Atreyu

A Deathgrip On Yesterday

[4/5] By 2006 standards, Atreyu’s third album almost isn’t an album at all. At nine songs, 32 minutes and nary an ounce of fat, A Deathgrip On Yesterday is closer to an EP-which, really, is less a statement on this Southern California quintet’s creativity than it is on how CD and iPod capacity have allowed bands to max out every available second of their albums, regardless of whether we’re interested. That A Deathgrip On Yesterday-the follow-up to Atreyu’s 2004 mainstream breakout, The Curse-is so tightly reined in also speaks well of the band’s improved songwriting chops. True, Deathgrip is undeniably Atreyu-a bloody, 10-car pileup of gothic rock, emotional hardcore and internationally flavored metal-but here more than ever, Atreyu aren’t wasting space on “scene band” signifiers (an At The Gates harmony lead here, a crowd-pleasing breakdown there). Instead, with an epic sound that often finds them eclipsing AFI and Pantera via late-’80s Ozzy Osbourne, they sound like a bullet through the heart of everyone’s scene.



Deathgrip’s opener, “Creature,” literally sets the pace for the eight songs that follow; its chugging, midtempo groove is also the first thing that’ll strike anyone expecting the typical galloping Atreyu opener (see The Curse’s “Bleeding Mascara” or “A Song For The Optimists” from 2002’s Suicide Notes And Butterfly Kisses). Even the faster-paced songs-“We Stand Up,” “My Fork In The Road (Your Knife In My Back)” and the midnight-black “Our Sick Story (Thus Far)”-encourage headbanging in good old 4/4 time; and though it’s a subtle shift, the move away from Swedish metal’s gallop also pushes Atreyu way out in front of their At The Gates-worshiping peers. Of course, it’s also one of the traits about Deathgrip that’ll most bum out those fans still waiting for a “proper” (i.e., carbon-copied) follow-up to Suicide Notes. But if you haven’t figured out these guys are aiming for a bigger sound by now, you might want to try cleaning your ears.



That’s not to say there’s nothing here for fans to latch onto: The screaming-singing vocal team of front-throat Alex Varkatzas and drummer Brandon Saller has never sounded stronger. The lyrics are as darkly romantic as ever, with the vocalists’ “me” alternately pining for and cursing out the ex-as-psychic-vampire “you.” And the mid-album screamo power ballad (“The Theft,” arguably one of the best songs Atreyu have ever written) is right where it should be. Still, when you consider what isn’t there, you realize how much Atreyu have grown over the past few years. And assuming you can distance yourself far enough from the scene rulebook to take in Deathgrip objectively, you’ll realize how unafraid they finally are to defy expectations.
(VICTORY) Aaron Burgess



ROCKS LIKE: Trivium’s Ascendancy • AFI’s Sing The Sorrow • From Autumn To Ashes’ Abandon Your Friends