Atheist (band)

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist

Atheist is an American death metal band from Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1987.<ref name="Allmusic-1" />

The band's original lineup consisted vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kelly Shaefer, lead guitarist Rand Burkey, bassist Roger Patterson and drummer Steve Flynn.<ref name="LarkinHR">Template:Cite book</ref> The band is known for its highly technical playing style, and its 1991 album Unquestionable Presence is regarded as a landmark of the technical death metal genre.<ref name="Allmusic-2">Template:Cite web</ref> The band gained a following largely within its own genre.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After disbanding in 1994, the group reformed in 2006 and has since released one studio album and a live DVD.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Atheist in 2006

Formation and Piece of Time (1984-1990)

Atheist was originally formed in 1984 in Sarasota, Florida, firstly under the name Oblivion and later as R.A.V.A.G.E. (which stands for "Raging Atheists Vowing A Gory End").<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Frontman Kelly Shaefer stated that on two occasions early in the band's career, the police were called on the band by the management of the clubs they were performing at, leading them to be "drag[ged] out" of the venues. Shaefer recalled the incidents: "There weren't that many clubs to play in so when we booked in regular rock and roll clubs that were used to booking bands like Mötley Crüe, we'd play and they were like, "what the fuck?!' [...] They actually put our stuff out in the alley, and we weren't allowed to be in the club. We didn't do anything other than play music that sounded crazy. They just didn't know how to take it. I remember the guy giving us the cutting of the neck sign like "Stop, stop." We thought it was great. It was a notch in our belt to be kicked out and have police carting our cabinets out the door."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

They released their first album, Piece of Time, in 1989.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Death of Roger Patterson and Unquestionable Presence (1991)

Shortly before entering the studio to record their second album, Roger Patterson died on February 12, 1991, in a van accident at the age of 22.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The band was on tour with Candlemass. Although the band travelled by bus on this tour, they traveled home by van at the end of the tour to avoid paying an extra day of rental fees. The band's guitar tech, who was driving, attempted to pass a semi, "miscalculated his approach back into a lane, and went off the road," according to Shaefer. When the guitar tech attempted to pull the van back onto the highway, he lost control of the vehicle, resulting in Patterson's ejection from the vehicle. Patterson attempted to get himself back up off the ground, but was unable to, and went into shock. The crash occurred in rural Louisiana, and 48 minutes passed before emergency services began to arrive. Patterson died en route to the hospital, and Shaefer recalled that he was "coldly" informed of Patterson's death by a nurse while he was receiving stitches for his injuries in the accident. The band received an outpouring of support and condolences from fans in response to Patterson's death. Shaefer recalled Patterson's memorial service: "It was an odd sight to see all of these kids at the funeral in their Atheist shirts. The preacher was sweating bullets. I guarantee he had never seen a service like this before."<ref>As quoted from the liner notes of Unquestionable Presence</ref>

Shortly afterwards, they recruited ex-Pestilence and Cynic bassist Tony Choy to record their second album, Unquestionable Presence, which was released in 1991.<ref name="LarkinHR" />

Elements and disbandment (1992-2007)

Atheist disbanded for the first time in 1992, then reunited in 1993 to record a third album, Elements,<ref name="LarkinHR" /> fulfilling their contractual requirements, before disbanding for a second time in early 1994.

Relapse Records reissued the band's three albums in late 2005, as well as a vinyl box set containing the three albums plus the R.A.V.A.G.E. demo "On They Slay".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In January 2006, Atheist announced they were regrouping to perform live during the summer and autumn. The line-up was Shaefer, Burkey, Choy and Flynn. Shaefer only provided vocals due to long battles with tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Gnostic guitarist Sonny Carson played all of Shaefer's guitar parts, while Burkey was later replaced by Chris Baker of Gnostic.

Reformation and Jupiter (2008-present)

On July 12, 2008, Shaefer issued a statement indicating that he and Flynn were working on new material.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A month later, Shaefer announced that they had commenced the recording of a new studio album, which would be their first in over 15 years. The band toured Europe and the US in 2009 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Piece of Time. A live DVD filmed at the Wacken Open Air Festival appeared towards the end of the year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On July 11, 2010, Atheist revealed that their fourth studio album would be called Jupiter and was set for a November release.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They signed a deal with Season of Mist and Jupiter was released on November 8, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On August 3, 2010, Shaefer and Flynn announced on behalf of the band that Tony Choy would not be appearing on Jupiter but was still likely to appear in live performances with the band due to his own musical aspirations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The band announced in 2014 that it was working on a fifth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In February 2018, Atheist signed with Agonia Records,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while they continued to tour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Musical style and influences

Atheist is considered one of the pioneers of technical death metal. Mike DaRonco of Allmusic said Atheist are "arguably the ultimate progressive metal band of their day".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Atheist have also been noted for elements of thrash metal, jazz and progressive rock present in their music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to Langdon Hickman of Invisible Oranges, "Like almost every metal band of the 1980s, Atheist also did not go untouched by progressive metal. Progressive rock mostly filtered into heavy metal through those 1970s hard rock and heavy metal bands that laid [the] foundational roots for the metal of the 1980s."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Vocalist Kelly Shaefer said: "One of the main reasons Atheist ended up being such a strange band was we were trying so hard not to sound like anybody else that we went way overboard. We were outsiders within an outsider's scene so we made it doubly hard for ourselves."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early in the band's career, the members cited Rush, Kiss, Exodus, Kreator, Dark Angel, Metallica, Accept and Destruction as influences.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Members

Current

Former Template:Col-begin Template:Col-3 Guitarists

Template:Col-3 Bassists

Template:Col-3 Drummers

Template:Col-end

Timeline <timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:90 top:5 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1987 till:{{#time:m/d/Y}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1987 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1987

Colors = 

id:Vocals   value:red         legend:Lead_vocals
id:Backing  value:pink        legend:Backing_vocals
id:Lead     value:teal        legend:Lead_guitar
id:Rhythm   value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_guitar
id:Bass     value:blue        legend:Bass
id:Drums    value:orange      legend:Drums
id:Album    value:black       legend:Studio_album
id:Live     value:gray(0.8)   legend:Live_album
id:bars     value:gray(0.95)

BackgroundColors = bars:bars

LineData = 

layer:back
 color:album
  at:08/30/1989
  at:08/30/1991
  at:08/30/1993
  at:11/08/2010
 color:live
  at:07/21/2009

BarData = 

bar:Kelly     text:"Kelly Shaefer"

bar:Rand      text:"Rand Burkey"
bar:Frank     text:"Frank Emmi"
bar:Sonny     text:"Sonny Carson"
bar:Jonathan  text:"Jonathan Thompson"
bar:Jason     text:"Jason Holloway"
bar:Daniel    text:"Daniel Martinez"
bar:Jerry     text:"Jerry Witunsky"
bar:ChrisB    text:"Chris Baker"
bar:ChrisM    text:"Chris Martin"
bar:Alex      text:"Alex Haddad"

bar:Roger     text:"Roger Patterson"
bar:Tony      text:"Tony Choy"
bar:Travis    text:"Travis Morgan"
bar:Yoav      text:"Yoav Ruiz-Feingold"

bar:Steve     text:"Steve Flynn"
bar:Josh      text:"Josh Greenbaum"
bar:Dylan     text:"Dylan Marks"

PlotData = 

width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:Kelly     from:start      till:03/01/1992 color:vocals
bar:Kelly     from:start      till:03/01/1992 color:rhythm width:3
bar:Kelly     from:03/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:vocals
bar:Kelly     from:03/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:rhythm width:3
bar:Kelly     from:01/01/2006 till:end        color:vocals
bar:Rand      from:start      till:03/01/1992 color:lead
bar:Rand      from:03/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:lead
bar:Sonny     from:01/01/2006 till:12/31/2009 color:lead
bar:Jonathan  from:01/01/2010 till:09/01/2012 color:lead
bar:Jonathan  from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 color:bass width:3
bar:Jason     from:09/01/2012 till:12/31/2018 color:lead
bar:Daniel    from:01/01/2019 till:12/31/2022 color:lead
bar:Jerry     from:01/01/2023 till:end        color:lead
bar:Frank     from:03/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:lead
bar:ChrisB    from:01/01/2006 till:09/01/2012 color:rhythm
bar:ChrisM    from:09/01/2012 till:12/31/2022 color:rhythm
bar:Alex      from:01/01/2023 till:end        color:rhythm

bar:Roger     from:start      till:02/12/1991 color:bass
bar:Tony      from:02/13/1991 till:03/01/1992 color:bass
bar:Tony      from:03/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:bass
bar:Tony      from:01/01/2006 till:12/31/2009 color:bass
bar:Tony      from:09/01/2012 till:12/31/2018 color:bass
bar:Travis    from:01/01/2011 till:09/01/2012 color:bass
bar:Yoav      from:01/01/2019 till:end        color:bass
bar:Yoav      from:01/01/2019 till:end        color:backing width:3

bar:Steve     from:start      till:03/01/1992 color:drums
bar:Josh      from:03/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:drums
bar:Steve     from:01/01/2006 till:04/26/2023 color:drums
bar:Dylan     from:04/26/2023 till:end        color:drums

</timeline>

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

See also

Template:Wikiquote

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Atheist (band)

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Atheist_(band)&oldid=323085"