Heavy Metal Cover Girls...And Skulls

  Hello and welcome to another edition of Heavy Metal Cover Girls; a series where I post cover art from Metal/Rock/AOR bands that features women and ramble on about whatever loose theme they seem to share.

  Some themes come up a lot. I have entire folders full of angels, demons, women wielding swords, guns or guitars and a surprising number of women wearing pretty dresses totally failing to do anything you'd expect from Heavy Metal.

And butts. Lots and lots of butts.  

  However tonight I'm going to pull up one of the rarer tropes. 

Women and skulls. 

  As we have seen before and will continue to see again, a simple idea can be taken in many, many different directions.  Of course the obvious question to ask is: How did she get that skull in the first place? 

  Stormwitch: The Beauty And The Beast (Germany 1987)

 "My darling Mirror man, I brought you that skull you wanted. Now what do I get in return?"

Definitely something creepy going on here but she's wearing a camisole so most people take a while to cotton on.

The title track is more melodic than I was expecting. 

Does anybody know who does the female vocals on the track?
It sounds like Betsy Bitch but I can't be certain.


The next cover shares a lot of elements with the one above: - skull, pretty girl, moonlight - but manages to conjure up a completely different vibe.

Night Mistress- The Back of Beyond (Poland 2011)

Just a young woman taking her pet skull for a walk under the moonlight and crooning to it. Nothing to see here.

Night Mistress are another surprise.
I was expecting Symphonic Metal but got crunchy Power Metal that's not bad at all.

Visions Of Atlantis - Maria Magdalena Ep (Austria 2011)

A picture that screams "Sanity has packed its bags and gone away, leaving no forwarding address."

The sheep just make it weirder.

Visions Of Atlantis are Symphonic Metal with tag team male/female vocals.

Atomic Flower - Ungrateful EP (Switzerland 2015)

Sometimes I struggle to see how the cover matches the title.

Don't get me wrong, I like the cover. I just have trouble seeing anything that says "Ungrateful"
I suppose decapitating somebody and dancing around waving their skull suggests a certain lack of gratitude...

Atomic Flower are on the lighter end of trad. Heavy Metal.

Minotauri  - Minotauri  (Finland 2004)

When the Queen Of the Elves leaves a party in a huff, she really does leave with a bang.
Serves them right for being mean about her dress.

A cover I rather like because it conjures up all sorts of images of Italian Fumetti and 1970s Horror movies.
In this case the skull is just coincidental.

Minotauri are another surprise. I was expecting an Italian band from the 1980s.
What I got was 21st century Finnish Doom Metal with a big nod to Sabbath.

Pacho Brea - En Algún Lugar De Ninguna Parte (Spain 2015)

I immediately noticed two things.
1. The enormous burning skull. It is very, very big isn't it?
2. She's wearing the biggest, clompiest boots ever. How does she move in those things?

If you like the distinctive Heavy Metal that comes out of Spain, you might dig these guys.

Nunslaughter - Upon The Altar (Compilation USA 2014)

|I don't think I'm going to take the skull off you, love.
I just know it won't end well.
You know I can see the four creepy fuckers behind you, don't you?
Now go away and summon occult forces somewhere else.

Nunslaughter sound like you'd expect a band called Nunslaughter to sound.

And finally...

Moore - Dance Of The Damned EP (USA 1996)

Oh that's just tacky. 

Probably uncomfortable too. 

If there's any songs on Youtube I couldn't find them. 

I didn't really look that hard, mind you. 

That's All Folks.