About.com Rating



After several very successful albums, Atreyu has moved to a major label for their latest release, Lead Sails Paper Anchor. The band has drawn some criticism and cries of "sellout" from fans because their sound has definitely changed.

This is Atreyu's most accessible album. There are several radio-friendly pop punk songs with big hooks and singalong choruses. They have always been a metalcore band, and there are some heavy songs on the album as well.

The vocals are almost all melodic now, with just a few hardcore yells and gang vocals. Josh Todd from Buckcherry does guest vocals on "Blow," which is one of the better songs on the album.

Lead Sails Paper Anchor is diverse, but almost too much so. Atreyu explores metal, pop, rock, hardcore, eighties metal, and even country. They do some genres better than others (the country has got to go), and I don't fault a band that tries new things, but some of them simply don't work. One of those is the final track, a generic cover of Faith No More's "Epic," which sounds like bad karaoke. There are some really good songs here, but a lot of filler and failed experiments. Now that they've tried all these different genres, hopefully Atreyu's next album will be more focused and they will concentrate on the things they do best.