Atheist are a Technical death metal band from Florida, USA, founded in 1984, whose music combined brutal riffs with subtle latin music arrangements and Elements of jazz. Their second album, Unquestionable Presence, released in 1991 (see 1991 in music), has been regarded by some critics as one of the most influential technical death metal albums of all time.
The band was founded in 1984 in Florida, USA, firstly under the name Oblivion and later R.A.V.A.G.E. (which stands for Raging Atheists Vowing A Gory End). They recorded their debut album, Piece Of Time, in 1988, which was released in Europe in 1989, but not in the United States until 1990. In 1991, bassist Roger Patterson perished in a car accident and Atheist recruited Tony Choy to record their second album, the now classic Unquestionable Presence. Atheist disbanded for the first time in 1992, reuniting in 1993 and recording their last album Elements, fulfilling their contractual requirements, before disbanding for the second time.
Seven years after their second break up, Kelly Shaefer has decided that it was about time for the world to hear again of Atheist so the three albums are re-released with different bonus tracks and completely remastered.
Kelly Shaefer played with Neurotica until 2002, whereas Tony Choy played in a number of other bands, including Pestilence and Cynic.
Relapse Records re-issued 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. Former drummer Steve Flynn has recently re-emerged in a new band called Gnostic.
In January, 2006, Atheist announced they were regrouping to perform live during the summer and fall of that year. The line-up was Shaefer, Burkey, Choy and Flynn. Shaefer only provided vocals due to long battles with tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome[3]. Gnostic guitarist Sonny Carson handled all of Shaefer's guitar parts. Recently Chris Baker of Gnostic has been replacing Burkey because of legal troubles.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist_(band)
