ABOUT: Female Doom/ Power Metal with subject matter in Viking/ Norse/ Finnish Mythology and the occult.
Axe was the first female heavy metal artist in South Africa, back in 1992-3. It was a tough time to bring a female power metal artist in amongst the new wave of death metal that just took over the country, but she persisted, being billed mainly with Goth acts through Inhouse Records that came to a scandalous fall of not paying their artists.
After over a decade of obscurity, she resurfaced with “The Invitation”, the end credit song to UK horror film, THE GHOSTS OF CROWLEY HALL.
For fear of copyright issues with the deodorant brand that surfaced in the meantime, her name was changed from Axe to LadyAxe (ONE word) and was the name used from there on in.
In 2009 LadyAxe headlined the Windhoek Metalfest in Namibia, making history as the first time a metal band featured three generations of females from the same family. It was a once-off feat, but proved the unpredictable nature of LadyAxe.
Subsequently she recorded various demo's of the songs they played at the WMF, but with lack of funding to record a proper studio album, Axe posted said demo's mainly on Reverbnation.
The demo compilation, "DEMOnized", was released in June 2015, due to popular demand for all the old Axe and LadyAxe demo's that have only been heard live before. There was no reason to re-record over two decades’ worth of music, now that LadyAxe changer her style, so it remained in demo form, which explains the name of the release.
Later in 2015, LadyAxe recorded her first EP, the long awaited, "Ásatrú", to showcase the true punch she delivers with her tribal/ Viking influences rooted in her music and lyrics. Although the EP has better quality sound, the drumming was still left up to midi sequences because of a lack of space/ drummers — the only thing LadyAxe admitted she hates about “Ásatrú”.
On 14 December 2018, LadyAxe released her first full-length album, “In the Lair of the Bear Mother”. Recorded in a store room at her house in Ireland, it is a semi-conceptual album that was released at the same time as her novel “Animosity” and the two works run concurrently in subject matter. This is a rare, if not unprecedented combination of two differing media used in conjunction and the one explains the other, so to speak.
“In the Lair of the Bear Mother” boasts a lot of LadyAxe’s musician friends from all over the world collaborating on various songs in various capacities, which makes it an eclectic cauldron of gumbo. Norse mythology meets Southern Voodoo, metal ladies from the USA, Colombia, Canada and South Africa chant on a song about metal women and a Greek titan is invoked to conjure a desire on Samhain night.
Especially for Halloween 2019, LadyAxe wrote, played and recorded the retro, lo-fi Doom offering, “Underground”, featuring guest spots from Anushka Draven from black metal act, Dunkelheit. All hard copy sales of this album contains a novella of short stories that coincide with each song on the album called “Bear Mother Speaks: Underground Tales”.
After years of struggling to get into a proper studio, LadyAxe is certain of one thing – the metal will not stop and she will keep delivering for those who appreciate the esoteric nature of her music.
At War with Amaru
by LadyAxe
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.