Women in Metal.

Nightwish, Delain, Within Temptation, Epica, Amaranthe, Kamelot, Arch Enemy, Lacuna Coil, Tarja, Xandria, etc. - Mostly photos. Occasionally band memes, feelings, and opinions. I talk in tags a lot. - Masha. Montreal, Canada. Main blog is bees-against-humanity. - Concert Stories.

[222daysoflight]

Is this blog abandoned? .... Sort of

Hello followers of this blog! It's me, ur Masha who runs it. I realised I haven't really been on Tumblr in so long my age is still listed as 22 on my main blog. I am 24, and have been for several months.

I have pretty much abandoned this blog, and Tumblr entirely. I'm for sure not going to delete it, because I really enjoy looking through what I built up over 3 years (and hope you do too!) but two things happened simultaneously: I got really busy with "real life", and Tumblr ceased to be a platform I liked. Not in terms of the people-- I still love all of you-- but the actual concept of Tumblr. I don't know how to explain it, especially because this happened before the "male presenting nipples" thing. But busy-ness played off of apathy, and here I am.

Anyway, all that to say that I'm back for a hot second to pitch that I'm doing a new thing and that is like it if you came along for the ride. It's a little project in which I listen to one album a week, for the entire year. It's not all featuring women, but a lot of it is (what can I say? I have a type), and you'll see some favourites there like Epica, Delain, and Kobra and the Lotus. Because I still love music, having crazy adventures, and am definitely in it for the beat.

I don't have any fucking clue how to insert a "read more" break any more, but below are some more personal life updates if you're wondering more on what happened.

So in June 2017, I graduated university. I'd only been on Tumblr/running this blog while in university, but I'd done okay in the weird break I had between finishing and graduating (I finished all my courses in December 2016, but didn't walk for another 6 months. Long story). So I thought I'd be okay going forward.

Aaaaaand then I got a concussion.

Someone fell on my head during an Alexisonfire show, and I had a terrible migraine for three months. And yes, I'm using migraine correctly.... Like, crying in a dark room while dry heaving levels of pain the vast majority of the time. I couldn't move, and I really, really couldn't look at a screen, especially for the amount of time required to run this blog. Concussions suck, I'd recommend against them.

During that time, I obviously couldn't work or even start to find a job. I wasn't actually legal to work in Canada either (where I've resided my entire adult life, but I'm from the US) which further complicated things. All this to say, come September 2017, I was super broke. After getting my work permit, a friend got me a few small jobs where he worked, then I used those to fluff up my resume and get my own job. I became a dishwasher at a restaurant.

Blogs were pretty abandoned at this point, but being a dishwasher also completely flipped my schedule. I had always used my evenings to do blog related things, school being during the day, but now I had a job where I worked evenings, often until 2 in the morning.

My mental health also finally came to a head around this time; like many, I struggle with depression and anxiety issues, but I had managed to ignore it for a long time. I finally confronted it, and landed in the hospital twice, in October 2017 and February 2018. But my dudes! I'm on medication now, and it's great! I can't believe I was so against it before! University would have been so much easier! It doesn't fix things, it just makes it so your brain chemicals are (hopefully) less wonky and you can actually work on your issues. That's my med PSA.

Anyway two years later and now I'm a cook in one of the top luxury hotel chains in the world. My boss is a celebrity chef. Don't ask me how this happened. Life's wild.

If you still want to keep in touch, my IG username is maashkina, and from there you can find my full name for Facebook as well. I'm open to all follows and (hopefully recognisable?) friend requests. Also, the above mentioned blog for music stuff. Otherwise, drop me a line here (I'll be crossposting so hopefully checking this blog) if you're not into any of that, and we can figure something out.

I still go to shows, still love every minute of it. Still stay close with Charlotte and Alissa. Totally stoked for Nightwish and Delain's upcoming releases. Got actual money for things now, it's great.

As I say all the time at work: same shit, different day.

[black-arcana]

[hauntedwhispers]

CRISTINA SCABBIA on being a female in a male-dominated scene (x)

[firewithfirenow]

The Tragedy of the Commons  [live with Alissa White-Gluz]

[living-in-the-heart-deactivated]

Pic by © Carlos Funes

[voice-of-anarchy]

“The European 2018 summer tour has come to an end. So many great memories and experiences that we will cherish. Thank you all who came out and were a part of this magical and very hot summer! Until next time…” (x)

[living-in-the-heart-deactivated]

😎

[awbuckyno]

Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy at Wacken 2018

[noxlunata-blog]

Happy 41st birthday, and thank you for bringing magic to my childhood.

[thegloryandthescum]

DELAIN’s New EP Will Be ‘A Little Bit More Extensive’ Than A Regular EP

[hauntedwhispers]

“What kind of relations do you have with Nightwish nowadays, or for example with Tuomas Holopainen?” (2018) (x)

[starlightonthemoon-deactivated2]

Tag yourself: Within Temptation album edition! I’m an edgy bitch.

[handsofdarkness]

Sharon of Within Temptation opens up about her darkest day

Since Within Temptation breakthrough, Sharon den Adel life was one big pink day. Until that one message.

DARKEST DAY

Leather jacket, glasses on top of her head, fresh and cheerful. This is how Sharon enters the grand café. Sunlight falls through the windows on the wooden floor and shines on the earring in her right ear, a dragonfly. Outside the trees rustle. She lives in Soest, but this cafe in Baarn is close by. And it does not matter: it is equally beautiful everywhere. An oasis of peace and green, something for a singer of a world famous metal band. No loud guitars, no busy tour schedule.

No, the band life is not always easy. Sharon really experienced that on her darkest day. It is the year 2015. She had just flown back to the Netherlands after having been on holiday with her family. Her family stayed for a while, but for Sharon and Within Temptation a few European shows were booked. She had one day in the Netherlands.

When she came home that day, she was told that someone in her immediate family was seriously and probably incurably ill. “Now it turns out that medical science is very far with new means and treatments, but for him it was unfortunately too late. He was still there, but his life was hanging on a silken thread.” Her family did not want to tell her when she was on vacation. And now, after this news, after the ground had been swept away under her feet, she had to go straight to the tour bus. Canceling was not an option: Within Temptation has become a company, with many employees, still apart from the concert halls and fans who expected her. “It was unreal. I did not want to leave, even though my family told me that I should go. I told everyone directly in the bus. On the way I was reading about the disease and what to do about it. I could not accept it.”

On stage, during the shows after the news, the atmosphere was different than usual. “Music is a catalyst for me, so the emotion was interwoven with everything I sang. I missed my husband and children. I wanted to go back to my family, drink wine with my parents, talk about life.“

The disadvantages of international fame. If something happens, chances are that you are abroad. The show must go on. “Sometimes that goes wrong, and that is what happened to me. When we were back in the Netherlands, I no longer had any inspiration for new music, at least not for Within Temptation. We make bombastic, tough music. There is victory in it, and I did not need that, I did not have that emotion, I was locked up.”

There was a road out of the impasse, but that road was outside the belt. “Of course the members were shocked, they were looking forward to making a new record.” The songs Sharon wrote felt good, but did not fit into the standard genre. They were smaller, more sensitive. “The producer with whom I wrote them also immediately noticed. With these songs we had to do something else.“ This was her solo project: My Indigo. She made a record that made her blood and creativity flow again, even in such a way that she could write for Within Temptation again.

PINK DAY

She drinks her fresh mint tea, eats the biscuit and stares out of the window. The dragonfly sparkles and distracts from her frown. “A beautiful day, a beautiful day …” When she hears that childbirths are no longer allowed, because otherwise almost all the candidates in this category would choose, she goes for the day when Within Temptation really broke through.

“It was at Pinkpop in 2001.” Laughing: “Very long ago. I was 21. We were about five years old. We were already big in the underground, and we already played in large halls, but we were still in that niche of metal and alternative. The gig at Pinkpop was overwhelming. The tent was packed and popped apart. Everyone sang along. That was the tipping point, we felt that something had changed. After that we also saw people who did not belong to the metal subculture at performances and signing sessions. People of all plumes, say.”

The radio stations and music channels on TV, however, still did not have it. “Nobody wanted to play us. When we drove home after Pinkpop, we heard callers on the radio requesting us, but we were not played. I remember that we were played at Radio 3 for the first time at night. You also had The Box, a music channel on TV. We had told our fans that they could request our video clip there, but that was not possible at all. We were not in the package. We got a phone call, if we would please rectify the news to our fans, because they were called flat. But it was not to stop, a few months later you could request us and we were immediately played a lot.”

It was a shift in the landscape of pop music. You did not hear metal until Within Temptation. Then suddenly. "Besides, I was a woman. You also had little to no bands with singers in metal.” In other words, they actually had no chance of success. But it had happened: Within Temptation was broken by the general music lover. “That was great, but also alienating. We have always remained faithful to our music, and to what we wanted to make. I have always believed in it. We went full. And suddenly we broke through with music that people said it was not possible. We were full.“ They still make the music they want to make. The success remains as great as ever. Soon they will be in the AFAS Live twice in succession, and then we are only talking about the Netherlands, because they are also popular in Germany, Finland, Russia and even the USA.

She has to go, Sharon. Soon the children will be out of school. She walks outside, where the sun shines and where the squirrels and birds know nothing about loud guitars and success.

The Netherlands got to know Sharon den Adel (43) as front woman of the metal band Within Temptation. Last year she announced her solo project: My Indigo. Her first (eponymous) album is now a fact. Sharon has a relationship with guitarist Robert Westerholt, with whom she has a daughter and two sons.

Translation by Hands of Darkness

[the-essence-of-epica]

[living-in-the-heart-deactivated]

Nightwish live at Wacken Open Air 2018.

Original pictures by: rnr_reporter; Thomas hanner; Claudia chiodi.

[belladonianoir]

[voice-of-anarchy]

Angela Gossow by © Marie Korner (2014)

“A never-seen-before portrait from the World Exclusive I shot with Angela and Alissa back in 2014 for Terrorizer Magazine. The knuckle duster was handmade for Angela by a fan 🖤 Read the blog about my trip, http://mariekorner.com/…/arch-enemy-terrorizer-world-exclu…/ #throwbacktuesday #musicportraitphotographer #angelagossow #mariekorner”