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Editorials

ATREYU: A CHECK-IN

 Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 12:00pm by

It’s been a while since I actively paid attention about Atreyu. A few years ago it was easy to slag them for venturing headfirst into the pop metal world; not that their sugar-sweet metalcore of yore was breaking boundaries or slaying faces to shreds beforehand, but The Curse and A Deathgrip on Yesterday were solid metalcore albums that were sufficiently heavy and sufficiently catchy, and, I’d venture, pretty good. So when Atreyu left Victory for the major label world and subsequently adapted their music to go for the mainstream gold, they were everyone’s favorite metalcore punching bags for a good hot hour there. But now? They’ve kind of just slipped into “oh yeah, that band” territory every time I see or hear their name somewhere. As Lambgoat commenters might say, “No care ever.”

So, a check-in. They’ve got a new video for a song called “Gallows,” from their latest album. Despite having the trimmings of metal (double bass, twin guitar leads, screaming [sometimes]), it’s pretty clear that Atreyu have continued on with the poppy stuff via a short, concise song structure and cliched catchy chorus. Vocalist Alex Varkatzas is singing [via the help of auto-tune] more than ever, and apparently drummer / backup vocalist Brandon “Ziggy” Saller has shaved his head. Otherwise it’s pretty much business as usual for Atreyu, which, these days, I’m honestly not sure how it is. Do kids still go out to shows to see this band or has their fanbase moved on?

-VN

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  • aidan

    damn that sucked dick

  • Tim

    Weird, I thought about this band the other day for some reason and said to myself “I bet this band would be a perfect fit for Warped Tour. I bet the type of people that go to Warped Tour probably eat this up”. I checked their website, guess what they’re doing this summer.

    • metalguy

      Mayhem Festival. whats your point.

      • mikey v

        uhhhh they’re playing the wrong fucking tour lol

        its okay. they’re gonna be my beer break

  • jackattack

    Beat, beat, beat, beat myself with a tire iron.

  • Dwarfskeet

    This intro sounds more like Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” than whatever Lacuna Coil song you posted last week.

    Other than that, never liked this band. Glad I never got into them.

    • jackattack

      Except Wasted Years fucking rules. This, however, is dog shit.

      • Dwarfskeet

        Indeed.

  • relaxiknowarchie

    I listen to Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses on a regular basis. Their older rawer sound is better.

    Nothing sounds better than a starving artist. Once they get fat and comfortable they all lose that little spark that made a person interested in them. Same applies to any of the other bands out there that people get all pissy ” they don’t sound like they use to…..”

    • Guy who makes quips and insults toward’s bands and people

      starving for cock.

    • TonyT

      “Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses”….that has got to be one of the gayest album titles I’ve ever heard. And if by “rawer” sound you mean its “raw” in the way the drummers asshole feels after his wife pounds it with her strap- on…then yes it is indeed “raw”.

  • Kuranes

    Death to False Metal.

    • Guy who makes quips and insults towards bands and people

      what are some true metal bands?

      • >_>

        One must never divulge the name of the tr00 metal bands, for as soon as those who have listened to any non tr00 metal bands listen to tr00 metal bands those bands instantly become non tr00 by association, thus making all of the previously tr00 metal lovers actually false metal lovers in the closet.

    • Snafu

      False metal? How cute… ^_^

  • orbital

    No care ever.

    • jackattack

      Van flip.

    • Seer

      band flip

      • CHUMBAWUMBA

        hair flip

  • BC

    I’m not going to defend this song because well i did not enjoy it one bit but please gentlemen learn the difference between pitch corrections and Autotune. I just watched the video and there was no autotune in the song. Pitch correction is a studio technique to help improve the pitch of a singer so it is more in sync withthe song and sounds cleaner. Autotune also known as Vocoder is a voice effect that gives a person’s voice a certain robotic quality and that creates random pitch shifts based on scales in a chosen key. For true examples of Autotune listen to Attack Attack, T-Pain and Ke$ha pitch corrections are a fairly common procedure in this music age but please quit claiming that every metalcore or pop metal or hard rock band you dislike and that sings uses autotune because that is simply not the case

    • jackattack

      This. Autotune is really easy to point out because you can hear the wrong pitch and it corrects it over the top.

      Either way, we all understand that the vox are digitally corrected. Which means it blows.

    • GoingDeaf?

      Actually…. you couldn’t be more wrong, but nice try! Autotune is indeed pitch correction software and can be used very transparently and effectively in the right hands. That is the purpose of the software… the fact that people figured out how to abuse it to make an “effect” doesn’t change that fact. Listen to Country music for a prime example of massive autotune use in it’s proper form…though still overused.

      Also, Auto-tune has ZERO similarities with a vocoder in either mechanism or concept. You should probably actually know stuff before complaining about people not knowing stuff.

      • orbital

        beat me to it.

      • shep

        this

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Vanderven/502827008 Mike Vanderven

    never liked them because there was PROOF that they ripped off darkest hour

    now? they have a different feel, things sound a bit more serious i guess

    good for them

  • Superhans

    you are spot on really with everything you say.. loved the curse and a death grip! since then they’ve just become “oh yeah that band”

  • blahblah

    god so fucking cheeseball. glad to see the stupid strums they do live during this song made it into the video

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It_XleqIDUI

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-John-Crispen/100000169530540 Jason John Crispen

    is song went from mediocre to shit the minute he opened his mouth.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-John-Crispen/100000169530540 Jason John Crispen

      this song, even

  • Jack

    “The Curse and A Deathgrip on Yesterday were solid metalcore albums”

    I don’t think I can ever listen to this guy’s opinion again.

    • Octillus

      I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with a commenter more.

      I know Metalsucks as a whole is a little bit kinder on the shitty metalcore era of 02-06, but that was the era that I had to go through high school telling people I don’t listen to crap like Atreyu, and that just because I have a fucking slayer tshirt doesn’t mean I like Bleeding Through.

      Different strokes for different folks, but I can’t abide by this guy’s opinions anymore, if only due to my own personal taste.

  • Cash Bailey

    Dogshit!

    Take the most generic chord progression in the history of recorded sound, mix it ghey-ass harmonised emo vocals and you have the new breed of mall-metal.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Adam-Conrad/738070065 Adam Conrad

    Haha, their drummer looks like Will Sasso from MadTV.

  • Mordecai 9000

    Does the world really need another M. Shadows?

  • Jizzmaster3000

    Looks like they’re running out of new bands to rip-off.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tyler-Osborn/100001135401725 Tyler Osborn

    they moved on.

  • Co1in

    I use to love atreyu, there first 2 cds were, and are awesome but after that they shit the bed, one day a few months i ago i was in best buy wondering what the shitty music one then i realized it was a new atreyu song anyone who liked there early stuff as moved.

  • ITTOA666

    The eighties were over 20 years ago. Stop trying. Fuck this band.

  • Cory

    moved on; DON’T CARE!

  • kim

    ok, ya this song does suck. but honestly i like the band, they still scream in their new album, maybe they just grew out of all their really hardcore stuff and wanted to change it up. they dont seem like sellouts to me.