ATHEIST - Piece Of Time

Artist:  Atheist

Album:  Piece Of Time

Year:  1989

Genre:  Death Metal

I stumbled upon Atheist through a strange process. My best friend and I, at the first record store I ever worked at, used to have contests of who could find the heaviest band.  We excitedly bought everything we could find to impress each other with how insanely heavy things were going to get when we hit play.  Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Deicide, Entombed, Malevolent Creation, Godflesh; all the new breed of metal that was released by Roadrunner, Metal Blade, Earache, Grind Core International, Century Media and many others.  Remember...there was not internet to check these bands out so we were going in completely blind.  

I remember being in a "competitor’s" store, Sound Warehouse, looking over the tapes for something to sonically rip my friend’s head off.  They carried way cooler stuff than my store did.  I saw the name Atheist…heavy name.  Metal Blade release…cool.  Song titles; “Unholy War” and “On The Slay”…yes!   Good enough for me.  $10 later the Piece Of Time album was mine without hearing a single note.  I excitedly walked to my car, ripped the shrink wrap open and popped in the tape.  What I heard was completely unexpected.  My eardrums were bludgeoned with hyper technical death metal forged out of weird rhythms, intricate stop and go riffs, snare and kick drum hits where I wasn’t used to them and super cool vocal tones and patterns.  I was decently stunned.  Atheist were different from the standard death metal style and sound.  They were driven by a higher level of musicianship, but always maintained a vicious nature in their delivery.  They never allowed their complex musicianship to overshadow the song.  Atheist were brutal compared to the normal metal fare of the era, yet, there’s no doubt if I brought them to the heaviest band contest I was gonna get my ass absolutely handed to me!  I definitely had the coolest and most interesting record, though.  Atheist continued strong for three incredible albums after their debut that still get consistent spins from me.

Listen to "I Deny" here.