Atheist (band)

American death metal band

Atheist

Atheist at Evolution Festival 2006

Background information
Also known as|

* Oblivion (1984-1985)
* R.A.V.A.G.E. (1985-1987)

Origin| Sarasota, Florida, U.S.
Genres|

* Technical death metal
* progressive metal[1]
* thrash metal[2]

Years active| 1987–1992, 1993–1994, 2006–present
Labels|

* Active
* Death
* Music For Nations
* Metal Blade
* Relapse
* Agonia

Members| Kelly Shaefer
Yoav Ruiz-Feingold
Alex Haddad
Jerry Witunsky
Dylan Marks

Atheist is an American death metal band from Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1987.[1]

The band's original lineup consisted vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kelly Shaefer, lead guitarist Rand Burkey, bassist Roger Patterson and drummer Steve Flynn.[3] The band is known for its highly technical playing style, and its 1991 album Unquestionable Presence is regarded as a landmark of the technical death metal genre.[4] The band gained a following largely within its own genre.[5] After disbanding in 1994, the group reformed in 2006 and has since released one studio album and a live DVD.[6]

## History

[edit]

Atheist in 2006

Atheist was originally formed in 1984 in Sarasota, Florida, firstly under the name Oblivion and later as R.A.V.A.G.E. (which stands for "Raging Atheists Vowing A Gory End").[7]

Frontman Kelly Shaefer stated that on two occasions early in the band's career, the police were called on the band by the management of the clubs they were performing at, leading them to be "drag[ged] out" of the venues. Shaefer recalled the incidents: "There weren't that many clubs to play in so when we booked in regular rock and roll clubs that were used to booking bands like Mötley Crüe, we'd play and they were like, "what the fuck?!' [...] They actually put our stuff out in the alley, and we weren't allowed to be in the club. We didn't do anything other than play music that sounded crazy. They just didn't know how to take it. I remember the guy giving us the cutting of the neck sign like "Stop, stop." We thought it was great. It was a notch in our belt to be kicked out and have police carting our cabinets out the door."[8]

They released their first album, Piece of Time, in 1989.[9]

Shortly before entering the studio to record their second album, Roger Patterson died on February 12, 1991, in a van accident at the age of 22.[10] The band was on tour with Candlemass. Although the band travelled by bus on this tour, they traveled home by van at the end of the tour to avoid paying an extra day of rental fees. The band's guitar tech, who was driving, attempted to pass a semi, "miscalculated his approach back into a lane, and went off the road," according to Shaefer. When the guitar tech attempted to pull the van back onto the highway, he lost control of the vehicle, resulting in Patterson's ejection from the vehicle. Patterson attempted to get himself back up off the ground, but was unable to, and went into shock. The crash occurred in rural Louisiana, and 48 minutes passed before emergency services began to arrive. Patterson died en route to the hospital, and Shaefer recalled that he was "coldly" informed of Patterson's death by a nurse while he was receiving stitches for his injuries in the accident. The band received an outpouring of support and condolences from fans in response to Patterson's death. Shaefer recalled Patterson's memorial service: "It was an odd sight to see all of these kids at the funeral in their Atheist shirts. The preacher was sweating bullets. I guarantee he had never seen a service like this before."[11]

Shortly afterwards, they recruited ex-Pestilence and Cynic bassist Tony Choy to record their second album, Unquestionable Presence, which was released in 1991.[3]

Atheist disbanded for the first time in 1992, then reunited in 1993 to record a third album, Elements,[3] fulfilling their contractual requirements, before disbanding for a second time in early 1994.

Relapse Records reissued the band's three albums in late 2005, as well as a vinyl box set containing the three albums plus the R.A.V.A.G.E. demo "On They Slay".[12][13] In January 2006, Atheist announced they were regrouping to perform live during the summer and autumn. The line-up was Shaefer, Burkey, Choy and Flynn. Shaefer only provided vocals due to long battles with tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.[14] The Gnostic guitarist Sonny Carson played all of Shaefer's guitar parts, while Burkey was later replaced by Chris Baker of Gnostic.

On July 12, 2008, Shaefer issued a statement indicating that he and Flynn were working on new material.[15] A month later, Shaefer announced that they had commenced the recording of a new studio album, which would be their first in over 15 years. The band toured Europe and the US in 2009 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Piece of Time. A live DVD filmed at the Wacken Open Air Festival appeared towards the end of the year.[16]

On July 11, 2010, Atheist revealed that their fourth studio album would be called Jupiter and was set for a November release.[17] They signed a deal with Season of Mist and Jupiter was released on November 8, 2010.[18][19]

On August 3, 2010, Shaefer and Flynn announced on behalf of the band that Tony Choy would not be appearing on Jupiter but was still likely to appear in live performances with the band due to his own musical aspirations.[20] The band announced in 2014 that it was working on a fifth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2015.[21] In February 2018, Atheist signed with Agonia Records,[22] while they continued to tour.[23]

## Musical style and legacy

[edit]

Atheist is considered one of the pioneers of technical death metal. Mike DaRonco of Allmusic said Atheist are "arguably the ultimate progressive metal band of their day".[24] Atheist have also been noted for elements of thrash metal, jazz and progressive rock present in their music.[25] According to Langdon Hickman of Invisible Oranges, "Like almost every metal band of the 1980s, Atheist also did not go untouched by progressive metal. Progressive rock mostly filtered into heavy metal through those 1970s hard rock and heavy metal bands that laid [the] foundational roots for the metal of the 1980s."[26] Vocalist Kelly Shaefer said, "One of the main reasons Atheist ended up being such a strange band was we were trying so hard not to sound like anybody else that we went way overboard. We were outsiders within an outsider's scene so we made it doubly hard for ourselves."[27]

Early in the band's career, the members cited Rush, Kiss, Exodus, Kreator, Dark Angel, Metallica, Accept and Destruction as influences.[28]

## Members

[edit]

Current

* Kelly Shaefer – lead vocals (1987–1994, 2006–present), rhythm guitar (1987–1994)
* Yoav Ruiz-Feingold – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
* Jerry Witunsky – lead guitar (2023–present)
* Alex Haddad – rhythm guitar (2023–present)
* Dylan Marks – drums (2023–present)

Former

Guitarists

* Rand Burkey – (1987–1994)
* Frank Emmi – (1993–1994)
* Sonny Carson – (2006–2009)
* Chris Baker – (2006–2012)
* Jonathan Thompson – (2010–2012), bass (2010)
* Jason Holloway – (2012–2018)
* Chris Martin – (2012–2022)
* Daniel Martinez – (2019–2022)

Bassists

* Roger Patterson – (1987–1991; died 1991)
* Tony Choy – (1991–1994, 2006–2009, 2012–2018)
* Darren McFarland – live (1992)
* Travis Morgan – (2011–2012)
* Sean Martinez – live (2019)

Drummers

* Steve Flynn – drums (1987–1992, 2006–2023)
* Marcel DeSantos – live (1991–1992)
* Mickey Hayes – live (1992)
* Josh Greenbaum – (1993–1994)
* Joey Muha – live (2019)
* Anthony "Apollo XVII" Medaglia – live (2019–2022)

|
|

Timeline

## Discography

[edit]

### Studio albums

[edit]

* Piece of Time (1989)
* Unquestionable Presence (1991)
* Elements (1993)
* Jupiter (2010)

### Live albums

[edit]

* Unquestionable Presence: Live at Wacken (2009)

## See also

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Atheist (band).

* Florida death metal
* Technical death metal
* Morrisound Recording

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b DaRonco, Mike; Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Biography of Atheist". AllMusic. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
2. ^ Hickman, Langdon (October 12, 2018). "I'm Listening to Death Metal #2: Atheist's 'Unquestionable Presence'". Invisible Oranges. Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
3. ^ a b c Colin Larkin, ed. (1999). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock (First ed.). Virgin Books. pp. 36/7. ISBN 0-7535-0257-7.
4. ^ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Atheist Unquestionable Presence". AllMusic. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
5. ^ Larkin, Colin (1998). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 1\. Muze. pp. 268–9\. ISBN 978-0-333-74134-4.
6. ^ Andrew, J. (October 20, 2010). "CD Review: ATHEIST - Jupiter". Metal Injection. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
7. ^ "Atheist". Relapse Records. Archived from the original on May 4, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
8. ^ Wiederhorn, Jon (2020). Raising Hell. Diversion Books. p. 20.
9. ^ Piece of Time - Atheist | Album | AllMusic, retrieved July 14, 2025
10. ^ Wagner, Jeff (2010). Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. Bazillion Points Books. p. 170\. ISBN 978-0-9796163-3-4.
11. ^ As quoted from the liner notes of Unquestionable Presence
12. ^ "Complete Atheist collection reissued". Drummerszone. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
13. ^ Blabbermouth (June 20, 2005). "RELAPSE To Reissue The Complete ATHEIST Collection". BLABBERMOUTH.NET. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
14. ^ "ATHEIST Regroup, Announce Exclusive ON LIVE TV Festival Appearances". Blabbermouth. Retrieved January 13, 2006.
15. ^ "ATHEIST Members Collaborating On First New Material Since 1991". Blabbermouth. Archived from the original on August 3, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2008.
16. ^ "Atheist – Writing New Material". Metalstorm. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
17. ^ "ATHEIST: New Album Title Revealed". Road runner records. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
18. ^ "Legendary ATHEIST Signs With SEASON OF MIST". Blabbermouth. Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
19. ^ Megis, Vernon (February 3, 2011). "Atheist Returns with Face-Melting Album". The Sandspur. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
20. ^ "Atheist Part Ways With Tony Choy: News @". Season-of-mist. August 3, 2010. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
21. ^ "ATHEIST Preparing To Record New Album". Road runner records. June 5, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
22. ^ "ATHEIST Signs With AGONIA RECORDS; New Album Due This Year". Blabbermouth. February 21, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
23. ^ "Atheist – To Headline European Tour In February 2022". Metal Storm. April 22, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
24. ^ DaRonco, Mike. "Atheist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
25. ^ Wiederhorn, Jon (August 31, 2017). "Death Metal 101: The History of Death Metal". Loudwire. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
26. ^ Hickman, Langdon. "I'm Listening to Death Metal #2: Atheist's "Unquestionable Presence"". Invisible Oranges - The Metal Blog. Retrieved January 21, 2025.
27. ^ Wiederhorn, Jon. "Florida Death Metal's Gory Rise, Groundbreaking Reign: The Definitive Oral History". Revolver. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
28. ^ "- YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved April 28, 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Atheist at Wikimedia Commons
* Official Facebook page

* v
* t
* e

Atheist

* Kelly Shaefer
* Steve Flynn
* Chris Martin
* Daniel Martinez
* Yoav Ruiz-Feingold

* Roger Patterson
* Rand Burkey
* Frank Emmi
* Josh Greenbaum
* Kyle Sokol
* Chris Baker
* Jonathan Thompson
* Sonny Carson
* Travis Morgan
* Tony Choy
* Jason Holloway
* Joey Muha

Studio albums|

* Piece of Time
* Unquestionable Presence
* Elements
* Jupiter

Live albums|

* Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

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