Atheist, part II. For me

The music of Atheist is, as I said before, a blend of jazz and death metal. One can recognize African American, Latin and European notes in their melodies and rhythms. All of this is mixed with the finest technical skills of playing instruments usually used in heavy metal - guitars, bass guitar and drums - and with the harsh growling vocals screaming out lyrics about corruption of nature and politics.
The jazz side of Atheist's works is reflected in such aspects as taste for improvisation and heavy emphasis on rhythm, including syncopation, polymeters and polyrhythms. As far as the improvisation is concerned, we can find it in the guitar interludes between the heavier parts of composition. Besides, Atheist tends to dilute the songs on their album with short, entertaining improvisational tracks, which have less of metal. Syncopation is also Atheist's eminent side - because was not an ordinary feature of heavy metal before they came into being.
Here I should mention the importance of bass in the teamwork of rhythm section. Bass guitar was used in rock music rather for sound support than for melody. It only started to play an important, sometimes even leading, role with the coming of progressive rock in the 70s. This is due to the fact that the enthusiasts of new styles started to incorporate in their music the material of jazz, funk and Latin. Bass guitar is also often used as a soloing insrument in progressive and technical metal, and Atheist here is not an exclusion.
Atheist pay a lot of attention to rhythm. One can find heavy and straight rock beats as well as polyrhythms and polymeters typical for jazz. It is considered that the most popular polyrhythm in technical metal is 6/8, simultaneously divided into 3 strong beats (played, for example, on the ride cymbal) and 2 strong beats (on the bass and snare drums). Polymeter establishes when two regular meters come together, for instance, 4/4 and 3/4 give 7/4 and these 7/4 can be broken up and played as a polyrhythm, etc.


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