The Agonist’s Vicky Psarakis accuses Alissa White-Gluz of trying to sabotage band’s career

The Agonist (Image credit: Napalm Records)

The Agonist vocalist Vicky Psarakis has slammed the group's former singer Alissa White-Gluz, claiming that she “has been trying to kill this band ever since she was fired.”

White-Gluz was kicked out of the group in 2014 and went on to replace Angela Gossow in Arch Enemy, with Psarakis being brought into The Agonist that summer.

But in a new interview with Rock Confidential, Psarakis touches on the difficulties The Agonist have had releasing their new album Orphans, which she says has been ready since 2018.

Psarakis says: “The main thing is that we didn’t have a label at the time and that is for reasons aside from the music. A lot of things happen that I personally don’t deal with at all. I don’t even want to deal with it. I’m just here to write music and sing. 

“Some people out there didn’t want us to release this album and we just kept really pushing and we almost considered just releasing it on our own – which isn’t a smart business decision. I think after six months, we were frustrated and sitting on this album that’s so good and we couldn’t do anything about it. 

"Finally Napalm reached out to us and proposed to release it under a sub-label of theirs called Rodeostar.”

Asked who in particular didn't want to see the record released, Psarakis says: “I’m not one to cause drama but I think for anyone that’s out there and watching and seeing what’s going on, I think it’s fairly obvious that the person that’s been trying to hold us back is Alissa.

“In the beginning, she was doing it a lot through interviews and just talking very badly about the band members. That is super awkward for me, because this is a person I’ve never met in my life, so it’s weird 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 want to throw that out there, but I will say that she has been trying to kill this band ever since she was fired.”

Orphans will be released on September 20, with The Agonist sharing a video for Burn It All Down back in July.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more for Louder. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, The Tragically Hip, Marillion and Rush.