The Curse is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Atreyu, released on June 29, 2004, under Victory Records. The album went on to produce three singles, "Bleeding Mascara" "Right Side of the Bed" and "The Crimson". The videos for "Right Side of the Bed" and "The Crimson" achieved much airplay on television networks such as MTV2 and FUSE. The songs also received airplay on some radio stations across various countries. Since its release, The Cursehas gone on to sell more than 450,000 copies.
Critical reception
said that the record "expands mightily on the promise and power of their debut, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses", praising the band for using the effects from touring for their first album to "bring forth an explosion of creativity" throughout the track listing, concluding that with "a set of songs this good it's hard to resist the thought that Atreyu's punishing work ethic may not be such a bad thing for their music." A reviewer for Punknews.org gave praise to the band's improved vocal performances and the "sheer ferocity of their metal-tinged songs", but was critical of both the metal and non-metal tracks being "too distinct" and lacked the consistent balance of "metal and melody" they had in Suicide Notes, concluding that "Still, with that, this album is a must own for fans of the band and also for fans of the genre. Atreyu has still shown that metalcore can be awesome." Kirk Miller, writing for Rolling Stone, said about the band's use of the metalcore genre, "On record, the results are more confused, with dual vocalists Alex Varkatzas and Brandon Saller occasionally canceling each other out. But when the band sticks to melody and brings out the big arena-rock drums on songs such as "Right Side of the Bed," it creates true headbanging nirvana. And those guitar solos? Pure awesomeness."
Track listing
A limited edition version of The Curse, which was only available at Best Buy stores, included a cover of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name". It was limited to 30,000 copies and used another cover, which is in black. The track is also included on the Japanese release.
"Right Side of the Bed" appears on the soundtrack for the video game .
¹ Marc McKnight is listed as a member of the band but it is unclear as to whether he played bass on the recording. On The Curse DVD McKnight can be seen playing bass in nearly all of the songs recorded. The band gives thanks to Tom Macdonald, from the Canadianpop rock band, Hedley, for "lending his bass skills" to the recording, but it is not known whether he played bass on every song or only a select few.
In an , posted on YouTube in 2012, Brandon Saller claimed that they had hired a studio bass player and McKnight picked up playing with the band at the beginning of tour. He had learned all of the songs 3 weeks prior to the tour, and played his first show at a festival in Las Vegas for over 2,500 people.
Additional credits
Album layout by Jason Link and Alex Varkatzas
Band photographs by Sean Stiegemeier
Digital editing by Ben Kaplan; assisted by Lee Robertson, Kurt McNally and Brian Gallant
Effects, make-up and teeth fabrication by Louie Zakarian
