Atreyu‘s recent publicity stunt for their latest single “Dead” apparently stirred up a lot of interest for the melodic metalcore band. Ahead of revealing that track, the group began sharing somewhat vague insinuations of their demise online.
However, not everything with the rollout went in the band’s favor, as the various shows they already had booked prior to the campaign remained in play, and the band were even confirmed for 2026’s ‘Sonic Temple” just hours after posting their ‘obituary’. Speaking recently with Sultans Of Slack at last weekend’s ‘Louder Than Life‘ festival, the band’s vocalist Brandon Saller explained the thought process behind the stunt:
“Me and Porter [Atreyu vocalist/bassist Marc McKnight] kind of came up with that idea of doing that as the [‘Dead‘] rollout. And we thought, okay, this is a possibility that people might think we’re breaking up. But we were, like, common sense would say, ‘They’ve been a band for 27 years. They’re probably not gonna break up with just a black photo and ‘R.I.P.” [But] no — it was wildfire.
People were sending us stressed out, crisis-mode DMs — worldwide. We had a dude in Japan send us like DMs in Japanese and then translated in English. [It was, like], ‘Please, don’t let [it be true]. You can’t [break up].’ And we wanted to say something, but then you just can’t. But it was wildfire. There was a lot that happened with that rollout that I didn’t expect. But it worked. I mean, at the end of the day, it worked. People were, like, ‘Man, it’s fucking stupid.’ It’s, like, ‘Well, were you talking about it?’ ‘Yeah’. ‘Point in case.'”
He added:
“In this day and age, it’s hard to get people’s attention, unfortunately, [with] a band just being, like, ‘Hey, we have a new song.’ But if you’re, like, ‘We may or may not be breaking up,’ they might listen more. And it makes sense. With a song called ‘Dead‘, what are the options for promotion? There’s only a few things we could have done here… We’re far from breaking up. We have at least another six months. [Laughs]”
Past attempts at generating publicity by Atreyu haven’t gone over so well. Back in 2018, then co-vocalist Alex Varkatzas boldly claimed that he and his bandmates had “invented metalcore.” In 2023, he would eventually walkback those claims, stating he was, “…chopping the water, trying to make business for… You know at the time Atreyu wasn’t exactly killing it. So, you got a new record coming out, you gotta get a little resourceful.
[via Blabbermouth.net]
