When Alissa White-Gluz joined DragonForce earlier this year, plenty of fans were caught completely off guard. The former Arch Enemy frontwoman, however, saw things differently. As far as she was concerned, the partnership had been hiding in plain sight for months before it became official in early May.
Sitting down with Benedetta Baldin of Finland’s Chaoszine, White-Gluz was told that the news had genuinely surprised a lot of people. Her reaction was one of mild disbelief.
“I was surprised that people were surprised, actually, ’cause we thought that people knew. That’s why we made this video and we were, like, ‘Hey, the rumors are true,’ because we thought that people thought this was happening already. We were walking around together. I mean, people took photos of us together for months already. We were surprised that nobody knew,” Alissa said.
She then spoke about the level of dedication her new bandmates put into every night on the road.
“It’s great, because DragonForce is a band that really, really cares about delivering an excellent-quality piece of entertainment every single night, to the point that Sam [Totman] is building the set for the stage, and Herman [Li] is taking care of all the ins and outs of the tech. And they’re not just strolling onstage, throwing a little bit of playing out there and getting offstage. Everybody’s, like, super involved. And I’ve always been like that too, because I come from working in theater. I worked in theater for many years, where I was the stage manager and set designer, and I loved that. And so to be around people who really care — they care that the lighting looks good, they care that the props are in place, they care that the audience has a great time — I am super, super detail-oriented like that also, and it’s really cool to be around other people who are like that. And so in terms of matching the energy, it’s actually a very good fit. And also DragonForce is super heavy in a different way. They’re heavy because they’re so fast. It is a workout for every single musician on stage. The drummer, the vocalist, the bassist, the guitarist, everybody’s, like, ‘Ah,’ the whole time. We get on stage and I’m, like, ‘Take one breath before I get on stage, ’cause I’m not gonna be able to breathe again until 45 minutes from now.’ It’s hard. It’s challenging. So it’s really cool to be expressing that kind of really intense energy, but in a different way,” she explained.
The conversation then moved to Blue Medusa, the new band White-Gluz put together after a decade fronting Arch Enemy. She explained that throwing herself into the project hasn’t meant stepping away from the spotlight, since her DragonForce commitments remain firmly in place.
“Yeah, it feels great. And I’m still gonna be fronting one of the biggest bands in metal, as you just said. I’ll be in DragonForce for all these tours. So in that regard, nothing much has changed, actually. But it’s great to be able to have the time to invest in… I mean, I never have enough time, but I have more time now that I can actually invest into Blue Medusa fully, because it’s my main focus and project. And I love the music that we’re making, and it’s very inspiring to make music that you love and that you’re super, super proud of without compromise. So it feels great,” she said.
In a recent interview with Local Band Smokeout, Alissa discussed how her 2025 guest appearance on an alternate version of DragonForce’s “Burning Heart” helped pave the way toward her becoming the band’s full-time singer.
Alissa said at the time: “Kind of. I think we all kind of agreed that we got a really good vibe from working together, and that the music could be really cool to combine everything that DragonForce is known for and what I’m known for, and play on our strengths. And I think we just weren’t sure if we could really do it. And I think in life you’re never really ready to do something; you just have to do it and then figure it out. And so we were, like, ‘You know what? It’s now or never. Let’s just do it. Let’s just jump into this and make it happen.’ And so we did. And so we’ve been working, yeah, for a while, actually, just to get prepared to be able to perform these shows together, and also working on new music.”
What began as a one-off collaboration soon turned into something much larger, as both sides began developing new material and testing ideas in the studio.
According to Alissa, the chemistry became especially clear once the band started working face-to-face on writing and arrangements: “[It’s been] really good. You never know… ‘Cause you can practice your stuff on your own and write independently and it could be fine, but when we actually started playing together in the same room, playing properly, rehearsing, writing, working on lyrics, working on chord structures, parts, arrangements, concepts, titles and stuff like that, we worked on stuff and then we listened back and we were, like, ‘This sounds really good.’ I think we were… We were pretty confident, but then listening back to it, we were, like, ‘Ooh, okay. We’re really on to something here.’ So it was great.”
DragonForce are gearing up for a major North American run celebrating the 20th anniversary of Inhuman Rampage, the album that helped define their global breakthrough. The 22-date tour will take place in November and December, with support from Ensiferum and Rhapsody of Fire, hitting cities including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
