Category Archives: Metal Chick of the Month

Metal Chick of the Month – Doris Yeh

Posted on by
3
doris01

Set Fire to the Island, Doris!

There’s nothing better than starting this year with a special post about the charming musician and activist Doris Yeh. Born in Taipei (or Taipei City), Taiwan on September 19, 1976 (at least, this is the date I found after a lot of effort!) and nicknamed “Thunder Tears” in her band Chthonic, this Taiwanese beauty is a good example of how music and imagery walk hand in hand on the path to success nowadays. Her exotic Asian traces, together with the powerful heavy music played by Chthonic, are leading her and the band to stardom not only in the East, but in the whole world of music.

Doris herself doesn’t like to define Chthonic’s music style as Extreme, Death or Black Metal. In fact, she prefers calling what their band does as “Orient Metal”, especially because the Western definition of heavy music is not the same as the one in Asian countries. We have to agree with her and the rest of the band that what Chthonic do is totally different from the traditional North American and European Thrash/Death Metal, because despite being heavy music they add many different elements (like the interesting instrument Erhu) and have a unique way to express themselves visually.

In one of her interviews, Doris said she used to play the piano when she was a child, and kept playing it for about 10 years before starting playing bass. She then joined Chthonic in 1999, replacing bassist Xiao-Yu, recording her first album with the band, 9th Empyrean. After that, she recorded the albums Relentless Recurrence (2002), Seediq Bale (2005) and Mirror of Retribution (2009), but her best albums with Chthonic are without any doubt Takasago Army (2011) and their most recent album, Bú-Tik (2013), where it’s easy to notice her improvement as a musican and her growing importance to the band’s current success.

Giants like Iron Maiden, Nine Inch Nails and Slayer, and more obscure bands such as Emperor and At The Gates, are among her biggest influences in music, and when asked about a great female bass player she enjoys, Doris mentioned the American alternative rock musician Kim Gordon, showing she’s not only connected to heavy music in her life.

Doris Yeh’s onstage performance is always amazing, not only due to her talent as a musician but also because of her beauty and energy. I had the privilege to see Chthonic live in Toronto during Arch Enemy’s North American Khaos Tour 2011, which also had DevilDriver and Skeletonwitch as opening acts, and I was impressed by her nonstop headbanging and total commitment to the band’s music and to the fans.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After a couple of years with Chthonic, Doris became the band’s official spokesperson and business manager, taking over the responsibilities from the band’s founder and lead singer Freddy Lim. She is also seen as a sex symbol (surprise, surprise!) and often works as a top model too, appearing on the cover of different magazines in Taiwan and in the rest of the world, like Body Magazine, Revolver Magazine and FHM Magazine. Not only that, Doris also joins her Metal friends Angela Gossow and Alissa White-Gluz in the world of activism by supporting the Awakening Foundation, a Taiwanese organization founded in 1982 which main goal is promoting women’s rights and self-awareness.

In October 2012, Chthonic released a very special 96-page book of sexy photos of Doris taken at the Green Island in Taiwan, entitled Set Fire to the Island, which also includes a single that according to the band is a “symphony with piano, strings, and wind music, so that you may enjoy it not only with your eyes, but also with your ears.” Well, I still prefer Chthonic’s regular music, but I must admit that those astonishing pictures of Doris together with some good symphonic music are a delight for any fan of Chthonic’s unique bassist.

Equipment
Bass: ESP – Andromeda (5-string signature bass)
Amp – head : Ampeg SVT 450
Amp – cab : Ampeg SVT 410HLF
Effects: MXR M80 BASS DI

Doris Yeh’s Official Facebook page
Doris Yeh’s Official Twitter

“‘Dream big’ won’t make you a great person, ‘Do it’ will.” – Doris Yeh

Metal Chick of the Month – Mia Coldheart

Posted on by
5
mia01

Rock Me Like The Devil!

Despite the fact that Angela Gossow is German, she is the lead singer of a Swedish band, so let’s stay around that same country for the second edition of the Metal Chick of the Month. This time I’m going to talk about Mia Coldheart, the lead singer and guitar of the awesome all-female hard rock band Crucified Barbara. Actually, I could talk about all four girls from the band, but let’s focus on one at a time to avoid any heart attacks, right?

Of course her last name is not Coldheart, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have a cold heart at all. Her real name is Mia Karlsson and she was born on August 21, 1980 in the municipality of Tyresö, located in the Stockholm County in Sweden. And as you can see, she’s the only non-blonde in the band, which doesn’t mean she’s less beautiful than the others. Quite the contrary, her long dark hair makes her stand out among the other girls, and adding to that her powerful voice we have the perfect recipe for not only an amazing singer, but for a true hard rock frontwoman.

I believe Crucified Barbara would not be the same successful band without Mia’s voice. However, for those who don’t know it, the band started as a punk rock band back in 1998 and at that time she used to play the guitar only (unfortunately, I couldn’t finds any old material of the band to show how their music was). She became the lead singer of the band in 2003, just a couple of years before the band released their debut album, and in less than 10 years she has become a reference for many hard rock female singers all over the world.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One thing that always comes to my mind while listening to Mia Coldeheart singing are the similarities between her voice and Lzzy Hale’s voice, from Halestorm. However, I prefer Mia’s voice a thousand times, and in my opinion the only reason for Crucified Barbara not being as famous as Halestorm is the fact that they’re not from North America, as I mentioned here. Pay attention to Mia’s voice in different songs and you’ll see how versatile her voice is, from a soft and smooth singing in the ballad Count Me In to a more hard rock approach in Rock Me Like The Devil, and a true heavy metal voice in the Motörhead-ish song The Crucifier. Lzzy is a great singer, but her voice sounds the same in every song, and besides, I’ve had the chance to check Mia and Lzzy singing live in some videos and Mia kicks fuckin’ ass. Besides, she plays the guitar all the time while singing, not only in some songs. If you don’t trust me, take a look at Crucified Barbara playing Bad Hangover live at Sweden Rock Festival (also check how cool the Swedish language is) and you’ll see what i’m talking about!

Talking about Mia’s biggest influences in music, I saw an interview where she said she started to play guitar because of Nirvana and the whole Grunge music scene, but then she started listening to bands like Dream Theater, Megadeth, and Helloween, and guys like Marty Friedman helped define her guitar style. Regarding her vocals, she said her biggest influence was Gigi Hangach, from the band Phantom Blue, who by the way was her motivation to actually start singing heavy music.

Mia’s entire career has been built with Crucified Barbara only, with which she has recorded three albums so far: In Distortion We Trust (2005), ‘Til Death Do Us Party (2009), and their most recent and my favorite one called The Midnight Chase (2012). Besides that, she has just recorded some additional vocals to some material from a Swedish progressive metal band called Mind’s Eye in two of their albums (Walking on H20, from 2006, and A Gentleman’s Hurricane, from 2007).

If you’re a fan of Halestorm, but would like to listen to something faster and heavier, you will love Crucified Barbara and especially Mia Coldheart’s voice. She will rock you like the devil, I’m pretty sure about that.

Equipment
Gibson Flying V (Gothic 2001)
Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amp
Mesa Boogie 4×12 Rectifier cabinet
Rotosound strings 10-52

Personal website/blog
www.coldheart.se

“Don’t wait to find the perfect band. You can’t sit home and dream about a band. You have to get out, meet people, play with a lot of different people.” – Mia Coldheart

Metal Chick of the Month – Angela Gossow

Posted on by
3
angela01

Be As Free As You Can Be!

Every month from now on I’ll try to add a special post about an important woman in the world of Heavy Metal. Although we live in a very sexist world, I want to focus on the importance of each selected girl to heavy music, not only on their beauty. Well, most of them end up being very pretty, but let’s say that’s just a bonus to their talent, right?

The first one is in fact one of the heaviest and most eloquent of all: Angela Gossow is a beast (I would say she’s the personification of Megadeth’s She-Wolf), and at the same time a role model to many girls that are taking their chances in the world of Metal or to the ones that decided to become more engaged in social projects for human or animal rights.

Angela Nathalie Gossow was born on November 5, 1974 in Cologne, Germany, and she’s been on the road since 1991, beginning with the cool band Asmodina, then with Mistress and finally with one of my favorite bands in recent years, the Swedish Death Metal band Arch Enemy. I personally don’t think she will ever leave Arch Enemy and start a solo career, especially because she’s married to band’s guitar and founder, Michael Amott, and became some kind of leader of the group.

Her greatest strength is, of course, her unmatched guttural voice. I’ve seen Arch Enemy live once in Toronto, and it’s impressive how she can recreate on stage exactly what you listen to in their studio versions during the entire concert. Some Heavy Metal giants are among her biggest influences, as for example Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Chuck Billy (Testament) and Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), and what’s really interesting here is that it’s possible to notice nuances from each of these guys in her style and technique, even from a non-guttural singer like Halford.

Another extremely relevant point that must be taken into account in her entire career is her mighty on-stage performance. She sings, screams, bangs her head non-stop and interacts with the crowd all the time, making the experience of seeing Arch Enemy live even more delightful. There are so many Metal guys that consider themselves as being “the toughest men on Earth”, but that in fact do not deliver on stage not even 10% of what Angela does, and that’s a very good reason to respect this woman even more as an artist and a performer.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On the other hand, as a lyricist she still has a long way to go. I’m not saying that I don’t like the band’s most recent albums (I love the musicality in Rise of the Tyrant and Khaos Legions), but the problem here is that since she started having more decision-making power in the band, despite the important messages she’s been trying to send to everybody about animal rights, religion or anarchism, all lyrics became too repetitive. She can keep on talking about those topics in her songs, but she needs to try doing that in a more creative way. If she refines her writing style, Arch Enemy will grow even more.

Regarding being a role model to many Metal or non-Metal girls, the fact that she’s an anarchist, an atheist, a vegan and a Death Metal singer, all at the same time, makes her unique and helps her influence a lot any woman that is pursuing a career in different areas ruled by men in our society, including heavy music. Angela and the rest of the band are huge supporters of non-profit organizations like Amnesty International and peta2 (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), sometimes even mixing their music with those institutions either by participating in some of their events or by allowing them to sell merchandise with the band’s name on it.

And lastly, let’s reflect about an insightful thought from Angela about religion and atheism. What do you think about it? Do you agree with her?

“To me, human rights go hand in hand with atheism. Atheists cannot hold some insane religious tradition responsible for their horrible deeds against mankind. We are fully responsible for everything we do. Until this does not apply to all religions on a world-wide basis I feel that religion is indeed the root of all evil.” – Angela Gossow