2021-06-15

Power Ballads (3): Can women do power ballads? You bet.

 

Rock has historically been a pretty sexist business.  Women have usually struggled to break through, and when they do, I think it should be celebrated. I have several previous posts featuring women rockers.  In some cases, they were overtly political about sex and gender; in other cases they just went about their business, kicking down the doors, while letting someone else figure out what it meant.  

http://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2020/07/girls-rock-1-pioneers-leslie-gore-suzi.htm

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week-2.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week-3.html


Now, here are two bands which will blow up every remaining stereotype you may have had about women in rock. 

 

 

Band-Maid

This may be the hardest-rocking listenable band since AC/DC.  The first song gives you an idea of their usual approach. The second is a ballad about a lost relationship.  If you’re into the technical stuff, listen with headphones, because the arrangements and mixing are phenomenal. In my opinion, their rhythm section is the best in rock since Geddy Lee and Neil Peart in the early days of Rush.

 

“Take me Higher”:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7mf96vcxlgkui0/BAND-MAID___05.%20Take_me_higher%21%21_Live.mp4?dl=0

 

“Daydreaming”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCaeUkrItyY

 

 

Mary’s Blood

In the U.S., heavy metal has been on a thirty-plus year slog into ever darker, harsher and doomier territory.  I think it badly needs a re-imagining.  Mary’s Blood are one of a wave of all-female metal bands doing exactly that.  Their songs are catchy and sometimes even romantic.  These two songs are polar opposites, but each is anchored by that essential element of any metal song, the guitar solo.

 

“Marionette”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLM2unV0kwU

 

“Infinite Love”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OvVV7aPAg

 

 

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