Band of The Week #3 - Atreyu

Orange County’s Atreyu is this week’s band of the week. They formed in 1998 and released their EP Fractures in the Façade of Your Porcelain Beauty with the underground label Tribunal Records. In 2001, they were quickly signed to Victory Records where, in my opinion, they released some of their best work. Their debut album Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses released in 2002, followed by their 2004 release of The Curse. It is probably my favorite album by them and it has a lot of great tracks such as Demonology and Heartache, This Flesh A Tomb, and The Crimson. The album introduced their drummer Brandon Saller as the clean vocalist while their lead singer/ screamer Alex Varkatzas did the unclean vocals/ screams as he had done on their debut album. This album definitely garnered them a lot of attention with metalcore fans all around. Their third album A Deathgrip On Yesterday reached just as much popularity as their sophomore record. At this point in their career, they had their songs in video games and a couple of movie soundtracks, thus getting them more attention. Possibly their most well known release is their fourth studio album Lead Sails and Paper Anchors. It was also the first album under their two new record labels Roadrunner and Hollywood Records. This album relied more on the clean vocals than then the unclean vocals, but Alex’s parts were still quite memorable. Songs such as Becoming the Bull, Two Become One, and Falling Down became instant hits with the fans. Their song Falling Down was even included in Guitar Hero: On Tour “Modern Hits”. Their fifth album Congregation of the Damned, is their most recent album that released in 2009. They received lots of attention for this record, but their fans also considering this album to be a complete sellout in comparison to their older material

The first song I heard by Atreyu was Becoming the Bull. It was such a hard rock track and it always got me pumped to play video games when I was younger. I listened to other tracks of Lead Sails and Paper Anchors, but I didn’t really listen to their other stuff because at the time I didn’t like unclean vocals. As time went on, I got into unclean vocals and went back to listen to their older material such as The Curse and A Deathgrip on Yesterday. I was completely floored by how good these tracks were and the overall presentation of the album. To me, they were a band that was able to combine the grittiness of unclean vocals and the melody of cleans vocals in such an interesting fashion that it made me want to listen to more of their work. Dan Jacobs on guitar is no joke either with a tight rhythm section and blistering solos and licks in between. Some people didn’t like the idea of Brandon on clean vocals because they wanted Atreyu to remain “heavy”, but I felt it was a good change and it added a lot of new dynamics to the band. It gave them a wider audience and it showed how far they could push themselves as musicians

They are one of my favorite metalcore bands and they have immense talent, it was sad to see them go on hiatus, but I guess every band needs to take time off to recuperate from all the touring and music production. With that being said, there is news that they might record a new track for the fans as a way to thank them for all of their love and support and that the song would sound like something that would have been released on their second album The Curse.

Falling Down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf256Pbo88A

Demonology And Heartache: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBIpreLNtpg