ATHEIST: 'Jupiter' First-Week Sales Revealed

"Jupiter", the long-awaited fourth album from reactivated seminal technical metal pioneers ATHEIST, sold around 500 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 88 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"Jupiter" was released on November 9 (one day earlier internationally) via Season Of Mist. The CD was recorded at LedBelly studios in Atlanta, Georgia with engineer Matt Washburn and was mixed by Jason Suecof (TRIVIUM, CHIMAIRA, DEVILDRIVER). The cover artwork (see below) was created by Eliran Kantor, who has previously worked with TESTAMENT, SIGH, ANACRUSIS and GWAR, among others.

"Jupiter" track listing:

01. Second To Sun
02. Fictitious Glide
03. Fraudulent Cloth
04. Live And Live Again
05. Faux King Christ
06. Tortoise The Titan
07. When The Beast
08. Third Person

"Second To Sun" audio stream:

The bass tracks on the effort were laid down by ATHEIST guitarist Jonathan Thompson, who also plays bass for drummer Steve Flynn's other group, GNOSTIC.

Regarding the direction of the new material, vocalist Kelly Shaefer wrote in a recent online posting, "[We] have taken great strides to make this the record we, as fans, would want to hear from ATHEIST. It's ferocious, intelligent, and dead-balls heavy as shit!

"When people hear this, they're going to say, 'It's ATHEIST!'"

"There are so many twists and turns in the average ATHEIST song, and we felt like it was very important to have enough killer material written so as to make it the most interesting record we have ever created. We wanted to make sure we took the next logical step in the evolution of our music. According to the critics out there, it's a tall — almost impossible — order. However, we feel like we have done it."

"Our late and great friend and foundational element of the ATHEIST sound, Roger Patterson, was always with us in spirit in the process of writing," added Shaefer. "In fact, that frantic, technical Patterson spirit has come shining through once more in the form of Jonathan Thompson, our newest guitar player. 'JT' is a young-spirited multi-talented player — he also plays bass for Flynn's band GNOSTIC. As long-time ATHEIST fans, JT and Chris Baker understand what ATHEIST is at its core and what the fans expect. Both have proven to be invaluable in bringing out that classic ATHEIST sound and have been instrumental the course of writing this long-awaited record."