Atreyu – A Death-Grip On Yesterday

Atreyu fans beware, I actually like this CD. That alone should send red flags flying in your brain, because anyone who knows me knows that I’ve consistently stated my hatred for the Orange Country five some for the past two years. So for me to come out and say that I actually enjoy their new album, A Death-Grip On Yesterday will probably worry a fair few listeners.

For you see, other than their heavy hitting, metal opener, Creature, the rest of the album seems fairly tamed compared to their band’s previous stuff. The biggest change comes in the vocal departments, where the screams seem like an afterthought now. Where the band used to be fully screams, they have no cut back to probably a mere 25% screams, the remaining 75% is a nice, melodic, singing voice with some gang vocals thrown in. For me, these vocals sound perfect, they are strong and angry, but still have a sort of coherent ness to them that I feel bands need. But old Atreyu fans will scoff at the idea, they’ll be constantly skipping through song after song in search of the ever illusive cry.

Really, the perfect way to describe A Death-Grip On Yesterday is by looking at A Static Lullaby. Everyone loved their Don’t Forget To Breathe but were taken aback with their change on their follow up,Faso Latido. This is the same for Atreyu, because like A Static Lullaby, these guys seems to have dropped everything that made The Curse sell so much down a notch for their follow up too, and really, it sounds a lot like A Static Lullaby too. Both in the change and the delivery of the music.

Now, there are still a few gems on here that old Atreyu fans will happily devour, like Creature, Our Sick Story and Untitled Finale. But they will most likely be appalled by the softness of songs like The Theft and Ex’s and Oh’s. Me on the other hand, I like the change – so maybe you will too.