Customer Reviews

Piece of Time

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you listen to DEATH, you probably believe you listen a technical and heavy sound. And you are right! Anyone who listens Chuck Schuldiner's works is listenning a extreme and complex music.
But know DEATH isn't the only band playing this way that raised in Florida's ground.
ATHEIST plays a Death Metal with strong progressive and jazz influences. It sounds better than you realize. You can hear these influences in the riffs, solos, time brankings...
It is a extreme and complex song, as DEATH's music is. But Atheist isn't a vulgar copy of Chuck Schuldiner's band. It is one of the most creative bands in all Metal. If you don't belive me, listen it and get your conclusion.

Well, I've been looking for this album for some months now....it was reissued a few year's back, but is out of print once again. I finally found it in a pretty obscure little music show that had only one copy left. After listening to it, I now know what all those great reviews were talking about.

This album is described by most as death metal, but is something more along the lines of a hybrid between death metal, (a small amount of) thrash metal, and progressive metal. There is also a small hint of jazz in the structures and bass playing that adds a very nice extra touch. The song themes are pretty good and the musicianship and song writing are both excellent. You won't go wrong by picking this one up when you are able to find it.

This is hateful and hopeful music. It hates all stupidity and lashes out at the world, but it has an inner peace expressed in the benevolent fun of pure musicality in a jazz-influenced but freeform death metal style. Influences are understated on "Piece of Time," which is closest to progressive speed/death metal, but on the following album explode in a masterpiece of dark moods in a conflict permitting many future directions. One of the greatest progressive metal bands, and best death metal bands, to ever walk this earth. Kelly Schaefer (guitar/vocals) is now in Neurotica, a Led Zeppelin/AC/DC style band, singing on all three of their releases.

So far, this is the only CD I have heard from this band and cannot wait until the rest of them are released. It takes a little while to grasp everything that is going on, but once you "get" Atheist's music, there is no turning back. The "chorus" of Piece of Time alone is worth the price of this CD. The album is heavy in just about every sense you can think of: groovy, brutal, thrashy, dramatic. The lyrics and musical messages range from mature, well thought out rejection of Christianity (Piece of Time, No Truth, Room With a View) to nihilistic assaults on the eardrums (Life, Beyond). My only gripe is that I wish the demo tracks were not included, or included on a separate CD, as the album tends to lose the flow after the final track.

So Death Metal is all down-tuned guitars and guys grunting like randy buffaloes, huh? It's all about death and Satan and is just "bang, bang, bang"? You've never heard Atheist.

Overshadowed by their more brutal peers, like Obituary, Death and Morbid Angel, Atheist were one of the most original bands to emerge from the alligator infested swamps of Florida in the Great Death Rush of '89. While they didn't have the grunt of the others, they had riffs that bordered on solos and one of the most twisted rhythm sections this side of the New Orleans jazz scene.

Atheist were described more than once as "death jazz", which is a more than fair description - off beat, syncopated rhythms, strange time signatures, instruments often playing against each other. It could have been disastrous if played badly. "Piece Of Time" is no disaster, but light-years ahead of the competition. It's incredibly catchy and has an excellent clear production sound. Atheist's complex sound apparently arose from the rhythm section of drummer Steve Flynn and the late Roger Patterson "getting bored". To alleviate the boredom, they messed about with unusual rhythm structures. It was topped off by the rare-for-Death-Metal double lead guitar attack of Kelly Shaefer and Rand Burkey, with Shaefer's vocals coming off as a more dangerous Dave Mustaine.

Yes, Atheist were well ahead of their time, and for that reason got left behind. Their ultra-technical death metal did not really catch on like the more brutal flavour. However, a few short years down the track, the likes of Death, Pestilence, Cynic and Meshuggah were bored with brutality and picked up on Atheist-style technicality. Atheist were leaders, not followers.

i stumbled across this lost gem on ebay for less than 15 dollars. it's been one of the wisest purchases of my life. this album is the epitome of what i love about music. jazz, metal, prog, all mixed together. it's insanely technical, impossibly tight, and very substantial. it's not just meaningless musical [wacking] like most people say about this style of music.

whatever you have to pay for this title, it's worth it.

This cd really is quite brilliant. Bassist Roger Patterson is one of the greatest bassists of all time. He's worth the price alone. That's not dissing guitarists Kelly Shaeffer and Rand Burkey who dump some serious shredding on every song. Steve Flynn is also an equally amazing drummer. And the songs are great too, good words, technical structures, ect.