Swedish heavy metal stars Arch Enemy have delved into their past for their new album The Root Of All Evil. This release features versions of material from the band's first three studio albums - 1996's Black Earth, 1998's Stigmata and 1999's Burning Bridges - which have been re-recorded with the current lineup, which includes dynamic frontwoman Angela Gossow. The band is also making their fourth trip to Australia in October/November, with US death metal legends Suffocation and Winds Of Plague in tow. I caught up with the very friendly (even if she had only just woken up) Gossow to chat about the "new" material, her favourite extreme metal albums and how she keeps fit before going on a lengthy world tour.
Spiritech: The Root Of All Evil has been a few years in the making. Was it touring - both for Arch Enemy and also Mike (Amott, guitars) and Daniel's (Erlandsson, drums) commitments with Carcass - that were the biggest obstacles in getting this album finished?
Angela Gossow: (pauses) Yeah, kind of. We've been batting that whole idea around for like five or six years already, but I mean Arch Enemy alone is a very busy entity by now, we just tour a lot and it's hard to get into the studio to record another album. That has been our schedule since 2001 really. And then Carcass came on top of it and that didn't help, so that's why we kind of recorded... Because we really wanted to do it and we felt as long as we feel it's exciting, we should do it. So we just started to do it in between things; here a week and there a week of recording. Arch Enemy is known for touring and both bands were touring, so we had to... Danny had to do his bit first and Mikey came in at some point and I did my stuff as well, (it was) pretty scattered. This year we finally finished it - we've been doing it for a while, recording it on and off. So yeah, now we've got it out and that's great! (laughs) So now we can actually play the songs live, which is kind of why we did it in the first place, to reintroduce the older tracks that a lot of the younger fans of Arch Enemy don't really know.
Spiritech: Is there a particular age group or type of Metal fan you're particularly hoping to reach with the new record? Angela Gossow: Everyone under the age of 13! (laughs) Our fans keep getting younger and younger and obviously some when the first album was recorded, that's when they were born. These days, they're bombarded with so much new music every day, they hardly have the chance to really go back and... I mean, I did this (too). I started looking back at the roots of my music taste. I got into extreme death metal in about 1990 and when I started looking back, that was a couple of years later, because it was so exciting to be in the here and now and hear the new bands coming out that I never really had the time to check out Black Sabbath or the older bands. And I think with a band who has been around for a while like Arch Enemy has now, it keeps getting to the current album or maybe the previous album where that starts and a lot of them have never actually heard Black Earth or Stigmata and Burning Bridges. That's another singer as well, so they sometimes don't really connect to these old albums. And the band never really toured on the first three albums, so there wasn't really a fan base anywhere else but Japan. A lot of people actually don't know... we notice when we play them, people just look at us like, "Is this a new track? What is this?" And I think that now that it's really like a new release for everyone, I think definitely people will start checking it out now. And hopefully go back to the original recordings as well and check them out too, because there's obviously a lot more songs on the original albums. We've basically recorded a "best of" compilation (laughs), you know? It's not the entire albums.
Spiritech: Great stuff. I actually saw you guys live a few weeks ago at the Bloodstock Open Air festival in the UK and you included 'The Immortal' (from Burning Bridges, re-recorded for The Root Of All Evil) in the set list there - a personal favourite of mine. What was your favourite track to record for The Root Of All Evil?
Angela Gossow: (Pauses) I really liked doing tracks like 'Dead Inside' and 'Demonic Science', because I've never had them... I mean, we've played old songs over the years live. We did 'The Immortal' obviously quite a bit, especially in Japan. We had them in the early Arch Enemy set lists when I joined the band as a standard too, so I know that song quite well. But for me it was more like 'Demonic Science', which is one of my favourite tracks from Burning Bridges and that was fun to do that one.
Spiritech: What was the greatest challenge musically when trying to re-work this material?
Angela Gossow: I mean, well Johan had a different vocal style than I have. So, he's a lot better at those odd-timing songs, where he kind of does the free-floating vocals on top, which are probably when you look at it, they're not in timing, but they sound good. Whereas my vocals are so rhythmical that I always feel (it) when I'm not in time, so I struggle more with those songs! (laughs) 'Silverwing' is a bit of a tricky one and 'Beast Of Man', there's a slower bit that's kind of on an off-beat and my general breathing is like a 1-2-3-4, you know? (laughs) I'm not really in between, so I have to really stand there and count and have to do that live, tap my feet with the off-beat and really think about it. So it's not as enjoyable as it should be I think! (laughs)
Spiritech: Has the band had any contact with Johan since the announcement of this album a while back?
Angela Gossow: I'm sure he feels odd about it. I mean, it's always weird when a band comes back and reviews a bunch of stuff. I think maybe he probably had... there was an impression in the beginning when the rumours came out (about the new album), people were talking... that it seemed like, there was an impression that we were looking to re-do everything and to basically erase the old catalogue as it was. But that was obviously not the case, because we just picked out our favourites. We love those albums... it's definitely a tribute to him. I don't think it's that big of a deal because he didn't actually write any of the lyrics for the songs, except 'Dark Insanity', where he co-wrote some lyrics with Michael. It's all Michael's music and 99% all Michael's lyrics. Especially in the beginning of Arch Enemy, it was more like a side project, not really a full band and the members just came in to record their parts and Michael directed them - "That's where you sing, there's the lyrics, here, go!" But I'm not sure how much Johan feels that it's "his" stuff, you know? I don't think... it's definitely when you take something that somebody's written and re-record it, that's maybe a bit odd.
Spiritech: Are you working on any brand new material at the moment as well?
Angela Gossow: Yeah, we have been since about 2007 really, since we recorded Rise Of The Tyrant. We always have a little mobile recording studio basically; it's very neat, it's about the size of an iPod (laughs), or maybe a little bit bigger. And it's got excellent quality and so we bring this out on the road and just put it in front of you, plug into the computer, open up the program and basically record right into your laptop. It's really practical, so it comes out with us everywhere - backstage, at festivals, on tour buses and we also record with it in the rehearsal room. We've got a pile of stuff on file basically and we just need to sit down and make proper songs out of it and record it. That's always a bit of a problem for us, because we actually have to settle down for a while (laughs), and not be on the road. And the way it looks like now, we will be very busy up till the end of the summer festival season (in) 2010. So I think we'll try to nail a time down now for autumn 2010 to record and then maybe release it sometime in 2011.
Spiritech: Interesting. Now, you've recorded a pretty broad range of covers in recent years as bonus tracks, B-Sides, etc, including Queensryche, Dream Evil, Megadeth and Carcass. Can we expect any new ones to pop up in the coming months?
Angela Gossow: I don't know, we do that stuff very spontaneously. So if we do this we'll probably do it like two weeks before we finish the album (laughs). So yeah, it's a lot of fun but that's something we do, it's a spur of the moment decision, like, "I like this song, I've always wanted to do that track" or whatever. There's lots of cool stuff out there and you sit there and listen and think, "I wish I'd have written that" and that's when usually we're like, "oh man, we should cover it". That's usually how that idea pops up.
Spiritech: Interesting. Changing topics, the band's popularity in Australia has exploded since your first tour in 2005. What are your memories of previous tours and what can fans expect this time around from Arch Enemy?Angela Gossow: Yeah, that's wonderful - thank you Australia! We really like coming over and I think I've said it before, but if Australia wasn't so far from everything I would definitely live in Sydney. But when I look at the flight prices and the length (laughs) to Europe where my family is, it's a bit harsh. We will be putting in a bunch of songs from The Root Of All Evil, so they can expect some old school stuff. And then I think just a very diverse and mixed set. We're coming over to make sure people have a really good time. The last time we actually played Australia it was with the Machine Head tour and we only played for like 25 minutes, so I think we've got a bunch of songs that we haven't played for a while and have never played in Australia, especially from Rise Of The Tyrant, the last album. So it's going to be a long, very diverse set.
Spiritech: I like the sound of that. What's your favourite song to play live from the Arch Enemy back catalogue?
Angela Gossow: Oh, man. Well, there's a couple of things. It's great to open with 'Blood On Your Hands', because everybody knows the word "remember" (laughs). It's nice to open with something everybody recognizes and gets engaged (by), so that's one. And it's definitely great to play 'Nemesis', because every body knows the song and you always get lots of moshpits and circle pits and everybody sings along, so that's great too, like a hit single (laughs). It's kind of like you're playing 'The Final Countdown', it's a great song to play live. I don't think song will ever go away from the set list.
Spiritech: (laughs). Changing topics again, you're renowned for maintaining a rather high level of fitness both before and during a tour. To give our readers an insight into what it takes to stay in shape as a metal vocalist, what's your fitness regime consist of, both before you go on the road and while on tour?
Angela Gossow: Well, I've just bought a cross-trainer, which is basically filling up my living room. I've got a whole yoga set as well, it's all in my living room, so it's lovely when I come home, it's like going to a gym really and I (also) have a gym card and I go running outside and I work out twice a day. I do 45 minutes cardio in the morning, until I basically feel sick and need to eat breakfast! (laughs) And then when it's nice weather like today, I go for a long walk in the early afternoon, that's another 40-50 minutes. And in the evening I go to the gym and work out for 90 minutes, which is cardio 30 minutes and the rest is for an hour of just weights or sometimes doing a class called body pump. So I just really exercise twice a day. I just really want to be extremely fit, because I don't want.... It's nice to get off-stage and just feel totally normal and not tired as hell. It's just like, "yeah that was nice, 90 minutes, I'm kind of refreshed, so where's the next show?" I like that feeling after the show, you know? (laughs) Because if you're not fit you hurt pretty badly. The other thing is obviously I want to stay in shape and slim, but I don't want to stop eating. So I have to work out a lot, I'm not one of those people who have a very over-active gland... I have to fight it to burn calories and I really do like to eat. So yeah, working out a lot. That's one thing, and the other thing is really to, I think for singers also a lot of mental health. You have to be happy with what you do and you have to be happy on the road, you know? Just enjoy what you do, I think that's another big factor. If you start hating it and if you'd really rather be home, I think that's when your whole body goes down and your immune system starts to fail and that's when people get sick. I'm really positive about going on the road and I really like being out there and on-stage. So that's another factor - it's just body and mind really, you have to be healthy when you go out there.
Spiritech: I'm sure those measures help keep your voice in strong shape as well.
Angela Gossow: Yeah, I mean emotion really translates to the voice, so I don't know if you've noticed but when people are depressed their volume of their voice goes really down and gets a bit shaky and all that. I've never understood how people could go through difficult times and cry a lot and then go on-stage. Because my voice is not there, it's all shaky and very small when I'm sad. So yeah, it's good. I also want to know that my family's been well and I'm in touch with everybody I love. You feel good about yourself going away for a while in that case.
Spiritech: I was reading your bio and I also understand you've been taking piano lessons for a few years. Is there any chance of that appearing on a future Arch Enemy release?
Angela Gossow: (laughs) I'm really bad at multi-tasking, so I can only really do one thing and right now I don't think my piano is accelerated enough to put on-stage (laughs). This is something I do on my own to come up with little melodies and stuff, but I am not a pianist if you get what I mean. I don't really like sitting there and having a dreamy facial expression and playing piano. When I get on-stage I like the full raw energy thing where it's out of control and I think if I sit down at a piano that whole thing's going to shit (laughs).
Spiritech: You're known for having a rather diverse taste in metal. If you had to give our readers three essential Metal albums they must own, what would they be?
Angela Gossow: Hmmm. The obvious one I think is Slayer's Reign In Blood, you must own (that) to understand the whole genre. I think you must own Altars Of Madness by Morbid Angel and then you must own Symphonies Of Sickness by Carcass. 'Cause that's where the whole grindcore, the more accessible grindcore comes from.
Spiritech: Final question - do you have any last words for PyroMusic.net readers?
Angela Gossow: Oh yeah. Super stoked to see you soon and really happy to get into nice weather and cool clubs and meet a bunch of raging Australians!
- Spiritech
