The line for the show at Three Links in Deep Ellum on Dec. 6 was out the door and down the street. People bundled in black hoodies and shirts featuring the names of metal bands like Gojira, Sabaton and Dying Wish huddled together in the chilly night air. Despite the temperature, the venue’s garage-door-style front wall was open, allowing the first band’s sounds to reach the queue while the staff checked everyone in.
The venue was packed full of metalheads of all ages, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, evidence that female-fronted acts aren’t niche anymore, but part of the mainstream modern metal.
Dallas natives Viridescent were first, and they established the tone for the evening, showing how being authentically themselves is shaping the modern metalcore scene, a genre that often resists change. Lead vocalist Mira Divina and supporting vocalist Dylan Ory worked well together. We’re old enough to remember hecklers at shows shouting “shut the f*ck up” to discourage and marginalize women-fronted metal acts, but this time, Mira Divina led the crowd in this same chant as an act of empowerment…