Posted: February 26th, 2008
Contributed By: Nick

	Purchase @ iTunes Release Date: September 27th, 2007 via Hollywood
	Atreyu is: Alex Varkatzas (Vocals) Dan Jacobs (Guitar) Travis Miguel (Guitar) Mark McKnight (Bass) Brandon Saller (Drums)

Overview: Back in 2004, the over saturated genre that is known as “screamo” or “metalcore” was, in essence, hitting its stride in present day mainstream popularity, and Orange County’s Atreyu were penciling themselves in as one of its titans. After receiving accolades and securing a cult following after their 2002 debut for Victory Records, ‘Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses‘ , Atreyu dropped its sophomore effort in 2004’s ‘The Curse‘. Backed heavily by the resurgent Headbanger’s Ball’s spinning of the video for the album’s song “Right Side of the Bed”, Atreyu saw ‘The Curse‘ move more than 300,000 copies, and earned them “Warped Tour celebrity status” to boot. The band returned in 2006 with ‘A Death Grip on Yesterday‘, an album which slid under the radar and signaled an end to Atreyu’s run with Victory Records. The quintet was approached by Hollywood Records soon after, and inked the band to a deal in early 2007. Atreyu convened in the studio with producer John Feldmann (City Sleeps, The Used) and tracked their Hollywood debut, ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘, which was released last September.

The Good: For those of you who are familiar with the Atreyu of old and have yet to listen to their latest offering, brace yourself-this is not the Atreyu you may have come to love. Yes, the band has evolved, changed, matured, and cleaned up their sound, but the band has definitely not gone to shit. One listen to the premier cut of ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘, the destructive blow “Doomsday,” emanates the trademark energy and ferocity that has helped put Atreyu on the map. If “Doomsday” fails to get you moving, then leave it to the tough guy hardcore inspired chants of “Honor” to force you out of your seat; once standing, you won’t be still for long, as “Honor” is followed by the groovy and ebullient “Falling Down”, a song that will have you shaking in moments. “Becoming the Bull” is deceptively hooky and driving, and made a great “tease” of a first single, and Atreyu shows teeth in “When Two Are One”, a high octane shred conjoined fluently to soaring choruses, bulking up the song’s impact. Atreyu prove their ability to go pop without batting an eye in the next two cuts, the blood soaked “Lose It” and the infectious “No One Cares”, which will have you returning for another taste more than once. ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘ does its best impersonation of ‘The Curse‘ with the truculent “Can’t Happen Here”, while Atreyu takes Panic At The Disco and gives it some testosterone with the 80’s bounce of “Slow Burn”. The disc’s final two songs are unflinching, with the raunchy and raw “Blow” opening the door for “Lead Sails (And A Paper Anchor)”, a sensitive and heart heavy ballad dripping with dynamic eloquence that sums up the album succinctly. ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘ proves the diverse nature of Atreyu’s writing and musicianship, as the band brazenly steps outside the box and tries their hand at a potpourri of styles.

The Bad: Let’s just get it out of the way-no, this is not the Atreyu of old. I too was expecting a continuation of the band’s blistering, pugnacious repertoire, and while they still flex their muscle, Atreyu does seem somewhat gunshy at moments where they would normally fire a bullet. Some of the songs off ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘ seem to mirror each other (see “Honor” vs. “Becoming the Bull”), making the album grow weary after a handful of listens. While much of the aforementioned was the standard fare “what’s wrong with the album?” stuff, I have two real gripes about ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘, with the first being the band’s leaning on this chant-inspired, fist-pumping arena archetype that can be found in a majority of the songs; on the first few go arounds, said effect gives the music a towering, beefed up sound, but after awhile the chants and stomps become overly predictable and sound more cheesy than they do juiced. My major complaint about this album is the blatant overproduction of John Feldmann, as ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘ sounds downright robotic and computer processed far too often and makes some of the music sound overly disjointed, killing any good groove or vibe going (see The Used’s ‘Lies for the Liars‘ for a PERFECT example of what I’m talking about…).

Bottomline: ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘ is Atreyu-believe it. The sad part is, most people have been, and will, write this album off as the band “selling out” (how old are we?) or reaching for that brass ring of success. While one may be true, the band still maintains its integrity with their latest, packing enough torque and propulsion to satiate fans of old to coincide with their newfound sense of pep and perkiness. It does seem hard for those who have followed Atreyu to accept the latter description, but think of it this way-take away the name “Atreyu” from ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor‘, and you’ve got a pretty damn good album chock full of surprising twists and turns. Now re-associate “Atreyu” with that description, and you might soon find that the change is not nearly as painful as many have made it out to be.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10