Heavy Metal Cover Girls...Blood And Steel

 Hello and welcome to today's episode of Heavy Metal Cover Girls.  

   For this collection of album covers I will be revisiting a theme I've used before and is in fact the one that started this whole series of posts.

    If you're going to have a fierce warrior on your CD cover, why does it have to be a man?  

 I know I keep coming back to the whole "Women Warriors" theme but so do cover artists, which means I have an entire folder full of broadsword-swinging beauties ready to be unleashed on the world. 

 Before I start, I will say this: Some of these ladies are warriors who happen to be women and some are a clear case of  the artist being told "Draw a sexy woman - giver her a sword too."  I bet you can spot which is which without too much effort. 

  Thy Majestie - Jeanne D'Arc (Italy 2005)

  Power Metal bands love concept albums.

 This one is devoted to the young woman who saved France and is, i feel, a good place to start.

It's also the last time on this page that you're going to see anything resembling functional armour so if you are a military history buff .. 

 Stop reading now. 

 These Sicilian boys play grandiose Power Metal so Rhapsody is the obvious reference point.

Falkirk - Anthology (France 2013)

 Not bad as fantasy armour goes but there's still an inexplicable gap right where you really need something solid.

 As far as I can tell, the front seems to be fully protected so why has she got a gap over her kidneys?

  Then again. our heroine has her own dinosaur so is anybody going to get that close?  I know I wouldn't.

The band seem to be at the crunchier end of Euro Power Metal - Gamma Ray/ Iron Saviour and so forth. 

Corniger Calvarium - Edad Media (Argentina 2016)

 A cover I rather like, mainly because of the expression on her face. Is it just me or does she seem a bit annoyed? 

Here's their facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cornigercalvariam

 And  here's what they sound like. Track takes a while to get going but is worth a listen if you like Doomy Heavy Metal.

 The full album can be found on the band's blog: http://cornigercalvariam.blogspot.co.uk/

Seducer -'Eads down See You At The End (UK 1986)

If the purpose of the cover is to make you want to buy the album it worked because I used to have this LP.

And all the time I owned it, I never noticed what she was doing with her left hand. 

Hopefully somebody was able to stitch her fingers back on afterwards. 

 True to their album title the band are full-throttle NWOBHM. 

 Reactory - Killed By Thrash EP (Germany 2013)

    Something, something Axe Attack something.

A deliberate tribute to the metal album covers of the 80s?  Possibly.

I love the fact that one of her decapitated victimt till has a lit fag in his gob. 

Does it surprise anybody to learnt that Reactory are  smack-in-da-mouf Thrash?

 The artist wasn't even trying with this next set of armour. 

 Dead Earth Politics - The Queen of Steel EP (USA 2014)

  Poseidon finds himself forcibly retired and as a further humiliation, gets poked with his own trident. 

Maybe he should have listened to his chief bodyguard when she asked for a proper breastplate.
He should definitely have paid attention to her muscles instead of her boobs. 

I'm going to lie though. I like this cover - nice expressions on both their faces.

She's absolutely fucking furious while he's clearly thinking "Aw bollocks..."

DEP are Thrash/Groove. Bonus points for having a warrior woman in the vid.

 And finally, a good contender for earliest "Woman with Sword" album cover.

Uriah Heap - Fallen Angel  (UK 1978)

A piece of artwork by fantasy legend Chris Achilleos, a man who created some gorgeous, fierce warrior-women over the years. 

 Uriah Heap are one of those bands that used to be classed as Heavy Metal but got left behind when the boundaries shifted.  

 I hope you liked the covers, I hope you liked the music and if there's any theme you want to see, why not let me know? 

 That's all folks.