Did #MeToo Just Go Metal?

Screenshot from “Pardon Me, I Have to Go Now,” YouTube

Since metal first crawled out of the primeval seas in the 1960s, people have argued about what it is. In its early form, you could say it started off as rock with a dash of brutality. Think “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” by Black Sabbath, or “Child in Time” by Deep Purple.

What has been forgotten is that one of the seas which spawned early metal was the godforsaken industrial heartland of England. For people there (mostly working-class guys), loud, harsh music was a form of social protest, an outlet for understandable hopelessness and anger.

The convergence of that inchoate rage rock with the luminous virtuosity of psychedelic bands like Jimi Hendrix and Cream that ultimately gave rise to what we now call metal.

To me, the big knock on metal is not that it is loud, but that it was, for a long time, exclusively reserved for men. Now, that is not unique to metal. Most genres of Western popular music have a long history of excluding or minimizing women, especially women doing anything besides singing. In blues, jazz, and rock, only around 5% of the people playing instruments at the professional level, or doing technical stuff in mixing and production, have historically been women.*

Metal was worse: Even the vocalists were pretty much all dudes, at least in the UK and U.S., which is where most of these forms of music originated. A lot of early metal bands wrote songs with an ugly streak of misogyny, and some bands still do. But if you look further afield, the story is different.

In some parts of the world, women are not only pushing back, but they have taken the lead in rock and metal and are changing the sound and message of these historically dude-centric forms of music. If you’ve been reading this column regularly, you know it’s a big part of my writing.

Still, it’s one thing to prove, in spades, that women can rock as hard as the guys. It’s another thing entirely to take the old spirit of protest and turn it on the patriarchy.

Here are a couple of bands made up entirely of women. They play aggressive but intricate music (in contrast with punk, which is aggressive but minimalistic), AND they do social protest. They’ve wrapped the entire sonic framework of old-school metal — the heavy guitar riffs, brutally technical drumming, and in-your-face vocals — in lyrics about sexual harassment and abuse. It’s #MeToo, and it’s metal as f***.

More and more bands are doing this sort of thing, but here are two of my favorites. They are way past being curiosities — both bands have toured internationally and are not taking any prisoners.

“(Not) Public Property” by Voice of Baceprot

Imagine a group of teenage girls in a conservative Muslim village in Indonesia starting a heavy-metal rock group in the face of societal resistance, including opposition by some of their own parents. That is Voice of Baceprot. They honed their craft by posting covers of big-name Western metal bands before releasing their own music.

Personnel:

• Firdda Marsya Kurnia (vocals and guitar)

• Widi Rahmawati (bass, backing vocals)

• Euis Siti Aisyah (drums)

They consider themselves faithful Muslims and wear hijab on stage (with some enhancements). However, they still get opposition and even threats from people who are opposed to girls behaving this way (“baceprot” means “noisy” or “loud”).

“School Revolution,” their breakout song, is about having the right to have one’s own thoughts, free of judgment from society. “God Allow Me (Please) to Play Music” is about people who use religion as an excuse to persecute artists. This one is about bodily autonomy. It’s a mashup of old-style rock, metal, and even some rapping. Listen for the bass line; it’s insanely good.

“Pardon Me, I Have to Go Now” by Hanabie

You get this when Babymetal and Maximum the Hormone (MTH) have a love child. If you don’t know who those groups are, I’ll be writing about both bands, so stay tuned. Hanabie actually started in high school, playing MTH covers.

Members:

• Vocalist (clean vocals, rapping, and screams)- Yukina

• Guitarist and clean vocals — Matsuri

• Bassist and backing vocals — Hettsu

• Drums — Sae (just left the band, and they will be announcing a new drummer shortly)

I think they are one of the new bands to watch. Most of their songs are quite pointed, concerning social issues like hookup culture, drug abuse, human trafficking, cheating, etc. This song is about sexual harassment and toxic workplace culture.

On the lighter side, their most well-known song is about having an unhealthy relationship with sugar. They have published one album and one EP so far and have been invited to several major U.S. and European rock festivals this year.

* Personal conversations with representatives of Dean and Fender