Review by Jacobo on January 22, 2005.

When I have to review a band I am not that familiar with, I usually do some research over the Internet. This time Atreyu was the band and I found out that they had created quite a fuss in the underground with their debut Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, so I was looking forward to listening to their newest opus, The Curse. I also read that they were a powerful hardcore band that showed a lot of promise, and here is where I started to disagree after listening to the bands newest offering. Where in hell do people get off saying Atreyu are a hardcore band? They sure have some ‘core singing, but the musical direction leans towards the metal; heavy fucking metal that has some hardcore influences and some emo choruses, but all of this within a broad metal scope.

Atreyu´s newest proposal is a heavy, melodic and intelligent release. It contains a crystal clear production that never seems to lose the power. It is a release full of modern heavy music where you can hear some present day Soilwork, as well as some eventual Maiden-isms and some great and emotionally charged clean vocal emo choruses that are so catchy that will stick for a long time in your head.

One thing I am extremely thankful for are the solos. Finally a band within the metalcore genre is incorporating guitar shredding solos and man are they good. It all has to do with the level of musicianship these guys can handle. They can play their instruments and they can do it well.

The only problem I see with The Curse, is that it is another CD from the exploding Metalcore genre that seems to be so overpopulated nowadays. I don’t see it as powerful as other genres, but I guess this is just my opinion. Grunge died, nu-metal died and metalcore will die, at least as a fashion to a bigger audience.

Nonetheless, Atreyu´s The Curse, a CD full of heavy guitars, aggressive vocals and incredibly catchy choruses. I really enjoyed this one. It kills.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 9
Originality: 6
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.6 of 10

Review by Krys on August 9, 2001.

As the name indicates “Rare Trax” is a compilation of Meshuggah’s early-unpublished tracks, demos and the songs from 1989’s limited “Psykisk Testbild”. I hope you are not one of the rare 1000 owners of this unique album because in the band’s words its inclusion on “Rare Trax” is likely to “stir up some pretty ugly feelings in the few lucky bastards owning an original vinyl copy since it’s now been rendered completely worthless.” Maybe it’s not completely worthless because I’d love to have it in my collection, but I have to congratulate them on their humor and balls to do something like this.

The CD starts with the outstanding death-grind ‘War’, which was originally recorded for guitarist Fredrik Thordendal’s 30th birthday. The next three tracks ‘Cadaverous Mastication’, ‘Sovereigns Morbidity’ and ‘Debt of Nature’ come from the above the mentioned “Psykisk Testbild” and I don’t think I have to say anything here to convince any Meshuggah fan to buy this compilation only because of its uniqueness. ‘By Emptiness Abducted’ and ‘Don’t Speak’ are two tracks recorded during 1996 studio session which were never meant to be released. ‘Abnegating Cecity’ and ‘Internal Evidence’ are well known for Meshuggah fans from their first full-length release “Contradictions Collapse” but here they are included in a demo version. ‘Concatenation’ is presented in a remix form and ‘Ayahuasca Experience’, which even band members are not sure when it was recorded but the best guess is sometime before “None”, closes the audio side on this CD.

The video part is as good as the audio if not better. It kicks off with ‘New Millennium Cyanide Christ’, which was recorded in a bus during the American tour with Slayer. What can I say here... you have to see it. You have five grown men playing air guitars, air drums and singing into a pencil. All with serious as hell faces and with even more serious headbanging. The next video ‘Elastic’ is just a regular live recording and won’t make a huge effect on you after seeing the ‘New Millennium...’. Closing the whole CD is, as described by the band, completely irrelevant material called ‘Tour and Studio Clips’, which will give you a glimpse of what’s going on in the heads of those Swedish speedballs.

Bottom Line: A compilation well worth your money that should find its place in any serious metalhead collection.

Ratting: 8 out of 10

Review by Krys on August 9, 2001.

As the name indicates “Rare Trax” is a compilation of Meshuggah’s early-unpublished tracks, demos and the songs from 1989’s limited “Psykisk Testbild”. I hope you are not one of the rare 1000 owners of this unique album because in the band’s words its inclusion on “Rare Trax” is likely to “stir up some pretty ugly feelings in the few lucky bastards owning an original vinyl copy since it’s now been rendered completely worthless.” Maybe it’s not completely worthless because I’d love to have it in my collection, but I have to congratulate them on their humor and balls to do something like this.

The CD starts with the outstanding death-grind ‘War’, which was originally recorded for guitarist Fredrik Thordendal’s 30th birthday. The next three tracks ‘Cadaverous Mastication’, ‘Sovereigns Morbidity’ and ‘Debt of Nature’ come from the above the mentioned “Psykisk Testbild” and I don’t think I have to say anything here to convince any Meshuggah fan to buy this compilation only because of its uniqueness. ‘By Emptiness Abducted’ and ‘Don’t Speak’ are two tracks recorded during 1996 studio session which were never meant to be released. ‘Abnegating Cecity’ and ‘Internal Evidence’ are well known for Meshuggah fans from their first full-length release “Contradictions Collapse” but here they are included in a demo version. ‘Concatenation’ is presented in a remix form and ‘Ayahuasca Experience’, which even band members are not sure when it was recorded but the best guess is sometime before “None”, closes the audio side on this CD.

The video part is as good as the audio if not better. It kicks off with ‘New Millennium Cyanide Christ’, which was recorded in a bus during the American tour with Slayer. What can I say here... you have to see it. You have five grown men playing air guitars, air drums and singing into a pencil. All with serious as hell faces and with even more serious headbanging. The next video ‘Elastic’ is just a regular live recording and won’t make a huge effect on you after seeing the ‘New Millennium...’. Closing the whole CD is, as described by the band, completely irrelevant material called ‘Tour and Studio Clips’, which will give you a glimpse of what’s going on in the heads of those Swedish speedballs.

Bottom Line: A compilation well worth your money that should find its place in any serious metalhead collection.

Ratting: 8 out of 10