By Kelley Simms
PROG-METAL GIANTS
Atheist
T
echnical progressive metal band
Atheist has had a challenging career.
Breaking into the metal scene in 1987
and releasing its debut album Piece of Time
in 1990, the Sarasota, Florida quartet intro-
duced its brand of technical “jazz-metal” —
which combined influences from both
thrash metal and elaborate jazz fusion.
However, this combination of styles at the
time equally intrigued-yet-confused metal
fans, even drawing criticism from Death
frontman Chuck Schuldiner for not being
“metal enough.”
Thankfully, Atheist forged its own path
and released its 1991 masterpiece
Unquestionable Presence to critical praise.
Unfortunately, the band took a long hiatus
from 1994 to 2006, during which drummer
Steve Flynn quit playing altogether and
enrolled in college. Vocalist Kelly Shaefer
formed the melodic rock band, Neurotica,
and auditioned for Velvet Revolver.
Although Atheist’s last full-length album
was 2010’s Jupiter, the group has been
working on new material with a tentative
release date of early-mid 2020.
Shaefer spoke to IE about people’s ini-
tial perceptions of the band, the early days
of Florida's burgeoning ’90s death metal
scene, and his audition with Velvet
Revolver.
Mosh: How did you land the Velvet
Revolver audition?
Kelly Shaefer: Atheist had just gotten off the
Ozzfest tour, and two of the guys in the band
34 illinoisentertainer.com december 2019
quit right after the tour. I was in the process
of putting Neurotica back together, and I'm
sitting in front of my computer screen one
day, and I see an ad, it was on Blabbermouth
actually, and it said, ‘Slash says there are no
real rock singers around anymore.’ That was
the headline, and I thought, ‘Well, fuck that.
Yes, there are.’ I remembered that our
Neurotica publicist used to be Slash’s publi-
cist. So, I reached out to her, and she sent the
record to him. Three days later, I got a phone
call from Slash, and he said they’ve listened
to over 600 singers at this point. He said,
‘write some vocals and send it back.’ I did,
and they said, come to L.A., so I went to L.A.
and got into the studio with them and did
another song and rehearsed with them for
three-four days, and came home pretty sure
(that I got the gig). They had announced on
Slash’s website that I was definitely the guy
at that point. So, I had the gig for a minute.
And then (Scott) Weiland's wife and Duff’s
wife were really good friends, and they
caught wind that Weiland was going to be
leaving STP. So, out I went.
I can't blame the management. At the
time, it was just called The Project. It wasn't
called Velvet Revolver at that point until
Scott got into the band. It was a great experi-
ence for me. Honestly, in my heart, I never
thought I would get that far. We had a great
time, and for me as a music fan, it was inter-
esting just to be a fly on the wall, so to speak.
But more than a fly on the wall as I actually
got to jam with them and then make some
music together.
Mosh: When Atheist first started, not
many bands of your ilk were playing this
style of music. Although, Cynic and even-
tually Death were around as well.
K.S.: When we first started, there wasn't
even Cynic. We had already put out Piece of
Time when Cynic sort of emerged. We were,
in our heads, already seeking this sort of
technical ecstasy, this level of complication
that we wanted to combine with brutality.
There were no other (bands like this), it did-
n't seem important to bands at that time. It
was a dirt road full of potholes, and Atheist
and Cynic sort of paved [the way]. And then
eventually, Death jumped on board and
became a more complicated band.
Kudos to Chuck (Schuldiner) [for] recog-
nizing that that was where it needed to go
because there was a time in his career that he
didn't feel that Atheist was right for metal.
He talked a lot of shit about us. He’s a leg-
end, and he deserves all the credit in the
world for all of his great accomplishments.
But he was a tough guy to get along with. We
had a full-on, practically nose-to-nose
encounter with Death at Morrisound studios
about this very thing, about the complexity.
And he just didn't feel like what we were
doing was metal. It was very difficult for us
to get to the point where I didn't speak to
him. So, Steve said, ‘Fuck this, I'm gonna go
to college’ and he bailed out in ’93 and I was
left with no band. Then I got a call from the
label, and they said they had to have a record
from us in 43 days. I was in the studio with
Neurotica at the time, but I reached out and
pulled everybody together, and we wrote
and recorded that whole third Atheist record
in 40 days.
Mosh: Speaking of that third album
Elements, Atheist was going on hiatus at
that point, but you were contractually obli-
gated to complete another album. Did you
feel rushed or forced to record the album so
quickly?
K.S.: A lot of people ask that question, and
honestly, I actually prefer working like that. I
love that challenge. I love the spontaneous
combustion of writing music. So, I liked the
project. I didn't really like that (the quick
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