Review Summary: A varied experience that continues to show Atreyu's progression and maturity from album to album.
They're not typical radio emo, or screamo, despite what their album titles and song titles may lead you to believe. They're Atreyu. And like it or not, they are one of the most influential and popular metalcore acts, and easily the most accessible for mainstream rock listeners. Outside of their
Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses album, Atreyu manages to be a lot like a harder mainstream rock band that screams; but still keeps the traditional charm of a metalcore band. They're not as hard as bands like Killswitch Engage, but they manage to attract loyal and dedicated fans courtesy of their furious screams courtesy of Alex Varkatzas and the unique and always distinguishable singing vocals courtesy of drummer Brandon Saller.
Atreyu is often wrongly the center of criticism in their genre; quite simply because they are the most mainstream and easily accessible metalcore band. That shouldn't be a bad thing; they're already the biggest metalcore band, and would be a metal legend if they could get metalcore into the mainstream. They are one of my favorite bands, and its fun to listen to their progression from the screaming-heavy heavy metal influenced
Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses; emo influenced
The Curse, and mainstream rock influenced
A Death-Grip on Yesterday. Atreyu is also perhaps the only metalcore band I know of that has had their single featured prominently on a new rock radio station as well. So what makes this band so 'unlikeable'?
The album is a varied experience; there's plenty of the aggressive metalcore anthems filled with screaming and heavy metal guitar riffs like the aggressive and angry opener
Creature which barely features any of Saller's singing and mostly is dominated by Alex Varkatzas's aggressive vocals.
Our Sick Story is pretty reliant on Varkatzas's screaming attack as well; Saller doesn't do much vocal work until the chorus. The guitars sound a lot like Killswitch Engage in this song, and the song feels heavy metal even though Brandon Saller does sing in parts. Or you've got
We Stand Up which feels a bit 'punk' with its fast tempo driven by the drums, and Varkatzas screaming with the beat really fast and Saller joining in with him at points. The song feels really fast, and so does
Your Private War which is reminiscent of older Atreyu; where Varkatzas dominates the song for the most part with his aggressive screaming vocals.
The two singers seem to switch off on songs; each dominating another on one song.
Shameful kicks off with a relentless guitar riff and Saller takes over most of the song; and sings to a catchy rhythm before Varkatzas screams 'just to keep up appearances' or to add to Saller's vocals.
The Theft shows their emo influences; as the song starts out really slow and different than a traditional Atreyu song; with a light-hearted guitar riff and Saller singing almost all by himself before the song picks up into a fast, and a bit louder chorus where he sings. Varkatzas's aggressive screaming is almost completely absent, except for a few sections in the chorus; which makes the song seem like just a traditional mainstream rock anthem.
Ex's and Oh's is where Atreyu got their popularity from-its a nice mix of mainstream rock and metalcore; featuring a nice trade-off of Brandon Saller's vocals and Alex Varkatzas's aggressive screaming vocals. The song's guitar riffs aren't as angry, furious and fast as their traditional guitar riffs, it seems like a 'dubbed down' metalcore anthem. Its easily metalcore's most accessible song, but that doesn't make it a bad song; its one of Atreyu's best. Just as you think every song on this album is great, a song like
My Fork in the Road (Your Knife in my Back) comes along and kills the tempo the album had going. The song starts off with a traditional Atreyu riff before screaming ensues into an overly boring chorus which sounds and feels a lot like a cheap emo-wannabe's anthem.
Untitled Finale ends this album with a kick, as its made up of different sections; all which features different guitar riffs and verses, and Varkatzas and Brandon Saller exchanging the microphone into a very, very good finale.
By the end, you can figure out easily that this is a band that would have been a traditional rock band if not for Alex Varkatzas's aggressive vocals; but they're still an excellent band that can vary their sound in their albums and that progresses and matures in a way that not many bands can. They experiment with different styles and sounds, and their unique infusion of metalcore, traditional rock, and emo makes a truly astonishing band that has the potential to continue to make a groundbreaking album one of these releases; it seems as if
A Death-Grip on Yesterday came close, but ended up barely missing the mark.
DOWNLOAD:
Shameful
We Stand Up
Ex's and Oh's
Untitled Finale
