Blue Medusa, the new band from former Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, have shared their first piece of music, and it is a total face-ripper.

The band consists of White-Gluz on vocals, joined by guitarists Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia and launched last month. And in ‘Checkmate’, the trio are showing a bit of what we should come to expect from this collaboration.

A gripping, frantic, guttural slice of modern metal battery, it shows off as much sensational riffing as it does beastly vocal gymnastics. Going straight for the jugular and refusing to take the pressure off, it’s a bold statement of intent from a band who have stardom already in their sights.

There are few better first moves they could have made.

Alissa had this to say about the track and where she was pulling inspiration:

“This is a song where everything just clicked. ‘Checkmate’ is an extremely cathartic song for me. It was created in one of those flow states where the lyrics and melodies and rhythms just write themselves and you get the feeling that you’re on to something powerful. It’s probably the heaviest thing I’ve written in terms of lyrics, and probably the lightest of what we have cooking in terms of sound. I wanted to share the intensity of these feelings with fans and give them something to hold on to.”

And she had this to say about the support that the band have already received:

“I’m so happy to see so much support for Blue Medusa already; fans can look forward to more dark, heavy, brutal and haunting music very soon.”