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Atheist: Elements
31/12/12 || Sokaris
All good things come to an end, though everything seems to begin anew again, especially these days considering the myriad of oldschool reunions, the present band on topic included. Atheist was essentially disbanded before “Elements” was conceived, mainman Kelly Shaefer admitting that the album was created in a rush to fulfill a contractual obligation. Now this sounds like an absolute recipe for disaster. A songwriter, more or less without a band, being given a strict deadline from a bunch of suits to create an album under any circumstances. Fortunately for us, Shaefer is both a professional and an artist and capped off the original Atheist trilogy of albums with “Elements”, a quasi-conceptual piece on, well, the elements and nature and other hippie stuff.
So Atheist set to the studio to deliver their swansong, a trippy concoction of death metal, thrash, jazz, prog and… “Samba briza.” “Samba briza” is an interlude that will likely send purists to the eject button, considering they’ve made it that far. Despite “Elements” being more “out there” than the pair of classics that were released previous it continues along the basic line of Atheist’s evolution, upping the outside influences and refining the musicianship. Unfortunately that’s also what holds this album back, ever so slightly. Don’t get me wrong, we’re talking a great bunch of songs here but bereft of a lot of the fury and energy that helped define Piece of time and Unquestionable presence .
And this is why you’re reading a regular review instead of a Class6(66).
I hate to knock the album because it’s a great listen, it’s spunky and it does some goddamn crazy/awesome stuff. I mentioned before the samba interlude (samba is essentially dancey Latin music) but there’s also the intro of “Animal” which sounds like some extra spicy salsa metal, driving forward with a staccato melody that stands out as one of the album’s most memorable moments. “Mineral” features some bizarre tempo shifting and highlights a dread-inducing midsection that serves as an example of what’s missing from too much of this album. A couple headbanging sections here and there and an overall more ferocious approach to the music could’ve made this the center jewel in Atheist’s crown.
Though it seems a little petty to bitch about an album being “only” really good, it’s only due to the bar being set so damn high in the band’s earlier releases.
As far as the individual instruments go, of course the playing is phenomenal, the band utilizing three guitarists and an even higher presence of bass this time around. The guitars play moderately distorted melodic stingers, dizzying riffs and that trademark glassy shriek of the leads is maintained even if Shaefer isn’t playing them. The bass is even more varied this time around, given more room to play melodically and take center stage with less emphasis on heaviness. An interesting approach to drums is taken, inventive syncopation taking the place of double bass rolling (something the band wanted to try to do without this time around) and unconventional rhythmic qualities coloring the entire record. Vocally Kelly is Kelly, getting the job done.
Basically we have an extension of Atheist’s sound, just tipped on one side a little too much. The chaotic balance between a few ambitious metalheads managing to simultaneously incorporate complex technique and sheer aggression into their songs is what really made the previous two records mandatory listening. It’d be the same case if the band went all out brutal and sacrificed their eccentricities.
Still very much worth being checked out, especially to anyone seeking jazz and Latin influence in their metal.
Also they forgot the most important element… Heart!
- Information
- Released: 1993
- Label: Music for Nations
- Website: www.atheistmusic.com
- Band
- Kelly Shaefer: vocals, guitars
- Rand Burkey: guitars
- Frank Emmi: guitars
- Tony Choy: bass
- Josh Greenbaum: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Green
- 02. Water
- 03. Samba briza
- 04. Air
- 05. Displacement
- 06. Animal
- 07. Mineral
- 08. Fire
- 09. Fractal Point
- 10. Eart
- 11. See you again
- 12. Elements
