's not toxic. But there's plenty of room for strong femininity too. And there's some masculine and some feminine in us all.

Thanks for this inspiring video, acknowledging the incredible journey of women in metal! Metal is for EVERYONE and that’s a beautiful thing. It really motivated me to move forward with my newly formed Groove metal band, ‘WAR TONIGHT’, from India 🇮🇳

its so nice to see that women in egypt and the middle east and places that are discovering that heavy metal no matter where you are from in the world that genre of music has so much creative freedom and if you want to be recognized for your contributions and being able to harness that aggression and give folks a voice and lift them out of the doldrums or downcast eyes because maybe your afraid of someone or something like wakeup one day and see you have an army of hundreds or thousands of metalheads and the roar of the crowd will really get someone's attention its like superpower like hey you should treat people like that making them afraid for their life that can really have a horrible backlash especially for the folks that want folks to live in fear of everything and everyone

Fantastic documentary and report! I think the metal world as far as participation of women in both the band and the fandom has made lots of progress the last decades and the best is yet to come! Thanks to the pioneers and now with the young girls listening and playing heavy metal, the genre is getting better and richer and more interesting. The fact that in the nineties at concerts you could count the women there with one hand and now you can see women of all ages and also whole families have fun at metal gigs warms my heart and makes me confident that metal has the brightest future. Especially in Japan there’s a female rock and metal revolution there, but also globally with the help of social media and platforms, more and more female musicians and bands are known and appreciated.

Nevosa (female Sepultura), Crypta, Frantic Amber, Jinjer, Kittie, Otep, Arch Enemy, Abnormality, Cebral Bore, Halestorm, In This Moment, Butcher Babies, Evanesance, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Lacuna Coil, Lita Ford are few female bands in both Rock & Metal music I happen to enjoy.

Great speech Prika Amaral . Success to Nervosa

Great video🤘🏼🤘🏼

Even before I started watching this, I was sure that Japanese bands would be ignored, although I don't know what country has so many all-female (not just female-fronted) rock and metal bands. (Not even including rock and metal idol groups) Here is a spontaneous list of all-female Japanese metal bands ... Bridear, Fate Gear, Little Lilith, Lovebites, Nemophila, Hanabie, Show-Ya, PaleNeØ, Pinkish Crown, icontinew, Hagane, Exist Trace, ArkRoyal, FullMooN, Risky Melody, Hades, Lonesome_Blue, LUMiRiSE, Valkyrie Zero, Cran Arcanaria, DOLL$BOXX.

I personally am not into screaming and growling the whole time ,that’s not music .I love the hard rock female bands ..I love what “The Warning “are doing ,not metal but I’m your face rock ..

It's always great to see women being into metal. As a teenager in the 2000s I always found it a bit depressing that some metal shows were total sausage fests lol. Female energy at these events just do something different and it feels even more positive. From a musical perspective, I still have a hard time listening to female metal singers but I support them. Myrkur is one I like. Her voice blends well with the music and I like how she is staying true to herself when she performs rather than trying to copy how men usually do it. Makes it a bit different. The previous singer in Battle Beast also had a killer voice

Greets from Australia - been a metalhead since 78 & I just love female fronted/all female bands of the genre, then & now \m/

The only disagreement I have is that the producers defined heavy metal as must have guttural vocals (at 1:01). People seem to forget that there are many sub-genres to the overall heavy metal sound, the guttural throat growl sound being part of a few but not endemic of all. Metallica, & Iron Maiden don't, Judas Priest has made music with and without it.

Metalheads keep together and look after each other who ewer u are. Female metal 🤘💖

My favorite bands now are: Epica (female vocalist), Nightwish (female vocalist), and the Warning (all sisters band). I do believe female are owning the future of metal.

I love JINJER, SPIRITBOX and just getting into OTEP

The metal scene has never been exclusive or discriminatory to women ever. The past, present, and future belongs to both men and women alike. Unlike, mainstream genres, if you’re a good musician, you’ll get the respect you deserve. That’s it.

I am loving the fact that Metal has become more and more open to women over the last decade, especially. At Download 2023 there were more women in the acts that played that weekend than at all of the prior festivals I or my partner had been to COMBINED. From older guard of Evanescence and Within Temptation, to the up and coming HAWXX, Redhook, and Stand Atlantic, there were some amazing acts that had women in the band in some way.

Ist kein Metal, aber vor einigen Tagen habe ich, durch die Hard'n'Heavy-Sendung "Stahlwerk", die jeden Donnerstagabend auf Radio Fritz läuft, die kanadische All-Female-Punkband Nobro für mich entdeckt. Tolle Melodien. Mein Lieblingssong von Nobro ist "Don't Die".

Vixen!!🤘🏼saw them open for ozzy on the no rest for the wicked tour!! 1988 or 89 I believe. Many years ago! Anyway they were awesome!

i love burning witches , epica , nightwish, crypta, iron maidens

Gallhammer from Japan is a amazing all female black metal band

Ale (Alejandra) 🎸🎤+ Pau (Paulina) 🥁🎤+ Dany (Daniela) 🎤🎸 Villarreal. Three talented Mexican sisters. !!!🎵ole ole ole oleeee Warning Warning🎵¡¡¡. Greetings from Argentina.

A useful counterpoint; but it's music for all. Currently listening to VoB (Voice of Baceprot) from Indonesia. Highly recommended.

Also a good story about women in metal is how Babymetal made J rock/metal popular internationally and how they helped other female bands to be recognized as well.

Japan is a GREAT source of awesome female metal. Anyone watching this absolutely MUST check out the Japanese scene. All-male, all-female, it doesn’t matter…what matters is the MUSIC. Rock on, no matter your gender! 🙇‍♂️🔥🤘🇯🇵💕

Honorable mention to Power Metal, which has the most female members of any sub-genre, inspired by Doro Pesch herself.. Taking soaring vocals and pairing it with epic and intense music. Unleash The Archers, Seven Kingdoms, Seven Spires, Crystal Viper, Smoulder, Lady Beast, Huntress & Lutharo just to name a few.

I recomend Introtyl, from Mexico City. Its a death metal band of 4 women.