Alex Varkatzas dissing Atreyu’s song without him is weirder than you think

Back in September, Atreyu officially parted ways with former vocalist Alex Varkatzas. Soon after the separation, however, Varkatzas warned fans that the band’s upcoming music was “fake heavy.”

Now, Brandon Saller has revealed what he thinks about Varkatzas’ diss and what fans can actually expect from their next album.

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Rumors first swirled that Varkatzas had left Atreyu all the way back in August. Then, in September, Atreyu and Varkatzas announced his departure in separate statements. Based on their posts, the separation seemed amicable and that Varkatzas simply wanted to move on to other musical projects.

However, shortly after he parted ways with the band, Varkatzas seemingly warned fans about Atreyu’s new music. Just before the release of Atreyu’s new song “Save Us,” Varkatzas posted a few cryptic Instagram Stories allegedly calling his former band “con artists” and their music “fake heavy.”

Now, Brandon Saller has responded to Varkatzas’ comments. In a new interview with Mosh Talks, Saller says that Atreyu’s new song “Save Us” is actually the heaviest they’ve ever written.

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“I think ‘Save Us’ is one of the heavier songs we’ve ever written,” he says. “It is two and a half minutes of facepunch. Another view we’ve had is no matter who says what, let’s do what we’ve always done and just let the music talk. We’re just gonna continue doing that and let the tunes do all the talking. And people will know what we’re all about. They’ll know everything they need to know from [listening to] the songs.”

As well, Varkatzas actually co-write “Save Us” and a good portion of the new songs on Atreyu’s next album. So, his diss actually means that he helped write “fake heavy” music.

“The ‘fake heavy’ thing was — we don’t know where that came from,” Saller said. “Alex wrote ‘Save Us’ with us. He wrote probably seven, eight songs that are on the next record. He was a part of the beginning of the album. So for him to say it’s fake heavy, then he wrote a fake-heavy song.”

Despite Varkatzas’ comments, Saller and the rest of the band have nothing but support for the former Atreyu vocalist.

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“He did his own thing, and it wasn’t exactly the kind of idea of a narrative that we would have liked to put forward,” he said. “We’ve always still to this day been fully positive. When people say stuff about Alex, I’m still like, ‘The dude’s awesome. You should support whatever he does next.’ He’s learning guitar, he’s taking interest in different things and I will still till I’m blue in the face say, ‘yeah, support him.’ If you like his voice, if you like what he did in Atreyu, he’s probably gonna make more music. Now you have two bands you can listen to.”

Going forward, Saller is taking over Varkatzas’ vocal duties. Back in October, he revealed the real reason why Atreyu have decided to not bring in a completely new vocalist.

“Save Us” offers a preview of what’s to come from Atreyu’s forthcoming album. Last year, the band returned to the studio to work on new music with legendary producer John Feldmann. blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus even joined the band in the studio last January.

During the recent Mosh Talks interview, Saller confirmed that the new album is complete and is slated to arrive sometime this year.

Brandon Saller’s full interview with Mosh Talks and Atreyu’s “Save Us” are available to stream below.

What are your reactions to Brandon Saller’s comments about Alex Varkatzas’ diss? What do you want to hear on Atreyu’s next album? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: altpress.com