Last year was marked by change in the world of Swedish power metal band Amaranthe. The sextet became a quintet with original member and vocalist Jake E leaving the band, taking them from three vocalists down to two. He’s since resurfaced with CyHrA, and Amaranthe have had Chris Adam Hedman Sorbye filling in on tour. That doesn’t mean that he’s going to be a permanent member of the band, however, and they’re still looking, singer Elize Ryd tells Dead Rhetoric:
Chris has played a big part, and we asked him if he was interested in joining. He actually said no, because he wants to focus on Smash into Pieces. That’s the thing that people don’t understand – maybe we could offer him better pay, maybe…but it’s not about money. When you are in a band, sometimes you earn and sometimes you don’t. You can’t make your decisions based on the business, you have to do it from the heart. Otherwise you burn out. You can’t do this if you don’t love what you do. So I really respect that he wanted to stick to his own band, because I would want to do the same. I want to do my thing, and I’ll do that no matter what it takes. If I was hired by someone else, I would not enjoy it as much.
And even while Jake E was in the band, Ryd says that they’d actually seriously considered asking Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz to join the band while she was still in The Agonist:
Actually I wanted Alissa [White-Gluz] to join the band. I was drop dead serious about that. But then she got the Arch Enemy gig. She’s very happy with her life and career, as it is now. She doesn’t need to share her voice with two other people, like I have to and Henrik [Englund Wilhemsson] has to.
It’ll be interesting to see who fills Jake E’s shoes, and even more interesting to see what sex that person is! For more, like Ryd’s dream to be in a musical, check out the full interview.
