Atreyu
W/Zero 9:36, Eighteen Visions
December 5th, 2026
El Corazon, Seattle, WA
Photos and Review Travis Smith
In one of Seattle’s few remaining intimate, music-forward venues, a colossus of genres took the stage before a sold out crowd, though it’s hard to pin down exactly what kind of crowd it was. As Adrien Begrand of PopMatters once wrote, “Atreyu is too goth to be emo, too metal to be punk, and too brazenly emotional to be metal.” That eclectic identity was on full display. Atreyu’s music has appeared in movies, video games, and even climbed the Billboard Charts. But on this night Atreyu tore through a setlist focused on their 2025 album, The Curse, followed by an encore of other fan favorites.
The audience was just as diverse and storied as the band itself. For a group formed in 1998 and still releasing new music today, the turnout spanned generations. Young fans discovering them for the first time and older fans (wait… I’m old?) who’ve been there since the early days.
The show took place at El Corazon, a landmark of Seattle’s music scene. The venue holds only about 800 people, creating an atmosphere that feels less like a concert and more like a shared secret among those lucky enough to get a ticket. Before the band even stepped onstage, the room buzzed with the energy that only a packed, low ceilinged club can generate: sweaty, electric, and expectant. Eighteen Visions and Zero 9:36 primed the crowd, and by the time Brandon Saller grabbed the microphone and roared into their first song, the floor was already in motion. Fans climbed, pulled, and pushed forward to get just that much closer to the stage. Voices rose in unison, and the intimacy of the space brought a startling immediacy to every riff and scream.
There was an unexpected number of donuts present at this show, some being thrown to the crowd and at one point, thrown to the back of the room to the merch table.
When you get the chance to see a band like Atreyu in a venue as small and storied as El Corazon, it’s not just a concert, it’s a moment. And for everyone that packed inside El Corazon first night, that left with a hoarse voice and ears ringing, it was one worth remembering.
Don't miss the remainder of Atreyu's 2025 tour you can get tickets here: https://www.atreyumerch.com/pages/tour
Support your local music venues, catch a show at El Corazon: https://www.elcorazonseattle.com/
