Category Archives: Metal Chick of the Month

Metal Chick of the Month – Lorena Moraes

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Depuis les lumières… Vers les ténèbres… La République est en marche!

March might still be a very cold month, maybe not as cold as January and February, but absolutely freakin’ cold if you live in the Northern Hemisphere in places like Canada, Finland, Russia and Belgium. And why did I mention Belgium instead of other colder countries, one might ask? Well, let’s say our metal lady of the month of March might have been born in a warm country, but she currently resides in Belgium, bringing some very welcome heat to “the Battlefield of Europe” with her powerful growls and badass attitude. Her name is Lorena Moraes, the frontwoman for an amazing Belgian Technical Death Metal entity known as Triagone, and I’m sure after this short and sweet tribute to her career in heavy music you’ll develop a strong craving for more of her music.

As aforementioned, Lorena wasn’t born in Belgium, but in the sunny and warm country of Brazil, more specifically in the capital city of Brasília, located in the Brazilian highlands in the country’s Central-West region, and the seat of government of the Federal District. A former photographer at Escola do Futuro de Goiás em Artes Basileu França, located in Goiânia, the capital of Goiás state in central Brazil, Lorena studied at Faculdade Cambury in Brazil, before relocating to Brussels, Belgium’s capital and home to the European Union headquarters, expanding her photography skills by studying at Ecole de Photographie et de techniques visuelles – Ville de Bruxelles while also taking her first steps through the vast lands of Extreme Metal.

It was back in 2019 when Lorena, alongside vocalist and guitarist Lou-Indigo Caspar, guitarist Lucas Lembert, bassist Leonard Ivanciu and drummer Lorenzo Vissol formed the Technical Death Metal beast that goes by the stylish name of Triagone, with roots in Brazil, Italy, France and Belgium, and the explanation to the name chosen is indeed very interesting. According to the band itself, the word “triagone” is a hybrid word inspired by the ancient Greek word “agôn” (ἀγών), which means contest, competition, or disputation (and can refer to a physical or mental contest, or to a dramatic conflict in literature), and a direct reference to the Greek name “trigone”, which means three angles, or the triangle, in parallel with the band’s inspiration by the connection between mathematics and music, like certain demonstrations of trigonometric relations that can be found in the circle of fifths, the demonstration of the C major scale granted to Pythagoras and his demonstrations on triangles, among others. In the end, the fusion of those two Greek words gives the band’s name a third way of understanding the music played by Lorena and the boys. Furthermore, another topic mentioned by the band regarding their name is their message against the pyramid structure our society adopted, an analogy where we’re pretty much slaves building a pyramid stone by stone, trying to climb the ranks of society, with all inequality bringing a lot of disadvantage for the oppressed against the oppressor.

It was in the beginning of 2023 when Triagone released their debut effort, a six-track EP titled Sem Papyrvs, a play on words between Latin and Portuguese, as “sem” means without and “papyrvs” means paper, referring to anyone in a difficult or precarious situation, anyone without an identity, without wealth, without history, or without a diploma, with its 26 minutes of Brutal and Technical Death Metal inspired by classic metal music, baroque, and even Mesopotamian music, also featuring hints of Latin American music rhythms, and all sprinkled with a blend of male and female guttural voices in ancient Greek and Latin and modern Latin and Germanic languages. The names of the songs in Sem Papyrvs are a thing of beauty, starting with Novvs Ordo Seclorvm (“The New Order of the Ages”), followed by Abyssvs Abyssvm Invocat (“The Abyss Calls the Abyss”), Ad Mortem Sem Papyrvs (“To Death Without Paper”), Nvlla Regvla Sine Exceptione (“The New Rules Without Exception”), De Beata Vita (“The Blessed Life”), and Imperivm in Imperio (“Empire in Empire”).

One of the most compelling features in Triagone is the electrifying vocal duet comprised of Lorena and Lou-Indigo, which allows the band to explore new patterns and nuances, as well as the aforementioned lyrics in multiple languages, thanks to the undisputed combined talent of the duo. They can sound at the same time visceral and melodic, dissonant and cryptic, captivating and menacing, purely mathematical and extremely violent, and you can enjoy all that on most streaming services, like Spotify. As a matter of fact, Lou-Indigo explained in an interview that the band had to rework some of the rhythms, textures and timbres (mainly because he mocks up everything with his own voice) after Lorena joined the band, as they wanted her voice to be more present in the final product. Also, although she’s not responsible for all vocal parts nor for all lyrics, this is something Lou-Indigo wants to change in the near future, giving her more singing time, more flexibility, and therefore let her be the main vocalist of the band.

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Before joining Triagone, Lorena was the vocalist for a Brazilian Death/Thrash Metal band named Suttura, and another one named Erinyes, both from the city of Goiânia. Suttura was formed back in 2010 by Lorena alongside drummer Sílvio, bassist Thiago and guitarist Rildo, and although there isn’t a lot of information online about the band, you can stream some of their creations on YouTube, including the excellent songs Need of War, Overlook, and Villas Boas Incident. Furthermore, back in 2015 the band played at the 21st edition of a Brazilian rock and metal festival named Goiânia Noise Festival, at a venue named Centro Cultural Martim Cererê, together with renowned acts the likes of Nervochaos and Ratos de Porão, and countless amazing underground bands from Brazil and other parts of the world, and before that in 2013 they played at the 11th edition of Headbanger’s Attack Festival, held at Círculo Operário do Cruzeiro Velho in Brasília, with each of the eight bands from that specific festival having at least one woman in their lineup as a tribute to the bands Valhalla and Flammea. Apart form Suttura, the festival also featured the bands Soror, Sound’n’Rage, Gulag, Armum, Decimator, Roasting and No Sense. On the other hand, unfortunately there isn’t much online about her previous band Erinyes, except for this nice cover version of AC/DC’s all-time classic TNT live back in 2007, but it’s enough to see she has been developing her vocals in great fashion through the years.

It was when Lorena was still a member of Suttura that she and Lou-Indigo met for the first time, when Lou-Indigo’s former band Dehuman was touring in Brazil, as Lorena was playing with Suttura at the same festival as them. After Lorena moved to Belgium together with Lou-Indigo, they did some Cannibal Corpse covers together, and after he showed those to Lorenzo and Leonard they decided to recruit her to be their frontwoman, as they loved her voice and charisma. Speaking of her relocation to Belgium, Lorena mentioned in one of her interviews that she believes there are more possibilities in Belgium to make a musical project live and grow, that music is taken more seriously there if compared with the metal scene in Brazil, her native country. “In Brazil,” she explains, “each band needs a lot of financial investment and a lot of time, and I think there is more openness here in this regard.”

Apart from her work with Triagone, as well as with the previously mentioned bands Suttura and Erinyes, Lorena was a guest vocalist in the song Arterial Red, from the album Crusher of Souls, released in 2024 by Belgian Brutal Death Metal act Storm Upon the Masses. It’s a great album of sheer brutality and rage, by the way, and Lorena’s contribution to the aforementioned song only makes the whole experience of listening to it even more compelling, proving she a beyond versatile vocalist with a wide arsenal of vocal styles, always ready to stun us all in the name of extreme music. I personally can’t wait to see what’s next for Lorena as a metal vocalist, and for Triagone as a band, again proving how badass women can be in heavy music.

Lorena Moraes’ Official Facebook page
Lorena Moraes’ Official Instagram
Triagone’s Official Facebook page
Triagone’s Official Instagram
Triagone’s Official YouTube channel

““Everyone in the band is very talented and committed to making the band evolve. I have a lot of admiration for them. My goal is to continue singing, improve my vocal technique and establish more contact with the audience. I hope that Triagone will record an album soon and that we can show our music to more people.” – Lorena Moraes

Metal Chick of the Month – Cherine Amr

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Metal Goes Egyptian!

In this month of February, let’s put an Egyptian touch to The Headbanging Moose with a multi-talented lady who knows how to masterfully blend the harshness of heavy music with the whimsical cultural sounds of her homeland, crafting a unique blend that became a trademark in her already solid career in music. Owner of a powerful voice that can range from the most delicate cleans vocals to deep guttural roars, she had to go against all odds to make her music be heard, and we must thank her for being so obstinate because her music is indeed a thing of beauty. I’m talking about Cherine Amr, sometimes also referred to as Cheen, the mastermind behind Massive Scar Era, and a woman who will bravely fight for freedom of speech, for creativity, and for women’s rights, always against any type of oppression, including obviously religious oppression, and always armed with the power of heavy music.

Hailing from the famous and beautiful Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, in Egypt, Cherine got interested in Western Heavy Metal in the late 90’s during her teens thanks to one of her friends, when the genre became popular in Egypt even though the police were known to round up fans for some not-so-nice questioning. That of course didn’t stop Cherine from listening to heavy music and, consequently, from forming Massive Scar Era in the early 2000’s, with all criticism she received in her homeland only fueling her passion for crafting high quality rock and metal since then.

It was in 2004 in her hometown Alexandria when Cherine, alongside Suzie and Sarah Kasrway, formed Massive Scar Era, an Egyptian Alternative Metal collaborative project characterized by a distinctive fusion of Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, and Punk Rock, spiced up with elements of traditional Egyptian music, reflecting the cosmopolitan allure of Alexandria intertwined with the raw essence of Cairo’s urban landscape. The name of the band is also very meaningful to Cherine. “The name means so much to us. It has many layers and the more the years go by the more we relate to it. We wanted a name that reflects how traumatic and aggressive the world is, that we are living in right now. I was thinking about a good name for a long time, and a good friend of mine in Egypt suggested it to us. Since the band started as an all-girl band at its beginning, Massive Scar Era was also the long name for its abbreviation Mascara; however, we stopped using Mascara a long time ago.”

The band released their debut EP Reincarnation back in 2006, immediately receiving a lot of feedback from all types, including criticism from family members and religious authorities in their homeland. Those struggles were mentioned in the internationally released book Heavy Metal Islam, by author Mark LeVine, in 2008, and the band also faced difficulty in finding gigs and record distributors in their country during that period due to popular disdain for aggressive music.

The international success of Massive Scar Era led the band to play at Sweden Rock Festival in 2009, and to be feature in the Egyptian film Microphone in 2010, showcasing Alexandria’s arts and music scene. The band then went on to release a series of albums starting in 2010, those being Unfamiliar Territory (2010), Precautionary Measures (2011) and Comes Around You (2012), leading them to play at European summer music festivals regularly. Finally, in 2013 Cherine and her Massive Scar Era were featured in the film Before the Spring, After the Fall, which depicted the participation of Egypt’s rock musicians three years before the 2011 Arab Spring.

It was in 2015 when Cherine had to relocate to Montreal, the largest city in Canada’s Quebec province, to escape her home country’s criticism and harassment toward her music, and that change also impacted the way things worked for Massive Scar Era, as Cherine’s creative vision for the project evolved into a more collaborative project where she started inviting a diverse group of musicians to contribute to the band’s sound and bring her vision to life. This approach differs from having a fixed band lineup, enabling Cherine and her guest musicians to explore and experiment with various musical styles and influences while keeping the core elements of the project’s identity intact.

Following her relocation to Canada, Cherine and her Massive Scar Era have already recorded the albums 30 Years (2016), Color Blind (2018), Metal Goes Egyptian (2023), and more recently Assyad (2024), which is perhaps her most experimental album to date. There are also some interesting videos online for some of her best creations, including Pray, School Girls, 30 Years, Color Blind, Unfollow, and the more-than-special series of videos titled Metal Goes Egyptian: Live with an Egyptian Arabic Orchestra, where you can also enjoy her work with visuals as part of her music.

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Her 2024 album Assyad definitely deserves a listen by any fan of good quality music, and also by any person interested in knowing more about the Egyptian culture and traditions. The album is a result of years of research into the Egyptian Zār traditions, all masterfully transformed into beautiful music by Cherine and her henchmen. Zār is a possession cult that incorporates music and dance into its rituals, aiming to establish reconciliation between individuals and the spirits (Assyad) believed to inhabit their bodies, causing illness. The Assyad represent the projection of fears and anxieties, and the Zār ritual seeks to alleviate suffering, challenges, and conflicts faced by the individual. At the heart of the Zār ceremony, an ensemble guides the devotees through a trance dance, breaking down barriers to personal identity through rhythmic and melodic patterns deeply rooted in emotional and cultural contexts. This allows individuals in a trance to identify with the possessing spirits, providing a unique sensory experience.

It was back in 2021 when Cherine undertook a 20-day residency with Zār musicians in Cairo, Egypt, supported by Dr. Kawkab Tawfik, also connecting deeply with the Zār Abul Al-Gheit Ensemble, led by Mohammed Abouzied. Then in 2023 she united metal and Zār musicians for a three-week residency in Montreal, hosting music workshops to refine their collaboration, resulting in an interactive show at Le Petit Campus on August 18, 2023, and in the album Assyad, blending traditional Zār songs and rhythms with metal, with each track being inspired by a specific Zār spirit.

Ultimately, Assyad makes a powerful analog between two demonized groups; the Heavy Metal audience, and the Zār community, who have both had their music and practices come under scrutiny by society at large. Through the album, Massive Scar Era and The Abou El-Gheit Ensemble invite listeners to embrace the unknown and explore the deep connections between music, culture, and community. Hence, if you want to be part of the unique experience of listening to Assyad, the album is available for streaming in full on BandCamp and on Spotify, and as already mentioned, it’s a must-listen for admirers of heavy music with folk and cultural elements.

There are some very interesting interviews online with Cherine, including this one HERE, and in most of those interviews she’s questioned about how it is to make heavy music in her homeland Egypt, how it felt to be called Satanists by whoever was against heavy music in their country, and everything surrounding the Arab Spring. “Let’s be honest and put things in a realistic perspective; news outlets romanticize insurgency, but when you are in the situation and you know that your life can be taken away, you can literally pee your pants. We were scared! We are still afraid. I moved to Canada because of this,” commented Cherine. “If I haven’t left Egypt, I would probably have toned it a little bit down. Currently, the government is on edge and arresting anyone that looks suspicious to them, and our case wouldn’t get the public support.”

A huge lover of Molokhia, an iconic Egyptian soup made of jute mallow leaves from which the dish gets its name, Cherine dreams of playing with Massive Scar Era at Wacken Open Air, bringing her Egyptian roots, arts and music to a much broader metal community, and I’m sure her dream will come true sooner than later due to the high quality and depth of her music. I can already imagine her Egyptian sounds hypnotizing tons of headbangers at the biggest metal festival in the world, allowing her to show the entire world that heavy music has no boundaries, no religion, no gender, and so on, evolving into a symbol of freedom even in places where political and religious oppression has sadly become a deeply rooted part of the society.

Cherine Amr’s Official Instagram
Massive Scar Era’s Official Facebook page
Massive Scar Era’s Official Instagram
Massive Scar Era’s Official YouTube channel

“Music is my frustration outlet so whatever experience I face I let it out in the music. I’m politically active, not by choice, I think anyone who grew up in Egypt has to be, especially if you are a woman. Moving to Canada also influenced the topics I write about because I moved into a minority category and was subject to harassment and discrimination.” – Cherine Amr

Metal Chick of the Month – Laura Nardelli

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From lucidity into darkness…

Another year begins, another badass bassist arrives at The Headbanging Moose to kick your goddamn ass mercilessly! A true she-demon who masters the dark arts of Black, Death and Doom Metal, she’s not only a beast armed with her bass, but she’s also a guitarist, a tattoo artist, a body artist and an illustrator with a massive portfolio. Her name is Laura Nardelli, also known as Aura Negativa or Daphoene, the bassist for Italian Black/Death Metal horde Askesis, who’s also part of the bands Bottomless, and who was also involved in a very interesting project named Ponte del Diavolo under the moniker Laurus. Oh Yeah, Laura is an unstoppable force of extreme music, and you’re certainly going to be mesmerized by her undeniable talent both as a musician and as an artist, darkening our hearts in the best way imaginable.

Born on January 25, 1993 in Italy, which means our humble tribute to her contributions to the world of heavy music will also be our birthday gift to her, Laura seems to be quite reserved in terms of her personal life, letting her music and her art speak on her behalf. There aren’t any interviews with her available anywhere, which makes it difficult to talk about her origins, her idols and influences, and even her opinion in non-music or arts subjects, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to be feature on The Headbanging Moose; quite the contrary, it will be a true pleasure reviewing her amazing career so far, starting with her main band, the sulfurous Askesis.

Forged in the fires of Venice in 2013, the ruthless entity Askesis, or ἄσκησις, meaning “ascetism” or “self-discipline” in Ancient Greek, has been blasting a beyond caustic mix of Black and Death Metal in their sound, delivering a listening experience that is raw and violent while simultaneously captivating and hypnotic. Since the band’s genesis, the core lineup has featured Laura Nardelli on bass (as well as on the guitars from 2018 to 2022) and Samuele Scalise on drums, who have been joined by vocalist Nico Fabbri and guitarists Gregorio Di Angilla and Juri Vatova in 2022. Their songs are linked by an existentialist theme that takes up concepts from Ancient Greek myths, projecting them into today’s world. The band invites the listeners to confront their own fears, contradictions, and desires, encouraging introspection and contemplation on the complexities of existence.

Under the moniker of Aura Negativa, Laura has released with Askesis the EP The Path to Absence, in 2016, followed by a 2018 demo titled Black Ontology, and more recently their 2023 debut full-length opus Beyond the Fate of Death, this one in particular drawing inspiration from The Myth Of Sisyphys by Albert Camus to express their personal visions of our “non-existence”, plus a split with Italian Black Metal band Nox Interitus titled Wrecks from Cosmos (which you can listen in full HERE and HERE), released in 2016.

As aforementioned, the band’s name, meaning “asceticism” from Ancient Greek, is “man’s horror of the being of which his own phenomenon is an expression, of the will to live, of the core and essence of a world recognized as full of pain,” and you can experience all that in their music by streaming or purchasing their albums on BandCamp and on Spotify, plus you can also enjoy some live footage of the band like this full show at Summer Metal Festival in Codroipo, Italy, in 2019, or simply click HERE for all things Askesis, letting their blackened sounds penetrate deep inside your psyche.

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Laura is also the bassist for two other amazing bands, Bottomless and Restos Humanos. Bottomless are an Italian Doom Metal band hailing from Treviso, Veneto and Bologna, Emilia-Romagna formed in 2016 by drummer David Lucido, vocalist and guitarist Giorgio Trombino, and bassist Sara Bianchin, with Sara being replaced by Laura in 2023. The band already had two albums released when Laura joined them, but in 2024 they released a split named Graveyard Thunder together with Brazilian Doom Metal band Witching Altar, with each band recording three songs for the split, and you can enjoy all six songs on BandCamp and on Spotify, with the songs by Bottomless being titled Burning of the Vampire, Lightning in the Realms of Death, and Shadows Call. If the music by Bottomless is dark and sluggish, Italian/Colombian act Restos Humanos play a visceral fusion of Death Metal and Grindcore, and while Laura was part of the band in the mid-2010’s (replacing Sara Bianchin as their bass player on stage in a few concerts) they recorded the live album Grindin’ the Garage, in 2016, available in full on BandCamp.

Apart from those, you can also find her contributions to a phenomenal Italian Blackened Doom Metal band named Ponte del Diavolo, which means means “devil’s bridge” in Italian, formed in the winter of 2020 in a jam involving members of Feralia, Inchiuvatu, Abjura and Askesis. Laura, who went by the monicker of Laurus during her period with the band from 2020 until 2024, played bass in three of their EPs, those being Mystery of Mystery (2020), Sancta Menstruis (2022), and Ave Scintilla! (2022), and in their 2024 full-length album Fire Blades from the Tomb. You can enjoy all of those albums on Spotify or any other streaming service, as well as the official videos for the songs Demone, Covenant and Nocturnal Veil.

As aforementioned, Laura is also an accomplished dark and esoteric tattoo and body artist, specializing in black work, dotwork, linework, medievale, sketchy, and hatching, working at Iguana Tattoo, while she’s also responsible for several artworks for different metal bands out there, always under her darkly beautiful nickname Aura Negativa. For instance, she took care of the artwork for the 2016 EP The Path to Absence, by her band Askesis; of the artwork for the 2024 single Moth to a Flame, by Italian Symphonic/Melodic Death Metal band Bloody Unicorn; of the artworks and logos of all her releases with Ponte del Diavolo, those being Mystery of Mystery, Sancta Menstruis, Ave Scintilla! and Fire Blades from the Tomb; or the artwork for the 2020 album Necrofagia, by Italian Avantgarde Black Metal band Prometeus; of the artwork for the 2020 single The Hanged Ballad and the 2021 EP Dark Italian Art, by Italian Progressive Black/Heavy Metal horde Selvans; and last but certainly not least, of the design for the 2023 album Helvegr, by Norwegian Black Metal masters Tsjuder. She’s indeed a determined, inexorable she-wolf of heavy music as you can see, and I honestly can’t wait to witness the next steps in her already solid and vibrant career both as a musician and as an artist.

Laura Nardelli’s Official Facebook page
Laura Nardelli (Tattoo & Graphic Artist)’s Official Facebook page
Laura Nardelli (Tattoo & Body Artist)’s Official Instagram
Laura Nardelli (Artworks)’s Official Instagram
Askesis’ Official Facebook page
Askesis’ Official Instagram

Metal Chick of the Month – Inka Ojala

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I grieve in darkness… All ends in silence

As December is by far the darkest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, let’s all “dark the suns” here on The Headbanging Moose to the music by our multi-talented metal lady of the month. Hailing from the land of ice and snow, also known as Finland, she’s a bassist, keyboardist, pianist, vocalist, songwriter, lyricist, photographer and graphic designer, and just by that you can imagine how important she is to her breathtaking Melodic Death/Gothic Metal band Dark The Suns. I’m talking about the amazing Inka Ojala, who will embellish the airwaves with her melancholic and passionate music during this dark and cold last month of the year.

Born in Finland as Inka Tuomaala, but having changed her name to Inka Ojala after getting married to Dark The Suns’ own mastermind Mikko Ojala, our beloved metal diva has a very nice and decent life outside of heavy music, having attended the University of Jyväskylä and being an early childhood education teacher at Kempeleen kunta. She also mentioned in an interview that she used to work at an art museum, but I have absolutely no idea if that’s still the case.

Her main band is definitely Jyväskylä, Finland-based Melodic Death/Gothic Metal act Dark The Suns, which originally started in 2005 as a one-man project by Mikko Ojala, with the first demo recorded completely by himself. Eventually, Dark The Suns grew into a full band capable of performing live with the addition of Juha Kokkonen on keyboards, Markus Lehtinen on drums, and our metal diva (at that time still known as Inka Tuomaala) on bass, while Mikko took care of the vocals and guitars, releasing their debut album In Darkness Comes Beauty back in 2007.

As the years progressed, Inka was not only responsible for the bass duties anymore, but also for their female vocals from 2008 to 2009, and keyboards from 2010 until present day. To date, she has recorded with Dark The Suns the bass lines in the aforementioned 2007 album In Darkness Comes Beauty; was responsible for the lyrics, bass, songwriting and female vocals in their 2009 album All Ends in Silence; did the orchestrations, keyboards, songwriting, piano and bass in their 2010 album Sleepwalking in a Nightmare; played bass and keyboards in their 2021 album Suru raivosi sydämeni pimeydessä; and more recently did the female vocals, keyboards and bass in their 2023 album Raven and the Nightsky. Not only that, she was also responsible for the artwork, photography and/or graphic design of several releases by Dark The Suns, those being their 2007 album In Darkness Comes Beauty, their 2008 EP The Dead End, their 2009 album All Ends in Silence, their 2010 single Don’t Fear the Sleep, their 2010 album Sleepwalking in a Nightmare, their 2020 single Suru raivosi sydämeni pimeydessä, their 2022 single Kun Allot Kallioihin Murtuu, and their 2023 single Swans of the Frozen Waters. Inka and the band were also featured in the compilations Fear Candy 48 (Terrorizer Magazine, 2007) with the song Reflections, Gothic Spirits 7 (Golden Core, 2008) with the song The Sleeping Beauty, and Firesampler #7 (Firebox Records, 2009) with the song All End in Silence.

When asked what makes Dark The Suns stand out amongst the countless Finnish dark and extreme music bands, she said that she doesn’t really care about that, and she believes there’s always enough room for good metal music and good metal bands. She doesn’t think fans think they have to choose a particular Gothic Metal band, or a particular Doom Metal band. “I think people are usually happy when they get to know some new, good bands whose music they like and whose concerts they enjoy going to,” commented Inka. Currently formed of Mikko and Inka alongside Jani Moilanen on the guitars, the band has been on a roll since returning form their seven-year hiatus in 2020, continuing to blend heavy and dark sounds with their nature-inspired lyrics, therefore embellishing their airwaves with tons of melancholy and passion.

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Inka can also be found in another band, Jyväskylä, Finland-based Melodic Gothic/Black Metal band Crowned with Black, having released with them the two-song EP The Dragon Age back in 2010, playing keyboards in both songs, but apparently the band has already split up and there’s nothing else available from those Finnish rockers. Also, on the design and arts side, Inka was responsible for the logo in the 2019 album Ikuisen talven sarastus, and for the artwork in the 2019 single Kuura & horros, both by Finnish Black Metal horde Kaamos Warriors, which is by the way the other main band by her husband Mikko Ojala.

When asked about her idols and main influences, Inka mentioned that nature is the most important source of inspiration for her, sharing her love for rainy autumn nights and misty days. “We live in a quite small town and a very small lake and it is so beautiful in the evenings when the lake reflects all the lights around us. Nature is just beautiful in central Finland,” commented Inka, who also said that, for her, “night is more mysterious than daytime life. Familiar things seem to change a little when you’re walking alone through the city and the rain is falling on the street. It’s so beautiful when the whole world looks like it’s sleeping.”

In addition, she said she likes to read a lot, and all of those mysteries, emotions and feelings influence the music she writes. “I love Katri Vala’s poems and one of my favourite books is Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind. It is really an atmospheric and inspiring story, almost a horror novel. I also love Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I think good stories always inspire you.” Furthermore, apart from nature, darkness and books, she mentioned Before The Dawn and HIM among her favorite bands, as well as Entwine and To/Die/For, plus some Finnish rock bands as for example Kent, saying they have truly interesting bass lines and catchy melodies.

Inka and Mikko are definitely soulmates, and that combination of beautiful, whimsical melodies and dark, devilish growls certainly makes their music even more compelling. For instance, you can check some of their creations on YouTube, like the official videos for the songs Phoenix, Swans of the Frozen Waters, Raven, Everywhere, Aurora, and Seeker, and of course stream all of their creations on any streaming platform like Spotify. And if you think Inka or Mikko are worried about releasing music for free online, you’re absolutely wrong. “I think web singles are very important nowadays. There are so many new bands and albums, so it’s great that people can listen to music samples and singles for free,” commented our diva, but of course, if you want to show them your utmost support, you can always purchase their music from different physical or online stores, buy their merch, and always attend their live performances, helping the duo in keeping darkening the suns for many years to come.

“When all is said and done, when everything is lost, then there is only silence.” – Inka Ojala

Inka Ojala’s Official Facebook page
Dark The Suns’ Official Facebook page
Dark The Suns’ Official Instagram

Metal Chick of the Month – Jamie Lee Cussigh

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Beware the blade, all Hail the Sacrifice!

As the days get shorter and the nights grow darker and colder, our metal lady of the month of November at The Headbanging Moose definitely had to represent all the heaviness that fills the air in preparation for the coming winter. She’s the epitome of underground heavy music, lending her raw and intuitive bass sound to amazing bands like Sacrifizer and Triumph of Death, always with a badass attitude, while at the same time also venturing through non-extreme lands like with her Coldwave project named Letten 94. Her name is Jamie Lee Cussigh, also known as SlaughterWytch or Dolorès, depending on which band she’s working on at a specific point in time, and she will kick your ass mercilessly with her more than thunderous bass lines.

Half Bulgarian and half Italian, but born in Switzerland (where she currently resides), Jamie nurtures a deep passion for all things heavy music from a very young age. “I started to listen to metal very young, around 11 or 12 years old and the first album I discovered and bought was the Kill Em All by Metallica. I started to play bass at 13.” Also a private music teacher, either online or in person, Jamie went to Conservatoire de Musique de Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, where she perfect her skills as a musician, which is probably one of the reasons why she can fluctuate between styles without any effort, always sounding sharp and in sync with the rest of the band she’s working with.

Her main band or project since 2019 has been undoubtedly Zurich, Switzerland-based Speed/Thrash/Black Metal entity Triumph of Death, Tom Gabriel Fischer aka Tom G Warrior’s personal tribute to his iconic band Hellhammer, with the name of the band being inspired by the infamous title-track of Hellhammer’s 1983 cult demo. The vast body of Hellhammer’s work remained unperformed for years, with Tom’s other bands Triptykon and Celtic Frost only playing a couple of songs here and there, until the inception of Triumph Of Death. Currently formed of the aforementioned Tom Gabriel Warrior on vocals and guitar, our diva Jamie Lee Cussigh on bass, André Mathieu also on the guitar, and Tim Iso Wey on drums, the band has already has played a number of highly acclaimed concerts, such as Hellfest (France), Wacken Open Air (Germany), Party.San (Germany), Brutal Assault (Czech Republic), Psycho Las Vegas (USA), Merry Christless (Poland), Inferno Festival (Norway), Maryland Deathfest (USA), UK Deathfest, and Mexico Metal Fest, among others.

“I was lucky to be contacted by Tom Gabriel Fischer and he gave me this big chance and opportunity. I also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to him. He’s a beautiful person and I’m very thankful to him,” commented Jamie, who also mentioned the release of new material when she joined the project. “It’s a long-term and permanent project. We will release live material (Hellhammer music) and likely eventually even a studio album with our own material in the style of Hellhammer.” Well, after that interview the promise of releasing live material has already become a reality with the release of the amazing live album Resurrection of the Flesh by the end of 2023, recorded during three festival performances in 2023 in Houston (United States), Munich (Germany) and Barroselas (Portugal). Some of the songs became official videos on their official YouTube channel, including the excellent Decapitator and Massacra, but the band also offers live footage from other festivals in their channel like the songs Massacra, Visions of Mortality, Aggressor and The Third of The Storms (Evoked Damnation), from their 2022 concert at Maryland Deathfest, and you can also click HERE to grab your favorite version of their live album.

Apart form Triumph of Death, Jamie can be found as the bassist for a fantastic French Blackened Speed/Thrash Metal band named Sacrifizer, in this case under the moniker SlaughterWytch, having joined the band a little after their inception back in 2017, and having already recorded with them the 2019 EP La Mort Triomphante, and more recently the full-length album Le Diamant de Lucifer, back in 2022, and both can be appreciated in full on Spotify. According to the band, they were “created after a midnight ritual”, and our dauntless SlaughterWytch alongside Sexumer on vocals, NightReaper and H.K.A. on the guitars, and Lethal on drums continues to pave a path of destruction with their only goal being “to spread the mighty words of our lord Lucifer.” I highly recommend a detailed listen at both their 2019 EP and their 2022 album, as both are ass-kicking beasts of blackened thrash, as you can easily see in this incendiary live version of Le Diamant de Lucifer.

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However, don’t think that Jamie is simply blasting the heaviest of sounds all the time with her bass, or that she only loves heavy music, as she has also been part of a very interesting Coldwave project called Letten 94 since 2019, going by the name of Dolorès in this case. “Letten 94 is a project we created with a friend, Freddy Van Ballast. I’m on vocals, bass and soon guitar and he plays synthesizers, samplers, drum machines etc.,” commented Jamie. This Swiss Coldwave duo takes a mental image of Letten (as the disused Letten station in Zurich was the largest open drugs scene in Europe in 1994), and more widely of Europe in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a starting point to try to create electronic music which is sometimes aggressive and syncopated, sometimes dark and mysterious.

Letten 94 is a band that plays music for its own sake, carrying no political message, therefore having a zero-tolerance policy for racism and discrimination, such as discrimination based on gender, ability, or age. This includes all political ideologies that are extremist, totalitarian and/or oppose fundamental human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Hence, you can enjoy Letten 94’s music in their official video for Empty Landscapes, listen to their other songs on Spotify, or click HERE for all things Letten 94. She was also involved with a French Black Metal horde named Myrkvid, playing bass with the band between 2019 and 2020, although she didn’t record anything with them. “The vocalist and guitarist, Myrk, is a friend of mine since a long time ago and he needed a new bass player. I played with them for a year but I decided to leave the band,” she commented, and you can also find her as the bassist for a band named Trauma, again with very few information about her involvement with the band available online, including zero details on when she started playing with them, or if she’s still with them.

As you might have noticed, Jamie has a lot of different influences in music. “At the very beginning of my teenage years I started with Thrash and Speed, and then I discovered Extreme Metal around 14 years old. I’m mostly on Black/Thrash, Black, some old school Death Metal sometimes and some Heavy/Speed but besides Metal I’m a fan of coldwave and post-punk music and it’s also a part of my inspirations. Jazz music too.” Moreover, when asked to list her top five albums of all time, she said that it’s tough to mention only five albums because she loves a lot more than that, but she would try to list some that struck her. Those albums are Blood Fire Death, by Bathory, Envoy of Lucifer, bu Nifelheim; Sister, by In Solitude; Black Metal, by Venom; and Dawnrazor, by Fields of the Nephilim.

In addition, she mentioned a very interesting list of newer bands she enjoys, including Division Speed, Hällas, Flagellant, Whoredom Rife, Blaze of Perdition, Denouncement Pyre, Drab Majesty, Lebanon Hanover, Condor, Hellripper, Antichrist, In Solitude, Saqra’s Cult, Tryptikon, Tragediens Trone, Riot City, Ultra Silvam, Beastmilk, Heresi, Tribulation, Matterhorn, Satan Satyrs, Vulture, Quintessenz, Whiskey Ritual, Warmoon Lord, Midnight and Nocturnal Graves, also saying that live she really enjoys to see Aura Noir, Satan Satyrs, Venom and Midnight. When asked about new or mainstream metal, she said she doesn’t like those labels, as she believes what really matters is to play with (and for) passion before anything else. “When this is the case, everyone who plays with his guts and works hard deserves his success.” And guess what’s the definition of true metal music for Jamie? “You feel it or not!”

Jamie Lee Cussigh’s Official Facebook page
Jamie Lee Cussigh’s Official Instagram
Triumph of Death’s Official Facebook page
Triumph of Death’s Official Instagram
Triumph of Death’s Official YouTube channel
Sacrifizer’s Official Facebook page
Sacrifizer’s Official Instagram
Sacrifizer’s Official YouTube channel

Metal Chick of the Month – Becky Baldwin

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Play this shit loud and together we’ll scream!

Our metal lady of this very special month of October is not called Melissa, she won’t break the oath, and she’s definitely not an uninvited guest. What she will certainly do is kick your damned ass mercilessly to the sound of her rumbling bass, as she was born to sin in the name of our good old Rock N’ Roll. Her name is Rebecca Baldwin, better known as Becky Baldwin, the unstoppable bass player for British Heavy/Thrash Metal act Fury, for the iconic Danish Heavy Metal coven Mercyful Fate, for British Punk Rock band Hands Off Gretel, and of course one of the most famous members of the IMFC, or the Iron Maiden Fan Club. Having said that, get ready to bang your heads and raise your horns together with one of the most badass bass players of the current metal scene worldwide while The Headbanging Moose celebrates 11 years of existence.

Born on April 6, 1991 in Trowbridge, the county town of Wiltshire, England, Becky used to play the piano when she was a child, later picking up the bass as a teenager and beginning to perform with bands at school. In 2009, she moved from Trowbridge to Bristol to study at BIMM Music Institute and became closely involved in the local music scene. Moreover, she holds a BA Honours degree in Professional Musicianship, and now lives in the birthplace of Heavy Metal, Birmingham, a major city in England’s West Midlands region, where metal titans like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Napalm Death saw the light of day. An energetic live performer and an efficient recording musician who specializes in fingerstyle bass guitar playing, Becky has performed approximately 100 gigs per year since 2012 all over Europe and into the United States, offering her skills for a wide variety of bands including covers and original bands from genres ranging from metal to folk, urban, funk, pop, jazz and more.

At the end of 2017, following a tour where she filled in on bass, Becky joined Worcester, England-based Heavy/Thrash Metal maniacs Fury, having recorded with the band so far the albums The Grand Prize, in 2020, followed by a 2021 live album titled The Grand Prize… Live, and more recently the album Born to Sin, in 2022, as well as several singles including an acoustic version of Dragon’s Song, in 2023, and a re-recording of the song Prince of Darkness, from their 2014 debut The Lightning Dream, earlier this year. Those albums and singles can be found on Spotify or any other streaming platform, and you can also enjoy their official videos on YouTube for the songs Prince of Darkness, If You Get to Hell First, Hell of a Night, and Nowhere To Be Seen, among others. Currently formed of Becky on bass alongside vocalist Nyah Ifill, vocalist and guitarists Julian Jenkins, guitarist Tom Atkinson, and drummer Tom Fenn, the band is always taking stages by storm live as you can see in their official tour page, keeping the spirit of Heavy Metal alive whenever they hit the road.

It was back in 2022, more specifically during Bloodstock, when Becky was waiting to see Mercyful Fate live for the first time in her life, that she was called backstage to meet the band, when she was told that they needed a fill-in bass player for an upcoming North American tour, and that they had seen her bass covers she posts online and thought she would be a good fit for the job. “I had been a fan of Mercyful Fate since my teens, so watching them live, meeting them, and being offered a temporary job with them all in the same day was pretty insane! The tour was unbelievable, definitely a period of time I’m very grateful for!” After that experience playing live with the band in 2022, Mercyful Fate recently announced earlier in 2024 they have officially recruited Becky as a permanent member, making her the first woman to hold the position in the band’s history. “I guess the idea was floating around for a while, but it’s quite recent still, the news that I was going to be permanent in Mercyful Fate,” mentioned Becky in one of her interviews.

Becky also said she’s confident about injecting her own flavor into the basslines for their upcoming album. “I think the songwriting is still gonna be very much King Diamond and Hank Shermann kind of heading up most of that, but definitely writing bass lines. I’ve studied all of Timi’s bass lines very meticulously now, and so I really feel like I can bring some of that into the new bass lines for the next record.” Hence, if you want to take a look at Becky’s playthroughs of classics by Mercyful Fate, you can find on her YouTube channel her videos for Curse of the Pharaohs, A Dangerous Meeting, Black Funeral, Melissa, and Come to the Sabbath, among others, as well as this interview with The Metal Voice where she discusses how she joined the band.

As mentioned, Becky is also the bassist for UK’s own Punk Rock band Hands Off Gretel, and although the band has been on some sort of hiatus since 2021, I believe we can except news from those girls and guys anytime soon, and if you want to enjoy their music while waiting for something new from the band you can check their official YouTube channel, including their fun video for the song S.A.S.S. Apart from Hands Off Gretel, you can find recordings of Becky with her past bands or as a guest musician, some as an online collaborator. For instance, she was part of a Bristol-based Power Metal band named Control the Storm between 2010 and 2016, having recorded with them their 2011 demo and the 2015 album Beast Inside; played bass for a Cardiff, Wales-based Heavy Metal band named Triaxis from 2014 to 2018, recording with them the 2015 album Zero Hour; and played bass with the bands Dorja, from 2015 to 2019, IDestroy, from 2014 to 2018, and Metro 13, between 2013 and 2014 (and you can find lots of videos of Becky playing with those bands on the media page of her official website). In addition, she also played bass live with a band named Proscenium, in 2016, she can be found as a guest bassist for Paul Di’Anno’s Warhorse, or simply Warhorse, having recorded with them the songs Warhorse, Get Get Ready, Go, Stop the War, Here Comes the Night, and Forever Bound, all from their 2024 album Warhorse, and she has also recorded sessions for Total Guitar magazine and the Rockschool exam board (now renamed RSL Awards).

As a renowned member of the IMFC – Iron Maiden Fan Club, Becky was featured on a segment of the website called “Fan of the Week”, where she discussed a little about her passion for the boys. “My family home started getting music channels and Maiden were one of the first classic metal bands I came across. Their music videos for Number of the Beast, Run To The Hills and Can I Play With Madness were on regular rotations on my favourite channels and shows. A few years later I met a friend at school who was a huge fan and showed me more of the back catalogue,” commented Becky, who also said that she saw them live for the first time when she was only 15, in December 2006 on the A Matter of Life and Death tour in Cardiff. “I loved the show, I had never seen visuals and energy on stage like Maiden have. But as a first timer at a Maiden concert I had wished they would play the classics that I had wanted to see for years. Now, I would love to watch them play a full A Matter of Life and Death concert! I guess everyone wants to see their favourites live some time, and when you’re young it’s hard to time it right for your first gig experience!”

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A fan of the band since 2003, with her first album being Fear of the Dark and her favorite song being The Clansman, Becky has already seen them live a few times, including Sonisphere UK in 2010, Hellfest France in 2014, Download UK 2022, and The Future Past Tour in Birmingham this year. Furthermore, she seems to know exactly what makes Iron Maiden so special. “I think it’s the story telling, the history and interesting lyrical subjects that set them apart from every other great metal band. There are loads of bands with equally talented musicians, but something about this formation of people just works. They have a knack for making the lyrics fascinating as well as memorable, and the music catchy enough make you want to join in. And the bass is really loud and has fun parts, which does a lot for me!” Not only that, Becky and her Fury have also played at the Cart & Horses, the birthplace of the band. ” Playing the Cart & Horses ‘The Birthplace of Iron Maiden’ is always a special one for us. It’s a lovely bar full of cool memorabilia, and I love that they have made the basement a dedicated space for live rock music – the area really needed it. The show was completely sold out, and despite some sound issues, everyone seemed to have a great time. I hope the place gets more support as a venue, from both the public and continued support from Maiden themselves!”

A proud endorser of D’Addario Strings, Neural DSP modelers, Darkglass Amps and Alperious Pickguards, Becky owns some really cool equipment, including a Rickenbacker 4003, a Rickenbacker 4001, a Fender Deluxe Jazz V (5 string), a Danelectro Longhorn, a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, a Darkglass AO900 Head + DG212N Cabinet, and D’addario NYXL Strings. “I have six basses altogether, my favourite is my 1977 Rickenbacker 4001, customized with a Seymour Duncan pick up. A lot of people think it’s wrong to modify vintage instruments, but I love that bass and enjoy making it unique in any way that I can.”

She obviously loves Steve Harris, saying he is an iconic bassist and songwriter, and that as a metalhead it’s impossible to escape his influence. “Maiden is one of few bands of their style to keep their bass mixed audibly, and for that I salute them! For a new bass player it can be so hard to figure out what you’re supposed to do, how to play a song when you can’t really hear much. Not a problem for Maiden! Steve certainly influenced my heavy plucking finger style, and I love the chords he does to accent some beats, which most finger style players would avoid. And of course, the occasional bass solo is the icing on the cake!” And if you want to witness her passion for the boys, you can watch this amazing bass playthrough of the classic The Number of the Beast on her YouTube channel, where she uses a Rickenbacker 4001 fitted with Seymour Duncan pickups, strings from ‪D’Addario (NYXL. Gauge 45-105), ​Microtubes X Ultra, and a scratchplate by Alperious Pickguards.

Becky also teaches bass playing and has a few tutorials on YouTube and on her Patreon, saying she has a few online students doing live Zoom lessons. “I love teaching Maiden basslines, recently I was teaching a student Powerslave which is one of my favourites to play,” said our talented metalhead, who’s also a co-founder of a specialist private tuition company called Bristol Rock Centre, which runs a teaching and rehearsal studio in Mangotsfield, leading workshops with that company. Not only that, she has also aided exam board Rockschool in the writing and proofing of tuition and exam books including Let’s Rock Bass, the Popular Music Theory collection and the 2014 Vocal syllabus, also leading workshops with Rockschool, and having given lectures at BIMM Bristol, ACM Birmingham and Access Creative College. Furthermore, she has received tuition from top musicians such as Stuart Clayton (Carl Palmer Band), Damon Minchella (Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller) and Jim Barr (Portishead, Get The Blessing).

And last but not least, for a number of years Becky was an active member of the Musician’s Union Wales & South West England Regional Committee and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, representing female musicians. As you can see, Becky has been living and breathing music for her entire life, always ready to rock and to support new musicians, and with her undeniable talent and charisma she’s definitely going to become one of the references in bass playing in the world of heavy music really soon. In other words, let’s keep enjoying the thunderous bass by Becky (and you can also support her by purchasing her merch on Big Cartel, or by clicking HERE to know more about her career and her music), and may she keep spreading her wings to all four corners of the earth with Fury, Mercyful Fate, or any other band that’s lucky enough to have her as their bassist.

Becky Baldwin’s Official Facebook page
Becky Baldwin’s Official Instagram
Becky Baldwin’s Official YouTube channel
Becky Baldwin’s Official X
Fury’s Official Facebook page
Fury’s Official Instagram
Fury’s Official YouTube channel
Fury’s Official X
Mercyful Fate’s Official Facebook page
Mercyful Fate’s Official Instagram
Mercyful Fate’s Official YouTube channel
Mercyful Fate’s Official X

Metal Chick of the Month – Corinne Cardinal

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We are ready to die, Corinne!

Sons of Odin, can you hear the call of our metal lady of this month of September? If your answer is yes, then I’m sure you’ll have a very good time here on The Headbanging Moose with our humble tribute to Corinne Cardinal, also known as Korrinn or Crook, a multi-talented singer, voice actor and vocal coach who’s making a name for herself in the Canadian scene as the frontwoman for Montreal, Quebec-based Melodic Black/Folk Metal horde Valfreya, proudly waving the flag of Québécois metal high in the sky wherever she goes and hypnotizing us all with both her clean and guttural vocals. She takes no prisoners in her quest for heavy music, leading Valfreya into glory ride, and of course you’re more than invited to stand side by side with Corinne and her henchmen in the battlefield after knowing a little bit more about her life and career.

Born on August 20, 1986 in the charming city of Montreal, Quebec, in Canada, Corinne is not just the founder, main composer and vocalist of Valfreya, but she’s also a voice actor for La Fabrique de Monstres (or The Monster Factory), and a singer for the Growlers Choir, just like one of our most recent metal ladies Maude Théberge, showing how united the Québécois scene is. Not only that, she has also studied classical singing and instrumental composition, does graphic design, and of course she applies all those elements to her work with Valfreya. Her talent seems to be infinite, which translates into first-class heavy music when a new Valfreya album is unleashed upon humanity for our total delight.

After exploring choir singing during her formative years, Corinne, who’s a mezzo-soprano, undertook her studies by enrolling at Cégep Saint-Laurent and obtained her college degree in classical singing in 2007, perfecting her instrument with many teachers between 2007 to 2015 like Cécile Gendron, Mark Pedrotti, Christine Lemelin and Colette Boky, and pursuing a bachelor’s degree at UQAM in music (artistic performance concentration) in 2015. During her studies there, she developed a varied lyric repertoire and sings in more than eight different languages (Russian, Czech, German, Italian, Latin, Catalan, French and English), obtaining her diploma in December 2018. Finally, in 2020 she obtained her Estill Voice Training certificates one and two, and if you have no idea what that means, this course pertains to parts of the anatomy singers can exercise conscious control on to modify their sound.

After founding Valfreya back in 2009, merging the metal genre with classical and folk, Corinne started to develop different vocal techniques, matching guttural singing with opera and pop, which culminated with her joining the aforementioned Growlers Choir back in 2019, plus collaborations with many artists as a performer or composer the likes of Léa Dupuis, Augury, and Jeff Marcoux. That expertise also opened several doors to vocal acting out of specialized fields into voices for creatures and monsters in video games and film, including Resident Evil 7 (Capcom), Helix Season 1 (Syfy), Soul Blade (Namco, Project Soul), Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Chimera (Ubisoft), Tomb Raider: Shadow of the Tomb (Eidos Montréal), and Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos), and also led to her founding in 2019 La Fabrique de Monstres alongside Sébastien Croteau and Jeffrey MacDermott, working in the sound design of hundreds of monsters and creatures over twenty or so video games, films and television series.

Corinne started studying for her musicologist’s master’s degree at Université de Montréal in 2020, wishing to analyze vocal techniques in metal music, precisely to identify the process of vocal production permitting control on specific structures of the vocal apparatus linked to guttural metal singing, with her ultimate goal being to produce the first pedagogical treaty on metal singing in English and French. In addition, Corinne is also a member of diverse research groups such as OICRM and ACTOR Project, and one of the rare vocal coaches who’s able to teach metal singing (both growl and fry) in Quebec.

As already mentioned, Corinne founded Melodic Black/Folk Metal horde Valfreya back in February 2009 in Montreal, with the band’s name being influenced by one of the names of Óðinn, Valföður (Old Icelandic for “Father of the Slain”) and Freyja, the Vanic deity, sister of Freyr. Valfreya deals with themes such as Norse mythology, Pagan gods, life, death, and legends, having released their debut EP First Chronicles in 2010, followed by their first full-length album Path to Eternity in 2012, the EP Acoustic Chronicles in 2013, and the full-length albums Promised Land, in 2017, and more recently Dawn of Reckoning, earlier this year, not to mention the band was also feature in the 2011 Galy Records compilation Trois-Rivières Metalfest 11 with the song Deity’s Grace. The band currently formed of our metallic diva Corinne on vocals together with Graz’zt and Erik on the guitars, Abhor on bass, Dommar on drums, and Eva Doucet De Leon on the violin has already played hundreds of concerts across Canada and the United States, and if you want to enjoy their amazing music you can find all of their releases on BandCamp, on Spotify, or by clicking HERE.

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Corinne is much more than just the band’s frontwoman, having also been responsible for the music, lyrics, arrangements, artwork and layout in their 2012 album Path to Eternity, the artwork, layout, cover art and lyrics in their 2017 album Promised Land, and the layout in their most recent album Dawn of Reckoning. Hence, if you want to have an absolute blast with Corinne and her Valfreya, apart from the aforementioned sources like BandCamp and Spotify, you can enjoy their official videos on YouTube for the songs Le Périple, The Rise, Odin’s Fury, Confront Immensity, Ocean’s Assault, and My Everlasting Star, as well as several unofficial footage of the band kicking some ass live.

Besides her career with Valfreya, Corinne also played keyboards and did backing vocals between 2008 and 2010 for a Montreal, Quebec-based Melodic Black Metal band named Vehemal, albeit she didn’t record anything official with the band; and did the live vocals with Canadian Progressive/Experimental Death Metal band Bookakee a few years ago. She can also be seen as a guest musician for a few interesting bands in the past few years, as for example doing additional vocals in the song Impending Apocalypse, from the 2020 EP Repaying Evil with Evil, by Canadian Death/Thrash Metal/Deathcore musician Jeff Marcoux; vocals in the 2017 single La pluie noire, by Canadian Black/Doom Metal band Lacrimae Mortalium; and more recently additional vocals in the songs Welcome, Immuration and Resilience, from the 2023 album Maladaptive Daydreaming, by Canadian Melodic Death/Gothic Metal band Sanguine Glacialis. Moreover, she was also responsible for the layout in the 2012 EP Deviated Inner Spectrum, by Canadian Technical/Melodic Death Metal act Pronostic, under the curious moniker of “Crapule”.

Lastly, as pretty much any metal lady hailing from Canada, Corinne is crazy for animals, having several pets from different species. For instance, in one of her interviews during the pandemic, she said she had at that time three fishes named Super Nova, Galaxy and Comet, five rats named Wicca, Gandalf the White, Zelda, Bouda and Titite (which means Tiny-tiny), and also a cat named Saroumine. As you might have already notice, the inspirations she takes for the music by Valfreya also have an impact on the names of her pets, which in my opinion is simply awesome. She mentioned she enjoys taking her rats to places like stores, parties, family reunions, chilling with friends, and so on, also saying that especially during the pandemic all of her pets brought a lot of joy and comfort as she couldn’t live in an empty house. She also said that all of her pets don’t seem to care about the fact she practices her music at home, and that whenever she’s on tour with Valfreya, it’s either her boyfriend or her sister who usually takes care of them for her. If you want to know more about such an amazing musician and animal lover, you can visit her own website (including a look at her impressive resume), and stay tuned for all news about Valfreya, because if by any chance they take your city by storm, don’t waste a single second and go check the powerful vocals by one of the most talented women of the current Canadian metal scene.

Corinne Cardinal’s Official Facebook page
Corinne Cardinal’s Official Instagram
Corinne Cardinal’s Official YouTube channel
Valfreya’s Official Facebook page
Valfreya’s Official Instagram
Valfreya’s Official YouTube channel

Metal Chick of the Month – Heather Taylor

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Burn the clowns, Heather!

Chupacabra means “goat sucker” in Spanish, and according to reports, the creature acts much like a vampire, killing animals by sucking their blood. Though similar stories date back several decades, the first major wave of alleged chupacabra sightings came from farmers in Puerto Rico in the late 80’s and early 90’s. But what does that have to do with our metal lady of this month of August, you might ask, right? Well, let’s say that the multi-talented Heather Taylor,  the frontwoman for UK-based thrashing beast Chupacabra, will kick your ass and drink your blood to the sound of her visceral music, and you’ll simply love that and to know more about such talented woman of the current British metal scene.

Born and raised in Newport, the county town of the Isle of Wight, an island county off the south coast of England, but currently located in the city of Bristol, Heather studied at the University of Reading, and works as a freelance control systems engineer. However, of course her biggest passion in life is heavy music, and you can enjoy her contributions to several amazing bands besides her recent work with Chupacabra, turning her into a seasoned veteran of the underground British extreme music scene and, therefore, helping her elevate the music by Chupacabra to new and exciting heights with her undeniable talent and charisma.

For instance, almost at the same time when Chupacabra was born, Heather became the vocalist for Virtual Reality, a Technical/Progressive Metal band formed in 2019 in Bristol, replacing their former frontman Jamie Moran (who had to step down as he had just become a father and wanted to spend more time with his family).  There isn’t a lot of information online about Virtual Reality, apart of course from their Facebook and Instagram, but hopefully we’ll hear more about the band with Heather on vocals, including a new EP or album in the coming months, who knows.

Heather is (or was) also the lead singer for the acclaimed Bristol-based Futuristic Industrial Metal band Cybervoid, having released with the band the EP Order Through Chaos back in 2023, including the killer title-track Order Through Chaos, and the also infuriated Sentient Awakens. The EP features some of the final works of Bristol metal legend Jake ‘Mettle’ Ettle-Iles (of bands like Blasfeme, Body Harvest and Ventflow), who tragically passed away at the end of 2022, which means no one knows what the future holds for Cybervoid.

Another project where Heather was involved with for a while was Bristol Alternative Rock band Locust, born of a collaboration between local musicians Laurence Howell and Arthur Cauty together with Heather and Pete Starr. The band was supposed to release a debut concept album with music featuring political themes and strong creative undertones, which would tell a story of love, loss, the downfall of civilization and post apocalyptic recovery over three epochs spanning 3000 years. However, there’s nothing online about that album, nor if the band is still alive and kicking.

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Our unstoppable diva was also the bassist between 2020 and 2021 for a Welsh Progressive Metal band named Nine Miles Down, and I believe she didn’t record anything official with the band during her short period with them. And lastly, Heather is also known in the local scene as the vocalist and bassist for a cult band named Wytch, but again it’s extremely difficult to find anything online about the band, maybe due to the band most probably not existing anymore. I personally would love to listen to the music by Locust, Nine Miles Down and Wytch, so if you know where to find their music, please let me know.

Finally, Heather’s main project right now is undoubtedly Bristol-based Death/Thrash Metal beast Chupacabra, bringing the full-frontal, in-your-face force of relentless thrashing riffage as a platform for soaring, aggressive vocals that explore issues of toxic relationships, female empowerment, social injustice and the laid-bare rage of one disaffected member of a broken society, being therefore highly recommended for fans of Kreator, Slayer, Arch Enemy, Holy Moses, At The Gates, Lamb of God, Pest Control, Testament, and Sodom, among others.

Alongside multi-instrumentalist Nige Savage on all instruments (except lead guitars), who’s also a former member of Wytch, and lead guitarist Alex Brent, formerly of Captive, Heather reveals layers of herself in their debut EP Fortified with Ashes threaded through the three songs on a journey of venting unbound rage, breaking conditioned compliance and growing a new authentic skin. The 14-minute EP consists of the songs Burn the Clowns, F. T. T. D., and Fortified with Ashes, all pulverizing tracks that will surely inspire you to bang your head nonstop and slam into the circle pit like there’s no tomorrow.

And that’s not all, as Chupacabra is also providing all the music for the new audiobook edition of DX Ferris’ best-selling Slayer biography, Slayer 66 & 2/3: A Metal Band Biography, Postmortem Remastered Edition, as well as the accompanying podcast, Talkin’ Slayer: A Metal Podcast and Half-@ssed Audiobook. The music by Chupacabra can be found on BandCamp and on Spotify, and you should definitely buy and/or stream their music as many times as possible to support those seasoned, hardworking veterans hailing from the always exciting UK underground, putting a huge smile on the face of our relentless metal diva of the always fun month of August.

Heather Taylor’s Official Facebook page
Chupacabra’s Official Facebook page
Chupacabra’s Official Instagram
Chupacabra’s Official Twitter

Metal Chick of the Month – Maude Théberge

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Come dance la valse des condamnés!

As the heat is definitely on in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s nothing like icy cold blood to cool us all down, and that’s exactly what our amazing metal lady of this month of July has to offer with her undeniable talent, charisma and passion for heavy music. Not only that, July 1 is Canada Day, which means having a metal lady hailing from Canada makes things even better here on The Headbanging Moose. Owner of a powerful yet delicate voice, she’s the vocalist and keyboardist for a Montreal, Quebec-based Melodic/Symphonic Death/Gothic Metal band known as Sanguine Glacialis, as well as a growler for Growlers Choir (the world-famous choir of metal vocalists) and a voice actress and administrative assistant for La Fabrique de Monstres (or The Monster Factory). She can play the violin too, and she’s also a teacher and a model. Her name is Maude Théberge, and I’m sure that after knowing more about her life and career, you’ll get addicted to her voice, to her music, and be more than ready to dance “la valse des condamnés.”

Born and raised in the stunning Canadian city of Montreal, Maude has been a singer for more than 15 years, having already acquired two music degrees in classical piano interpretation and music teaching. Apart for being a sensational growler, she’s a soprano singer who can sing a wide variety of styles such as classical, jazz and pop, she can write and sing in French and English, and she’s also a composer and arranger who has her own studio at home, allowing her to write, compose, record ad edit her own parts, including midi instruments and orchestrations for any project with a specialty in string sections, as she’s also a pianist, keyboardist and violinist as already mentioned.

Our metal diva started started playing the piano at the age of 12 and the violin at the age of 13, continuing her studies at Cégep de St-Laurent, where she also had the opportunity to play jazz piano, classical violin and sing in a classical choir, obtaining her DEC in classical piano interpretation in 2012. Maude continued her studies at UQAM in music education (classical piano), where she still played classical violin, jazz choir, wind instruments and percussions, obtaining her Baccalaureate and her teaching certificate in 2016. Subsequently, she did a DESS in Management at UQAM and obtained her diploma in 2019. Finally, she took an acting and dubbing course in 2020 with French-Canadian director, dubbing director and acting coach Sergine Dumais.

It was in 2011 when Maude joined Sanguine Glacialis, in which she played the keyboards and did some backing vocals, taking over the reins of the band in 2016, being the only remaining member, rebuilding the project with new musicians, and becoming the lead singer of the band. Sanguine Glacialis have become her biggest project in life for over a decade already, allowing her to develop many skills such as classical and pop singing and growling as well as studio recording at home, in addition to developing managerial skills including production of albums, music videos and over 100 shows across Canada. Having already shared the state with renowned acts the likes of Dark Tranquility, Omnium Gatherum, Delain, Necronomicon, Unexpect and Anonymus, just to name a few, the band experiments with multiple musical styles, such as Jazz, Classical, folkloric music, Latin music, and so on, while keeping a very strong Melodic Death Metal accent.

Since their inception, the band has already released three full-length albums, those being Dancing with a Hanged Man, in 2012, Hadopelagic, in 2018, and Maladaptive Daydreaming, in 2023, plus the EP Pitch Black Sight, in 2016, and from those she did keyboards and backing vocals only in their debut album and their EP, becoming their frontwoman while still playing keyboards as aforementioned starting with their 2018 album. currently formed of Maude alongside Alexandre Lépine on the guitars, Marc Gervais on bass, and Jérémy Racine on drums, the band is in great shape and form, as you can see in this footage live in Quebec in 2023, and you can also enjoy all of their creations on BandCamp, on Spotify and on YouTube, including their ass-kicking official videos for the songs Kraken, Welcome, and Monsters,  and you can also click HERE for all things Sanguine Glacialis.

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Apart from her amazing years with Sanguine Glacialis, Maude has also been the vocalist for a Melodic Death Metal band from Toronto named Terminalcurse together with multi-instrumentalist Kirill Zorin (ex-Nachtmuse), having released with the project their self-titled debut EP in 2022. The EP is available on BandCamp and on Spotify, and you can also find all links and information about the duo by clicking HERE. Also, between 2017 and 2024, she was also the violinist for Montreal’s own Melodic Black/Folk Metal horde Valfreya, having recorded with them the excellent album Dawn of Reckoning, released earlier this year.

Maude can also be seen as a guest musician in distinct bands and projects; for instance, she did choir vocals for the song Dissociation, from the 2023 EP Survival Mode, by Canadian Avant-garde Death metal band Disorientation; also did vocals for the song Mordrake I – Birth, from the 2014 album Mordrake, by Canadian Symphonic/Melodic Black/Death Metal band Hollow; and recorded two albums with Canadian Symphonic Metal project Nachtmuse as their lead vocalist, backing vocalist or doing choir vocals, those being the 2022 release Solemn Songs of Nightsky & Sea, and the 2023 EP Darker Skies. Not only that, in 2018 she also released her debut album as a solo artist, titled The Simplest Expression, which is by the way an acoustic album. Furthermore, everything about Maude can be found HERE, by the way.

In March 2020, just before the COVID pandemic, Maude appeared on the show Tout le monde en parle, the biggest talk show in Quebec, to talk about the band and Le FestEvil – Quebec City Women Metal fest part 1, which was not only an important event for metal music in Quebec in 2020, but one that also provided women in metal with tons of support, with its first edition featuring the bands Your Last Wish, Valfreya, Sanguine Glacialis, Merkabah, Uriel, Within Embers and Fall Of Stasis, all amazing bands from the Quebec scene with very talented women like Maude in their lineups. Unfortunately, I don’t think the festival exists anymore, mainly due to the pandemic crushing any plans of live events anywhere in the world, but it would be amazing if we could see more festivals like that in Canada for sure, of course spearheaded by Maude and her Sanguine Glacialis.

Last but not least, Maude is also a pet lover, nurturing a deep passion for cats. In one of her interviews, she said that she had four cats, Jack (for Jack Black), Amélie (for Amélie Poulin), Vévé (because she has a V shape pattern on her forehead) and Gizmo (like the Gremlin), but unfortunately Vévé and Amélie have passed away since that, also talking a little about how she manages to take care of all of them while also continuing with her career in music, as for example saying her boyfriend or parents take care of them when she’s on tour. Also, when asked how they behave when she’s practicing at home, her answer was quite funny and curious. “All the cats, but especially the male cats, HATE my violin. They complain the whole time I’m trying to practice. I can growl all I want and they don’t care, but the violin.” Well, maybe they’re more into extreme music, right? So I believe as long as she keeps playing the awesome music by Sanguine Glacialis to them, she’ll surely keep four cats extremely happy, and of course countless happy metalheads worldwide.

Maude Théberge’s Official Facebook page
Maude Théberge’s Official Instagram
Maude Théberge’s Official YouTube channel
Sanguine Glacialis’ Official Facebook page
Sanguine Glacialis’ Official Instagram
Sanguine Glacialis’ Official YouTube channel
Sanguine Glacialis’ Official X

Metal Chick of the Month – Miss ScarRed

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Hear me, I’m here inside… Take a breath… Bring me to life!

It’s time to make things red, and I mean REALLY RED, here on The Headbanging Moose thanks to our metal lady of this always hot and sunny month of June, but before I say anything about her I have a very easy question for you. Do you know what The Headbanging Moose and Nuking Moose have in common, apart from two badass names and an endless passion for heavy music? The answer is quite obvious, it’s our total admiration for the breathtaking frontwoman Miss ScarRed, also known as Liz, a multi-talented singer, songwriter and vocal coach known for fronting the aforementioned Nuking Moose, as well as another project named Chaos Rising and her own solo band, and a woman who will set fire to whatever stage she steps on with her undeniable talent. In other words, I’m sure you’ll love to see everything “red” after our humble tribute to her.

Hailing from Hamburg, a major port city in northern Germany, Miss ScarRed is a rising force in the Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore and Deathcore scenes, delivering soaring vocals that walk hand in hand with the heaviness, melody and rage flowing from the music played by her bandmates. Her first official release in the metal world was back in September 2021, when Chaos Rising, a collaborative international Groove/Thrash/Heavy/Melodic Death Metal project formed in 2019 open to every female artist interested in metal music, released the single Prisoner, featuring our beloved diva on vocals (and songwriting) alongside French multi-instrumentalist Stéphanie Nolf (of Syrinx and Unsafe, who’s also by the way the founder and manager of Chaos Rising) on bass and drum programming, British multi-instrumentalist Catherine Fearns on the guitars, and Serbian guitarist Aleksandra Stamenković (aka Alexandra Lioness, of Jenner and Sigma Epsilon) also on the guitars. All releases by Chaos Rising, featuring an array of talented women, can be found on BandCamp and on Spotify under an album titled The Singles, including of course the song with Miss ScarRed on vocals, and I’m sure we’ll soon see another striking song fronted by her under such an amazing and important project for all women who love heavy music.

Apart from her involvement with Chaos Rising, Miss ScarRed was also the vocalist for a Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany-based Symphonic Metal band named Aeternitas between 2021 and 2022, until they disbanded in 2022 after decades of existence, as the band was originally formed back in 1999. Miss ScarRed ended up being their very last female vocalist, having released with them the single Shadows back in November 2021, the band’s last song before calling it quits. I wish we could have more of Aeternitas with her on vocals because the final result in Shadows is really compelling, but of course I understand there are things that happen inside countless bands out there that are out of anyone’s control.

Finally, let’s talk a little about Miss ScarRed’s main band, the ruthless Nuking Moose. Formed in 2013 in Bremen, a city straddling the Weser River in northwest Germany, Nuking Moose play a thrilling fusion of Melodic Death and Groove Metal highly recommended for fans of bands like Jinjer and The Agonist, having released the EP Into the Abyss back in 2018, and the full-length album Ritual, in 2023, this one already featuring Miss ScarRed on vocals. After the pandemic hit, their previous vocalist Lars Michalsky (who had been with the band since 2017) left Nuking Moose in 2022, vacating the position for our red-haired growler to join guitarists Lennart Godt and Lennart Jabben, bassist Kevin “Moshi” Schmidt, and drummer Arne Godt in their quest for heavy music.

“Our old singer moved away for professional reasons and we were forced to look for a replacement. We were lucky that Liz was looking for a new band herself at the same time we were looking for a singer. The internet brought us together and Liz won us over straight away. It was always important to us to have someone on the microphone who could shout/grow but also sing cleanly and melodically. We found Liz to be the right person,” commented the band about their new vocalist, complementing by saying that “the fact that she drove from her home near Hamburg to Bremen for rehearsals every week left no doubt that she was serious about the band. Luckily, she now lives closer to Bremen. In addition to her musical ability, Liz also brought a lot of experience from the professional music business with her. That was a great stroke of luck for us, because the rest of us only got into music as a hobby.”

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After being joined by Miss ScarRed (or in the case of Nuking Moose, they prefer calling her just as Liz), the band was able to reach the desired shape and form of their sound, sounding modern without sounding too polished at the same time, as well as hard and rough but with the melodic touch of Liz on vocals. As already mentioned, Nuking Moose released last year the album Ritual, featuring Liz on vocals, and let me tell you that it’s one hell of an album with no fillers, only killers. In case you’re curious to listen to it, you can find the album in full on different streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, and also watch on YouTube the official video for the title-track Ritual, the lyric video for the song Values, and a “making of” for the entire album.

One name that might eventually pop up whenever you search for information about Nuking Moose is the one of Martin Kesici, and that’s because he’s nothing more, nothing less than Liz’s partner, apart of course for being a rock musician and radio host who became known in 2003 as one of the winners of the casting show Star Search. He’s become a friend of the guys from Nuking Moose, being involved in their day-to-day activities as for example being responsible for the mixing of the live recordings of one of their concerts. And speaking about live recordings, you can enjoy Liz and the boys kicking some ass with the songs Message To The Dead and Rusty Giant, both rehearsal room recordings. “The rehearsal room recordings were not part of a larger release, but we simply wanted to show people out there as quickly as possible after the singer change what we sound like now with Liz. These recordings were not intended to be studio quality – for the sake of simplicity, the drums were programmed on the computer, for example, and the distorted sound of the guitars came from a digital amplifier and not from the tube amps that we actually play,” commented the band.

There’s a lot more information, tour dates, news and other nice-to-know details about Miss ScarRed and Nuking Moose on their official social media channels, including her Facebook, Instagram and Linktree, and the band’s official website, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channel, leaving you updated with all things surrounding one of the most promising bands of the contemporary German scene, with of course Miss ScarRed proving why she was chosen by the band to be their new frontwoman and scream for them like there’s no tomorrow. Having said all that, what are you waiting for to dive into a sea of red together with such an amazing vocalist like her?

Miss ScarRed’s Official Facebook page
Miss ScarRed’s Official Instagram
Nuking Moose’s Official Facebook page
Nuking Moose’s Official Instagram
Nuking Moose’s Official YouTube channel