UNQUESTIONABLE PRESENCE

1. Mother Man (10/10) 2. Unquestionable Presence (10/10) 3. Your Life's Retribution (9.5/10) 4. Enthralled in Essence (9.5/10) 5. An Incarnation's Dream (9.5/10) 6. The Formative Years (8/10) 7. Brains (8.5/10) 8. And The Psychic Saw (9.5/10)

Atheist, an angry high-speed explosion of chops. Something is just incredibly cool about the fact that these guys are insane. These guys are obviously trained at their instruments and play as manic or intense as any metal band, but with groove and melody in mind combined with the fierceness of death metal. This may be hard to swallow, but if you happen to enjoy funky grooves and incredible chops and some angry music once in a while, this is something you need to get your hands on. The musicianship and interplay in the rhythm section and not to mention the guitar, is amazing to say the least. And it's not wankery either surprisingly, it's all well-orchestrated, but just injected with nitro. Now, enough about their sound. This album is constantly impressing yet maybe repetitive to someone who doesn't dig the sound, and well-produced, the songwriting interesting for once in the death metal genre, along with the likes of Opeth. The blazing inventive sounds and the time signatures are icing on the cake. Each song is like a thrash nuts circus of superhuman groove, lit on fire. Any metal band who is trying to reach a respectable sound combined with technical playing is in essence trying to reach the level of Atheist in those aspects. I highly recommend this incredibly distinct metal unit to any fans of heavy music, and the complexity of prog. If you don't like things overly technical then be aware, I love it for the sheer insanity of it.

Reviewer's tilt: (9.5/10)

Overall score: 9.3 or 4.5 stars (rounded to 5)