| It’s a heavy year-end for British death metallers Arch Enemy. Not only are they wrapping up an opening slot for chums Cradle of Filth in support of their own latest EP Dead Eyes See No Future (Century Media), but they’re also frantically writing a followup full-length to 2003’s Anthems of Rebellion.
Singer Angela Gossow doesn’t really feel the tension, though. She’s managed to waylay it because lyrics just seem to be pouring out of her. Taking a few moments to discuss the current state of Arch Enemy, Gossow’s mind is all lyrics. The topic more than permeates the conversation – it’s all she wants to discuss. While she’s not quite ready to tell us what sort of subject material directs the new songs, she claims, but we’ll be duly impressed regardless.
"I could tell them to you now, but you need to hear my lyrics in the context of the music to fully appreciate them," says Gossow. "Not that it will matter, because whenever you write lyrics, no one understands their point anyway. They all take their own elements from it even if the words are directly drawn (from) our own experiences."
Proud of her ability to create heated, poignant verses over the band’s Iron Maiden-meets-Carcass (they should sound like Carcass – guitarist Mike Amott was a long-standing member of the seminal grindcore outfit) structure, Gossow says she’s somewhat frustrated that in the world of death metal, the vocal medium is often ignored. Chalking it up to an ingrained Dungeons & Dragons mentality, she hopes that eventually the tide will turn.
"I work hard at my lyrics," she says. "Some bands use metal to support some sort of fantasy-horror lyrics about mass murderers no one wants to meet in real life. Our music is very personal and attached to my sense of reality. Not all bands are like that, but it would be nice if people took more notice."
At the same time, Gossow doesn’t want Arch Enemy (rounded out by guitarist Christopher Amott, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo and drummer Daniel Erlandsson) to become some sort of political statement or – worse yet – whiny. Striking a fine balance between personal and social, she’d rather let her words be somewhat inspiring instead of a means for "coddling like some bands do."
"I don’t want my lyrics to be simple enough so that every idiot can get them," she says. "You have to think. And I’m not the type to write about childhood abuse. That’s too personal and I don’t want to unravel my whole life in front of a metal audience. Fans can get somewhat abusive at times. Some stuff should be left out of the entertainment industry. But there are people who write about abuse or how they got beat up as a kid and make millions of dollars from it.
"Unfortunately," she jokes, "I haven’t been abused as a kid. I had a nice childhood, so I don’t have that credibility." |
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