Atreyu’s sixth album illustrates the lessons they learned during their hiatus, says vocalist Alex Varkatzas.
And he thinks fans will find plenty of what they’ve always liked about the band in the follow-up to 2009’s Congregation Of The Damned, which they recently completed.
Atreyu announced plans to “recharge and focus on other parts of our lives” in 2011 – but they officially regrouped last year and are currently playing Australia’s Soundwave touring festival.
Varkatzas tells The Metal Hammer Magazine Show: “We didn’t overthink anything. Our best work has always been when we just explode on to tape.
“Everyone expects us to do a throwback record, in the style of The Curse. I’m not saying it’s not that – but it’s an amalgamation of all the best parts of our band. We’ve realised our strong suits and realised the best way we make music, and made a record that way.”
Co-vocalist Brandon Saller says Atreyu wouldn’t have had a future if they hadn’t called a halt. “I think we overworked ourselves more than anything,” he reflects. “It was us thinking the way to get our band to the most people was to take every show we could.
“It’s okay to not play a show; it’s okay to take time off. The main thing was total burnout.”
And Varkatzas believes the lesson will be remembered. “We’re shooting from the hip,” he says. “Do we want to make music again? Let’s try to write music, see what happens. Let’s play a show.
“It was very small. Even still we’re just henpecking at what we used to do. It was insanely heavy.” Now the attitude is: “Let’s keep it fun, and do what we want to do.”
Metal Hammer is reporting from Soundwave all this week. Stay tuned to The Metal Hammer Magazine Show for even more coverage.
