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Why so few all female metal bands?


Strawberry

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I discovered a great all female Death Metal band from New York called "Castrator". Check them out if you get a chance!  Dramaticmeow, i understand what you are saying about why there is not many all females bands in metal.  Truly get it.  What's more shocking is the kind of questions guys ask you like you posted above. 

I've never ever asked female bands those things or would i even think of it, and i have talked to a few at least! 

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With a name like Castrator I really had no choice but to check them out. Judging by this track alone they're decent to good, certainly appear to be more than competent musicians, but the music is not knocking my socks off. Cool as shit to see more women entering the field of extreme metal though, I wish them well.

 

Castrator - Tyrant's Verdict

 

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  • 2 months later...

Being a female, it's kind of hard to find other girls who are into metal music. I know a few people who listen to some classic rock bands and stuff, but that's really the most heavy girls I know listen to. Personally, it's kind of awkward for me being the only one of my friends who actually listens to a variety of metal bands, and even if I formed a band with my female friends, I highly doubt it would be metal! If anything, it would probably be pop music or something, but I don't even really listen to a lot of pop music. I can't even discuss metal with my friends because no one's gonna have any idea what I'm talking about. Even if I do, there's few comments about what I say before the conversation goes into something else. I know there are females out there that do listen to metal music, but where I go to school, literally no other girl does (I go to a really small school). 

Also, many girls have the opinion that within the metal genre, girls can't scream. However, I've been able to prove a few of my friends wrong by showing them a few metal bands that are female fronted, but even some of them still don't think much of it. They kind of just shrugged it off. I personally don't know how to scream myself (at least in a way that won't harm my voice), so I can't even take up that role myself, even if I wanted to -- unless I learned, of course. I would like to, but I'm also nervous because I don't want my parents thinking there's a "demon" in my room. 

There's still comments about females not being able to play the guitar or the drums, or pretty much any instrument that's not the piano or violin. And that something that can pretty much be not very motivating for people. I've seen so many videos of females playing instruments of all types, and I've even picked up drum lessons myself in the past, so I know a thing or two about the drums. While I don't play anymore do to scheduling issues, the drums are definitely something I'd go back to learning, most likely on my own time.

I think the idea of an all female metal band is pretty fucking cool, so it does suck that there's just a few out there. I would love to see more emerge in the future.

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On 8/24/2022 at 12:26 PM, VixenRaves said:

Being a female, it's kind of hard to find other girls who are into metal music. I know a few people who listen to some classic rock bands and stuff, but that's really the most heavy girls I know listen to.

Unfortunately, that kind of comes with the territory when you're a fan of metal. It's a pretty niche market even when you're a guy, let alone a girl looking for other girls with similar tastes.

 

On 8/24/2022 at 12:26 PM, VixenRaves said:

Also, many girls have the opinion that within the metal genre, girls can't scream. However, I've been able to prove a few of my friends wrong by showing them a few metal bands that are female fronted, but even some of them still don't think much of it.

Then you duct tape them to a chair and make them listen to Mythic, Savage Necromancy, and Derketa until they get this stupid notion out of their heads.

Mythic - Anthology

 

Savage Necromancy - Feathers Fall To Flames

 

DERKÉTA - In Death We Meet

 

 

 

On 8/24/2022 at 12:26 PM, VixenRaves said:

There's still comments about females not being able to play the guitar or the drums, or pretty much any instrument that's not the piano or violin.

Then you duct tape them to a chair and make them listen to Bolt Thrower, Crypta and Nervosa until they get that crazy notion out of their heads

 

Bolt Thrower - Unleashed (Upon Mankind)

Jo Bench is the bass player

 

CRYPTA - I Resign

 

NERVOSA - Kill The Silence

 

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There are a smattering of female fronted, or all female bands out there but females are certainly underrepresented in metal.

 

As for learning to scream/growl you might be able to find a metal focused vocal coach online. That won’t YouTube tutorials, it’s important to make sure you understand the technique and how it works before trying yourself.

 

or YouTube sorry

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43 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

There are a smattering of female fronted, or all female bands out there

Only by comparison...There's more than enough bands out there with women members to keep anyone interested occupied for a long time. Just google the website "The Queens of Scream" to get an idea how many of them there really exist

 

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15 hours ago, VixenRaves said:

There's still comments about females not being able to play the guitar or the drums, or pretty much any instrument that's not the piano or violin.

These people have obviously never experienced the magnificense that is The Great Kat.

The Great Kat - Flight of the bumblebee

 

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8 hours ago, Sheol said:

These people have obviously never experienced the magnificense that is The Great Kat.

The Great Kat - Flight of the bumblebee

 

She's awesome! I just hate the notion that some people think women can't play those types of instruments, even though there are many who can, just like The Great Kat. I know there are people out there who know women can play these instruments, but there's unfortunately still some people out there that still think that they can't.

I'm definitely showing this video to people next time I hear those remarks again.

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18 hours ago, VixenRaves said:

I know there are people out there who know women can play these instruments, but there's unfortunately still some people out there that still think that they can't.

Haha yeah, and just like in all aspects of life there's a sub-section of people who actively don't want women to enter, inhabit or flourish in "their" spaces. And they would much rather remain willfully ignorant and pretend women can't play guitars or scream, than acknowledge that their "boys club" is as diminishing as their hairline.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think it's almost entirely, if not completely, a socialization issue. Whether people who grew up female realize it or not, they have been raised in a patriarchal culture (I know they're out there, but matriarchal cultures are few in number). In many everyday cases, women are subliminally harassed, and in some cases threatened, to not have any show of female authority, or be in a situation where they are not deferred to male occupation.

 

Just about all of the metalheads I interact with in real life were assigned female at birth, but I have a very hard time finding many all-female metal bands. If a female metal band contributes to metal and metal subgenres, this could reinvigorate misogynistic ideals from the male dominated metal scene, and either put the females under distinct scrutiny. This would, and does, send messages to other females/women in the metal scene that they somehow aren't worthy of contributing. These are just my thoughts, and I'm sure something's missing from them.

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1 hour ago, LocalRadical56 said:

I think it's almost entirely, if not completely, a socialization issue. Whether people who grew up female realize it or not, they have been raised in a patriarchal culture (I know they're out there, but matriarchal cultures are few in number). In many everyday cases, women are subliminally harassed, and in some cases threatened, to not have any show of female authority, or be in a situation where they are not deferred to male occupation.

Just about all of the metalheads I interact with in real life were assigned female at birth, but I have a very hard time finding many all-female metal bands. If a female metal band contributes to metal and metal subgenres, this could reinvigorate misogynistic ideals from the male dominated metal scene, and either put the females under distinct scrutiny. This would, and does, send messages to other females/women in the metal scene that they somehow aren't worthy of contributing. These are just my thoughts, and I'm sure something's missing from them.

Welcome to the forum Erin.

It is certainly true that matriarchal cultures are relatively few in number. My question is why do you think that the overwhelming majority of cultures on this planet have developed as patriarchal? Do you think it was just random coincidence or might there have been a multitude of reasons for this? I think a lot of people look at our lives now in modern western 1st world society and forget that for thousands of years life was nothing like we see it today. Up until the 20th century human beings in general male and female alike had a very difficult time just trying to survive, put food on the table and a roof over their heads and navigate their way through life. 

It's only within the last 100 years or so that society and technology and infrastructure have advanced to the point where most people's lives have gotten realtively easy now. We take so much for granted now in the 21st century that people even 75 years ago wouldn't have ever dreamed possible. And so now that we've gotten to this point it's natural to question the patriarchy because many of the reasons that societies developed as patriarchal 2,000 years ago are no longer relevant. And that's fine, I'm all for women having equal rights and equal opportunities and equal power and a seat at the table and all that kinda thing, and I think most people these days would agree. Outside of certain physical feats of strength where men have the edge, I don't think there's anything women can't do anymore and do quite well if they're so inclined.

But I don't think you can expect people's attitudes that could enable this kind of profound societal overhaul to change overnight. Certain jobs and certain activities and hobbies and interests are always going to be dominated by men. Not because we're keeping women out, but because whether it's due to nature or nurture or something else entirely, clearly women and men have shown distinctly different tendencies when they're choosing things like careers and hobbies and interests. There will always be exceptions though, men who like traditionlly female things and women who enjoy traditionally male things. Clearly there are many women who do enjoy listening to and playing what's traditionally been the male dominated diversion of heavy metal. I think at least anecdotally, almost all the male metalheads I talk to think it's absolutely fantastic to have more women participate and contribute to heavy metal both from the musician side and from the fan side. I'm not saying that misogyny doesn't exist in the metal world because I think we all know that it does. But I do think attitudes have changed a lot over the last 40 years and while I admit that I could be wrong, I don't see misogyny in the metal world as being as universally pervasive as it used to be and some people claim it still is.

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