You will know her name.
Alissa White-Gluz (born 31 July 1985) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who was formerly the singer of The Agonist, and is currently the lead singer for the Swedish Death Metal band Arch Enemy. She has also appeared as a guest alongside various acts including Kamelot, Delain, and Tarja Turunen.
Of Jewish heritage, she has based the lyrics of her songs "Born Dead, Buried Alive" and "First Day in Hell" on The Holocaust. She is a vegan and animal rights activist who has worked with PETA.
Her last name is pronounced to rhyme with "buzz".
Discography
The Agonist
- Once Only Imagined (2007)
- Lullabies for the Dormant Mind (2009)
- The Escape (2011, EP)
- Prisoners (2012)
Arch Enemy
- War Eternal (2014)
- Will to Power (2017)
- Covered in Blood (2019, cover album)
Guest appearances
- Never More Than Less, Relentless (2008) - "So Beautiful"
- Synastry, Blind Eyes Bleed (2008) - "In Your Eyes"
- (the) Plasmarifle, While You Were Sleeping the World Changed in an Instant (2008) - "From the Trail of Ashes"
- Blackguard, Profugus Mortis (2009) - "The Sword"
- Kamelot
- Silverthorn (2012) - "Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)"
, "Prodigal Son" (Part III: The Journey) - Haven (2015) - "Liar Liar (Wasteland Monarchy)", "Revolution"
- Silverthorn (2012) - "Sacrimony (Angel of Afterlife)"
- Delain
- The Human Contradiction (2014) - "The Tragedy of the Commons"
- Moonbathers (2016) - "Hands of Gold"
- Metal Allegiance
- Metal Allegiance (2015) - "We Rock"
- Fallen Heroes (2016) - "Life in the Fast Lane"
- Karmaflow, The Muse and the Conductor (2015) - "the Muse"
- Caliban, Gravity (2016) - "The Ocean's Heart"
- And Then She Came, And Then She Came (2016) - "Five Billion Lies"
- Tarja Turunen, The Shadow Self (2016) - "Demons in You"
- Evesdroppers, Empty Vessel (2016) - "God's Ocean"
- American Murder Song (2016) - as Lavinia Fisher
- Aurelio Voltaire, Heart-Shaped Wound (2017) - "Leaves in the Stream"
- Angra, ØMNI (2018) - "Black Widow's Web"
- Dee Snider, For the Love of Metal (2018) - "Dead Hearts (Love Thy Neighbor)"
- Soilwork, Verkligheten (2019) - "Stålfågel"
- Mark Morton, Anesthetic (2019) - "The Truth Is Dead" (w/ Randy Blythe of Lamb of God)
- Carnifex, World War X (2019) - "No Light Shall Save Us"
Alissa and her music show examples of the following tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: One of the versions of "Demons in You" features Alissa having the lead vocal role all to herself.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Her cover of "Demons are a Girl's Best Friend" flips the entire narrative from a demon corrupting nuns into his playthings to a coven of demonesses having a group of young men fight each other for the right to become a demon and their new partner.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Most of her stage gear. Her music video fashion tends to verge into Costume Porn.
- Motor Mouth: Played straight with The Agonist. Averted with everything else. She still growls faster than Angela, though.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: In studio. Notably her rendition of Swan Lake.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Almost everything she wrote in Lullabies and Prisoners. She has toned this down since joining AE.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: Some of her lower Harsh Vocals tend to fall into this.
- Solo Side Project: She announced one under her own name back in 2017-18.
We're still waiting. - Soprano and Gravel: She is capable of both using growl and clean vocals, although the latter is more prominent in her guest appearances in other bands' songs. Compare her two versions of Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend to get an idea of her range.
- Symphonic Metal: After her work with Kamelot and Delain, her Arch Enemy work has had streaks of this.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: To compare, Angela Gossow is a full-blown tomboy. Vicky Psarakis is somewhere in between.
- Vocal Evolution: Her Harsh Vocals underwent a huge amount of this during her time with The Agonist, going as far as cramming multiple types of Metal Scream within one song. Since Prisoners though, she has stuck with a signature growl with other types as embellishment.
