Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Long live Atreyu, for the world has seemed a duller place without them and the world of Metal has certainly missed them to the point where other self anointed kings have tried to lead skirmishes and revolutions to take the place in which they hold their fans hearts high.

It might have seemed that the day might never come that the band would ever darken the corners of the genre’s admirers again, the devotees of such Metal enlightenment, of the buff well muscled toned lyrics that swagger and swathe into the limelight and the pounding, yet somehow gloriously subtle, beat that becomes enthuses with creative energy; all this has been missing from the ears until now as Atreyu plan to release their first album in four years, the excellent Long Live.

Long Live indeed for the lyrical bound muscle that grabs the attention and is backed up with the force of a legionnaire unit aching for a fight with opposition and friend alike, long live and may they prosper and take back what is rightfully theirs.

In tracks such a I Would Kill, Lie, Die (For You), the excellent A Bitter Broken Memory, Do You Know Who You Are?, Moments Before Dawn and the monstrous grappling divinity that shakes with passion in So That Others May Live, the abundance of the past lives on, it breathes once more with gratitude and fondness for the oxygen it has been granted but like all good memories, it seeks to vigilant at the thought of being displaced in the affection of lesser beings; there really is no danger in that as the album is a strong as anything they produced before 2011.

Good stories never end, why would they when they can captivate so many with such well chosen eloquence and the infectious desire afforded to so few and harnessed properly by even less. For Atreyu this is nothing but a superb welcome back to the land of the living and a hope that the cemetery of broken souls is long behind them, Long Live indeed.

Ian D. Hall