Atheist - Piece of Time (1990) Reviews
Atheist’s Piece of Time was such a ground-breaking album back in 1989. Whereas death metal in general had started to really get moving by this stage, with bands like Death, Sepultura and Morbid Angel releasing great albums, nothing this progressive and technical had been mixed into the genre. These guys were awesome musicians and knew exactly how to combine their jazzy experimentation with brutal death metal.
Randy Burkey and Kelly Shaefer created jaw dropping riffs and leads all over every track and Kelly’s vocals were unique also, managing to keep things completely intelligible while managing a hardcore, throat ripping growl. Steve Flynn’s drumming was first class, as it would have to be with all the time changes and guitar wizardry going on. It’s not often that I write about bassist’s in my reviews, mostly due to the fact I can hardly distinguish them on a fair amount of metal albums, but Roger Patterson’s work for Atheist led the way for bands such as Cynic, Pestilence and Death to utilize it as more than a sound filling instrument.
Favourite tracks for me are Piece of Time, Room with a View, I Deny and closer No Truth, but the whole 30 odd minutes are fascinating. I can only give it 4.5 due to how short it is, along with the fact that the next album would be even better. Atheist are not an underrated band, as most reviews are praising. But I do think that they don’t quite get as much credit as they should for kick starting what is a genius style of music, influencing thousands of long-haired metal lovers to raise their level of technical proficiency to a whole new level.
I'm not the biggest champion of technical death metal to say the least and Piece of Time is an album I have heard before, without it really making much impression on me. So I went into it this time with a determination to get to the bottom of why it is so well-received and simultaneously to try to get something out of tech-death that has eluded me in the main up to this point. The first thing that leaps out at me is that this is quite obviously a unique record for early 1990 and, to use a much-abused cliche which is actually true on this occasion, it genuinely sounds ahead of it's time - maybe it should have been entitled Piece Out of Time! OK, so I don't know what I was thinking when I originally rated this as a 3/5 because I got far more out of it this time around than that score suggests, so it is definitely long overdue for a reappraisal.
Firstly, this is not that overtly technical as I have come to understand the term. I associate the phrase "technical" metal, be it thrash or death metal, with unlistenable time changes and excessive guitar wankery, bass lines bursting in and out seemingly at random and a drummer who desperarely seems to be trying to make up for the fact that he is the drummer! In other words a general lack of the things that originally drew me to metal music - riffs that will blow your bollocks off at fifty yards. For me "technical" metal (as opposed to progressive metal) is more for students of music theory and those who understand what the musicians are about - which I can assure you does not include me - rather than a visceral, emotional experience which is much more what I look for in music. So either I have completely misrepresented tech-death in my own mind or this isn't as technical as I thought it was because this has got some awesome riffing and the technical work is nothing like as jarring as I have found it elsewhere, being more interesting than annoying to my more literal way of thinking.
Basically, on Piece of Time, Atheist have taken the nascent death metal genre as a foundation and recast it with a completely different approach from the full-on brutalisation of Morbid Angel, Autopsy or Obituary, producing the tightest-sounding death metal album released up to this point. The technical, jazzy showcasing does definitely rear it's head at many points, but it never seems to be merely for it's own sake and it never disrupts the flow of the tracks which is where I think many tech bands go wrong when they sacrifice the songs upon the altar of technicality. Anyway, I have harped on about the technical nature of Piece of Time for long enough now - what we really have here is a super-energetic death metal album that is full of life and is a powerful representation of what can be achieved when a band take a different approach to what is becoming established as the norm in any given genre without sacrificing what has made that genre so appealing in the first place. The guitar work is exemplary, the riffs and leads are plenty aggressive as are the vocals spat out by Kelly Shaefer whose delivery is especially venomous-sounding. The drums and bass are given more freedom than usual up to this point, but this certainly doesn't undermine their ability to propel the tracks forwards, rather they enhance the lead work with interesting contributions of their own.
In conclusion, I have got to say that I was originally very, very wrong about Piece of Time and, having stripped away the prejudices the "technical" tag produce in me, can now see it for the ground-breaking and original piece of work that it really was and found myself enjoying it immensely.
Continuing my death metal rediscovery review journey, I've come to the remaining band of the tech-death trio, a band in the same level of grand technicality as the later Death and the early Cynic. Let's leap back in time to Atheist's Piece of Time, probably THE first tech-death album, recorded two years before the other two 1990 albums.
I remember checking out a few songs from this band a few years ago but dismissed it because I wasn't into the more thrashy-sounding tech-death at that time. This has happened before, all those countless times I've tried to grasp a band's magic that was beyond my reach of comfort. Now that I'm rediscovering tech-death when I can surely handle it, I knew I can't turn back, though I would still avoid the more brutal bands like Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse. Atheist have made quite the unique difference!
The title opener starts ominous before blasting into godly thrash chaos, showing all the album's got to offer including random turns through awesome guitars, along with grand bass by Roger Patterson (who died in a crash while touring with the band, RIP). "Unholy War" is very much a hint at what to expect from death metal in the 90s, including fast chaos and the shrieking growls of Kelly Shaefer. "Room With a View" is a great favorite of mine. There are lyrics of political corruption that was once uncommon in death metal but would be used by bands of the genre more frequently.
Also standing out is "On They Slay", with a fitting title because of the Slayer-like tendencies. "Beyond" is quite killer, but Shaefer's unique growls end up sounding a bit weak in his attempt for a technical-sounding mix of Megadeth and Obituary. More of the dazzling guitar technicality comes in "I Deny".
Another highlight "Why Bother?" is a great headbanger, with a nice amount of vocals hissing through with scientific vocabulary. There's a little more of the cheesy death metal gore in the ironically titled "Life" which brings the lyrics a small step down in enjoyment, but the music is still miles beyond conventionality. Finally, "No Truth" is the best representation of the band's sound, summarizing all they've had throughout the album.
Piece of Time is so great, with barely anything going wrong. It is very well the tech-death catalyst, though the albums Death would make after this release would be the more common "go-to" location for reference. Bands like Arsis and Martyr would make technical material that wouldn't be possible without this album. Highly recommended!
Favorites: "Piece of Time", "Room With a View", "On They Slay", "Why Bother?", "No Truth"
Florida tech death/thrash legends Atheist's 1990 debut album "Piece Of Time" made a significant impact on me & was high on my rotation list at the time but as soon as their follow-up "Unquestionable Presence" was released I kinda forgot about it as the band's sophomore effort was a clear step up from the debut & an undeniable classic. It's been interesting to rediscover the point that Atheist were at in their creative & artistic journey with "Piece Of Time" this week as it's generally regarded as somewhat of a classic too.
The opening title track is an absolute belter & sounds exactly like the material from "Unquestionable Presence" which is a sure-fire indication that it was the most recently composed track included on the album. The other material sees them varying the amount of traditional thrash metal & more progressive elements & I'm willing to bet that I could piece together the exact order that the tracks were written because you can easily hear the band developing their sound over the course of the nine songs. For that reason, I've never found "Piece Of Time" to be quite the finished product however it undeniably represents a huge step up in ambition for the extreme metal movement. No one had attempted anything like this before & the more atmospheric & progressive parts of the album were a particular revelation that would be expanded upon significantly on later releases. Death, Cynic & Pestilence can all be found to be trying very similar things in the years that followed too & I don't think that's a coincidence.
The level of musicianship on display here is absolutely outstanding, particularly the shredding lead guitar work & Roger Patterson's super-interesting bass lines which take an up-front position in the mix. Kelly Shaefer's vocal delivery has never really struck me as being particularly "death metal" though & sounds more like a raspier thrash front man like Sadus' front man Darren Travis than it does Chuck Schuldiner. I probably would have preferred a little more extremity there to be honest but then again... that may have changed the feel of the album completely so it may be for the best.
Overall, "Piece Of Time" is a ground-breaking & highly influential debut that offers consistent quality & strong hints at the potential that was to be fulfilled in the coming years.
For fans of 90's Death, early Cynic & the more technical Pestilence albums.