From stage to altar, these six bands are rewiring modern metal

By: Amanda Albert

Halestorm -- The Lace Ledger — Photo Credit: Amanda Albert (featuring Halestorm)

Heavy metal music has always been an anthem for rebellion. It growls against conformity and aches towards something primal. In the hands of women, this genre grows in depth, becoming an outlet for oppression, a ritual for rage and expectation, a pulse for pain.

In a scene built by men, these artists didn’t ask to be let in — they kicked in the fucking door.

To hear them is catharsis incarnate.

Each of these women — these conquerers — has helped reshape the genre, paving the way for artists and fans to come.

On National Metal Day (November 11), The Lace Ledger honours six bands led by dark femmes who forged their own mythology: Taylor Momsen, Maria Brink, Kelsy Karter, Lizzy Hale, Chelsea Wolfe and Jyl + Jules Wylde.

Each transformed darkness into devotion, casting from the chaos of those who came before and evolving it into something sacred. Their work will reverberate through generations.

Taylor Momsen — The Siren of Scream

Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless — Photo Credit: @taylormomsen

Once the adorable face of Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Taylor Momsen shed the trappings of youth stardom to become one of modern rock’s most commanding frontwomen.

Through The Pretty Reckless, she channels the sonic ghosts of Soundgarden and Led Zeppelin — blending sensuality with grief and grit.

Her 2025 single “For I Am Death” marks her return after a four-year hiatus, a raw meditation on loss and resurrection, while “Hit Me Like a Man” and “Heaven Knows” are deep-cut, cult classic bangers.

Maria Brink — The Priestess of Theatrical Gore

Maria Brink from In This Moment — Photo Credit: @mariabrinkofficial

As the voice and vision behind In This Moment, Maria Brink turned a metal concert into occult performance art.

Every show feels like a séance — with echos of Alice Cooper, the band’s demonic costumes, elaborate sets and sonic exorcisms leave the audience spellbound.

Brink draws from gothic iconography and feminine mysticism, citing artists like Nine Inch Nails, and Grace Slick as creative ancestors.

The 2024 album GODMODE continued her exploration of divinity, earning critical praise for its cinematic scope and fearless vulnerability. Fan favourites include “Whore”, “Blood” and “Adrenalize” with “Heretic” featuring Kim Dracula, a 2025 single release, quickly rising in popularity

Kelsy Karter — The Glam Rebel Revivalist

Kelsy Karter embodies the fusion of glam rock’s golden age and the feminist present.

Her band, Kelsy Karter & The Heroines, injects metal grit into melodic rock with sensual undertones.

Influenced by David Bowie, Amy Winehouse and Joan Jett, Karter transforms heartbreak into cheeky hooks.

Her 2025 record Love Made Me Do It leans into love as both the muse and tormentor. Whatever your gothic archetype, add “God Knows I’ve Tried” from the previous to your playlist and thank us later.

Lzzy Hale — The Virtuoso Vanguard

Lzzy Hale of Halestorm — Photo Credit: @lzzyhale

A leather-clad powerhouse, Lzzy Hale frontlines Halestorm with a voice that can crack open the gates of hell. Her influences span Heart, Dio and Janis Joplin, but her delivery belongs entirely to her era.

Hale’s precision guitar work and vocal range brought technical excellence back to the mainstream, proving that feminine intensity is not an exception — it’s evolution.

She recently collaborated with Taylor Momsen on a powerhouse rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” marking a symbolic moment of sisterhood in heavy music.

The latest album, Everest, launched this August following Back From the Dead in 2022, Vicious in 2018 and others preceding that. “I Miss The Misery” and “Do Not Disturb” remain heavy fan favs while “I Like It Heavy” and “Here’s To Us” skew more rocker-girl-end-of-the-night anthems with “All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You” rounding out as a cover that rocks.

Chelsea Wolfe — The Ethereal Architect

Chelsea Wolfe occupies a realm between doom and dream.

Her sound merges folk, drone and metal into something cinematic and haunted. Influenced by Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and Black Sabbath, she crafts songs that sound like prayer in ruins.

Her 2024 album She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She reimagined feminine transformation as wound and as weapon. Wolfe’s live performances feel like liturgy — proof that heaviness can be holy.

Wolfe’s latest single, “MEAN,” released in May 2025 with HEALTH, continues her descent into industrial terrain — a brutalist hymn that hums with grief and defiance. Earlier works like “16 Psyche” and “Survive” remain touchstones of her dark catalog, pairing doom-laden riffs with spectral grace. Tracks such as “Everything Turns Blue” reveal her quieter menace — a reminder that for Wolfe, heaviness isn’t volume alone. It’s atmosphere, ache and the ghost that lingers after the sound fades

The Pretty Wild — The Sisterhood of Savage Glam

The Pretty Wild -- for The Lace Ledger — Photo Credit: @wearetheprettywild

As sisters and co-conspirators, The Pretty Wild are a rising force in modern metal — another reminder that the genre’s most feral evolution is happening in the hands of women.

Their viral breakout “Sleepwalker” dominated social platforms within the dark femme and alt communities and will have you playing on repeat. For those who want to dig deeper, add “Wild Eyes,” to your playlist, it’s sharp-edged, cinematic and quietly unhinged (in the best way).

Mark November 21 in your calendar because their debut album, Zero Point Genesis, drops; an important piece of the origin story of a new dynasty in the dark. For a preview, check out “Living Ded”, equal parts glam and menace with lyrical storytelling, screamies and a breakdown that will blow out your speakers.

These women didn’t just enter metal — they rewrote its code.

Their fashion, stagecraft and storytelling influenced how femininity is perceived in spaces once defined by aggression.

They remind us that rage can be beautiful and every scream can be a love song to survival.

So this National Metal Day, raise your glass — or your horns — to the femmes who turned noise into nectar.