Few bands did more than Atreyu to bring metalcore screaming into the mainstream. 2004 was a watershed year for the genre, with the likes of Eighteen Visions, Shadows Fall and Underoath all clawing up from the underground. It was, though, Killswitch Engage with The End Of Heartache and Atreyu with their second album, The Curse, who really took it to the next level.
“We were definitely part of this era where hardcore metal, metalcore or whatever you want to call it became more commercially successful,” nods Atreyu frontman Brandon Saller. “If you look at what’s extreme and gnarly now, Atreyu is pretty tame. But at the time people would be like, ‘I cannot believe this band is on the radio right now. What is the world coming to?’”
Formed in California’s Orange County in 1998, Atreyu had already established themselves with their 2002 Victory Records debut, Suicide Notes And Butterfly Kisses. At that point, Brandon was the band’s drummer, though also one of their chief songwriters alongside guitarist Dan Jacobs, only taking over frontman duties when longtime vocalist Alex Varkatzas left the band in 2020.
Stylistically, they were ahead of the curve. Although they retained the slamming breakdowns and screams that had been a metalcore staple since its inception in the 90s, Atreyu offered an increasing focus on clean vocals and soaring, sing-along hooks that would become staple elements for subsequent generations of metalcore hopefuls.
The Curse still had some blazingly heavy moments, including opener proper and eventual single Bleeding Mascara, but Right Side Of The Bed was definitely on the more accessible side. The opening riff is pure 80s rock, while the melodies and catchy pop-tinged chorus had a surprising source.
“That was originally a song that me and Dan had for a pop-punk band that we were in,” Brandon reveals. “We had started a pop-punk band called Dreaming In Blue, and back in the day there was this thing for ironic or stupid song titles, so we had this song called The Rock Song. Atreyu got signed and the pop-punk band wasn’t going to be a thing anymore, but one day Dan said, ‘What if we redid The Rock Song and just made it heavier?’ That whole riff and the chorus remained pretty similar and the bridge was somewhere in the original too.”
As well as being the poppiest thing Atreyu had come up with to date, Right Side Of The Bed was the first track to sneak 80s metal influences into the band’s metalcore sound, especially in the guitar playing.
“Oh yes, that was Dan having his way and putting his pole in the ground,” Brandon laughs. “It was his first real spotlight guitar solo moment. To this day I think it’s a favourite of his. It’s a very singable guitar solo, it’s very melodic and he does a little tapping thing, like a full-on Van Halen rip.”
Such a departure from hardcore norms could have backfired but Atreyu, Brandon says, were more than willing to try new things and dip into their pop and rock influences. There was no pressure from their label Victory – and certainly no expectations of anything like a hit single – but they did go into the writing and recording sessions hoping to build on the momentum of Suicide Notes And Butterfly Kisses.
As the band’s ‘big picture’ visionary, Dan Jacobs pieced the songs into a running order that they felt had the peaks, troughs and dynamic flow the record needed. Right Side Of The Bed had its own unique vibe, but they still saw it as part of the complete whole that became The Curse.
“We had the whole album written and demoed before we even set foot in a studio,” Brandon says. “We actually got hold of the demos again a few months ago. It was the first time we’d heard them for 17, 18 years, and it’s pretty wild how fully formed it was compared to the finished album.”
Drums for the album were recorded at Bryan Adams’ Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, with the rest recorded at “a cabin in the middle of nowhere” that served as producer Garth ‘GGGarth’ Richardson’s home studios.
“The drums were very organic and analogue, with no samples or click. The tempos were all over the place,” Brandon laughs. “The guitars were insanely meticulous and put together note by note. Garth saw we had a vision and he didn’t try to change that at all, but he obviously had his own way of constructing the sound of a record. To this day I think it has its own distinct sound, so we definitely have Garth to thank for that.”
Right Side Of The Bed stood out as the obvious single, and before long it was time to film a music video. Directed by Scott Kalvert, it was an energy-packed if pretty standard performance clip, featuring a before-they-were-famous appearance by wrestling megastars The Bella Twins, as well as a cameo from adult actress Krystal Steal.
“The director was like, ‘Hey, you guys want a porn star in your video?’ And we were 20-year-old kids. We were like, ‘Oh yeah’,” Brandon says, adopting a Beavis and Butt-Head snigger. “The Bella Twins weren’t even The Bella Twins yet. Again, the director just cast them because he wanted some twins in there, but I will say that a lot of people who have worked with us in various ways have gone on to insanely big things. Atreyu are like a lucky charm!”
The video (which also featured Brandon’s wife-to-be) would help Atreyu scale their own heights, as they became one of the breakout stars of the metalcore pack. The big hooks coupled with the screaming and heavier elements of the song helped make it a crossover hit, while the bitter break-up lyrics fitted perfectly into the emo-tinged zeitgeist of the mid-2000s.
“I obviously won’t name names, but I think a lot of the lyrics on The Curse were geared around one specific girl, one of our old singer’s [Alex Varkatzas’s] love interests,” Brandon says.
“When you were heartbroken in your 20s that’s what you wrote about, but I think it was a little bit tongue-in-cheek as well. I mean, we use the word ‘baby’ in the chorus like NSYNC would use the word ‘baby’. For a hardcore band to put out this song that’s screaming and heavy, but then to have this full-on pop chorus, I think that’s one of the reasons it stuck.”
It certainly stuck with a lot of people, helping to propel The Curse to the top of the US Independent Albums charts and No.32 in the overall Billboard 200 – a huge feat at the time for any band with such heavy hardcore leanings, pop sensibilities or no.
Their blending of melody and muscle would have a huge impact on metalcore, as well as 21st century heavy music in general. Trivium’s Matt Heafy has confessed to being a huge Atreyu fan, and Bullet For My Valentine earned comparisons to the OC band when they emerged in 2004 with their self-titled EP – an association that stuck when they toured alongside Atreyu that year.
“I can confidently say that we had a part in that,” Brandon says. “Bands like us and Killswitch from that earlier era, then not much later the Triviums, the Bullets. There’s so many bands that had a huge hand in shaping what today’s metal is, and we’re humbled to even have our thumbprint in that DNA. I meet younger people in bands and I’m never sure if they’re going to care. But then I meet people like the drummer of Knocked Loose [Kevin ‘Pacsun’ Kaine]. He’s like, ‘I love Atreyu, I’ve been an Atreyu fan since I was in high school!’”
Having revisited and reworked Right Side Of The Bed on last year’s The Pronoia Sessions (turning it into an even poppier acoustic rendition, complete with a saxophone solo from Dan Jacobs), Atreyu are now taking the anthem out on the road as a vital part of their 20+1 Years anniversary tour later this year, which will see them playing The Curse in full.
“We did a hometown show and the When We Were Young festival and the energy was unreal,” Brandon grins. “That’s what convinced us to do a whole tour. There are the older fans of course, but there are also kids who weren’t even born when The Curse came out. Looking back at it later in the career, you realise the weight that certain things carry, and the reaction that a song like Right Side Of The Bed always gets – that’s just unbelievably awesome to me.”
Atreyu play Louder Than Life festival later this year. The Curse 20+1 Years Anniversary Tour starts in Bristol on September 27. For the full list of dates, visit the band's official website.
