Two decades ago, gamers first heard Atreyu’s “Ex’s and Oh’s” and “Becoming the Bull” blasting through their speakers while playing Madden NFL. It was a time when metalcore was bleeding into the mainstream. As the scene has shifted and trends come and go, the Orange County band have proven they were never confined to that moment.
Since their 2002 debut, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, Atreyu quickly became one of metalcore’s defining bands and haven’t really left that position. Now in their 40s and balancing life as husbands and fathers, the passion that fueled their early years still burns. Through Top 10 Billboard debuts, gold records and tours alongside icons including Linkin Park, Deftones and Slipknot, they’ve built a career that spans the genre’s biggest stages. Along the way, they’ve weathered lineup changes, a hiatus and every shift the scene has thrown at them.
“We’re still humans, chasing a fucking dream,” says vocalist Brandon Saller.
The same mindset that powered early landmarks like 2004’s The Curse and 2007’s Lead Sails Paper Anchor is at the core of their new record, The End Is Not the End. Atreyu’s 10th album may just be their heaviest yet — as the band lean into the fiery sounds that launched their career.
“We’re cycling back into a loud and aggressive era but at a whole new caliber of what we’re capable of,” Saller says. “Atreyu is like teenage fun again. Because we’ve been doing this since we were teenagers, we’ve evolved into being the working man’s band that has successfully grinded it out for decades — that means that our fans, and now, their families, know us. Creatively, for us, on this album, that means [we’re addressing] that there are still taller mountains to climb.”
That challenge is one the band — frontman and former drummer Saller, guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, bassist and unclean vocalist Marc “Porter” McKnight, and drummer Kyle Rosa — take head-on across The End Is Not the End’s 13 tracks. The new record follows 2023’s The Beautiful Dark of Life and finds the guys expanding their sound while doubling down on their heaviest instincts. Highlights include the pummeling lead single “Dead” and “Children of Light,” the latter featuring Sepultura co-founder Max Cavalera.
Written during sessions in Tokyo and Washington state, the record came together in a series of focused retreats that pushed the band out of their comfort zone. Now, they’re preparing to take those songs on the road with a busy run of dates that includes support for Sevendust and appearances at festivals like Welcome to Rockville, Vans Warped Tour and Louder Than Life.
Die-hard fans familiar with Atreyu’s first decade will find plenty to latch onto on The End Is Not the End. The band’s signature balance of melody and aggression remains intact, even as they continue to evolve.
“[We’re] a metal band that has guitarists chasing solos that are easy to sing along to, and also writes songs with pop-style choruses,” says Saller.
That balance — clean singing and melodic hooks colliding with distorted guitar, double-bass assaults and guttural screams — helped define a wave of metalcore that broke into the mainstream in the mid 2000s, placing Atreyu alongside standouts like Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, As I Lay Dying and others.
Nearly three decades in, Atreyu remain rooted in their core identity, often digging deeper inward for inspiration instead of reaching outward. They’ve released new material at a relentless pace for a quarter-century, and with their latest album, they’re refining that approach while setting the stage for what comes next.
On The End Is Not the End, that inward focus takes on a more reflective dimension. Saller highlights that the album features the band’s “most incredibly personal” material yet. Conversations with his daughters — as well as therapeutic discussions with his bandmates “without fear or shame” — pepper his songwriting. “Emotionally touching feelings shared in an open forum” are now song ideas, he adds.
That approach first took shape with the song “Dead.”
Last September, Atreyu wiped their social media and posted a simple message: “R.I.P.” Fans feared the band was breaking up for good, especially given their past hiatus from 2010 to 2014. Instead, the blackout marked the beginning of the rollout for “Dead,” the lead single from The End Is Not the End.
“It has every good part of every Atreyu era in it,” says Saller with a smile.
“Dead” was the first song they completed and quickly became a blueprint for the record. That “every good part of every era” approach can be heard across the record in songs like the Cavalera collab, “Children of Light,” and “Ego Death,” which showcase the band’s range. The latter moves from what Saller calls a “blistering vocal assault” into more unexpected territory, including a falsetto passage he likens to the breakdowns in Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”
“I’m a six-foot-three-inch tall, 300-pound dude with a big ole voice,” he says. “Because that voice is what it is, when I sing, it’s like much more gospel than indie.”
Working with Cavalera on “Children of Light” — which Saller describes as having “primal, festival-ready energy and spirit of early Sepultura” — was less a calculated move than a long-shot idea that actually paid off. Saller and Miguel had been fans of the metal icon for years. While they were writing the song, Saller says the two joked they should “just get Max to sing.” Not long after, he followed through. “One day, I reached out to our lawyer — who I knew was good friends with Max and his wife — with a Hail Mary ask to see if he would work with us.”
Cavalera agreed. Within 48 hours, he had recorded his vocals and even sent along a video of the session.
“He’s a hero to us,” says Saller. “And his voice still has so much power. The track is so good… For sure, it’s one that nobody — Atreyu fans, Max Cavalera fans, Sepultura fans — will see coming.”
The collaboration captures the “why not?” attitude that has been guiding Atreyu lately — a spirit they also brought into the studio with Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter Matthew Pauling. After working with the band on 2024’s The Pronoia Sessions (Revised and Reimagined) — which revisited some of their biggest songs and included covers of Tom Petty and Audioslave — Atreyu brought him back to produce The End Is Not the End.
“It’s a joy to work with Matt because he’s kind of a secret weapon,” Saller says. “Having someone leading who grew up as a fan of our band, metal music in general, and is also a guitarist, means he knows exactly what he and our fans want to hear. For him, it was essential that this album showcase all of Atreyu’s best qualities.”
For Pauling, that meant working closely with guitarists Jacobs and Miguel to craft organic metal sounds that were “the antithesis to the modern heavy record,” says Saller.
“There was no sampling, no over-processed sounds,” he continues. “Our guitarists even used the same amps they’ve had since they were 18. Every time we considered taking this record into a ‘cool’ [or] ‘modern’ direction, he remained deeply committed to what I call ‘The Pauling Way’ — his otherworldly mindset and passion for music allow the universe to create energy that throws eye-opening moments into the studio.”
Josh Beech
The conversation eventually shifts to the state of metalcore itself, and how a genre once defined by youthful intensity has managed to sustain real longevity. Three decades on, metalcore hasn’t just endured. It has continued to grow with a new generation of bands pushing the genre to new heights, from arena-ready acts like Bad Omens to a wave of younger artists reshaping the sound. At the same time, many of its originators remain vital, and Atreyu are still firmly in that mix.
“It’s crazy and exciting to have both a legacy as mainstays, while still also being relevant on rock radio, and still able to reach creative milestones,” says Saller.
At the core of it all is the bond between the band members.
“Our ability to remain best friends who are overwhelmingly supportive and highly respectful of each other has fueled this sort of ‘what if,’ ‘why the fuck not,’ and ‘yes, we can, let’s go’ dynamic,” says Saller. “That mindset is letting us travel the world while managing ourselves and keeping an endless perspective.”
The dynamic continues to drive them forward. “As long as taking the ride to still make albums like this feels genuinely exciting, normal and right, we’ll keep creating them,” he says. “Sure, we’ll always have our ebbs and flows when it comes to success, but when we get into a room? It will never not be exciting to get one more shot to knock it out of the park.”