Angela Gossow
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. 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.
Contents
Angela Gossow Posters
Angela Gossow Poster
Angela Gossow Poster
Angela Gossow Poster
Angela Gossow Poster
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. 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 the removal of lead singer Johan Liiva. 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.
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 is 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. Since 2008 she is the manager for Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars.
Personal life
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. She is an atheist, and politically considers herself an anarchist, but votes "to make sure the right-wing doesn't get her vote." She is a vegan and has stated that she follows a straight edge lifestyle (that promotes refraining from using alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs), although in the later years she vape marijuana which helps for her asthma (the same reason why she can't smoke it). Gossow dated fellow band member Michael Amott for several years, at one point becoming engaged to him, but the couple are no longer together. 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 "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 friends talk disrespectful about him, spreading some gossip. Seems to be a man's thing. OK, we both will NEVER talk about anything personal again. That wasn't a good idea. And no, I didn't get the job due to this — I almost lost the gig in AE because of this."
