Interview by Kris Peters
Bands of renown all boast a number of great albums to their name. But within that body of work, there is always that one album. That magnum opus. That genre-defining, gravity-defying masterpiece that sets a standard by which not only their peers, but the band themselves are measured by forever more. For ATREYU, THE CURSE is that album.
With their legacy as one of the originators and frontrunners of metalcore, and a reputation as one of its greatest live bands, ATREYU could have easily rested on their laurels with their notoriety assured for life. Instead, they have embraced growth and evolution, seamlessly morphing between styles but always ending up with killer results.
July 2025 will see ATREYU return to Australia to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Curse with a series of never to be repeated shows that will see them play the songs from the album as well as other fan favourites. Joining them will be Texan metalcore titans Memphis May Fire, who will be making their first trip to Australia in over a decade.
HEAVY caught up with Atreyu guitarist Dan Jacobs to get a gauge on what to expect.
"Yeah, it's exciting," he enthused. "We've never been down that way with Memphis before, and they've been friends of ours for a long time. We've done several tours with them before, so it's always fun to tour with them. It made sense. Also, getting to come down and play The Curse in its entirety… It's gonna be a good time."
We ask Dan what some of his memories are of making The Curse.
"Oh, man," he sighed. "I remember when we recorded it - or demoed it I should say - we had the whole album completely written and recorded in the order that you hear it on the album now. We just put the whole thing together and when we turned it in to the producer and asked if it was cool, he said yeah, let's record this. It's actually pretty interesting how much the demos and the recording… it's just all the same thing, as opposed to chopping songs up or moving things around or changing the order. But we demoed it the same way it is on the record, which is kind of fun. We recorded it up in Canada on this island. Half of it was done in the studio in Vancouver in Bryan Adams' studio. It's called The Warehouse. We did basically the pre-pro there and then some drums and when we came back when we were done for a week we did all the mixing. The majority of the two weeks of recording were all on this island where we were basically locked there to an extent. We didn't leave for two weeks. We didn't leave this dudes house. We just stayed at his house and recorded for two weeks. We didn't go to any bars or restaurants or anywhere. We just stayed at this dudes house in the woods in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of making us go crazy a little bit, and I think that all played into the vibe of the album a little bit."
In the full interview, Dan talks more about making The Curse and what that album means to Atreyu, whether or not they knew they had struck gold when they wrote and recorded it, what to expect from Atreyu live, new music, the early days of the band and more.
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