ATHEIST: European Tour Dates Announced

Reactivated seminal technical metal pioneers ATHEIST and Atlanta, Georgia's GNOSTIC — the band featuring three members of ATHEIST — will team up with German death metallers OBSCURA for a number of European shows in August. Confirmed dates are as follows:

Aug. 07 - Czech Rep Jaromer @ Brutal Assault (ATHEIST, OBSCURA only)
Aug. 08 - Denmark Copenhagen @ Stengade 30
Aug. 09 - Holland Zaandem @ De Kade
Aug. 10 - Germany Essen @ Turock
Aug. 11 - Switzerland Zürich @ Dynamo Werk 21
Aug. 12 - Austria Wien @ Escape
Aug. 13 - Slovenia Kamnik @ Paranoid Fest (ATHEIST, OBSCURA only)
Aug. 15 - Finland Oulu @ Jalometalli Festival (ATHEIST, GNOSTIC only

ATHEIST frontman Kelly "Mosquito" Shaefer tells BLABBERMOUTH.NET: "This and the [previously announced] American tour [with THE FACELESS, PSYOPUS, THE AGONIST and GNOSTIC] is simply a warm-up for the band to get in a groove before recording the new album. [It] is in support of our double disc, coming in June with the live Wacken show, plus handpicked cuts from each record, with specific liner notes for each song as well as a journal from me and from [drummer Steven 'Penguin'] Flynn about the experience of playing Wacken. This is coming out on Relapse and the art and layout are amazing!"

ATHEIST recently finished mixing a recording of the band's appearance at the 2006 installment of the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany at LedBelly Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Kelly Shaefer, "It's a very stripped-down, no-overdubs live recording from our appearance at Wacken Open Air in 2006 as part of the reunion dates we did. This was only the fourth show on what would become many. So why record the fourth show? Well, we did not actually ever intend on it, but we found out that Wacken had raw tracks that could be remixed, whereas most recordings we get are from soundboards, and you cannot turn up guitars, vocals etc on those type of recordings. So... we obtained the raw tracks and have now mixed eight tunes with Matt (MASTODON, GNOSTIC) at LedBelly studios here in the Atlanta. The results? A very, very live (mistakes and all) and raw set of tracks from the 'Piece of Time' and 'Unquestionable Presence' era of ATHEIST. It sounds suprisingly warm, and for those who were there in Germany that afternoon to see ATHEIST on what was probably one of the more 'magical' performances we have ever had as a band, it was really the first time we had played for people who had been around back in the early days of the band, and were now writers, or owned record companies, plus all of the new fans of this strange technical metal genre of music... this will encapsulate that experience for us, you and as well as those who were not there that day... It was a great day!"

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.