ATREYU's New Music Is 'Nothing Short Of Incredible'

Reactivated Southern California metallers ATREYU will release their first material in five years through the Search And Destroy imprint as part of the newly announced joint venture between Raw Power Management and Spinefarm.

"We're truly excited for this union," said ATREYU drummer Brandon Saller. "Signing with Spinefarm/Search And Destroy will truly allow us to create without restraint. We are looking forward to the future."

Raw Power's vice president Matt Ash concurred, saying, "Raw Power is proud to be representing ATREYU for management worldwide and we're very excited to move forward with the guys in this fresh chapter of their career."

"We are beyond excited to welcome ATREYU to the Spinefarm Records roster," said Spinefarm director of A&R Darren Dalessio. "As one of the pioneering artists of the metalcore movement, it's very exciting to see this new album take shape. The new music they are crafting is nothing short of incredible, and there is a real passion and fire within the band right now that is undeniable. We couldn't be happier to be a part of this next chapter of ATREYU's already impressive storied career. Expect great things to come in 2015!"

In a recent interview with Australia's Music Feeds, Saller stated about how ATREYU decided to get back together and start working on new music again: "I think it was probably six to eight months ago, we kind of just started talking again. It started coming up a year and a half ago, and it just wasn't right. So we started more seriously talking about it and decided that we wanted to dip our toes back in and inch our way back into playing again. It really felt right for all of us and with the state of the music world right now, it felt like a good time to do that."

He continued: "It was funny because a lot of people had speculation and were talking about a lot of stuff with [the celebration of the tenth anniversary of ATREYU's second album] 'The Curse', and I think that a lot people just expected maybe some 'Curse' shows to come up when we first [announced] we were coming back. And that definitely came up, but it was the kind of thing where we just felt like making music again more than anything. So it started as kind of a… The idea for that turned into having more interest in making more music. We started writing again and jamming and went into the studio with Fred Archambault, [whom] I've done stuff with with my band HELL OR HIGHWATER; he's just a great producer and engineer. So we went into the studio and recorded some music, just to see how it felt. So we went from there and announced a couple of shows here in the States. Everything's kind of fallen into place in a pretty special way, so it's a lot of fun right now."

Speaking about the direction of the new ATREYU material, Saller said: "It's hard to say. One of my favorite records that we've ever made is [2007's] 'Lead Sails Paper Anchor'. I love that record. I feel like where ATREYU is most like ATREYU should be is somewhere in the middle of 'The Curse' and [2006's] 'A Death-Grip On Yesterday' era. And I feel like the new stuff we're writing doesn't sound like that at all. It's a total reincarnation of my band and it's fucking as heavy as can be and as aggressive as can be, and it's definitely a punch in the face for heavy music in general. But we weren't really focusing on what era or what kind of record we should go back to and try to emulate, it was just, like, 'Let's give a hundred percent of everything that's inside of us that we need to get out.' I think it's blistering. We're stoked."

Vocalist Alex Varkatzas had this to say about ATREYU's recently released new song "So Others May Live": "'So Others May Live' is inspired by one of my best friends, who is ex-military. The things our troops go through to protect us are pretty unreal. Their treatment after leaves a lot to be desired, as well."

He continued, "The song honors them and condemns our government's constant deployment of these brave souls. The people who fight and die for us often come from a certain socio-economic background — the working class. The people making these decisions to send our nation's children to war come from positions of privilege and wealth; their kids aren't the ones getting deployed and they aren't risking their lives every day at work. Yet they order the working class to go 'keep us safe' at the drop of a hat, it feels like. It's bullshit. It's the politicians and the rich of this country waging war to keep the majority pre-occupied, so they can make money and advance their bullshit political agendas. The expense is 'expendable' working class/poor Americans' lives, never the rich."