# Atheist (band)

Atheist is a Florida death metal band from Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1987.
The band's original lineup consisted vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kelly Shaefer, lead guitarist Rand Burkey, bassist Roger Patterson and drummer Steve Flynn. 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. The band managed to gain a reputation in the underground. After disbanding in 1994, the group reformed in 2006 and has since released one studio album and a live DVD.

## History

The band 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"). They released their first album, Piece of Time, in 1989. Shortly before entering the studio to record their second album, Roger Patterson died on February 12, 1991, in a car accident at the age of 22. Shortly afterwards, they recruited ex-Pestilence and Cynic bassist Tony Choy to record their second album, Unquestionable Presence. Atheist disbanded for the first time in 1992, then reunited in 1993 to record a third album, Elements, fulfilling their contractual requirements, before disbanding for a second time in early 1994.
Seven years after their second breakup, Shaefer decided to re-release and remaster their three albums with different bonus tracks.
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". Flynn formed the band Gnostic in the same year. 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. 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. 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.
On July 11, 2010, Atheist revealed that their fourth studio album would be called Jupiter and was set for a November release. They signed a deal with Season of Mist and Jupiter was released on November 8, 2010.
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. The band announced in 2014 that it was working on a fifth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2015; however, the album would be left unreleased for over half a decade.
In February 2018, Atheist signed with Agonia Records, and the band plans to release their fifth studio album for the label.

## Musical style and legacy

Atheist are 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". Atheist have also been noted for elements of thrash metal, jazz and progressive rock present in their music. 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." 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."

## Members

Current
* Kelly Shaefer – lead vocals (1987–1994, 2006–present), guitars (1987–1994)
* Dylan Marks - drums (2023-present)
* Yoav Ruiz Feingold – bass (2019–present)
* Jerry Witunsky – guitars (2023–present)
* Alex Haddad – guitars (2023–present)
Former
Timeline

## Discography
### Studio albums

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

### Live albums

* Unquestionable Presence: Live at Wacken (2009)