New ARCH ENEMY Singer LAUREN HART: Joining The Band Was 'A Dream Come True For Me And The Start Of A New Future'

In an interview with Germany's Metal Hammer magazine, new ARCH ENEMY singer Lauren Hart reflected on the experience of playing her first show with the band, which took place on March 27, 2026 in Beijing, China. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was a dream come true for me and the start of a new future. And it somehow connected with the child in me that loved ARCH ENEMY from [2001's] 'Wages Of Sin' [album]. And it was just all that going on in my mind and yet none of it as well because I was so in the moment. And it was so overwhelming, and the crowd response was amazing. I was on another planet. I was so happy."

Regarding how she has been received by the ARCH ENEMY fans so far, Lauren said: "I received a lot of love from everyone, and I was really taken aback by that. I think in my mind I thought it would take a while to really... I thought I'd have to really work and earn that, as it's really difficult when changes are made. But I feel like the reception immediately right away was so positive and everyone was so welcoming and wam in the audience. And I was very happy — very happy, and a little surprised, actually. It was instantly amazing."

Asked if she remembers the first time she heard ARCH ENEMY's music, Lauren said: "It was when 'Wages Of Sin' came out. I was hanging around my usual group of friends who were showing me metal and all that, and they were all guitar players. And when they put on the CD, I'm, like, 'God, he sounds... That singer, he sounds great.' [And they told me], 'That's not a guy. That's a girl.' … I had no idea women could scream — no idea at that time. And they had a band at the time, and they were just jamming their stuff, and I would beg them to let me try. And that's eventually how I started screaming."

On the topic of why ARCH ENEMY chose to release the "To The Last Breath" single in February as a way of introducing Lauren to the band's fans, Michael Amott, guitarist and founder of ARCH ENEMY, said: "I think one thing that was key there was to have a new song that you can just show people, 'This is what we're gonna do. We're not doing this anymore, but we're doing this, and it sounds like this. It looks like that.' And I think it was important to have a song that was very aggressive and melodic and very good. It needed to be very good.

"I had been working on some material previously, so I kind of reached into my catalog of songs that we haven't released and then we fine-tuned this one into what it is now, what it became," he explained. "Everything happened so fast that we didn't have time to record… Lauren did her vocals back home, basically, in the States. So she sent her first material, the vocal tracks, and they sounded very amazing. So that was the point where I was, like, 'Okay, this could work.' So we hadn't even met in person. We had only done Zoom calls before that."

Asked when fans can expect to hear more new music from ARCH ENEMY, Michael said: "We've always been a band that we tour and then we go away and we write a new album, and we slowly put everything together. Then we're in the studio, and then we announce a new single and that we have a whole album. Right now we don't have a whole album recorded, so it's a unique situation for us. We're working on more new stuff as well. We had a two-month break now, so we managed to work on a few things. So there's something new coming, but I think we're gonna release that after the summer. And then we're going back to the studio again when we have time off. So we're doing it in these sessions... We're not doing a full album, but it's all gonna become an album at some point. 'Cause now we're enjoying being on the road."

ARCH ENEMY kicked off its summer 2026 European tour Friday night (July 17) at the Area 53 festival in Leoben, Austria. The concert marked the band's first European live performance with Hart,who replaced Alissa White-Gluz, late last year.

After 13 years as ARCH ENEMY's vocalist, German-born Angela Gossow shocked the heavy metal world in 2014 with the sudden announcement of her retirement from the band. While she is no longer performing with them, she has remained closely involved with ARCH ENEMY as their business manager.

When Gossow officially announced her departure from ARCH ENEMY in 2014, she said that she was "passing the torch to the super talented Alissa White-Gluz, whom I've known as a dear friend and a superb vocalist for many years."

ARCH ENEMY recorded three albums with vocalist Johan Liiva — "Black Earth" (1996),"Stigmata" (1998) and "Burning Bridges" (1999) — before Liiva was replaced by Gossow.

Gossow appeared on all ARCH ENEMY albums from 2001's "Wages Of Sin" through 2011's "Khaos Legions".

ARCH ENEMY released four studio albums with White-Gluz on vocals: "War Eternal" (2014),"Will To Power" (2017),"Deceivers" (2022) and "Blood Dynasty" (2025).

ARCH ENEMY 2026 is:

Lauren Hart - Vocals
Michael Amott - Guitars
Joey Concepcion - Guitars
Sharlee D'Angelo - Bass
Daniel Erlandsson - Drums

Photo Credit: Patric Ullaeus