Atreyu - The Curse

As the next revolution in hard music takes hold, Atreyu has been thrust into the forefront of a movement that now seems destined to antiquate nu metal. The runaway success of Atreyu’s debut album “Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses” has labeled them both innovators and leaders of a movement that fuses the driving rage of hardcore, the emotional breakdowns of emo, and retro guitar-hero style shredding. This new formula has taken hold with an emerging generation of metalheads, openly rejecting not only lighter musings of emo rock, but also their older brother’s rap-rock schlock and nu metal pop. So reads a bit of horn tooting that accompanies the promo copy of Atreyu’s The Curse. Atreyu do fuse hardcore, emo and 80’s metal, but that is the extent of truth in the above paragraph. The Curse is no more revolutionary than the new line of Chevys. Following a repeating trend, they are simply mixing a handful of already popular musical styles while circumventing the point of each. The shouted verses, cleanly sung choruses, and driving guitars do little to elevate Atreyu’s music above anything out there right now. When sung, Alex Varkatzas’ vocals do sound good, but when shouted they far too often sound like the second letter of every word is a “w” (try it aloud, you’ll see what I mean). This wears thin rather quickly, and the backing music and songwriting are too run-of-the-mill to save the day. “Bleeding Mascara” features some impressive finger tapped guitar runs, which are curiously absent from the rest of the album. “Right Side of the Bed” only differs from hair metal in its vocal approach, and “The Crimson” makes an early attempt at melody that inevitably falls back onto the same old shout/sing/break-down/build-up formula. Atreyu admittedly takes from others but gives back nothing of real value. You can’t ask every band to be completely revolutionary, but when borrowing from others, a little imagination goes a long way. The only way their “movement” will antiquate nu metal is by replacing it as the current bad idea. [www.atreyurock.com]