Angela Gossow

Angela Gossow
Angela Gossow in 2008
Background information
Birth name	Angela Nathalie Gossow
Born	(1974-11-05) 5 November 1974
Origin	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Genres	Melodic death metal thrash metal death metal
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter manager journalist
Instruments	Vocals guitar accordion piano
Years active	1991–2014
Labels	Century Media
Associated acts	Arch Enemy Mistress Asmodina
Website	angelagossow.com

Angela Nathalie Gossow (born 5 November 1974) is a German vocalist, best known as the former lead vocalist for the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Her other 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.

Early life

Angela Gossow was born to Orthodox Christian parents in Cologne, Germany, and had three siblings. She was 17 when her parents divorced. Further financial troubles came in when their business went bankrupt. Being anorexic and bulimic further added to her woes.^[1] 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.

Musical Career

Gossow is among a small number of women to front as a death metal vocalist. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range, with a death growl.^[2] 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.^[3]

Arch Enemy

Angela Gossow (2007) in São Paulo, Brazil

Gossow joined Arch Enemy in November 2000, after the removal of lead singer Johan Liiva.^[4] 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. After sacking Liiva in 2000, the band called in Gossow for an audition. Amott later said that "she wiped the floor with all the other contenders." She then proceeded to record Wages of Sin with Arch Enemy.

On the eve of a 2002 tour, Gossow was diagnosed with nodules, which almost stopped her from growling. However, after some vocal therapy, she was able to recover her voice and she proceeded to begin taking piano and screaming lessons from renowned coach Melissa Cross. She continues to work in close conjunction with her.

On March 17, 2014, it was announced that Gossow was stepping down as Arch Enemy vocalist in order to pursue other interests and spend more time with her family. Gossow chose Alissa White-Gluz from Canadian metal band The Agonist as her replacement, and will remain business manager for the band.^[5]

Other work

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 featurs on Melissa Cross's 2nd DVD release The Zen of Screaming 2^[6] 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.^[7] Since 2008 she is the manager for Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars.^[8]

Personal life

She is an atheist,^[9] and politically considers herself an anarchist, but votes "to make sure the right-wing doesn't get her vote."^[10][11] She is a vegan^[10] and has stated that she follows a straight edge lifestyle (that promotes refraining from using alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs),^[12][13] although in the later years she vape marijuana which helps for her asthma (the same reason why she can't smoke it).^[14] Gossow dated fellow band member Michael Amott for several years, at one point becoming engaged to him, but the couple are no longer together.^[15][16] After the revelation of her relationship, Gossow was forced to deal with accusations from fans that she had only gotten the job due to her relationship with Amott. In an interview with Blistering Metal News, both Amott and Gossow denied this, with Gossow saying "[i]t is NOT easy being a woman. I am glad I NEVER had groupies. Otherwise they all would open their mouths now and talk shit. Weird, but I never heard any of [bassist Sharlee D'Angelo's] friends talk disrespectful about him, spreading some gossip. Seems to be a man's thing. OK, we both [Mike and I] will NEVER talk about anything personal again. That wasn't a good idea. And no, I didn't get the job due to this [being involved in a relationship with Mike] — I almost lost the gig in AE because of this."^[17]

Discography

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 Sin (2001)
• Burning Angel (2002, EP)
• Anthems of Rebellion (2003)
• Dead Eyes See No Future (2004, EP)
• Doomsday Machine (2005)
• Live Apocalypse (2006, 2-disc DVD)
• Revolution Begins (2007, EP)
• Rise of the Tyrant (2007)
• Tyrants of the Rising Sun (2008)
• The Root of All Evil (2009)
• Khaos Legions (2011)

Guest appearances

• Annihilator – Couple Suicide (2007)^[18][18]
• Astarte – Black at Heart (2007)^[18]
• Amaseffer – Midian (2008)^[18]
• Doro – Celebrate (The Night of the Warlock) (2008)^[18]
• Doro – Celebrate (2009)^[18]
• Kalisia – Cybion (2009)^[18]
• Never – Questions Within, Painted Black (Back To The Front album, 2009 Spiritual Beast)^[19]
• Rise – Pentagramnation (2009)^[18]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Angela Gossow.

• Official website
• Official Arch Enemy website