Review: Atreyu @ Lion Arts Factory 13/07/25
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their seminal album The Curse, metalcore heroes Atreyu delivered an uncompromising performance in front of a packed crowd at Adelaide’s Lion Arts Factory.
Words by Belinda Quick // Photos by Justin White
Atreyu w/Memphis May Fire & Future Static @ Lion Arts Factory 13/07/25
“There was something vampiric about rock music. It must have sounded supernatural even to those who don’t believe. I mean the way the electricity could stretch a single note forever; the way harmony could be layered until you felt yourself dissolving in the sound. So eloquent of dread it was, this music…” - Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat.
Whilst there's no guaranteeing which examples will spring eternal, music truly is timeless. An infinitely provable concept in this increasingly improbable world, the greats of all genres transcend time and space, possessing the power to speak to every soul, regardless of the distance between them. Truly a blessing, to create or share such masterpieces, Atreyu’s The Curse is deserving of its place in these hallowed annals.
Feverishly exploding onto the stage, Melbourne’s Future Static cold open with ‘Chemical Lobotomy’. Nubile frontwoman Amariah Cook leads the quintet through a rapid-fire exploration of Liminality’s ‘Plated Gold’, pausing to acknowledge the crowd. “Adelaide, it's so good to be back!” she proclaims before turning ‘The Hourglass’ back upon its head. Sensually careening between visceral roars and soaring arias, Cook ‘Waves’ at the audience as Kira Neil harmonises to effect. Asking for matching movement, the ‘Roach Queen’ leaps offstage and into the pit for the final track.
In many regards, Memphis May Fire are tour co-headliners with equal set lengths and big-stage smoke cannons, wielding veracious crowd control. Nashville's ‘Shapeshifter’ quartet remedied those ‘Paralyzed’ and induced ‘Overdose’. Evoking the opposite emotion, ‘Misery’ loves company, and Adelaide happily obliges their companionship. Everybody is ‘Somebody’ to MMF tonight. “When this one kicks in, I want you to lose your fucking minds!” vocalist Matty Mullins commands.
‘Bleed Me Dry’ is for the old school heads, but Mullins extends his “welcome to the family” to several debutantes in the Lion Arts Factory tonight. A band almost as old as The Curse itself, the Tennesseans’ warcry ‘Infection’, and ‘Necessary Evil’ off their latest release, quantifying why music persists in being a favourite of mortal ‘Vices’.
‘The Sinner’, Jake Garland, punishes his drumkit in an extended solo, Mullins attesting their thanks that, from ‘Miles Away’, “We’re lucky enough to visit a place as beautiful as Australia.” Music, eternally bridging the divide between reality and ‘Make Believe’.
Hands reaching to the sky are armed with fairylights, which quietly cruise into ‘Chaotic’. With Heaven here, ‘Hell Is Empty’, the penultimate track amalgamating like ‘Blood & Water’, as Adelaideans bid farewell to MMF and await tonight's anniversarians, and (‘An Introduction’) back to where it began.
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“Tonight we rewind our lives, to a time, twenty years ago, when a record changed our goddamn lives!”
‘Bleeding Mascar'a’ runs from sweat and tears as the universal hit ‘Right Side of the Bed’ erupts into ‘This Place Is a Tomb’. An anomalously ‘Chosen One’ to join the rock ranks of immortality, Brandon Saller acknowledges the “full circle moment” - Atreyu visiting Australia for the first time upon The Curse’s release, our shores the first place they chose to return for this celebration. ‘You Eclipsed By Me’, ‘The Crimson’ is rose gold all these years later, and played with as much efficacy, as a member of the crowd then and now, it is awe-inspiring to watch.
Saller’s intermission follows ‘The Remembrance Ballad’, a perfect instrumental ‘Interlude Corseting’ into Porter McKnight's feature presentation. The bassist ventures into “the nicest circle pit of the tour” for ‘Demonology & Heartache’ before the frontmen reunite. Exchanging hugs and vocal acts, sharing the central spotlight with guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, the latter routinely seen enjoying doughnuts between solos.
After an eviscerating crowd conversation ensues, ‘Nevada's Grace’ is followed by ‘Five Vicodan Chased With a Shot of Clarity’, closing out the main set. Saller screams, “We're not fucking done yet!” and an encore of the wider discography ensues. From 2007’s Lead Sails Paper Anchors, ‘Becoming the Bull’ witnesses a crowd sing-along for the ages; ‘Ex’s & Oh’s’ in the second-last is protracted by Miguel's shoey.
“I don't know if you can tell, we've had an amazing fucking time. Twenty-one years ago, we had no idea this record would make the impact it did, and you were a big part of that”. Once “crazy kids” covered in ‘Lip Gloss & Black’, now older and perhaps wiser, how sweet it is that we're still here and connected, bound by the notes of electricity, the supernaturality of rock music.
Want more pics of the gig? Check out our full photo gallery here.
