The statement that women should not play black metal, made by Anne Karin Frestad in an interview with the newspaper Dagavisen in 2004, shocked many fans of heavy music. She explained her point of view with the fact that this style of royalty free music by definition has to be extreme and harsh, so it doesn’t accept anything “nice”.
– I think women have no business being in the black metal scene. They just don’t have the right “outlook”, and from the outside it looks like they want to be something they are not. The quality level of Norwegian black metal is very, very high, so it’s hard to match it. But the unspoken law allows everyone to at least try.
Silje Wergeland from the Bergen band Octavia Sperati is one of those who tried, and she succeeded in achieving considerable success, although in the genre of doom metal rather than black metal. Octavia Sperati was the first female heavy metal band in Norway to manage to sign an international record deal for their albums, and they signed it with British record company Candlelight Records in 2004. Silje says a man could never make such a point without being accused of male chauvinism, but nevertheless she doesn’t deny that maybe Frestad has a point:
– After all, we’re talking about black metal, a tough and obviously masculine genre. It might look really unnatural if a female band was as loud as a male one, because a lot of Norwegian male bands are into a very rough style. But I’m pretty sure that if they really wanted to, women can play this kind of music just as well, take for example foreign black metal artists who are successful,” says Vergeland.
Metal has always been a man’s territory, and many of those who play heavy music maintain and continue to reinforce the belief that male chauvinism should rule here, and a woman can only be an integral attribute of the backstage life, like a bottle of whiskey. The videos are usually full of half-naked women who serve only as decoration and nothing else. British writer Seb Hunter explains this phenomenon in his book on metal music, ‘Hell Bent for Leather’: “Traditionally in heavy metal, women had only two requirements: 1) Take care of us and take care of us, cook us food and clean the vomit off our leather jackets. 2) And be kind enough to look so that we want to sleep with you.”
The few celebrated women who make music in the genre, like Girlschool, Lita Ford, Suzi Quatro and Runaways/Joan Jett, have been most successful in the melodic heavy metal genre. The latter stated in one interview, “Women have balls too, they’re just a little higher up.” In the ’80s, Tove Teigberget of the band Tindrum and Swedish-Norwegian singer Tone Norum were among the few women performing music of the genre in their homeland. Tone was the younger sister of John Norum of the band Europe, and for some time she dated their singer Joey Tempest. She released a few solo albums, but she was rather the exception that confirmed the rule.
Heavy metal was always in constant evolution, and there were always new subgenres sprouting from it, such as industrial, black metal and gothic metal. Gothic metal was the genre closest to the spirit of the majority of women-musicians, mainly because the core of it is the classic female vocals. The concept of gothic metal originally comes from literature, but as an echo of punk culture it became a real part of the music world. Gradually, the genre developed into a completely independent subculture based on dark rock, morbid mood and the style of horror movies. The gothic style is characterized by theatricality, white skin, long black hair and black clothing. Women have always been key figures in Gothic culture, in no small part visually. Many consider the American red-haired singer and songwriter Tori Amos to be the trendsetter and musical inspiration, while in her home country Norway in the early ’90s Kari Rueslåtten was the epitome of the ideal. It is her mesmerizing voice that comes through in the compositions of The 3rd & The Mortal, a metal band whose style was influenced by gothic culture. They usually performed in suits of velvet and lace, the stage was filled with flickering candles, and Kari came to be referred to as “Sissel Kirkeboe of the death metal genre”.
To be continued…
