Atreyu’s Brandon Saller Talks About How MySpace Made Metalcore Possible on This Week’s Last Words

Andreas Lawen, Fotandi, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Metalcore: an emotional expansion of heavy metal’s sometimes narrow confines via soaring choruses and hardcore breakdowns, or a lesson in embroidery and swoop hair that should be lasered off the hip of metal’s history like so many hastily-inked heartagram tattoos? Few metal genres rose to widespread acclaim as quickly as metalcore did, even if the scene’s sentimental hairdos and frumpy sacred hearts eventually weighed became anchors around its neck. But now, with the nu-metal revival becoming the norm, one can’t help but wonder: is metalcore finally ready for its big comeback?

On this week’s episode of our heavy metal talk show Last Words, hosts Katy Irizarry (Season Of Mist), Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves/Ex Man Podcast), and Zeena Koda (Everything’s Political Podcast) talk about metalcore’s legacy with a dude who knows a thing or two about it: Atreyu frontman Brandon Saller. And while Brandon and Doc (formerly the guitarist of legendary metalcore act God Forbid) have lots to talk about concerning the development of the metalcore scene, one topic of interest is definitely MySpace and the social media explosion that occurred alongside the genre’s rise.

“Do you think a big part of bands like you…was the rise of social media and the Internet?” asks Katy. “I think you guys kind of predated MySpace a little bit, but I feel like bands like yours, and Job For A Cowboy and stuff like Suicide Silence, just exploded…do you feel like that had an impact on your career in Atreyu?”

“Of course — I mean, the Internet changed everything,” says Brandon. “Doc, you remember, like, back in the day, even that tour we did with you guys, the Internet wasn’t even really a thing that much yet. Like, you were promoting locally.”

“Dude, on that tour,” says Doc, “I was literally messaging people on Friendster.”

“Oh my God, you’re SO OLD,” says Katy.

Check out the episode below:

And if that doesn’t have you trying to remember who was in your Top 8 back in the day, check out the full, uncensored podcast version of this episode below:

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Words by Chris Krovatin