ATHEIST Mixing 'Live At Wacken' Recording

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

"We were in the 'infamous' LedBelly Sound Studios [in Atlanta, Georgia] yesterday finishing the mixing of ATHEIST 'Live At Wacken'. 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!

"Tonight [Friday, February 6], we are heading to Avatar rehearsal studios to write for the new ATHEIST record, Sonny [Carson, guitar], Chris [Baker, guitar], [Steve] Flynn [drums] and myself... along with new GNOSTIC [Flynn's other band] bass player JT helping us 'til Tony Choy [longtime ATHEIST bassist] arrives, will continue sculpting, and creating this new piece of 'art' that is materializing as the first new ATHEIST music in almost 16 years. Tony Choy will be joining us soon, and we can hardly wait to hear how it will all sound ourselves."

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.