Atheist - Jupiter

Jupiter - Atheist(2010)
Seasons of Mist
Progressive/Technical Death Metal

Atheist is a death metal band from Sarasota, Florida that rose to fame in 1991 with their sophomore record Unquestionable Presence. The album was a landmark for the genre. It infused chaotic death/thrash metal riffs and melodies with the technical skill and manic, odd-time signature drumming styles of jazz to create what would become “technical death metal.” With their debut being more reminiscent of regular death metal, this was a huge shift in style for the band and it would lead them to become one of the most influential bands in the metal genre.

Unfortunately for the metal world, Atheist’s lineup had quite the personalities, and the band found itself breaking up several times between 1993 and 1994 before putting out a follow-up to Unquestionable Presence. But the band was contractually obligated to make one more record with the label Music for Nations, so they finally came to grips and put together a follow-up album in the span of a month. The result was 1994’s somewhat disappointing and clearly rushed Elements. Although the record has its moments and is full of interesting ideas, it just feels like it lacks the catchy riffing and soul of the previous record, even with the jazz influence and technicality being increased. Despite that, the record still had generally favourable reviews amongst die-hard fans, but this wasn’t enough to mend the band’s relationship and Atheist disbanded in 1994.

Fast forward 12 years to 2006, and Atheist is still a really big deal. With the re-issuing of the band’s discography being extremely successful, Kelly Shaefer (guitarist/singer, mastermind of Atheist) decided to pull Tony Choy (bass) and Steve Flynn (drums) back together to do a tour, which proved just as successful. Finally, four years later and with a slightly different line-up, the band managed to record a long-awaited follow-up to Elements, and thus Jupiter was born.

The music found on Jupiter is definitely no far cry from the sound that defined the band. It is chock-full of enough maniacal, jazzy drumming and chainsaw-like riffing to please anyone looking for what would be the stereotypical Atheist album, but unfortunately that’s all it’s really good for. The thing that I did find different about this record were that it seemed a lot more layered when it came to the guitar production than previous records. For the most part this is a plus, as there are some heavy, low-note, gnarly death metal riffs that will harmonize with notes of a much higher octave. This creates a decently schizophrenic sound that works well with the older Atheist template, which admittedly has become noticeably comfortable for the band.

If I were to hone in on one particular problem, I would say that they sacrificed catchy riffs to show off technical prowess, the same mistake they made on Elements. Although, again, for die-hard fans this probably is not a problem. I just feel that they are capable of much better riff-writing, as there are songs such as “When the Beast” that demonstrate that they absolutely still do have the chops to write catchier, better riffs AND be technical, the aspect that made the band so popular in 1991. All in all, Jupiter isn’t terrible. But in terms of what I expected a follow-up to Unquestionable Presence to sound like had they recorded in a non-stressful environment, it did little to reach the mark. There are some good tracks here and there, but if they can’t pull up their riff-writing socks for the next disc, I’m going to have to start throwing around terms like one-trick pony. 6/10

Best songs: Second to Sun, Faux King Christ, Live and Live Again, When the Beast

When the Beast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qedHI3SzRio