ATREYU Frontman Says They Were Invited To Take Part In OZZFEST 2006

ATREYU frontman Alex Varkatzas recently spoke to MTV.com about the group's upcoming third album, "A Deathgrip on Yesterday", due on March 28, 2006 via Victory Records. The follow-up to 2004's "The Curse" was produced by Josh Abraham (STAIND, COAL CHAMBER) and is a mere nine songs long

"Every song is different and stands alone," Varkatzas told MTV.com. "It's its own little thing. Maybe there's not a whole bunch of singles on there, but it's nine entertaining songs that we worked as hard as we could on. We've redone and rethought and rewrote, lyrically and musically, [the album] several times. We're pretty hard on ourselves. So I hope people can appreciate the end product. We're just trying to be honest with our music. We can only do what comes naturally to us."

The singer said several of the lyrics were inspired by relationships — such as on the song "Ex's and Oh's". "That song's more about ex-girlfriends and sex than it is hugs and kisses," Varkatzas said. "I listen to a lot of [the 'Deathgrip' songs] now, and it hurts to listen to them because they're about such a personal time in my life and about all this pain I went through. And for me, to listen to it, I get the urge to cry a little. It's so weird — the songs hit me like that."

The singer said ATREYU will mull over the invite they've received for the 2006 edition of Ozzfest between now and the new album's release They're also looking forward to the Taste of Chaos trek, which kicks off February 16 in San Diego and features THRICE, DEFTONES, AS I LAY DYING, PELICAN, DREDG and others. He said the band is prepared for whatever response the new material gets.

"Bands like MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and FALL OUT BOY, those bands enjoying more success just helps bands like ATREYU," he said. "It's like trickle-down success for us. The more popular and acceptable those bands become, to a much smaller extent, bands like us become."

ATREYU recently shot a video for the track "Her Portrait in Black", which was written during the "A Deathgrip on Yesterday" sessions but will not appear on the upcoming album. The video for the song, which will be included on the soundtrack to the film "Underworld: Evolution" (due January 10 via Lakeshore Records),was directed by Rob Schroeder (THE POSTAL SERVICE, BREAKING BENJAMIN),who teamed up with cinematographer Lukas Ettlin ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning", QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE's "Little Sister", MARILYN MANSON's "Personal Jesus"). Performance footage of ATREYU rocking will be intercut with footage from the movie; the resulting video will match the look of the movie and feature shots from all aspects of the film.