Supernova: A retrospective on the first five years of Lovebites

(Screen-shot from Heavy Metal Never Dies)

Who would have predicted, six years ago, that a musical group would come along and reverse heavy metal’s seemingly inexorable descent into darkness, negativity and harshness? That this group would reveal metal as something that can be glorious, melodic and inspiring?

Now, if  you had gone further and said this group would be composed of women, you would have been met with blank stares.  After all, in the West today, high-profile female rockers can be counted on one hand.  Other than a brief flowering in the 1970s, there have never been many women in rock. So a whole group of them? No way.

What if you went even further, and said this group would raise the bar on instrumental virtuosity? You would have been met with laughter. “Girls don’t play guitar” goes the old stereotype.  (Never mind that according to my conversations with people at Fender and Dean, the global market for electric guitars is increasingly dependent on female customers.) 

Besides, virtuosity on electric instruments had been thought by some to have reached its limit. “The progress is all in recording and production technology now.  So, dream on,” say some experts.

Well, such a group showed up in 2016.  They named themselves Lovebites, after the song “Love Bites” by Halestorm, one of the few female-led bands still alive and kicking in the U.S.  They chose the wolf as their avatar, because they know they are "lone wolves" in a world where most musicians - and women in particular -  only do pop. 

Wolves, as it happens, are matriarchal, which makes them the perfect symbol for a group of women this fierce. And fierce they are.

The typical reaction of rock fans on first seeing and hearing Lovebites is...confusion.  They are tiny, almost ethereal in their appearance, but they play explosive, highly technical music—exactly the kind that women are not supposed to play. With every performance, they shatter one of the hardest glass ceilings by proving that women can do heavy metal as well as or better than the men who invented and defined it.   

They have done more than break the glass ceiling. They have erased the traditional lane markers in popular music altogether.  Women in Western mainstream music largely stay in the singer-songwriter lane (the major exception being classical).  However, there is a rebellion under way in other parts of the world, and Lovebites are one of the groups leading that rebellion. 

They have shown that it is ok for women to sing about more than bad relationships and heartbreak. That it's ok to be complete bad-asses on rock instruments. That it’s ok to be better than the dudes. That, in fact, it’s ok not to sing about dudes at all! 

If you are not used to high-octane rock or metal, Lovebites can be daunting at first. They don’t do throw-away, radio-ready songs; they do concertos and anthems. The rewards, if you take the time, are some of the most intricate and beautiful compositions in modern music.  For music nerds who love to study the details of arrangements and technique, they are a gold mine.

All five members of the band have training in classical music, jazz and/or blues, and they all take a hand in composing songs for the group. As a result, much of their work has the majestic feel you get from the great classical composers, such as Beethoven or Chopin, or from the best adventure-movie sound tracks.  They express it all in a deep, diverse musical vocabulary.

There have been plenty of great acts in popular music—acts that had an impact the first time you heard them, and that still have an impact, even decades later.  However, there have only been a handful that actually changed the way we listen to music.  I’m thinking of artists like The Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Tina Turner, King Crimson and Nightwish. They force the listener to re-hear everything else with different ears. 

For me, Lovebites are bidding to be such a band.  Their roots are in the 70’s and 80’s “golden age” of rock--Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Queen, Metallica, Iron Maiden etc., but they add modern arrangements and dazzling musicianship to create a fresh, unique sound. 

Divine feminine energy infuses their compositions and arrangements.  The simplest way to say it is that they have made metal unabashedly beautiful. It is a whole new thing in their hands.

Intended or not, there is a political aspect to a band like this.  In the midst of the forever debates over the place of women in our society, these women defy easy categorization.  They dress like fairy princesses, while savagely wielding instruments built for men close to twice their size.  They do it with absurd ease and confidence, rather than the histrionics and grimaces that a lot of male rockers engage in.

We hear all the time that our society does not like powerful women.  Don't tell that to their legions of fans, both men and women, who love them for their uncompromising attitude and sheer bad-assery.

Lovebites tackle daunting themes like defying fate, overcoming failure, finding unity, breaking walls, self-sacrifice, conquering inner darkness and reaching for the impossible. There is no energy wasted on pining over some dumb-ass guy, which seems to be the only acceptable theme for most Western female pop stars. Instead, they have sung about spiritual salvation, nuclear winter, and finding humanity in the aftermath of an atomic bombing.

For me, hearing Lovebites the first few times was like receiving a package wrapped in velvet, done up with lace and ribbons--and opening it up to find a sledgehammer.  Everyone who rues the dearth of powerful female role models in popular culture needs to see this band in action.