Atheist
Elements

THE REVIEW

(beware, I will write quite a bit about this album... mostly about philosophical mental wankery)
I start by saying that in 1993 I see a ranking similar to this:

"Focus"
"Elements"
"ITP" (abbreviated "individual thought patterns")
"Spheres"

Then I also tell you that for me these albums are almost on the same level and that in the end, there is very little difference between one position and another in the ranking... then I also say that all these albums are around 7, some a cent more, some a cent less

Now I start

Always keep in mind the setlist (without the mini-instrumentals):

-"Green"

-"Water"

-"Air"

-"Animal"

-"Mineral"

-"Fire"

-"Earth"

-"Elements"

I begin by saying that along with "Focus" it is the album where I feel more "jazz" influences. The guitar, unlike its predecessors, relies much less on repeated picking and a bit more on "Symbolic" style riffs. I don’t know if I conveyed the idea... the voice has changed a bit, in fact you can hear two voices, and above all, the voice is much more embodied, giving me much less the idea of "Reign In Bloom"... however, the drums haven't changed much even though I notice tiny improvements, like lightening the pieces while maintaining a certain level of complexity... the bass, finally, is practically another thing, it's all plucked and if I have to describe it with an adjective, it would be "deadly" and it's inspired more by the high rather than the low (if you really want to know, the only album with such a raw bass is "Energetic Disassembly" by Watchtower).

One thing to its disadvantage is the number of songs, there are indeed 12... with 4 almost senseless small instrumentals... I can understand a "Samba Briza" or a "See You Again", but "Fractal Point" and "Displacement" I just don’t get since they don’t evoke anything compared to the other two,... bha!!!!
Then if we look at the times they have improved a lot, ranging from a minimum of 44 seconds to a maximum of 5 and a half minutes... let's say it's much more varied compared to its predecessors.
The songs I consider "serious" are "Animal", "Mineral", "Fire", "Earth", and "Elements"... although for most of them I haven’t evaluated the technicality or the song, but what it evoked in me listening to it, obviously thinking about the corresponding element... finally, among the 4 mini-instrumentals "Samba Briza" excites me quite a bit (and how could it not...) and "See You Again" which has a truly moving melody.
Then if we really look at the structure of each song it’s very difficult for me, but I can identify a couple:
"Green": has (very strangely) a simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus structure in which the solo occupies like 1/4 of the song; "Water": has a verse-chorus-verse-solo-verse-chorus structure (quite symmetrical) in which the solo occupies 2/4 of the song creating a kind of gap in the song (just like in a lake or an ocean full of water, coincidentally); "Air": has a structure like intro-verse-verse-solo-verse-verse-ending quite symmetrical in which the end returns to the theme of the beginning; "Animal": verse-verse-chorus-solo-verse-verse-chorus in which the solo is relatively short and between the first and second verse instead of the natural chorus there is a piece that replaces it; "Mineral": verse-verse-chorus-solo-verse-verse-chorus in which between the first and second verse there is a small solo that reappears in the second part of the song, then the chorus and the solo are completely linked and finally the last chorus reconnects to the theme of the initial chorus (or solo, seeing that they are linked) emphasizing even more the solo; "Fire": intro-verse-chorus-solo-verse-chorus-ending in which the finale coincides with the rhythm of the chorus but with greater rhythm; "Earth": intro-verse-solo-verse-solo-verse-solo-verse-solo-verse-solo-verse-solo-verse-solo-ending in which there are no choruses but repeated simple verses, also the song begins just as it ended; "Elements": verse-chorus-solo verse-chorus-solo verse-chorus-solo in which a small structure is repeated three times, also every chorus is accompanied by a small solo (which I really like);
(to do this I had to listen to each piece very slowly)

if I really have to make a ranking:
1-"Mineral"
2-"Fire"
3-"Elements"
4-"Earth"
5-"Animal"
6-"Air"
7-"Water"
8-"Green"
I leave the mini-instrumentals aside...
I

n conclusion, I give this album a 7 (as I already told you) not so much for all the solos or the rhythms (in fact... if it were for that it would have received a grade like 6+) but for entirely different reasons (of a philosophical nature) that revolve around these blessed elements.

In fact, even if you don’t read the lyrics of the songs, it is quite easy to deduce what they are about... ELEMENTS!!!
That is:
-"green"
-"water"
-"air"
-"animal"
-"mineral"
-"fire"
-"earth"
(then there is "Element" which in my opinion is a sort of moral of the story).
In fact, I was very struck and interested by these blessed elements... but many doubts arise for me:
- first of all, they are not all true elements, in fact there are "green" and "animal" which I don’t really see too well... but there is no problem... in fact, they are (for me) a bit more abstract elements where "green" stands for "nature" and "animal" stands indeed for "animal" force.
- then there is also "earth" which I haven’t quite understood.. first of all, I wondered why to include an "earth" if there is already "mineral" which partially encompasses it... in fact, in the end, I came to the conclusion that "earth" meant the planet "earth" (confirmed in the dictionary: "earth" means both "earth" and "planet earth." for the latter in English it is predominantly said "world", but "earth" is also fine) and not that brown stuff that farmers dig... one factor that makes it clear is the hiss heard at the beginning and the end of the song, which I interpreted as a kind of "zoom" in reverse (practically a moving away) from all that rubbish that was created with the union of all those elements... but it doesn’t work very well because if we see things from a chronological point of view it doesn’t work:
1- nature is created (trees, etc.); Already this doesn’t work since nature would be dead without "water", "air", and "mineral"; Then I tried to see things the opposite way starting from "earth" and getting to "green":
1- the "fire" is created; but already here I can stop since "fire" cannot exist without the "air".
And at this point I stopped thinking that I was giving myself too many mental wankeries...

Instead recently another theory dropped into my head... without considering the chronological order I tried to group them: since "elements" and "earth" are excluded (because they come after the union of all the elements) I tried to group these blessed elements: since the only abstract elements were "green" and "animal" and considering that to each of these elements follow two other elements, I saw the whole affair this way: first group: "nature" with its subgroups "water" and "air"; second group: "animal" with its subgroups "mineral" and "fire"; if you look at it this way things make enough sense.... in fact, I imagine "nature" as a peaceful and silent force just like its sub-elements, while "animal" I imagine it as a brute and primordial force like in this case as well as its sub-elements, and not only... let's compare the sub-elements of each group, you have a curious symmetry:
water fire
air mineral
Practically the sub-elements are completely opposite: "water" against "fire" and "air" against "mineral"...
At that point I said to myself "WOW Daniele, you made it!!!" but then I immediately realized that in all these reasonings I hadn’t included the semi-instrumentals and that therefore in the first group the "AIR" was being divided... too bad, but I think that in the end there is no secret behind these "elements"...
Anyway, I can tell you that the serious songs are precisely those in which I can perfectly see the element:
in "Air" it is understood by the guitar at the beginning and by the voice when it unleashes;
in "Mineral" it is perfectly clear from the rhythm underneath the verse: all swept in a zigzag;
at "Animal" it is understood from the drum roll at the beginning and from the dark chorus... a truly animal chorus;
"Earth" as I already told you I imagine it as planet earth and therefore the two whistles at the beginning and end are getting closer or moving away from earth;
In "Fire" (especially because it is the one that excites me the most to listen to) it's understood from almost 80% of the song, it's hard to explain, but just listen to it imagining this primordial flame in nothingness; it's

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every "atheist" album always begins with the bass
And at each ending they do something different
In "Pice Of Time" a nice "No Truth" whispered in a low voice followed by an irrepressible last round
In "Unquestionable Presence" it ends with a luxurious "GOOONG" Japanese style
And in "Elements" with a fade-out that most "technical death metal" albums like "Focus", "ITP", "Symbolic", and "The Sound Of Perseverance" will later pick up...

Concluding, I really liked "Elements"... because basically the best albums are the ones that make you think or do mental wankeries as happened to me...

Sorry for the heaviness but I would have written this reasoning sooner or later.

Maybe a bit too long but I don’t care as much the max is 1800... I barely reached 1520.

I hope you like my review.

By LUGREZZO