Atheist is an American

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, featu ...

band from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to th ...

, founded in 1984 by the vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kelly Shaefer, lead guitarist Rand Burkey, bassist Roger Patterson and drummer Steve Flynn. 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 Technical death metal (also referred to as tech-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that began and developed in the early- to mid-1990s, with particular focus on challenging, demanding instrumental skill and complex songwriting. Techni ...

genre. After disbanding in 1994, the group reformed in 2006 and has since released one studio album and a live DVD.

History

The band was originally formed in 1984 in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...

, firstly under the name Oblivion and later as R.A.V.A.G.E. (which stands for "Raging Atheists Vowing A Gory End"). They recorded their first album, ''

Piece of Time ''Piece of Time'' is the debut album by American technical death metal band Atheist, recorded in 1988 but not released officially until 1990. This was because the label that Atheist had initially signed with, Mean Machine Records, was going bank ...

'', in 1988, though the album was not released until 1990 due to record company issues. In 1991, Patterson died in a car accident and Atheist recruited Tony Choy (previously a member of Cynic) to record their second album, '' Unquestionable Presence''. Atheist disbanded for the first time in 1992, reuniting in 1993 and recording a third album, ''

Elements Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of o ...

'', fulfilling their contractual requirements, before disbanding for a second time. Seven years after their second break up, Shaefer decided to re-release and remaster their three albums with different bonus tracks.

Relapse Records Relapse Records is an American independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990. The label features many grindcore, death metal, metalcore and sludge metal artists. History The label wa ...

re-issued 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". Flynn formed the band Gnostic in the same year. 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

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and carpal tunnel syndrome. The Gnostic guitarist Sonny Carson played all of Shaefer's guitar parts, while Burkey was later replaced by Chris Baker of Gnostic. On July 12, 2008, Shaefer issued a statement indicating that he and Flynn were working on new material. 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 Wacken Open Air (, abbreviated as W:O:A) is a rock music festival, held annually since 1990 on the first weekend of August in the village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Almost all styles and subgenres of hard rock and metal are rep ...

Festival appeared towards the end of the year. On July 11, 2010, Atheist revealed that their fourth studio album would be called ''

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

'' and was set for a November release. They inked a deal with

Season of Mist Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, paga ...

and ''Jupiter'' was released on November 8, 2010. 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. The band announced in 2014 that it was working on a fifth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2015; however, the album would be left unreleased for over half a decade. In February 2018, Atheist signed with Agonia Records, and expects to release their fifth studio album sometime in 2022.

Members

Current * Kelly Shaefer – vocals , rhythm guitar * Steve Flynn – drums * Chris Martin – rhythm guitar * Daniel Martinez – lead guitar * Yoav Ruiz-Feingold – bass Current live musicians * Anthony Medaglia – drums Former Guitarists * Rand Burkey – * Frank Emmi – * Sonny Carson – * Chris Baker – * Jonathan Thompson – , bass * Jason Holloway – Bassists * Roger Patterson – * Tony Choy – * Darren McFarland – * Travis Morgan – * Sean Martinez – Drummers * Steve Flynn – * Marcel DeSantos – * Mickey Hayes – * Josh Greenbaum – * Joey Muha – live Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

* ''

'' (1990) * '' Unquestionable Presence'' (1991) * ''

'' (1993) * ''

'' (2010)

Live albums

* '' Unquestionable Presence: Live at Wacken'' (2009)

References

External links

*
Official Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atheist 1984 establishments in Florida American technical death metal musical groups American progressive metal musical groups Death metal musical groups from Florida Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1992 Musical groups reestablished in 1993 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quintets Relapse Records artists Season of Mist artists