Jill Janus

Janus was born in the Catskills Mountains and practiced paganism throughout her childhood.[2] Growing up, she began singing opera before becoming interested in thrash metal as a teen.[3] For her post-secondary education, Janus attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.[4]

Janus started her music career working as a topless disc jockey under the name Penelope Tuesdae.[5] She also worked in cabaret at the Windows on the World until the night before the September 11 attacks in New York.[3] In 2003, Janus began her career in metal as a member of Vexy Strut and remained with the band until 2006.[6] In 2009, she recruited members of the metal band Professor to join her newly formed band Huntress.[7]

With Huntress, she was the lead singer during the band's three studio albums, the last of which was Static in 2015.[8] In the fall of 2015, Janus announced to social media that Huntress was breaking up. She was later refuted by the band's guitarist Blake Meahl, citing her mental health issues.[9]

Apart from her albums with Huntress, Janus filled in for Amon Amarth's lead singer Johan Hegg during a 2015 co-tour with Huntress.[10] Janus's other projects outside of Huntress included membership of cover bands Chelsea Girls and The Starbreakers as their lead singer.[4] She also co-wrote Victory: The Rock Opera with guitarist Angus Clark.[8] Janus also recorded vocals for Brian Posehn's album Grandpa Metal, which was released in 2020, featuring her performances on the song "Goblin Love"[11] as well as a cover of "Take On Me", the latter of which was released in November 2019.[12]

Janus's musical influences ranged from rock to heavy metal. In rock, Janus named Ann Wilson as an influence while citing Freddie Mercury as one of her vocal inspirations.[13] With heavy metal, Janus listed Rob Halford, King Diamond and Jared Warren as a few of her favourite singers.[14] Janus said she had a four octave vocal range as a coloratura soprano.[2] While she was in Huntress, Janus stated that each Huntress album respectively focused on a part of her life. Janus based each of the Huntress' albums on a part of the Triple Goddess in neopaganism.[3]

In 2015, Janus disclosed to Revolver that she was living with bipolar disorder since her early teens, and had made numerous suicide attempts, as early as age of 16.[15] She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 20, then later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Later in her life, she was experiencing dissociative identity disorder, schizophrenia[16][17] and alcoholism.[15]

That same year, Janus underwent a hysterectomy after she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.[18]

On August 14, 2018, Janus died by suicide near Portland, Oregon.[19] Although some sources claim she died at the age of 43,[20] she stated that she was born in September 1975,[15] making her 42 years old at the time of her death.[21]

• List of people with bipolar disorder

• Jill Janus at IMDb