King Ultramega have released a powerful interpretation of “Dead Wishes” featuring Brann Dailor (Mastodon) at the helm performing lead vocals. Recorded in loving memory of Chris Cornell King Ultramega are also raising funds and awareness for MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s nonprofit that provides mental health services, addiction recovery support, and emergency assistance to members of the music community. Check out the track here!
Roughly a year after featuring on the debut album by Savage Lands with the song “Ruling Queen” on their debut album, Alissa White-Gluz (Blue Medusa, ex-Arch Enemy) has joined the group on vocals. Formed to bring attention and action to save Costa Rica’s rain forest, Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren and his old guitarist Sylvain Demercastel (Artsonic) started Savage Lands, the music industry’s first artist-run environmental non-profit. They released their debut album Army of The Trees, via Season of Mist in 2025. In addition to White-Gluz, the debut album featured members of Sepultura, Obituary, Lord of The Lost, and labelmates Heilung. Read a statement from the band, and we’ll keep you posted on more news here!
After an eleven-year tenure fronting Arch Enemy during which she delivered four studio albums and helped expand the band’s global reach, Alissa White-Gluz parted ways with the melodic death metal giants in November 2025. As we reported when she announced the project earlier this month, Blue Medusa is her bold next chapter. The band released its debut single, “Checkmate.”
“Checkmate” delivers on that promise immediately. Written by White-Gluz alongside bandmates Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia, and mixed and mastered by Kile Odell, the track lands as a dynamic collision of melody, precision, and emotional weight. “Checkmate is an extremely cathartic song for me,” White-Gluz explains. “It was created in one of those flow states where the lyrics and melodies just write themselves. 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.”
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