As I entered Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium just before 12pm on Saturday to see Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert – Black Sabbath’s last, and one of the biggest heavy metal shows of all time – an excited steward informed us that we were in for some huge surprises.
But when I asked (only half joking) if there would be any more women joining the line-up, he kept quiet – I assumed because he didn’t want to ruin the surprise.
Unfortunately, I later figured out that the answer to my question would have been a resounding no.
Back to the Beginning was nothing short of monumental for metalheads like me. It was a ‘who’s who’ of the rock and metal scene, with countless artists joining forces to pay tribute to the founding fathers of the genre as we know it.
Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler – the bandmates who make up Black Sabbath – laid the foundations for hundreds of artists to follow in their footsteps when they started in Birmingham over half a century ago, and they certainly went out with a bang.
From relatively new artists like Yungblud and Rival Sons, to veterans of the scene including Guns N’ Roses and Metallica, the line up was completely packed with 10 hours’ worth of live music from over 14 different bands and special guests.
And yet, among all of that, only two women took to the stage all day.
Don’t get me wrong, I am so incredibly lucky to have witnessed the music event of a lifetime and ticked some huge names off my musical bucket list. It is a night I will remember forever and I’ll always be grateful to have attended.
But I couldn’t help but want more.
While my mum was most excited for metal legends Metallica, it was Halestorm that I was most looking forward to.
Lzzy Hale’s powerhouse vocals are enough to knock anyone’s socks off, and I’d argue she is one of the greatest vocalists of this generation. Pair that with her screams and ability to shred both guitar and piano – all while embracing her femininity in sky-high stilettos – and I have never not been in awe watching her perform.
It took me until an embarrassingly long time after we’d secured our tickets to realise that Halestorm were the only female-fronted band on the entire line-up.
On the day, French band Gojira were joined on stage by Marina Viotti to perform Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!), who again wowed the crowd with her impressive vocals.
But while both artists blew me away, they barely scratched the surface of what the industry has to offer.
The event was about celebrating Black Sabbath and their impact on the music industry.
However, their impact has been far further reaching than this line-up gave them credit for.
The heavy metal genre has only expanded over the years, embracing changes with sub-genres like nu-metal and symphonic metal. In the early days, the genre was dominated by men – and Saturday’s line-up would have you believe that it still is.
But there is so much more to it than that. Women have fought tirelessly to have their voices heard and make a name for themselves as rock and metal artists, and yet they face huge obstacles in being taken seriously by predominantly male audiences.
Take Evanescence as an example. Led by powerhouse vocalist and pianist-extraordinaire Amy Lee, their performance at Download Festival in 2007 saw them placed on the bill just below headliners Iron Maiden, thanks to their meteoric rise to fame four years earlier with their iconic hit Bring Me to Life.
With an audience full of Iron Maiden supporters, Amy Lee made an impassioned speech about her right to be there, while highlighting that they were the only female-fronted act on the line-up all day.
Thankfully, things have improved significantly since then, with their 2023 performance on the second stage at Download drawing in crowds so large some people were unable to see the stage.
Amy Lee has previously credited Ozzy and Black Sabbath with ‘making darkness cool’. With Amy, in turn, having been credited with opening the door for other female-fronted metal bands to hit the mainstream, an appearance from her in one of Tom Morello’s supergroups would have made complete sense.
And she isn’t the only one.
The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen can more than hold her own in front of a crowd of classic metalheads, having supported AC/DC on their most recent European tour, all while recovering from being bitten by a bat during one of the early shows.
Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel drew in an enormous crowd at this year’s Download Festival – as did Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante.
From rock legends Heart to up-and-coming artists like Hawxx, BEX, Mothica and Cassyette, there is so much female talent to be heard in the genre. In this Moment’s Maria Brink, Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk, Linkin Park’s Emily Armstrong, Halocene’s Addie Amick, and the Nova Twins are just a few of the names making waves in the metal scene.
Any one of the artists listed above could have held their own among the other heavy hitters of the Back to the Beginning line-up.
It feels like a disservice to the extent of Black Sabbath’s legacy to leave out such a significant demographic of performers. While the likes of Metallica, Slayer and Tool have all rightfully earned their place on that stage, and brought the house down with it, it seems impossible to fully pay tribute to the founders of metal without embracing the future.
Black Sabbath created heavy metal. Now, having played their final show, it is time to pass the baton to the next generation of performers, and the truth is, a huge proportion of them are women.
Hugely talented women, at that.
Yes, we’ve come a long way, but Back to the Beginning is proof that we’re nowhere near the end.
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