Arch Enemy singer Angela Gossow looks like an angel and sings the world’s last gasp. Influenced by Dave Mustaine, David Vincent, and Rob Halford, the German-born death metal vocalist has the lungs of a super siren, screaming out raw and apocalyptic lyrics in a voice dripping with venom and violence and sensuality.
Her performance on
Rise Of The Tyrant, the band’s new album, showcases her menacing growl on 12 tracks (including a cover of Kiss’ “The Oath”) covered with the viscous guitar tones provided by brothers
Michael and
Christopher Amott. Sounding as if blood is cascading from her mouth because she’s ripped a hole in her carotid artery,
Gossow wreaks vocal havoc on songs like “Blood on Your Hands” (where she reinterprets the Cain and Abel fable), “Vultures” and the title track.
Ultimate-Guitar: Being a woman in this type of rock 'n’ roll world is a little rare. I don’t think there are a lot of women doing what you do. Is being in a man’s world an easy thing?
Angela Gossow: I don’t really think about it that much. I think the media and label and a lot of other people do. I kinda have to be aware of it a little or people make me aware of it by asking me questions like you do. I think now days there are a few more female singers in metal. I’m more bothered by being compared to them. It’s just like people are comparing me with Cristina from Lacuna Coil; it’s all fruit okay, but one is an apple and the other one is a pear. It’s just not the same and why even bother. I’m sure for starter bands who happen to have a female singer it must be more annoying because I’m more of the established ones in extreme metal and a lot of them get compared to me and they must be fuckin’ sick of it. Angela Gossow, she’s like this towering shadow, you know. I do have my own identity, I was very much one of the first and I’m in a very strong band and I got a very strong personality as well. But if a young woman, just starting off in a new band, I think it’s hard for them to find an identity because they’ll suffer for years by comparison.
Obviously, this is something you always wanted to do?
I have always been doing it, but on a much smaller scale. I didn’t think of being in an extreme metal band and being successful with it in terms of making some money with it and being able to tour the world and having that exposure because where I come from it was a real underground scene. I’d played in a lot of real underground bands and I did that just for fun. I think that is an American thing that you kinda set out, have a huge dream of becoming larger than life and I am German. Everything is kinda small and you just see the next step and I didn’t have any of theses dreams. I wasn’t thinking from dishwasher to millionaire, really. That’s not a German thing per se, which is a shame. I think a lot of people in my country don’t dare to do anything because they just gonna think it’s not gonna work out anyway. I’m very driven, I just took every chance I got, but I didn’t set out to become larger than life really.
So you’ve been doing what your doing with this band for six or seven albums?
Ja, it’s four full-length albums, one DVD and two EPs.
There’s a routine that Arch Enemy has for recording?
Ja, of course. That’s something you learn like riding a bike. At some point you’re very, very comfortable with it. And I think that goes for recording in the studio and playing live as well. I’ve been under such dreadful pressure with the first album. The first a couple of shows and tours I put so much pressure on myself and it would be horrible if I still suffer under that stress. It’s not a routine because it’s different songs every time. We record a little bit different every time, but I know myself; I know the material; I know what I want to do and it’s just something that you grow into and I’ve definitely grown into my role as being a musician in this band.
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| "The Bible is a very valuable book when it comes to phrases and images." |
So, describe for me what the process is like on Rise Of The Tyrant?
Ja, we do work on music for a year or one and half years, it’s all kinda evolved. We have a very good set-up in the rehearsal room and we do demo everything we write and I get these demos and I start working with these demos. I mean I know that it’s probably not the finished song but it has got the very basic elements like the chorus is going to be that and the main versus is going to be about that so I can start working with it and I do scribble stuff down on paper still which is pretty old school. But I mean in the studio, I sit with my Mac and I just keep on changing stuff. I mean these are like last changes in the studio; I’ve pretty much got everything together before we go into the studio. Studio work is very physical work and you get very tired. If you have to do too many things, like trying to be really creative or really work physically all day and just stand there and scream, I don’t know. I’d rather go in there being prepared and I’ll have got all the basic structures for the songs and all the lyrics as well and I know what I want to do. It’s a lot of other stuff that we have to deal with and its expensive at times. I don’t want to be wasting just sitting around not coming up with a catchy phrase.
Were does your imagery come from? There are a lot of religious references. “Blood On Your Hands” has a Cain and Abel feel about it. “You were born your brother’s keeper/Why can’t I see blood on your hands/You became your brother’s slayer/Embrace again in death.”
The Bible is a very valuable book when it comes to phrases and images; it’s a very well known reference. It’s obviously a very old book and it has a significant impact still on society; you know a large part of society is based on it. It’s old but it’s so significant in some parts. I’m not religious, but like the whole story with killing each other and basically we are all brothers and sisters, we are all of the same DNA, we are homo sapiens, we are the same race. S I just pull these references to show how old that topic is. It’s still relevant; we still have managed to overcome this biblical entity thing. And I have another one, Wages Of Sin (CD from 2001) and it goes back to this as well. I just like to pull these little things out and make people understand how old this problem is and we still haven’t solved it yet.
We are not dealing with acoustic ballads here. The imagery, and the sound of the band is a pretty dark, shadowy minor sounding band. In your mind, do the lyrics hold out hope? As if we can still fix these problems?
Ah, I think so, otherwise I wouldn’t be singing about them. The reason I do pick up the themes and topics is because I think we have become alienated to war. Because it just happens on CNN and big news channels basically. We are not really there anymore; its like war was a lot more physical back in the day because there was real killing and it whole villages were just burned down. Now days, it’s such a distant experience that people keep forgetting that it’s still waging in many parts of the world. Major countries are involved in it; you guys have a real problem there, Iraq. You people are dying there; I don’t know how many soldiers have died there so far. But, when you look at them, these are real people behind those numbers. So the reason why I pick is up is because it’s not a hopeless message just to say, “Hey” you know, come on, wake up its still happening. We still haven’t solved that, you just gotta keep on your toes, go out or demonstrate or whatever you feel its necessary to stop that. So it’s not a hopeless message, I have some (songs) like “Revolution Begins” and “I Will Live Again”. I do believe in practice not preaching really so it’s probably a hidden message. I just think I kinda have to remind people of what’s not quite going right and actually there’s a point to make, that people can stand up for their beliefs. I think this message in this song touches a lot of people and when you say, “You were born your brother’s keeper/Why can’t I see blood on your hands” this is very touching. This is the point of what it about. I’m not killing the enemy, it’s basically my brother I’m killing there. Because who is the enemy now a days? What makes them the enemy, you know? These solders are shooting each other, they could be best friends tomorrow if the world be a better place or a different place, you know. This person didn’t do anything to me, he just happens to be on the wrong side. That song is actually inspired by a movie about the Second World War and the series is actually called “Band of Brothers.” And there’s a part about friendly fire where you were just careless in battle and shot your own comrades and that’s when it becomes shocking. That you shoot somebody else because in the end of the day you shot your best friend. And that’s what it comes down to, they're all the same, they’ve all suffered. It doesn’t mean if you’re French or English or German or American. In the end of the day it’s just a wounded person or dying person there, and it’s kinda your brother. So I think when I say something, it’s more touching, it makes it more personal when you say, “You were born your brother’s keeper.”
Where did the actual singing style come from?
I was singing even more extreme when I joined my first band. Because it was extreme death metal and grind core then and I actually put a little more expression and I want people to understand what I’m singing about. I want people to hear sort of vocal line and little bit of melody. It’s not monotone grunting what I do. There’s a lot of different extreme vocal styles as well; some people just scream, some people just grunt and some people use more of a metal style. I do a little bit of everything, I’m not trying to be the most extreme but I just want to be very, very recognizable. I want people to know this is Angela Gossow when they hear a song, you know. Two things, I always thought that this sort of music needs an extreme voice and my clear singing voice does not sound extreme so I had to scream and the other thing is I never really been into stereotype. Because I never thought okay I’m a woman, I got to sound female, I can’t do anything that might mislead people to thinking I’m a man. I was probably more like fuck the stereotype, you know. I just want to sound extreme and I’m probably gonna sound like a ten foot bear but this is what this music needs. So, I never tried to play a sultry, sexy side of my voice in that music. Because I did try to sell the music with that. I mean a lot of pop music is being sold by this sexy schoolgirl image. But obviously I didn’t do that; I wanted to sound very, very angry and extreme and brutal, just like the music is.
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| "I never tried to play a sultry, sexy side of my voice in that music." |
You talk about developing this style and yet without a lyric sheet, it’s almost impossible to understand the lyric.
Well, yeah, that you get from all kinds of music. I mean when you play me some hip hop music, like some ghetto rapper, I don’t understand a word. And a lot of pop music they kind of slur the words and one will go into the other. I have a huge problem with, a lot to be honest. I think you do understand quite a lot. To be honest when I started out getting really into music, that’s what I wanted. I wanted to have vinyl (there was vinyl back then), there was a huge lyric sheet in front of me and I was just reading along. And I was reading along Queen songs and actually. But, I mean obviously English wasn’t my language really and it’s like when Freddie Mercury does an artistic thing with his voice, I can’t understand a word either. So, I think it happens to most of music; you just have to sit there, if it’s not a very, very simple pop song where they repeat the same phrase over and over again. When I sing, “Revolution Begins,” I think people understand that. I think it’s very audible.
The problem with extreme music is obviously that you scream and it distorts and then it’s very difficult. That’s what you want in the voice. But it obviously takes away from the clarity of the vocals.
So when you’re in the studio Angela, and you’re laying these vocals down, are you sort of running a song down from top to bottom.
I usually sing through as much as I can. Like, you know, I sing the whole verse and the whole chorus. And I just do verse-by-verse and chorus-by-chorus, but not line by line. And then I listen back and if it’s something that’s really odd or I just really didn’t get the timing, I redo it. But I usually kind of tend to redo like the whole line or the next line or whatever. Because, it kinda sounds odd when you like cut in tight and drop in too much actually. It sounds like Autotune on clean vocals; it doesn’t have the right flow and it’s too much punch in the beginning of every line; it has no dynamics anymore really. So, yeah, and it takes a lot of time as well. I mean a lot of bands do that 'cause they want to be overly perfect.
How do you sing like this without just absolutely trashing your voice? I spoke to Randy from Lamb of God and he seems to have that technique wired.
I guess it’s kind of muscle control. Some people can hit very small table tennis balls and you know, pound them in the right direction and this is just like fine tuning of muscles and coordination. I mean extreme vocals is the same. You kinda have to have a extremely distorted voice but be relaxed in your throat at the same time. It’s a bit of a challenge, to like move the vocal cords in the right manner so you can use that sound but without straining everything else. A lot of screamers and I think these are the ones that destroy their voices; they turn purple and red faces and then like veins popping out of their throat and you can see all the muscles and I can see these guys are doing it wrong. They just involving every single muscle in their face, throat and upper-chest and that puts a lot of extra strain on your vocal coords. The vocal cords are tiny, little muscles, you know, in your throat and you don’t need to strain them this much to get that sound. You just need to know how to move those tiny, little muscles and if you don’t figure that out, you have to move like the whole thing around it and that is what is straining. So I think you need a lot of training and just know you can do it and just have to kinda be relaxed while you’re doing it. And I think that’s a challenge 'cause I see a lot of singers, they go over the top. Especially, when they play live 'cause it’s so much adrenaline, I think as well. And I think you just have to like keep calm you know.
I mean, Randy is a pro; He’s like me. I don’t have no stage fright, I’m not even nervous so that helps a lot.
Is the band there in the studio when your doing vocals?
Michael is usually around; he helps me with some arrangements and he usually simply tracks me, he tracks my vocal. He has given me some input. Sometimes, I don’t know, one of the guys is sitting there and they have an idea but that’s quite rare actually. Because it’s mine and Michael’s thing with the vocal line and everybody else just happen to get out of the studio really. They’re just like, “Bye, see you when you get done.” They’ve already been sitting there for two weeks and tracking bass lines and rhythm guitars and they just get sick of it, so they’re happy when they can leave. I don’t sit there either when Charlie’s tracking his bass, saying, “You should be playing that.” I mean, this is not my instrument. And I guess the guys think the same about me, they’re like, “Ja, Ja, you know what you’re doing, bye.” But I mean if somebody has an idea, I have no problem with it.
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| "I didn't set out to become larger than life really." |
What is it like playing with Michael and Christopher? I mean, what is it like having brothers in a band?
Oh yeah, there’s moments where it can go zero to hundred. They speak their own language and they suddenly got into a fight, but it’s not very often. I think they just speak their own language because I think they don’t really talk as much with each other because they know each other so well and it’s like they grew up with each other. They play music together. We’re like pros really, we’ve been together for such a long time. This whole band, we’ve been through every situation and we just know that everybody wants to get the show done and get out of here. I don’t know, we’re all on the same plain really so, we have no fights. I don’t know how bands fight; I think there must be a lot of alcohol and drugs that comes into play. Or this huge ego; there’s no huge ego in this band. We just make it look like it for the press and media. So we know each other so well; we have all seen each other in pajamas. That takes away a lot of ego.
So, Angela has Rise Of The Tyrant captured everything you wanted to say as a lyricist and singer? I mean, is this were currently the band is at and is it a step forward from Doomsday Machine?
I haven’t said it all or otherwise I would be done by now and I could retire. I’m through already writing lyrics on the next album. Yeah, I think that’s what we’re all about. We like to just move on. I love the album, Rise of the Tyrant, it was a lot of fun playing this stuff live so I’m really looking forward coming over in May to the U.S. We’re playing the Tyranny and Bloodshred Tour together with Dark Tranquility, Divine Heresy and Firewind. So, I mean that’s what it is: it’s a cool album and it gives us an opportunity to keep on touring.
Have you been to America before?
Oh, many times.
Obviously, there’s a pretty big audience for what you do over here.
Yeah, we play really good shows, lots of people; lots of cool, crazy metal-heads. Who understand the lyrics and sing along!
When you’re out on the road with those kinds of bands, are you talking music with these other singers? I mean, are you interested in how they do things or is it more just hangin’ out?
More like, I’m talking a lot of technical stuff. I’m just like, “How are you doing? Any problems?” It’s interesting, isn’t it, when you meet other singers and it’s interesting to know how they’re doing it.
Interview by Steven Rosen
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2008
shes got some awesome stage presence!
saw that at Brixton, jesus christ they were amazing live!
