It's as you were for Arch Enemy

Arch Enemy's new singer Alissa White-Gluz says changing the band's sound would have been “inappropriate”.

The former singer with The Agonist took over the main role in Arch Enemy when former frontwoman Angela Gossow stood down earlier this year.

Known more for her sweet singing voice than the heavier style that was Arch Enemy’s trademark under Gossow, White-Gluz might have been expected to drastically change things.

But as the prepare to release their first album with the Canadian at the helm, she insists she wouldn’t dare mess with a tried and tested formula.

She tells NWF: “I don’t think it would have been totally appropriate to bust in a clean singing chorus on an Arch Enemy song because the guitars are already singing. So it’s an interesting and different balance to have the singing being the brutal part and the guitars being the soaring melodic part. It’s not often done that way in metal.

“It’s not really frustrating, I’m totally satisfied with the music that we’re making. We’re all open minded so maybe we’ll include clean singing in the future if it fits. We already have an established sound, I’m not gonna walk in and change the way it is.”

She also reveals that she is working on an all-girl metal project, but declined to say much more. She adds: “I also have this little side project that I’m doing at home with some really great Canadian female metal musicians. It’s really just for fun right now but that band will probably have some music to release pretty soon.

“I’m not going to tell it yet because we’re still working on it but it’s all girls. There’s me and Justine from Black Heart and also some of the members of Kittie. And we have fun making music together so it’s a cool band.”

Arch Enemy’s ninth album – War Eternal – is out on Monday, June 9.

Gallery: Arch Enemy live in Istanbul

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.