Reactivated seminal technical metal pioneers
ATHEIST will release a live album, entitled
"Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken", on July 21 via
Relapse Records. The set, which was mixed by
Matt Washburn at
LedBelly Sound Studio in Canton, Georgia, features the band's complete performance at the 2006 edition of the
Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany along with a bonus disc featuring "essential
ATHEIST tracks" hand-picked by the group. Also included is a 24-page booklet with extensive liner notes and photos.
ATHEIST vocalist
Kelly Shaefer previously stated about the
"Live At Wacken" release, "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 mixed eight tunes with
Matt (
MASTODON,
GNOSTIC) at
LedBelly studios in 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!
"Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken" track listing (first disc only):
01.
Mother Man02.
Unquestionable Presence03.
Your Life's Retribution04.
Enthralled in Essence05.
Incarnation's Dream06.
Formative Years07.
Brains08.
And The Psychic SawProfessionally filmed video footage of
ATHEIST's performance at the 2006 edition of the
Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany can be viewed below.
