The songs on Arch Enemy’s latest CD The Root Of All Evil are re-recordings of the band’s early material, back before Angela Gossow was the vocalist. Johan Liiva was the frontman for Arch Enemy’s first three albums: Black Earth (1996), Stigmata (1998) and Burning Bridges (1999). Mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap, The Root Of All Evil features classics such as “Beast Of Man” and “The Immortal.”

Chad Bowar of About.com spoke with Gossow about how the album came together, some highlights of their summer festival season and upcoming tour plans, the effect Arch Enemy’s music has had on fans, and many other topics.

Chad Bowar: How did the idea for re-recording old material for The Root Of All Evil come about?
Angela Gossow: It came down to our fans, who have been asking us about it for a while. People that are aware of the older recordings are curious to hear what they would sound like with the new Arch Enemy, and others want us to start playing some of those songs live. A lot of our young fans don't know anything about these older recordings. The first one was 13 years ago, and some of them aren't much older than that. Kids tend to pick up what's around now. When you get older you start to look back into a band's older catalog. We hope to make old and young fans happy, and play the old songs live again.

How did you decide on which songs to re-record, and were there any arguments?
We don't argue in this band to begin with, and we wouldn't argue about a choice of songs. When you listen to the albums it was quite obvious which were the strongest tracks and which would work the best live. We picked out tracks that we can imagine playing live. That was criteria number one. There are some tracks that sound great on a recording, but don't get the vibe across live. And we have played some of these tunes live. We pretty much knew which ones we wanted to pick.

Did you produce the CD yourselves?
Yes. It was mostly Daniel. He is our ProTools guy, our technical geek. He does a lot of home recording for himself. He actually recorded himself on drums, which was quite amazing. When I did vocals, Michael did the engineering. Chris recorded bass and the other guitar. Everybody was involved. It's so easy nowadays to run a basic recording program. But when it comes to mixing and mastering, you have to give it to someone else, because it takes a bit more skill.

The songs of course were already written for this album, but did your recording process take the same amount of time as a usual album, or was it quicker?

It was a lot quicker. When you record a new album, you have a very self-critical period. You record most of it, look at the material and think it's crap, and then want to start from scratch. We had none of those crisis moments, no therapy sessions, no crying. (laughs)

When you recorded the vocals, did you try to be faithful to the original style, or put your own spin on them?
I've played quite a few of them live before, and there are obviously places where the lyrics have to be, a certain rhythm. I didn't copy Johan, because he had a very different vocal style than I have. He has a different pitch, and he likes to do a lot of free floating stuff, ignoring the rhythmic pattern. But he does it in a way that it sounds cool. But I'm too German. When I ignore the pattern, I sound awful.

Which song was the most challenging for you vocally?
I have no feeling for anything that is in between beats, for example on "Silverwing" or "Beast Of Man," which I have to count out, even on stage. I have to use my head, instead of my soul and heart. It's a bit less enjoyable. Off-beat songs are the most difficult.

Arch Enemy has been on a two year timetable between studio albums. Does mean the next CD of original stuff won't be until 2011, or will it be sooner?
People have said we are releasing too much stuff. There have been a lot of reissues and a best of. They say we have something coming out every six months. The label would like to see the band giving birth to a new baby every 8 months. But we are looking at going into the studio in the autumn of 2010 and maybe releasing it in the spring of 2011. That seems like a relaxed schedule to us. We've got a lot of material. We've been writing since 2007, but we don't want to release too much in a short time, because people get really tired of it.

You're getting ready to tour in Russia and China. Have you been to China before?
Yes, we were at the end of 2007. It is very different. There were uniformed military with machine guns inside the venue, which I'm not used to. People were very disciplined in the beginning, for the first couple of songs. We were a bit nervous. It's intimidating to look into a machine gun and not know how far you can go, and how cool the Chinese officials are with that type of self-expression at a metal show. Then at the end they broke down the barriers and moshed in the front. I didn't know how the uniformed men would react, but they just stepped aside and everything was cool. It's a different vibe there.

CDs aren't commercially available in China, but fans still manage to get them. Did you find the audience knew the words to your songs?
Absolutely. They can't access our website or YouTube because it's blocked by the government. We are blacklisted, I guess because our name is Arch Enemy and we have a song called "Revolution Begins." We actually had to submit the lyrics before we went over there. The government checks them. We of course didn't submit "Revolution Begins." (laughs) Everybody knew the lyrics. It was amazing. They have ways to get the music. The bootleg market is huge in China.

Chad Bowar: You are pretty booked for the rest of this year with tours in Europe and elsewhere. Any plans of coming back to North America, perhaps next year?
Angela Gossow: Yes. We plan on coming over in the beginning of January. We are trying to do the routing, and avoiding any Megadeth or Slayer dates nearby! We know the cities we are going to play, we are just working on the dates. It's not a good idea to clash with any other big tours. The kids can only afford to go to so many shows. I think we'll start the tour in the middle of January and go until the beginning of March. We're definitely coming over.

What do you look forward to the most when coming to the U.S. to tour?
I'm probably odd for a European, because I really like America. I have no negative vibes about America at all. I think it's a huge great place with a lot of opportunities. I think Americans are a lot more open-minded to faster changes. They can adopt a lot quicker. They are a lot more open to strangers. Hospitality is big in America. People are very helpful, and I really miss that in Northern Europe. In a restaurant there nobody serves you or even looks at you for 20 minutes until you shout at them. That doesn't happen in America because people are very attentive.

This is great when you are on tour, because you rely on a lot of service on the road. You eat out a lot, you need to shop in the middle of the night. America is a great country, full of possibilities. You can always get everything at any time of the day. When you're stranded in Germany or Sweden in the middle of the night, it's dark and nobody wants to open a door for you. Nobody is going to sell you toilet paper or toothpaste. You're just screwed. It's great to be on the road in a tour bus in the U.S. and it really sucks to be on the road in a tour bus in Europe. It's a big difference.

And since you're a vegetarian, it's easy to find that type of food in the U.S.
Even if you go to a restaurant that specializes in meat, they always do something vegetarian. They help you out, they get creative. In Sweden they say "it's not on the menu, sorry." I love the Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's. I'm probably their best customer when I'm in the country.

What were some of the highlights of your summer festival season this year?
It was definitely the Monsters Of Rock in the Czech Republic. It's a really big festival. I didn't expect 40,000 or so people. We haven't played in Eastern Europe a lot. We played right before Europe, who is very big there. It was amazing. They were singing along and knew the songs. It was completely unexpected.

The other one was playing for the first time in Turkey, in Istanbul. It was a great show, lots of people, everybody singing along. We had never played there before, and that really shows the power of the internet. They just knew Arch Enemy from YouTube and the web. I didn't know what to expect. Istanbul is a very modern and very open-minded city, and very European. We were also in Dubai this year for the first time, and it had a great vibe as well. I didn't really have any idea of the Middle East, but it gave me a really positive insight on their culture.

Your bandmate Michael (Amott) has been busy the past couple of years with the reunion of Carcass. Looking back several years, did you anticipate they would ever get back together?
Yes, because I always pushed him. I said everybody wants to see you live. I've been asking him since I joined Arch Enemy. What about Carcass? Bill (Steer) was never into the idea of a Carcass reunion. We talked him to death, and he finally agreed to try it. We said to just jam a bit. Just come over, it's an hour flight from London. And that's how it all started. It was a great opportunity, too good to let go. There is obviously a strong interest in Carcass. All bands eventually reunite if people keep asking for it. That's the power of the people.

Music can really have an impact on a band's fans. What are some stories you've heard from your fans about how Arch Enemy's music has affected them?
Music has immense power, especially metal. There's a lot of life in it. It's very empowering, aggressive and channeling music. I've heard a lot of fans tell me it's stopped them from hurting themselves, and even from committing suicide. Kids are very vulnerable. Between the ages of 14 and 18 everybody's lives are hell. School, teachers, parents, everybody's holding them down and it's a lot of pressure. If they don't find a way to channel that, some succumb to the pressure. Some have sex with a lot of people, some even try to kill themselves.

I can relate to that. When I was 15 I had really bad days, and would listen to Morbid Angel and Carcass and Metallica, and it gave me some energy and strength back. It took the heavy stone off my heart and lifted it up long enough to make it to the next day. A lot of girls come out to shows and thank me for being a role model. I'm quite outspoken about how I was when I was a teenager. I had to battle a very severe eating disorder. They thank me for talking about it and giving me strength through music. They say they want to make it over that and out of that, and I'm not going to kill myself. That's quite moving.

Your music has changed lives, and saved lives, which has to be a great feeling.
I think that's just art. I don't look at it as Arch Enemy is saving lives, it's honest music that connects on a personal level. That's what I try to do with the lyrics as well. We don't write lyrics about imaginary monsters and fantasy vixens. They are realistic lyrics that kids can connect to. Songs like "We Will Rise" give a sense of unity and belonging to something and gives strength. That's important to me to put into the music.

Chad Bowar(about.com)