ATREYU has released a music video for the song “God/Devil”. The track is taken from the band’s latest EP, “The Hope Of A Spark”, which came out on April 14 via Spinefarm. The clip was directed by ATREYU bassist Marc “Porter” McKnight.
“God/Devil” laments a loss of identity, self and faith, a desperate cry for help from a higher power when the greatest power is already within.
“‘God/Devil’ represents the intense feeling of hopelessness that leaves us as humans feeling so helpless and scared that we reach for anything that will help us alleviate the pain/sadness we are going through,” said ATREYU. “When life shows its saddest darkest side, we desperately reach for anything we can grasp to help us, and ‘God/Devil’ is the audible version of that.”
The four-track EP embodies everything that ATREYU has come to be, to mean, to represent, marking the beginning of the next chapter in the band’s story, with assorted pieces of an expansive puzzle still taking shape, form, and focus.
Produced by longtime collaborator John Feldmann, the new music explores reflection and rumination on the pressures, pleasures, and pains of modern life with each track representing a snapshot of deeply personal lived and shared experiences.
“The overarching concept is essentially about the seasons of life,” frontman Brandon Saller explains. “Everyone goes through the same things, the ups, and downs of life. The emphasis really is the importance of at least respecting those, and finding the positives and the lessons from even your lowest moments.”
The opening track “Drowning” was written as a collective effort from each bandmember who poured their own experiences, be it familial health problems that guitarist Dan Jacobs was shouldering to Saller‘s first encounters with feelings of anxiety, or McKnight’s long-running fight with depression. The second track, “God/Devil”, laments a loss of identity, self, and faith, a desperate cry for help from a higher power, when our greatest power is one we need to find within, following, “Capital F”, which was inspired by Saller‘s observations of the human plight he saw in his local community.
“We draw strength from each other and give each other the space and support to be the best, most creative person we can be,” Jacobs explains. “And together, right now, that makes us the best band we’ve ever been.”
ATREYU will kick off “The Hope Of A Spark” headlining tour on April 27 in Sacramento at Ace of Spades with a one-off date supporting KAYZO on May 6 in Los Angeles and concluding on May 21 in Denver at the Gothic Theatre. All dates are with special guests POINT NORTH, WITHIN DESTRUCTION and LYLVC.
ATREYU ushered in a new movement in heavy music. Their music seamlessly intertwines with formative experiences for a diverse legion of dedicated listeners, many of whom started their own bands. They’ve broken into the Top 10 in the Billboard 200 more than once; two of their albums, “The Curse” and “Lead Sails Paper Anchor”, are certified gold with two million albums sold worldwide and an encompassing 600 million streams. Their most recent album, “Baptize”, has clocked 65 million streams alongside a Top 10 at rock radio hit with “Warrior” featuring Travis Barker.
Where once the band was heralded as the early innovators of the nascent metalcore scene, their place in heavy music’s diverse and boundary-breaking scene has never felt more relevant, with inspirations of pop-punk, hardcore, thrash, ’80s rock, and more melding into a unique and varied sound that has never felt more relevant than in today’s increasingly genreless world.
With a 20-year career and eight acclaimed albums in the rear-view mirror, ATREYU in 2023 is focused only on the present and the future, and a mission to continue shaping and defining the rock and metal scene, just as they have always done since their emergence from Huntington Beach in Southern California.
Photo credit: Dennis Larance