10 Metal Bands That Have Never Made A Bad Album

Much like Tool (for the most part, at least), exploring the four-album discography of Florida death metal giants Atheist is an exercise in diving deeper and deeper down the progressive rabbit hole.

This becomes apparent when comparing the band’s first two releases – Piece of Time and Unquestionable Presence – especially as, between ’89 and ’91, Kelly Shaefer and co. went from progressive extremity to full-on jazz fusion madness.

Revisiting the disc, Atheist’s second release truly never gets the love it so definitely deserves. Predating modern experimental extremists like Ne Obliviscaris by almost twenty years, Unquestionable Presence was light-years ahead of its time. Its use of the bass and time signatures was sheer, mathematical genius, getting brilliantly artsy while also remaining truly primal and vicious. Furthermore, Elements in 1993 picked up almost exactly where Atheist had left off, upping the ante with slightly longer tracks in what was, for almost two decades, the group’s swan song.

A full seventeen years late, Jupiter hit in 2010 following Atheist’s 2006 reunion. Despite not being quite as well received as its predecessors, the album nonetheless proved that Atheist were still as techy, complex and succinct as ever, perfectly setting up a fifth album, if it were to ever come (please make it come).