History Music / Atheist

Atheist is a [[TechnicalDeathMetal Progressive Death Metal]] band from Sarasota, Florida. Indeed, a pretty good argument could be made that they are ''the'' Prog Death band. In a sub-genre obsessed with brutality and authenticity, it may be surprising that one of the most acclaimed bands is a difficult, jazz-influenced band, but nevertheless, Atheist is one of the few bands that is regarded by almost all metalheads as genuinely great.

* AbsenteeActor: Steve Flynn is this as of the late 2010s, as, by Kelly's own admission, he absolutely hates touring and the road. When Kelly wanted to start touring again and Steve predictably said "no thanks", the decision was made to bring Anthony Medaglia on board as their live drummer.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Combines elements of death, thrash, progressive rock, jazz fusion, funk, salsa, and son cubano. Amongst other things. "Earth" even drops in a little bit of electronic music influence for a few bars. This can also border on GenreRoulette at points, particularly on ''Elements'', which has four interstitial {{instrumentals}} that have basically nothing to do with metal.

* ContemptibleCover: While the covers have aged well, most of the band photos (including the one at the top) are better suited to a HairMetal band than any death metal band.
** Their contemporary photos are still generally the subject of mockery as well due to Kelly currently bearing a more-than-passing resemblance to [[Music/{{Poison}} Bret Michaels]].

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Either a hard 9 or a soft 10. Interestingly, ''Piece of Time'' and ''Jupiter'' are probably a bit heavier than ''Unquestionable Presence'' and ''Elements'', which hasn't stopped ''Unquestionable Presence'' from being their most acclaimed album.

The band has gotten back together, and released a new album in 2010, called ''Jupiter''. It's noticeably heavier than their older albums, but other than that, nothing's really changed. The band's fifth album has been in DevelopmentHell for years; they announced it in 2014, and as of 2018, they're still working on it. Kelly Shaefer has confirmed that former bassist Tony Choy is returning for the new album, though he is apparently out as of 2018 (and was eventually replaced by Yoav Ruiz-Feingold in 2019), and Steve Flynn has also become largely unavailable for anything outside of recording. According to individual members, writing for a fifth full-length will begin in very early 2020, with a late fall 2020 release time currently on the table.

* AbsenteeActor: Steve Flynn is this as of the late 2010s due to his day job and other personal commitments; while he handles live commitments as he is able to, "able to" translates to "almost never", and he is largely relegated to a recording member who has session members handle the vast majority of live commitments.

Atheist formed in 1984, first as Oblivion, and later as R.A.V.A.G.E. At this point their sound had a great deal more in common with ThrashMetal than DeathMetal, which didn't even really exist yet. Nevertheless, traces of their Jazz influence could still be found in the music of that era. They released their first album, ''Piece of Time'', in 1989. By this point, they had established their signature style of Death Metal/Jazz Fusion. While they were critically acclaimed and highly influential, early audiences expected them to sound more like Music/CannibalCorpse, which they toured with at least once, and they were frequently booed by said audiences.

* ''Piece of Time'', 1989

** It's worth noting, however, that their lyrics often suggest paganism or pantheism rather than atheism.

The band has gotten back together, and released a new album in 2010, called ''Jupiter''. It's noticeably heavier than their older albums, but other than that, nothing's really changed. The band's fifth album has been in DevelopmentHell for years; they announced it in 2014, and as of 2018, they're still working on it. Kelly Shaefer has confirmed that former bassist Tony Choy is returning for the new album, though he is apparently out as of 2018 (and was eventually replaced by Yoav Ruiz-Feingold in 2019), and Steve Flynn has also become largely unavailable for anything outside of recording.

The band has gotten back together, and released a new album in 2010, called ''Jupiter''. It's noticeably heavier than their older albums, but other than that, nothing's really changed. The band's fifth album has been in DevelopmentHell for years; they announced it in 2014, and as of 2018, they're still working on it. Kelly Shaefer has confirmed that former bassist Tony Choy is returning for the new album, though he is apparently out as of 2018, as is Steve Flynn; [[Music/DecrepitBirth Sean Martinez]] and [[Music/JungleRot Joey Muha]] may or may not have joined to replace them, or they may have just been live fill-ins.

* SpecialGuest: Sean Martinez and Joey Muha may or may not have been live members, but, in any case, this is definitely the case for Yoav Ruiz-Feingold and Anthony Medaglia (both of Graviton), who are only filling in on their winter 2019 tour.

* MinisculeRocking: The four instrumentals on ''Elements'', listed in full above. "Samba Briza", the longest of them, still fits this trope at 1:58. The shortest, "Fractal Point", is 44 seconds long.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Either a hard 9 or a soft 10.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Combines elements of death, thrash, progressive rock, jazz fusion, funk, salsa, and son cubano.

* TropeMaker: For TechnicalDeathMetal, alongside Music/{{Cynic}}, Music/{{Death}}, and Nocturnus.

* LoudnessWar: ''Jupiter'' was a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example of this; while Jason Suecof, who produced it, is notorious for this in general, this is a special case. Word on the street was that he was going for a "raw" production; his idea of one involved horribly inconsistent instrument levels that varied from song to song, leading to such wonderful things as the rhythm guitar track almost completely drowning out the lead. To add insult to injury, the bass, one of the chief elements of Atheist's sound, was almost COMPLETELY inaudible. Oh, and the whole thing was brickwalled to [[Music/{{Metallica}} Death Magnetic]] levels. ''Jupiter'' as a whole was fairly divisive, but one thing that everyone agreed on was that the production was inexcusably awful. Sadly, Suecof will apparently be producing their upcoming album as well, so we can expect another round of this.

The band has gotten back together, and released a new album in 2010, called ''Jupiter''. It's noticeably heavier than their older albums, but other than that, nothing's really changed. The band's fifth album has been in DevelopmentHell for years; they announced it in 2014, and as of 2018, they're still working on it. Kelly Shaefer has confirmed that former bassist Tony Choy is returning for the new album.