Having spent the best part of the last four years on hiatus and not having released anything since 2009, you’d be forgiven for finding news of Atreyu’s return last year surprising if not a little underwhelming. However, with bands such as Of Mice And Men leading the way and plenty of newcomers eager to make an impression, Atreyu now face an even tougher time attempting to reclaim their place in a much changed metalcore scene.
Title track and album opener ‘Long Live’ certainly suggests that Atreyu’s time away has reinvigorated them, as a pummelling drumbeat and a series of jagged riffs combine with the familiar screams of Alex Varkatzas to produce an explosive start. ‘Live To Labor’ contrasts those screams with clean backing vocals and the guitar solo, seemingly ripped straight from the pages of classic metal, results in a start that is as fresh sounding as it is nostalgic.
The attempted fusing of old and new runs throughout ‘Long Live’ but it doesn’t always produce the end results that Atreyu clearly thought it would and the album quickly starts to unravel. ‘I Would Kill,Lie,Die (For You)’ not only has a terrible title, complete with clichéd use of brackets, but it also happens to be a posturing, wifebeater-wearing slab of early 00’s metalcore. It charges around aimlessly, puffing and panting until yet more nostalgic guitar work and melodic vocals come along to break things up.
The over-reliance on OTT guitar solos is grating, but the real issue is that ‘Long Live’ holds hardly any surprises. You know there will be beatdowns, guitar solos, guttural screams, and melodic choruses, and you know exactly when they will happen. Some songs such as ‘Cut Off The Head’ and ‘A Bitter Broken Memory’ are good enough for what they are, but the already pretentious lyrics sound even more so when delivered in strangulated screams that are somehow devoid of any meaningful emotion. ‘Do You Know Who You Are’ has the hand claps and stomps of ‘We Will Rock You’ but collapses under the weight of its own perceived self-importance.
It’s not until ‘Stronger Than Me’ brings things to a close that ‘Long Live’ recaptures any sense of energy. It’s a frantically paced and exciting song to end on but it’s too little too late. Elsewhere there are moments of experimentation and imagination, but aside from the semi-orchestral interlude of ‘Revival’, they are almost exclusively limited to intros and outros, or brief mid-song acoustic bridges as on ‘Start To Break’.
Pre-hiatus, there was always a nagging feeling that Atreyu were in the right place at the right time, the success of their early years aided not just by the popularity of metalcore at the time, but also by the fact that they were signed to Victory Records during the years when almost everything the label touched turned to gold. However, those days are long long gone, and Atreyu have failed to evolve or adapt in the years since. ‘Long Live’ may not plumb the depths that their infamous ‘Best Of’ collection did, but it’s as misguided as it is dated despite occasional glimpses of form.
CHRIS HILSON