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From left to right: Joe, Lzzy, Josh, Arejay

Halestorm is a four-person hard rock band from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, consisting of Lzzy Hale (vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards), Arejay Hale (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Joe Hottinger (lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Josh Smith (bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals). They started to take off after the song "Here's to Us" was featured on Glee.

Their single "Love Bites (So Do I)" (from The Strange Case of...) earned the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, making Halestorm the first female-fronted group to win the category.

Not to be confused with Alestorm, or literal hail storms.

Discography

Lzzy Hale also provided vocals for Lindsey Stirling's single "Shatter Me" as well as Stone Sour's cover of The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter". She also did a duet with Eric Church for the song "That's Damn Rock n Roll" and did a cover of Ozzy Osbourne 's and Lita Ford 's "Close My Eyes Forever" with David Draiman for the band Device.


Love Tropes (So Do I):

  • Album Closure: The Strange Case Of... concludes with "Here's to Us," a song about reflecting on all that you've been through and celebrating life. It's slower and considerably less heavy than the rest of the album.
    Stuck it out this far together
    Put our dreams through the shredder
    Let's toast 'cause things got better
  • All Drummers Are Animals: Arejay usually plays the drums bare-chested, and in many live performances he'll do a long drum solo number, e.g. "Boom City" on the 2010 Live In Philly album. In one concert he was rocking out, kicked his cymbal into the crowd and had to ask for it back. In the music video for "Love Bites" he is shown kicking his cymbals as part of the performance. And then there was the drum duet he did with Lita Ford's drummer Joe Rock at a 2016 concert in Raleigh, NC.
  • Badass Boast:
    • "Freak Like Me" is an anthem for people who have to write their own rules.
    • The chorus of "The Reckoning" has Lzzy referring to herself as "the reaper outside your door".
    • "You Call Me A Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing" could also qualify.
  • Band of Relatives: Lzzy and Arejay Hale are siblings.
    • The original lineup from the '90s to early 2000s also included their father Roger Hale on bass guitar and backing vocals. He was eventually replaced by Josh Smith.
  • Break-Up Song: "Apocalyptic", which is about a couple that's breaking up because they've reached the point where they can't stand each other.
  • Careful with That Axe: Appears on the songs "Amen," "Freak Like Me," and "Love Bites (So Do I)," among others.
  • Country Matters: "You Call Me a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing":
    But you call me up and had the nerve to say
    "See you next Tuesday"
  • Cover Album: Two cover EP's, actually. Reanimate: The Covers EP and Reanimate 2.0: The Covers EP
    • Now three with 2016's Reanimate 3.0.
  • Destructo-Nookie: Also "Apocalyptic", it's the last thing the couple is going to do before they split- the title refers to the kind of sex the singer wants.
  • Ethical Slut: Lzzy portrays this in a few songs.
  • Female Gaze: "American Boys" is all about the speaker eyeing various kinds of young men, when it's not name-dropping famous rock and metal bands.
  • Heavy Meta:
    • "Rock Show" is a rock song about rock fans rocking out at a rock concert, depicting the "little girl" singing along, moshing and crowd-surfing.
    • "I Like It Heavy" is about Lzzy's enjoyment of Heavy Metal (name-dropping Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Lemmy), though oddly it's composed as a Rock & Roll song for the most part.
  • Intercourse with You: A lot of their songs, but they also covered Heart's "All I Wanna Do Is to Make Love to You" and AC/DC's "Mistress for Christmas".
  • The Knights Who Say "Squee!":
    • Lzzy's reaction to their Grammy win, considering they beat out several established artists who had inspired the band members to begin with.
      Lzzy: Iron Maiden, my God!
    • Arejay getting to do drum duets with Lita Ford's drummer Joe Rock during the 2016 tour. Arejay explained beforehand that Joe Rock hosted the how-to video series he learned to play drums from.
  • The Lad-ette: Not for nothing is Lzzy Hale one of the most lusted-after women in metal.
    • "I Like It Heavy" is this trope personified.
    • "Uncomfortable" is about how much the narrator likes being this kind of woman and the affect it has on men.
  • Lead Singer Plays Lead Guitar: Lzzy, mostly in the band's early days, played co-lead guitar with Joe. Now she mainly just plays either rhythm guitar or sometimes doesn't even play guitar onstage at all.
  • Literary Allusion Title: Their second album, to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of course. There's even a song called "Mz. Hyde" on it.
  • May–December Romance: The romance part is perhaps debatable, but the sex-metaphor song "Dirty Work" gives us the following lines:
    "I need someone young, willing and able / you need someone old enough to know better."
  • Ms. Fanservice: Lzzy Hale. Invoked as well, during an interview with Corey Taylor:
    Lzzy: "You are now in the hot seat... and it's the hot seat because my ass was in it."
  • Music Video Overshadowing: "Do Not Disturb. The song is about the singer wanting a one-night stand with a stranger and his girlfriend. The music video is Lzzy as the Elvira-esq manager of a Hell Hotel who's trying to tempt a pair of lost travelers into her bed while the hotel staff (played by the rest of the band) try to murder them. Until the moon comes out, at which point the couple turn into werewolves and scare the hotel staff off. And end up in Lzzy's bed.
  • Obligatory Bondage Song: "Dirty Work" is a straight up sex song, but lines like "Get on your knees and let the games begin" certainly paint it in a different light.
    • The line "I miss the rough sex" in "I Miss the Misery" doesn't necessarily refer to bondage, but certainly could.
    • "Apocalyptic" describes spanking, impact play, and Lzzy dressing like a dominatrix.
    • "Mz. Hyde" also has lyrics that refer to bondage and domination.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • "Here's to Us", although that might be more of a Lady Swears-A-Lot.
    • "I'm doing this thing called whatever the fuck I want" from "Sick Individual" on Into the Wild Life.
    • While a different F, Lzzy said "faggot" in their cover on a Marilyn Manson song (1996).
    • "You Call Me a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing" should be pretty obvious, although it also drops a few S-bombs along the way.
  • Punny Name: "Halestorm". Get it? "Hailstorm"?
  • Russian Reversal: A close variant in "Daughters of Darkness" with the line, "We can turn you on / Or we can turn on you".
  • Seduction Lyric: "Do Not Disturb" is about the singer trying to get a stranger and his girlfriend into having a one night stand with her.
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: "I Get Off" is about the exhibitionist female speaker showing off for a peeping tom.
  • Shout-Out: "American Boys" and "I Like It Heavy" name-drop a number of older rock and metal songs/bands.
  • Sibling Team: Lzzy and Arejay.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Lzzy, she's 5'8.
  • Surprisingly Gentle Song: A few, notably "Break In", "Dear Daughter" and "Terrible Things".
  • Textless Album Cover: The Strange Case of..., which is just a photograph of the band with a black background and the band in black clothes and makeup, Vicious and Back from the Dead, both of which are just photos of Lzzy (the former with various hands grasping at her chest, the latter a close-up of her face screaming through broken glass).
  • Three-Way Sex: The chorus of "Do Not Disturb" has the female partner suggest he "bring your girlfriend, too" because "two is better than one, three is better than two."
  • Wolverine Publicity: Lzzy Hale, one of the most famous female rock musicians of the 21st century, has made a lot of guest appearances. She has collaborated with Evanescence, Dream Theater, In This Moment, Nita Strauss, and even Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz:
    • "Lzzy" without the usual "I". The band's name averts this as two of its founders are siblings with the surname Hale.
    • "Mz. Hyde".

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