MUSIC Atreyu pushes pop popularity

The band is appearing on three mega tours this summer.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
PITTSBURGH -- A bastion of punk rock for decades, Orange County, Calif., has produced one of the more intriguing bands on Ozzfest 2006, which takes place Tuesday at Post Gazette Pavilion At Star Lake in Pittsburgh.
The group is Atreyu but unlike many of its other peers, this chameleonic metal act successfully lives in many worlds that in recent times have started to blur together. In fact, over the past year, this quintet has scored the trifecta of touring, taking part in the Vans Warped Tour last summer, the Taste of Chaos festival earlier this year and now Ozzfest.
"We kind of take pride in being a band that can jump from one type of tour to another," said guitarist Travis Miguel, calling from Selma, Texas. "We've toured with bands like Taking Back Sunday and The Used -- lighter bands -- and then we toured with Lamb of God, Chimaira and Hatebreed. So being able to crossover like that, not too many bands can do that. We definitely take advantage of the fact that we can."
Unlike any other time in recent history, metal music -- specifically hardcore -- is enjoying a level of unimaginable commercial success. How else can you explain why a decidedly nonmainstream Atreyu enjoyed Top 10 success on the album charts with the debut of its third studio album, "A Death Grip on Yesterday" this past spring?
Miguel talks about taking advantage of the band's crossover appeal, but in a sense he's referring to the commercial opportunities. Why else would a hardened band partake in three music festivals in less than a year?
"Doing [package] tours, there's part of the audience that has never heard of us or seen us before, let alone heard our music, so it's covering all grounds," Miguel said. "And for any band to do [a festival] tour -- Ozzfest, Warped Tour or Taste of Chaos -- it can only be beneficial. Tours like this are something special."
From an audience perspective, the guitarist said Ozzfest features more of the hardened metal follower whose passion for the genre borderlines on zealotry.
Perhaps that explains why Atreyu is so warmly received as a featured second-stage performer. In many ways, this quintet epitomizes today's metal rage with a nonstop barrage of riffs and vitriolic vocals supported by a punishing rhythm section. This was the modus operandi employed with the band's 2002 debut, "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses," and its 2004 follow-up, "The Curse." And before giving the band's latest album a listen, you better take a deep breath, pop a few Tylenol and hold on for dear life.
Growth
"We're a band that's always evolving, slowly," Miguel said. "We're always going to be stylistically changing, musically changing and just changing as people and musicians. But we're not the same dorks we were four or five years ago. The music is definitely more mature. I guess you could just say Atreyu just improved. That's how we see it."
As for its future success, Miguel takes a pragmatic approach.
"Who knows what could happen," Miguel said. "A year from now this could all come crashing down, or it could last 10 or 20 years. We're just going to take it day by day and take it and run with it."