Elements

I appreciate what "Elements" does, but I don't like it much. Atheist were an amazing band who were running on empty when they made this. The death of their iconic bassist Roger Patterson would have broken most bands. They completed the recording of "Unquestionable Presence" in the wake of this tragedy. That album was a masterpiece, an insane record and one of the most inventive metal albums of all time. I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been for Atheist to enter the studio and record a follow-up to that album in these circumstances (especially as a contractual obligation), but they did.

There were some line-up changes. Steve Flynn was replaced by Josh Greenbaum (who had been drumming for River Phoenix a year earlier). Kelly Shaefer's tendonitis problems led to the recruitment of Frank Emmi on (third) guitar, joining Rand Burkey on lead. The bass was handled by the multi-talented Tony Choy (again). This line-up feels more like a bunch of exemplary session players. It is almost like a jazz ensemble. "Elements" leans closer to jazz than any previous metal album. The biggest single influence here is 1970s jazz fusion. The closest comparisons I can make are with records like "Elegant Gypsy" and "Casino" by Al Di Meola, maybe with some Rush mixed in. The death metal and thrash elements that Atheist had pioneered are toned down.

"Elements" is a slower, more measured album than "Unquestionable Presence". It lacks the slalom breakdowns and the ultra-tight thrashing of their first two records. These are substituted with Spanish-esque guitar runs ("Water"), conga syncopation ("Samba Briza") and flashy jazz fusion leads (e.g., "Green"). Death metal and jazz fusion have always been natural allies. Both use quick tempos, non-linear structures and rely on good musicianship. The difference is that fusion is 'breezy' where death metal is 'heavy'. "Elements" lacks both of those qualities, being neither breezy nor heavy. Take a song like "Mineral" for example, it has some interesting instrumentation but it is hampered by the need to sound like 'a metal song', rather than sounding like a true alloy of the genres.

Song-writing has always been the band's strongest suit. It is inconsistent here. "Green" is the highlight and has some memorable moments. Beyond that, the album feels obtuse and awkward. There is some filler (e.g., "Displacement"), and most of the major songs fail to crawl out of the mire (e.g., "Animal", "Fire"). Much of it feels sluggish and reticent. The lyrics are less interesting than they were on the two previous albums, cobbled together around a loose 'elemental' concept. My guess is that the impossible circumstances surrounding this record crushed any of the 'playfulness' that such music required. The band did not want to make this record, and this feeling of reluctance emerges in the music itself. Atheist were talented enough to make a half-decent album, but reticence and jazz fusion do not mix.

The production is not ideal. Atheist swapped Scott Burns and Morrisound for another Florida studio (Pro Media). This producer was not well known for metal, but had worked with big names like Frank Zappa. The production feels more like a rock record than a metal one. It has a 'sheen', with big, loud drums. I don’t like the way it sounds, but it does fit the inconsistent, limbo, experimental nature of everything else. "Elements" feels like an experiment for all concerned, created by a band that was falling apart. Some of the experiments work; this is a genuine genre-defying record. Most of them do not work. The final twist is that Cynic dropped “Focus” two weeks after this was released. That record was a successful hybrid between death metal and jazz fusion and it left "Elements" for dead.

This album was not supposed to be made at all. Shortly after the premiere of "Unquestionable Presence", Atheist had personal frictions and completely different ideas for the future of the musicians (most often not related to playing music), and the band itself definitely planned to end their activity. It would happen soon, but a prior contract with Active Records (sublabel of Music For Nation) required the contract to be fulfilled and another album to be recorded. This was finally recorded in 40 days and in a slightly changed line-up (a new guitarist, Frank Emmi, appeared, and Steve Flynn was replaced here by Josh Greenbaum - which made the group a quintet for the first time), and at the same time surprising and for a moment restoring their "normal" concert activity.

This should not be surprising at all. "Elements" is another brilliant album in the Atheist discography, developing the earlier style, and at the same time bringing a large dose of quite risky and unusual novelties. This applies mainly to the fact that there is very little death metal on "Elements"...to be honest not at all. The style of the group has evolved towards something that could be called jazz metal, and more humanly speaking, towards something that knows no bounds. Because "Elements" is not only sounds similar to "Unquestionable...", but the disc, which at every step shows a different approach to jazzy metal patents, has an even better atmosphere, perfectly reflects the concept of the title elements (even such "Mineral" directly resembles a mining some raw material!), and it can throw a few pranks on its sleeve, in the form of samba from "Samba (sic!) Briza" and blues influences in the title track, which at the same time show the band's talent to involve completely different styles into their style.

The best thing is that a lot of the "company's" riffs, Scheafer's vocals (these are more "breathless" though), melodies and slightly easier patterns (although it should be in quote) still managed to keep the group here. Virtually every track falls on "Elements" to the same extent (what is most interesting, together with a few interludes like "See You Again" or "Displacement") and is distinguished by some riffs, solos, bass madness of Tony Choy etc. Okay, I would be lying here if I said that on "Elements" everything fits me, but - in advance - there is not much that bothers me on this album. What the max note takes away from its, is related to the sound. I know, the album was made in 40 days and a bit of a bad atmosphere, but well, you can clearly hear from this release that it did not spend too much time on mixing (the remaster does not help either). The sound sometimes rumbles, crackles and covers a lot of interesting nuances (eg. in "Water", when the vocals imposed themself). Fortunately, as a whole, it's not something that reduces the overall level of the disc by these few points - as for me only slightly. Well, bearing in mind that "Elements" is one of the last such exceptional albums signed by Atheist musicians, its value (and uniqueness) is much greater.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/05/atheist-elements-1993.html

This is Atheist's third release, and their last before their long hiatus. It is essentially following the pattern of their previous albums, increasingly jazzy. I don't mind this, but much of this gets weaker at the end. The interludes feel useless and the music is a little less manic.

There are four interludes on here, and they generally don't do much for the music. Pestilence did the same thing, and I think that was just as nonsensical. Some are better than others, but it's so marginal in degrees of not-sucking as to hardly matter. If I must, I'd pick Displacement as sucking least. Suffices to say, it's five minutes that this album would have been better off without. As to the elemental concept, I'd actually say that it mostly works. Most of the music here is still good, and it gives it a very mother-nature atmosphere.

The tendencies on this album are definitely more in the fusion direction than they had been. The song structures are still short, but the playing could easily be described as heavy jazz-fusion. The instruments all give off a very jazzy feel, and there's only a few things that keeps this tethered to metal. The first are the vocals. These aren't as aggressive as they were on the debut, but this is more aggressive than your normal fusion fare. The guitars are also still very distorted. To a hardcore death metal fan, these might sound wimpy, but they're intense compared to a Dimeola. Lastly, the aforementioned song structures. For a band that mentions King Crimson and Rush as major influences, and contains large doses of fusion, these are some short songs. Any of those bands would cover this time in half as many songs.

The performances on this particular release are weaker than their previous albums, but still pretty good. The guitar riffs lack the impact that the first two had. There also seems to be fewer of them, I'm guessing for some atmospheric purposes. Personally, I prefer the constant riffing approach. Some people find it chaotic and dizzying, but that's a big part of why I enjoy this band. Interestingly, I think I can detect a bit of the King Crimson in the guitar playing. Fire has this pronounced guitar noise that is very similar to what is found on 21st Century Schizoid Man. The solos aren't bad, but they're hardly show-stopping either. The vocals are slightly deeper than before, but definitely less aggressive. Also, he sounds tired on Fire and the title track. Combined with the more laid-back style, it essentially kills the songs. Choy is as good as ever, but the inferior material seems to be holding him back. The drummer is new for them, Greenbaum. This was his only album with them, and I'm glad. He's not bad, but Flynn was a cut or two above.

I listen to this album occasionally, but it's the weakest of their early triplet. It does beat what many bands have done, and for a third-best release, it's excellent. Perhaps only ten or so metal bands have had their third best album be this good. Much as the vocals in this album lose steam, so did this band. They were already going to call it quits, but this was forced on them. All in all, this is still pretty good. I'd recommend this to death, thrash, fusion, and prog fans.

Although it may be their sophomore 'Unquestionable Presence' which has gained the classic status amongst most metal fans, Floridan death metal group Atheist seems to have found their trademark sound with the third, and- at least for almost two decades before the release of 'Jupiter' - final album 'Elements'. Helping to innovate the fusion of heavy metal and jazz music that so many bands have followed since its release, 'Elements' stands as being an essential album in the history of death metal, as well as an incredibly tight piece of music by any metal standard.

With 'Unquestionable Presence', I found myself incredibly impressed by the band's great musical capability and thrashy sensibilities, even if the sound was a little too chaotic for its own good. With 'Elements', I would tend to agree with the general consensus here; the technicality has been kept more or less intact, but there has been quite a bit more diversity and memorable hooks here. Not least among these is the marvelous jazz and latin segments the band throws in here and there. Especially for the time that 'Elements' was released, hearing a chugging technical guitar onslaught followed by a quirky latin rhythm and acoustic flamenco solo was fairly fresh, and still sounds unexpected today.

With the band's talents already hailed from the first record onward, the musicianship of Atheist cannot be held in question by this point. They take the 'technical' label and run with it, not just necessarily playing fast, but playing well together. Much like a jazz band might, each musician seems to play off of each other, creating a sound that is surprisingly organic for a metal band. Of special note is bassist Tony Choy, who was always a highlight on earlier releases for his great skill and interesting style, but here he really takes the spotlight. Each track is made even more impressive through his rapidfire and clever bass hooks. Luckily, he is also held highly enough in the production mix to hear his fantastic performance. The vocals of Kelly Shaefer are also very distinctive, although they are sure to be the point of derision towards many listeners. While they may have sounded tighter on 'Unquestionable Presence' and they can sometimes even detract from the musical power here, Schaefer's vocal diversity is scarcely heard in the death metal genre.

A great conceptual masterpiece from these talented Americans, and arguably the greatest thing Atheist has ever done.

Elements has often received a bit of slack from the metal press and audience due to its extreme bait-and-switch of genre classification. However, it doesn't exactly take the acuity of a trend forecaster to see that this was where Atheist was headed, was ALWAYS headed as they had woven the threads of both Piece of Time and its superior successor Unquestionable Presence. The 'elemental' concept behind its construction is perhaps not the most novel of ideas, even for the 90s, as it had been explored as far back as classical times, but for the progressive/death metal genre it was indeed something unexpected. What's more, the fact that this was practically a posthumous effort, used to fill out their Metal Blade contract, and still ends up at the very threshold of quality is nothing short of amusing.

Go into this with a few deflated expectations from their frenetic sophomore album, and a mind open to the outside influences the band are expanding upon, and you might come out slightly the richer for it. Elements has its share of non-metal diversions, manifest mainly through interludes like the jazzy bounce of "Samba Briza", ambient guitar wailing of "Displacement" and "Fractal", or the subtle, stream-like clean tones of "See You Again". These are all quite brief, and though they do fill up a third of the track list, the remaining eight integrate Atheist's signature schizoid metallic components, albeit with a palette even wider than Unquestionable Presence. I found it curious that the band included not only a representation of "Fire", "Earth", "Air" and "Water", but also tracks devoted to another classical trilogy of elements "Animal", "Mineral" and plant ("Green"), with the title track finale serving as a curious congruence of all the above.

My biggest gripe with the album is that I didn't always feel the music itself was used as an apt aural metaphor for its corresponding substance. For example, "Green" lurches about like some stilted and confused behemoth, but other than perhaps a fantastic mental image of a walking or series of falling trees, I couldn't feel how it related. Same with "Water". I could see how the thick, popping bass-lines and swirling vortex might represent some maelstrom or whirlpool, but it did not seem to offer much submersion into this important element. "Air" is a bit more successful, despite the choppiness of its pacing, the calmer intro and ensuing structure did feel redolent of shifting jet streams or whorls of force. "Animal" becomes the most experimental as far as its architecture, with clinical, technical guitar lines woven below Shaefer's resonant tribal chaos, but "Mineral" felt a measure too playful to match its subterranean implications.

The remaining elemental representations are pretty good though, almost as if the album was intentionally back-loaded with quality. The swaying, searing "Fire' is the best single piece on the album, cast in a flux of ember-like jazzy passages and stoking furnace fusion. "Earth" rampages about with a steady, tectonic sureness but also deviates into sprightly, manic rhythms like banks of sharp crystals; and "Elements" justifies its nearly six minute length with some fascinating notation. The mix of the album is not one of its fortes, as Schaefer often feels too clanging and metallic even in elements where that style doesn't suit the atmosphere, but then, those atmospheres never feel 100% accurate to their adopted matter to begin with. Having three guitarists for this (they added Frank Emmi to the lineup) doesn't make much of a difference.

You'll never get that same, bewildered impression that Unquestionable Presence leaves you with, however I would not consider that a negative: a smoother, subtler companion was exactly what I would have wished for, and even though Elements is the band's worst overall full-length, and the band's heart was perhaps not fully involved, there are still just enough ideas to pick through to recommend at least a few listens.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I don't really see what the big deal is about this album. Sure it was something that hadn't really been done before, but it's not especially good. Cynic did the whole death/jazz fusion better albeit a whole lot more 'out there' (the jury's still out on Pestilence's "Spheres"). The whole thing was thrown together in about a month and a half and it shows in places. This is ambitious in the use of random ideas and instruments that don't really belong in metal, much less death metal, (a samba?!) but some of the dumb half-thrash ideas make their way into the riffage of some of the songs.

That's not to say there aren't songs worth listening to, it's just that they aren't up to the caliber of the highlights from the previous two albums. No "Piece of Time", "Why Bother?", or "Unquestionable Presence" here. At times, It seems as though they only had a vague idea of what they wanted to do with the album and a few songs that went along pretty well with it. The "core" elements (Water, Air, Fire, Earth) are all good and memorable, but the others really just seem like filler with the only exceptions being the opener "Green" and the previously mentioned Samba, which are very good.

The rest ranges from self-indulgent wankery in the name of 'progression' (Displacement, Fractal Point, See You Again), to repetitive half-thrash influenced garbage (Animal, Mineral) to overlong and boring (Elements). There just isn't enough solid material to cover the 42 minutes here; It would have functioned a lot better as an EP, but blah blah contractual obligations.

I understand why this was thrown together and also why it's so influential, but it's not worthy of the monumentous praise it almost unanimously receives. Pick up the debut instead - you'll be a lot happier in the long run.

Decapitated head licking your cunt
Sucking all the blood from your stump
Intestinal guts taking their hold
Leaving you dead, stiff and cold

Controlling the minds of the bloodthristy dead
Unholy seizure slicing through your head
Who will survive only time will tell
Dripping from your mouth comes a rancid smell
Lobotomised corpse shredding your flesh
Leaving your body a bloody mess

Scream bloody gore
Scream bloody gore

If one were to attempt to give credence to that hoary old cliché, "from humble origins...", I am not sure that there would be a better exemplar than the evolution of the death metal subgenre. Initially but a sweat-stung flesh-wound on the side of thrash that grew gangrenous, death metal was amongst the lowest filth that had yet been diagnosed by the worried physicians of modern music. But for all its basis in empty sound and fury, in vile shock tactics, within ten years it had become perhaps the most artistically diverse of all the subgenres of metal. Nothing in the early works of Death or Deicide ever suggested that its sulphurous soil could prove hospitable to works with aims beyond pissing off the neighbours and rousing Balrogs. But then came Atheist, and suddenly, all turned to Green.

By their own account, the members of Atheist were just a couple of stoners who were really into Rush and Watchtower and wanted to take those ideas to the extreme, and with this in mind it becomes clear that their seminal debut Piece of Time and its groundbreaking follow-up Unquestionable Presence represent a group of passionate artists gradually working their way out of the shadow of Slayer which had shrouded every extreme metal band of the early '90s. The death of bassist Roger Patterson, an otherworldly talent if there ever was one, almost signalled the end of that journey before it had even properly begun, but for once record company demands found themselves aligned with the interests of art, and one final work was undertaken.

Elements is an album upon against which an army of adjectives could be deployed, only for the appraiser to later find each one lying broken before it. Appropriately, given its lyrical theme, the album might best be described naturalistically. It is the creative spark bursting into flame, the muse swept into flight by the wind, a spirit-quenching drink, a seed breaking terra firma. In no uncertain terms, I reckon it to be a masterpiece. More importantly, it is a masterpiece that might only be possible within the anti-social realms of death metal.

One might liken Elements conceptually to Rush's "Natural Science" or "The Trees" (at least in terms of the idea of personifying forces of nature), but, as good as those songs are, they come off as something of a lyrical gimmick. Atheist's effort on the other hand does not, and much of this has to do with the intrinsically esoteric character of death metal itself. Lyricist Kelly Shaefer is, by metal's ESL standards, a respectable poet with an uncommon gift for phrases that stick with the listener, but even the greatest of literary minds are obviously ill-equipped to communicate the 'perspectives' of nature. Atheist, perhaps by chance, have found a way around this stumbling block. For all their grace and precision, they are still playing ear-splitting megawatt death metal, and the very intensity of the music, the hammering riffs and blistering solos and throat-shredding screams act as a filter, obscuring our understanding of what is actually being said. One catches the gist, images of natural splendour raped by human ignorance and crying out for mercy or retribution, and these fragments take root in the mind and grow stronger with each successive listen, nourished by the power of their music

And I must emphasize yet again the importance of the death metal in Atheist's bloodlines. Thrash could not have abided "Animal" with its deliberate, almost stately tempo, its regal ebb and flow and dream-like miasma of echoing vocals and squeaking harmonics and nimble bass work; it is decadent, a word alien to thrash save for Coroner's famous rejection of the idea. When Atheist thrash, they thrash like a snake with a broken back, foetal coils unexpectedly lashing out rigidly in accordance with the odd-time charms of an evil eight-armed Hindu deity of a drummer. No, it is only death metal, too focused on destruction to do more than monitor the decimal levels of its adherents that could have been duped into sheltering Atheist and their kin.

And if the death metal mode helped to render Atheist’s lyrical aims incomprehensible to all but the most assiduous of listeners, they have no qualms about making their music itself as overt as fire painted across a skyline. This is metal as no one imagined it could ever be, like Anacrusis unbound and obsessed with fusion jazz, compositions as boundless and powerful as their namesake elements. Witness the waltzing "Air", which rises from breezy Al DiMeola licks and breathy cymbal kisses to a veritable blizzard of activity. Riffs circle around Shaefer's impressive shrieks before plunging down and laying waste to the tundra. This isn't catchy, it’s the feeling of being caught by an unstoppable wind and forced to move, to bang one's head, to BREATHE the BREEZE. And it just keeps unfurling till you wonder just how any band could have found a way to make mere jazz feel so... commanding.

The whole record feels revelatory in the same way that the albums which altered the course of the genre's development did upon release, but unlike most of these, it is a sensation independent of the idea of 'influence.' Elements might change the way one thinks about metal, but few if any have followed this particular sound to a great degree. How could they? And so "Mineral", which begins with the mechanical regularity of a drill and devolves into the mathematical chaos of a cave-in remains as flung out of time as it must have in 1993. Where most death metal concerning itself with the idea of being 'beautiful' has followed in the plush, gothic footsteps of My Dying Bride and Edge of Sanity, Atheist remain as crystalline as ever, with piercing angular riffs and taut bass strings which refuse to omit an iota of sexiness. What does one say, in the face of such gleaming perfection? How does one quantify the 'atmosphere' of the unrelenting "Earth", or the incredibly busy "Water"? Certainly not in the same terms one would describe an Opeth album.

Poets have been trying to encapsulate the elements for aeons. Perhaps I will be allowed a few more years to muse upon these Elements.

I tip my hat to the creation
And its rewarding disposition
Formed by something
Lacking nothing here
Something so divine
A spectacle of Elements

Stand-Out Tracks: "Air", "Green", "Elements"

I've always considered Atheist to be one of the few death metal bands who were capable of incorporating ample amounts of technicality into their music while still remaining tasteful, original, and interesting. Their third and final album "Elements" is no exception to this notion, as it is without a doubt, the most experimental effort of their career as well as one of the more memorable DM albums of the early 90's.

This album is quite different from the previous two, exhibiting a heavy amount of jazz influence and a noticable lack of heaviness. Kelly Shaefer's vocals are far removed from the normal vocal work expected of the average old school death metal band and lean much more on the thrash side of things, and the drumming exhibits all but the commonplace barrage of double bass and blastbeats. In other words, this album strays far away from the boundaries and expectations of death metal and explores various genres and styles while still demonstrating the intricate time signatures, captivating riffs, and unconventional song structures that characterized their past work.

Songs like "Water", and "Samba Briza" do well in capturing Atheist's jazz influences in terms of style and instrumentation and their disregard for the limitations of their genre (the latter song being one that I never thought I would hear on a death metal album). On the other hand, songs like "Earth" and "Mineral" show their proficiency in rhythm which is, in my opinion, the strongest point of the album. Josh Greenbaum does an amazing job in establishing grooves and drum patterns that display great amounts of creativity and technicality but don't ever become self-indulgent or distracting, and is definitely the backbone of this album. That is not to say that the other musicians on this album should go unnoticed, however. Tony Choy also displays talent on this album, with his basslines being as equally interesting and technically proficient as the drumming at times, especially on aforementioned standout track "Samba Briza".

While not as nearly as clear and vibrant as Atheist's previous album "Unquestionable Presence", the production on "Elements" is still quite lively and is a nice break from the usual guitar centered tech-death production jobs. It has an obvious emphasis on the drums, which is unusual for a DM record. They are put right up front and have a certain punch to them, which is a great advantage to the album in the end.

The most incredible aspect of this album, as pointed out by the reviewers before me, is the fact that it was completed in only 40 days, which shows how talented Atheist as songwriters where at the time and ultimately, how unfortunate their break-up was.

This album is a forgotten masterpiece of the early 90's death metal era, and it definitely deserves a listen if you have an appreciation for original technical death metal.

Atheist has never been a one trick pony. They managed to come a long way from Piece of Time to Unquestionable Presence alone in terms of technicality and songwriting. Elements takes Atheist to the next level and as such they start flaunting their jazzy side more freely. To this writer, it felt like the band mildly flirted with the idea of mixing death and jazz on their sophomore album, but Elements really puts it in your face. The aggression of past efforts is still there, it's just evolved into a slightly different beast.

The riffs have become more bizarre, the songs present many different paths of construction, but at the same time, not varying so much that it sounds sloppily thrown together just for the sake of trying to blow your mind. There is catchiness to Atheist that is very hard to grasp, let alone replicate, yet they make it seem easy. So many technical bands have tried doing what Atheist do and most of them fall flat on their face and can't write memorable, good songs. Either that or they suffer from 'studio syndrome' and can't perform any of their material in a competent fashion in a live environment. Songs like Water and Green are so catchy and eccentric that they'd send any competition crying home to mamma!

A very noticeable difference in the sound of Elements is that the drumming is much more concentrated and doesn't tread in the area of traditional blasting as on the first two albums. Does this cause a loss of aggression? Not at all when combined with thundering bass lines, powerful leads and even more solid rhythms. Most of the members contribute to each song, so you get a lot of variety of ideas to keep things interesting. Each song is easily distinguishable from the others, while not coming across as suffering from ADD.

Though, the one thing that continues to amaze me to this day is that Elements was written, recorded and produced in just FORTY DAYS! That leaves about 2-3 weeks to come up with entirely new material from scratch and 1-2 weeks to produce and mix it. Under such pressure, you'd expect any band to cave and just throw a bunch of random crap together and hope for the best...but everyone in Atheist pooled their creative intelligence together and really did their best to live up to the standards of quality that they showed in past efforts - ¦and they really outdid themselves.

If you're a fan of Cynic, late period Death and Spiral Architect then this should be a tasty treat for your ears.

Let me begin with this. “Elements” is not meant for everybody. Wrong. Let me rephrase. “Elements” is meant for the very few. In specific, those who like their death metal in a very unique mix with progressive attitude in musical content and song writing style as well as a deep jazzy feeling to it. There you have it then.

For those who want to continue reading what follows in the next couple of paragraphs is a somewhat more detailed explanation of this weird musical style.

So we’ve got progressive attitude only it’s completely different than that of “Opeth” or of “Into Eternity”. “Elements” consists of smaller songs and entails so many different influences that most bands do not present in their entire careers.

There are 12 songs according to the info on the album. Well the “good news” is that four of them are actually playing the role of “brake time” for the listeners’ ears. The “bad news” is that four is still not enough! Ha ha! Got you! Let’s proceed further. Another “good thing” is that songs are between 3 to 4 minutes long with only two going over 5 minutes. The “bad thing” however, is that due to the diverse musical background all songs seem like their 9 and 10 minutes long! Ha ha! Good one huh?

So what else is there? Plenty my friends... In “Elements” you will find odd time signatures, which are especially evident in the drum patterns, arrangements that will blow you away and crazy shifts in tempo and musical context (from death to jazz to death-prog and so on).

There is also enough technical efficiency to send the guys in “Dream Theater” packing. The bass frequency is all over the place. The solos are breathtaking. The guitarist is playing his ass off with riffs and solos coming out of nowhere. It’s almost unbelievable what Atheist manage to deliver in this album. And you know what’s funny? You get the feeling that these guys are just jamming. That’s how natural all these sound!!!

This album has been and will continue being a well concealed secret of the past. If you want your metal music with great depth, pure quality and real progressive nature, but most importantly you are willing to spend time listening to a record that will shake your metal world… well then… I guess this is your stop. Get down of the bus and enjoy!

Cynic and Atheist singlehandedly sent waves through the Metal community by not being pure Death Metal, and ended up completely being undone by it. However, if there ever was a classic case of literally being years ahead of their time, it's now. While Cynic delivered a one-hit knock-out with "Focus," Atheist's final statement isn't as Death Metal-infused as its predecessor, but it's their brightest moment, showcasing an experimentation that seemed to come naturally, but that would never be repeated to the same skill exemplified.

Atheist effortlessly ran through the gamete of genres to experiment with, and every one of them was a complete success. Jazz, Samba, Middle-Easten flavoured music, each expressing a common theme in their music while keeping an almost otherworldly technical expertise about them. Let it not be said that this band ever lost their teeth, though. Yeah, they liked to lace their music with exotic sounds, but at the heart, Athetist played thrashy Death Metal with ever-present, violent grooving and melody that ranges from sombre to completely awkward, like a lumbering behemoth. Songs like "Green" show off inauspicious intro that quickly turns into a rhythm that's not necessarily as violent as it is one of the most headband-friendly riffs ever written. Just after that, though, the song "Water" gives insight into Atheist's brand of progressive Death Metal, as after the first verse, bam, sitar solo. Essentially, this is what to expect for the next hour and a half.

"Samba Briza" is also more insight into just how far out into their own creative ether that Atheist have drifted. As the name would imply, it's just a Samba. Absolutely jaw-dropping bass from Tony Choy, with a bebop-singalong inducing guitar and piano solo.

Even further, you can see evidence of Atheist's sphere of influence by picking up on several aspects of their music that's sort of pushed back into the mix. For instance, ever wondered if anyone had used Meshuggah's alien lead guitar tone before? Atheist did. "Air" and "Mineral" both feature that compressed tone that sounds identical to Meshuggah.

The influence of this album, especially now that it's been remastered and re-released, with be incalculable in the near future. A completely fitting epitaph for a band that should made more music is exactly what we have in our hands here. This album is one of the best, and should've changed Metal. Although it hasn't yet, give it one spin and you'll know why the time just hasn't come yet.

I knew Atheist were thechnical as fuck and that they weren't afraid to throw in some funky jazz elements to their music, but this record showed a side of Atheist that was even more funky and out there as far as originality is concerned. I have never heard a metal record that sounded like this before. There are samba elements to the music and latin grooves that accentuate the riffing and the harsh vocals perfectly.

I heard that Kelly Schaffer was looking to make a heavy record without the use of double bass drumming. Marcell Dissantos sure does a hell of a drum in the percussion department, but I can't help but feel that Steve Flynn is just that much better. The bass playing is absloutely phenomenal on this record. Tony Choy delivers the goods tenfold on this and accentuates tastefulness with technically proficient playing.

The song structures here are all over the place, definitely not following a verse-chorus-verse strucure but rather layering patterns and musical passages in forms shapes and colors rather than formal song arrangements. "Earth" is a great example of this. It has some killer riffs mixed with an almost R&B breakdown only to blow out with metal rampage towards the end of the song. There are even some interludes which are a lot of fun. "Samba Briza" is particularly entertaining. This track is a little piece of latin jazz music with some cool congas and some killer piano and guitar interplay during the short leads.

This record however is not about being as heavy as possible, rather to captivate you into really LISTENING. This is not a heavy record, not as heavy as their other releases. The band wrote and recorded this in forty days, which is astonishing as the tracks are super tight and the music is rythmically and melodically complex in its composition. They may have caught a lot of people by surprise with this sound, but I find it to be unique and brilliant.