While melodic metalcore outfit Atreyu have earned themselves two gold albums (2004’s “The Curse” and 2007’s “Lead Sails Paper Anchor“) and two gold singles (“Becoming The Bull” and “Falling Down“) amid their decades-long career, they’ve also accrued a heavy load of backlash. Be it their initial melding of melody with metalcore upsetting the old guard, or later distancing themselves from metalcore and leaning into so-called ‘butt rock’ in the mid-aughts, universal acclaim has eluded the band.
Outside of the various stylistic changes, there was also the 2020 departure of vocalist Alex Varkatzas to contend with that sowed further division among fans. However, the most infamous fodder served up to Atreyu‘s detractors was entirely self-inflicted. Back in 2018, Varkatzas proclaimed the band “invented” metalcore, an easily debunkable claim which he ultimately walked back years later, claiming it as a PR stunt.
That baggage is something his former bandmates ultimately inherited as Atreyu went on reconfigure their lineup with drummer/vocalist Brandon Saller stepping out from behind the kit to take on lead vocals and bassist Marc “Porter” McKnight assuming the harsher vocal aspects previously handled by Varkatzas. Since then, the group have set out to establish their latest lineup as an entity worthy of their past career highs.
Saller himself feels confident that this lineup has managed to deliver on that. In a recent interview with Sense Music Media, he shared the following assessment of Atreyu‘s live shows in 2025 [transcribed by Blabbermouth.net]:
“You can’t please everybody. Everyone has opinions and that’s fine. But I know that going into an Atreyu show now with not only myself, but the rest of the band, the work that we’ve put in and the sort of joy and excitement we get currently from being in this band, I know that we go on stage every night, and there’s no one in the crowd that can be, like, ‘That sucked. F*ck you, guys.’ Because it’s, like, okay, well, then you’re just an a**hole and you hate everything. So that was a huge eye-opening thing for me, ’cause for the first time in my career, it wasn’t just, like, ‘Oh, be good for you.’ It was, like, ‘No, no. Be good for everyone that’s not expecting you to.’ And it’s still a work in progress. I’m still learning every day.”
Saller went on to say that the group have also been working on new music as well, offering:
“We’ve been in the studio making new music too. And it’s, like, just always trying to get to the top of a mountain and see a taller mountain. That’s our whole existence these days… And it’s very much a group effort. Everything we do is decided on by all of us — I mean, to the point where we manage our own band these days. We manage ourselves and we make every decision together and we come up with every idea together, and it’s very much a unified force.”
This morning (June 03rd) saw Atreyu announce a new North American leg of their “The Curse” anniversary tour. That trek will also find the likes of Unearth, Norma Jean, Eighteen Visions and He Is Legend performing their early 00s output as well.
