Former ARCH ENEMY vocalist ALISSA WHITE-GLUZ has spoken about her collaboration with extreme power metal band DRAGONFORCE, telling Benedetta Baldin of Finland's Chaoszine that she was genuinely stunned the news stayed under wraps for as long as it did. "We were surprised that nobody knew. People took photos of us together for months already," she said, referring to the run-up to the partnership's official announcement in May.
WHITE-GLUZ praised the professionalism behind DRAGONFORCE's live show, pointing to guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li as being deeply involved in every detail of the band's performances. Asked to characterize the band's sound, she described DRAGONFORCE as "heavy… because they're so fast," emphasizing the sheer physical demands of keeping pace with the band's famously rapid-fire material night after night.
The collaboration traces back to 2025, when WHITE-GLUZ and DRAGONFORCE worked together on an alternate version of the band's signature song "Burning Heart." According to WHITE-GLUZ, that initial session made clear the chemistry was real, and rehearsals since have only reinforced the feeling that the pairing was "really on to something."
The singer is juggling the DRAGONFORCE role alongside her new project BLUE MEDUSA, launched following her departure from ARCH ENEMY, the band she fronted for more than a decade. Rather than treating the DRAGONFORCE gig as a detour, WHITE-GLUZ framed it as a natural extension of an existing creative partnership that simply needed the right moment to go public.
WHITE-GLUZ will join DRAGONFORCE as touring frontwoman for the band's North American trek celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark album "Inhuman Rampage," with dates kicking off November 13. The tour will mark one of the most closely watched pairings in power metal this year, uniting one of extreme metal's most recognizable voices with a band built around technical virtuosity and relentless speed.
For fans who spent months speculating over leaked photos before the announcement finally came, WHITE-GLUZ's account confirms the collaboration was hiding in plain sight — a testament, she suggested, to just how well the secret was kept within DRAGONFORCE's own camp.