Of all the prominent metalcore bands to come out of the mid-2000s explosion of said genre, Atreyu was (and still is) one of the best loved. Though most fans swear by The Curse and A Deathgrip On Yesterday, it can be argued that 2007’s Lead Sails Paper Anchor contains just as much of the band’s best material. That’s a story for another day, though. What is important to know is that, despite the member changes they’ve had, The Curse remains one of the more interesting albums of the first commercial wave of metalcore’s explosion.
In 2004, the musical landscape was obviously quite different than it is now. Victory Records was, at the time, a MASSIVE label. Seriously, this can not be understated. At the time, they had Taking Back Sunday, Spitalfield, Hawthorne Heights, Darkest Hour, and dozens more bands that were both profitable and critically acclaimed. Atreyu became one of the biggest success stories on sophomore album The Curse. Beyond the obvious highlights like “Right Side Of The Bed” and “The Crimson” lie gems like the iconic “Bleeding Mascara”, a blistering slab of thrash-influenced metalcore, and “My Sanity On The Funeral Pyre”, an underrated gem of a song that moves from strength to strength the entire way.
The “good cop // bad cop” vocals that metalcore is famous for are on full display here, too. Alex Varkatzas and drummer Brandon Saller just go at it most of the record, in quite the fascinating way. To be fair, if you’re even remotely familiar with the genre, few songs will truly surprise you. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of highlights, though. Tracks like “Nevada’s Grace” will remind you why you love melodic metalcore, with both Saller’s drumming + vocals and some of Travis Miguel + Dan Jacobs’s most interesting guitar work on the record. There’s also album highlight “The Remembrance Ballad”, which discusses the finality and inevitability of death and pondering how you’ll be remembered.
The Curse is both Atreyu’s most memorable album, as well as arguably their best. Whether it’s the passionate “Nevada’s Grace”, the speedy metalcore workout of “Corseting”, or the chaotic finale “Five Vicodin Chased With A Shot Of Clarity”, Atreyu truly struck gold here. And in this reader’s mind, it’s still an album that, even all these years later, provides an interesting time capsule. And from a technical perspective, it impresses as well.
