During a recent interview with Rock Sound, Atreyu singer Alex Varkatzas apparently tried to take credit for the creation of metalcore. He said the following:
“You know I don’t know where we fit in any scene and I don’t think that any scene knows where we fit. I think that’s just part of us.
This is going to sound a little cocky but I’m a singer in a band. I don’t think we fit into any genre. I think we are hard to pin down. When we first started it was a little easier.
We were a metallic hardcore band with singing parts. There wasn’t any else like that when we were doing it. People get confused and say ‘you’re a metalcore band’, but we invented metalcore. That may sound cocky but I don’t care.
We pre-date Poison The Well and Killswitch Engage and all those bands. I’ve been doing this since I was literally 12 years old.
So throughout that I still don’t know where we fit, and I think our fans know that. This is the place to be you. This is our driving force and heartbeat. This is the place we go to express ourselves.
I think our fan base and the people who like our band are like that too. They like music and we play music.”