Atreyu - Congregation of the Damned
Rating
RIYL
Avenged SevenfoldBullet For My Valentine
Haste the Day
From Autumn to Ashes
Release Date
10/27/2009
Label
Hollywood RecordsTracklist
1. "Stop! Before It's Too Late and We've Destroyed It All"2. "Bleeding Is a Luxury"
3. "Congregation of the Damned"
4. "Coffin Nails"
5. "Black Days Begin"
6. "Gallows"
7. "Storm to Pass"
8. "You Were the King, Now You're Unconscious"
9. "Insatiable"
10. "So Wrong"
11. "Ravenous"
12. "Lonely"
13. "Wait for You"
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If you ask anyone who has been following Atreyu since their debut Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, they're bound to agree that the band is in the midst of an identity crisis. Their fourth studio album and major label debut, Lead Sails Paper Anchor, found them trading some of their intensity for a more melodic sound. Some of their more intense fans deemed this "selling out" of the highest order, but truth be told they were adapting to a fickle, ever changing scene. They started out as a borderline metalcore band, but they've evolved into a more melodic affair throughout the years. Whether you love it or hate it, that decision was arguably crucial to their longevity.
Congregation of the Damed, Atreyu's fifth full-length and latest release, is an attempt to appease core fans who felt cast aside by their previous release, but it also tries to ensure that their new followers stay onboard. They've managed to amalgamate the harder sound prevalent in their earlier work with the melodic emphasis of Lead Sails Paper Anchor, but the outcome is not quite as flattering as they had hoped. There are some standout tracks here, and arguably some of the best music Atreyu has ever written, but the filler between these tracks is too difficult to trudge through.
Perhaps the biggest problem with trying to appease old and new fans at the same time is that a band is likely to release an album with no real direction and only satisfies in some areas but fails in others. This is most definitely the case here. Congregation starts out with strong tracks like "Stop! Before it's Too Late and We've Destroyed it All" and "Bleeding is a Luxury", both of which could easily have been b-sides for their album The Curse. The title track carries the intensity with some of the most grandiose music they've written, but it isn't too long until things start to take a turn in a different direction. Songs like "You Were the King, Now You're Unconscious" and "So Wrong" carry the satiating hooks that have made Atreyu who they are today, but then there are songs like “Gallows” that seem to lack any real direction.
Congregation of the Damned is by no means a bad album. There’s a little something for everyone, and it’s certainly admirable that they volunteered some of the elements that brought them mainstream recognition in exchange for appeasing the fans who have been with them since the beginning. Atreyu reached a fork in the road, and they have decided to do what it took to travel both paths. It may have fallen short more than it paid off, but there are still some tracks well worth your time.
--Dant Rambo
Comments
Minnesota
Definitely better than Lead Sails, but still kinda crappy. Deathgrip was the start of their downward spiral into the crapper.
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Lehigh Valley, PA
This band sucks. However, I will not rate it because I refuse to listen. So at least I am being semi-fair.
Wilmington DE
definitive band of our generation.
Listening to:
Tides of Man
Oceansize
The Contortionist
We are the City
Periphery
Lehigh Valley, PA
Really...?
Minneapolis, MN
Definitely a step up over Lead Sails, but as the reviewer noted the album is somewhat schizophrenic and I almost felt like it was too long.
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