ATREYU – Lead Sails Paper Anchor

Lead Sails Paper Anchor is the fourth studio album from the American Post-Hardcore/Alternative Metal band Atreyu. The band was formed in 1998 and took their name from the character Atreyu in the fantasy movie The Neverending Story. Is this the first time you heard of the band? Have you heard the cover version of “You Give Love A Bad Name” (Bon Jovi) that’s featured on the Mr. and Mrs. Smith soundtrack? Yeah, that was Atreyu.

Instead of going completely Metalcore, Atreyu uses the scream/growling voice of drummer Brandon Saller here and there just to spice things up a bit, while main vocalist Alex Varkatzas has a more Punk Rock kind of voice. Lead Sails Paper Anchor is a very varied album. You have songs on this record like the album opener “Doomsday” that starts with a bang. It has a downbeat, catchy chorus, crazy guitar sounds, and a cool breakdown at the end of the song. But, the contrast is a song like “Falling Down” that is a strict Hard Rocker.

“No One Cares” and “Can’t Happen Here” are two more Pop-inspired Metal songs than the rest, and here as in almost all of the other songs on the record they use a gang choir on the chorus. It’s mighty and kind of gives you the 80’s feeling a good Mötley Crüe song can give you. “Blow” sounds like a Punk Rock song where the tempo has been taken down a notch or two, and features a guest performance by Buckcherry vocalist Josh Todd. The album closer “Lead Sails (And A Paper Anchor)” is a song that clearly stands out from the rest of the album. It starts with a steel guitar and you start wondering if they’ve started playing Country songs. They keep the tempo low during the entire song, and back it all up with great vocals and keyboards, which make this an enjoyable ballad.

Atreyu made a great move when they brought in Goldfinger’s John Feldmann (Good Charlotte, The Used, Lostprophets) to produce the album and Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Slayer, Biffy Clyro) to mix it. They’ve got the better of two worlds to make the album sound like a hybrid of Punk and Metal, and they’ve succeeded in doing so. The production on this album is great and is definitely worthy for a band that’s come as far as Atreyu.

Lead Sails Paper Anchor takes Atreyu in a completely new direction and it actually debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 in the USA. The only downside to this album is that it’s very Pop’ish at times, and many of the songs seem to have been written with mainstream success in mind. Atreyu has definitely changed their style and they can hardly be called a Metalcore band anymore. However, they should be cut some slack because this album is so varied and good to listen to no matter what they’ve done on earlier releases. Why can’t bands be allowed to renew themselves?

Atreyu are

Alex Varkatzas – Vocals
Brandon Saller – Vocals and drums
Dan Jacobs – Guitar
Travis Miguel – Guitar
Marc McKnight – Bass and vocals