Atreyu hails from Orange County, California and started out by releasing a demo called "Visions" in 1998 and then released this E.P. that is called "Fractures In The Facade Of Your Porcelain Beauty". Then they proceeded to release the full length "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses" after signing to Victory, which included the songs that are found on their E.P. After that they released "The Curse" in the year 2004, two years after that came "A Death Grip On Yesterday". Other than "Visions" I"ve heard everything Atreyu has done. It seems that they are progressively getting worse instead of better. "The Curse" was over polished and basic metalcore with singing added. It seemed like a strange attempt at Goth Metal even though it comes nowhere close. Most call "A Death Grip On Yesterday" a massive improvement over anything else the band has done, but it just seems cheesier than any of their music from before. This brings me to "Fractures In The Fa"ade Of Your Porcelain Beauty EP", which is one of the worst album titles to ever exist. It"s Atreyu at the best, which doesn"t really even go past decent. It"s metalcore at its simplest, but is actually pleasurable at different points. The poorer production here actually doesn"t make it as faux as that of "The Curse".
The worst thing about Atreyu though is Alex Varkatzas and Brandon Saller"s vocals. Alex"s scream here truly does sound like throwing up. Some songs seem at first like they could be great, but whenever he enters any contrived pleasure from the song is eliminated.
"Tulips Are Better" is a prime example of that. It starts out nicely enough with a very melodic guitar sweep and whispering in the background, but then Alex comes in the nice little mood that had lasted for but a few seconds is gone. Brandon"s clean singing is basically whiny drivel that, combined with poor production, makes his vocal parts seem like a joke. It could even be said that he"s just talking for the most part instead of even singing. Halfway through
"Taking Back Every Word I Said" the band attempt to go into an interlude where Brandon basically talks. The chorus is even worse where he is barely audible, but is still loud enough to be insistently annoying and it gets worse when the music stops completely and he"s the only one left who is active to close out the song. Guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel are one of the few things that this band has been able to both positively and consistently offer. The licks, riffs, and solos here are very strong and pleasant to here. The opening riff of
"A Letter To Someone Like You" immediately delivers a punch to the eardrums and progresses nicely to the point where Alex and Brandon"s vocals don"t really interfere. There isn"t a lot of "flash" on here and in a way it"s better than solos appearing in every song because it seems that Atreyu wrote better-structured songs in the past then compared to the present.
The majority of the five songs are below average, but the first song,
"Living Each Day Like You"re Already Dead", is easily the best and actually somewhat of high quality. The vocals from Alex aren"t too shabby, despite showing some weakness during a few parts. The drumming is very cool and the guitars add a nice melody to the overall song surprisingly. However, the backup singing from Brandon ruins different sections of the song, but that is the only real downside. All four other songs each have a decent beginning to each song, but tend to fall victim to repetitiveness and parts that are supposed to be a chorus become a horrid mess thanks to the backup singing from Brandon.
Even though this EP is eighteen-minutes in length it is still more enjoyable than "The Curse", or "A Death Grip On Yesterday". Any material the band has made will usually either hit, or miss and not work to go down, or up. "Fractures In The Fa"ade of Your Porcelain Beauty" is exactly like that. With poor vocals from both Alex and Brandon, the only thing that manages to standout are the guitarists. For metalcore this is quite good, but still isn"t that impressive overall.
Pros:
+The two guitarists
+Underproduction makes it not seem as artificial as "The Curse"
Cons
-Alex"s screaming
-Brandon"s singing
-Repetitive
