Atheist - Elements - guest review
Atheist - Elements - guest review
Tracklist
01. Green02. Water
03. Samba Briza
04. Air
05. Displacement
06. Animal
07. Mineral
08. Fire
09. Fractal Point
10. Earth
11. See You Again
12. Elements
13. Unquestionable Presence [2005 re-release bonus] [Live at BBC Radio Broadcast (1992)]
14. On They Slay [2005 re-release bonus] [Live at BBC Radio Broadcast (1992)]
15. Enthralled In Essence [2005 re-release bonus] [Live at BBC Radio Broadcast (1992)]
16. The Formative Years [2005 re-release bonus] [Live at BBC Radio Broadcast (1992)]
17. Mother Man [2005 re-release bonus] [Live at BBC Radio Broadcast (1992)]
18. Retribution [2005 re-release bonus] [Live at BBC Radio Broadcast (1992)]
Guest review by
Horlequism June 08, 2006
The album hashes out songs with catchier guitar hooks that are less intense in nature. Guitarists Rand Burkey and Frank Emmi constantly interchanging from metallic death metal picking choral and melody work to jazz fusion and even salsa and flamenco guitar methods. Drummer Marcel Dissantos has worked out his rhythm problems, now impressively switching from technical metal drumming to jazz/fusion techniques. "Samba Briza" shows a completely different Atheist; this track shows how the band could've easily had an alternative career as a cocktail lounge jazz band on a cruise ship. Atheist are a more progressive unit their Floridian brothers. "Displacement," a short transition piece from "Air" to "Animal," acts as an intermission from the intensity of the experience. Choy's bass properties are once again put on display. Finally, Rand and Frank don't play down-tuned metal on this album. Kelly's vocals are harsh but his pipes tend to command a thrash styling while up-tempo catchy technical thrash metal with mélanges of innovation backs him up.
Atheist is a very hard band to pinpoint: it is hard to categorize their sound. A band influenced by metal, funk, jazz, fusion, salsa and flamenco is very hard to attack from any angle. Sometimes it is best not to overanalyze and critique something as vastly unique and distinct such as Elements and simply bask its brilliance. Elements showed that Atheist was finally able to take their music one step higher. Conflicts between band members resulted in the break-up of what was one of the most forward-thinking bands in metal.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Horlequism | June 08, 2006
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
13
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| Markku
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Markku
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And such a great album was written, rehearsed, recorded and mixed only in 40 days 
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| Kap'N Korrupt
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Posts: 3820
Great album. A lot of cool stuff going on... Great review dude.
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| Kap'N Korrupt
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Posts: 828  |
Posts: 828
Wow what a unique album,and to think they wrote and produced such an epic album,in such little time.I am glad the got around to re-releasing it,"Green","Animals" and "Samba Briza",are excellent.
---- Intestinally Punctured Smurf
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 Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071
Josh Greenbaum plays most of the drums on here and Marcel only on Samba Briza or maybe one or two more songs.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Kap'N Korrupt
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Posts: 265  |
Posts: 265
I love Atheist's first two albums. This one, however, has never done anything for me. To me, it sounds rushed, which it was, and I could never put my thumb on why I didn't like it, until I found out Steve Flynn didn't drum on it. That must be the missing link, because Steve Flynn's drumming is the very essence of Atheist, for me at least. I love Tony's bass playing on this album though. It seems like a good album, but not quite my cup of tea unlike their first two phenomenal albums.
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This is a great album, definitley the most underrated Atheist record.
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| Luneth
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Posts: 43 |
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