Alissa White-Gluz likes to stay active. Since making her debut with The Agonist in 2007 and continuing through her tenure in Arch Enemy, the singer has been tapped up to collaborate with dozens of artists, ranging from the likes of Soilwork and Carnifex to Epica, Babymetal and Powerwolf.
So even after her shock departure from Arch Enemy in November 2025, it wasn't too surprising she immediately hit the ground running with her debut solo single The Room Where She Died. But although she's now launched the group Blue Medusa with the single Checkmate, she's keen to point out the band is separate from her much anticipated solo project, for which she signed a recording deal with Napalm Records in 2016.
“Just to be clear, the deal I signed in 2016 was for a solo album and Blue Medusa is something else – it’s a band,” she explained in an exclusive interview with Metal Hammer.
“The solo project – Alissa – my goal with that is to give back to all the people I have collaborated with over the years. I’ve done something like over 50 collaborations over the years, so many! So for a long time it was like, ‘Man, I am appearing on a lot of people’s albums. What if they appeared on my album?’"
During the interview, Alissa also explains that the solo project will be more diverse, while Blue Medusa is reflective of her "top preferences" in music, citing "high-energy, fast heavy music", black metal and progressive metal as specific influences. She also shares a dream collaborator for her solo project.
"There’s also people that I just absolutely love who are a huge inspiration to me who I would really, really want to create with - like Brody Dalle of The Distillers," she enthuses. "I can’t go and create a whole band with all of these people – much as I’d like to – so the solo project remains a place where I want to have the freedom to do whatever feels good. My music taste is not narrow; I like a lot of different things. Black metal, Queen, Muse… I want to be able to be eclectic with it."
Alissa released her debut solo single The Room Where She Died on November 23, 2025. Co-written by Oliver Palotai (Kamelot/Doro Pesch), she explained to Hammer why the six-minute epic was the perfect first song to showcase her solo output.
"It’s so eclectic and progressive that it’s laying the foundation to be like, ‘Here’s all the stuff that can happen,'" she says. "With Blue Medusa we’ve got a more focused sound, whereas Alissa is for people who have followed me over the years and know that I do all these things.”
Although there's no announced release date for Alissa or the Blue Medusa debut, the band have announced their debut gigs for later this year at US festivals Louder Than Life and Aftershock in September and October respectively.
The show announcements came with the news that Blue Medusa's live band line-up will consist of Alissa and collaborators Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia, as well as Dragonforce bassist Alicia Vigil and drummer Delaney Jaster.
You can read more about Alissa White-Gluz's new band Blue Medusa in an upcoming issue of Metal Hammer.
