Angela Gossow
Encyclopedia
Angela Nathalie Gossow is the lead vocalist
for the Swedish melodic death metal
band Arch Enemy. Her previous bands include Asmodina and Mistress. She is considered to be one of the few successful female metal singers to use growling
as her primary singing style. Her main influences are Jeff Walker
of Carcass
, David Vincent
of Morbid Angel
, Chuck Billy
of Testament
, John Tardy
of Obituary
, Chuck Schuldiner
of Death, Dave Mustaine
of Megadeth
and Rob Halford
of Judas Priest
.
was removed from the band. She had previously interviewed guitarist Michael Amott
for a German webzine
. While interviewing Amott, Gossow gave him a demo that she described as a "poor quality" video of a performance at a club. When the band sacked
then-vocalist Johan Liiva
in 2000, Arch Enemy called in Gossow for an audition. Amott said that "she wiped the floor with all the other contenders."
Gossow provides the voice for the recurring character, Lavona Succuboso in the animated television show Metalocalypse
. According to an interview with Musiikki TV at the Frostbite Festival 2009,
Gossow did guest vocals on the Astarte
album Demonized
, on the song "Black at Heart".
Gossow is among a small number of females to front as a death metal
singer. She has a mezzo-soprano
vocal range, with a death growl
. She is a vegetarian and politically considers herself an anarchist
. She is an atheist
. Since 2008 she is a manager for Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars
.
Gossow is taking private vocals and piano lessons and is working in close conjunction with noted vocal coach Melissa Cross
. She is also featuring on Melissa Cross's 2nd DVD release The Zen of Screaming 2 released by Melissa Cross. Apart from being on the cover pages of many leading magazines, she was also voted the "best singer" and "shining star" at the Burrn!
magazine awards in 2002.
Lead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
for the Swedish melodic death metal
Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a heavy metal music style that combines elements from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of death metal. The style was developed during the early and mid-1990s, primarily in England and Scandinavia...
band Arch Enemy. Her previous bands include Asmodina and Mistress. She is considered to be one of the few successful female metal singers to use growling
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...
as her primary singing style. Her main influences are Jeff Walker
Jeffrey Walker
Jeffrey Walker is a bass guitarist and vocalist from Windle, St Helens, UK. He is best known for his work with the death metal / grindcore band Carcass for which he is also the main lyricist. Before Carcass, he played in the punk band the Electro Hippies. After the demise of Carcass, he went on to...
of Carcass
Carcass (band)
Carcass are an extreme metal band from England, who formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons....
, David Vincent
David Vincent
David Alexander Vincent , also known as Evil D, is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist and bassist for the death metal band Morbid Angel as well as the bassist for Genitorturers...
of Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida. UK music magazine Terrorizer ranked one Morbid Angel album in its “Top 40 greatest death metal albums”, with their 1989 debut Altars of Madness appearing at number 1...
, Chuck Billy
Chuck Billy (vocalist)
Chuck Billy is an American vocalist, who is best known as the vocalist for the thrash metal band Testament.-Testament:Chuck Billy replaced Steve "Zetro" Souza, future Exodus vocalist, in the mid-1980s when the band was still called Legacy. Following his arrival, Testament released their first...
of Testament
Testament (band)
Testament is an American metal band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1983. They are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
, John Tardy
John Tardy
John Tardy is an American vocalist who is best known for his work with the death metal bands Obituary and Tardy Brothers. He is the brother of Donald Tardy who is the drummer of Obituary.- References :...
of Obituary
Obituary (band)
Obituary is an American death metal band formed in 1984 in Tampa, Florida under the name Executioner, then changed the name's spelling to Xecutioner, and later changed their name to Obituary in 1988. The band comprises vocalist John Tardy, drummer Donald Tardy, guitarists Trevor Peres and Ralph...
, Chuck Schuldiner
Chuck Schuldiner
Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.Schuldiner was the singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the band Death, which he founded in 1983, initially under the name Mantas. He also recorded as guitarist and songwriter with his other band, Control Denied...
of Death, Dave Mustaine
Dave Mustaine
David Scott "Dave" Mustaine is the founder, main songwriter, guitarist, and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Megadeth. Prior to Megadeth, Mustaine was the first lead guitarist and a co-songwriter of the heavy metal band Metallica until he was fired from the band in 1983. In 2009, he...
of Megadeth
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...
and Rob Halford
Rob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
of Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
.
Early life
Angela Gossow was born to orthodox Christian parents in Cologne, Germany and had 3 siblings. She was 17 when her parents got divorced. Further financial troubles came in when their business went bankrupt. Being anorexic and bulimic further added to her woes. It was at this time that she decided to move out of home and join the metal band Asmodina. After graduation she joined an advertising company as a trainee, specializing in marketing. She simultaneously began studying economics. In 1997 the band Asmodina split and Gossow formed another band: Mistress.Career with Arch Enemy
Gossow joined Arch Enemy in November 2000, after former lead singer Johan LiivaJohan Liiva
Johan Patrik Mattias Liiva is a Swedish extreme metal vocalist, most widely recognized as the founding vocalist of popular melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as a former member of Carnage, Furbowl, and NonExist...
was removed from the band. She had previously interviewed guitarist Michael Amott
Michael Amott
Michael Amott is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, founding member of the bands Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars, and Carnage, as well as a member of the death metal band Carcass. He is the older brother of Christopher Amott...
for a German webzine
Online magazine
An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...
. While interviewing Amott, Gossow gave him a demo that she described as a "poor quality" video of a performance at a club. When the band sacked
Firing
Dismissal is the termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee. Though such a decision can be made by an employer for a variety of reasons, ranging from an economic downturn to performance-related problems on the part of the employee, being fired has a strong stigma in...
then-vocalist Johan Liiva
Johan Liiva
Johan Patrik Mattias Liiva is a Swedish extreme metal vocalist, most widely recognized as the founding vocalist of popular melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as a former member of Carnage, Furbowl, and NonExist...
in 2000, Arch Enemy called in Gossow for an audition. Amott said that "she wiped the floor with all the other contenders."
Gossow provides the voice for the recurring character, Lavona Succuboso in the animated television show Metalocalypse
Metalocalypse
Metalocalypse is an American animated television series, created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, which premiered on August 6, 2006 on Adult Swim...
. According to an interview with Musiikki TV at the Frostbite Festival 2009,
Gossow did guest vocals on the Astarte
Astarte (band)
Astarte is an all-female black metal band from Athens, Greece, named after the goddess Astarte.-History:Astarte first formed under the name Lloth in September 1995 at Elefsina, Attica. The original line-up included Maria Kolokouri , a.k.a. Tristessa , Nemesis , and Kinthia...
album Demonized
Demonized (album)
Demonized is the fifth album by the Greek black metal band Astarte. Just like its predecessor Sirens, Demonized was recorded in hometown Athens, Greece and mixed at the renowned TicoTico Studio’s in Finland...
, on the song "Black at Heart".
Gossow is among a small number of females to front as a death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
singer. She has a mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
vocal range, with a death growl
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...
. She is a vegetarian and politically considers herself an anarchist
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
. She is an atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
. Since 2008 she is a manager for Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars
Spiritual Beggars
Spiritual Beggars is a hard rock/stoner metal band from Halmstad, Sweden, formed by Michael Amott, who is known from Arch Enemy, Carcass and Carnage.- Biography :...
.
Gossow is taking private vocals and piano lessons and is working in close conjunction with noted vocal coach Melissa Cross
Melissa Cross
Melissa Cross is a voice teacher from New York City. She was a student for many years at Interlochen Arts Academy and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. Though her background lies in theater and traditional opera, she is the creator of The Zen of Screaming Instructional DVD, a DVD that...
. She is also featuring on Melissa Cross's 2nd DVD release The Zen of Screaming 2 released by Melissa Cross. Apart from being on the cover pages of many leading magazines, she was also voted the "best singer" and "shining star" at the Burrn!
Burrn!
Burrn! is a monthly Japanese magazine, published since 1984, for fans of heavy metal music. It is published by Shinko Music in Tokyo. The magazine's content is in Japanese, but the covers are predominantly in English.-References:* Japanavision...
magazine awards in 2002.
With Asmodina
- Your Hidden Fear (Demo, 1991)
- The Story of the True Human Personality (Demo, 1994)
- Promo 1996 (Demo, 1996)
- Inferno (1997)
With Mistress
- Mistress (Demo, 1998)
- Worship the Temptress (Demo, 1999)
- Party in Hell (Demo, 2000)
With Arch Enemy
- Wages of SinWages of SinWages of Sin is the fourth studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It is the first Arch Enemy album to feature the vocals of Angela Gossow...
(2001) - Burning Angel (2002, EP)
- Anthems of RebellionAnthems of Rebellion-Release:At its time of release, Anthems of Rebellion gave Century Media its then highest first-week Soundscan sales in the United States, and later became one of the top ten best-selling albums under the record label. -Bonus disc:...
(2003) - Dead Eyes See No FutureDead Eyes See No FutureDead Eyes See No Future is an EP by melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It was released on November 2, 2004 through Century Media Records.The title track is taken from Arch Enemy's Anthems of Rebellion album....
(2004, EP) - Doomsday MachineDoomsday Machine (album)* The end of the lyrics to "Skeleton Dance" recite the death poem of Ōta Dōkan. The beginning of "Skeleton Dance" contains backmasked messages containing the phrases "The world on his shoulders" and "Bleeding forever" among others....
(2005) - Live ApocalypseLive ApocalypseLive Apocalypse is a double DVD by Arch Enemy, released in 2006. It's the bands first DVD release and contains a full concert and several extras. It was released on July 24 in Europe, July 26 in Japan, and August 8 in the US.-Disc one:-Disc two:...
(2006, 2-disc DVD) - Revolution BeginsRevolution Begins-Personnel:* Angela Gossow − vocals* Michael Amott − guitar* Christopher Amott − guitar* Sharlee D'Angelo − bass guitar* Daniel Erlandsson − drums...
(2007, EP) - Rise of the TyrantRise of the TyrantRise of the Tyrant is the seventh album by the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, produced by Fredrik Nordström, and was released on September 24, 2007.Vocalist Angela Gossow told the band's website that: Guitarist Michael Amott described it as:...
(2007) - Tyrants of the Rising SunTyrants of the Rising SunTyrants of the Rising Sun is a DVD+CD set of Arch Enemy, released in Europe on November 24, 2008 and in North America on November 25, 2008 via Century Media...
(2008) - The Root of All EvilThe Root of All Evil (album)-Limited Edition bonus tracks:-Japan bonus tracks:The Japanese release of the album includes the above mentioned live tracks plus an additional two tracks.-Release Dates:* Germany / Austria / Switzerland / Italy / Benelux: September 25, 2009....
(2009) - Khaos Legions (2011)
Guest appearances
- Kalisia - Cybion (2009)
- Never – Questions Within (2009)
- AstarteAstarte (band)Astarte is an all-female black metal band from Athens, Greece, named after the goddess Astarte.-History:Astarte first formed under the name Lloth in September 1995 at Elefsina, Attica. The original line-up included Maria Kolokouri , a.k.a. Tristessa , Nemesis , and Kinthia...
– Black at HeartDemonized (album)Demonized is the fifth album by the Greek black metal band Astarte. Just like its predecessor Sirens, Demonized was recorded in hometown Athens, Greece and mixed at the renowned TicoTico Studio’s in Finland...
(2007) - AmasefferAmasefferAmaseffer is an Israeli progressive metal band which was formed in 2004 in Tel Aviv, Israel by drummer and percussionist Erez Yohanan, and guitarist Yuval Kramer. A year later, a second guitarist Hanan Avramovich joined and the band got its structure...
- Slaves for Life (2008) - AnnihilatorAnnihilator (band)Annihilator is a Canadian heavy metal band hailing from Ottawa, Ontario, also from Vancouver, British Columbia between 1987-2002 by founding member, vocalist, guitarist and bassist Jeff Waters. The band has been around since 1984 and is the biggest selling heavy metal artist from Canada in history,...
- Couple SuicideMetal (Annihilator album)Metal is the twelfth studio album by the Canadian thrash metal band Annihilator. It was released on April 16, 2007. However, it wasn't released in the United States until January 15, 2008...
(2007) - Rise - Pentagramnation (2009)
External links
- http://www.angelagossow.com/angela-gossow/biography
- Official Arch Enemy website
- Gossow's official website
- Gossow at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Brazilian Arch Enemy website
- Audio interview with Angela Gossow performed by Ragnarok Radio