Long Live专辑介绍
Reactivated Southern California metallers ATREYU will release their comeback album, "Long Live", on September 18 through the Search And Destroy imprint as part of the newly announced joint venture between Raw Power Management and Spinefarm.
In the six years since their last album, "Congregation of the Damned", metalcore favorites ATREYU took a sabbatical from each other to devote time to family and new projects such as I AM WAR, FAKE FIGURES and HELL OR HIGHWATER. Guitarist Travis Miguel did a stint with TRAPT a couple years ago until all of the ATREYU members decided to reunite, delivering a free song to their fans at YouTube, "So Others May Live". The same song was sent out as a 1,000-copy vinyl release last year for Record Store Day with another new song on the flipside, "When the Day is Done". Gaining positive feedback as their indicator for a comeback, ATREYU went all out, leading to their sixth full-length, "Long Live".
From the first "go" uttered by Alex Varkatzas on the title track, ATREYU lets it rip with a brisk pound on the verses. They make no bones they're still a metalcore act as the breakdowns manifest and Varkatzas volleys his squelchy yelps with drummer and clean singer Brandon Saller. "Live to Labor" thereafter plants down the pedal through its popping verses. As with the opening number, the breakdown arrives at the expected spot and the choruses rain with engulfing harmony. The saving grace to the predictability of these songs is they're delivered to perfection. The ATREYU guys have worked this game so many times and played so many venues, they readily fall into rhythm and their sparkling, on-the-dime performances make up for their obviousness on the early tracks. Thankfully, ATREYU have a lot of other cards to play as "Long Live" rolls on.
The slower strokes of "I Would Kill_Lie_Die (For You)" gives ATREYU the opportunity to show off some dynamics as Marc McKnight plugs his bass with a tenacious hum and the band trails overtop with sky-high choruses. "Cut Off the Head" continues the trend of its predecessor by wielding a mid-tempo, punchy groove on the verses, even if the mounting choruses sound very little different than those on the prior tracks. To the plus, Brandon Saller hits some magnificent pitches on those choruses. The laborious breakdowns here are unnecessary, however, considering the strength of the primary riffs were enough to carry the song themselves.
ATREYU drummer and clean vocalist Brandon Saller recently told Australia's Music Feeds about the band's upcoming CD: "We're stoked. It came out great. We're very much just shooting from the hip with this record, and whatever came out first is what we did. [Vocalist] Alex [Varkatzas] is fucking as brutal as ever. And it's fun. It's a very fun, cool record."
Regarding frontman Alex Varkatzas's decision to do away with clean singing on ATREYU's forthcoming effort, Saller said: "Here's the thing. When we started the band, we were a hardcore band, and we wanted to progress and do… We always wanted to do bigger, better, bigger, better, bigger, better… every [album we released] at the time. And when we did [2007's] 'Lead Sails Paper Anchor', it was, like, 'What's our next step?' We've gotten as big as a hardcore band can get, I think. What's the next step? So we were, like, 'Cool. Let's fucking do whatever the fuck we want. So we wrote a bunch of rock songs. A lot of heavy songs, a lot of rock songs… It was just an expansion of Alex wanting to do something different, and us wanting to do something different."
He continued: "We did 'Lead Sails', and it was a fucking really great record, and it sold a lot of records and it opened our band up to radio, opened our band up to tour with a lot of different bands we never would have before, and it was fun for us. But I think everyone loves their comfort zone and everyone just loves what they do, and it was kind of, like, 'It was rad to write this record and it was cool to tour it,' and whatever, but 'I just wanna get there and fucking be pissed and go fucking apeshit.' And we love that about him too. So I think going away for a while and not being in this band and coming back and being able to think about what you love most about the band… I mean, those were conversations that we had… Like, what do we love most? What's out strong suit? What do we feel most comfortable doing? 'Cause that's what we wanna do, 'cause that's the most fun. So I think, for him, he was, like, 'I just wanna fucking come out and rip people's heads off.' So it was, like, 'All right. Cool. You don't wanna sing? You don't sing. That's how we started. I'll sing. And you just fucking go nuts.' And everyone's stoked on it. And he's doing different shit. He's doing a lot of different stuff on the new record — different shit he's never done before. But it's brutal. It's fucking awesome."