You know how sometimes people do something and you think, ‘Why did the bother doing that?’ well this album is a clear-cut case of the above. For some reason, Atreyu have gone ahead and put out a FIFTH album and, I have to say, I hate it. The album starts promisingly enough with some ludicrous but fun Manowar-esque guitar-noodlery but as soon as the faux-husky vocal kicks in, you release nothing has changed since Atreyu ‘burst’ onto the scene in 2002 with their debut album ‘Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses’.
It’s not just that the songs are rubbish, this is an album that doesn’t even know what kind of album it wants to be. The songs jump from Jonathan Davies-esque ‘Rap’ to Power Pop choruses, Thrash and Nu-metal that would be embarrassing to behold on a computer game soundtrack. Now, I’m all for a little diversity in music; anyone who’s innovative doesn’t stick to one sound and style and why should they? But when you’re piecing an album together of a mish-mash of styles based on what each individual band member wants to do on their instrument you just end up with a mess of duelling guitar-laden tosh.
From the clichéd, unnecessary and overly-emphasised swearing (‘We. Spread. Like. A. FUCK. ING. DIS. EASE!’ etc.) to the horrendously insistent ‘Emo’ track titles, the whole album leaves an unpleasant, cheese-tinged taste in my mouth. If you like your metal big, anthemic and at least reasonably relevant, get stuck into some Killswitch Engage.
Now five albums into their career, let’s hope they get the picture soon before someone suggests that a Greatest Hits album would be a good idea…
Rob Hurst