Heavy Metal Cover Girls - Actually Wearing Armour

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Heavy Metal Cover Girls. 

 There's a very good reason why I keep posting album covers with women warriors on them. Heavy metal artists have created lot and lot of them. At this point I think I've done six posts and I could easily do another ten more. 

 

 But today I fancied doing something a bit different. Out of all the pics I have saved, amongst all the chain-mail bikinis and topless amazons, how many of these women are actually wearing proper armour. 

 I found six 

Ok then, let's dive in, shall we?

Fiona - Greatest Hits (USA 2009)

This one is cheating a bit because somebody just recycled a bit of Dragonlance artwork.

It's also an odd choice for an artist who has no fantasy influences in her music whatsoever.  

Savage Grace - Sign of the Cross (USA 2023)

Not wearing a helmet but to be honest, I don't know how she'd get all that hair under a bascinet anyway. 

The rest of the harness seems pretty realistic though. 

 I do want to know the story with the bloody guy at her feet. 

Friend? Enemy? 

Is she offering the late rites or telling him "I told you I'd get my revenge."

Scythia - Lineage (Canada 2016)

 In a rare example, she is wearing more armour than he is and look how that worked out.

Simacota - Suando El Silencio Se Rompe  (Colombia 2017)

Why are none of them wearing a damn helmet? 

Anyway, a nice samurai-influenced rig that protects most of the important bits and the 

designer has resisted the urge  to add a boob-window, boob plates or massive shoulderpads. 

I approve. 

A Sound of Thunder - Only One Can Rule EP ( USA 2024)

I guess she couldn't find a helmet that fit her horns.

I also feel those spikes on her should plates are more a menace to her than the enemy.

Minor Quibbles.  

This last one is stretching it a bit but I want to emphasise something here.

Even though her armour is apparently put together from bits found in the bin,

she is still wearing more armour than normal.  

Soleil Moon - Warrior (USA 2019)

 You're not wearing any padding so that's gonna chafe you to buggery. 

Maybe once you kill that wizard, you can upgrade to some leg armour too. 

For those of you missing the chainmail bikinis, normal (fan)service will be resumed next time I do one of these. 

Or I might post Gorgons instead. We shall see how I feel. 

That's All Folks

Going to Southampton to look at a boat.

 It was payday and I was itching to get out of the house and out of Pompey. I hadn't been anywhere interesting for a while and fancied doing something new.  

 People with more money might hop on a flight to Antigua or take off to London to hit the theatre district or wherever.  Me? I was going to pop over to Southampton to look at a boat.

  Southampton has plenty of boats and ships to choose from but what made this one different was that it was firmly inland. More on that in a minute. 

 The weather a was a gorgeous, sunny day so that was good, at least until I got out of Southampton rail station  and into direct sunlight. This is where I realised that jeans and a black t-shirt is not great for scorching hot days, especially if you're a middle-aged couch potato who avoids sunlight and exercise. 

  Some hot, damp, sweaty trudging later I found my way to the bottom end of Western Esplanade and turned right to follow the old, stone city walls.  There it was, the reason for this trip.

 So what you're looking at right now is a replica of a medieval "keel" merchant ship  built 1997ish by local Maritime Skills Centre manager  Alex Ward and refurbished in 2017. (Daily Echo article) 
 If I understand it right, the wall on the right used to be the quayside city walls which were put up after a visit from French and Genoese in 1338 left things in a proper mess. (More about that HERE)

Since there wasn't a fence around it, or a big sign saying "Keep off" I took the opportunity  to climb aboard.

 
  At this point a family walked past and one of the children loudly asked if they could get in the boat, to which the mother loudly responded "No, you're not supposed be on that.." while glaring at me.  I didn't case. I was on a boat and she wasn't. 

By this point I'd explored all the options the boat could offer.  There was another point of interest just up the road though. After a landbound ship, we had a landbound lighthouse. 

 There's a chain of them all along the high street and beyond. 

The next place on my itinerary was the Tudor House museum. 

I didn't have too much trouble working out which of the local buildings it was. 

 Bigger than I was expecting too. 

The building itself was nice and out the back they had a small but interesting garden as well as some Tudor era fortifications. 

 A nice little fountain in one corner

 Plants. Don't ask me what, I am no gardener.

Pretty though

 Looking back at the garden from a stretch of wall. 

  After that I slogged off to the town centre in search of comics and a cold drink. Oh dear gods, I really, really needed that cold drink. Hot weather and me do not get along. 

 I did take a couple of snaps of the tower at the city centre end though. I do like that sort of thing. 

  

 It's weird how this is right next to a big, modern complex made of glass and concrete.  The world has a place for both but I know which one I wanted to take a picture of. 

 One rampage around Southampton's bookshops later I was on my way home with a bag of books, sore feet and mild heatstroke. All worth it for a jaunt away from the same old, same old.  

 I will leave you with a photo I took of some graffiti at Pompey's Hard, outside the bus station.

 I can't disagree. 

  That's all folks.