Atreyu s/b North Atlas at the Academy 2, Manchester.

California based metalcore legends Atreyu are back in the UK for their own headline tour! Originally booked for Club Academy, they take the stage at the upgraded Academy 2 for an insane Sold Out show!

The entire room is packed and there is barely room to move.

With only one support, Scottish band North Atlas took to the stage. With flowered vines draped over the mic stands and extra kettle drums on the stage. These are a band that is somewhat industrial with a hint of goth added in, with the sound if not the looks. They come across as extremely serious but they add that twinkle of fun. Every now and again the tempo would get a little more upbeat but it can quickly switch and slow down again which was a weird part of the performance. Things get a bit stompy when they bring out the extra drums, and it makes it very primitive and raw. The guitarist does some funky dancing whilst not missing a single note, which I always think is a very impressive skill.

The vocals are amazingly done and everything fits in with the vibe they’re giving, you get a sense of Pagan traditions through their music but also through the stage set up and the performance alone, especially when you throw in the body art that they have displayed on each member of the band.

Setlist:

Dead Tree
Superego
Midnight Sun
Hypnotist
Seer
House of Mirrors
Faster Than Your Thoughts

Dan, Brandon, Travis, Marc and Kyle take to the stage sporting black skinny jeans and each wearing leather Jackets and Vests tailored and painted in unique styles to fit each member.

The last time these guys were in the UK was supporting legends Bullet For My Valentine back in March of this year and that show was beyond incredible. The lights go out and the speakers blast Sandstorm by Darude, to get the crowd even more hyped.

This is my third time seeing Atreyu and like those other times they knock it out in terms of performances.

Instantly they kick off the set with Drowning sending the crowd into cheers. Atreyu are one of those bands where they can never hide the amount of joy on their faces when they’re playing, they make the job look like so much fun and they do it effortlessly. The way Brandon interacts with the crowd you would assume he had been the band’s frontman from the very beginning by the way he interacts with the crowd, the man completely owned the stage.

They jump into Becoming The Bull which is my personal favourite and it’s a song I can never get over seeing live.

They gave such an insanely passionate performance. Atreyu is bringing out banger after banger, they’re not stopping and they better not any time soon. When they played Bleeding Mascara they switched roles on stage, with bassist Porter exclusively screaming, drummer Kyle playing bass and Brandon moving back to the drums and performing his cleans from there like it was the old days. You can see how much of a blast they have when being on stage, they treat the audience like they’re best friends. Brandon decides to shock the crowd and make his way through the entire audience, it was one of those moments where you don’t realise he’s doing it until he passes you and you’re kind of stood there stunned for a second. The second he’s back on the stage he asks if a kind member of the audience could grab him a beer from the bar and bring it over.

Then out of the blue a man begins to crowdsurf with a beer held up high in the air with another man following on foot behind him with another pint in hand. “Look at the crowdsurfing guy coming to bring me a brewsky” Brandon sings which gets everyone laughing which follows with Brandon and Porter chugging the beers the second they’re passed to them.

A major highlight was Battle Drums. The band decided to ditch the bass entirely for this one, and wielded two frontmen for this track. Brandon and Porter bounced nicely off one another, which felt absolutely amazing. This song on track fts another artist named Kayzo which gave it an electronic twist. But this was a song that was meant to be performed live.

The encore was very different and very interesting, guitarist Dan takes to the stage on his own with a saxophone and asks if he is okay delivering a medley of typical saxophone based tracks, including a typical one being Careless Whisper, the entire crowd then begins to chant “Whitney Housten”. The rest of the band take to the stage with Dan wanting to play more, before they jumped into a cover of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which made the end to a fun night even better. Porter ends up grabbing a microphone and taking his place in the crowd getting random members of the audience to sing along with them. This night was without a doubt incredible and Atreyu are a band I can’t wait to see for a fourth time at Download Festival 2024.

Setlist: