Against the Nothing

Atreyu’s Brandon Saller Elaborates on
Being The Biggest Band in Metalcore

By Ryan Prado

Vampires and curses and death, oh my! Normally, imagery this morbid and frightening might be relegated to the dank caverns of the death metal ilk, were it not so…well, hip. The ever-ascending esteem of bands whose eyeliner is as black as their souls has hardcore fans flocking to arenas, frequenting Hot Topics and deciding in which direction to swoop their bangs all in the same day. Atreyu shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of genre lumping, having stormed onto the underground metal scene in 2000, but here they are, dealing with fanatical influence and fantastical lyricism whilst attempting to remain a pristine version of themselves without buying into the hype. With a new album (A Deathgrip on Yesterday, due out on March 28th) and a mainstage spot on this spring’s Taste of Chaos tour, the group is set to (hopefully) crush the acerbic vanity so easily handed out to bands of this sub-genre. Atryeu drummer Brandon Saller spoke with Synthesis about the band’s aggressive fanbase, loyalties towards chain rock ‘n’ roll stores and why wearing makeup doesn’t make you degenerate.

The band has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. How has that streamlined your approach to the music industry, and to what do you attribute your band’s influence on modern rock music?
I wouldn’t say that our growth has been super fast. I think we’ve kind of been so busy with everything with just touring all the time, we haven’t had much chance to think about the music industry aspect of things, or at least we try not to. It kind of just ruins things. I think heavy music in general has just continued to get bigger and bigger and has become more accepted. Not only us, but bands like us are gonna be more and more in your face. It all comes in cycles.

You guys were one of the first bands to spearhead the hybrid style of metal, hardcore and punk. Do you feel like, in the years since then, that the genre has been homogenized at all by entities like MySpace or Hot Topic?
I think so. As it started to get bigger and as people saw that is was actually growing and gaining popularity, of course people are gonna try and capitalize on it. Hot Topic, for us, has been an awesome thing. There are bands that solely have a following on MySpace. It’s crazy how things like that are helping out these days. I think [Hot Topic and MySpace] do nothing but help bands.

Checking out your website, there’s a section dedicated to pictures of your fans who’ve gotten tattoos of Atreyu’s art or words. How do you guys deal with fans being obsessive about your band?
At first it was borderline creepy. If a dude came up to you and said, “dude, I like the way your face looks so I got it tattooed on me,” you’d be freaked out a little bit at first. It’s obviously not that drastic, but now it’s just kind of flattering. I have a band tattoo so I know what it’s like to like a band enough to tattoo them on me. It’s kind of an honor that you could have that effect on someone.

Your last album, The Curse, dabbled a bit more in a brutal, metal-tinged type realm, what kind of approach did you take on the new album?
There wasn’t a certain direction that we wanted to go in, which there never is with us. We’ve kind of found that if we try and go in a certain direction, it just never works, it seems forced. We always try to do what comes naturally, and something that’s new and challenging for us. Some of the songs on the record are the heaviest songs we’ve ever had, and then there are some songs where people are gonna hear them and not even think it’s us. I think this record is a perfect version of what we are.

Is wearing makeup onstage used as a tool to lend to the imagery in Atreyu’s lyrics, or is decadence just a big part of rock ‘n’ roll these days?
Not really. Alex [Varkatzas] writes all the lyrics. On our last record, there was a couple of vampire references and I think that imagery kind of got blown way out of proportion because we had a vampire girl on the cover. A lot of people took that album as a concept album, which, I’m not gonna lie, a lot of the dudes in the band are into vampires and dark stuff like that. As far as the makeup goes, I’m the only one in the band who wears makeup still, just because I’m flairy like that. We don’t really feel like there’s any particular image to us, we’re just five dudes and we play music and we like having a good time.

Are you concerned at all at how the vampirical, immortality or death references are going to be perceived by your fans?
Not really concerned. I think everyone’s gonna take our lyrics or take our songs and any imagery in their own way. The reason why we have those references is because everyone has a dark side. That’s how Alex likes to get out his dark side. I’m a fan of Alex’s writing. It’s written in a way that people can make things be how they want them to be.

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Record Label Victory Records Released March 2006

Tracks Creature Shameful Our Sick Story (Thus Far) The Theft We Stand Up Ex's And Oh's Your Private War My Fork in the Road (Your Knife in my Back) Untitled Finale