To cap off Women’s History Month, Spotify hosted a roundtable titled “Women in Metal,” featuring Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante, Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia, and Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale. The half-hour video on their YouTube channel shows the three frontwomen talking about navigating the landscape of the modern metal world.
There are the usual talking points regarding gender in heavy music, such as always being done up or being mistaken as the merch girl instead of the lead singer. The three also bond over how they discovered one another and how they each led the way for the others on the panel to make it in the music world to the level that they have. LaPlante stresses the importance of standing together as outcasts or the “others,” succinctly saying “zero diversity is boring.” In a political climate that has cast diversity, equity, and inclusion as dirty words, such a statement is powerful. Lzzy Hale also has the line “you can’t argue with stupid,” which more than speaks for itself these days.
We also get a glimpse into each woman’s backstory. Cristina met her future bass player and partner of a decade Marco Coti Zelati at a metal pub in their native Italy, which didn’t have much of a metal scene before they formed Lacuna Coil. Lzzy formed Halestorm with her brother and would have to play merch girl until showtime, at which point she would start her show from the back of the venue and pull a swerve on everyone in the place. Courtney gave herself a deadline of age 26 to make it into the business, which she made after being recruited by her now-previous band iwrestledabearonce.
They also shout out newer acts like The Warning and Amyl and the Sniffers, pledging to continue paving the way for those that come after them.
Check out the full roundtable discussion:
