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Rating: ATHEIST - Unquestionable Presence INTRO: In music, there are periods when new musical genres emerge, when new bands try to express their emotions through different riffs from those that had delighted our ears up to that moment, when new topics are tackled that express anger and pain; one of these periods can be said to start from the second half of the '80s where albums like "Seven Churches" by Possessed and "Scream Bloody Goro" by Death opened the doors to that genre called death metal, with which the bands of the time tried to express their discontent with society through lyrics that exalt death and destruction. So we, the simple listeners, had labeled death metal and its bards as the expression of the most rotten part that one could bring out. But then a moment comes when you start to doubt those hypotheses that had been assumed until then, then a moment comes when you think: "Wow, but what have I been listening to until now?".
We can point to that moment as 1991, the zero point for death metal, a year in which one begins to doubt the bloodlust of death metal and in which that sonic violence becomes a reasoned violence where each note has a precise place in that sound wall that is a distant relative of that raw mass composed by the early Death and Possessed. These new theorists of death metal as an expression not of violence at the service of music but of music at the service of violence are Atheist, who along with Pestilence, Cynic, and even Death themselves, managed to change the targets and clichés that had classified death metal up to that point, giving rise to a race on how to classify this type of music: techno-death, prog-death, jazz-death, etc... The fact is that the album Unquestionable Presence by Atheist is something that goes beyond normal death metal, something that goes beyond the musical knowledge we ordinary listeners could have ever imagined. A sublime work in which the quartet manages to conceive eight simply superb tracks.
Each musician can squeeze the best out of their instrument to the point of doubting their human form; it is unimaginable how Shaefer can "scream" in that way and at the same time set up a sonic tapestry that, along with his companion Burkey, exalts their skill to the maximum. They manage to conceive tracks in which the two guitars are like two leading actors where neither steps on the other's toes and both work for the achievement of the piece, thus the two guitars overlap, intertwine, complement each other but never step on each other's toes, managing to span from death riffs to jazz riffs without problems; not to mention the rhythm section where it must have been an incredibly difficult task to play, leading one to think there might even have been some improvisation because Steve Flynn is simply frightening: with a minimal setup, he manages to create an incredible sonic chaos, going at insane speeds, pounding on everything he can, and creating drum parts that are complex and inextricable, so much so that at times it's hard to understand what he's doing, perhaps even he didn't know... And then there's Tony Choi on bass, shifting the group's style towards more jazz sounds, therefore not giving a rougher and more aggressive impact. In conclusion (thank God, someone might say), this is a work that revolutionized the entire death metal movement by developing a new way of conceiving anger and violence.
Therefore, a mandatory purchase for all those who go beyond the simplicity and frivolity of normal death metal and who seek that refinement that can truly move them...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Mother Man (04:34)
You say there's freedom
Within our nature
Well I don't think you understand
Mother Earth has fallen to Mother Man
The Air, the Sea, the Grass, the Trees,
The nemesis is the major,
Fearless leader Mother Man.
Come on take a look
At what`s become
Of the existence that leads
Or so we think
That's always a popular phrase
It suits the laws written
By dear Mother Man
Those heavy hands.
What man creates man will surely destroy
The rule of thumb
In the mouths of little boy
Earth spins delight
We kill everything in sight
To serve the needs
And all purple skies will bleed
And a bird flies weak
Against polluted skies
Before it dies
And nature becomes illegal
According to rules
Made by fools
Sift through the information
Everlasting hesitation
To reveal all knowing vices
All the compromising prices
Untouched by the law binders
Setting standards to remind us
That the ink has dried
Behind the goal
We wish to achieve is gone
02 Unquestionable Presence (04:06)
The fog rolls in thin here tonight
And all that is warm
Grows ice cold
All that are strong
Fill with fright
My ship has returned here tonight
Get away
Don't you touch my precious ship
Be thankful that you witnessed it at all
Chorus
'Cause you can never understand
My life in space
Our visits here
Have gone untraced for years
So easy to create
A shell like you
I must leave now and return
Our presence is unquestionable
We cannot be seen for this long
Now look at what you've done
Created such a stir
If only you had kept yourself
You might have known for sure
Proof of life in outer space
Our mission is completed
Our voyage is ahead
Our data is collected
To mankind it's fed
And deeper and deeper we fall
Chorus
04 Enthralled in Essence (03:37)
[Lyrics: Shaefer]
[Music : Atheist]
I've scaled over the walls of morality
Not quite sure what I'd find
There on the other side
Waiting in a common stance
Relieve me of my duty
As keeper of this body
Just leave me with my mind
And I assure you
I will be just fine
Tears stream from cheek
Of a man whose body his mind does not seek
A very gruelling rendition
Of a human soul's indecision
The qualities of a finer being
Locked well within this shell
Crying out to be released
To a body that serves as well
Malformed at birth
You see what it's worth
In a mirror I ask why
Such a shame, wanting to die
In a past lifetime
I feel I've had mine
Shared with no one
Excuse me I must go now !
Unhappy as he exits
Unhappy as he came
Enthralled in the Essence
The Essence of life to be
05 An Incarnation's Dream (04:52)
It all seems to strange
The mutes the bums
The dogs with mange, the poor,
Doesn't anybody help themselves anymore
I guess not
Barefoot pregnant women
Little kids whit snot on their face
A land of plenty, a dynasty of disgrace!
I'll manifest for you
Careening on the outer limits of reality
I must not fail them now,
I look inside to see that it's clear
Living life is just not enough
You must persevere
Please grab hold
Not to thing that are bought
But to things that cannot tot be sold,
Then you'll see
You're released by trial and error
The world's prophecy is to learn
A candle lit from the bottom
Will soon start to burn
Don't dignify, a false spy in the sky
Re-route your path
With the blink of an eye
Walking around with a mind of your own
With a glance to the past
You can see we have grown
How much we have grown
It's been my dream
To enter the stream
To let carnates know
What life really means
If one understands
That's all I can ask
Life to you
is such a wretched task!
06 The Formative Years (03:30)
In the short time
That I have spent
In this ghastly plane
I've come to find
There are so many things
That should be changed
Like the relationship
Between the elder and the youth
It lights the fuse that leads
To all our problems
And that's the truth
Ambition, floods our hearts
In a world in which
We must succeed
If it's only in our eyes
Connoisseur of Opportunity
Release your stubborn nature
Don't' electrify the seed
Rectify the need
We know you speak with them
Your close but very far
Communication is essential
Like the light to stars
No need to tell them no
No need to slap their hands
These are the formative years
You would not understand
07 Brains (03:41)
[Lyrics: Schaefer]
[Music : Atheist]
Talking to yourself
You say things
No one ever hears
Knowing yourself better
Than anyone ever could
Bet you never thought you would
Honesty prevails in thought
You just can't lie to yourself
A patch of lucrid decisions
A thought of fame and wealth
[Chorus]
A caravan or process if you will
A stream of conscious waves
A prostitute of ideas
A maze of tracing knowledge
First and foremost feed your head !
Retrieve all that flows with memory
Obtain all you know with sensories
Approaching every act with contemplation
Attacking every-vision with indecision
Conditioning is a routine of minds
Recruiting all the intellect it finds
Insecurity is merely your fear
Of maybe the outside hearing what you hear
Can't let 'em see,
Don't let 'em hear
Projecting like an airplane in flight
I dream of things
That just aren't quite right
A projecter shines on the back of my eyes
So my position of perception can rise
[Repeat chorus]
Insecurity is merely your fear
Of maybe the outside
Hearing what you hear
Don't let 'em see,
Can't let 'em hear
08 And the Psychic Saw (04:44)
And so the Psychic Saw
Meaningful ends and the thrill of it all
To be an equal of infinity's divine
Searching the cosmos for erected confines
Bursting within the motherland
The excess soon will exceed demand
That I see
Man's existence is to form resistance
The timeless reluctance
The all forgotten purpose
Your spectacle of actions
Is the tell tale of my visions
Oh now I, see it clear
You wish to be relieved
Of all feat
Don't worry yourself
Prepare your senses
Until, the knowledge, commences
And so the Psychic Saw!
Visions!
The land and sea, Beauty!
And so the Psychic Saw meaningful ends
Become the meaning of it all
To set the stage
For the fear that will be
To pull the curtain
For the whole world to see
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