CD Review: Atreyu – "Long Live" (Spinefarm Records)

Yep, Atreyu is back…with a vengeance. It takes but two minutes of their aptly titled new comeback album Long Live to come to that realization. In those two minutes, all the feels come flooding back - Alex Varkatzas’ gravel-throated screams, Brandon Saller’s melodic clean tone, impeccably crafted and inescapably catchy hooks, Big Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel’s vaunted crushing guitar frenzy – it’s all there. And in the course of one track you remember why Atreyu once reigned as the kings of the scene. All those sonic hallmarks, combined with the bands trademark intensity and sense of urgency, fuel Long Live (“Live To Labor,” “Cut Off The Head,” “Do You Know Who You Are”). Perhaps the biggest compliment of Long Live is that this new collection of songs seems to immediately fit in with the rest of Atreyu’s canon, somehow sounding both refreshing and familiar at the same time (the instrumental “Revival” is a welcomed throwback, a nostalgic ode to The Curse’s “An Interlude,” “Brass Balls” is the unabashed younger brother to Lead Sails Paper Anchor’s “Blow,” the penultimate “Start To Break” is eerily similar to 2004’s “Wrong Side of the Bed”).  In typical Atreyu fashion, Long Live concludes with “Reckless,” a grandiose offering much in the vein of “Lip Gloss and Black,” “Five Vicodin Chased with a Shot of Clarity” and “Untitled Finale.” How else would you want an Atreyu record to end? With Long Live, a mere dozen tracks, Atreyu has turned the metal world on its ear, after six years spent in oblivion.    

Grade: A-

Go Download: “Cut Off the Head”