After 17 years, the wait is finally over... Atheist are set to enter LedBelly recording studios in Atlanta, GA on July 5th to lay the tracks down on their long-awaited, yet untitled, fourth studio album. Engineering the recording session will be Matt Washburn. Additionally, the band have secured the services of one of metal's most significant talents of the past decade, Jason Suecof (Trivium, Chimaira, DevilDriver and many others), to handle the mixing of what promises to be a modern classic from the pioneers of technical metal.

"I can't believe we are about to record this album finally", vocalist Kelly Shaefer states. "We have been working our asses off for a year, and have taken great strides to make this the record we, as fans, would want to hear from Atheist. It's ferocious, intelligent, and dead balls heavy as shit! When people hear this they're going to say, 'It's Atheist!'"

"We are also honored and totally stoked to have Jason be a part of this album with us" says drummer Steve Flynn. "He went to great lengths to make this happen for us, and we are grateful. We anticipate collectively taking extreme metal to new places. Jason has quickly become one of the most sought-after engineers/producers in the industry, and we're excited to be working with him. He truly understands the legacy of the Florida Death Metal scene, and the importance of this record. We're confident that Jason will deliver an absolutely monster production. Additionally, we DO realize that the record has taken a long time to create. However, there are so many twists and turns in the average Atheist song, and we felt like it was very important to have enough killer material written so as to make it the most interesting record we have ever created. We wanted to make sure we took the next logical step in the evolution of our music. According to the critics out there, it's a tall - almost impossible - order. However, we feel like we have done it."

"Our late and great friend and foundational element of the Atheist sound, Roger Patterson, was always with us in spirit in the process of writing" adds Shaefer. "In fact, that frantic, technical Patterson spirit has come shining through once more in the form of Jonathan Thompson, our newest guitar player. "JT" is a young-spirited multi-talented player - he also plays bass for Flynn's band Gnostic. As long-time Atheist fans, JT and Chris Baker understand what Atheist is at its core and what the fans expect. Both have proven to be invaluable in bringing out that classic Atheist sound and have been instrumental the course of writing this long-awaited record."

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Source:	season-of-mist.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Atheist are currently streaming "Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken" in its entirety over at this location.

"Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken" is the complete live set from the band's 2006 reunion gig at Wacken Open Air Festival recorded in front of 60,000 fans.

"Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken" comes as a two-disc set with the second CD containing a collection of essential Atheist tracks as hand-picked by the band. The two are packaged together complete with a 24-page booklet that contains photos and extensive liner notes from the band detailing the Wacken experience and why they chose the selected tracks. Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken was released in July through Relapse Records.

"Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken" [cover art] tracklist:

Disc I
01. Unquestionable Presence
02. On They Slay
03. Unholy War
04. Your Life's Retribution
05. An Incarnation's Dream
06. Mother Man
07. And The Psychic Saw
08. Piece Of Time

Disc II
01. Piece Of Time
02. I Deny
03. Unholy War
04. Room With A View
05. Mother Man
06. Unquestionable Presence
07. And The Psychic Saw
08. An Incarnation's Dream
09. Mineral
10. Water
11. Air

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Source:	relapse.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Season Of Mist is immensely proud to announce that Atheist and Gnostic just inked a deal with their label! After Cynic, that's two more technical US death metal legends they are welcoming to their roster.

Here's drummer Steve Flynn's comment:
"We're absolutely thrilled that, as of today, both Gnostic and Atheist are officially signed to Season Of Mist! Gnostic's debut CD "Engineering The Rule" will be released before the summer and Atheist's yet untitled CD, will be released later in the year. Season really stepped up to the plate to get this done, for this is also a highly unique situation for technical death metal. Three members of Gnostic are also in Atheist. With me on drums for both bands, Chris Baker on lead guitar for both and Jonathan Thompson on bass for Gnostic and guitar for Atheist, these signings represent very significant personal milestones for everybody involved. For me, the Gnostic debut CD is the first, and ONLY, new project I've been involved with since Atheist's "Unquestionable Presence" in 1992. For Kelly Shaefer and me it is the first time that we will collaborate on new Atheist material, also since 1992's "Unquestionable Presence". We'll be bringing in our old friend and Atheist bassist Tony Choy for writing and touring as well. Signing both bands is also a unique coup for Season Of Mist and indicative of their cutting-edge attitude. Both bands will be touring together in 2009 in the US and Europe, which means that we will be pulling double duty every night!"

Source:	season-of-mist.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Atheist has been writing new material as of late, notable because the group hasn't released a studio album since 1993. Here's a statement from frontman Kelly Shaefer:

"You asked for it, the first new Atheist material in 15 years has risen to the surface and it was truly amazing, much better than we could have expected! We ended up with a bit over 3 minutes of truly Atheist, brutal, fast as hell, technical metal madness!

...we also intend on celebrating the 20th anniversary of Piece Of Time release with a bunch of shows in 2009 in Europe and the USA live DVD and now a brand new set of Atheist's metal puzzles for your confusing enjoyment of course. We will keep you posted on all of the details as they happen. Hold on to your brains fuckers!"

Further information about the new Atheist album can be seen here.

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Official press release:

Technical metal pioneers Atheist have announced their last-ever U.S. performances. This weekend the band will hit the stage for the last time in their native Florida with headlining shows in Tampa and Miami (at Brass Mug and Club Flower respectively). Following, Atheist will perform at a handful of European festivals before a final show in New York City. A listing of Atheist live appearances can be found below with more info on the band's final show to be announced soon.

Last January, Atheist guitarist/vocalist Kelly Schaefer reassembled much of what was widely considered the band's classic recording line-up (Schaefer, bassist Tony Choy, and drummer Steven Flynn) to perform a select number of one-off shows to celebrate the re-issue of their wildly-influential catalog (1988's 'Piece of Time', 1993's 'Elements', and the 1991's legendary 'Unquestionable Presence'). Among those shows were performances at such legendary festivals such as Germany's Wacken Open Air, Norway's Hole In The Sky Fest, Italy's Evolution Fest, England's Bloodstock Open Air, and the Los Angeles' Murderfest.

Atheist's Shaefer comments, "It's very hard to just walk away from this music that is having its day in the sun. The shows keep getting better and better, and the crowds are full of amazing stories of how they discovered our music. But the best and most important thing to us has been the outpouring of brand new people who have embraced our music as being pivotal to the way they listen to metal. That's far more important to us than anything. We will wrap this all up with one final show in New York that will be filmed for a DVD."

Atheist Live appearances:

April 27 Tampa, FL @ Brass Mug
April 28 Coconut Grove, FL @ Club Flavour
June 23 Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Metal Meeting Festival
June 24 Clisson, France @ Hellfest 2007

Source:	unheardonline.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Technical metal merchants, Atheist, have posted a lengthy report on the band's appearance at the Hole in the Sky festival via Kellys (frontman) MySpace Page, which took place August 23-26 in Bergen, Norway. Read it.

A video clip of Atheist bassist Tony Choy falling through an unsecured part of the large outdoor stage at at Italy's Evolution Festival on July 16, 2006 has been posted online at YouTube.com

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Revolution Music has just uploaded a new audio interview with Kelly Shaefer of the technical metallers Atheist. The interview talks about the band's European reunion tour, how the music scene has evolved and his upcoming projects. It's all about 13 minutes of chat that can be downloaded here.

Otherwise, a video clip of Atheist bassist Tony Choy falling through an unsecured part of the large outdoor stage at Italy's Evolution Festival on July 16, 2006 has been posted online at YouTube.com.

Atheist kicked off their summer European tour run July 14 at England's Bloodstock Festival. The band's first live appearances in over 13 years were greeted with rabid enthusiasm as the group blazed through classics like "Unquestionable Presence" and "Piece of Time".

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Atheist

Veteran Atheist guitarist Rand Burkey has been forced to bow out of the bands forthcoming festival performances due to legal troubles.

Filling in for Burkey will be veteran guitarist Chris Baker. Baker will be joining core Atheist members Kelly Shaefer, Tony Choy, and Steve Flynn as well as guitarist Sonny Carson (who will be playing Shaefer's guitar role due to Shaefer's long-running battles w/ tendonitis and carpal tunnel.) Baker and Carson are currently playing with Steve Flynn's new band Gnostic.

"In fine Atheist tradition we've been dealt another set of obstacles to overcome. These new problems have made these upcoming shows come very close to not happening but Chris is an extraordinary player, and has done a great job on the very difficult task of dissecting and learning Rand's guitar parts" says Shaefer. "Not having Rand be able to take part is a disappointment to us, but we have always honored our band commitments, even in the face of unbelievable odds, and this will be no exception. We've been playing these songs for months now, they are sounding great! We simply cannot wait to get it on!."

Source:	unheardonline.com
Band profile:	Atheist

The following message was posted at Relapse Records website:

Seminal technical metal pioneers Atheist have regrouped for a run of exclusive live performances.

Guitarist/vocalist Kelly Shaefer has reassembled what is widely considered the bands classic recording lineup (Shaefer, guitarist Rand Burkey, bassist Tony Choy, and drummer Steven Flynn) for two exclusive festival performances; Italy's Evolution Festival and Germany's Wacken Open Air. Shaefer comments, "We're very excited to be able to get back on the stage and play these insane tunes again the proper way with Flynn, Burkey and Choy. It's going to be very exciting and something not to be missed!."

Atheist will take part on Evolution Festival (scheduled for July 16 and 17 in Brescia, Italy) and Wacken Open Air (scheduled for August 3-5 in Schleswig Holstein, Germany). These will be the first in a series of exclusive festival performances announced. Shaefer continues, "We would like to make a great festival run this year and expose as many as possible to the music we lived and died for. Many thanks to the Evolution Festival and Wacken for helping to give many people who never got to see ATHEIST live a chance to see us one last time. This is our chance to make the music we worked so hard to create come alive one last time, and we guarantee that it will not disappoint."

Source:	relapse.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Relapse Records has set release dates for the reissues of the three full-length albums (1989's Piece of Time, 1992's Unquestionable Presence, and 1993's Elements) by seminal technical metal pioneers ATHEIST.

Elements and Unquestionable Presence will be released officially on August 30 (North America) and September 5 (Europe). Piece of Time will follow with a September 13 release (North America) and September 19 (Europe).

Guitarist/vocalist Kelly Shaefer comments on the impending CD reissues; "We could not be more proud of the job done on these reissues by the folks at Relapse. When this ATHEIST re-issue project started unfolding, I wanted them to be treated with the same care as if they were new releases.

Shaefer continues, "Now that they are done I can say 110% that this is the quintessential ATHEIST collection! It includes all the original classics plus tons of bonus tracks, incredible liner notes, and photos even the band has never seen until now. The art is expanded and more vibrant than ever and the sound has been remastered to pristine metal standards! The attention to detail in these reissues is outstanding and even if you had owned the records in their original pressings, you MUST have this in your collection as they are the definitive versions of the ATHEIST records."

Additionally, Unquestionable Presence will be featured in the October issue of Decibel Magazine as part of its ongoing Hall of Fame feature. The Hall of Fame feature highlights influential and pivotal releases in metal history, and Unquestionable Presence will join of ranks of previously profiled classics such as SLAYER's Reign In Blood, SEPULTURA's Roots, and AT THE GATES Slaughter of the Soul among others.

- Relapse Newsletter -

Band profile:

Atheist