Kelly Shaefer is the lead member and vocalist of Atheist, the band which is known as being the pioneer when it comes to progressive metal. Nowadays, technical music is in fashion with bands from all over the world, and all these bands that play technical metal can truthfully be called ‘Atheist’ clones.

Atheist came to life in the same time period that bands like Obituary and Morbid Angel were popular. At that time, Atheist was the weird kid who sat in the corner; nobody wanted to talk about him. Everyone was raging for music that was really hard and psychotic. So Atheist got nowhere with their fresh approach to the genre. The band wanted to make music that was diverse, beautiful and lucid, but the fans wanted none of that.

After years of this, the band disintegrated in 1993 and the members went their own separate ways.

Nearly a decade after the group broke up, their three studio albums were remastered and re-released to satisfy the fans. The resulting explosion and outpouring of love gave the band’s members motivation to work together again, and they did a tour of Europe and released a new album.

Recently, the aquarian caught up with Kelly Shaefer and asked him a few questions. Below is the summary of the interview.

The discrimination against Atheist

Atheist was a band that refused to follow the rules. Their music was very technical and it was very different from the type of music being played by famous bands in those days. Bands like Morbid Angel and Death were looking for extreme brutality in their music. Atheist wanted to to the same, but in a more lucid and intellectual manner.

Their music was metal, but the band also incorporated bits and pieces from other genes of music. A lot of people didn’t like that which was why Atheist did not rise very high in its early days.

The speed and aggressiveness of Atheist’s music was similar to that of other bands, but then they went ahead and added elements of jazz and other complexities to their songs, which the fans of the late 20^th century did not prefer. But things have changed now, and there are hundreds of technical bands. The music that Atheist started producing is finally being understood and liked by the masses, and Shaefer says that it feels more than a little good.

In those years, there was not much focus on the music itself. People were looking for deranged imagery and horrific lyrics. Metal wasn’t really music at that time, it was a sort of rebellious movement. The band tried to bring back the importance of music to the masses, but they didn’t really succeed in that.

Other bands treated Atheist like lepers and stayed away from them. Since Atheist’s music belonged to no defined genre in those years, they couldn’t find a band who did similar music to tour with. Of course, there is no dearth of bands that are willing to go out with Atheist nowadays.

The jazz influence

The members of Atheist were fans of bands like Slayer and Rush that focused more on the music than the imagery of metal. On the other hand, the band also wanted to capture the speed and aggression of death metal.

One thing that distinguished Atheist’s music was that they liked catching the audience off guard. No one would be able to anticipate what came after the first song; they were really flexible and did a lot of different things. The band members never tried to or realized that they were starting a whole new genre, but that just happened.

One of the factors that he attributes to the regrowth of the band is the Internet. People were tired of the horrific death metal bands, and they, especially the younger generation, wanted something that captured the fire of metal but was also a bit more lucid.

The comeback

It was stupefying for the band when they learned that the bands that had shunned their music all those years ago were moving in the same direction as they had moved. The increasing demand for technical music happened very naturally and the same fans clamored for the return of Atheist, which is a great achievement since it means that the band got back together for the fans and not for themselves.

In the beginning, no one really thought that the new Atheist would be successful and even the band members were not so sure of themselves.

However, after writing the first song of ‘Jupiter’, those concerns just vanished since the band realized that it was a great track. After that first song, everything moved smoothly and they didn’t worry any more.

Jupiter was a resounding hit, and Atheist is even planning to release another studio album sometime this year. Don’t miss it!