Alex Varkatzas (born January 17, 1982) is an American musician, best known as the former lead vocalist of

metalcore Metalcore is a broadly defined fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, originating in the 1990s United States and becoming popular in the 2000s. Metalcore typically has aggressive verses and melodic choruses, combined ...

band

Atreyu Atreyu is an American metalcore band from Yorba Linda, California, formed in 1998. The band's current line-up consists of clean vocalist Brandon Saller, guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, bassist and unclean vocalist Marc "Porter" McKn ...

from its inception in 1998 until his departure from the band in 2020. In 2011, during the band's hiatus, Varkatzas also started a hardcore project with

Bleeding Through Bleeding Through is an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, formed in 1999. Influenced largely by hardcore punk and Swedish melodic death metal, the band was established by lead vocalist Brandan Schieppati as a personal projec ...

vocalist Brandan Schieppati named I Am War. He is currently the vocalist for Dead Icarus.

Atreyu

At 14, Varkatzas, along with guitarist Dan Jacobs and drummer

Brandon Saller Brandon Kyle Saller (born June 24, 1983) is an American musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the vocalist, keyboardist and former drummer of the metalcore band Atreyu, of which he is also a founding member. He is the ...

, formed a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band called Retribution. By 1998, when Varkatzas was 16, Retribution developed a heavier style and changed names to

, as seen on their 1998 independent release, '' Visions''. After their 2001 EP, '' Fractures in the Facade of Your Porcelain Beauty'', fell into the hands of

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thu ...

, the band signed to Victory and released their debut album, '' Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses'' in 2002. Since then, the band has released four other albums before embarking on hiatus,: '' The Curse'' in 2004, '' A Death-Grip on Yesterday'' in 2006, ''

Lead Sails Paper Anchor ''Lead Sails Paper Anchor'' is the fourth studio album by American metalcore band Atreyu. It is the band's first release with Hollywood Records, and the album had a significantly different sound to it than their previous albums, moving away from ...

'' in 2007, and ''

Congregation of the Damned ''Congregation of the Damned'' is the fifth studio album by American metalcore band Atreyu. It was released through Hollywood Records and Roadrunner Records on October 27, 2009. The album debuted at No. 18 on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 26, ...

'' in 2009. After ten years of worldwide success, the band went on hiatus. On July 1, 2014, the band officially announced their return from hiatus by playing several festivals including

Aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in Epicenter, the same area of the Mainshock, main shock, caused as the displaced Crust (geology), crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthq ...

and Slipknot's

Knotfest Knotfest is a music festival created in 2012 by American rock band Slipknot and their longtime manager and CEO of 5B Artist Management, Cory Brennan. The event has been held both as a destination festival and touring festival in several countries ...

. A new single was released on their official YouTube channel titled "So Others May Live" and plans for a new album titled "Long Live". Long Live was released on September 18, 2015. Furthermore, a second album called "In Our Wake" was released on October 12, 2018. 3 singles have been released so far including a music Video for the song In our wake. Another single, “Super Hero” was written by the band, along with

Aaron Gillespie Aaron Roderick Gillespie (born July 18, 1983) is an American musician, best known for being the drummer and clean vocalist for the Rock music, rock band Underoath, of which he is the only original member. He is also the lead singer and rhythm ...

Underoath Underoath (styled as Underøath or UnderOath) is an American rock band from Tampa, Florida. It was founded by lead vocalist Dallas Taylor and guitarist Luke Morton in 1997 in Ocala, Florida; subsequently, its additional members were from Tamp ...

and M. Shadows of

Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, lead gui ...

providing guest vocals in the verses. On August 22, 2020, news began circulating that Varkatzas had parted ways with Atreyu; however, the singer himself later confirmed that it was just a rumor. However, on September 30, 2020, Varkatzas and Atreyu both released statements confirming his departure.

I Am War

After Atreyu went on a hiatus in 2011, Varkatzas started a hardcore project named I Am War with Brandan Schieppati of

. The band released an album entitled ''Outlive You All'' in 2012.

Dead Icarus

In June 2021, Varkatzas announced the name of his new band, Dead Icarus. On August 11, 2023, the band released their first single, "Sellout", and announced they had signed with MNRK Heavy. The band would release their debut EP titled ''Ad Infernum'' on March 13, 2024 and their debut studio album titled ''ZEALOT'' on October 31, 2024. Dead Icarus consists of himself, Gabe Mangold (guitarist for

Enterprise Earth Enterprise Earth is an American deathcore band from Spokane, Washington. The band was formed in the late summer of 2014 by former members Dan Watson (formerly of Infant Annihilator) and BJ Sampson (formerly of Takeover) on vocals and guitars re ...

) and Brandon Zackey (drummer for

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varkatzas, Alex 1982 births Living people American rock singers American people of Greek descent Musicians from Orange County, California Singers from California Atreyu (band) members 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers Metalcore singers