Introducing: Extreme Thursday

Thursdays. I never did get the hang of Thursdays. Not quite Friday, but late enough in the week that you're already sick of it. There's only one way to improve a miserable day like this; extreme metal!

Introducing a new series to Femetalism: Extreme Thursday. While many associate female metal musicians and singers with symphonic, gothic or folk metal only, there are loads more kicking ass in the extreme subgenres. From death to thrash, doom to black, there are plenty of bands out there showcasing a huge variety of female talent. In this weekly foray into the deeper, darker, altogether more terrifying end of the metal spectrum I hope to showcase some great artists and albums.

From the incredibly famous to the totally obscure, I hope to find a good range that covers all bases. I'm sure we'll see the mighty Angela Gossow or Somi Arian make an appearance, but also many others who you may not know. In fact, I fully expect that I don't know them yet, but as soon as I do, I'll be sure to let you all know!

Stay tuned. Stay metal.

Elysion release their New Album Someplace Better - January 2014.

Elysion formed in 2006 in Athens, Greece and released their first album, Silent Scr3am, way back in 2009.  The Greek gothic metallers will release Someplace Better, the long awaited follow up, on the 24th of January.

The album has been produced by Mark Adrian at ARTemis Studios in Athens, was mixed by Dan Certa (We Are The Fallen, Ben Moody, Seether) and mastered by David Collins (Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Motlery Crue).  The album art was created by Gustavo Sazes who has worked with bands such as Arch Enemy and Morbid Angel.

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Bandcamp Series: Edenian - Winter Shades (2012)

Edenian was formed in 2010 in Kharkov, Ukraine and is currently made up of Max ‘External Tom’ Molodtsov and Valery Chudentsova. They cite their influences to be artists such as Draconian, Swallow The Sun and Sirenia and those influences are clear on this album.

This album is mesmerising with atmospheric keyboards, intricate guitars and pounding drum beats. My favourite tracks include Winter Shades and The Field Where I Died, both of which make use of the Beauty and the Beast vocals to full effect and both instill a sense of sadness and loneliness in me.

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Bandcamp Series: Solsticio - Lost Souls (2012)

Released in 2012, Lost Souls is the first album from Argentine heavy metal band Solsticio.

Combining Gothic Metal with Argentina’s Tango, this album offers a fabulous mix of both the distinctive tango music and haunting gothic vocals with a metal undertone.  The album delivers with every song, truly beautiful and original.

Favourite tracks for me are Fairy Tale, which starts almost dreamlike but then continues into a multitude of dark and uplifting beats that completely draw you in and Free which has a symphonic style throughout along with a stampede of drums and guitar riffs.

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Crowd Funding and Trees.

Independent music artists are every where at the moment, you won't see them if you just watch the telly, listen to the national radio stations or generally refuse to move away from the dross you are are fed via the mainstream, but it is everywhere.  In every town and city across the world there are people making music and promoting and performing it without any outside support or influence.  This makes me happy, but it also makes me sad.

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Sirenia - Perils of the Deep Blue

In June 2013, Sirenia released their 6th album 'Perils of the Deep Blue'.  The video for  'Seven Widows Deep' was released earlier in June.  Sirenia are a great female fronted gothic metal band from Norway and this album is another solid release with Spanish vocalist Ailyn at the helm.

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Tarja - Colours in the Dark

In September 2013 Tarja Turunen releases her long awaited 4th solo album, Colours in the Dark.  I absolutely love Tara's unique vocal style and really appreciate the operatic/metal musical style that she has been developing and making her own over the last few years since leaving Nightwish.

'Victim of Ritual' was the first single to be released from the album on 12th July and is heavily inspired by Bolero by Maurice Ravel (famously danced to by Torvill and Dean in the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics). It is quite distinctive, certainly at the beginning.  A stunning piece of music which I hope leads the way for the rest of the album.

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