The 7th album by Atreyu starts with the title song ‘In Our Wake’. It is a special song, something I didn’t expect. It’s not really a metalcore song, but more of an experimental song spiraling towards their own sound. This makes the entry to the album an introduction to Atreyu’s new style for those who are not familiar with it yet. The second song ‘House of Gold’, has a more metalcore vibe. This one is also combined with their own style. It kind of blends the older style Atreyu together with the new one.

‘The Time is Now’ starts of with the ticking of a clock. I absolutely love that vibe. This ticking is the beating heart throughout the track. It’s a song that has strong riffs and a catchy melody. This catchiness goes straight into ‘Nothing Will Ever Change’. A song with balls, I would like to call it that. It just walks straight over you. No stopping, no waiting. It says wat it wants to say. Don’t back away.

These are only the first four songs and as you can see, this album plays with different styles and vibes. It combines pure metalcore with a more melodic rock style. The one song is more on one side of the spectrum and the other song is more on the other side. Some songs combine both styles into one. This is the sound that defines Atreyu.

This album is produced by John Feldmann, the same guy that produced Lead Sails Paper Anchor. Lead Sails Paper Anchor was gold certified in America and fans kept asking to hear more of the same. That’s why Atreyu decided to contact him and he agreed to produce this album. Take something form the old, combine it with new, and you get this piece of art.

What are you going to leave behind? A thin line between love and fear.

Let’s look to the album cover for a second. It has a skull with all geometrical shapes. Around the skull is a circle with 7 Latin words in it. It reminds me of that one Leonardo Da Vinci artwork. You know, the one with the man with his 4 arms and 4 legs spread. It’s called the Vitruvian Man. Da Vinci tried to put the proportions of a human into picture. I think this does apply to this album as well, as it’s telling a story applicable to every person out there.

I also see some Escher in there. In the geometric forms inside the skull are actually people sitting and walking. The gravity goes in different directions, as you can see by the way the people are standing. This reminds me of Escher artworks with stairs going in different directions, but still forming one shape.

Then there’s also a diamond tooth in the skull. It’s hardly noticeable as the tooth almost has the same color as al the other teeth, but it’s definitely there. The album artwork is quite complex as you can see, or read, and I’m not sure that I can cover all of that right now. But it definitely has some hidden stories behind it.

Release date: October 12, 2018
Label: Spinefarm Records
Tracklist:
01 In Our Wake
02 House of Gold
03 The Time is Now
04 Nothing Will Ever Change
05 Blind Deaf & Dumb
06 Terrified
07 Safety Pin
08 Into the Open
09 Paper Castle
10 No Control
11 Anger Left Behind
12 Super Hero (Featuring Matt Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold and Aaron Gillespie form Underoath).