Metal Anarchy

Back in 2018, former Atreyu vocalist Alex Varkatzas made headlines after saying the band “invented metalcore.” Now, during a recent appearance on the “Talk Toomey Podcast,” the Dead Icarus frontman walked back on those claims.

Varkatzas said the following:

“I say stupid shit sometimes. Like I said I invented metalcore once. You can call me out on that if you want, it’s fine.

My thoughts on it are like, we rode on the backs of other bands that we liked at the same time. There were bands that were coming up doing the same thing. And at that time, I think that screaming and singing together was like kinda that bridge that made it a little different. But no, I mean, I didn’t invent anything. I also didn’t invent chopping the water when you have a new record coming out.

Like most people I think who know me, know that me saying that ‘I invented metalcore’ is fucking ridiculous. Because I don’t care. Metalcore wasn’t even a coined term when bands like Lamb Of God and all that… They were calling it like the ‘new wave of American heavy metal ‘— ’cause that sounds way cooler, right?

I’m chopping the water, trying to make business for… You know at the time Atreyu wasn’t exactly killing it. So, you got a new record coming out, you gotta get a little resourceful.

I learned from that to not try to play the heel, to not be disgenuine to myself, and that’s the major lesson. I kinda deserve whatever lumps or anything anybody wanted to say about it, because it was like a callous thing. But at the same time I think that people that know me, know that that was bullshit. And people who don’t know me are more than happy to throw stones anyway.

So it’s kinda like it is what it is. I gave some people some ammo for years to come in the bottom of messageboards and stuff. What’s life without a little chopping the water, you know what I mean? I learned from it.”

He also discussed Dead Icarus:

“I feel like I have a lot to make up for. I feel like when Atreyu made the first record with [producer John Feldman], I should have dug in my heels about certain things artistically, and I didn’t.

And once the ball goes too far and money starts coming in — not just to the band — but the managers and to the record label, there’s all this other pressure and all these other things and you’re in your early to mid-twenties trying to handle it all, it’s a lot. And not everybody can navigate that successfully.

I look back and I did not at times. At times I did, at times I didn’t. I wouldn’t go back and change anything, because of what I learned from it all. But yeah man, it’s humbling, starting over’s crazy. I forgot how crazy it is to be in a band and to care.”

[via The PRP]