Drain STH

This band could have been born both in Stockholm or Seattle. Geographically they did in the Swedish capital, but musically they were inspired by the grunge world capital.

Country: Sweden
History: 1993 – 2000
Status: Inactive
Style: Grunge/Heavy metal

Biography:
This band could have been born both in Stockholm or Seattle. Geographically they did in the Swedish capital, but musically they were inspired by the grunge world capital.

Flavia Canel and Martina Axen had previously played in several punk bands such as Livin’ Sacrifice. They endured the style change from punk to hard rock, but when it became poppy they decided to go their own way. The duo formed Rag Doll, joined by Anna Kjellberg. The lineup was completed with Maria Sjölholm in 1993, and after signing with MVG Records in 1994 the band was renamed Drain.

In 1995 they started recording and in less than a year had published the EP “Serve The Shame” and the album “Horror Wrestling”. The singles “I Don’t Mind” and “Crack The Liars Smile” introduced them to the world.

Drain included in their album “Freaks Of Nature” a song co-written by the Swedish group and the famed guitarist Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), entitled “Black”.

The band made their way to North America, getting to perform in a secondary stage at Ozzfest, and changing their name because it was used in the U.S. by a punk band. They renamed to Drain STH, officially Drain “STockHolm” but also interpreted as “Straight To Hell”.

Despite a big hype, the band suffered the year 2000 effect and split this year.

What happened to …

Mari Sjölholm is currently withdrawal from the music business, and married Tony Iommi.

Martina Axén sang in Snake River Conspiracy, and has launched her solo career.

Flavia Canel has abandoned her guitar duties to be manager of bands such as Sonic Syndicate and Skiller.

Anna Kjellberg plays her bass for Opiate For The Masses.

Lineup:
Maria Sjöholm – Vocals
Flavia Canel – Guitar
Anna Kjellberg – Bass
Martina Axén – Drums

Discography:
1995, “Serve the Shame” (EP)
1996, “Horror Wrestling” (LP)
1999, “Freaks Of Nature” (LP)

Related links:
Drain STH @ Myspace
Drain STH @ Facebook

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Blair Witch interview

Taiwanese band formed by four young black and death metal fans. A entirely female act since its conception, Blair Witch members talked with metaladies about their history and future goals.

Listen to Blair Witch while reading the interview:

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How is the Blair Witch health right now, what is the band involved in?
Shinya – Blair Witch is much better now and we are working hard. At the begining, some of our members had two bands, even the person who formed this band did. It made this band not to be sure of what kind of music and goal we wanna make.Well, you know, girls misunderstand each other so often and they didn’t concentract in this band a lot besides me. I felt dispointed about them. It was that way before I met new members.

You’ve suffered many lineup changes. Do you feel like finally being a solid band right now?
Shinya – Our members now are serious to this band and we had the same goal. It finally became a solid band after that messy period of time. I think this is real Blair Witch.

One thing that seems to be mandatory is to keep the band all-female. Is it part of the Blair Witch concept, only witches allowed?
Shinya – When we tried to seek for new members, some male musicians had contacted me. But they didn’t practice songs that we asked them to play, just sat there like coming here for picnicing! And,It’s weird that there didn’t come any male musician anymore after it. We’ve never asked for girls only but newcomers were all girls so I think this is our destiny. Girls can also play metal. This is what we wanna tell everyone!!

Maybe because of this lineup changes, your music has moved from gothic metal at the beginning to raw black metal nowadays. Is it the main reason, is it a direct influence from the band newcomers?
Shinya & Mai – It was metal for early Blair Witch but not so heavy. I think, members changing has big influence as well. Our new drummer has bigger punch than ex so the songs we wrote are more and more heavy. In addition, we all like black metal and Ice can sing it. This is the reason we turned to black!

And do you think you’ve finally found your definitive sound? How would you describe it?
Mai – Yes, we did. I hope people who listen to our music can also image pictures we tried to express. It’s a dark, cold and hopeless world.

Which is your main trademark, what makes your music distinguish from the rest, the thing you feel it’s Blair Witch original?
Ice – I think being all-female is our biggest trademark haha!! Well, as my members said, we wanna show our girls’ dark power. And there are few black metal bands in Taiwan. We do have female bands but they are all pop or punk. I guess people can distinguish us from the rest so easy cause we are the first female extremely metal band in Taiwan!

And which bands have influenced you the most?
Ice – For me, all black metal bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Belphegor, Astarte and so on have influenced me the most. I think Sodom, Amon Amarth and Norther have infuenced Shinya I guess. Mai likes 80′s, early Metallica, Graveworm, Burzum, Behemoth and so on.A PO is a newcomer for metal world so I am trying to take her into black metal haha! For her,I guess a drummer in a taiwanese metalcore band, Beyond Cure, has been the major influence.

Let’s talk about your country. Is there a strong black metal scene in Taiwan?
Mai – It’s rare in Taiwan. Well, we have two mainly black metal bands, Chthonic and Anthelion, but they are trying to become little pop to attract young people to listen. Anyway, black metal isn’t so popular here but there are still few people working hard to push it out.

Is it easy for a metal band in Taiwan to appear in the media? Any radio, TV channel, magazine supporting metal?
Mai – In fact, taiwanese media always cares about scandals and gossips. There are less people who care about metal music here. Only some midnight MTV chanel or radio chanel play 80′s or metal music. Well, there is a magazine named “Music-In” appeared recently. It features taiwanese metal bands, international metal bands and metal concerts in Taiwan. I am glad to know that we finally have this kind of magazine.

Is internet your strongest weapon to promote yourself?
A PO – I think so cause here we still have less ways to promote ourselves. I am happy that we have Music-In magazine now too.

Have you received international feedback?
Ice – Yes, we have recieved some from our myspace and my foreign friends. I really appreciate people who gave us encouragement and suggestions. These will make Blair Witch more and more stronger.

Is it easy to have a busy gig schedule in Taiwan? Which are your touring plans for this 2009?
Mai – Taiwan is a small island so places we can go are only those such as Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaouhsung. I think it’s enough for us to have a busy tour. We planed to join every big metal festival in Taiwan. We also hope to hold a female metal festival in 2010. If we could, we want to invite some foreign metal bands too.

And what about all-female metal bands in your country. Do you know any other band?
A PO – I guess there is only one all-female metal band in Taiwan. We have other all-female bands but they are almost pop rock and punk bands. Just wearing cute or bikini, showing how cute and sexy they are. I don’t like it.

Tell me about your own songs. Do you have material enough to record an album? Any thoughts of doing it soon? I think you started recording but you had some problems to solve.
A PO – We have only 5 songs so still can’t make an album. We will try to write more. We are working hard at fixing not good parts of songs and practicing it till get them perfect. We still lack experience for recording and have to improve basic skills more and more.

What do you speak about in your lyrics? Which is the concept behind your music?
Ice – I wrote our lyrics to lead people into a dark, cold and hopeless atmosphere. I tried to describe human’s sick and dark side. Of course I add some satanic thoughts since elder said witches are Satan’s daughters haha! The concept of our music is like that too.

Tell the readers why Blair Witch is a band worth to listen to.
A PO – We work hard and we are all-female asain black metal band. We want to spread girls power all over the world. Did you ever heard of female black metal band from Taiwan? You have to!

Read more about Blair Witch

Absinthe interview

Metaladies caught up with founder of Absinthe, Briana Alexis, to see what these rockin L.A. women were all about. She talked about the new album and their busy show schedule, among other issues.

Listen to Absinthe while reading the interview:

photo - Kimmy Squiers

Absinthe is a new band, established in 2007. Where have you been until now?
We’ve actually played over 60 shows in Hollywood since our formation in 2007. The first year, we were pretty low profile, and then as we started playing out more our fan base grew very rapidly. We regularly share stages with all kinds of bands and have even opened for a few national acts. We hold our own every time. It’s always great to go onstage and show everyone these girls can rock with the best of them!!!!

Absinthe consists of members from all over the globe. Has this had any effect on the music that you write?
My band members are from Barcelona Spain, Japan, Los Angeles, and Detroit the rock scene. It’s definitely a great mix and I’m sure a bit of all our different nationalities definitely seep into the song writing in some way. Current line up consists of Lau – Vocals, Briana Alexis – Guitar, Felicia Villani – Guitar and backing vocals, Crystal Diamond – Bass, and Misai on Drums.

Talking about the L.A scene, what’s left from the golden age of the Sunset Strip? How Absinthe fit in the scene now?
I played the Sunset Strip back in the 80′s, so I know it well. It’s definitely a very different scene these days. That being said, sometimes, I feel like I’m playing in a time warp, as if nothing has changed. I love telling my Sunset war stories to my younger band members, so they can live vicariously through me.

photo - Kimmy Squiers

Your music could be considered as a dish of rock with a metal touch, with melodic guitars and powerful vocals. How would you describe your music?
When I formed ABSINTHE in 2007, I wanted something different, more classical metal, with cello, violin, keyboards. We soon found that we wanted the band to rock a little harder so we went back to basics, two dual lead guitars, powerful vocals, with grooving bass and drum lines. We’re influence by the Metal scene, as well as a few other styles of music. The ABSINTHE sound is definitely based around loud guitars and powerful vocals with great songs with strong catchy hooks. We definitely do our own thing which is a real asset. I still haven’t been able to put a label on us but we do have a rocking edge which is just the way we like it.

Tell us about your Endorsements.
We’re sponsored by 9 difference companies. I’m endorsed by Tregan guitars, Trailor Trash pedal boards, AMT Electronics, Floyd Rose, Seymour Duncan, N-Tune Onboard Tuners, Floyd Rose Upgrades Products. We’re also part of the Gibson Guitars family. We also play at trade shows and events for our sponsors including NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants). It’s the biggest music equipment trade show. It’s been so cool to have these great companies believe in what we do and to support us. I’m also going to be featured in some ad campaigns in the guitar magazines for a few of my sponsors in the very near future so keep an eye out for the ads.

Which bands have mainly influenced Absinthe’s sound? Any all-female metal bands in this list?
As far as female bands, more like female fronted bands like Heart, Pat Benetar, Doro Pesch, Amy Lee of Evanescence. When I started playing in all girl bands, there weren’t many. I completely support girl bands, there’s more now, with better musicianship. This band has a variety of influences, old to new, such as Led Zeppelin, Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Dokken, Motely Crue, and Korn.

photo - Kimmy Squiers

Let’s talk of how it all started. How was Absinthe given birth?
I received my degree in music from Grove School of Music in Los Angeles. I went into a full blown overload music overload after I graduated. I quit playing cold turkey for a few years. In 2007 I was asked to play guitar at a special event, I was hooked all over again! Just like the movie The Godfather “Just when I thought I was out they pulled me back in”. A month later I started Absinthe, The rest is history.

Was Absinthe intended to be an all-female band since the beginning? Do you think it helps to break into the scene and media?
Yes, from the very start when I formed the band, I knew ABSINTHE would be an all girl band. I think it helps, although there are many girl bands now, I believe the more of us the better. Being in an all girl band definitely helps with the media, but you must also be able to back it up. The biggest obstacle girl bands face is the typical quote “they’ re good for girls.” So there’s more pressure, you have to be able to bring when you hit the stage. I think we definitely do…

You also play events for various charities. Tell us a bit about some of the events you’ve played.
We regularly play charity events and fundraisers and always help when we can if it’s for a great cause. We definitely believe in helping out charities when we can with our music. We also have our wild side too. Last summer we played Calendar Girls Festival that also featured strippers and dancers on stage, the next day we played the Los Angeles Marathon. I also play second guitar with my friend Ronny North and his band when I have time. We’ve done some big shows together including playing 2009 Winter NAMM and for Nascar for 1000′s of race fans. We really have a blast playing together on stage…

photo - Kimmy Squiers

You recently won Three Rock City News Music Awards. Tell me about them, which geographical area does it cover and which categories did you win?
Rock City News Magazine is a Rock Magazine based in Hollywood, California. The publication pretty much covers the entire Southern California music scene. It’s always a great honor to win awards and to be acknowledged for your talent. In 2008 ABSINTHE scooped up Best All Girl Band, Best Female Fronted, and Best Female Guitar Player. I played at their 25th Anniversary celebration, they’ve been around forever. Look for us in the polls again in 2009!

Will 2010 see an Absinthe album? Have you released any material already? What else do you have in store for next year that you would like to share with our readers?
There will definitely be a new full length CD out in 2010. We just completed a new EP to wet everyone’s appetite until the new full length CD comes out. We also just completed a new video as well. We will be keeping the momentum going that we have built up and playing lots of shows as we always do. ABSINTHE is a great live band and we love playing out and winning over new fans as well as playing to our rapidly growing fan base. I will also be playing at the 2010 Winter NAMM Show (National Association of Music Merchants) for a couple of my sponsors again. I had a blast playing the event last year. 2010 is definitely going to be our year…..

Tell the readers why Absinthe is a band worth listening to…
I think we definitely bring something different to the table. Our music is heavy but always stays melodic with strong vocals and catchy melodies. We have a wide variety of influences and it shows in our songs. We want be considered a great band and not just a great girl band. To get more info on us or to get our new EP go to www.myspace.com/absinthewomen. We go on stage and get it done. If we’re not already on your radar we soon will be…

Thank you so much for your attention, good luck!.

Read more about Absinthe

Diana

Name: Diana
Location: Colombia

www.myspace.com/dianita-diaz

Your favourite Metal Style
Death Metal/Black Metal/Trash Metal
Your Bands TOP 5
Opeth, Gorgoroth, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Dark Tranquility
Male Musician most apreciated
Mikael Stanne
Female Musician most apreciated
Angela Gossow
Song always playing in your headphones
“Punish My Heaven” DT
Best concert you’ve been to
Dark Tranquility in Bogota DC
Favourite Food
Italian food
Favourite Drink
Gatorade
Your hobbies
Dancing, listening to metal, reading, walking, shopping, exercising, walking, riding, drink beer
Write a message to the readers
Remain in the metal! Greetings from Colombia!

Win the full Satanic Corpse discography

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“Why do you like Satanic Corpse?”

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AC/DShe interview

There are several AC/DC female tribute bands, but unlike the rest, AC/DShe setlist reviews exclusively the Bon Scott era. And they do with attitude and quality. We talked with Bonny Scott and Riff Williams about the band.

AC/DShe is the first AC/DC female tribute band, but now there are (at least) three more of them. Do you know them? What can offer AC/DShe to make you different from the rest?
Bonny – What sets us apart is our undying commitment to Bon Scott and AC/DC. We play the songs note for note and try to recreate the look and feel of an early AC/DC show. We know of the other bands and have seen what they do. A few are more like cover bands than tributes.

Riff – We clearly have the best name! We are the only female AC/DC tribute dedicated to Bon Scott era. Our ultimate goal is to do our heroes justice.

You are only playing Bon Scott era songs. Don’t you feel like playing hits like “Thunderstruck”, “Heatseeker” or “Stiff Upper Lip”?
Bonny – AC/DC has such a huge catalog of songs, so I don’t feel like we’re missing out at all. I like to hear AC/DC do them, but I don’t feel like singing um.

Riff – I can’t lie…sometimes it would be great to rip into some Back in Black songs, but it wouldn’t make sense to have Bonny sing those songs. Bon and Brian are not interchangeable and the same thing applies here. We’re purists.

And what about writing your own songs? Have you got songs by your own?
Bonny – Many of us have been in other bands and have written our own music, but AC/DShe is a tribute to AC/DC and so there’s no place for writing our own songs in this band. The people who come to see us come to hear and see AC/DC songs performed live, and that’s what we give them.

Do you play in other bands, any concern of expanding your musical experiences and to forget about AC/DC for a while? Or AC/DShe fills all your needs?
Bonny – Playing in AC/DShe is VERY fulfilling! We have the opportunity to play sold out shows in big venues pretty much everywhere we go. AC/DC has some of the most dedicated fans around and we’re very lucky to have a great number of them as our fans too! If we want to otherwise express ourselves musically i.e., writing songs, we do that separately from this band.

Riff – Why would you ever want to forget AC/DC for a while? Life without AC/DC is like a party without booze.

This summer of 2009 you’ll celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first AC/DShe show. How do you recall this day? Are you planning to make any special celebration?
Bonny – I remember that first show like it was yesterday! The first show we played was at a bar called the Port Light (more fondly known as the “Porch Light”) – a long shoreman’s hang out in Oakland near the port. They aren’t doing shows there anymore, so we can’t return there for our anniversary, but we are planning a major blowout for later in the year.

Riff – Damn, time flies when you’re havin’ fun. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come since that first show and all of the great experiences we’ve had as a result of this band. In celebration of our ten years, it would be great to cruise through the streets of San Francisco (or Melbourne!) It’s a Long Way to the Top style.

AC/DShe was officially born in 1997. More than ten years of history. Have you ever been the same line-up? What have changed in the band skills and attitude since then?
Bonny – The birth of AC/DShe was in Riff’s living room when I was just a teenager. We had no idea of what it would become, we just wanted to pay tribute to our favorite band, playing shows for our friends at places like the Port Light and if we were lucky, maybe the Paradise Lounge..

Riff – We have truly improved our drinkin’ skills, that’s for sure. We’ve had some lineup changes over the years, but it’s not as easy as you’d think finding dedicated AC/DC fans that love playing the music as much as we do (for this long!).

Just watching your pics and videos, I can see you are a great live band. Is this the reason why you haven’t recorded anything?
Bonny – Why thank you! We believe a tribute band is all about the live experience. We started AC/DShe to give AC/DC fans the opportunity to see and hear AC/DC performed live – since AC/DC only tours about once every eight years, we thought we’d help fill in that gap. If you want to hear AC/DC at home, in your car, or in your headphones, you should be listening to AC/DC!!!

Riff – Yeah, the live experience is so much different than listening to a recording. We never really understood why anyone would want to record AC/DC songs. We’ve been asked several times and passed on the offers. Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby!

As you are not just an AC/DC cover band but a tribute band, do you also rehearse their movements? Do you act like them on stage?
Bonny – That’s definitely one of the things that sets us a part from a lot of other AC/DC bands. We do our best to reproduce the sound and stage production of an early AC/DC club show. We are all insane AC/DC collectors and have tons of bootleg AC/DC footage that we all watch and study moves, style of playing, vocal inflections, everything to recreate their performance as best we can.

Riff – Absolutely! It’s so much fun when we watch old AC/DC videos together. We pick up on new things all the time. A serious deep study!

Talking about your gigs, you’ve played with bands as important as Kiss, Aerosmith or Y&T, among others. Which are your best memories about it? And the worst, maybe feeling nervous?
Bonny – We are huge Cheap Trick fans and playing with them was one of my fondest memories for AC/DShe! We were able to meet the whole band and they were all incredibly nice. They told us stories from their days playing with AC/DC and talked about what a great guy Bon Scott was. They were super guys and incredibly modest and down to earth. Aerosmith was another awesome night! We opened for them and then went out to watch their set. When we tried to get back stage after their set, the security wouldn’t let us back to our dressing room, so we had to literally sneak backstage at our own show. When we broke through, we ran into Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and hung out with Steven for a bit. He was a ton of fun to hang out with!

Riff – Cheap Trick and Aerosmith were definite highlights because they actually took the time to hang with us. It was also awesome opening for Girlschool. I was wearing an old Hit and Run tour shirt and brought some early tour guides for them to sign. It was quite an experience to sit around and drink beer and listen to the stories they had to tell while flipping through those tour guides.

And you’ve been also to Europe. Where and how was it? Have you found any difference between the american and the european crowd?
Bonny – We’ve played in Holland and Belgium and in the UK. Different songs were hits for AC/DC in Europe and the UK, so it’s cool for us to see folks get excited for songs there that people in the US barely know. European audiences seem to watch very intently and take a little time to warm up, but when they do, they go crazy and there is no holding back!

Riff – We played an AC/DC convention in Wales and it was such a crazy experience. Here were all of these rabid AC/DC fans descending on this little town in Wales. It was a 3-day party fueled by AC/DC. There are so many other places we want to play in Europe, especially Spain and Germany.

Is Agnes Young showing her underwear, as Angus does onstage to show each country’s flag?
Bonny – She’s got just about every flag I can think of… just ready and waitin’..

If you could choose an AC/DC lineup to share stage with, which would it be?
Bonny – We are a Bon Scott tribute, so it would be Bon, Malcom, Angus, Cliff, and Phil

Riff – Agree with Bonny, although the most incredible experience that could ever be imagined would be Bon singing with AC/DShe!! A duet with Bonny…ha!

Do they know you? Have you ever been in contact with AC/DC themselves?
Bonny – They know about us and have been asked about us in the press. Plus we recently did an interview with Hustler the day before they were scheduled to interview Cliff Williams. We gave Hustler a shirt to give to him. They told us he was stoked and he has since been seen wearing it!!!

Riff – They don’t know us, but know of us (and have maybe since forgotten). I know that we’ll meet them when the time is right, under the right circumstances. There would be nothing cooler than sitting around shooting the shit with AC/DC.

What do you think Bon Scott should say if he could see you live?
“Cheeky”
“Aye!”

Read more about AC/DShe

Ashley Ivory

Name: Ashley Ivory
Location: Cleveland, Ohio (USA)

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Sukuba

Súkuba is a nu-metal band from the Quinta Región in Chile. Born quite recently, these four metal girls started they activity back in March 2007.

Country: Chile
History: 2007 – Currently
Status: Active
Style: Nu-metal

Biography:
Súkuba is a nu-metal band from the Quinta Región in Chile. Born quite recently, these four metal girls started they activity back in March 2007.

With no time to loose, they recorded a self-titled demo few months later, in December 2007, which features singles such as “Reaction” and “instincts”, shinning because of their throaty vocals and heavy rhythms.

With this good visit card it was not difficult to convene more and more fans at their concerts, which began in the year of its founding.

After recording two video clips, now they divide their time between the creation of new songs and they scenario addiction.

Lineup:
Daniela Varas – Vocals
Marcia Gutierrez – Guitar
Alejandra Muñoz – Bass
Shantal Andrada – Drums

Discography:
2007, “Súkuba” (Demo)

Related links:
Sukuba @ facebook
Sukuba Fotolog

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