This weekly column of mine hasn‰’t been very tough. I promise to increase my coverage of heavy music for the next few weeks starting now. I love anything angry and loud and borderline scary, especially if you can describe it as tough, hence the name. Growing up I was quite the tomboy, with my pretty purple dresses mysteriously always covered in dirt. My mom must have considered laundry day a nightmare. I didn‰’t care. I loved climbing trees and I hated the color pink up until I turned 13 when I realized that being girly wasn‰’t a bad thing (Stay with me, I promise this has a point). Around that time was the same time I got into punk/metal and I think it was my way of keeping that little bit of rough and tumble tomboy in me while still being able to dress in a feminine way. My sundress collection rivals no other (okay maybe Zooey Deschanel) but I can still bewilder when proving I can hold a lengthy conversation about progressive metal and I‰’m beyond proud of that. Despite this, I still get funny looks when someone discovers I like all things heavy music related and I would be so into a change of that type of quick judgment. This is why female fronted bands are important to me. They take a step in the direction of changing the face of hardcore. Below are my top five current favorite lady-fronted hardcore/grind/metal/punk bands who prove women are powerful.

1. My personal favorite right now: Oathbreaker

This band is from Belgium and it took me weeks to notice the vocalist was a woman and needless to say I don‰’t think I‰’ve ever been more surprised/impressed by anything more in my life.

2. Punch

I‰’m pretty sure everyone I know likes Punch. I‰’d say they‰’re the current quintessential, kind of hip, hardcore band that‰’s even cooler because, they too ,have a female lead. They‰’re fast and loud and amazing.

3. Wolf Down

This band is also not from the US (their from Germany to be exact) and while trying to decide what bands I was going to put on this list a friend of mine mentioned them. I had never heard of them prior, but after listening I knew I had to include them. Hardcore described as “ignorant‰” is always a good thing in my book and adding a girl is probably the only way to make me more excited about listening to that type of hardcore. I find her too cool, like role model cool, because as a girl who likes hardcore I want to be that level of tough.

4. Code Orange Kids

I don‰’t often listen to their recordings, but their live shows are always a treat. They‰’ve played DC a nice chunk of times in the past few years and its always so much fun to see them and see how into them the crowd always gets. They‰’re definitely changing minds about girls‰’ role in hardcore.

5. The Heads are Zeros

I couldn‰’t make a list like this without including a local (or relatively local) DMV band. A friend of mine from Baltimore introduced me to this band a few weeks ago. She said, “Trust me you have to check it out‰” so I did and she was right. They‰’ve been a band less than a year so finding a video was near impossible so here‰’s their new record from band camp. In the words of my buddy Kristen, trust me, I promise it‰’s good.

Side note: I love the album art. It‰’s kinda weird and beyond cool.