Alissa White-Gluz, before and after Arch Enemy
“Arch Enemy announce the exit of Alissa White-Gluz from the band”: in a dry and blunt way, last November 23rd the news arrived that Alissa White-Gluz is no longer a member of Arch Enemythe melodic death metal group originally from Sweden of which the Canadian singer had been a member for over ten years. With a dry but meaningful message, the band – recently returned from a tour that also passed through Italy last October and ended a few days ago – added: “We are grateful for the time and music shared and we wish her the best. Wherever there is an end, there is also a beginning. See you in 2026”. After a few minutes, the singer released a personal statement of her own, equally measured but more intimate: “After 12 years in Arch Enemy, our paths have parted. I will be forever grateful to the thousands of extraordinary fans I have met along the way. I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve been working on, with big surprises on the way.”
It is not only the end of a musical partnership that lasted more than a decade, and after six studio albums, but the turning point of a career that today opens to a new chaptermarked by the release of the solo single, “The room where she died”, spread under the name of “Alissa” and currently available on YouTube with an official video.
To understand the significance of this moment we need to go back to 2014, when Alissa White-Gluz joined Arch Enemy inheriting the role that had belonged to Angela Gossowa fundamental figure in the history of the band having been the first female singer of the group since 2000 – succeeding Johan Liiva – and the creator, in those years, of a change of image and perception towards a melodic death metal which found a powerful, technical and charismatic voice even in the female. Gossow would then leave the microphone but not the lineup, taking on the role of manager of the group, and in 2016 he would also take over the management of Alissa’s solo project when the latter signed the contract with Napalm Records. A professional and human collaboration was thus intertwined which demonstrated how the transition between the two singers was more similar to a passing of the baton than to a traumatic change, and which today, in light of Alissa’s exit, acquires an almost circular value.
In over ten years, Alissa White-Gluz’s image within Arch Enemy has transformed into an element of identity as much as the band’s sound. On stages and in videos, taking up the guitar, Alissa was able to enchant the group’s audience with his charismatic stage presence and his long blue hairimmediately recognisable, which has become an integral part of an aesthetic that combines aggression, technical skill, theatricality and femininity. While his voice hits the mark, shocking and surprising, thanks to the ability to move naturally between deep growls, controlled screams and almost symphonic melodic openings. The new solo single “The room where she died” encompasses everything that Alissa White-Gluz represented for Arch Enemy, having contributed to redefine the group’s profile in front of an increasingly international audience. The Canadian singer was not only a gifted interpreter for the band, but a performer aware of how much modern metal required power and precision, but also personality, expressive variety and a coherent and impactful visual dimension. Now this footprint, Alissa gives it to her solo project.
Alissa’s solo career, however, has its roots long before November 23rd. In 2016with the announcement of the contract with Napalm Records, had been anticipated a solo album titled “Alissa”a project of which only fragments, sporadic statements and some previews of the musical directions it could have taken had circulated in the following years. That record never arrived, but White-Gluz never stopped working on his original material, nor did he stop making collaborations with other artists and bands outside of Arch Enemy such as – among others – Dee Snider, Carnifex, Babymetal, Powerwolf, Helloween, Nita Strauss and Kat Von D. Alissa has always used her music to convey messages on social change, addressing urgent issues such as environmental protection, veganism and animal welfare.
His new single “The room where she died”, created in collaboration with Oliver Palotai, therefore testifies the actual start of his solo career and promises an album coming soonalbeit without an official publication date. The song therefore seems like a debut, with the intention of bringing order to a story that has been suspended for a long time, as if the singer had finally found the right moment to take center stage in her own name. The song chosen to seal his career on his own has what it takes to outline a focused profile of Alissa White-Gluzwhich in “The room where she died” interweaves melodies and granite passages, alternating radically his clean voice with growl.
The future of Arch Enemy, meanwhile, remains an unknown: no one yet knows who will replace Alissa White-Gluzand the band has not revealed any details about the new lineup. While discussions among fans are multiplying online about who the band’s new voice will be, former singer Johan Liiva also spoke to deny rumors that he might rejoin the group. “No, I’m not coming back to the band,” Liiva responded to one Facebook user’s comment – as reported by Blabbermouth: “I’m as surprised as all of you. I think Alissa was perfect for AE. The mystery continues.”
This uncertainty comes in a period in which we wondered which other bands fronted by women – after Linkin Park with Emily Armstrong – could really aspire to headlining positions at large rock festivals such as the British Download, and in which the role of frontwomen in contemporary metal proves to be more central than ever, both on a symbolic and artistic level. What is certain is that, for Alissa White-Gluz, this is a moment of rebirth, in which the end of one cycle coincides with the beginning of another, marking a career that can now finally be told without intermediaries, in the name of a personal vision that has been waiting for its space for years.
