Australia's The Rockpit recently conducted an interview with ARCH ENEMY singer Alissa White-Gluz. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. The Rockpit: How has the reception been from the fans and the critics so far [to the new ARCH ENEMY album, 2017's "Will To Power"]? Alissa: "It's been great. For us, when we did [2014's] 'War Eternal', there was so many changes going on in the band that we didn't know how it was going to be received, and then we were pleasantly surprised because every journalist, every reviewer, every photographer, every time we did a meet-and-greet or signing or we did a show, the response was above and beyond what we could of imagined, just super positive. So when it came time to write, record and release 'Will To Power', we had this sort of nervousness in the back of our minds, like, 'Oh my god. How will we outdo 'War Eternal'? What if it doesn't do as well? How is it going to do?' The thing is you can't really focus on that, because all you can do as a band is just make great songs and release them; that's all any band can do. But luckily, the response has actually been even better; in the chart positions in various countries, we were higher than with 'War Eternal', and in many cases, it was the highest chart of an ARCH ENEMY album ever. We've been seeing increased sold-out shows, increase in ticket sales in all the shows. Really good reviews from journalists, very open-minded and accepting fans and, of course, media that helps us out, like Spotify, streaming and radio stations. So, yeah, everyone has been very happy about the album, and that's cool for us, because we're so involved in the music that after a while, it's, like, 'What did we create here?' [Laughs] We don't even know anymore, so, basically, we get out there and start doing the promo tour and meeting with 30-40 journalists a day and talking to everyone in different countries in different languages. We're happy that everyone is getting it and understanding what our vision is for the album and they are enjoying the music." The Rockpit: For yourself, how do you approach the older material? Obviously, fans will pick up on the difference between your voice and [former ARCH ENEMY singer] Angela's [Gossow] voice, so do you stick to how it was recorded or do you inject your own style and flavor into it? Alissa: "Well, something that people might not remember, because, obviously, there was the singer switch, is that even Angela live is different than Angela recorded, if you know what I mean. Every singer sounds different live than they do on record — that's just how it goes — and somebody might sound different one night to the next just because maybe they were sick or maybe the room acoustics created a slightly different sound. So any song that we do live is going to sound different than it is on the album, whether it's one that I recorded or one that Angela recorded or one that Johan [Liiva, ex-ARCH ENEMY vocalist] recorded. That being said, I try to stick to what Angela did because she did those songs amazingly and I love what she does, and so I just try to go along with her phrasing and pronunciations, because, obviously, that's what people hear in their heads and what people are usually listening to. But with that being said, we also play so many shows that songs sort of tend to evolve over time and mutate into these live versions and we don't even notice that happening, I mean, that happens a lot, actually, and then after a while, I'm, like, 'Wait a second,' and I'll listen back to the album, even if it's one of my own songs, and I'll be, like, 'Oh my god. That's not how I do that anymore!' But it was never a conscious decision to change it; it just happened." Read the entire interview at The Rockpit.
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