Sandra Alvarenga

Sandra Alvarenga — Brazilian musician based in the United States — was part of Black Veil Brides' initial line-up, in the period before the band's national reach. She was in the group when it was still a Los Angeles project put together by Andy Biersack, newly arrived from Cincinnati, with no significant contract and no audience beyond the local circuit. That phase precedes everything the band would become known for: the records that would enter the American charts, the elaborate visual presentation and the teenage audience that would follow it for more than a decade. Her presence is notable for another reason. The American heavy rock circuit of the 2000s had very few women in instrumental positions, and fewer still from Latin America — the norm was entirely male line-ups, and the exceptions appeared almost always on vocals. Alvarenga therefore belongs both to the beginning of Black Veil Brides and to a minority within the scene the band came from.