THE AGONIST Guitarist Wouldn't Rule Out Tour With ARCH ENEMY

THE AGONIST guitarist Danny Marino says that he wouldn't rule out a future tour with ARCH ENEMY.

ARCH ENEMY's current lineup includes former THE AGONIST singer Alissa White-Gluz, who was recently accused by her THE AGONIST replacement, Vicky Psarakis, of trying to hold the group back in the five years since Alissa's departure from the band.

During an appearance on "Vox&Hops", the podcast hosted by Matt McGachy, frontman of extreme metal band CRYPTOPSY, Marino was asked if there is any chance that THE AGONIST and ARCH ENEMY could team up for a tour. He responded (hear audio below): "Now, no… I'm not one to be, like, 'Never forgive,' or anything like that, which is the title of an ARCH ENEMY song, since [Alissa] joined [them] — 'Never Forgive, Never Forget'… So, I'm never like that. I would consider it if there was an open discussion between their band and our band."

Danny went on to say that doesn't enjoy having bad blood between him and Alissa. "Not only do we live in the same city [Montreal], we live in the same district of the same city," he explained. "She lives on my street — at the other end of it. But it's not a long street. And she hasn't moved. And neither have I. And I've never seen her [after she left the band], which is crazy, if you think about it. The fact that my drummer, who lives on the other side of the city, has seen her multiple times on the street. And the last time [she saw him], I think, she crossed the street. But then, at the same time, she saw [bassist Chris] Kells at a show, and there was a bunch of people around from different bands that everyone knew each other — I forget what show it was he was at — and she said hi to him."

According to Marino, he took particular issue with the fact that White-Gluz said unflattering things about THE AGONIST following her departure from the band. "That's what I said when I released the statement outlining the whole thing, the whole drama, that I don't understand why she was on to a much better place, financially and business-wise speaking, but in every interview that she did — 'cause she did a lot in the first album release that they did — she had to mention all this negativity and purposely put us down and call names and all this stuff," he said. "And I was, like, I didn't understand how you could be punching down like that. You decided to take a leap to make yourself better and more popular and advance yourself as an artist, and then you're mad at us because we're not being your side band. It's, like, no, we wanna be an 'A band' too. That's what we're gonna continue to do."

This past September, Psarakis gave an interview to Rock Confidential in which she claimed that Alissa had been trying to hold THE AGONIST back. "In the beginning, she was doing it a lot through interviews and just talking very badly about the bandmembers," she said. "That is super awkward for me, because this is a person I've never met in my life, so it's weird for me to be talking about it. There's no knowing how far and to what extent her reach could be to hold this band back. I definitely know some stuff that she's done and other things are just speculation. So, I don't wanna throw that out there, but I will say that she has been trying to kill this band ever since she was fired."

A couple of weeks later, Alissa, who has fronted ARCH ENEMY for the past five and a half years, responded to Vicky's comments, calling her claims "completely untrue, false and unsubstantiated" and saying that she has not talked about her former band "or even thought about them in years." She also said that would be "more than happy to talk to Vicky and put her concerns to rest because I know for a fact they are completely untrue."

White-Gluz was announced as the new singer of ARCH ENEMY on March 17, 2014. That same day, THE AGONIST revealed that they had recruited Psarakis as Alissa's replacement, saying in a statement that they wished White-Gluz "all the best with ARCH ENEMY and her future endeavors." A day later, Alissa released her own statement in which she claimed that she "had every intention of (and had even started) writing and recording yet another killer album [with THE AGONIST] this year," but explained that her "former bandmates decided to choose a different path." She also said that "the unfortunate decision" to part ways "was made beyond [her] control" and added that she would "always be proud of the three albums [she and THE AGONIST] created since 2005."

Alissa, who co-founded THE AGONIST in 2004 (then known as TEMPEST),had been largely quiet about the circumstances that led to her departure from the band, choosing instead to focus on the touring activities in support of ARCH ENEMY's 2014 album "War Eternal", which marked her recording debut with the latter group. But during an appearance on HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta's official podcast, "The Jasta Show", Alissa aired her side of THE AGONIST split for the first time, saying that she "never in a million fucking years" suspected that she would get kicked out of her own band. She added, "I don't agree with what they did. I don't have respect for what they did," and vowed to never mend fences with her former bandmates. "I'll never talk to them again — ever!" she said. "That was the worst betrayal I've ever felt in my life. They stole a lot from me. It was not right."

Marino later responded to Alissa's comments, claiming that "she was playing both sides to have her cake and eat it too" and accusing her of not "factoring in the other four lives in the band and their aspirations."