In a recent interview with Heavy, Within Temptation’s Sharon den Adel opened up about the hate and rejection she faces from male fans, particularly those who ‘only listen to Metallica.’
When asked about being one of the first women in metal and the challenges she faced, she shared, “Actually I’ve always felt very at home in the metal,” the singer admitted. “Of course you had challenges. There was always of course certain groups that were having difficulties seeing a woman and dealing with that. Well, they’re only listening to Metallica for instance just to say so.”
Adel didn’t mind the hate, as she saw it as an opportunity to open for Metallica. “Also because we played as a support act in the beginning of our career for Metallica a lot of times and some fans loved it and there was also some fans that hated it. That’s fine because we’ve always been like, ‘We don’t care, this is an opportunity for us opening up for them’ at the time. If you can win hearts over because they do enjoy what you’re doing and they think it’s cool that you still go on although you get a lot of sh*ts.”
She continued, “I must say that it was very diverse, but in the scene itself I’ve always loved working with men I’ve never had any strange things happening to me always had of course at that time my boyfriend with me in the band. I’ve always felt like one of them and I’ve never felt like I was separated from anything because I was a woman or anything. So that was cool.”
Adel has talked about her experience as a woman in the metal scene before and has shown support for other female singers in the community earlier as well. When asked if she keeps in touch with other women in rock and metal, she responded, “I know all of them and I’m in contact with every one of them, actually,” she told Sonic Seducer.
“I don’t think there are many that I don’t have contact with. I think we’ve come to realize that we’re stronger together than separate — meaning that it’s good to support each other on social media and to give a positive vibe to our fans and to everybody around us because that’s more important than always trying to be different,” Adel added.
In other news, Within Temptation will perform at Knotfest on February 28 in Australia.
