\u201cSome guys can\u2019t handle it,\u201d Rachel smirks, a charming French lilt colouring her tone. \u201cI once had this big, muscly, manly man come in refusing to eat something before his tattoo. Then he fainted. Twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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We\u2019re currently at a tattoo studio in southeast London, but when Rachel\u2019s not humbling men under the needle, the frontwoman makes good work of doing it onstage with Cage Fight<\/a>, backed by Tesseract<\/a> guitarist James Monteith, drummer Nick Plews and new bassist Will Horsman. In the past, male bandmates have forced her to \u201cdilute\u201d her natural tone, belittled her, and made her feel uncomfortable \u2013 but now she\u2019s serving up a firm middle finger to them, with latest record Exuvia coming as the ultimate knockout blow of vitriolic, thrash<\/a>-infused hardcore.<\/p>\n I once had this big, muscly, manly man come in…he fainted twice<\/p>\n Rachel Aspe<\/p>\n From Pig\u2019s infernal clapback against men who send unsolicited dick pics \u2013 complete with genuine messages from them throughout the music video \u2013 to Un Bon Souvenir\u2019s final laugh in the face of an ex-bandmate who was narcissistic to the point of thinking he was \u201can ancient god\u201d, this record doesn\u2019t hold back. Throughout, Rachel is a full-force steamroller crushing chauvinistic male egos, serving as a mouthpiece for women in a genre that doesn’t often place female voices, narratives or perspectives at the forefront.<\/p>\n Just like Rachel\u2019s music, the abstract piece she\u2019s carving out on Steve is jagged and pretty brutal. The stark, sharp black lines are as bold and unmissable as Rachel\u2019s unflinching persona. Of course, it\u2019s taken years to reach this point of personal and professional confidence. Growing up in Grasse in the south of France, an area where \u201ca very small percentage of people listened to metal\u201d, the frontwoman felt like an odd piece in her youth.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone always looked at me like I was an alien,\u201d she sighs, rolling her eyes. \u201cWhen I first moved to the UK to join a band up in Glasgow, it felt like freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Rachel causing necessary pain at her day job (Image credit: Derek Bremner)<\/p>\n Rachel\u2019s love of death metal and hardcore started when she overheard a school band covering Morbid Angel<\/a>. Instantly, her fate was sealed. For someone \u201cborn with a voice completely off key\u201d (a fact that Steve contests, revealing that she \u201cloves to sing while tattooing\u201d), gut-wrenchingly heavy growls were an easier mode of self-expression \u2013 even if she couldn\u2019t find the right words to pair with her screaming just yet.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to be so bad at English, so I would just go out onstage and make sounds that sounded like English,\u201d she admits sheepishly, before bursting out laughing. \u201cThere\u2019d be one real sentence, and the rest of the lyrics would be absolutely fake gibberish.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Rachel finishes the last round of shading on Steve\u2019s chest piece. She beholds it with pride, before cleansing and delicately applying a layer of ointment to his raw flesh.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n \u201cI love working abstractly \u2013 I think that\u2019s why I struggle to write lyrics, because you have to have some kind of structure,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the past, trying to fit into structures made me feel like my lyrics were very childish. But I think focusing on my personal stories for the new album, writing freely like I\u2019m journalling, has helped.\u201d<\/p>\n I used to be so bad at English, I would go out onstage and make sounds that sounded like English<\/p>\n Rachel Aspe<\/p>\n After waving her client off, we\u2019re left alone in the studio. It\u2019s a lovely space that contrasts life and death, taxidermied ferrets and mounted stag skulls clashing with the leafy green vines scaling the walls and hanging from the ceiling. She takes a moment to breathe. Despite only working on one customer a day, arching over tired her out. It\u2019s something that\u2019s been exacerbated by the time she got hit by a car a couple of years ago, an experience that left her with an out-of-place hip, an injury that she\u2019s still recovering from. When she explains this, we\u2019re aghast.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was scary,\u201d she admits. \u201cI was lying on the ground, watching the cars start driving past just above my head, just thinking, \u2018If I die\u2026 who is gonna take my dog on a walk?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s right \u2013 when faced with potential death, this stomping, hardcore juggernaut\u2019s first thought was her dog. When the woman who hit her offered to call an ambulance, Rachel refused. Instead, she made the woman drive her home so she could walk her chihuahua around the block. Only then did she let the woman take her to A&E. \u201cI had to take out Lucky, y\u2019know?\u201d the frontwoman insists, like it\u2019s obvious.<\/p>\n Rachel has experienced a colourful array of ups and downs throughout her life. She\u2019s hopped from France, to Glasgow, to London in pursuit of her dreams, with plenty of \u201cbad decisions\u201d along the way. One positive move, however, was performing a cover of Sybreed\u2019s Emma-0 on French talent show, La France A Un Incroyable Talent, in 2012. \u201cThe show wanted to make me look a bit stupid, but the clip helped me when I applied to join Eths,\u201d she explains, referencing the French metalcore band she fronted between 2013 and 2016.<\/p>\n Despite idolising Eths in her teenage years, the experience of being in the band soon soured. In Cage Fight, the power and strength of Rachel\u2019s voice is blatant. In Eths, Rachel was forced to squeeze into the original frontwoman\u2019s shoes. \u201cI dreamed of being like Candice Clot,\u201d she sighs. \u201cBut, when I joined, they made it obvious that they wanted me to become a total copy of Candice. I was happy to have the opportunity \u2013 it was an honour! But I just wanted to be myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachel recently stumbled across an unwelcome blast from her Eths past. \u201cI saw an interview and a member was talking about me, saying, \u2018She had the technique, but she didn’t have the same emotion or charisma as Candice,\u2019\u201d she recalls with a scoff. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t very nice! But, at the end, he said, \u2018But it\u2019s still Un Bon Souvenir\u2026\u2019\u201d That closing phrase, translating to \u2018a good memory\u2019, served as a catalyst for the scathing track of the same name on Exuvia.<\/p>\n![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/RRSbsCnqjxo595iE5kznhT.jpg\")
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