| Elements |  | Artist: Atheist
Label: Relapse
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $18.03
You Save: $0.95 (5%)
New (13) from $14.51
Rating:  8 reviews
Media: LP Record
UPC: 781676667215
EAN: 0781676667215
ASIN: B001BKZD5A
Release Date: August 5, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Green | | • | Water | | • | Samba Briza - Atheist, Choy | | • | Air | | • | Displacement - Atheist, Burkey | | • | Animal | | • | Mineral | | • | Fire | | • | Fractal Point - Atheist, Burkey | | • | Earth | | • | See You Again - Atheist, Emmi | | • | Elements | | • | Unquestionable Presence | | • | On They Slay | | • | Enthralled in Essence | | • | The Formative Years | | • | Mother Man | | • | Retribution |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
My favorite Atheist album January 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Atheist are truly no doubt one of the most inhumanly talented, original sounding, and influentual progressive/technical death metal bands that I've ever heard in my life, and I sure don't regret getting into them one bit. Their third and final album 1993's "Elements" is just an absolutely amazing, unique atmospheric, mindsweeping progressive/technical death metal masterpiece, and it's also their most jazz oriented album as well. While I do love both "Piece of Time" and "Unquestionable Presence", "Elements" is my favorite album by Atheist. True this album may be more jazz oriented and that's very cool, but it's still very heavy and technical too. This incredible monster of an album has absolutely everything from crazy mindsweeping guitar riffs and solos, to thrashy Kreator-esque vocals and intelligent lyrics and songwriting, to awesome jazzy basslines and amazing drumming, I mean it will just take your breath away.
An interesting fact about "Elements" is, that it was written, recorded and mixed in 40 days in the studio. Back then, the band wanted to break up but they needed to finish their three album contract to their record label. This album also features a third guitarist by the name of Frank Emmi. Personally I find it rather interesting and fun to hear three guitars thrashing it out. Kelly Shaefer (who also does vocals) takes over rhythm guitar duties on this album, while Frank Emmi and Rand Burkey deliver and simply amaze the listener with awesomely breathtaking guitar solo after guitar solo throughout. Tony Choy's basslines are just absolutely jazzy, funky, thunderous, and ungodly throughout making this album heavily bass-driven. The drumming is also tight, precise, and downright amazing throughout with lots of funky beats and solid odd time signatures.
Every song on here (minus some of the interludes one here) is very unique, atmospheric, and amazing in each way but here's a look at some of my favorites on here. "Green" is an excellent funky album opener that features catchy funky riffs, crazy solos, thunderous basslines and excellent drumming. "Water" is an excellent addicting bass-driven number that features just absolute thundering bass work that just slaps the listener silly, along with more powerful riffage and soloing, solid rhythms and insane drumwork, and even some catchy sitar solos as well. My favorite song on here no doubt has to be "Samba Briza" which is a fantastic catchy Latin-Jazz instrumental that clocks in at approximately 1:58. This song features a bebop-singalong inducing spanish guitar and piano solo and of course some absolutely jaw dropping basslines from Tony to boot. Track six "Animal" features cool atmopsheric like guitar riffs and solos and funky slamming basslines, "Mineral" is another jazzy number that features somewhat funky beeping guitar noises, some more excellent leadwork, great bass, and some funky drum beats. "Earth" features some more catchy funky riffage, a nice R&B like breakdown, more great solos and funky drumwork and the title track "Elements" is just a deliciously funky and jazzy album closer. For Bonus Tracks we have some songs that were recorded from a live radio broadcast from 1992 which is definately a treat.
Jeremy's song ratings:
Elements album:
1. Green (3:22) - 5/5
2. Water (4:28) - 5/5
3. Samba Briza (1:58) - 5/5 My favorite song on here
4. Air (5:34) - 5/5
5. Displacement (1:25) - 4/5
6. Animal (4:11) - 5/5
7. Mineral (4:33) - 5/5
8. Fire (4:37) - 5/5
9. Fractal Point (0:44) - 4/5
10. Earth (3:53) - 5/5
11. See You Again (1:17) - 4/5
12. Elements (5:47) - 5/5
Live Radio Broadcast 1992:
13 Unquestionable Presence (4:02) - 5/5
14. On They Slay (3:47) - 5/5
15. Entralled in Essence (4:31) - 5/5
16. The Formative Years (3:38) - 5/5
17. Mother Man (4:32) - 5/5
18. Retribution (3:11) - 5/5
If you call yourself a fan of progressive/technical death metal and you've not experienced the music of Atheist, then you are truly missing out. I'm glad I got to experiece it, and like I said before, I don't even regret it one bit. This album is an absolute must have for any fan of Atheist, progressive metal, technical death metal, jazz-fushion metal, or just metal in general. I also highly recommend this to fans of Cynic, Death (late-period stuff), Spiral Architect, Pestilence, and Necrophagist.
Do yourself a huge favor, and buy this classic ASAP!! I guarantee you'll love it man. Well, bye for now.
 Unstable and a little clunky September 4, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
UPDATE: Sorry, I mean to say "I don't always need blazing riffs". instead of "I dont like blazing riffs.
Elements has some breaths of genius, but honeslty, I aquired this cd almost a year ago, and I still haven't enjoyed it like I did with Piece Of Time and Unquestionable Presence. Who's to blame exactly for this album? I say that the short record time, a month just isn't enough for Atheist, Atheist is complex and need time working on their albums. It's kind of a shame, because if they had more time, Elements would have been a masterpiece, I knkow because Atheist could pull it through.
First the bad. A lot of the songs, like Fire, Animal, the title track, and Earth are all at times, kind of boring. They are not too terrible, but it just dosen't click with me. It maybe because the guitars are all over the place, or the uninteresting riffs, or just beacuse it's just too slow. Don't get me wrong, I don't care from blazing riffs, but the riffs just don't together, and again, the time they had to complete this. Atheist were just in finer form in Unquestionable Presence, not a moment wasted in that one. So it's too bad those songs are clunky.
The good though, it's that the other songs are amazing. Samba Briza is hands down the most creative song they have ever done, it's a great latin jazz song. Too bad it's so short. Green's a jazzy metal song with heavy riffs, and the intro is great. Water is another amazing Atheist song, you'll have to hear this one, ditto for Air. Displacement is eeire, it's pretty cool. Mineral has a great groove, and Fractal Point is another great instrumental, and that goes for See You Again. These songs really show what Atheist was capable of, and it's a shame that they had to rush it. At least the demos aren't terrible.
Overall, Elements has some essential Atheist songs, but the clunky metal songs really hampered it down a bit. Piece Of Time and Unquestionable Presence blow Elements out of the water. I think I'll be more happy with those.
6.5/10
The Best Metal Band February 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Atheist is the most amazing band in metal genre. You will never forget their songs after you listen to them.
Consider just how much pressure these guys were into back then! October 18, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Nowdays, it's easy for metalheads to be awed by Atheist, but back then, Atheist was a struggling band. The band often got booed offstage, Roger Patterson, the bass genius, was tragically killed in a bus accident, and having only less than to months to create the WHOLE album (from the cover to the music to the lyrics, basically from the ground up), and it shows that Atheist were the most talented death metal bands in the history of the entire genre.
This is their best. Having three guitars is totally entertaining, and they put it to good use. Some say that some bands just get too caught up in trying to impress the listener, which some just get bored. This common critiscim is something alot of metal bands face, and I think that metal bands don't deserve it. Bands like Nile are very technical, but they are only playing that to completate the lyrics and paint a picture. Some people just don't understand metal, and alot of people might find this album to be a little boring. Instead of focusing on that, try to uncover the music itself.
For Elements, the music has more choruses like General Zombie said. There is more jazz in it, and they throw some excellent instumentals, which are ever unique and atmospheric. They add alot to it, and are very cool. Tony Choy's basslines are awesome, and this is a great bass album, and they took care into making sure they balanced everything out. This is also their most technical of their three albums. Also noted is the atmospheric interludes, Green and Air are some standout tracks on that. It's a very good album, but I had some trouble adjusting to it and it took a while for it to grow on me. But then again, Unquestionable Presence also took some time, but it's great. The songs are amazing, but my favorite is Samba Briza. It's a latin Jazz Instrumental, and it's amazing that a death metal band plays something. It's too short though, but that's because it's so awesome. And it's real latin jazz, and it sound 100 percent latin. Check it out.
Elements is a cult classic that sadly will never meet the mainstream, but who cares? It's the music that matters, and Atheist delivers. Besides, popular music for the most part is just plain awful. It sickens me how S*** like crazy frog, ashlee simpson, and koRn sell like crazy, while this fails to go wide and is doomed for all eternity. Forget the popularity, and listen to the music. Atheist will guide you and take you on a journey.
If you are looking for machine gun double bass, roaring vocals, winding, thrashing guitar solos, and intense music, you have come to the wrong place. Like jazz, it's laid back, but like metal, it's heavy and entertaining, fast, but not really intense. Too bad Atheist broke up, but at least we have the albums. And Atheist gave us some classic albums indeed.
buy or die! January 30, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Athiest was a name in metal that i had always read good things about, but was never able to get ahold of their long out-of-print records to find out for myself. from what i understand, i was not alone in this boat. well, all you progressive, technical metal heads out there need to get on your knees and thank Relapse records for doing us all a favour and re-releasing these seminal chunks of exquisite, over-the-top musical masterpieces. Elements is an album that works on every level imagineable, and it is completely fulfilling in all it's glorious aspects. when listening to this amazing album, it seems that Athiest's attempt was to reach farther than any other metal band had ever done....not with ultimate speed, or the most technicaly-demanding riff; but with a songcraft that has a clear, concise scope and concept. embellished with enough hooks and differention that allows each cut to stand out from every other track, yet retains an overall unified theme. thankfully, the goals were reached and greatly exceeded! sitting down and listening to this album you notice how well the songs are paced. there is alot of different things going on...crazy sweeping guitars, thrashy vocals, jazzy bass and amazing drumwork that will confound the most experienced air-drummer...(haha)...but thanks (in no small part) to an outstanding production job and flawless playing; every instrument is crystal clear and the songs never get mired down in their own excess. every musician is allowed plenty of space to breathe and grow within these compositions. it's mind-boggling to listen to these recordings and read the liner notes telling of how the band had only 40 days to write and record this entire album! wow! and i mean...wow! i guess this is a good example of working well under pressure. the packing is really cool and all the lyrics are included (which are very well-written) and a few promo shot and liner notes are also a good read. i don't like the fact that the promotional sticker is stuck directly onto the jewel case! this covers up a considerable amount of art on the cover. wouldn't it have made more sense to have it attatched onto the shrink wrap? and the text is a bit misleading in my opinion. the sticker claims the music on this cd is "for fans of Dillinger Escape Plan & Necrophagist." and i have heard both of those bands and i don't think that Athiest is quite on the same level as either of those groups. not better or worse, just a different style...Athiest is much more jazzy influenced and more song-oriented. the sticker also claims that Cynic, late-period Death, and Spiral Architect fans would dig this album...and those are much better reference ponts. oh well...minor gripe. at the end of the day, it's the music that matters and Elements is not just another good metal album or one that would be an asset to your collection...it is, quite frankly, an essential purchase!
|
|
|
Copyright 2006 - CD Shopper | |
