Fear of God

When this came out, the grafting together of metal riffs, raw sensuality and gothic atmospheres sounded utterly bizarre. Now it just sounds prophetic. Sadly, Within the Veil, Fear of God's 1991 debut, failed to make a blip on the commercial radar screen. One senses that marketing execs were simply confounded when presented with an utterly grim, ponderously heavy Metal band fronted by a woman. In retrospect, their two releases take on the stature of precedent-setting pieces -- if they didn't exactly throw open to women the hoary, funereal gates of Doom Metal, they at least left them ajar.