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ATHEIST  Unquestionable Presence (CLEAR VINYL)  LP   (Season Of Mist)   22.00
Unquestionable Presence (CLEAR VINYL) IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

Out of all of the death metal bands that were flirting with prog and avant-garde tendencies in the early 90's (a crowd that included the likes of Pestilence, Cynic, Death and Nocturnus), Atheist was the one that seemed to venture the furthest into full-blown jazz territory, releasing a trio of albums that would continue to mutate more and more into a strange sort of experimental fusion-death that liberally applied elements of tripped-out psychedelia, sweat-soaked samba (!) and similar Latin influences into their complex, crushing metal. Atheist's three albums (1989's Piece of Time, 1991's Unquestionable Presence and 1993's mind-bending Elements) went on to become landmarks in the field of progressive death metal; though the band reunited in recent years and produced the solid comeback album Jupiter for Season Of Mist, it's those earlier albums that I always go back to, as these guys sounded so unique, so outre, their music has aged remarkably well in the decades since their release. Founded by guitarist Kelly Shaefer (who also handled the vocals in Atheist, with a ferocious yowl that was totally unlike the guttural growling most other bands were doing back then) and his crew of pot-smoking visionaries in the early 80's as a standard issue thrash metal band, by the end of the decade they had evolved into one of the most unique metal bands to ever come out of the Sunshine State, morphing into something much more complex and left-field than almost anyone else in the Floridian death metal scene, combining dizzying baroque arrangements and highly complex time signatures with vicious, discordant riffs and heavy doses of fusiony jazz, Latin music and prog influences. Unsurprisingly, these albums went over the heads of most metalheads when they originally came out, the complexity and insane tonal shifts throwing most 'bangers for a loop. They never received the sort of widespread acclaim that many of their peers enjoyed throughout the 90's, and Atheist ended up breaking up not long after the release of their third album Elements. Released on the long-defunct Active Records, all three of the early Atheist LPs were later re-mastered and reissued with bonus materials on CD via Relapse Records in 2005, followed by these new limited-edition vinyl reissues on new label Season Of Mist that pretty much duplicate the original Active releases all the way down to the center labels.

Recorded in the wake of the tragic highway accident that took the life of founding bassist Roger Patterson while on tour, it's amazing that the band was even able to continue on, let alone release their second album Unquestionable Presence, which is considered by many to be the band's finest hour and one of the all-time classic albums of 90's era prog-death. Atheist were at the absolute top of their game here, though. As work had already been started on the album prior to Patterson's death, the band carried on, drafting Cynic bassist Tony Choy to complete the album, and the result is a whiplash assault of some of the finest avant-garde death metal that you will ever hear. A savage set of unorthodox death metal songs that showcased the band's ever growing musical prowess and songwriting chops, Presence delivered eight songs of complicated, proggy metal that was at the time unmatched in terms of sheer creativity. Opening with the frantic tech-death workout of their classic "Mother Man", the band sets into one of their most lethal grooves, but they follow that with a dizzying array of punishing chromatic riffage, galloping thrash and soaring sinister leads, unexpected slap bass playing that actually fits right in with the band's jazzy sound, the songs shifting through myriad time signature changes, the complicated song structures constantly changing shape, the band moving through brutal death thrash into reckless prog workouts and into strange, atmospheric jazziness. As the album unfolds through songs like "Retribution", "An Incarnation's Dream" and the title track, there's plenty of those killer proggy solos, ambient samples and fusiony breaks strewn throughout, and never once would you mistake this for just another rote death metal record. While the band had yet to immerse themselves in the sort of samba/jazz elements that would appear on their third album, there is still a heavy undercurrent of jazz and fusion technique with the guitar playing, and some of those Latin rhythms do start to peer through on a couple of songs. The whole feel of the album stood out even further with Shaefer's strange wordplay, his wicked sneering scream belting out lyrics that almost read like arcane motivational tracts, and his unique vocal phrasing is just as important to Atheist's singular sound as any of the other elements that the band is known for. A landmark album in the field of technical/progressive death metal. Highly recommended.


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