Atheist Reissued At Last

Doctor J

Relapse Records are reissuing the entire recorded works of seminal technical metal pioneers ATHEIST.

Atheist was one of the first truly adventurous bands to break out of the late 80's death metal underground. In addition to Atheist's albums (1989's Piece Of Time, 1992's Unquestionable Presence, and 1993's Elements) being benchmarks of quality and progression, the band's musical vision directly influenced many noteworthy artists both past (CYNIC, later-era DEATH, PESTILENCE) and present (The DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, NECROPHAGIST, SPIRAL ARCHITECT).

"I am overwhelmed with joy to see the re-release of the entire Atheist catalog after so many years." commented guitarist/vocalist and founding member Kelly Shaefer.

Shaefer continues, "I've toured extensively since making these records, and everywhere I go I run into people who were not just into Atheist, but who praised the band's uniqueness and how much it forced them to progress as musicians and push the boundaries as players."

"I have been hunting for a label that would treat the catalog with the respect it deserves and whose goal is the same as ours: to turn the new generation of extreme metal and prog metal heads onto Atheist. Relapse is that label as it has a true understanding of where Atheist helped to rewrite the timeline of metal."

Relapse will start by issuing a limited edition, foil-stamped box set containing LP versions of each of the Atheist full-lengths, as well as the R.A.V.A.G.E. (pre-Atheist) On They Slay 7" EP exclusive to this edition. The LP box will be strictly limited to 1,000 copies and surface in July. The CD re-issues will follow in the late summer/early fall starting with Elements on August 30th (US) and September 5th (Europe).




This is a victory for anybody who likes Metal.

Karl Hungus

Oh yes!

I will be snapping those up sharpish the second they are released!

Prezatch

Does this mean they may touched up a bit production wise? I love the sound of Unquestionable Presence but Elements is a bit disappointing in terms of sound quality considering it was made after in '93

Doctor J

That's as much as I know. Whether anything can be done to Elements isn't clear. I think the problems with the sound of that record can't be fixed by being remastered. I recall and interview with Schaefer where he explained that Mark Pinske (the producer) hadn't really worked with a band as heavy as Atheist prior to that album and was inexperienced in the arts of quality heavy tone and subsequently made ****e of pushing things too far, causing the guitars to suffer from digital distotion (very bad).

That whole record might need to be re-recorded to ever truly hear what it should sound like.

dabhoys

Excellent I'll be able to get these albums at a nice price

Ancient1

Wow, great news!

Up until now Atheist albums were "ebay only" exclusives - they were going for as much as $60!

Doctor J

In your dreams buddy, I was outbid on Unquestionable Presence a while back at $90


...of course, that made getting it at $40 all the sweeter

Ph3n0m

Doctor J wrote:

That whole record might need to be re-recorded to ever truly hear what it should sound like.

And thats not a bad thing, that would be a very good thing

Ancient1

Doctor J wrote:

In your dreams buddy, I was outbid on Unquestionable Presence a while back at $90


...of course, that made getting it at $40 all the sweeter

:eek:

90 bucks.....ouch! I just couldn't justify paying that for any CD or LP (unless personally signed by SRV or Hendrix of course ).

Can't wait for these babies to be reissued.

nosmo

Ooh. Looking forward to this I am. I'd have to agree with JoeyD, though. Elements is one of my favourite CDs, but the quality in some points is seriously wanting