Atheist

Published: 2 Sep 2024
Last updated: 7 Sep 2024

Piece of Time

Piece of Time Album Cover

Atheist totally hit the ground running with their debut Piece of Time, a mission to twist Thrash and Death Metal in unique ways and really push the genres down some crazy progressive and technical avenues.

This album specifically leans quite heavily on Thrash as the baseline for songwriting, riffage and energy, but features both a harsh edge taken from Death Metal, and enough technical flourishes, guitar solos and chaotic jazzy drumming to really push that aforementioned progressive angle, interwoven throughout. It all becomes a whirlwind, a veritable maelstrom of chaos - and while it can be quite easy to be lost in said chaos, each relisten is always greatly rewarded in getting closer to deciphering the methods from the madness.

Atheist’s entire output, including this album, really needs to be heard to be believed and its quite astonishing the way they’d top this with Unquestionable Presence just a year later.

Best tracks: Piece of Time, Unholy War, Room with a View, I Deny, Why Bother?

Unquestionable Presence

Unquestionable Presence Album Cover

A truly incredible album, taking the first as a blueprint and upping the creative, technical, jazzy ante. Its incredibly maximalist in its approach, each small chunk of music dizzying in its complexity, yet everything threads together perfectly and no note, solo, bass lick, complex rhythm feels unnecessary or excessive despite the extreme compression Atheist perform by having no song last more than 5 minutes here.

RIP Roger Patterson, gone too soon.

Best tracks: Mother Man, Unquestionable Presence, Enthralled in Essence, An Incarnation’s Dream, The Formative Years, And the Psychic Saw

Elements

Elements Album Cover

The final of the 90s Atheist trilogy, tragically cut short by the death of Roger Patterson, and an album, written, performed and produced in 40 days, wholly out of contract obligation.

It does unfortunately show, mainly in the production and mixing being very muddy, blunt and blurry - but beneath that is a pretty solid Atheist album nonetheless, with a lot more jazz elements/accents scattered throughout. It unfortunately doesn’t sound quite as coherent as an album, with some experimental whiffs and some nice-sounding but ultimately pointless interludes - and missing a drummer with the ability of Steven Flynn will always hurt no matter who you draft as a replacement. Given the many circumstances surrounding this album, its still a testament to the members that this album is as good as it is, and yet I can’t help but wonder what we potentially missed out on…

Best Tracks: Green, Air, Mineral, Elements

Jupiter

Jupiter Album Cover

Atheist returns, a whopping 17-years later, and yet don’t sound like they really missed a beat, still boasting razor sharp Technical Death tendencies, and all the complexities and flourishes that made Atheist so good and so fun to listen to - yet not feeling like a pointless retread and instead still having new fresh ideas here and there to offer.

I had initially written this off as a fine album but strictly inferior to earlier material, as that’s the case with an awful lot of band comebacks, especially comebacks after such a long hiatus - and while I still somewhat hold that opinion, I’ve certainly become a lot more favourable and softer towards this album as a whole. Its relentless aggression featured throughout never impedes any of the progressive creativity which is an impressive feat, and that gives it a unique edge amongst the other few Atheist albums, even if I have production and songwriting nitpicks here and there.

Best Tracks: Second to Sun, Fraudulent Cloth, Faux King Christ