Roppongi Rocks caught up with Amaranthe vocalist Elize Ryd at this year's Download Japan festival. She discusses the Helix world tour, working with new Amaranthe singer Nils Molin, and some other projects she has in the works.  Following is an excerpt from the story.

Elize: "Having been independent for many years, we never understood how all other bands could know each other so well and have fun together, while we didn’t know anyone! Now we get it. If you’re under the same management you automatically become a family in a different way than just being on the same label." 

Elize is clearly very happy with Angela Gossow as Amaranthe’s manager (“She’s fantastic!”). Elize knew Arch Enemy’s current vocalist Alissa White-Gluz from their time together as back-up singers in Kamelot. 

“I have always been speaking with Alissa and she has always been so pleased with her management. I remember I asked her who her manager is and she said: ‘It’s Angela.’ Oh, yeah. One thing that’s really cool is that she knows everything about the music business. I notice that myself now that I have been in this industry for ten years. I understand how everything is connected. But I don’t have any education like Angela has. She got a marketing education even before she joined the band. She has a lot of knowledge and the ability to speak with people. She’s not exactly shy. These really are skills a manager should have. She is on the band’s side because she’s been an artist herself. Many managers have never been artists and that’s why they easily make the wrong decisions. Their artists get overworked. They sit in their offices and have never really properly experienced tour life themselves. I think it is really, really important for all artists to work with someone that understands what it means when you book a flight at five in the morning, via Russia, and you have a gig at eleven at night. If you keep doing that for a couple of weeks, you’ll become ill. I was totally overworked and I almost thought I would die. I thought that my body would give up. It’s because it’s been planned by someone who doesn’t really understand the lifestyle. That’s how it is – your manager is basically planning your life.”

Read the complete story here.

Amaranthe members Elize Ryd, Olof Mörck and Nils Molin recently performed an acoustic set in Berlin, Germany at The Venue. Check out the seven song set below.

The setlist was as follows:

"Hunger"
"That Song"
"Dream"
"Unified"
"Amaranthine"
"Send Me An Angel" (snippet)
"Drop Dead Cynical" (warm-up verse)
"Drop Dead Cynical"