Death metal band Arch Enemy ready to rock Kitec

Mention the wordsdeath metal and what springs immediately to mind are testosterone-fuelled moshpits, gargantuan guitars that resemble medieval weapons and long-haired frontmen growling as though they were possessed. One element you're unlikely to think of is women.

At least that was the case until Swedish band Arch Enemy — who will be playing at Kitec in Kowloon Bay on March 12 to promote their latest album, War Eternal — took on their first female member in 2001, the snarling German vocalist Angela Gossow, and sent ripples through this male-dominated genre known for its boy's club mentality.

"Metal needed a kick in the ass," says Michael Amott, guitarist, songwriter and the co-founder of the 19-year-old band that have seen the comings and goings of numerous members. When Gossow stepped down in 2014, she was replaced by the fresh-faced and blue-haired — though equally guttural — new frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz.

"At the time, it seemed so exciting to have a female singer. We were setting out in an arena where this just didn't happen," says Amott, who came across Gossow performing for a "mediocre" band at a youth centre, and knew instantly that she had what Arch Enemy needed: a singer who could growl and posture with the right amount of ferocity.

It was also exciting — and liberating — for young women who had flicked through metal magazines only to find females featured as pin-ups, as though only those born with the XY chromosome could actually front a death metal band.