ELEMENTS

Atheist continued in their jazz-metal direction on Elements, which is a fairly well-executed album that will be of interest to to any fan of their earlier albums - though I would say I think it's a mite bit less good than Unquestionable Presence or Piece of Time.

Part of this is due to the fact that the album is a little bit unfocused, whereas its predecessor seemed to be a bit tighter - possibly due to the band's desire to pay tribute to the late Roger Patterson that time around - and part of this is down to the vocals, on those tracks where they crop up, just being a little half-hearted, as though the band really wanted to do an all-instrumental album. (The production on the vocals, in particular, seems a little off to my ears.) Still, these are quibbles: it's a decent jazz-tech-death hybrid, and if you liked the earlier Atheist albums you will probably find something to enjoy in it, though personally I don't see myself giving it as many spins as their first two.