By DCist contributor Jon Pacella
The genre of heavy metal experienced a significant metamorphosis since its fledgling years decades ago. The wealth and variety of subgenres that define heavy metal today seem to grow exponentially as time goes by; one welcome change within the genre is the increasing presence of women. With an abundance of metal festivals around the globe, one festival close to home is shining the spotlight on women in metal. After a two-year hiatus, the Flight of the Valkyries Festival returns to Baltimore on Saturday, January 10th at Metro Gallery. The festival brings together some of the region’s top female-fronted metal bands on one stage. Appearing this year will be D.C.’s A Sound of Thunder, MindMaze and Echoes Never Lie from Pennsylvania, Spellborne from Virginia, and Baltimore’s own Sekengard.
Flight of the Valkyries began in 2007 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Reflecting back on the inaugural show, original co-founder Bobbie Dickerson recalls:
“I desperately wanted it to be successful. It had always been a dream of mine to have a festival like Metal Female Voices Fest here in the United States. This was our chance to see something like that as a reality.”
The festival grew, and after the subsequent two shows remaining in St. Paul, Dickerson took the helm and moved it to Baltimore in 2010, primarily because “I was just a passionate fan who wanted to help this festival. Then, with no one else at the helm in 2010 I felt compelled to do more, especially since I had been there from the beginning. If Nathan [Block, original FotV co-founder] couldn’t do it, than I need to. FotV had brought so many people together and made so many people happy, including me.”
From nu-metal to black metal and everything in between, there are now more women than ever before waving the metal flag. Bands like Nightwish, Myrkur, Arch Enemy, Huntress, Shroud Eater, and Kylesa, just to name a scant few, have brought women up to the vanguard, and have forged a seat on the iron throne of metal among their male peers. In talking to Dickerson about the role of women in metal, she affirms that “women have always played a part of the metal scene in one way or another, even if it was just behind the scenes.” She adds that “ladies like that made a point not to just be viewed as pretty faces, but as real forces to be reckoned with in the metal world.”
As to whether the increasing presence of women in metal is part of a movement or a permanent part of the bigger picture, she muses that she’s never really thought about women in hard rock and metal as movement, but rather “just another piece of the big picture” of the ever-transformative metal scene. “We’ve been enjoying and performing this style of music, almost as long as the men in the genre,” Dickerson says, “but because women are sometimes seen as soft and weak, it’s taken us a bit longer to prove our worth.”
When asked where she sees Flight of the Valkyries growing beyond 2015, Dickerson is optimistic: “my hope is to move [the festival] back to being in the summer months, like we originally were in Minnesota, and continue things annually starting this summer of 2015. Eventually I would also like to grow the festival into two days. I have lots of great ideas for what could be, but right now my focus is on letting people know we are back and re-building our fan base here on the east coast and the U.S..”
DCist had an opportunity to talk with some of the artists on the bill about Flight of the Valkyries, their influences, and women in metal.
DCist: What does playing a show like Flight of the Valkyries mean to you personally?
Sarah Stepanik, Sekengard: I like being an inspiration to other people. If I can inspire girls and women to be badass metal chicks, that’s awesome. Putting on festivals to do that same thing is incredible.
Sarah Teets, MindMaze: It’s always great to play shows that support female-fronted metal bands. The community supportin female-fronted metal bands always makes for a great show environment and a lot of fun.
DCist: In earlier days, who were some of your female musical idols and influences?
Zosia West, Echoes Never Lie: Amy Lee of Evanescence in my adolescence…and still dear to my heart. I really tried to emulate her but as I got older I realized it wasn’t about copying it was about finding your own you. I also am a big fan of In This Moment. I really appreciate Maria [Brink] as a vocalist and also how she meshed different genres in her new album.
Stepanik: I grew up with Arch Enemy with Angela Gossow and Nightwish with Tarja Turunen while in middle school. In high school I got introduced to folk metal, specifically Eluveitie and their fiddle player Meri Tadic.
DCist: What inspired you to play metal? What drew you to the genre?
Lexia Rayne, Spellborne: I went to school for classical voice and discovered that the rigidity of it was not for me. There really isn’t any freedom of expression in a Mozart aria. I still wanted to use that side of my voice, but in a way that allowed me to be creative. I discovered that there was an entire genre of music that would allow me to have both, and I sought it out. Now I get to use my training in my own way.
Teets: Well, I got into rock and metal music around the time I was 12 years old and once I started getting into it, I really didn’t stop. It more or less completely consumed me and I was very into playing music. I play the flute and oboe and I was very into playing in different school band groups. Once I got into metal, it really just seemed like the only thing to do.
DCist: The metal world has been male-dominated since its beginnings. Has it been a tough road to be seen as equals in the genre?
West: In the beginning, when I started this journey in 2010, hands down yes. You don’t get respect and [were] viewed as a sexual object. That’s why I always painted my face and still continued to do so. I wanted to be viewed for the music. I feel today though it’s getting better. I just feel you need to be the better person and just rise above if people give you crap cause you’re a female.
Stepanik: I can’t speak for most women, as I’m usually seen as one of the guys by most of my friends. I’m not even the girliest one in Sekengard, and I’m the only girl. But I’ve not seen it as tough. Everyone that I’ve encountered thus far has been beyond supportive. I’ve pretty much always been seen as an equal.
DCist: With the number of women in metal increasing at a rapid rate, how do you see the metal landscape changing in the years to come?
Rayne: Hopefully, the trend will continue. I think it’s great that so many women are taking the challenge of this male-driven society head on. There needs to be more female voices making music that’s worth listening to.
West: I hope we all just find our place in this genre and continue to support each other. I believe woman in metal are a different breed and I say that in a positive way!
DCist: Do you think the playing field has leveled somewhat in recent years, or does it still have a ways to go yet?
Teets: I definitely think things have come a long way in that regard. Ten years ago, when we first formed a band and I started singing metal music, there were really only a handful of popular and successful female fronted bands, but over the past ten years it’s almost blown up into some sort of trend. So many bands these days have female singers and there is a strong community of people who particularly like female fronted metal bands. It’s exactly what they want to hear, so the playing field has been leveled quite a bit.
Rayne: There has definitely been an increase in interest lately, so it’s a step in the right direction. We just have to keep working on making the kind of music that’s impossible to deny us as metal musicians.
Flight of the Valkyries 6 is this Saturday, January 10th at Metro Gallery in Baltimore, Md.
ALL AGES 5pm Doors/6pm Show | Tickets $12 Adv /$15 Door
