Atheist - Elements

(31 Dec 2010)

Have you ever heard Nine Inch Nails's The Slip? That album took 2 months to make and it is great. Now, look at the album I'm currently reviewing. with its awesome cover and tracks names which follow the concept presented in the album title. This goodness took 40 days to make, unwillingly, to finish a three-album contract with Active Records and it is also great. Knowing the background behind this album's creation, one would be led to believe that Elements is a turd of an album, and under that assumption I listened to it.

It took me some time to force myself to listen to this album because of the production. Take Death Magnetic, and remove anything that was ever appealing about its sound, and you have an idea of how this sounds. Luckily, the music here survives that. The music here is quite different from their previous album. While Unquestionable Presence was jazzy technical thrash, Elements follows a much more groove-oriented direction. Elements is like Progressive Groove Jazz Metal, if you're one to come up with genres for every kind of music ever created.

I might even go as far as saying that this third release is even better than Atheist's sophomore. While Unquestionable Presence is unquestionably more diverse, heavier, more energetic and presents more ideas in just over half an hour than Elements in 40 minutes, Elements succeeds by doing the complete opposite. Instead of jumping from idea to idea, the songs here will stick to a few really memorable ideas and go around those cyclically, adding a new idea once the others have sunk in. The fact that this works at all in a prog album is in itself a surprising feat. The fact that it works so well just goes on to prove that Atheist were truly inspired while composing this album.

Elements should have never worked. It was hurried. It is simplistic. Its production is terrible. Somehow, Atheist not only changed my stubborn mind about this album being terrible, but they've also proven to me that they're not overrated at all. Incredible at its highest points and good on its lowest, this album is a must listen for anyone with an open mind.

Standout tracks:

Air
Animal
Mineral
Elements