ARCH ENEMY

Formed from the ashes of Carcass by Mike Amott, Arch Enemy have since pioneered a sound of melody, technicality and brutality that has now become a style in itself. In 2001, they released the now legendary ‘Wages of Sin’ album that not only achieved US acclaim but also marked the debut of their female vocalist Angela Gossow. I recently caught up with drummer Daniel Erlandsson, brother of course to Adrian of Cradle of Filth.

-Shan Siva

You’ve cancelled most of your UK tour - what’s up?
Daniel: well, we did Glasgow and then Angela got hit badly by the flu. But we are still gonna play tonight in London. We wanted to save at least one show for the fans.

Why do you think that AE has become so successful?
Daniel: I think that it’s mainly because we work really hard and also we’ve toured as much as we can. I guess we’ve also been around a long time so now the recognition is starting to come thru.

You haven’t mentioned your musicianship (which is obviously high quality) - are you just being very modest?
Daniel: well ok, yes ha ha....sure, it also helps if you’ve got good songwriters and musicians! And I think that’s a lot to do with the Swedish Government encouraging young people to play - instead of drinking maybe - by making it easy to get rehearsal rooms and instruments. Maybe that’s why there is a high level of musicianship emerging out of Sweden that you mention…

Well, you’re certainly the only band I can think of that has successfully switched between a male to female vocalist!!
Daniel: Yes, that’s true ha ha! But let me say that although we might stand out more from other extreme bands because we have a female vocalist that wasn’t the reason we recruited Angela. As you know, the first album Angela was on was ‘Wages of Sin’ but at the time of completion no one actually knew who the new vocalist was. We decided to put some sound files onto our website so that we could see the reaction and we got responses like “wow, this guy really rocks” ha ha!! They thought it was a guy and you know, we have just done a tour with Slayer and its been the same response - “oh my god, its a chick!” Angela’s been in the band 3 years and we still get reactions like that...

Do more girls come to your shows since Angela joined?
Daniel: yes, that’s a good point. The audience has definitely changed in that respect. When we had Johan there were girls there too but I got the impression they were really there to meet the guys ha ha. But now we get girls who really appreciate and look up to Angela, almost seeing her as a role model especially for this style of music.

How do you compare AE to the rest of the Swedish scene, given that you almost pioneered the whole melody with brutality sound. I’m thinking of bands like In Flames, Gardenian...
Daniel: yeah, and Soilwork…

Actually, I don’t listen to Soilwork
Daniel: ha ha, good for you man, that’s good ha ha! I actually don’t consider us to be part of that whole movement spearheaded by In Flames. There are definitely common trends between us but I think we stand out as more of a metal band. They have perhaps more melody in their vocals and music. And Arch Enemy is not from Gothenburg ha ha!

Ok, so do you see the scene ultimately growing or imploding in the future then?
Daniel: I think this style of music that we play along with US bands like Lamb of God and the Swedish bands like In Flames is growing definitely all the time - at least that’s the feedback we’re getting from fans and the industry people.

Yup, that’s what we’re hearing from the Japanese too.
Daniel: yes, the Japanese embraced the band from the very first album. I guess they really like the mixture that you mentioned between melody and brutality and once we released ‘Wages of Sin’, which sold 50,000 there, it just exploded from there. From us, Japan is a country where every show on every tour has been a good one - we’ve only had good shows in Japan, no bad ones. Ok, in late 2001 we cancelled a Japanese tour because Angela was ill but we did it 6 months later and it was really successfully and very moving for us as all the fans had kept their tickets and come back to see us.

So does the style of music put a frequent strain on her voice?
Daniel: since that tour in Japan, she’s been going to vocal coaches and training her singing technique. From a musician’s view I think she has really developed herself as a vocalist. I think you’re right though that it does have something to do with the style of vocal but its no different for guys like Geoff Tate (of Queensryche) who when they’ve finished a show don’t talk afterwards in order to save their voice. They just sit at the back of the bus reading...

Actually that’s what someone told me you guys did on tour!
Daniel: someone actually said that...? Noooo, we party too! Maybe not smoke pot but look, when you’re on tour you work for like, an hour a day so there’s 23 hours to do nothing really. We try to do different things and sometimes we do nothing.

Where’s been the best place to tour so far?
Daniel: Japan. I think the Japanese are very courteous and respectful to each other and also to their guests. We get treated really well and I think that’s irrespective of a band’s status. Put it this way, I just saw an episode of The Osbournes and Ozzy was staying in the same hotel as we did! Also, from the business side I’ve never heard of a Japanese promoter ripping off bands whereas in the rest of the world this is all too common.

What can we expect from your latest opus?
Daniel: ‘Anthems of Rebellion’ is pretty much like our previous albums, maybe not as guitar orientated as your favourite (Stigmata) which I know a lot of our hard core fans appreciate. It has a more ‘modern’ sound to it with keyboard loops and stuff. I would say it’s a natural evolution from ‘Wages of Sin’.

I’ve met Mike many times but not you so how did you hook up with him?
Daniel: it was thru a mutual friend of ours. The band started off as Mike and myself and originally we were gonna be called Carnage which was the name of one of his earlier bands. But when the songs came out he decided they were too good to be labelled as Carnage part 2 or whatever and so we went with Arch Enemy. I think its originally inspired by the Star Wars movies.

I’m surprised he didn’t approach your brother first...
Daniel: Well, I guess its all a matter of taste ha ha!!