Leather Angel

Based in Los Angeles in the early to mid-'80s, Leather Angel was an all female heavy metal foursome that consisted of singer Terry O'Leary, guitarist Debbie Wolf, bassist Cathy Amanti, and drummer Krissi North. The Leather Angel members were hardly the only female artists who were embracing metal or hard rock at the time; Pat Benatar, Heart, Girlschool, Vixen, and former Runaways members Joan Jett and Lita Ford were also doing their thing. Nonetheless, all female metal bands were still the exception instead of the rule. Leather Angel was originally called Obsession, but the band had to change its name when, in 1983, it learned that another band wanted the name Obsession. Formed in L.A. in 1981, the band spent a lot of time playing the West Hollywood metal/hard rock scene, a scene that produced well-known headbangers like Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Poison, Warrant, and the abovementioned Vixen. But unlike those combos, Leather Angel didn't get very far commercially. We Came to Kill, Leather Angel's debut EP, came out on the Enigma-distributed Miami 1992 label in 1983. But the band broke up a few years later and never recorded a full-length album. ~ Alex Henderson