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Since they muscled their way onto the Orange County metal scene in 1998, Atreyu have sold over a million albums by constantly challenging themselves and their audiences with charged music and acrobatic performances that both have pushed the boundaries of catharsis and emotional exorcism. But even those who have grown used to the unexpected from Atreyu will be blown away by the musical growth, determination and depth of the band’s Hollywood Records debut Lead Sails Paper Anchor. Embracing new styles of singing and playing, a previously unexplored level of melodicism and a genre-shattering range of instrumentation – including Turkish saz, trumpets, strings, piano, opera vocals and pedal steel guitar – Atreyu have created an exultant disc that expands the parameters of heavy music and unabashedly exposes the band members’ love of ‘80s metal, thrash, industrial, hardcore, alternative and even alt-country.
At the same time, Atreyu have written some of the heaviest, most brutal tracks of their career. “Can’t Happen Here” starts with the sound of machine guns, helicopters and screaming children, then breaks into a marching snare beat before bursting into a melodic mix of raging vocals, abrupt rhythmic shifts and a trademark Atreyu monster hook refrain. And just try to find progressions as driving and pounding as “Becoming The Bull”, “Honor” and “Doomsday.” “We wanted to push everything about the band further than ever,” explains drummer and songwriter Brandon Saller. “We wanted the heavy parts to be as heavy as anything we’ve done, and at the same time we wanted to go full force with ideas we’ve never even approached.” “It’s totally us, but it comes from a musically more mature place,” adds singer Alex Varkatzas. “You can really hear us pushing ourselves to make everything as good as we possibly could.”
The first single from the album, "Becoming The Bull," kicks off with a monster guitar groove and stomping beat before shifting into a turbo-charged chorus. Then, mid-song, the band explores dynamics with a soft, atmospheric passage that builds into a horrific scream and another pummeling groove. "That song is about the struggle of every day life and trying to deal with it and get your shit together," Varkatzas says. "Life is all about good and bad and it's important to realize that in order to keep your sanity." "When we finished the demo for that song, we were all amazed," Saller says. "It's so different for us, but it's so cool, and it was the first indication that this record was going to be everything we wanted it to be."
The most adventurous song on Lead Sails Paper Anchor is “Falling Down,” which begins with a shuffling beat and a near-rockabilly riff that builds in intensity until it bursts in a chorus of blaring horns and harmonized vocals, then launches into space with a blazing metal solo. “We were doing whatever we felt like the whole time, and at one point I went, ‘Dude, I really want some horns somewhere on the record,’” says Varkatzas. “I really like bands like Rocket From the Crypt. So we put them in there and they’re tight and punchy and really help keep the song interesting.”
Another curveball comes on “Lead Sails (and a Paper Anchor)” a blend of alt-country, pop and flamboyant hard rock that features pedal steel guitar, plucked strings and sweeping, dramatic vocals. “I think I’ve always wanted to do a country ballad,” Saller says. “We did everything we wanted to accomplish on this album. It’s leaps and bounds from where we were. This is us saying loud and clear that we can and will write and do whatever feels good to us.”
One thing that’s always felt good to Atreyu is ‘80s metal, and on Lead Sails Paper Anchor they indulge themselves like never before – especially on “Blow,” in which the band pays homage to the excesses of ‘80s metal and bands like Motley Crue (Buckcherry's Josh Todd provides guest vocals on the track). “It has been a long time since someone made a big, epic hard rock song, and that one definitely came from [guitarist] Dan [Jacobs],” Saller says. “He has always been big time into ‘80s rock and metal and this time we took that stuff and made it bigger than life.”
Just as surprising as the eclecticism of the songs is Varkatzas’ growth as a singer. His expanded singing techniques – harsh and melodic, brash and snotty, tunefully melancholy -- effectively bridge the band’s previous blend of corrosive howls and tuneful crooning. “I was screaming for three records straight, and it was time to bring in some new elements,” Varkatzas says. “I did that a little bit on our last album A Death-Grip on Yesterday, but I didn’t have the right tools. For this, I worked hard and practiced my ass off. I don’t have god given talent. My talent is in my determination. I’ll just try fucking hard and suck at something for a while until I finally get it right.”
Some of the riffs on Lead Sails Paper Anchor were written when Atreyu were on last year’s Ozzfest and others came on the bus during headline dates. But the majority of the songwriting took place last December and January after Atreyu got off the road. “I made it a point to sit down and write every single day,” says Saller. “Whether it was a single riff a full song or nothing of importance, I just came up with as much as I could.” By the time Atreyu began preproduction in March with producer John Feldmann, the band had the skeletons for 20 songs. They fleshed out the tunes together with acoustic guitars over 12 to 15 hour days, then recorded the tracks in full electric form. “He was the most hands on dude we’ve ever worked with, which was really cool” Varkatzas says. “We’re not the kind of band that needs someone to write out parts, but John really helped us with our structuring and figuring out what worked and what didn’t.”
Atreyu named the record Lead Sails Paper Anchor after an acoustic-based ballad Varkatzas wrote about feeling homesick on the road – a condition the singer likened to sailors being adrift at sea “The image just came to me,” he says. “With lead sails, a ship wouldn’t be able to move and then a paper anchor would be completely useless. And sometimes that’s how I feel on tour until we get onstage – completely useless and shitty because my heart’s at home.” While Lead Sails Paper Anchor resounds with the band’s most triumphant melodies to date, Varkatzas’ lyrics are harsh and sobering, born from a year of family trauma, personal struggle and a desperate yearning to cope with anxiety, depression and pain. “This record took place at an even more turbulent time in my life than the last one, but it’s a different kind of turbulence,” Varkatzas explains. “There’s no girlfriend crying songs here. This is about real shit. So it’s a much more grown up record in that sense.”
“Blow” addressees Atreyu’s tenacity in the face of adversity (“What they say won’t make us go away”), “Becoming The Bull” is about self-examination and self-control and “Can’t Happen Here” is about the U.S. government’s policy of intervention abroad. “That song really stands out because it’s somewhat political, which we don’t usually do. But we’re in another country and our armed troops are going around knocking on the doors of citizens and asking to search their houses for weapons, and it’s something I wanted to write about. If that happened in America, people would be fighting back. And much love and respect to the troops who have got a fucking hard job to have to go over there and do that. It’s not against them at all. But how long will it take before everyone hates us? It just breaks my heart.”
“Doomsday”, the title of which could also be about war, is, perhaps, the most personal song on the record for Varkatzas. It addresses the feelings of helplessness and frustration that he suffered when his grandfather died while Atreyu was on tour. “We were in Baltimore, and my phone was in the front lounge of the bus getting charged,” recalls the singer. “So, I woke up and went to get my phone to find out where the nearest gym was, and I saw that I had missed a call from my mom. So, I called her back and she said my grandpa was dying. He was on life support and I wouldn’t be able to make it back in time. We had been extremely close and I couldn’t even be there to say goodbye. It was pretty much the shittiest thing ever.”
Since the band formed they have battled uncooperative clubs, unsupportive labels and an Orange County music scene they never fit in with and emerged victorious. Atreyu’s roots stretch back to 1997 when Varkatzas and Jacobs met in PE class in junior high school and started talking about music. It wasn’t long before they were jamming (with Varkatzas on bass and vocals). They tried out various drummers before Varkatzas friend Ryan Saller suggested they play with his younger brother Brandon. Though they were initially reluctant because of the age difference, they gave it a shot and found their chemistry together was strong so they formed the hardcore band Retribution. Two years later Varkatzas opted to just sing and the band hired another bassist. They would go through a couple more before Marc McKnight joined in 2004. After years of gigging, Atreyu released their debut EP, Fractures in the Façade of Your Porcelain Beauty in 2001 – the same year they added second guitarist Travis Miguel. When Victory Records heard the record, they immediately signed Atreyu.
The band’s first full-length, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, which featured three songs from the EP and seven new tunes, came out in 2002 and attracted legions to the band’s mix of crushing noise and soaring melody. Atreyu fine-tuned their sound for 2004’s adrenalized The Curse, which included more references to Scandinavian melodic death metal and more effective vocal exchanges between Varkatzas and Saller, and sold nearly 400,000 copies. Then came 2006’s A Death-Grip on Yesterday, on which the band ramped up the melodies, varied their arrangements and tightened their attack. The disc reached No. 9 on the Billboard album chart and was praised by Revolver, who, in a cover story described the disc as showcasing “lots of thrash riffs, hardcore rhythms and lacerating howls, but featuring even more sinewy guitar melodies and ‘80s metal solos.” The album fulfilled Atreyu’s contract with Victory.
Soon after, the band signed with Hollywood and celebrated by headlining the second stage of Ozzfest. But that was the past, and while the band has enjoyed the success it has worked so hard to achieve, it’s the future that Atreyu are the most excited about. “This really feels like a new beginning for us,” Saller says. “We’re actually at a label that believes in our band and trusts our instincts. So we didn’t hold back anything this time. We wanted to give it everything we had. This is 100 percent Atreyu and that’s what we’ll always be.”