Has Atreyu frontman Alex Varkatzas been watching pro wrestling? Because he has cut, what reads like a total heel promo.
In a recent interview with Rock Sound, he claimed the band, who formed in 1998, invented "metalcore." Here's the quote, emphasis ours:
"You know I don't know where we fit in any scene and I don't think that any scene knows where we fit. I think that's just part of us. This is going to sound a little cocky but I'm a singer in a band. I don't think we fit into any genre. I think we are hard to pin down. When we first started it was a little easier. We were a metallic hardcore band with singing parts. There wasn't any else like that when we were doing it.
People get confused and say 'you're a metalcore band', but we invented metalcore. That may sound cocky but I don't care. We pre-date Poison The Well and Killswitch Engage and all those bands. I've been doing this since I was literally 12 years old. So throughout that I still don't know where we fit, and I think our fans know that. This is the place to be you. This is our driving force and heartbeat. This is the place we go to express ourselves. I think our fan base and the people who like our band are like that too. They like music and we play music."
As Lambgoat points out, there were plenty of bands combining the sounds of metal and hardcore, to what would become metalcore, that predate Atreyu – including Earth Crisis, Converge, Vision of Disorder,Disembodied and a tiny band called At the Gates.
So, if Alex was just looking to make headlines to promote the band's recent release, In Our Wake, which we gave a positive review to, then congratulations and thank you for the headlines.
