Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (1991)

Death comes in many forms and many disguises. Coincidentally, so does death metal. On one end of the spectrum there's the thrashy style, as exemplified by Cannibal Corpse. Then, as we move towards the other side, we encounter such genre-defining bands as Deicide or Death. And finally, blissfully so, we arrive at the ultra-technical progressive side of the spectrum, and lo! we bow before Atheist. I found this release on the net a few months ago, and it's really grown on me. As I couldn't retrieve the source, I felt I should repost it myself.

This is not what most would expect from a band that's tagged with the death metal label. Sure, it's heavily guitar-distorted and overally fast, but the songwriting here is simply brilliant: incredible technical prowess combined with loads of highly surprising changes and swerves within each song. Anyone interested in progressive (rock) music must give this one a listen. Just try to look beyond the heaviness and speed... The only thing quite a lot of people really dislike about this band are the vocals. They're also much unlike most death vocals, ie the demonic grawls and grunts that put off the "decent" folk in our beloved society. No, these vocals have a murderous psychotic quality to them: something I can relate to! Erm, seriously though, I believe the vocals perfectly match the erraticism of the music as a whole, and we should all realize that true art is founded upon the maxim that all the parts should relate to the whole as the whole to the parts. But I'm not dogmatically minded, anyway. Give it a go and let it grow on you for a while before you judge this.

IFNKOVHGROGHPRM

posted by Paxjorge @ Sunday, July 09, 2006