ATHEIST Continuing Work On New Material

Vocalist Kelly Shaefer of the reactivated seminal technical metal pioneers ATHEIST has issued the following update:

"I am here in Atlanta. I drove up after my art show which went really really well for my first showing. I sold six pieces and I wish to thank those who purchased very much, including SKID ROW's Scotti Hill, and I look forward to doing it again soon.

"So my drive up [from Florida] was only eight hours, and I got here last night around 8pm, hung with [Steve] Flynn [ATHEIST drummer] and talked till late in the evening, and also viewed this ultra rare footage of ATHEIST recording 'Piece of Time' in 1988. We stayed at a hotel in Tampa for a week, and were so excited to be recording our first record. We were 19-20 years old and full of metal. Some really classic footage of the late great Roger Patterson [bass], that no one on this planet has seen, not Flynn, not any one from back in the day. This was sitting in my garage for the last six years after someone gave it to me while I was on tour with NEUROTICA in 2002 on the Ozzfest tour. A girl we used to know was in line and the signing booth and gave me these VCR tapes, and they are amazing, including Roger tracking 'I Deny' and all of us at different points with this video camera was was actually a bit rare in 1988. This will most certainly be on our planned double DVD for 2009.

"Fucking 20 years ago this week we were recording literally an album that helped define our sound as a band. Roger's birthday is this week coming up, he would be turning 40 years old in a few days, and I think he would be so excited to see the passion we are pouring into making this new record. It is inspired by him, and I am certain he knows it.

"Tonight me and Flynn sat for four hours and worked out this unreal section of music that honestly is just inspiring. We had such a great time working through these pieces of music that just appeared on our brains on this night.

"It is the 20th anniversary of our first record, and we have come full circle, and tonight we wrote together what will truly be an honest continuation of a journey we started 20 years ago, and never really got to finish... we can hardly wait!!

"Also caught a GNOSTIC [Steve Flynn's new band] practice as well today and they were staggeringly tight!!! Their record will be coming out in early 2009, produced by yours truly, and we plan on making that announcement soon.

"As some of you know Chris Baker (guitar) and Sonny Carson (guitar) from GNOSTIC played on all of the [ATHEIST] reunion touring we did in 2006 and 2007, and they will be joining us, along with Tony Choy (bass) on this new record. I also talked with Rand Burkey (guitar) and while he will not be able to do the touring with us, he will take part in upcoming writing sessions with me when I get back to Florida. We are going to put pieces of music together, and I will bring them up to Atlanta and see how it goes. As you all know, he is a very unique player with a very specific style that we appreciate as much as you do, so the whole family is involved for this one, ladies and gents.

"Gotta jet, but watch for updates this week, and once again thanks to you all for helping us make this happen. We will not let technical metal fans down....but more importantly, we won't let Roger down! It's going to be hauntingly, sick, and insane!!!"

In January 2006, Kelly Shaefer reassembled much of what was widely considered ATHEIST's classic recording lineup (Shaefer, bassist Tony Choy, and drummer Steven Flynn) to perform a select number of one-off shows to celebrate the re-issue of their wildly-influential catalog (1988's "Piece of Time", 1993's "Elements", and the 1991's legendary "Unquestionable Presence"). Among those shows were performances at such legendary festivals such as Germany's Wacken Open Air, Norway's Hole In The Sky, Italy's Evolution, England's Bloodstock Open Air, and the Los Angeles' Murderfest.

Professionally filmed video footage of ATHEIST performing the song "And the Psychic Saw" at the Wacken Open Air 2006 festival in Wacken, Germany can be viewed below.