Fatal Femmes: Celebrating female-fronted hardcore bands

By Adrienne Bast

Local Music Journalist

The music scene since the beginning has been dominated mainly by men. However, women persevered and women like Billy Holiday, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Etta James, Nina Simone, Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks and many others became trailblazers for women in the music industry. Thanks to their contributions, we have seen an increase in female presence in music. On the contrary, some genres continue to have a lack of female and minority representation which sadly includes my favorite genres, hardcore punk and metal. Despite this scarcity, the local scene consists of some great fresh faces, giving hope to women everywhere who are interested in local music, especially in these genres.

Needle Freak, a very fresh and new metal band, just had their debut concert back at the beginning of the new year. This trio consists of just a drummer, bassist, and vocalist. With a sound unique to the scene with lead vocalist, Lily Cavanaugh, throwing her heart and soul into her screaming vocals. At a show in March, hosted by Rio Mart, in Austin, Needle Freak made a bold impression on the crowd. With a name like Needle Freak, which came from a lyric in Acid Bath’s song “Scream of the Butterfly”, the band used some inspiration from the ’90s sludge band, especially in Needle Freak’s song “I am Schizophrenic, and I have a Gun” which is reminiscent of the songs off the album “When the Kite String Pops” by Acid Bath.

The trio also managed to mix the sounds of sludge metal with more popular and modern nu metal. The sound mashing was made evident in Needle Freak’s amazing rendition of Korn’s song “Yall Wanna Single,” which even made the convenience store owner get up and headbang. Sadly, since Needle Freak is a new band, their music is not out yet on any music streaming platforms. However, you can still hear and enjoy their music by attending concerts. Later this month on April 20 Needle Freak will be performing again at The Tunnels in Austin, joined by another great female-led band, Midnight Butterfly. More information and updates can be found on the band’s social media page @needlefreak.tx.

At the same show at the Rio Mart, performed another great female-fronted band, Throat P*ss. The lead singer, under the stage name Swamp Wench, never fails to amaze me with her ability to control her voice through sludge metal vocals. While the vocals and beats stay true to the subgenre, Throat P*ss adds some quirky ominous sax solos into their metal sound. If you love metal and want to see someone shedding it on saxophone, Throat P*ss gives a performance you don’t want to miss. They also performed at Patton Haus on March 30 with a bunch of other great woman-led and fronted bands, Molly Ringworm, Intersect and Imminent End. The show was a benefit for Girls Rock Austin and a great way to end Women’s History Month with a night of appreciating upcoming women-led bands.

Lastly, Deadtramps is an Austin-made all-girl heavy metal punk band, inspired by the ’90s punk bands like Kittie, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. They performed at a Private Park show in San Marcos in celebration of Women’s History Month hosted by Dollpartz Blog. Deadtramps brought back the energy after much of the audience had left due to technical malfunctions with the mic. Even though the mic was broken Deadtramps brought the noise; encouraging people to form a pit and dance. They released their first EP, a self-titled album, back in December. Their music is available on all popular music streaming platforms, you can also follow them on social media @deadtramps.