Written by Alissa White-Gluz had a baptism of fire of sorts when making her live debut with UK power metallers Dragonforce over the weekend, with the band’s longtime frontman Marc Hudson having to miss their first show of 2026 entirely due to ongoing hearing issues.
Dragonforce played a riotously received set on the fourth stage at Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Beach, Florida on Saturday evening (May 9), with Alissa fronting the band for the first time following the surprising news of her addition to the fold earlier this month. The former Arch Enemy frontwoman was expected to share singing duties with Hudson, but her bandmate was unable to perform thanks to his battles with tinnitus.
Dragonforce live guitarist Billy Wilkins provided supporting vocals at the show, which saw the power metal veterans smash through fan favourites like Operation Ground And Pound and, of course, Through The Fire And Flames. You can see fan-filmed footage of the set below.
Since her shocking departure from Arch Enemy last year, Alissa has been busy; prior to joining Dragonforce, she launched a brand new band, Blue Medusa, describing the project as “the next evolution of everything I’ve been building toward for years. It’s my creative melting pot.” She has also been working on her first solo album for some years now, clarifying to Metal Hammer earlier this year that it will be an entirely separate project to Blue Medusa, whose debut album is also anticipated some time in the not-so-distant future.
“The solo project, my goal with that is to give back to all the people I have collaborated with over the years,” she explained. “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?’”
Alissa referenced wanting to experiment with everything from black metal to Muse and Queen, so expect a diverse as hell album when it finally arrives. In the meantime, you can catch Alissa on tour with Dragonforce at more upcoming dates, including at Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday May 17. Plans for Marc Hudson’s return to Dragonforce shows are currently unknown.
